Took dinner at the hotel, and having thus refreshed and fortified the inner man, hired a "piscante" (a carriage to contain two persons), and drove, through the suburbs, out to the Calçada, to reach which, had to cross a magnificent, but ancient bridge over the Pasig.
The Calçada is the fashionable drive, and the meaning of the word is a causeway, or raised road; it extends along the walls of the city, and its centre, as well as each of its sides, is planted with fine flowering trees. A space is left between the double row of trees in the centre, in which are placed mounted guards, in showy uniforms, and mounted on splendid horses, to preserve order, and prevent collision of carriages, which are not permitted to pass out of a line, but must enter the passeo from the city at the left, and are obliged to follow each other at a slow pace and return upon the opposite side in the same order; the duty of the patrol being to see that no carriage leaves its place in the line.
This part of the road forms the chord of a semi-circle, whilst a continuation, not planted, is the segment, which turning round the walls of the city extends along the beach of the bay, giving a fine view of the shipping in the roads.
From the Calçada branch roads, leading to different points on this beautiful island, and these drives are truly magnificent. The roads are natural, and smooth as the most carefully kept lawn, your carriage rolls along them with so even a motion, and the scenery through which you drive is of such an oriental character, and the produce so luxuriant and rare, its fragrance so sweet, that one leans back in his easy-going piscante, totally forgetful of every thing but the present enjoyment, and almost realizing the ideas of fairy land which fancy wove
"In Life's young day."
On the evening of our first day in Manilla, after returning from our drive, directed the "cochero" to take us to the theatre; he accordingly drove us to the Carillo quarter, and to the theatre of that name. Were admitted on the payment of two reals each, and seated ourselves, patiently awaiting the withdrawing of a curtain, upon which was delineated an uncouth figure and accompaniment, supposed to represent the "divine Apollo" and his lyre.
The building was of bamboo, and, covered with leaves from the same tree, was cool and well ventilated.
About fifty persons composed the audience, and these were principally civilized Indians of the Tagalo tribe, a fine-looking race. They were remarkably well behaved, and listened with much attention and apparent pleasure, to some most execrable music, elicited by scraping "the hair of the horse over the entrails of a cat," to wit: fiddling! which, ceasing at last, at a given signal, up rose the curtain, and with it Apollo took flight, and ascended to the clouds. The performance commenced, and lo! we found we had been beguiled into a puppet-show!—the actors being of pasteboard, and, although managed very well, we soon tired of them, and retracing our road to the hotel, took a shower bath, and turned in.
Footnotes:
[7] Fernando Magelhaens, generally called as in the text, was the first who attempted the circumnavigation of the globe. He was a Portuguese by birth, and sailed from the port of St. Lucar, in Spain, with an expedition of five vessels, under the auspices of Charles V., on the 20th of September, 1519. But one of his vessels effected its object, the Vitoria, under Sebastian del Cano, which reached St. Lucar, the 6th of September, 1522, with but eighteen survivors, who made a pilgrimage barefooted to the Saints for their safe return. He gave his name to those Straits, through which he reached the East, a few years after his fellow-countryman, De Gama, had passed around the Cape of Good Hope.