so that the land seemed desolate and deserted, there now smiled upon us, as we doubled Green Island, the city of Victoria, rising amphitheatre-like; and, lying invitingly before us, its harbour, all alive with numbers of stately ships and steamers, looking like an inland lake,—in fact, entirely land-locked. Several old ships of the line, which the English use as hospitals and coal depôts, filled the background, among which was the Royal Charlotte, 130 guns, the first three-decker that has passed the Equator.
At 10 A.M. we cast anchor directly opposite the town; and amid the flags of England, America, France, Holland, and Russia, there now flaunted proudly forth the flag of Austria!
FOOTNOTES:
[72] In Manila the minimum annual rainfall is 84 inches, the maximum 102 inches.
[73] The expedition sailed from Madras with about 2300 men; the squadron consisted of 13 ships of war and transports. The English landed without any opposition, laid siege to Manila, stormed and captured the city proper within ten days after their arrival. The Citadel capitulated; the Governor, an Archbishop, binding himself to pay a contribution of 4,000,000 dollars (£833,000), in order to save the city from being sacked. This expedition was always looked on by the Spaniards of the Philippines as a very rash adventure, which by no means tended to diminish the national antipathy to the English race, although after such freebooting expeditions as have within these last two years been witnessed on the part of civilized states in law-abiding Europe, this invasion by an army of declared enemies must be viewed in an entirely different light.
[74] Spanish writers, treating of the Philippines, derive this name from "Losong," which in the native language means the wooden mortar in which the rice, which forms the chief subsistence of the inhabitants, is shelled and pounded. The first strangers who came to this island, and found in every hut one of these very peculiar clumsy-looking implements, spoke of the newly discovered island as "Isle de los Losenes" (island of wooden mortars), whence in process of time it became transformed into Luzon.
[75] One of these hotels, the Hotel Français, was, at the time of our visit, kept by a Frenchman named Dubosse, a man of a most adventurous disposition, who afterwards accompanied the French army to China as a mess-man, and was one of the victims seized by Sang-ko-lin-sin's soldiers, near Pekin, in September, 1860, who met with such a horrible fate. The other inn, the Hotel Fernando, kept by a North American, is yet more filthy and noisy than the first-named, since, being situated on the harbour, it serves for a rendezvous for the various ships' captains. In neither of these is the charge less than 4 to 5 Spanish dollars a day, or about £1 sterling.
[76] The Stranger's Guide to the Philippines (Guia de Forasteros) for the year 1859 gives the names of 61 commercial houses established by Spaniards in Manila. Besides these, there are in the capital of the Philippines, seven English, three North American, two French, one German, and two Swiss trading firms.
[77] We borrow this alphabet from the valuable work of Baron von Hügel, entitled the Pacific Ocean and the Spanish Colonies of the Indian Archipelago (Vienna, printed at the Imperial Press, 1860), and believe the reader will the more gratefully welcome it that only a small number of copies of Baron von Hügel's interesting journal were printed in manuscript for private circulation.
[78] This opinion of our Augustinian guide is not shared out there. An Austrian traveller, as widely renowned as highly cultivated, Baron Von Hügel, relates, in his Diary already alluded to, the following singular revelations by a friar in Manila: "The Philippine Islands belong to the Augustine monks; in Manila, Don Pasquale (the then Governor) or another may ruffle it and talk large,—in the interior we are the true masters. Tell me where you want to go and everything shall be laid open for you!... Police in the interior? It is laughable to hear of such an idea! As if such were possible! and I should be glad to make the acquaintance of that official who would venture to ask even the simple question of who any man is, who is under the protection of our order!... Should you like to ascend the Majayjay, the highest hill in the interior? An Augustinian friar shall accompany you thither. Should you care to make an excursion to the Lagoons and thence proceed to the Pacific Ocean? An Augustinian friar shall be your guide. Have you a hankering to visit the forests of Ilocos, northward from Manila, or to sail down the great river Lanatin? An Augustinian shall arrange all that for you. In one word, say what you wish to do!"