70 REMARKS AND OriNIONS. 



Spanish proverb, says, **I did not come to India 

 merely for a change of air/' 



More extended liberty will make the trade of 

 Manilla flourishing j and the restraints to whicli it 

 is subjected in Canton may cause the market be- 

 tween China and the rest of the world to be re- 

 moved hither. Every one trades, and the monks, 

 who possess the ready money, are willing to confide 

 it to speculators for certain profits, and for certain 

 enterprizes, in the risks of which they partake. 

 Sugar and indigo seem to be at present the princi- 

 pal articles which are sought for the European 

 markets ; cotton and stuffs of native manufacture 

 are exported to Mexico. The Chinese buy Trepang 

 and birds* nests» The shell which, in many parts 

 of India, passes as coin, and which these islaads 

 furnish, pearls, mother of pearl, amber, &c. can 

 scarcely be taken into the account. These islands 

 might furnish many more productions for trade 

 than they really do ; the coffee, which is of a par- 

 ticularly excellent quality, is, like the cocoa, culti- 

 vated only for home consumption. The cinnamon, 

 which is said to grow wild in many parts of the 

 forests, sago, &c. seem not yet to have become 

 sources of wealth. 



When history shall have sealed the separation of 

 the two Americas from the mother-country, the 

 Philippine islands will yet remain to the Spanish 

 crown, and, by a wiser administration, may com- 

 pensate her for the loss of an immense territory from 



