,
at about two dollars per cavan.

Pitch, or tar, is brought from Tayabas to Manilla, in boxes or baskets,
and is employed, I believe, principally by the shipwrights there,
in the prosecution of their business. Some of the natives also use
it for making torches, it being cheaper than oil.

Betel-nut, or areca, is, as is well known, used nearly all over
Asia, all the natives of which are excessively fond of the taste
the mastication of it produces in their mouths. The prepared leaf is
called a _buyo_ in the Philippines, when it is spread over with lime,
and a morsel of betel-nut enclosed in it. Immense quantities of it are
consumed in the islands and in China, and in former times, I believe,
it formed a branch of the excise revenue.

_Hides._--The quantity of buffalo hides shipped to China and Europe
is considerable. Those exported to China are sometimes shipped without
being salted, although it is necessary that all those sent on so long
a voyage as it is to Europe should undergo that process. Buffalo hide
cuttings are generally prepared for shipment by being immersed in
lime-water, from which they are withdrawn perfectly white and coated
with lime.

Buffalo hides weigh about 21 lbs. a-piece, and cow, only about the
half of that. Deer hides are also sometimes, though rarely, cured
and exported.

The beef of the buffalo, cow, and deer, is cured for the China
market, by being salted and allowed to dry in the sun: it is then
called _sapa_.

Tamarinds, which are called sampaloc by the natives, are seldom
exported for sale.

The woods of the country are various and valuable; but, perhaps,
the best known for its useful properties, is the Sapan dye-wood,
called sibocao. It comes from various provinces; but principally from
Yloylo and Pangasinan.

Good wood is stout, straight, well-coloured, and with no appearance
or trace of water having been used to heighten it, which may be
easily detected on a careful inspection, although the unwary have on
several occasions been known to have purchased, and shipped home to
Britain, quantities of the common firewood in place of it, as after
being wetted, it acquires the colour of Sapan-wood, sufficiently to
deceive an ignorant or careless purchaser.

Nearly all of the straight wood is sent to Europe, and the roots to
China and Calcutta, where they are said to be quite as well liked
as straight wood, and beyond a doubt they produce more dye than
the latter.

The mountains of