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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 39 of 55, 1683-1690: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 39 of 55, 1683-1690: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

They build good and serviceable Ships or Barks for the Sea, some
for Trade, others for Pleasure; and some Ships of War. Their trading
Vessels they send chiefly to Manila. Thither they transport Bees-wax,
which, I think, is the only Commodity, besides Gold that they vend
there. The Inhabitants of the City of Mindanao get a great deal of
Bees-wax themselves: but the greatest quantity they purchase is
of the Mountaneers, from whom they also get the Gold which they
send to Manila; and with these they buy their Calicoes, Muslins,
and China Silk. They send sometimes their Barks to Borneo and other
Islands; but what they transport thither, or import from thence, I
know not. The Dutch come hither in Sloops from Ternate and Tidore,
and buy Rice, Bees-wax, and Tobacco: for there is a great deal of
Tobacco grown on this Island, more than in any Island or Country
in the East-Indies, that I know of, Manila only excepted. It is
an excellent sort of Tobacco; but these People have not the Art of
managing this Trade to their best advantage, as the Spaniards have
at Manila. I do believe the Seeds were first brought hither from
Manila by the Spaniards, and even thither, in all probability, from
America: the difference between the Mindanao and Manila Tobacco is,
that the Mindanao Tobacco is of a darker colour; and the Leaf larger
and grosser than the Manila Tobacco, being propagated or planted in
a fatter Soil. The Manila Tobacco is of a bright yellow colour, of an
indifferent size, not strong, but Pleasant to Smoak. The Spaniards at
Manila are very curious about this Tobacco, having a peculiar way of
making it up neatly in the Leaf. For they take two little Sticks,
each about a Foot long, and flat, and placing the Stalks of the
Tobacco Leaves in a row, 40 or 50 of them between the two Sticks,
they bind them hard together, so that the Leaves hang dangling
down. One of these bundles is sold for a Rial at Fort St. George:
but you may have 10 or 12 pound of Tobacco at Mindanao for a Rial:
and the Tobacco is as good, or rather better than the Manila Tobacco,
but they have not that vent for it as the Spaniards have.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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