At a distance of about three miles from Binondo, on the right bank of the Pasig, is the country house of the captain-general, where he is accustomed to pass some weeks of the most oppressive season of the year: it has a nice garden, a convenient moveable bath, which is lowered into the river, an aviary, and a small collection of quadrupeds, among which I made acquaintance with a chimpanzee, who, soon after, died of a pulmonary complaint.
[1] A recent History of the Conquest of the Islands, and of the Spanish rule, is given by Buzeta, vol. i., pp. 57–98. [↑]
[2] I visited some Cochin Chinese prisoners in the fortification. They had been taken at Turon, and one of them was a mandarin, who had exercised some authority there,—said to have been the commandant of the place. They wrote the Chinese characters, but were unable to understand the spoken language. [↑]
[3] Among my early literary efforts was an essay by which the strange story was utterly disproved of the destruction of the MSS. which had served Cardinal Ximenes in preparing his Polyglot Bible. [↑]
[4] One woman, six children. [↑]