Page 333
An. 1686
Bees-wax and Tobacco.
send chiefly to Manila. Thither they transport Bees- wax, which, I think, is the only Commodity, be- sides 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 there 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 here is a great deal of Tobacco grows 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 Min- anao Tobacco is of a darker colour, and the leaf larger and grosser than the Manila Tobacco, being propagated or planted in a satter soil. The Ma- nila Tobacco is of a bright yellow colour, of an in- different 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 2 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