Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/403

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THE PHILIPPINES TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
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them fall to his share, thought themselves happy, they looked upon them as saints, and valued them as relics of inestimable value. The governor, counsellors, townsmen, religious persons and soldiers, went, as it were to snatch a Japanese, either sound or sick. I don't question but it much edified the Chinese infidels that looked on; for tho' they observe and take notice of our faults, yet at that time they were sensible of the wonderful efficacy of our holy law. The presence of so many witnesses, and such as they are, ought to make our carriage and deportment such, as may make them by it know and glorify our God; a point S. Thomas proposes and treats of in his opusc. to the churches of Brabant. I heard afterwards some Europeans behaved themselves not so well towards the banished people of Ireland."

The date line gave trouble in those days, as it has since. On reaching the Portuguese possessions in Macasar, he found that his Thursday was their Friday, a circumstance that caused some affliction to his conscience, for he had eaten flesh that day for dinner. With true professional ingenuity he overcame the difficulty by eating fish for supper and 'as to the divine office, tho' I was not obliged to all that of Friday, yet having time to spare, perform'd for both days.'

Volume IV. of this same collection of 'Voyages and Travels', which generally goes by the name of its publisher, Churchill, contains the 'Voyage Around the World' by Dr. John Francis Gemilli Careri. This author gives a longer and more detailed account of the Philippine Islands, and it is especially valuable for its description of all the various islands, their natural resources and the customs of the natives. He mentions seven localities where gold is found, and states on the authority of the governor of Manila that the annual production of gold gathered without the help of fire or quicksilver amounted to 200,000 pieces of eight. "As for Manila, the author of nature placed it so equally between the wealthy kingdoms of the east and west, that it may be accounted one of the greatest places of trade in the world. I am of the opinion that there are no such plentiful islands in the world." The author fully justifies his opinion by the statistics he gives of the cotton, tobacco, hemp, amber, civet, wax, pearls, quicksilver, sulphur and rare woods and medicinal herbs too numerous to mention here. The whole book is worth publishing, as there are nearly one hundred pages of the productions, history, geography, ethnology and natural history of our new possessions as they were in 1697. Most of it appears reliable, for Gemilli is careful to distinguish what he sees from what he hears, and, although he includes many incredible stories, it is not uu critically. For example, he has an account of a leaf which when it ripens becomes an insect and flies off. A diagram is given of this, showing how the stem becomes the head, the mid-vein the body and the side fibers the legs of the insect, and the statement is sworn to by the provincial of St. Gregory's, an eye-witness of the metamorphosis, and attested by a bishop. Still the