riculture, fishing, and weaving for
home consumption. Cebu produces sugar, tobacco, maize, rice, etc.,
and in the mountains potatoes; but the rice produced does not suffice
for their requirements, there being only a little level land, and
the deficiency is imported from Panay.

[Land tenure.] The island possesses considerable beds of coal, the
full yield of which may now be looked for, as the duty on export was
abandoned by a decree of the 5th of May, 1869. [211] While in Luzon
and Panay the land is for the most part the property of the peasantry,
in Cebu it mostly belongs to the mestizos, and is let out by them,
in very small allotments, upon lease. The owners of the soil know how
to keep the peasants in a state of dependence by usurious loans; and
one of the results of this abuse is that agriculture in this island
stands lower than in almost any other part of the archipelago. [212]
[Customhouse data.] The entire value of the exports in 1868 amounted
to $1,181,050; of which sugar to the value of $481,127, and abaca to
the value of $378,256; went to England, abaca amounting to $112,000
to America, and tobacco to $118,260 to Spain. The imports of foreign
goods, mostly by the Chinese, come through Manila, where they
purchase from the foreign import houses. The value of these imports
amounted in 1868 to $182,522; of which $150,000 were for English
cotton stuffs. The entire imports of the island were estimated at
$1,243,582, and the exports at $226,898. Among the importations
were twenty chests of images, a sign of the deeply-rooted worship
of the Virgin. Formerly the products for exportation were bought up
by the foreign merchants, mostly Chinese mestizos; but now they are
bought direct from the producers, who thus obtain better prices in
consequence of the abolition of the high brokerages. To this and to
the energy of the foreign merchants, under favorable circumstances,
is the gradual improvement of agriculture principally to be ascribed.

[Iloilo.] Iloilo is the most important of the newly opened ports,
being the central point of the Bisayan group, and situated in one
of the most thickly populated and industrious provinces. Nicholas
Loney [213] estimates the export of goods woven from the fiber of
the pina, from Iloilo, and the neighboring provinces, at about one
million dollars annually. The harbor is excellent, being completely
protected by an island which lies immediately before it; and at high
tide there is about