There are three modes of boating on the Pasig and through the Lagune, namely, the banca, consisting of a large trunk of a tree hollowed out and covered with an awning of bamboo; the lorcha or falúa (corruption of felucca), large, comfortable, but exceedingly clumsy row-boats, which, particularly during the rainy season when there is a heavy sea running, are those chiefly used in this navigation; and finally, the casco, which is of equal breadth at either end, and has more the appearance of a raft. The last-named is principally made use of for the transport of heavy merchandise, and is in especial favour with the natives, for the reason that it is practicable to hoist sail upon it as well as to row. On the
Lagune there is also found yet a fourth kind of boat, the Paráho, the principle of which, as well as the name, has obviously been borrowed from the Malay Prahu, which it closely resembles in form and mode of steering.
On the Pasig there is a constant and amazing tide of human activity. Numberless boats pass and repass, some bound for the city, to supply it with provisions and other necessary articles, even to drinking-water, which has to be shipped in casks at a considerable distance, others returning with all sorts of purchases made in Manila, for the supply of the various residents on the shores of the Lagune with the necessaries of life. On this voyage we got a sight of numbers of grackles (Pastor Rosen), the well-known grasshopper-destroyer, which, about five years before, had been introduced from China at considerable expense, with the view of extirpating this formidable locust. But since these birds, to kill which is punishable by imprisonment, have become acclimatized, they seem to have lost all relish for grasshoppers, sitting quiet and unmoved on the trees and roofs of the houses, while swarms of locusts are disporting under their very eyes. Apparently the number of these destructive insects is less great in China than in Manila, where these voracious wanderers often appear in dense swarms, which, in the shape of black clouds, absolutely obscure the daylight! Probably, too, their means of sustenance is much more limited in China than in the Philippines, where these birds, being in fact treated as tame animals, and fairly domesticated,
find frequent opportunities of satisfying their hunger otherwise.
At the village of Patero (from Pato, duck), which is situated five miles from the capital on the left bank, the inhabitants are mainly employed in breeding ducks. In front of each hut, and near the river, there is a large area fenced in, where these birds can bask in the sun or bathe at pleasure. The floor of the little poultry house is carefully cleaned every morning with river-water, and the ground dug up and plentifully filled daily with shell-fish for the use of the ducks, which the natives bring in their small canoes from the sea, where they thrive by millions in the mud. The spectacle of the gently-sloping assembling-places of these cackling denizens of the watery element, and the clamours with which we were saluted, strongly recalled to us the penguins of the Island of St. Paul. In Patero millions of ducks are annually reared as articles of trade, as the Tagalese look upon the half-hatched eggs and the new-born chickens as special dainties.
The natives whom we met on the way all wore large round hats, made of plaited straw or bamboo, white hose, and above these the invariable shirt, a custom so singular, that it is but very gradually the eye of the foreigner becomes reconciled to it. The farther we got from the capital the more the use of Spanish seemed to diminish, till at the Lagune the natives only speak Tagal and Bisay.
Our original intention had been to row up in bancas as far as the entrance to the Lagune, where it had been arranged
that the lorcha, which had started from Manila a day or two before, was to await our arrival. But when little more than half way beyond the village of Pasig we overtook the great clumsy concern, and it was forthwith resolved to remove into it bag and baggage, not forgetting the "provant," and endeavour to make ourselves as comfortable as we could for a few days and nights.
As it was perfectly calm, and the lorcha had to be poled along, we were a considerable time before reaching the entrance to the Lagune, where the industrious natives had erected a variety of nets and other fishing apparatus of very peculiar nature. The banks of the Lagune are for some distance from the shore thickly studded with thousands of what are called coráls, or fish-runs, and a special pilot is required to enable the lorcha to thread this labyrinth of fishing apparatus of every conceivable form, so as to reach the open water. Singularly enough, it is for the most part the Tagalese women who manipulate the fishing instruments, while the men, as we were told, sit in the house and embroider. Near the entrance is stationed a sort of guardship. A Tagalese overseer overhauled our passports, turned them over in his hands two or three times with much official importance, and then returned them to us. The worthy officer of the law was obviously ignorant of the art of reading, but for that very reason he looked doubly massy, for fear of exposing his weak side to the Europeans.
The Lagune de Bay is a fresh-water lake of such dimensions,