chap. xix AMERICA AND PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 83
given in India for emeralds than they would be sold for in France.
But
concerning this commerce by sea between America and the Philippine
Islands, it should be remarked that when the Americans arrive at these
islands,1 the people of Bengal, Arakan, Pegu, Goa, and other
places, carry thither all sorts of cloths, and a quantity of worked
stones, such as diamonds and rubies, with many manufactured articles of
gold and silver, silken stuffs, and Persian carpets. But it should be
added that they are unable to sell anything directly to these
Americans, but only to those who reside in the Manillas, and that they
resell them again when the former have left. Similarly, if any one
obtained permission to return from Goa to Spain by the Southern Sea he
would be obliged to pay 80 or 100 per cent, for transmitting money as
far as the Philippines, without being allowed to buy anything, and to
do the same from the Philippines as far as New Spain.
[This
then was the course of trade in emeralds before the West Indies were
discovered, for they came to Europe only by this long way and tedious
journey. All that were not fine remained in this country, and all those
that were passed on into Europe.] 2
Islands,
where they carried gold and silver ; but more silver than gold, as
there was more profit on the one than the other, on account of the
abundance of gold mines in the East. To-day this trade still continues,
and the people of Peru go annually to the Philippines with two or three
vessels, whither they only carry silver and a small quantity of rough
emeralds, and indeed for some years they have ceased to carry the
emeralds, sending them all to Europe by the Northern Sea.'
1
This early traffic between Peru and the Philippine Islands, by which
our author strives to explain the source of the emeralds, is
corroborated by recent researches by Prof. Elliot Smith and others. It
is curious to note that the agreement between the Spaniards and the
Portuguese, that the former should extend their conquests only to the
west and the latter to the east of Europe, was disturbed when vessels
first crossed the Pacific from South America to Manilla. The Spaniards,
so far as is known with certainty, probably first carried Peruvian
emeralds to the Eastern nations.
s Interpolated in the edition of 1713.
