OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 463 sense, and they explain it, in terms which convey the highest compliment to the acuteness and in- telligence of the Chinese, by accusing them of " watching narrowly the wants of the inhabitants, and the demand for thediflPerent articles of consumption which they kept back until they rose to their price As to the charge of carrying off the public wealth, this is almost too vulgar and absurd for explana- tion. It is needless 4o add, that, if they carried away to China the gold and silver of the Philip- pines, they must have carried off what was too a- bundant in the country, what it was of more ad- vantage to the country to lose than to keep. The country was not plundered of , what was taken away, for an equivalent was left in the produce of Chi- nese industry; and to have exported produce when money was of less value, and, of course, of less use, would have been an injury to the community. Arguments like these, however obvious, were little understood by those who legislated for the Philip- pines, or, indeed, by any other of the European na- tions, similarly situated, and down to the present period, the Chinese are unwisely looked upon with an envious and illiberal eye, by the government and colonists of every nation under whose admi- nistration they reside. Notwithstanding their first expulsion, and the persecutions to which they were - — — — — — ■ " ' ■ — r. '
- ZumgQj Ciiap. VI.
