[79] Fray Manuel Blanco, whose portrait, the size of life, but by no means artistically executed, adorns one of the corridors, was born 24th November, 1778, at Navianos, in the province of Zamora in Spain, and died in the convent of Manila 1st April, 1845.
[80] Of these there were in 1857, 373,569 liable to taxation. Within the same year there were 85,629 persons baptized, 16,768 married, and 49,999 buried with the rites of the Church.
[81] In 1857 there were baptized in these 76 villages 21,604 children, 4512 couples were united in wedlock, and 12,002 were buried.
[82] In the entire Archipelago there is but one newspaper, "El Boletin Oficial," published under the auspices of Government, and which treats much more of religious than of political topics. There are but two printing and publishing houses in Manila, one of which is in the hands of the Dominicans, and prints almost exclusively Prayer-books and religious works.
[83] This historical poem is entitled "Luzonia, ò sea Los Genios del Pasig."
[84] Of this number of souls there were in 1857, 188,509 amenable to taxation, while during the year there occurred 31,285 births, 21,029 deaths, and 5713 marriages.
[85] In 1857, the order baptized 23,227, joined in marriage 4830 couples, and buried 15,627.
[86] The printed works obtained in the various monasteries of Manila consist of dictionaries and small grammars of the Togala, Bisaya, Ilocana, Tbanác, Bicol, and Pampangu dialects. The MSS. embrace vocabularies of the Igorotes and Ilongotes languages of Luzon, as also the idiom used by the natives of the Marianne Archipelago, together with a short treatise on the Marianne group written in Spanish by a missionary. All these works will be thoroughly and exhaustively treated of in the ethnological portion, where also the manuscripts will be published.
[87] Usted—contraction for "Vuestra Merced" (your Grace).
[88] The fair speeches and amiable phrases of the Spaniards lose all their value when one finds upon nearer acquaintance with this courteous nation, that the heart and the feelings take no part therein. There is nothing which a Spaniard will not offer to a stranger—but it is always on the clear understanding that the latter will with equal politeness refuse the proffer. We on one occasion, however, saw a Yankee take these professions at their apparent value, and by so doing put his Spanish host to no small confusion. The Spaniard wore a very costly diamond breast-pin, for which the American could not find words sufficient to express his admiration. To his exclamations of delight, the Spaniard kept repeating his nauseous "à la disposicion de Usted," till at last the American fairly took the pin out of the Spaniard's scarf and transferred it to his own. The latter felt so ashamed and dumbfounded that he could not utter a word. The following day the American, who had only taken it by way of joke, returned the costly bauble to the agonized Spaniard, but took occasion in so doing to remark that he now knew what was meant by Spanish courtesy.