than persons at
a distance from the capital can be.

The freight of tobacco, for instance, gives a good deal of employment
to ships, and as government rates are in general rather better than
any charters obtainable from private merchants, the procuring of
a government contract for carrying any of the articles which they
monopolize, of which the above-mentioned is one, is an object of some
competition. These freights are usually settled by tenders, sealed and
delivered to an officer appointed to receive them, by the Yntendente,
or officer at the head of the Finance Department. I was acquainted
with a gentleman, who, having several idle vessels suitable for
this carrying trade, was of course most anxious to get the contract,
to give employment to his ships; and having found out who the other
contractors for it were, and all of them happening to be cautious
men, not likely to offer for it at a losing price, he resolved to
play a bold game, and made his tender for the conveyance of it out
in some such words as these: "I offer freight for the tobacco, at
one _cuarto_ less than any body else will take it at," and signed
his name; a _cuarto_ being the very smallest copper coin current at
Manilla. Of course he got the contract; which--as he anticipated from
knowing the men who offered for it--turned out to be a very good one;
and, as the Yntendente of the time was an intimate friend of his,
he ran little risk of being taken advantage of, by a lower sum being
named to him as the lowest tender than what was actually the case.

Nearly all the tobacco collected in Cagayan is yearly brought to
Manilla during the north-east monsoon. The contracts for this purpose
generally embrace a term of three or four years, during which the rate
paid by Government to the person who engages to bring all the bales
(or cases) of it which they may require at one fixed freight, never
fluctuates, even although the amount shipped by them is very much in
excess of the usual quantity, and he may be forced to charter vessels
from his neighbours at a much higher rate than the Government pay him,
in order to fulfil the conditions of his contract. Considerable care
is requisite in loading this tobacco, as, should there be a mistake
made even of one bale, the contractor is forced to account for it to
Government at the price they sell it at, which is about three times
as much as they pay for it; and this regulation is no doubt found to
be very requisite, in o