AN IRISHMAN IN MANILLA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 92, 30 January 1875, Page 11

AN IRISHMAN IN MANILLA.

The following amusing and in some measure instructive letter has appeared in the ' Bombay Catholic Examiner ' of the 29th of August : _„ Manilla, Philipine Islands. lhe day after I wrote to you I left for Manilla, in the Philipine Islands, and arrived there on Friday, the 7th inst. It is the most hospitable place I was ever in. I was not two hours on shore when I ' got an invitation to a large ball, which, of course, I accepted, and went there ; it was splendidly got up ; about three hundred were there, all bpamsh, some of whom speak English pretty well, co I managed to get on well enough. The heat so was great that I could not dance fast dances. Thermometer 98 Fahr. I dauced one regadoor (quadrille), that was all. The girls were beautiful, at least some of them; but they all look pretty, at all events their dress makes them look so. A long veil, either white or black, as the case may be, thrown over thenheads ; The music was splendid, the supper just the same as at home, and the ices equally as good. Our dresses (the gentlemen) all white, which looks to my eye, accustomed as I am to a black evening dress, as rather strange at first. White coat, white waistcoat, and white trousers, and made of the lightest materials. I never was in so hospitable a place. I slept on shore every evening, everyone fighting to see who woidd have me, to bring me out to drive in their carriages, which, as matter of course, I had the use of. They all drive out on a place called the Calsado, which woidd remind you of tho Salthill road in Galway. This Manilla is a place that you could walk iuto any house and hnng up your hat. Manilla is the most Catholic place I ever was in, the English are the only Protestants there, and with the exception of the English chapel, no Protestant church is to be found in the whole of the Philipines ; the inhabitants there walk about with scapulars, not hidden from view, as at home, but outside the clothes ; also a cross and beads. Monks and priests to no end : the monks, though they are the richest people in the laud, go about without chocs, and in a plain cotton dress, with a robe round their waists and their heads shaved. Under the sun there are not a happier race than the lower orders of the Philipines. There is no such thing as a be-r-gar; not even one did I see, and yet there are no poor liouscs. Every one has enough, every one is cleanly dressed, and the cottages extremly clean ; those who need relief have not to go and suffer tho scorns of a common master of a work house, as at home, but go the monasteries and there the good old nionka listen with pity to their sorrowful tales, and give them relief —not temporary assistance— but never cease until j they have that man in his old position of earning his bread, no matter what the expense 'may bo ; and that is the way they spend their large income. I wish you saw the happiness of the peasants here and then compare thenv.with those at home. The natives are all Catholic all over the Spanish island. It is strange how all over the East, in the settlements, the natives and Indians all become Catholics, while in the Protestant settlements not one will become a Protestant. In China the Catholics are making great strides. The Chinese women are becoming Catholics very fast ; the reason is plain, they are badly treated (that is the women) in China by their husbands ; in fact, looked \ipon as an inferior race ; cannot sit in the high places in the Chinese place of worship, and it is a common practice for men to beat their wives. I have in China seen the Catholic missionary going about with shaved head and tail, dressed oxactly like a Chinamen, preaching ri»hb and left that women had an immortal soul as well as men, and just as hi "h in the order of creation and as much to do with the salvation of the world. The consequence is, all the women follow them and become Christians, and then bring up their sons and daughters in the Catholic taith. I saw very many in Canton coming to be baptized. There are splendid churches in Manilla ; the altars exceed anything I ever saw. One of the altars is as large as that of Gardiner's street, in* Dublin about 12 feet long, 12 high, and of solid silver. I saw another of mother-o -pearl and gold ; it stood about 10 feet, which, when lighted up, had a grand effect. The high altar in the Church of St. John, at Malta, is nothing to it. The high altar in the Archbishop's chapelis the grandest thing I ever saw— silver and gold, mother-o'pearl and precious stones ; the music delightful ; Mozart's immortal Ko 12 sung by five hundred voices, and an orgau, the like of which I never heard ; and then tho artillery blazing away without the "Walls of the cathedral during the elevation. Oh, you have no idea of the grandeur ot Catholic worship in Catholic countries ! On Whit-Sunday evening I saw the procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the streets, and thousands upon thousands of little children strewing flowers before it. Since I left Europe I have not seen a place I like half so much ; indeed China is a place you could not enjoy yourself so much as at Manilla. What disgusted me more than anything in Canton %ras to see the natives eating cats and dogs. I don't envy them their dainty dish, lhe beggar-square is a shocking place, where all the beg<r ai . 3 are thrown in to starve. The temple of five hundred gods is a beautiful building m Canton. I must now conclude. I shall send you some photographs I took here and at Alexandria, also several views of the pyramids, which, if you like, you eau send to the ' Illustrated London JNows. There is certainly a very strange custom in the Philipines— one, I should say, that was ridiculous— and that if, the extraordinary custom of having game cocks perched on every man's shoulder. Cock fighting is au amusement all classes are fond of. No doubt, cruel you will say ; but, however, not more cruel than hunting a poo.- hare tor his life, as at home.