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PHILIPPINES -- EDWARDS, Ogden (1833-?). Nine autograph letters signed and one autograph letter (incomplete, lacking final page), including one to his wife ('Nellie') and eight to his siblings ('Fanny', 'Annie' and 'Robbie'), San Francisco (one), Manila (7), Bombay (one) and n.p., 17 March n.y. [1852] - 6 October 1881, 34 pages, 4to and 12 pages, 8vo.
The rising fortunes of a young American in Manila. 'San Franc[isco] is an awful dull place to do nothing in... Am going to work in a brick yard at $30 p[er] month & [all] found till I go to Manilla'. 'I have very light work and am comfortably situated in every respect. I rise at five, dress and ride on horseback till seven except two mornings in the week when I go to my Spanish master. After dinner... drive for an hour... then two evenings each week dancing school, one ball, & two theatres... I am brushing up my French'. 'One comes to feel here very strongly that he belongs to the dominant race... no negro slave could be more at one's disposition than these 'mozos' are'. 'My castle in the air is a farm at home' and 'After twelve or fourteen years of experience in managing these demi-semi civilised natives I guess I can get along with the freed men of the South'.
Edwards becomes a prosperous family man, acquires a large house, comments on the American Civil War and complains of declining moral standards ('We have grown rich too fast and wealth no matter how acquired forms the culminating point of our desires'). In 1881 he urges Nellie to return with him to Manila for his last tour, describing the expansion of the hemp trade, and predicting that 'Either Jardine will start a house here, or we shall have the agency'.
The rising fortunes of a young American in Manila. 'San Franc[isco] is an awful dull place to do nothing in... Am going to work in a brick yard at $30 p[er] month & [all] found till I go to Manilla'. 'I have very light work and am comfortably situated in every respect. I rise at five, dress and ride on horseback till seven except two mornings in the week when I go to my Spanish master. After dinner... drive for an hour... then two evenings each week dancing school, one ball, & two theatres... I am brushing up my French'. 'One comes to feel here very strongly that he belongs to the dominant race... no negro slave could be more at one's disposition than these 'mozos' are'. 'My castle in the air is a farm at home' and 'After twelve or fourteen years of experience in managing these demi-semi civilised natives I guess I can get along with the freed men of the South'.
Edwards becomes a prosperous family man, acquires a large house, comments on the American Civil War and complains of declining moral standards ('We have grown rich too fast and wealth no matter how acquired forms the culminating point of our desires'). In 1881 he urges Nellie to return with him to Manila for his last tour, describing the expansion of the hemp trade, and predicting that 'Either Jardine will start a house here, or we shall have the agency'.
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