Laguna de Bay

La Laguna de Bay [“Bay Lake”] is a fresh-water lake in Luzon, 5 leguas from Manila, which contains a quantity of fish.

Many rivers flow into this lake, and it empties into the sea through the river flowing from it to Manila.

It is 30 leguas in circumference, and has an uninhabited island in its middle, where game abounds. [264]

Its shores are lined with many native villages. The natives navigate the lake, and commonly cross it in their skiffs. At times it is quite stormy and dangerous to navigate, when the north winds blow, for these winds make it very boisterous, although it is very deep.

20 leguas from Manila, in the province of Bonbon, is another lake of the same name [Bonbon], not so extensive as the former, but with a great abundance of fish.

The natives’ method of catching them is by making corrals [265] of bejucos, which are certain slender canes or rushes, solid and very pliant and strong; these are employed for making cables for the natives’ boats, as well as other kinds of ropes. They catch the fish inside these corrals, having made the enclosures fast by means of stakes.

They also catch the fish in wicker baskets made from the bejucos, but most generally with atarrayas, [266] esparaveles, other small barrederas, [267] and with hand lines and hooks. [268] The most usual food of the natives is a fish as small as pejerreyes. [269] They dry and cure these fish in the sun and air, and cook them in many styles. They like them better than large fish. It is called laulau among them. [270]

Instead of olives and other pickled fruit, they have a green fruit, like walnuts, which they call paos. [271]

Some are small, and others larger in size, and when prepared they have a pleasant taste. They also prepare charas [272] in pickle brine, and all sorts of vegetables and greens, which are very appetizing.

There is much ginger, and it is eaten green, pickled, and preserved.

There are also quantities of cachumba [273] instead of saffron and other condiments. The ordinary dainty throughout these islands, and in many kingdoms of the mainland of those regions, is buyo [betel].

This is made from a tree, [274] whose leaf is shaped like that of the mulberry. The fruit resembles an oak acorn, and is white inside. [275]

This fruit, which is called bonga, is cut lengthwise in strips, and each strip is put into an envelope or covering made from the leaf. With the bonga is thrown in a powder of quick lime. [276]

This compound is placed in the mouth and chewed. It is so strong a mixture, and burns so much, that it induces sleep and intoxication.

It burns the mouths of those not used to it, and causes them to smart. The saliva and all the mouth are made as red as blood. It does not taste bad. After having been chewed [277] for a considerable time it is spit out, when it no longer has any juice, which is called çapa [sapá].

They consider very beneficial that quantity of the juice which has gone into the stomach, for strengthening it, and for various diseases. It strengthens and preserves the teeth and gums from all inflammations, decay, and aches. They tell other wonderful effects of it.

What has been seen is that the natives and Spaniards—laymen and religious, men and women—use it so commonly and generally that mornings and afternoons, at parties and visits, and even alone in their houses, all their refreshments and luxuries consist of buyos served on heavily-gilded and handsomely adorned plates and trays like chocolate in Nueva España. In these poison has been often administered from which the persons eating them have died, and that quite commonly.

The natives (especially the chiefs) take whenever they leave their houses, for show and entertainment, their boxes of buyos—which they call buccetas [278]—ready to use, and the leaf, bonga, and quick lime, separately. With these handsome boxes, which are made of metal and of other materials, they carry the scissors and other tools for making the buyo with cleanliness and neatness.

Wherever they may stop, they make and use their buyo. In the pariáns, or bazars, buyos are sold ready made, and the outfit for making them. [279]

The natives commonly use as venoms and poisons the herbs of that class found throughout the islands. They are so efficacious and deadly that they produce wonderful effects.

There is a lizard, commonly found in the houses, somewhat dark-green in color, one palmo long, and as thick as three fingers, which is called chacon. [280]

They put this in a joint of bamboo, and cover it up. The slaver of this animal during its imprisonment is gathered. It is an exceedingly strong poison, when introduced as above stated, in the food or drink, in however minute quantities.

There are various herbs known and gathered by the natives for the same use. Some of them are used dry, and others green; some are to be mixed in food, and others inhaled. Some kill by simply touching them with the hands or feet, or by sleeping upon them.

The natives are so skilful in making compounds from these substances, that they mix and apply them in such a manner that they take effect at once, or at a set time—long or short, as they wish, even after a year.

Many persons usually die wretchedly by these means—especially Spaniards, who lack foresight, and who are tactless and hated because of the ill-treatment that they inflict upon the natives with whom they deal, either in the collection of their tributes, or in other matters in which they employ them, without there being any remedy for it.

There are certain poisonous herbs, with which, when the natives gather them, they carry, all ready, other herbs which act as antidotes.

In the island of Bohol is one herb of such nature that the natives approach it from windward when they cut it from the shrub on which it grows; for the very air alone that blows over the herb is deadly.

Nature did not leave this danger without a remedy, for other herbs and roots are found in the same islands, of so great efficacy and virtue that they destroy and correct the poison and mischief of the others, and are used when needed.

Accordingly, when one knows what poison has been given him, it is not difficult, if recourse be had in time, to cure it, by giving the herb that is antidotal to such poison. At times it has happened that pressure has been put upon the person suspected of having committed the evil to make him bring the antidote, by which it has been remedied. There are also other general antidotes, both for preservation against poison and for mitigating the effects of poison that has been administered.

But the most certain and efficacious antidotes are certain small flies or insects, of a violet color, found on certain bushes in the islands of Pintados. These are shut up in a clean bamboo joint, and covered over. There they breed and multiply.

Ground rice is put in with them, and they exist thereon. Every week they are visited [281] and the old rice removed and new rice put in, and they are kept alive by this means. If six of these insects are taken in a spoonful of wine or water—for they emit no bad odor, and taste like cress—they produce a wonderful effect.

Even when people go to banquets or dinners where there is any suspicion, they are wont to take with them these insects, in order to preserve and assure themselves from any danger of poison and venom.

All these islands are, in many districts, rich in placers and mines of gold, a metal which the natives dig and work.

However, since the advent of the Spaniards in the land, the natives proceed more slowly in this, and content themselves with what they already possess in jewels and gold ingots, handed down from antiquity and inherited from their ancestors. [282]

This is considerable, for he must be poor and wretched who has no gold chains, calombigas [bracelets], and earrings.

Some placers and mines were worked at Paracali in the province of Camarines, where there is good gold mixed with copper. This commodity is also traded in the Ylocos, for at the rear of this province, which borders the seacoast, are certain lofty and rugged mountains which extend as far as Cagayan.

On the slopes of these mountains, in the interior, live many natives, as yet unsubdued, and among whom no incursion has been made, who are called Ygolotes. These natives possess rich mines, many of gold and silver mixed. They are wont to dig from them only the amount necessary for their wants.

They descend to certain places to trade this gold (without completing its refining or preparation), with the Ylocos; there they exchange it for rice, swine, carabaos, cloth, and other things that they need. [283]

The Ylocos complete its refining and preparation, and by their medium it is distributed throughout the country. Although an effort has been made with these Ygolotes to discover their mines, and how they work them, and their method of working the metal, nothing definite has been learned, for the Ygolotes fear that the Spaniards will go to seek them for their gold, and say that they keep the gold better in the earth than in their houses. [284]

There are also many gold mines and placers in the other islands, especially among the Pintados, on the Botuan River in Mindanao, and in Sebu, where a mine of good gold is worked, called Taribon.

If the industry and efforts of the Spaniards were to be converted into the working of the gold, as much would be obtained from any one of these islands as from those provinces which produce the most in the world. But since they attend to other means of gain rather than to this, as will be told in due time, they do not pay the proper attention to this matter.

In some of these islands pearl oysters are found, especially in the Calamianes, where some have been obtained that are large and exceedingly clear and lustrous. [285] Neither is this means of profit utilized. In all parts, seed pearls are found in the ordinary oysters, and there are oysters as large as a buckler.

From the [shells of the] latter the natives manufacture beautiful articles. There are also very large sea turtles in all the islands.

Their shells are utilized by the natives, and sold as an article of commerce to the Chinese and Portuguese, and other nations who go after them and esteem them highly, because of the beautiful things made from them.

On the coasts of any of these islands are found many small white snail shells, called siguei. The natives gather them and sell them by measure to the Siamese, Cambodians, Pantanes, and other peoples of the mainland. It serves there as money, and those nations trade with it, as they do with cacao-beans in Nueva España. [286]

Carabao horns are used as merchandise in trading with China; and deerskins and dye-wood with Japon. The natives make use of everything in trading with those nations and derive much profit therefrom.