Photo Gallery of Zamboanga's Historical Past

This is one of a many great finds for the ever increasing picture treasure trove of Zamboanga's ancient history, helping us capture a visual representation of what the storied place looked like then.  It also shows what kind of activities where happening around the old town of Samboanga during this time period.  This old painting entitled "View in Zamboanga, Mindanao" shows a person handling a sleigh-like cart full of what looks like containers and plants, pulled by a long-horned Indian bull.  The structure to the left looks like a store-front with a myriad of jars on a table display.  This structure's architectural style is very different than the other previous paintings wherein the rooftop is made out of horizontal wood-like panels with a door-hatch opening, and the wall siding out of a solid vertical wood-like or bamboo-type paneling, with wooden posts in the corners.  This more advanced style of architecture is not representative of the area's nipa hut architecture in the previous French paintings, and may be cause for debate as to the time frame of its creation or its origin.  The above painting is credited to Frank Marryat, and is open to further research.  The year of this painting is shown as 1848.  If you can add to the story of this scenery painting, please contact the webmaster.  We'd appreciate your input.

photo courtesy: National Library of Australia