and everything commonplace: we had already begun to miss our mountains.



CHAPTER XXIV

Tobacco industry.--Tuguegarao.--Caves.--The Cagayán
River.--Barangayans.--Aparri.--Island of Fuga.--Sail for
Manila.--Stop at Vigan.--Arrival at Manila.


The great valley in which we now found ourselves really deserves more
notice than perhaps it is suitable to give it here. As everyone knows,
it furnishes the best tobacco of the Islands, tobacco that under proper
care would prove a dangerous rival to that of Cuba, though it can
never quite equal the product of the Vuelta Abajo. The cattle industry
should prosper here--in fact, did a few years ago; the broad savannas,
some of which we had crossed, furnishing excellent pasturage. It was
proved long ago that this region was naturally adapted to the culture
of silk and to the raising of indigo and sugar-cane. While tobacco
was a Government monopoly, [42] the valley was wealthy, traces of
wealth being still found in the hands of the people under the form
of jewels, some of them costly and beautiful.

The passage of the Payne bill has already brightened the prospects of
the people, and especially of the small growers, for prices paid on
the spot have already gone up very considerably. The valley is sure
to flourish before many years shall have passed, and nothing else
would so much hasten this end as the completion of the railway from
Manila. But when we passed through, a sort of general apathy seemed