re able to meet the changes of taste in the patterns and designs
of such fancy goods. For it is evident that before designs of new
styles can reach Great Britain, and the goods be manufactured there,
and shipped off to Manilla, many months must elapse, during which the
native manufacturers have been supplying the market with these new and
approved styles of goods, and of course reaping all the advantages of
an active demand, exceeding the supply, by the high prices obtainable
for the new designs. For the market of Manilla varies as much, and
the tastes of the people are as inconstant and capricious with regard
to their dress, as the natives of almost any country can be.

It will scarcely be believed, that in this remote quarter of Asia,
many of the natives of the country are as much _petits maitres_ in
their own way, as a gallant of the Tuileries or of St. James's. It
would astonish most people to see some of these poor-looking Indians,
or Mestizos, wearing a jewel of the value of four or five hundred
dollars in the breast of their shirts, or in a ring on their fingers.

No doubt some of them prefer keeping their money in this way, as it is
easily transportable, and is always about their persons, to leaving
their dollars or gold ounces concealed somewhere about their houses,
from which they may frequently be obliged to be absent. Though, as
it is a common custom for the natives to have a piece of bamboo in
which to deposit their ready-money, and as there is so much bamboo
work about the house, of course it is not very difficult for them
to select one piece, which from its being out of the way, and rather
unapproachable, renders it a secure deposit for their hoards.

Towels, napkins, and table-cloths, are also manufactured by them, from
the cotton of the country, and Governor Enrile taught some of their
weavers how to make canvas from cotton. It is now very extensively
used by the native shipping, and bears the name of the distinguished
and philanthropic individual who taught them how to make it, being
known by the name of _Lona de Enrile_, which name may it long bear,
and remain as the most honourable memento any governor could leave
behind him, of his beneficent and wise interest in the affairs and
administration of an important colony.

At several places in Luzon, and in Cebu, &c., the natives make
a species of cloth from the plantain-tree, known by the names of
_Medrinaque_ and _Guiara_ cloths. The former descript