620 



DRUGS, NARCOTICS, ETC. 



the closest description, and any infringement of the assumed rights 

 of the Spanish Indian government is visited by the most severe 

 penalties. Public enterprise, however little of that commodity 

 there now exists in the Spanish character, is thus kept down; and 

 this is not only detrimental to the nation itself, but is also unjust 

 towards those persons who are the purchasers of the article, 

 enhanced in price, as is always the case, by monopoly. The 

 cheroot, which now costs, free of duty, about one halfpenny, 

 could be rendered for half that sum, according to well-authenti- 

 cated opinions. To protect itself from illicit manufacturers, or 

 smuggling of any kind in connection with cigars, the government 

 is compelled to maintain an army of gendarmes, in order to adopt 

 the most stringent means which despotic states alone tolerate. 

 No person is, therefore, permitted to have even the tobacco leaf 

 in its raw state on his premises, and gendarmes pay, at stated in- 

 tervals, domiciliary visits to the habitations of the people, in search 

 of any contraband materials. There are several extensive manu- 

 factories of cigars and cheroots belonging to the government in 

 and near Manila. Mr. Mac Micking, in his recent work on the 

 Philippines, thus describes the mode of manufacture by those em- 

 ployed by the government : — 



In making cheroots -women only are employed, the number of those so 

 engaged in the factory at Manila being generally about 4,000. Beside these, a 

 large body of men are employed at another place in the composition of cigar- 

 illos, or small cigars, kept together by an envelope of white paper in place of 

 tobacco ; these being the description most smoked by the Indians. The flavor 

 of Manila cheroots is peculiar to themselves, being quite different from that 

 made of any other sort of tobacco ; the greatest characteristic probal^ly being 

 its slightly soporific tendency, which has caused many persons in the habit of 

 using it to imagine that opium is employed in the preparatory treatment of the 

 tobacco, which, however, is not the case. 



The cigars are made iip by the hands of women in large rooms of the factory, 

 each of them containing from 800 to 1,000 souls. These are all seated, or 

 squatted, Indian like, on their haunches, upon the floor, round tables, at each 

 of which there is an old woman presiding to keep the young ones in order, 

 about a dozen of them being the complement of a table. AH of them are sup- 

 plied with a certain weight of tobacco, of the first, second, or third qualities 

 used in composing a cigar, and are obliged to account for a proportionate number 

 of cheroots, the weight and size of which are by these means kept equal. As 

 they use stones for beating out the leaf on the wooden tables before which they 

 are seated, the noise produced by them while making them up is deafening, and 

 generally sufficient to make no one desirous of protracting a visit to the place. 

 The workers are well recompensed by the government, as very many of them 

 earn from six to ten dollars a month for their labor ; and as that amount is 

 amply sufficient to provide them with all their comforts, and to leave a large 

 balance for their expenses in dress, &c., they are seldom very constant laborers, 

 and never enter the factory on Sundays, or, at least, on as great an annual num- 

 ber of feast days as there are Sundays in a year. 



The Japanese grow a good deal of tobacco for their own con- 

 sumption, which is very considerable. They consider that from 

 Sasma as the best, then that from Nangasakay, Sinday, &c. The 

 worst comes from the province of Tzyngaru ; it is strong, of a 

 black color, and has a disgusting taste and smell. The tobacco 

 from Sasma is, indeed, also strong, but it has an agreeable taste 



