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THE PHILIPPINES.
northward. The ebb tide to the north of Pepitas rocks runs to the eastward, but to the south of these rocks, to the westward.
VARIATION OF THE COMPASS.-1 15 E.
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PROVISIONS AND WATER.-Fresh beef is cheap and good. Good water can always be got a little to the north and south of the village of Pilator Buena Vista on Guimaras. It is best to take up the casks at high water on the beach, and with the aid of the natives fill them, so as to be ready to go off with the following tide. Take care to leave a little before high water, so as to be sure of reaching the ship, as the tide changes suddenly, and runs down with great strength.
REPAIRS. The river of Iloilo affords considerable facilities for heaving vessels down. At the fine port of Santa Anna, on the island of Guimarás, is a building-yard. PORT DUES.-On foreign vessels arriving and leaving in ballast, 12 cents per ton; with cargo inwards or outwards, or both, 25 cents per ton. Payment at one port clears for the other open ports of the Philippines in a proportional extent.
MANIFEST.-This document must be certified by the Spanish Consul at the port from which the vessels arrive, under penalty of a fine of $200. This also applies to vessels in ballast.
MONEY.-The currency in confined to Spanish and South American dollars and subdivisions, and to the $1, $2 and $4 gold pieces coined in Manila.
WAGES. The wages of labourers for shipping average from 25 to 30 cents a day;
Carpenters 31 to 50 cents; Caulkers 37 cents.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.-The picul of 110 catties, or 140 lbs. English; the quintal of 4 arrobas, or 100 lbs, Spanish, equal to 100 lbs. English; the arroba of 25 lbs. Spanish.
PRODUCE. The country around Iloilo and in the province and island generally is very fertile and extensively cultivated. It is well peopledr, and there are towns of 18, 20, 30, and 40 thousand inhabitants in the vicinity and interior, and on the coast. Nearly all tropical productions can be grown on the island, but the chief articles of export are Sugar (which is at present the most important), Tobacco, Sapanwood, Rice, Hides, Hemp (imported coast wise), Cattle, and a large quantity of available native textures, made of the fibre of the pineapple leaf, Silk, Hemp, and other fibres. These textures are mostly for native consumption in the Archipelago. The quantity of sugar has increased rapidly since the opening of the port to direct foreign trade.
At the fine island of Negros the planting of cane is being much extended. The bulk of the plantations is owned by natives, but a number of Europeans have formed estates there, and several steam mills for crushing cane have recently been erected. Very productive land in good positions is to be had; labour is not scarce; conveyance of produce by sea to the Iloilo market is safe and expeditious, and intending planters could scarcely find a more eligible district.
COFFEE-Thrives well, but is not yet cultivated on a scale to allow of export.
Additional Note, regarding Lighthouses to be erected at Iloilo.
Two lights are to be placed by the Spanish Government in the south-western entrance of the port of Iloilo. One, a third-class light, is to be situated at the point marked G in the plan of the recently made survey, a mile S. 30 W., of point Gabalg. The other will be of the fourth-class, and placed at the fort in the port of Iloilo. The point marked G is of rock, about 160 bears N. 85 W, consequently any vessel entering the port from the south, by keeping well in to the Light before taking up that course towards the north, will completely clear the bank.
The south point of Panay bears from the point G, S. 70 W. The light of the Iloilo fort determines by its position all the S.E. edge of the Otong bank, and by it vessels can pass safely through all the channel formed by the bank and Guimarás coast, with the advantage that it (the light) gives also the N.W., edge of the Guimarás bank, in the south of Point Bondulan. On this account a vessel beating up should not lose sight of the south light.