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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by 
+Paul P. de La Gironière
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Adventures in the Philippine Islands
+
+Author: Paul P. de La Gironière
+
+Release Date: October 27, 2009 [eBook #30347]
+[Most recently updated: December 4, 2022]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
+Libraries.)
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE PHILIPPINES ***
+
+
+
+
+                               Adventures
+                                 in the
+                          Philippine Islands.
+
+
+                     Translated from the French of
+
+                        Paul P. de la Gironiere,
+
+            Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour.
+
+
+                  Revised and extended by the author,
+                      Expressly for this edition.
+
+            London: Charles H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+On hearing a recital of some adventures which had occurred to me
+during my long voyages, many of my friends have frequently begged of
+me to publish a narrative of them, which might perhaps be interesting.
+
+"Nothing can be more easy for you," they said, "as you have always
+kept a journal since your departure from France."
+
+I hesitated, however, to follow their advice, or to yield to their
+wishes, when I was one day surprised to see my name in one of the
+feuilletons in the "Constitutionnel."
+
+M. Alexandre Dumas was publishing, under the title of "The
+Thousand-and-One Phantoms," a romance, one of the principal personages
+of which, in a voyage to the Philippine Islands, must have known me
+when I was residing at Jala-Jala, in the colony that I founded there.
+
+It must be evident that the lively romancist has ranked me in the
+category of his Thousand-and-One Phantoms; but, to prove to the public
+that I am really in existence, I have resolved to take up the pen,
+under an impression, that facts of the most scrupulous veracity,
+and which can be attested by some hundreds of persons, might possess
+some interest, and be read without ennui, by those especially who
+are desirous of learning the customs of the savage tribes amongst
+whom I have resided.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+    A Family Sketch--My Youthful Days--I Study for the Medical
+    Profession--Obtain a Naval Surgeon's Diploma--Early Voyages--Sail
+    for Manilla in the Cultivateur--Adventurous Habits--Cholera and
+    Massacre at Manilla and Cavite--Captain Drouant's Rescue--Personal
+    Dangers and Timely Escapes--How Business may make Friends of
+    one's Enemies--An Unprincipled Captain--Tranquility restored at
+    Manila--Pleasures of the Chase--The Cultivateur sails without
+    me--First Embarrassments.
+
+
+My father was born at Nantes, and held the rank of captain in the
+regiment of Auvergne. The Revolution caused him the loss of his
+commission and his fortune, and left him, as sole remaining resource,
+a little property called La Planche, belonging to my mother, and
+situated about two leagues from Nantes, in the parish of Vertoux.
+
+At the commencement of the Empire he wished to enter the service again;
+but at that period his name was an obstacle, and he failed in every
+attempt to obtain even the rank of lieutenant. With scarcely the means
+of existence, he retired to La Planche with his family. There he lived
+for some years, suffering the grief and the many annoyances caused
+by the sudden change from opulence to want, and by the impossibility
+of supplying all the requirements of his numerous family. A short
+illness terminated his distressed existence, and his mortal remains
+were deposited in the cemetery of Vertoux. My mother, a pattern
+of courage and devotedness, remained a widow, with six children,
+two girls and four boys; she continued to reside in the country,
+imparting to us the first elements of instruction.
+
+The free life of the fields, and the athletic exercises to which
+my elder brothers and I accustomed ourselves, tended to make me
+hardy, and rendered me capable of enduring every kind of fatigue
+and privation. This country life, with its liberty, and I may well
+say its happiness, passed too quickly away; and the period soon came
+when my education compelled me to pursue my daily studies in a school
+at Nantes. I had four leagues to walk, but I trudged the distance
+light-heartedly, and at night, when I returned home, I ever found
+awaiting me the kind solicitude of our dear mother, and the attentive
+cares of two sisters whom I tenderly loved.
+
+It was decided that I should enter the medical profession. I studied
+several years at the Hôtel-Dieu of Nantes, and I passed my examination
+for naval surgeon at an age when many a young man is shut up within
+the four walls of a college, still prosecuting his studies.
+
+It would be difficult to form any idea of my joy when I saw myself in
+possession of my surgeon's diploma. Thenceforward I regarded myself
+as an important being, about to take my place among reasonable and
+industrious men; and what perhaps rendered me still more joyous was,
+that I could earn my own livelihood, and contribute to the comfort
+of my mother and my sisters.
+
+I was also seized with a strong desire to travel abroad, and make
+myself acquainted with foreign countries.
+
+Twenty-four hours after my nomination as surgeon I went and offered
+my services to a ship-owner who was about freighting a vessel to the
+East Indies. We were not long in arranging terms, and, at forty francs
+per month, I engaged myself for the voyage.
+
+Within twelve months afterwards I returned home. Who can depict the
+sweet emotions which, as a young man, I felt on again beholding my
+native land? I stayed a month on shore, surrounded by the affectionate
+attentions of my mother and sisters. Despite their assiduities I was
+seized with ennui. I made a second and a third voyage; then, after
+having rounded the Cape of Good Hope half-a-dozen times, I undertook
+one which separated me from my country during twenty years.
+
+On the 9th October, 1819, I embarked on board the Cultivateur,
+an old half-rotten three-masted vessel, commanded by an equally old
+captain, who, long ashore, had given up navigating for many years. An
+old captain with an old ship! Such were the conditions in which I
+undertook this voyage. I ought, however, to add, that I obtained an
+increase of pay.
+
+We touched at Bourbon; we ran along the entire coast of Sumatra,
+a part of Java, the isles of Sonde, and that of Banca; and at last,
+towards the end of May, eight months after our departure from Nantes,
+we arrived in the magnificent bay of Manilla.
+
+The Cultivateur anchored near the little town of Cavite. I obtained
+leave to reside on shore, and took lodgings in Cavite, which is
+situate about five or six leagues from Manilla.
+
+To make up for my long inactivity on board ship, I eagerly engaged in
+my favourite exercises, exploring the country in all directions with my
+gun upon my shoulder. Taking for a guide the first Indian whom I met,
+I made long excursions, less occupied in shooting than in admiring the
+magnificent scenery. I knew a little Spanish, and soon acquired a few
+Tagaloc words. Whether it was for excitement's sake, or from a vague
+desire of braving danger, I know not, but I was particularly fond of
+wandering in remote places, said to be frequented by robbers. With
+these I occasionally fell in, but the sight of my gun kept them in
+check. I may say, with truth, that at that period of my life I had so
+little sense of danger, that I was always ready to put myself forward
+when there was an enemy to fight or a peril to be encountered.
+
+I had only resided a short time at Cavite when that terrible scourge,
+the cholera, broke out at Manilla, in September, 1820, and quickly
+ravaged the whole island. Within a few days of its first appearance
+the epidemic spread rapidly; the Indians succumbed by thousands; at
+all hours of the day and of the night the streets were crowded with
+the dead-carts. Next to the fright occasioned by the epidemic, quickly
+succeeded rage and despair. The Indians said, one to another, that the
+strangers poisoned the rivers and the fountains, in order to destroy
+the native population and possess themselves of the Philippines.
+
+On the 9th October, 1820, the anniversary of my departure from France,
+a dreadful massacre commenced at Manilla and at Cavite. Poor Dibard,
+the captain of the Cultivateur, was one of the first victims. Almost
+all the French who resided at Manilla were slain, and their houses
+pillaged and destroyed. The carnage only ceased when there were no
+longer any victims. One eye-witness escaped this butchery, namely,
+M. Gautrin, a captain of the merchant service, who, at the moment I
+am writing, happens to be residing in Paris. He saved his life by his
+courage and his muscular strength. After seeing one of his friends
+mercilessly cut to pieces, he precipitated himself into the midst
+of the assassins, with no other means of defence than his fists. He
+succeeded in fighting his way through the crowd, but shortly afterwards
+fell exhausted, having received three sabre-cuts upon his head, and a
+lance-thrust in his body. Fortunately, some soldiers happened to pass
+by at the time, who picked him up and carried him to a guard-house,
+where his wounds were quickly attended to.
+
+I myself was dodged about Cavite, but I contrived to escape, and
+to reach a pirogue, into which I jumped, and took refuge on board
+the Cultivateur. I had scarcely been there ten minutes when I was
+requested to attend the mate of an American vessel, who had just
+been stabbed on board his ship by some custom-house guards. When I
+had finished dressing the wound, several officers, belonging to the
+different French vessels lying in the bay, acquainted me that one
+of their brethren, Captain Drouant, of Marseilles, was still ashore,
+and that there might yet be time to save him. There was not a moment
+to lose; night was approaching, and it was necessary to profit by the
+last half-hour of daylight. I set off in a cutter, and, on nearing
+the land, I directed my men to keep the boat afloat, in order to
+prevent a surprise on the part of the Indians, but yet to hug the
+shore sufficiently close to land promptly, in case the captain or
+myself signaled them. I then quickly set about searching for Drouant.
+
+On reaching a small square, called Puerta Baga, I observed a group
+of three or four hundred Indians. I had a presentiment that it was
+in that direction I ought to prosecute my search. I approached, and
+beheld the unfortunate Drouant, pale as a corpse. A furious Indian was
+on the point of plunging his kreese into his breast. I threw myself
+between the captain and the poignard, violently pushing on either
+side the murderer and his victim, so as to separate them. "Run!" I
+cried in French; "a boat awaits you." So great was the stupefaction
+of the Indians that the captain escaped unpursued.
+
+It was now time for me to get out of the dangerous situation in which
+I was involved. Four hundred Indians surrounded me; the only way of
+dealing with them was by audacity. I said in Tagaloc to the Indian who
+had attempted to stab the captain: "You are a scoundrel." The Indian
+sprang towards me; he raised his arm: I struck him on the head with a
+cane which I held in my hand; he waited in astonishment for a moment,
+and then returned towards his companions to excite them. Daggers
+were drawn on every side; the crowd formed a circle around me, which
+gradually concentrated. Mysterious influence of the white man over his
+coloured brother! Of all these four hundred Indians, not one dared
+attack me the first; they all wished to strike together. Suddenly a
+native soldier, armed with a musket, broke through the crowd; he struck
+down my adversary, took away his dagger, and holding his musket by the
+bayonet end, he swung it round and round his head, thus enlarging the
+circle at first, and then dispersing a portion of my enemies. "Fly,
+sir!" said my liberator; "now that I am here, no one will touch a
+hair of your head." In fact the crowd divided, and left me a free
+passage. I was saved, without knowing by whom, or for what reason,
+until the native soldier called after me: "You attended my wife who
+was sick, and you never asked payment of me. I now settle my debt."
+
+As Captain Drouant had doubtless gone off in the cutter, it was
+impossible for me to return on board the Cultivateur. I directed
+my steps towards my lodgings, creeping along the walls, and taking
+advantage of the obscurity, when, on turning the corner of a street,
+I fell into the midst of a band of dockyard workmen, armed with axes,
+and about to proceed to the attack of the French vessels then in
+harbour. Here again I owed my preservation to an acquaintance, to whom
+I had rendered some service in the practice of my profession. A Métis,
+or half-breed, who had quickly pushed me into the entry of a house,
+and covered me with his body, said: "Stir not, Doctor Pablo!" [1] When
+the crowd had dispersed, my protector advised me to conceal myself,
+and, above all, not to go on board; he then started off to rejoin
+his comrades. But all was not yet over. I had scarcely entered my
+lodgings when I heard a knocking at the door.
+
+"Doctor Pablo," said a voice, which was not unknown to me.
+
+I opened, and I saw, as pale as death, a Chinese, who kept a tea-store
+on the ground-floor of the same house.
+
+"What's the matter, Yang-Po?"
+
+"Save yourself, Doctor!"
+
+"And wherefore?"
+
+"Because the Indians will attack you this very night; they have
+decided upon it!"
+
+"Is it not your apprehension on account of your shop, Yang-Po?"
+
+"Oh, no! do not treat this matter lightly. If you remain here you
+are doomed; you have struck an Indian, and his friends cry aloud
+for vengeance."
+
+The fears of Yang-Po were, I saw, too well-founded; but what could
+I do? To shut my door and await was the safest plan.
+
+"Thank you," said I to the Chinese; "thank you for your kind advice,
+but I shall remain here."
+
+"Remain here, Signor Doctor! Can you think of so doing?"
+
+"Now, Yang-Po, a service: go and say to these Indians that I have,
+at their service, a brace of pistols and a double-barreled gun,
+which I know how to use."
+
+The Chinese departed sighing deeply, from a notion that the attack
+upon the Doctor might end in the pillage of his wares. I barricaded
+my door with the furniture of the room; I then loaded my weapons,
+and put out the lights.
+
+It was now eight o'clock in the evening. The least noise made me think
+that the moment had arrived when Providence alone could save me. I was
+so fatigued that, despite the anxiety natural to my position, I had
+frequently to struggle against an inclination to sleep. Towards eleven
+o'clock some one knocked at my door. I seized my pistols, and listened
+attentively. At a second summons, I approached the door on tip-toe.
+
+"Who's there?" I demanded.
+
+A voice replied to me: "We come to save you. Lose not an instant. Get
+out on the roof, and climb over to the other side, where we will
+await you, in the street of the Campanario." Then two or three persons
+descended the stairs rapidly. I had recognised the voice of a Métis,
+whose good feelings on my behalf were beyond doubt. There was now
+no time to be lost, for at the moment I got out of a window which
+served to light the staircase, and led on to the roof, the Indians had
+arrived in front of the house, and in a few minutes were breaking and
+plundering the little I possessed. I quickly traversed the roof, and
+descended into the street of the Campanario, where my new preservers
+awaited me. They conducted me to their dwelling: there, a profound
+sleep caused me quickly to forget the dangers I had passed through.
+
+The following day my friends prepared a small pirogue to convey me
+on board the Cultivateur, where, apparently, I should be in greater
+security than on shore. I was about to embark when one of my preservers
+handed me a letter which he had just received. It was addressed to me,
+and bore the signatures of all the captains whose vessels were lying in
+the harbour, and it informed me that, seeing themselves exposed every
+moment to an attack by the Indians, they were decided to raise anchor
+and seek a wider offing; but that two among them, Drouant and Perroux,
+had been compelled to leave on shore a portion of their possessions,
+and all their sails and fresh water. They entreated me to lend them
+my assistance, and had arranged that a skiff should be placed at my
+command. I communicated this letter to my friends, and declared that
+I would not return on board without endeavouring to satisfy the wishes
+of my countrymen; it was a question of saving the lives of the crews of
+two vessels, and hesitation was impossible. They used every effort to
+shake my resolution. "If you show yourself in any part of the town,"
+said they, "you are lost; even supposing the Indians were not to kill
+you, they would not fail to steal every object intrusted to them." I
+remained immovable, and pointed out to them that it was a question of
+honour and humanity. "Go alone, then!" exclaimed that Métis who had
+contributed the most to my escape; "not one of us will follow you;
+we would not have it said that we assisted in your destruction."
+
+I thanked my friends, and, after shaking hands with them, passed on
+through the streets of Cavite, my pistols in my belt, and my thoughts
+occupied as to the best means of extricating myself from my perilous
+position. However, I already knew sufficient of the Indian character
+to be aware that boldness would conciliate, rather than enrage them. I
+went towards the same landing-place where once before I had escaped
+a great danger. The shore was covered with Indians, watching the
+ships at anchor. As I advanced, all turned their looks upon me; but,
+as I had foreseen, the countenances of these men, whose feelings had
+become calmed during the night that had intervened, expressed more
+astonishment than anger.
+
+"Will you earn money?" I cried. "To those who work with me I will
+give a dollar at the end of the day."
+
+A moment's silence followed this proposition; then one of them said:
+"You do not fear us!"
+
+"Judge if I am alarmed," I replied, showing him my pistols; "with
+these I could take two lives for one--the advantage is on my side."
+
+My words had a magical effect, and my questioner replied:
+
+"Put up your weapons; you have a brave heart, and deserve to be safe
+amongst us. Speak! what do you require? We will follow you." I saw
+these men, who but yesterday would have killed me, now willing to bear
+me in triumph. I then explained to them that I wished to take some
+articles which had been left on shore to my comrades, and to those who
+assisted me in this object I would give the promised recompense. I told
+the one who had addressed me to select two hundred men, nearly double
+the number necessary; during the time he made up his party I signaled
+a skiff to approach the shore, and wrote a few words in pencil, in
+order that the boats from the French vessels might be in readiness
+to receive the stores as soon as they were brought to the water's
+edge. I then marched at the head of my Indian troop of two hundred
+men, and by their aid the sails, provisions, biscuits, and wines,
+were soon on board the boats. That which most embarrassed me was the
+transport of a large sum of money belonging to Captain Drouant. If the
+Indians had conceived the least suspicion of this wealth, they would no
+longer have kept faith with me. I therefore determined to fill my own
+pockets with the gold, and to traverse the distance between the house
+and the boats as many times as was necessary to embark it. There,
+concealed by the sailors, I deposited piece after piece as quietly
+as possible. In carrying the sails belonging to Captain Perroux, a
+circumstance occurred which might have been fatal to me. A few days
+before the massacre, a French sailor, who was working as sail maker,
+had died of the cholera. His alarmed companions wrapped the body in a
+sail, and then hurried on board their ships. My Indians now discovered
+the corpse, which was already in a state of putrefaction. Terrified
+at first, their terror soon changed to fury; for an instant I feared
+they would fall upon me.
+
+"Your friends," they cried, "have left this body here purposely, that
+it might poison the air and increase the violence of the epidemic."
+
+"What! you are afraid of a poor devil dead of the cholera!" I said to
+them, affecting to be as tranquil as possible; "never fear, I will
+soon rid you of him;" and, despite the aversion I felt, I covered
+the body with a small sail, and carried it down to the beach. There
+I made a rude grave, in which I placed it; and two pieces of wood,
+in the shape of a cross, for some days indicated the spot where lay
+the unhappy one, who probably had no prayers save mine.
+
+It had been a busy and agitating day, but towards the evening I
+finished my task, and everything was embarked. I paid the Indians,
+and in addition gave them a barrel of spirits.
+
+I did not fear their intoxication, being the only Frenchman there,
+and when it was dark I got into a boat, and towed a dozen casks of
+fresh water at her stern. Since the previous day I had not eaten;
+I felt worn out by fatigue and want of food, and threw myself down to
+rest upon the seats of the boat. Ere long a mortal chilliness passed
+through my veins, and I became insensible. In this state I remained
+more than an hour. At last I reached the Cultivateur, and was taken
+on board, and, by the aid of friction, brandy, and other remedies,
+was restored to consciousness. Food and rest quickly renovated my
+powers of mind and body, and the next day I was calm as usual among
+my comrades. I thought of my personal position; the events of the two
+last days made the review extremely simple. I had lost everything. A
+small venture of merchandise, in which I invested the savings of
+my previous voyages, had been intrusted to the captain for sale at
+Manilla. These goods were destroyed, together with all I possessed,
+at Cavite. There remained to me but the clothes I had on--a few old
+things I could wear only on board ship--and thirty-two dollars. I
+was but a little richer than Bias. Unfortunately I recollected
+that an English captain--whose ship I had seen in the roads--owed me
+something like a hundred dollars. In my present circumstances this sum
+appeared a fortune. The captain in question, from fear of the Indians,
+had dropped down as far as Maribélé, at the entrance of the bay, ten
+leagues from Cavite. To obtain payment it was necessary I should go on
+board his vessel. I borrowed a boat, and the services of four sailors,
+from Captain Perroux, and departed. I reached the ship at dusk. The
+unprincipled captain, who knew himself to be in deep water and safe
+from pursuit, replied that he did not understand what I was saying
+to him. I insisted upon being paid, and he laughed in my face. I was
+treated as a cheat. He threatened to have me thrown into the sea;
+in short, after a useless discussion, and at the moment when the
+captain called five or six of his sailors to execute his threat,
+I retreated to my boat. The night was dark, and as a violent and
+contrary wind had sprung up, it was impossible to regain the ship,
+so we passed the night floating upon the waves, ignorant as to the
+direction we were going. In the morning I discovered our efforts had
+been thrown away; Cavite was far behind us. The wind becoming calmer,
+we again commenced rowing, and two hours after noon reached the ship.
+
+Meanwhile tranquillity was restored at Cavite and Manilla. The
+Spanish authorities took measures to prevent a recurrence of the
+frightful scenes I have detailed, and the priests of Cavite launched a
+public excommunication against all those who had attempted my life. I
+attributed this solicitude to the character of my profession, being in
+fact the only Æsculapius in the place. When I left the town the sick
+were obliged to content themselves with the hazardous presumptions of
+Indian sorcerers. One morning, I had almost decided upon returning to
+land, when an Indian, in a smartly decorated pirogue, came alongside
+the Cultivateur. I had met this man in some of my shooting excursions,
+and he now proposed that I should go with him to his house, situated
+ten leagues from Cavite, near the mountains of Marigondon. The prospect
+of some good sport soon decided me to accept this offer. Taking with
+me my thirty-two dollars and double-barreled gun--in fact, my whole
+fortune--I intrusted myself to this friend, whose acquaintance I had
+just made. His little habitation was delightfully situated, in the
+cool shadow of the palm and yang-yang--immense trees, whose flowers
+spread around a delicious perfume. Two charming Indian girls were the
+Eves of this paradise. My good friend kept the promises he had made
+me on leaving the vessel; I was treated both by himself and family
+with every attention and kindness.
+
+Hunting was my principal amusement, and, above all, the chase of
+the stag, which involves violent exercise. I was still ignorant of
+wild-buffalo hunting, of which, however, I shall have to speak later
+in my narrative; and I often requested my host to give me a taste of
+this sport, but he always refused, saying it was too dangerous. For
+three weeks I lived with the Indian family without receiving any news
+from Manilla, when one morning, a letter came from the first mate--who,
+on the death of the unfortunate Dibard, had taken the command of the
+Cultivateur--telling me he was about to sail, and that I must go
+on board at once if I wished to leave a country which had been so
+fatal to all of us. This summons was already several days old, and
+despite the reluctance I felt to quit the Indian's pleasant retreat,
+it was necessary that I should prepare to start. I presented my
+gun to my kind host, but had nothing to give his daughters, for to
+have offered them money would have been an insult. The next day I
+arrived at Manilla, still thinking of the cool shade of the palm and
+the perfumed flowers of the yang-yang. My first impulse was to go to
+the quay; but, alas! the Cultivateur had sailed, and I had the misery
+of beholding her already far away in the horizon, moving sluggishly
+before a gentle breeze towards the mouth of the bay. I asked some
+Indian boatmen to take me to the ship; they replied that it might be
+practicable if the wind did not freshen, but demanded twelve dollars
+to make the attempt. I had but twenty-five remaining. I considered
+for a few moments, should I not reach the vessel, what would become
+of me in a remote colony, where I knew no one, and my stock of money
+reduced to thirteen dollars, and with no articles of dress than those I
+had on--a white jacket, trousers, and striped shirt. A sudden thought
+crossed my mind: what if I were to remain at Manilla, and practise my
+profession? Young and inexperienced, I ventured to think myself the
+cleverest physician in the Philippine Islands. Who has not felt this
+self-confidence so natural to youth? I turned my back upon the ship,
+and walked briskly into Manilla.
+
+Before continuing this recital, let me describe the capital of the
+Philippines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+    Description of Manilla--The two Towns--Gaiety of
+    Binondoc--Dances--Gaming--Beauty of the Women--Their Fascinating
+    Costume--Male Costume--The Military Town--Personal Adventures--My
+    First Patient--His Generous Confidence--Commencement of my
+    Practice--The Artificial Eye--Brilliant Success--The Charming
+    Widow--Auspicious Introduction--My Marriage--Treachery and Fate
+    of Iturbide--Our Loss of Fortune--Return to France postponed.
+
+
+Manilla and its suburbs contain a population of about one hundred and
+fifty thousand souls, of which Spaniards and Creoles hardly constitute
+the tenth part; the remainder is composed of Tagalocs, or Indians,
+Métis, and Chinese. The city is divided into two sections--the military
+and the mercantile--the latter of which is the suburb. The former,
+surrounded by lofty walls, is bounded by the sea on one side, and
+upon another by an extensive plain, where the troops are exercised,
+and where of an evening the indolent Creoles, lazily extended
+in their carriages, repair to exhibit their elegant dresses and
+to inhale the sea-breezes. This public promenade--where intrepid
+horsemen and horsewomen, and European vehicles, cross each other in
+every direction--may be styled the Champs-Elysées, or the Hyde Park,
+of the Indian Archipelago. On a third side, the military town is
+separated from the trading town by the river Pasig, upon which are
+seen all the day boats laden with merchandize, and charming gondolas
+conveying idlers to different parts of the suburbs, or to visit the
+ships in the bay.
+
+The military town communicates by the bridge of Binondoc with the
+mercantile town, inhabited principally by the Spaniards engaged in
+public affairs; its aspect is dull and monotonous; all the streets,
+perfectly straight, are bordered by wide granite footpaths. In general,
+the highways are macadamised, and kept in good condition. Such is
+the effeminacy of the people, they could not endure the noise of
+carriages upon pavement. The houses--large and spacious, palaces in
+appearance--are built in a particular manner, calculated to withstand
+the earthquakes and hurricanes so frequent in this part of the
+world. They have all one story, with a ground-floor; the upper part,
+generally occupied by the family, is surrounded by a wide gallery,
+opened or shut by means of large sliding panels, the panes of which
+are thin mother-of-pearl. The mother-of-pearl permits the passage
+of light to the apartments, and excludes the heat of the sun. In the
+military town are all the monasteries and convents, the archbishopric,
+the courts of justice, the custom-house, the hospital, the governor's
+palace, and the citadel, which overlooks both towns. There are three
+principal entrances to Manilla--Puerta Santa Lucia, Puerto Réal,
+and Puerta Parian.
+
+At one o'clock the drawbridges are raised, and the gates pitilessly
+closed, when the tardy resident must seek his night's lodging in
+the suburb, or mercantile town, called Binondoc. This portion of
+Manilla wears a much gayer and more lively aspect than the military
+section. There is less regularity in the streets, and the buildings
+are not so fine as those in what may be called Manilla proper; but in
+Binondoc all is movement, all is life. Numerous canals, crowded with
+pirogues, gondolas, and boats of various kinds, intersect the suburb,
+where reside the rich merchants--Spanish, English, Indian, Chinese,
+and Métis. The newest and most elegant houses are built upon the banks
+of the river Pasig. Simple in exterior, they contain the most costly
+inventions of English and Indian luxury. Precious vases from China,
+Japan ware, gold, silver, and rich silks, dazzle the eyes on entering
+these unpretending habitations. Each house has a landing-place from
+the river, and little bamboo palaces, serving as bathing-houses, to
+which the residents resort several times daily, to relieve the fatigue
+caused by the intense heat of the climate. The cigar manufactory,
+which affords employment continually to from fifteen to twenty
+thousand workmen and other assistants, is situated in Binondoc; also
+the Chinese custom-house, and all the large working establishments
+of Manilla. During the day, the Spanish ladies, richly dressed in
+the transparent muslins of India and China, lounge about from store
+to store, and sorely test the patience of the Chinese salesman, who
+unfolds uncomplainingly, and without showing the least ill-humour,
+thousands of pieces of goods before his customers, which are frequently
+examined simply for amusement, and not half a yard purchased. The
+balls and entertainments, given by the half-breeds of Binondoc to their
+friends, are celebrated throughout the Philippines. The quadrilles of
+Europe are succeeded by the dances of India, and while the young people
+execute the fandango, the bolero, the cachucha, or the lascivious
+movements of the bayadères, the enterprising half-breed, the indolent
+Spaniard, and the sedate Chinese, retire to the gaming saloons, to
+try their fortune at cards and dice. The passion for play is carried
+to such an extent, that the traders lose or gain in one night sums
+of 50,000 piasters (£10,000 sterling). The half-breeds, Indians, and
+Chinese, have also a great passion for cock-fighting; these combats
+take place in a large arena. I have seen £1,500 betted upon a cock
+which had cost £150; in a few minutes this costly champion fell,
+struck dead by his antagonist. In fine, if Binondoc be exclusively
+the city of pleasure, luxury, and activity, it is also that of
+amorous intrigues and gallant adventures. In the evening, Spaniards,
+English, and French, go to the promenades to ogle the beautiful
+and facile half-breed women, whose transparent robes reveal their
+splendid figures. That which distinguishes the female half-breeds
+(Spanish-Tagals, or Chinese-Tagals) is a singularly intelligent
+and expressive physiognomy. Their hair, drawn back from the face,
+and sustained by long golden pins, is of marvellous luxuriance. They
+wear upon the head a kerchief, transparent like a veil, made of the
+pine fibre, finer than our finest cambric; the neck is ornamented
+by a string of large coral beads, fastened by a gold medallion. A
+transparent chemisette, of the same stuff as the head-dress, descends
+as far as the waist, covering, but not concealing, a bosom that has
+never been imprisoned in stays. Below, and two or three inches from
+the edge of the chemisette, is attached a variously coloured petticoat
+of very bright hues. Over this garment, a large and costly silk sash
+closely encircles the figure, and shows its outline from the waist
+to the knee. The small and white feet, always naked, are thrust into
+embroidered slippers, which cover but the extremities. Nothing can
+be more charming, coquettish, and fascinating, than this costume,
+which excites in the highest degree the admiration of strangers. The
+half-breed and Chinese Tagals know so well the effect it produces on
+the Europeans, that nothing would induce them to alter it.
+
+While on the subject of dress, that of the men is also worthy of
+remark. The Indian and the half-breed wear upon the head a large
+straw hat, black or white, or a sort of Chinese covering, called a
+salacote; upon the shoulders, the pine fibre kerchief embroidered;
+and round the neck, a rosary of coral beads; their shirts are also
+made from the fibres of the pine, or of vegetable silk; trousers of
+coloured silk, with embroidery near the bottom, and a girdle of red
+China crape, complete their costume. The feet, without stockings,
+are covered with European shoes.
+
+The military town, so quiet during the day, assumes a more lively
+appearance towards the evening, when the inhabitants ride out in
+their very magnificent carriages, which are invariably conducted
+by postilions; they then mix with the walking population of
+Binondoc. Afterwards visits, balls, and the more intimate réunions
+take place. At the latter they talk, smoke the cigars of Manilla,
+and chew the betel, [2] drink glasses of iced eau sucrée, and eat
+innumerable sweetmeats; towards midnight those guests retire who do
+not stay supper with the family, which is always served luxuriously,
+and generally prolonged until two o'clock in the morning. Such is the
+life spent by the wealthy classes under these skies so favoured by
+Heaven. But there exists, as in Europe, and even to a greater extent,
+the most abject misery, of which I shall speak hereafter, throwing
+a shade over this brilliant picture.
+
+I shall now return to my personal adventures. While I spoke with
+the Indians upon the shore, I had noticed a young European standing
+not many paces from me; I again met him on the road I took towards
+Manilla, and I thought I would address him. This young man was a
+surgeon, about returning to Europe. I partly told him the plans I
+wished to form, and asked him for some information respecting the city
+where I purposed locating myself. He readily satisfied my inquiries,
+and encouraged me in the resolution to exercise my profession in
+the Philippine Islands. He had himself, he said, conceived the same
+project, but family affairs obliged him to return to his country. I
+did not conceal the misfortune of my position, and observed that it
+would be almost impossible to pay visits in the costume, worse than
+plain, which I then wore.
+
+"That is of no consequence," he replied; "I have all you would
+require: a coat almost new, and six capital lancets. I will sell you
+these things for their cost price in France; they will be a great
+bargain." The affair was soon concluded. He took me to his hotel,
+and I shortly left it encased in a garment sufficiently good, but
+much too large and too long for me. Nevertheless, it was some time
+since I had seen myself so well clad, and I could not help admiring
+my new acquisition.
+
+I had hidden my poor little white jacket in my hat, and I strode
+along the causeway of Manilla more proud than Artaban himself. I was
+the owner of a coat and six lancets; but there remained, for all my
+fortune, the sum of one dollar only; this consideration slightly
+tempered the joy that I felt in gazing on my brilliant costume. I
+thought of where I could pass the night, and subsist on the morrow
+and the following days, if the sick were not ready for me.
+
+Reflecting thus I slowly wandered from Binondoc to the military town,
+and from the military town back to Binondoc,--when, suddenly, a bright
+idea shot across my brain. At Cavite I had heard spoken of a Spanish
+captain, by name Don Juan Porras, whom an accident had rendered almost
+blind. I resolved to seek him, and offer my services; it remained but
+to find his residence. I addressed a hundred persons, but each replied
+that he did not know, and passed on his way. An Indian who kept a
+small shop, and to whom I spoke, relieved my trouble: "If the senor
+is a captain," he said, "your excellency would obtain his address at
+the first barrack on your road." I thanked him, and eagerly followed
+his counsel. At the infantry barracks, where I presented myself, the
+officer on duty sent a soldier to guide me to the captain's dwelling:
+it was time, the night had already fallen. Don Juan Porras was an
+Andalusian, a good man, and of an extremely cheerful disposition. I
+found him with his head wrapped in a Madras handkerchief, busied in
+completely covering his eyes with two enormous poultices.
+
+"Senor Captain," I said, "I am a physician, and a skilful oculist. I
+have come hither to take care of you, and I am fully convinced that
+I shall cure you."
+
+"Basta" (enough is said), was his answer; "all the physicians in
+Manilla are asses."
+
+This more than sceptical reply did not discourage me. I resolved
+to turn it to account. "My opinion is precisely the same as yours,"
+I promptly answered; "and it is because I am strongly convinced of
+the ignorance of the native doctors, that I have made up my mind to
+come and practise in the Philippines."
+
+"Of what nation are you, sir?"
+
+"I am a Frenchman."
+
+"A French physician!" cried Don Juan; "Ah! that is quite another
+matter. I ask your pardon for having spoken so irreverently of men of
+your profession. A French physician! I put myself entirely into your
+hands. Take my eyes, Senor Medico, and do what you will with them!"
+
+The conversation was taking a favourable turn: I hastened to broach
+the principal question:
+
+"Your eyes are very bad, Senor Captain," said I; "to accomplish a
+speedy cure, it is absolutely necessary that I should never quit you
+for a moment."
+
+"Would you consent to come and pass some time with me, doctor?"
+
+Here was the principal consideration settled.
+
+"I consent," replied I, "but on one condition; namely, that I shall
+pay you for my board and lodging."
+
+"That shall not part us--you are free to do so," said the worthy man;
+"and so the matter is settled. I have a nice room, and a good bed,
+all ready; there is nothing to do but to send for your baggage. I
+will call my servant."
+
+The terrible word, "baggage," sounded in my ears like a knell. I cast
+a melancholy look at the crown of my hat--my only portmanteau--within
+which were deposited all my clothes--consisting of my little white
+jacket; and I feared Don Juan would take me for some runaway sailor
+trying to dupe him. There was no retreat; so I mustered my courage,
+and briefly related my sad position, adding that I could not pay
+for my board and lodging until the end of the month--if I was so
+fortunate as to find patients. Don Juan Porras listened to me very
+quietly. When my tale was told he burst into a loud laugh, which made
+me shiver from head to foot.
+
+"Well," cried he, "I am well pleased it should be so; you are poor;
+you will have more time to devote to my malady, and a greater interest
+in curing me. What think you of the syllogism?"
+
+"It is excellent, Senor Captain, and before long you will find, I hope,
+that I am not the man to compromise so distinguished a logician as
+yourself. To-morrow morning I will examine your eyes, and I will not
+leave you till I have radically cured them."
+
+We talked for some time longer in this joyous strain, after which
+I retired to my chamber, where the most delightful dreams visited
+my pillow.
+
+The next day I rose early, put on my doctoral coat, and entered the
+chamber of my host. I examined his eyes; they were in a dreadful
+state. The sight of one was not only destroyed, but threatened the
+life of the sufferer. A cancer had formed, and the enormous size it
+had attained rendered the result of an operation doubtful. The left
+eye contained many fibres, but there was hope of saving it. I frankly
+acquainted Don Juan with my fears and hopes, and insisted upon the
+entire removal of the right eye. The Captain, at first astonished,
+decided courageously upon submitting to the operation, which I
+accomplished on the following day with complete success. Shortly
+afterwards the inflammatory symptoms disappeared, and I could assure
+my host of a safe recovery. I then bestowed all my attention upon
+the left eye. I desired the more ardently to restore to Don Juan his
+vision, from the good effect I was convinced his case would produce
+at Manilla. For me it would be fortune and reputation. Besides, I had
+already acquired, in the few days, some slight patronage, and was in a
+position to pay for my board and lodging at the end of the month. After
+six weeks' careful treatment Don Juan was perfectly cured, and could
+use his eye as well as he did previous to his accident. Nevertheless,
+to my great regret, the Captain still continued to immure himself;
+his re-appearance in society, which he had forsaken for more than
+a year, would have produced an immense sensation, and I should have
+been considered the first doctor in the Philippines. One day I touched
+upon this delicate topic.
+
+"Senor Captain," said I, "what are you thinking about, to remain
+thus shut up between four walls, and why do you not resume your old
+habits? You must go and visit your friends, your acquaintances."
+
+"Doctor," interrupted Don Juan, "how can I show myself in public with
+an eye the less? When I pass along the street all the women would say:
+'There goes Don Juan the One-eyed!' No, no; before I leave the house
+you must get me an artificial eye from Paris."
+
+"You don't mean that? It would be eighteen months before the eye
+arrived."
+
+"Then here goes for eighteen months' seclusion," said Don Juan.
+
+I persisted for upwards of an hour, but the Captain would not listen
+to reason. He carried his coquetry so far that, although I had
+covered the empty orbit with black silk, he had his shutters closed
+whenever visitors came; so that, as they always found him in the dark,
+none would credit his cure. I was very anxious to thwart Don Juan's
+obstinacy, as may well be imagined; I had not the time to waste, during
+eighteen months, in dancing attendance at fortune's door; therefore
+I determined to make this eye myself, without which the coquetish
+captain would not be seen. I took some pieces of glass, a tube, and
+set to work. After many fruitless attempts, I at last succeeded in
+obtaining the perfect form of an eye; but this was not all--it must
+be coloured to resemble nature. I sent for a poor carriage-painter,
+who managed to imitate tolerably well the left eye of Don Juan. It
+was necessary to preserve this painting from contact with the tears,
+which would soon have destroyed it. To accomplish this I had made by
+a jeweller a silver globe, smaller than the glass eye, inside which
+I united it by means of sealing-wax. I carefully polished the edges
+upon a stone, and after eight days' labour I obtained a satisfactory
+result. The eye which I had succeeded in producing was really not so
+bad after all. I was anxious to place it within the vacant orbit. It
+somewhat inconvenienced the Senor Don Juan, but I persuaded him that
+he would soon become accustomed to it. Placing across his nose a
+pair of spectacles, he examined himself in the looking-glass, and
+was so satisfied with his appearance that he decided on commencing
+his visits the following day.
+
+As I had anticipated, the re-appearance in the world of Captain Juan
+Porras made a great sensation, and soon the consequence was, that
+Senor Don Pablo, the eminent French physician--most especially the
+clever oculist--was much spoken of. From all quarters patients came to
+me. Notwithstanding my youth and inexperience, my first success gave
+me such confidence that I performed several operations upon persons
+afflicted with cataracts, which succeeded most fortunately. I no longer
+sufficed to my large connection, and in a few days, from the greatest
+distress, I attained perfect opulence: I had a carriage-and-four in my
+stables. I could not, however, notwithstanding this change of fortune,
+resign myself to leave Don Juan's house, out of gratitude for the
+hospitality he so generously offered me. In my leisure hours he kept
+me company, and amused me with the recital of his battle stories and
+personal adventures. I had already spent nearly six months with him,
+when a circumstance, which forms an epoch in my life, changed my
+existence, and compelled me to quit the lively captain. One of my
+American friends often called my attention in our walks towards a
+young lady in mourning, who passed for one of the prettiest senoras
+of the town. Each time we met her my American friend never failed
+to praise the beauty of the Marquesa de Las Salinas. She was about
+eighteen or nineteen years of age; her features were both regular
+and placid; she had beautiful black hair, and large expressive eyes;
+she was the widow of a colonel in the guards, who married her when
+almost a child. The sight of this young lady produced so lively an
+impression upon me, that I explored all the saloons at Binondoc,
+to endeavour to meet her elsewhere than in my walks. Fruitless
+attempts! The young widow saw nobody. I almost despaired of finding
+an opportunity of speaking to her, when one morning an Indian came
+to request me to visit his master. I got into the carriage and set
+off, without informing myself of the name of the sick person. The
+carriage stopped before the door of one of the finest houses in the
+Faubourg of Santa-Crux. Having examined the patient, and conversed a
+few minutes with him, I went to the table to write a prescription;
+suddenly I heard the rustling of a silk dress; I turned round--the
+pen fell from my hand. Before me stood the very lady I had so long
+sought after--appearing to me as in a dream! My amazement was so
+great that I muttered a few unintelligible words, and bowed with such
+awkwardness that she smiled. She simply addressed me to inquire the
+state of her nephew's health, and withdrew almost immediately. As
+to myself, instead of making my ordinary calls, I returned home;
+questioned Don Juan minutely about Madame de Las Salinas: he entirely
+satisfied my curiosity. He was acquainted with all the family of this
+youthful widow, and they were highly respected in the colony. The
+next morning, and following days, I returned to this charming widow,
+who graciously condescended to receive me with favour. These details
+being so completely personal, I pass them over. Six months after
+my first interview with Madame de Las Salinas, I asked her hand,
+and obtained it. I had therefore found, at more than five thousand
+leagues from my country, both happiness and wealth. I agreed that
+we should go to France as soon as my wife's property, the greater
+part of which lay in Mexico, should be realised. In the meantime my
+house was the rendezvous of foreigners, particularly of the French,
+who were already rather numerous at Manilla. At this period the
+Spanish government named me Surgeon-Major of the 1st Light Regiment,
+and of the first battalion of the militia of Panjanga. Having been so
+successful in so short a time, I never once doubted but that fortune
+would continue to bestow her smiling favours upon me. I had already
+prepared everything for my return to France; for we hourly expected
+the arrival of the galleons that plied from Acapulco to Manilla,
+which were to bring my wife's fortune. Her fortune was no less than
+700,000 francs (£28,000 sterling).
+
+One evening, as we were taking tea, we were informed that the vessels
+from Acapulco had been telegraphed, and that the next morning they
+would be in; our piasters were to be on board; I leave you to guess
+if our wishes were not gratified. But, alas! how our hopes were
+frustrated: the vessels did not bring us a single piaster. This is
+what occurred: five or six millions were sent by land from Mexico
+to San Blas, the place of embarkation, and the Mexican government
+had the van escorted by a regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel
+Iturbide. On the journey he took possession of the van, and fled with
+his regiment into the independent states. It is well known that later
+Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, then dethroned, and at last
+shot, after an expedition that offers more than one analogy with that
+of Murat. The very day of the arrival of the vessels we learnt that
+our fortune was entirely lost, without even hopes of regaining the
+smallest part. My wife and self supported this event with tolerable
+philosophy. It was not the loss of our piasters that distressed us
+the most, but the necessity we were in to abandon, or at least to
+postpone, our journey to France.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+    Continued Prosperity in Practice--Attempted Political
+    Revolution--Desperate Street Engagement--Subjugation of the
+    Insurgents--The Emperor of a Day--Dreadful Executions--Illness
+    and Insanity of my Wife--Her Recovery and Relapse--Removal to
+    the Country--Beneficial Results--Dangerous Neighbours--Repentant
+    Banditti--Fortunate Escape--The Anonymous Friend--A Confiding
+    Wife--Her Final Recovery, and our Domestic Happiness Restored.
+
+
+Despite the misfortune I have alluded to, I kept up my house in
+the same style as before. My connection, and the different posts I
+occupied, permitted me to lead the life of a grandee belonging to
+the Spanish colonies; and probably I should have made my fortune in a
+few years, if I had continued in the medical profession, but the wish
+for unlimited liberty caused me to abandon all these advantages for a
+life of peril and anxiety. At the same time do not let us anticipate
+too suddenly, and let the reader patiently peruse a few more pages
+about Manilla, and various events wherein I figured, either as actor
+or witness, before taking leave of a sybarite citizen's life.
+
+I was, as I said before, surgeon-major of the 1st Light Regiment of
+the line, and on intimate terms with the staff, and more particularly
+with Captain Novalès, a Creole by birth, possessing a courageous and
+venturesome disposition. He was suspected of endeavouring to excite
+his regiment to rebel in behalf of the Independence. An inquiry was
+consequently instituted, which ended without proof of the captain's
+culpability; nevertheless, as the governor still maintained his
+suspicions, he gave orders for him to be sent to one of the southern
+provinces, under the inspection of an alcaide. Novalès came to see
+me the morning of his departure, and complained bitterly of the
+injustice of the governor towards him, and added that those who had
+no confidence in his honour would repent, and that he would soon
+be back. I endeavoured to pacify him: we shook hands, and in the
+evening he went on board the vessel commissioned to take him to his
+destination. The night after Novalès departure, I was startled out of
+my sleep by the report of fire-arms. I immediately dressed myself in
+my uniform, and hastened to the barracks of my regiment. The streets
+were deserted; sentinels were stationed at about fifty paces apart. I
+understood that an extraordinary event had occurred in some part of
+the town. When I reached the barracks I was no little astonished to
+find the gates wide open, the sentry's box vacant, and not a soldier
+within. I went into the infirmary, set apart for the special service
+of the cholera patients, and there a serjeant told me that the bad
+weather had compelled the vessel that was taking Novalès into exile to
+return into the port; that about one o'clock in the morning, Novalès,
+accompanied by Lieutenant Ruiz, came to the barracks, and having
+made himself certain of the votes of the Creole non-commissioned
+officers, put the regiment under arms, took possession of the gates,
+and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Philippines.
+
+This extraordinary intelligence caused me some anxiety. My regiment
+had openly revolted; if I joined it, and were defeated, I should
+be considered a traitor, and, as such, shot; if, on the contrary,
+I fought against it, and the rebels proved victorious, I knew
+Novalès sufficiently well to be convinced that he would not spare
+me. Nevertheless I could not hesitate: duty bound me to the Spanish
+government, by which I had been so well treated. I left the barracks,
+rambling where chance might lead me. I shortly found myself at the
+head-quarters of the artillery; an officer behind the gate stood
+observing me. I went up to him, and asked him whether he was for
+Spain. Upon his answering me in the affirmative, I begged him to
+open the gate, declaring that I wished to join his party, and would
+willingly offer my services as surgeon to them. I went in, and took
+the commander's orders, which soon showed me how matters stood. During
+the night Ruiz went, in the name of Novalès, to General Folgueras,
+the commander during the absence of Governor Martinès, who was
+detained at his country house, a short distance from Manilla. He
+took the guard unawares, and seized the keys of the town, after
+having stabbed Folgueras; from thence he went to the prisons, set
+the prisoners at liberty, and put in their places the principal men
+of the public offices belonging to the colony. The 1st Regiment was
+on Government Place, ready to engage in battle; twice it attempted
+to fall unexpectedly upon the artillery and citadel, but was driven
+back. Many expected assistance from without, and orders from General
+Martinès to attack the rebels. Very soon we heard a discharge of
+artillery: it was General Martinès, who, at the head of the Queen's
+Regiment, broke open Saint Lucy's Gate, and advanced into the besieged
+town. The body of the artillery joined the governor-general, and we
+marched towards Government Place. The insurgents placed two cannons
+at the corner of each street. Scarcely had we approached the palace,
+than we were exposed to a violent discharge of loaded muskets. The
+head chaplain of the regiment was the first victim. We were then
+engaged in a street, by the side of the fortifications, and from
+which it was impossible to attack the enemy with advantage. General
+Martinès changed the position of the attack, and in this condition we
+came back by the street of Saint Isabelle. The troops in two lines
+followed both sides of the street, and left the road free; in the
+meantime the Panpangas regiment, crossing the bridge, reached us
+by one of the opposite streets: the rebels were then exposed to the
+opposite attacks. They nevertheless defended themselves furiously,
+and their sharpshooters did us some harm. Novalès was everywhere,
+encouraging his soldiers by words, exploits, and example, while
+Lieutenant Ruiz was busy pointing one of the cannons, that swept the
+middle of the street we were coming up. At length, after three hours'
+contest, the rebels succumbed. The troops fell upon everything they
+found, and Novalès was taken prisoner to the governor's. As to Ruiz,
+although he had received a blow on his arm from a ball, he was
+fortunate enough to jump over the fortifications, and succeeded,
+for the time, in escaping; three days afterwards he was taken. The
+conflict was scarcely over, than a court-martial was held. Novalès
+was tried the first. At midnight he was outlawed; at two o'clock in
+the morning proclaimed Emperor; and at five in the evening shot. Such
+changes in fortune are not uncommon in Spanish colonies.
+
+The court-martial, without adjourning, tried, until the middle of the
+following day, all the prisoners arrested with arms. The tenth part
+of the regiment was sent to the hulks, and all the non-commissioned
+officers were condemned to death. I received orders to be at Government
+Place by four o'clock, on which spot the executions were to take place;
+two companies of each battalion of the garrison, and all the staff,
+were to be present.
+
+Towards five the doors of the town-hall opened, and between a double
+file of soldiers advanced seventeen non-commissioned officers, each one
+assisted by two monks of the order of Misericordia. Mournful silence
+prevailed, interrupted every now and then by the doleful beating of
+the drums, and the prayers of the agonising, chanted by the monks. The
+procession moved slowly on, and after some time reached the palace;
+the seventeen non-commissioned officers were ordered to kneel, their
+faces turned towards the wall. After a lengthened beating of the drums
+the monks left their victims, and at a second beating a discharge
+of muskets resounded: the seventeen young men fell prostrate on the
+ground. One, however, was not dead; he had fallen with the others,
+and seemed apparently motionless. A few minutes after the monks
+threw their black veils upon the victims: they now belonged to Divine
+justice. I witnessed all that had just happened. I stood a few steps
+from him who feigned death so well, and my heart beat with force
+enough to burst through my chest. Would that it had been in my power
+to lead one of the monks towards this unfortunate young man who must
+have experienced such mortal anguish; but, alas! after having been so
+miraculously spared, at the moment the black veil was about to cover
+him, an officer informed the commander that a guilty man had escaped
+being punished; the monks were arrested in their pious ministry, and
+two soldiers received orders to approach and fire upon the poor fellow.
+
+I was indignant at this. I advanced towards the informer and reproached
+him for his cruelty; he wished to reply; I treated him as a coward,
+and turned my back to him. Express orders from my colonel compelled
+me to leave my house, to assist at this frightful execution; still,
+deep anxiety ought to have prevented me from so doing, as I will
+explain. On the eve when the battle was over, and the insurgents
+routed, the distress of my dear Anna came across my mind. It was now
+one o'clock in the afternoon, and she had received no tidings from
+me since three in the morning; might she not think me dead, or in the
+midst of the rebellion? Ah! if duty could make me forget for a moment
+she whom I loved more than life, now all danger was over her charming
+image returned to my mind. Dearest Anna! I beheld her pale, agitated;
+asking herself at each report of the cannon whether it rendered her
+a widow; when my mind became so agitated that I ran home to calm her
+fears. Having reached my house I went quickly up stairs, my heart
+beating violently; I paused for a moment at her door, then summoning
+a little courage I entered. Anna was kneeling down praying; hearing my
+footsteps she raised her head, and threw herself into my arms without
+uttering a word. At first I attributed this silence to emotion, but,
+alas! upon examining her lovely face, I saw her eyes looked wild,
+her features contracted: I started back. I discovered in her all the
+symptoms of congestion of the brain. I dreaded lest my wife had lost
+her senses, and this fear alarmed me greatly. How fortunate it was
+that it lay in my power to relieve her. I had her placed in bed, and
+ministered myself to her wants. She was tolerably composed; the few
+words she uttered were inconsistent; she seemed to think that somebody
+was going to poison or kill her. All her confidence was placed in
+me. During three days the remedies I prescribed and administered
+were useless; the poor creature derived no benefit from them. I
+therefore determined to consult the doctors in Manilla, although I
+had no great opinion of their skill. They advised some insignificant
+drugs, and declared to me that there were no hopes, adding, as a
+philosophical mode of consolation, that death was preferable to the
+loss of reason. I did not agree on this point with these gentlemen:
+I would have preferred insanity to death, for I hoped that her madness
+would die away by degrees, and eventually disappear altogether. How
+many mad people are cured, what numbers daily recover, yet death is
+the last word of humanity; and, as a young poet has truly said, is
+"the stone of the tomb."
+
+Between the world and God a curtain falls! I determined to wage a
+war against death, and to save my Anna by having recourse to the most
+indisputable resources of science. I looked now upon my brotherhood
+with more contempt than ever, and, confident in my love and zealous
+will, I began my struggle with a destiny, tinged indeed with gloomy
+clouds. I shut myself up in the sick-chamber, and never left my wife. I
+had great difficulty in getting her to take the medicaments I trusted
+she would derive so much benefit from; I was obliged to call to my
+assistance all the influence I had over her, in order to persuade
+her that the draughts I presented to her were not poisoned. She did
+not sleep, but appeared very drowsy; these symptoms denoted very
+clearly great disorder of the brain. For nine days she remained in
+this dreadful state; during which time I scarcely knew whether she
+was dead or alive; at every moment I besought the Almighty to work a
+miracle in her behalf. One morning the poor creature closed her eyes. I
+cannot describe my feelings of anguish. Would she ever awake again? I
+leant over her; I heard her breathing gently, without apparent effort;
+I felt her pulse, it beat calmer and more regular; she was evidently
+better. I stood by her in deep anxiety. She still remained in a calm
+sleep, and at the end of half-an-hour I felt convinced that this
+satisfactory crisis would restore my invalid to life and reason. I
+sat down by her bed-side, and stayed there eighteen hours, watching
+her slightest movements. At length, after such cruel suspense, my
+patient awoke, as if out of a dream.
+
+"Have you been long watching?" she said, giving me her hand: "Have I,
+then, been very ill? What care you have taken of me! Luckily you may
+rest now, for I feel I am recovered."
+
+I think I have during my life been a sharer of the strongest emotions
+of joy or of sadness man can feel; but never had I experienced
+such real, heartfelt joy as when I heard Anna's words. It is easy
+to imagine the state of my mind in recollecting the bitter grief
+I was in for ten days; then can be understood the mental anguish I
+felt. Having witnessed such strange scenes for a considerable time,
+it would not have been surprising had I lost my senses. I was an
+actor in a furious battle; I had seen the wounded falling around me,
+and heard the death-rattle. After the frightful execution, I went home,
+and there still deeper grief awaited me. I had watched by the bed-side
+of a beloved wife, knowing not whether I should lose her for ever,
+or see her spared to me deprived of reason; when all at once, as if by
+a miracle, this dear companion of my life, restored to health, threw
+herself into my arms. I wept with her; my burning eyes, aching for
+want of rest, found at last some tears, but they were tears of joy and
+gladness. Soon we became more composed; we related to each other all
+that we had suffered. Oh! the sympathy of loving hearts! Our sorrows
+bad been the same, we had shared the same fears, she for me and I for
+her. Anna's rapid recovery, after her renovating slumber, enabled her
+to get up; she dressed herself as usual, and the people who saw her
+could not believe she had passed ten days struggling between death
+and insanity--two gulphs, from which love and faith had preserved us.
+
+I was happy; my deep sadness was speedily changed to gladness,
+even visible on my features. Alas! this joy was transitory, like
+all happiness; man here below is a continual prey to misfortune! My
+wife, at the end of a month, relapsed into her former sickly state;
+the same symptoms showed themselves again, with similar prospects,
+during the same space of time. I remained again nine days at her
+bed-side, and on the tenth a refreshing sleep brought her to her
+senses. But this time, guided by experience, that pitiless mistress,
+who gives us lessons we should ever remember, I did not rejoice
+as I had done the month before. I feared lest this sudden cure
+might only be a temporary recovery, and that every month my poor
+invalid would relapse, until her brain becoming weaker and weaker,
+she would be deranged for life. This sad idea wounded my heart, and
+caused me such grief that I could not even dissimulate it before her
+who inspired it. I exhausted all the resources of medicine; all these
+expedients proved unavailable. I thought that perhaps, if I removed my
+poor invalid from the spot where the events had occurred that caused
+her disorder, her cure might be more easily effected; that perhaps
+bathing and country walks in the fine weather would contribute to
+hasten her recovery; therefore I invited one of her relations to
+accompany us, and we set out for Tierra-Alta, a delightful spot,
+a real oasis, where all things were assembled that could endear
+one to life. The first days of our settling there were full of joy,
+hope, and happiness. Anna got better and better every day, and her
+health very much improved. We walked in beautiful gardens, under the
+shade of orange-trees; they were so thick that even during the most
+intense heat we were cool under their shade. A lovely river of blue
+and limpid water ran through our orchard; I had some Indian baths
+erected there. We went out in a pretty, light, open carriage, drawn
+by four good horses, through beautiful avenues, lined on each side
+with the pliant bamboo, and sown with all the various flowers of the
+tropics. I leave you to judge, by this short account, that nothing
+that can be wished for in the country was wanting in Tierra-Alta. For
+an invalid it was a Paradise; but those are right who say there is
+no perfect happiness here below. I had a wife I adored, and who loved
+me with all the sincerity of a pure young heart. We lived in an Eden,
+away from the world, from the noise and bustle of a city, and far, too,
+from the jealous and envious. We breathed a fragrant air; the pure and
+limpid waters that bathed our feet reflecting, by turns a sunny sky,
+and one spangled with twinkling stars. Anna's health was improving:
+it pleased me to see her so happy. What, then, was there to trouble
+us in our lovely retreat? A troop of banditti! These robbers were
+distributed around the suburbs of Tierra-Alta, and spread desolation
+over the country and neighbourhood by the robberies and murders
+they committed. There was a regiment in search of them; this they
+little cared about. They were numerous, clever, and audacious; and,
+notwithstanding the vigilance of the government, the band continued
+their highway robberies and assassinations. In the house where I then
+resided, and which I afterwards left, Aguilar, the commander of the
+cavalry, who had replaced me as occupant, was fallen upon unexpectedly,
+and stabbed. Several years after this period, the government was
+obliged to come to some terms with these bandits, and one day twenty
+men, all armed with carbines and swords, entered Manilla. Their
+chieftain led them; they walked with their heads upright, their
+carriage was proud and manly; in this order they went to the governor,
+who made them a speech, ordered them to lay down their arms, and sent
+them to the archbishop that he might exhort them. The archbishop in a
+religious discourse implored of them to repent of their crimes, and
+become honest citizens, and to return to their villages. These men,
+who had bathed their hands in the blood of their fellow-creatures,
+and who had sought in crime--or rather, in every crime--the gold they
+coveted, listened attentively to God's minister, changed completely
+their conduct, and became, in the end, good and quiet husbandmen.
+
+Now let us return to my residence at Tierra-Alta, at the period when
+the bandits were not converted, and might have disturbed my peaceful
+abode and security. Nevertheless, whether it was carelessness, or the
+confidence I had in my Indian, with whom I spent some time after the
+ravages occasioned with the cholera, and with whose influence I was
+acquainted, I did not fear the bandits at all. This Indian lived a
+few leagues off from Tierra-Alta; he came often to see me, and said
+to me on different occasions: "Fear nothing from the robbers, Senor
+Doctor Pablo; they know we are friends, and that alone would suffice
+to prevent them attacking you, for they would dread to displease me,
+and to make me their enemy." These words put an end to my fears,
+and I soon had an opportunity of seeing that the Indian had taken me
+under his protection.
+
+If any of my readers for whom I write these souvenirs feel the same
+desire as I experienced to visit the cascades of Tierra-Alta, let
+them go to a place called Yang-Yang; it was near this spot where
+my Indian protector resided. At this part the river, obstructed in
+its course by the narrowness of its channel, falls from only one
+waterspout, about thirty or forty feet high, into an immense basin,
+out of which the water calmly flows onwards, to form, lower down, three
+other waterfalls, not so lofty, but extending over the breadth of the
+river, thereby making three sheets of water, clear and transparent as
+crystal. What beautiful sights are offered to the eyes of man by the
+all-powerful hands of the Creator! And how often have I remarked that
+the works of nature are far superior to those that men tire themselves
+to erect and invent!
+
+As we went one morning to the cascades we were about to alight
+at Yang-Yang, when all at once our carriage was surrounded with
+brigands, flying from the soldiers of the line. The chief--for we
+supposed him to be so at first--said to his companions, not paying the
+slightest attention to us, nor even addressing us: "We must kill the
+horses!" By this I saw he feared lest their enemies should make use of
+our horses to pursue them. With a presence of mind which fortunately
+never abandons me in difficult or perilous circumstances, I said to
+him: "Do not fear; my horses shall not be used by your enemies to
+pursue you: rely upon my word." The chief put his hand to his cap,
+and thus addressed his comrades: "If such be the case, the Spanish
+soldiers will do us no harm to-day, neither let us do any. Follow
+me!" They marched off, and I instantly drove rapidly away in quite
+an opposite direction from the soldiers. The bandits looked after
+me; my good faith in keeping my word was successful. I not only
+lived a few months in safety at Tierra-Alta, but many years after,
+when, I resided in Jala-Jala, and, in my quality of commander of the
+territorial horse-guards of the province of Lagune, was naturally a
+declared enemy of the bandits, I received the following note:
+
+
+    "Sir,--Beware of Pedro Tumbaga; we are invited by him to go to
+    your house and to take you by surprise; we remember the morning we
+    spoke to you at the cascades, and the sincerity of your word. You
+    are an honourable man. If we find ourselves face to face with
+    you, and it be necessary, we will fight, but faithfully, and
+    never after having laid a snare. Keep, therefore, on your guard;
+    beware of Pedro Tumbaga; he is cowardly enough to hide himself
+    in order to shoot you."
+
+
+Everybody must acknowledge I had to do with most polite robbers.
+
+I answered them thus:
+
+
+    "You are brave fellows. I thank you for your advice, but I do
+    not fear Pedro Tumbaga. I cannot conceive how it is you keep
+    among you a man capable of hiding himself to kill his enemy;
+    if I had a soldier like him, I would soon let him have justice,
+    and without consulting the law."
+
+
+A fortnight after my answer, Tumbaga was no more; a bandit's bullet
+disembarrassed me of him.
+
+I will now return to the recital I have just interrupted. When I had
+left the bandits at Yang-Yang, I pulled up my horses and bethought
+me of Anna. I was anxious to know what impression had been produced
+on her mind from this unpleasant encounter. Fortunately my fears were
+unfounded; my wife had not been at all alarmed, and when I asked her
+if she was frightened, she replied: "Frightened, indeed! am I not with
+you?" Subsequently I had good proofs that she told me the truth, for
+in many perilous circumstances she always presented the same presence
+of mind. When I thought there was no longer any danger we retraced our
+steps and went home, satisfied with the conduct of the bandits towards
+us, for their manner of acting clearly showed us that they intended us
+no harm. I mentally thanked my Indian friend, for to him I attributed
+the peace our turbulent neighbours allowed us to enjoy. The fatal time
+was drawing near when my wife would again be suffering from another
+attack of that frightful malady brought on by Novalès revolt. I had
+hoped that the country air, the baths, and amusements of every kind
+would cure my poor invalid; my hopes were deceived, and, as in the
+preceding month, I had the grief once more to assist at a period of
+physical and mental suffering. I despaired: I knew not what course
+to pursue. I decided, however, upon remaining at Tierra-Alta. My
+dear companion was happy there on the days her health was better,
+and on the other days I never left her, endeavouring by every means
+that art and imagination could invent to fight against this fatal
+malady. At length my care, attempts, and efforts were successful, and
+at the periods the symptoms usually returned I had the happiness not
+to observe them, and believed in the certainty of a final cure. I then
+felt the joy one experiences after having for a long time been on the
+point of losing a very dear friend, who suddenly recovers. I now gave
+myself up without fear to the various pleasures Tierra-Alta offers.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    Hunting the Stag--Indian Mode of Chasing the Wild Buffalo: its
+    Ferocity--Dangerous Sport--Capture of a Buffalo--Narrow Escape of
+    an Indian Hunter--Return to Manilla--Injustice of the Governor--My
+    Resignation of Office--I Purchase Property at Jala-Jala--Retire
+    from Manilla to Take Possession of my Domains--Chinese
+    Legend--Festival of St Nicholas--Quinaboutasan--Description
+    of Jala-Jala--Interview with a Bandit Chief--Formation of a
+    Guard--Preparations for Building--Visit to Manilla, and Return
+    to Jala-Jala--Completion of my House--Reception of my Wife by
+    the Natives--The Government of the Philippines--Character of the
+    Tagaloc Indians--Unmerited Chastisement--A Curate Appointed--Our
+    Labours at Civilisation--My Hall of Justice--Buffalo Hunting
+    Expedition.
+
+
+Naturally fond of hunting, I often went to the home of my Indian
+friend in the Marigondon mountains. Together we chased the stag,
+and killed the various kinds of birds which abound in these regions
+to such an extent that one may always choose between fifteen or
+twenty different species of pigeons, wild ducks, and fowl, and it
+frequently happened that I brought down five or six at a shot. The
+manner of killing wild fowl (a sort of pheasant) much amused me. We
+rode across the large plains, strewed with young wood, on good and
+beautiful horses, broken in for the purpose; the dogs raised the game,
+and, armed with whips, we endeavoured to knock the birds down at a
+single blow, which is not so difficult as might be imagined. When a
+number of the frightened flocks left the shelter of the wood we put
+our steeds to the gallop, and it became a veritable steeple-chase,
+such as amateur jockeys would much delight in. I also hunted the stag
+with the lance, on horseback; this sport is likewise very amusing,
+but, unfortunately, often attended with accidents. This is how they
+occur:--The horses employed are so well trained to the sport, that
+as soon as they perceive the stag it is no longer necessary, neither
+is it possible, to guide them; they pursue the animal at the top of
+their speed, and leap over every obstruction before them. The horseman
+carries a lance seven or eight feet long, which he holds in readiness
+to cast as soon as he thinks himself within reach of the stag. If he
+misses his aim the lance sticks in the ground, and it then requires
+great skill to avoid coming in contact with the opposite end, which
+often wounds either the hunter or the horse. I speak not of the falls
+to which one is liable from going at a furious gallop along unknown
+and uneven roads. I had already enjoyed this sport during my first
+sojourn at the Indian's, but, well as I acquitted myself, I was never
+able to gain his permission that I should assist at a chase far more
+dangerous, and which I might almost call a combat--that of the wild
+buffalo. To all my questions my host had replied: "In this sport there
+is much to fear: I would not expose you to the risk." He avoided, also,
+taking me near that part of the plain touching upon the mountains of
+Marigondon, where these animals could generally be found. However,
+after repeated solicitation, I managed to obtain what I so ardently
+desired; the Indian only wished to know whether I was a good horseman,
+if I possessed dexterity; and when he had satisfied himself on these
+two points, we started one fine morning, accompanied by nine huntsmen
+and a small pack of dogs. In this part of the Philippines the buffalo
+is hunted on horseback, and taken with the lasso, the Indians not being
+much accustomed to the use of guns. In other parts fire-arms are used,
+as I shall have occasion to recount in another part of my narrative;
+but, in whichever case, there is little difference in the danger,
+for the one requires good riding and great skill, the other much
+presence of mind and a good gun.
+
+The wild buffalo is quite different from the domesticated animal;
+it is a terrible creature, pursuing the hunter as soon as it gets
+sight of him, and, should he transfix him with its terrible horns, he
+would promptly expiate his rashness. My faithful Indian was much more
+anxious about my safety than his own. He objected to my taking a gun;
+he had little confidence in my skill with the lasso, and preferred
+that I should merely sit on horseback, unarmed and unencumbered
+in my movements; accordingly I set out, with a dagger for my sole
+weapon. We divided our party by threes, and rode gently about the
+plains, taking care to keep at a distance from the edge of the wood,
+lest we should be surprised by the animal we were seeking.
+
+After riding for about an hour, we at last heard the baying of
+the dogs, and understood that the enemy was forced from its forest
+retreat. We watched with the deepest attention the spot where we
+expected him to break forth. He required a great deal of coaxing
+before he would show; at last there was a sudden crashing noise
+in the wood; branches were broken, young trees overthrown, and a
+superb buffalo showed himself, at about one hundred and fifty paces'
+distance. He was of a beautiful black, and his horns were of very large
+dimensions. He carried his head high, and snuffed the air as though
+scenting his enemies. Suddenly starting off at a speed incredible in
+so bulky an animal, he made for one of our groups, composed of three
+Indians, who immediately put their horses to a gallop, and distributed
+themselves in the form of a triangle. The buffalo selected one of them,
+and impetuously charged him. As he did so, another of the Indians,
+whom he passed in his furious career, wheeled his horse and threw the
+lasso he held ready in his hand; but he was not expert, and missed
+his aim. Thereupon the buffalo changed his course, and pursued the
+imprudent man who had thus attacked him, and who now rode right in
+our direction. A second detachment of three hunters went to meet the
+brute; one of them passed near him at a gallop, and threw his lasso,
+but was as unsuccessful as his comrade. Three other hunters made the
+attempt; not one of them succeeded. I, as a mere spectator, looked
+on with admiration at this combat--at those evolutions, flights, and
+pursuits, executed with such order and courage, and with a precision
+that was truly extraordinary.
+
+I had often witnessed bull-fights, and often had I shuddered at seeing
+the toreadors adopt a similar method in order to turn the furious
+animal from the pursuit of the picador. But what comparison could
+possibly be established between a combat in an enclosed arena and
+this one in the open plain--between the most terrible of bulls and
+a wild buffalo? Fiery and hot-blooded Spaniards, proud Castilians,
+eager for perilous spectacles, go, hunt the buffalo in the plains
+of the Marigondon! After much flight and pursuit, hard riding, and
+imminent peril, a dexterous hunter encircled the animal's horns with
+his lasso. The buffalo slackened his speed, and shook and tossed
+his head, stopping now and then to try to get rid of the obstacle
+which impeded his career. Another Indian, not less skilful than his
+predecessor, threw his lasso with a like rapidity and success. The
+furious beast now ploughed the earth with his horns, making the
+soil fly around him, as if anxious to display his strength, and to
+show what havoc he would have made with any of us who had allowed
+themselves to be surprised by him. With much care and precaution the
+Indians conveyed their prize into a neighbouring thicket. The hunters
+uttered a shout of joy; for my part I could not repress a cry of
+admiration. The animal was vanquished; it needed but a few precautions
+to master him completely. I was much surprised to see the Indians
+excite him with voice and gesture until he resumed the offensive,
+and bounded from the ground with fury. What would have been our fate
+had he succeeded in shaking off or breaking the lassos! Fortunately,
+there was no danger of this. An Indian dismounted, and, with great
+agility, attached to the trunk of a solid tree the two lassos that
+retained the savage beast; then he gave the signal that his office
+was accomplished, and retired. Two hunters approached, threw their
+lassos over the animal, and fixed the ends to the ground with stakes;
+and now our prey was thoroughly subdued, and reduced to immobility,
+so that we could approach him with impunity. With blows of their
+cutlasses the Indians hacked off his horns, which would so well have
+revenged him had he been free to use them; then, with a pointed bamboo,
+they pierced the membranes that separate the nostrils, and passed
+through them a cane twisted in the form of a ring. In this state
+of martyrdom they fastened him securely behind two tame buffaloes,
+and led him to the next village.
+
+Here the animal was killed, and the hunters divided the carcass, the
+flesh of which is equal in flavour to beef. I had been fortunate in my
+first essay, for such encounters with these shaggy sovereigns of the
+plain do not always end so easily. A few days afterwards we renewed
+the sport, which, alas! terminated with an accident of too frequent
+occurrence. An Indian was surprised by a buffalo, at the moment the
+animal issued from the wood. With one blow from his horns the horse
+was impaled and cast to the earth, while his Indian rider fell near
+to him. The inequality of the ground offered some chance of the man
+escaping the notice of his redoubtable foe, until the latter, by a
+sudden movement of his head, turned the horse over upon his rider,
+and inflicted several blows with his horns, either of which would have
+proved fatal, but from the force becoming diminished in traversing
+the carcass of the horse. Fortunately some of the other sportsmen
+succeeded in turning the animal, and compelled him to abandon his
+victim. It was indeed time, for we found the poor Indian half dead,
+and terribly gored by the horns of the buffalo. We succeeded in
+stopping the blood which flowed copiously from his wounds, and
+carried him to the village upon a hastily constructed litter. It was
+only by considerable care and attention that his care was eventually
+effected, and my friend the Indian strongly opposed my assisting at
+such dangerous sport for the future.
+
+Anna's health was now completely re-established. I no longer dreaded
+the return of her fearful malady. During the space of several
+months I had enjoyed all the pleasures that Tierra-Alta afforded,
+and my affairs now requiring my presence at Manilla we set out for
+that city. Immediately after my arrival I was compelled, much to my
+regret, to resume my ordinary occupation; that is, to visit the sick
+from morning to night, and from night to morning. My profession did
+not well accord with my natural character, for I was not sufficiently
+philosophic to witness, without pain, the sufferings I was incapable
+of alleviating, and, above all, to watch the death-beds of fathers,
+of mothers, and of dearly loved children. In a word, I did not act
+professionally, for I never sent in my bills; my patients paid me
+when and how they could. To their honour, I am bound to say that I
+rarely had to complain of forgetfulness. Besides, my appointments
+permitted me to live sumptuously, to have eight horses in my stables,
+and to keep open house to my friends and the strangers who visited
+Manilla. Soon, however, what my friends designated a coup-de-tête
+caused me to lose all these advantages.
+
+Every month I summoned a council of revision in the regiment to
+which I belonged. One day I brought forward a young soldier for
+rejection; all went well; but a native surgeon, long jealous of my
+reputation, was nominated by the governor to make inquiry and check my
+declaration. He naturally inserted in his report that I was deceived;
+that the malady of which I spoke was imaginary; and he succeeded in
+all this so well that the governor, enraged, condemned me in a penalty
+of six piasters. The following month I again brought forward the same
+soldier, as being incapable of performing his duties; a commission
+of eight surgeons was nominated; their decision was unanimous in my
+favour, and the soldier was accordingly discharged. This reparation
+not quite satisfying me, I presented an appeal to the governor, who
+would not receive it, upon the strange pretext that the decision of
+the medical committee could not annul his. I confess that I did not
+understand this argument. This method of reasoning, if reasoning it
+was, appeared to me specious in the extreme. Why allow the innocent
+to suffer, and the ignorant practitioner, who had contradicted my
+opinions and deceived himself, to escape? This injustice revolted
+me. I am a Breton, and I have lived with Indians--two natures which
+love only right and justice. I was so much annoyed by the governor's
+conduct towards me that I went to him, not to make another reclamation,
+but to tender my resignation of the important offices which I held. He
+received me with a specious smile, and told me that after a little
+reflection I should change my mind. The poor governor, however, was
+deceived, for, on leaving his palace, I went direct to the minister
+of finance and purchased the property of Jala-Jala. My course was
+marked out, my resolution unshakable. Although my resignation was
+not yet duly accepted, I began to act as though I was completely
+free. I had at the beginning informed Anna of the matter, and had
+asked her if she would reside at Jala-Jala. "With you I should be
+happy anywhere." Such was her answer. I was free, then, to act as I
+pleased, and could go wherever my destiny might lead me. I forthwith
+decided upon visiting the land that I had purchased.
+
+For the execution of this project it was necessary to find a faithful
+Indian upon whom I could rely. From among my domestics I chose the
+coachman, a brave and discreet man, who was devoted to me. I took some
+arms, ammunition, and provisions. At Lapindan, a small village near the
+town of Santa Anna, I freighted a small boat worked by three Indians:
+and one morning, without making my project known to my friends, and
+without inquiring whether the governor had replaced me, I set out to
+take possession of my domains, respiring the vivifying and pure air of
+liberty. I ascended in my pirogue--which skimmed along the surface of
+the waters like a sea-gull--the pretty river Pasig, which issues from
+the lake of Bay, and traverses, on its way to the sea, the suburbs of
+Manilla. The banks of this river are planted with thickets of bamboo,
+and studded with pretty Indian habitations; above the large town of
+Pasig it receives the waters of the river St. Mateo, at the spot where
+that river unites itself with that of the Pasig. Upon the left bank
+are still seen the ruins of the chapel and parsonage of St. Nicholas,
+built by the Chinese, as the legend I am about to relate informs us.
+
+At an unknown epoch, a Chinese who was once sailing in a canoe, either
+upon the river Pasig, or that of St. Mateo, suddenly perceived an
+alligator making for his frail bark, which it immediately capsized. On
+his finding himself thus plunged in the water, the unfortunate Chinese
+whose only prospect was that of making a meal for the ferocious animal,
+invoked the aid of St. Nicholas. You, perhaps, would not have done
+so, nor I either; and we should have been wrong, for the idea was a
+good one. The good St. Nicholas listened to the cries of the unhappy
+castaway, appeared to his wondering eyes, and with a stroke of a
+wand, like some benevolent fairy, changed the threatening crocodile
+into a rock, and the Chinese was saved. But do not imagine that the
+legend ends here; the Chinese are not an ungrateful people--China
+is the land of porcelain, of tea, and of gratitude. The Chinese who
+had thus escaped from the cruel fate that awaited him, felt desirous
+of consecrating the memory of the miracle; and, in concert with his
+brethren of Manilla, he built a pretty chapel and parsonage in honour
+of the good St. Nicholas. This chapel was for a long time officiated
+in by a bonze; and every year, at the festival of the saint, the rich
+Chinese of Manilla assembled there in thousands, to give a series of
+fêtes which lasted for fifteen days. But it happened that an archbishop
+of Manilla, looking upon this worship offered up by Chinese gratitude
+as nothing but paganism, caused both the chapel and parsonage to be
+unroofed. These harsh measures had no other result than to admit the
+rain into the buildings; but the worship due to St. Nicholas still
+continued, and remains to this day. Perhaps this arises from the
+attempt to suppress it!
+
+At present, at the period when this festival takes place--that is,
+about the 6th of November every year--a delightful view presents
+itself. During the night large vessels may be seen, upon which are
+built palaces actually several stories high, terminating in pyramids,
+and lit up from the base to the summit. All these lights are reflected
+in the placid waters of the river, and seem to augment the number of
+the stars, whose tremulous images dance on the surface of the waters:
+it is an extemporised Venice! In these palaces they give themselves
+up to play, to smoking opium, and to the pleasures of music. The
+pévété, a species of Chinese incense, is burning everywhere and at
+all times in honour of St. Nicholas, who is invoked every morning
+by throwing into the river small square pieces of paper of various
+colours. St. Nicholas, however, does not make his appearance; but
+the fête continues for a fortnight, at the termination of which the
+faithful retire till the year following.
+
+And now that the reader is acquainted with the legend of the crocodile,
+of the Chinese, and of the good St. Nicholas, I will resume my voyage.
+
+I sailed on peaceably upon the Pasig, proceeding to the conquest of my
+new dominions, and indulging in golden dreams. I gazed on the light
+smoke of my cigarette, without reflecting that my dreams, my castles
+in the air, must evaporate like it! I soon found myself in the lake
+of Bay. The lake occupies an extent of thirty leagues, and I greatly
+admired this fine sheet of water, bounded in the distance by mountains
+of fantastic forms. At length I arrived at Quinaboutasan--this is a
+Tagal word, which signifies "that which is perforated." Quinaboutasan
+is situated on a strait, which separates the island of Talem from
+the continent. We stopped for an hour in the only Indian hut there
+was in the place, to cook some rice and take our repast. This hut
+was inhabited by a very old fisherman and his wife. They were still,
+however, able to supply their wants by fishing. At a later period I
+shall have occasion to speak of old Relempago, or the "Thunderer,"
+and to recount his history. When I was in the centre of the sheet of
+water which separates Talem from Jala-Jala, I came in sight of the new
+domain which I had so easily acquired, and I could form some opinion of
+my acquisition at a glance. Jala-Jala is a long peninsula, extending
+from north to south, in the middle of the lake of Bay. This peninsula
+is divided longitudinally for the space of three leagues by a chain of
+mountains, which diminish gradually in height till they become mere
+hillocks. These mountains, are easy of access, and generally covered
+on one side with forests, and on the other with fine pasturage,
+abounding with waving and flexible grass, three or four feet high,
+which, agitated by the breeze, resembles the waves of the sea when in
+motion. It is impossible to find more splendid vegetation, which is
+watered by pure and limpid springs that gush from the mountain heights,
+and roll in a meandering course to join the waters of the lake. These
+pasture grounds constitute Jala-Jala the greatest game preserve
+in the island: wild boars, deer, buffaloes, fowls, quail, snipe,
+pigeons of fifteen or twenty different varieties, parrots--in short
+all sorts of birds abound in them. The lake is equally well supplied
+with aquatic birds, and particularly wild ducks. Notwithstanding its
+extent, the island produces neither noxious nor carnivorous animals;
+the only things to be apprehended are the civet cat, which only preys
+upon birds, and the monkeys, which issue in troops from the forests
+to ravage the fields of maize and sugar-cane. The lake, which abounds
+with excellent fish, is less favoured in this respect than the land,
+for it contains numerous crocodiles and alligators, of such immense
+size that in a few moments one of them can tear a horse to pieces,
+and swallow it in its monstrous stomach. The accidents they occasion
+are frequent and terrible, and I have seen many Indians become their
+victims, as I shall subsequently relate. I ought, doubtless, to have
+begun by speaking of the human beings who inhabited the forests of
+Jala-Jala, but I am a sportsman, and must therefore be excused for
+beginning with the game.
+
+At the time I purchased it Jala-Jala was inhabited by some Malay
+Indians, who lived in the woods, and cultivated a few spots of
+ground. During the night they carried on the trade of piracy, and
+gave shelter to all the banditti of the neighbouring provinces. At
+Manilla this country had been described to me in the most gloomy
+colours. According to the citizens of that place it would not be long
+before I fell a victim to these robbers. My adventurous disposition,
+however, only made all these predictions, instead of frightening me,
+increase my desire to visit these men, who lived in an almost savage
+state. As soon as I had purchased Jala-Jala, I had laid down a line of
+conduct for myself, the object of which was to attach to me such of
+the inhabitants as were the most to be dreaded. I resolved to become
+the friend of these banditti, and for this purpose I knew that I must
+go amongst them, not like a sordid and exacting landlord but like a
+father. For the execution of my enterprise, everything depended on the
+first impression that I should make on these Indians, who had become
+my vassals. When I had landed, I directed my steps along the borders
+of the lake, towards a little hamlet composed of a few cabins. I was
+accompanied by my faithful coachman; we were both armed with a good
+double-barreled gun, a brace of pistols, and a sabre. I had taken the
+precaution of ascertaining from some fishermen the name of the Indian
+to whom I should especially address myself. This man, who was the most
+respected amongst his countrymen, was called in the Tagal language,
+"Mabutiu-Tajo," which may be translated the "bravest of the brave"
+he was a thorough-paced robber, a real piratical chief; a fellow that
+would not hesitate to commit five or six murders in one expedition;
+but he was brave, and with a primitive people bravery is a quality
+before which they bow with respect. My conference with Mabutiu-Tajo
+was not long. A few words were enough to win me his favour, and to
+make him my faithful servant during the whole time I remained at
+Jala-Jala. This is the manner in which I spoke to him: "You are a
+great villain," I said; "I am the lord of Jala-Jala. I insist on your
+changing your conduct; if you refuse, I shall punish you for all your
+misdeeds. I have occasion for a guard: will you pledge me your honour
+to become an honest man, and I will make you my lieutenant?"
+
+After these few words, Alila (this was the name of the robber)
+continued silent for a few moments, while his countenance displayed the
+marks of profound reflection. I awaited his answer with considerable
+anxiety and doubt as to what it would be.
+
+"Master," he at length replied, with enthusiasm, presenting me his
+hand, and bending one knee to the ground: "I shall be faithful to
+you till death!"
+
+His answer made me happy, but I did not let him see my satisfaction.
+
+"Well and good," I replied; "to show you that I confide in you,
+take this weapon, and use it only against the enemy."
+
+I gave him a Tagal sabre, which bore the following Spanish inscription,
+in large letters: "No me sacas sin rason, ni me envainas sin
+honor." "Never draw me unjustly, and never sheath me with dishonour."
+
+I translated this legend into the Tagaloc language: Alila thought it
+sublime, and vowed never to deviate from it.
+
+"When I go to Manilla," I added, "I shall procure you a handsome
+uniform, with epaulettes; but you must lose no time in assembling
+the soldiers you will have to command, and who are to form my
+guard. Conduct me to the house of one of your comrades whom you
+think most capable of obeying you as serjeant." We went some distance
+from his cabin to the hut of one of his friends, who almost always
+accompanied him in his piratical excursions. A few words like those
+I had spoken to my future lieutenant produced a similar influence
+on his comrade, and induced him to accept the rank I offered him. We
+occupied the day in recruiting amongst the various huts, and in the
+evening we had a guard of ten effective men, infantry and cavalry,
+a number I did not wish to exceed.
+
+Of these I took the command as captain; and thus, as will be seen,
+I went promptly to work. The following day I assembled the population
+of the peninsula, and, surrounded by my extempore guard, I chose a
+situation where I wished to found a village, and a site on which
+I wished my own habitation to be built. I ordered the heads of
+families to construct their huts on an allotment which I indicated,
+and I directed my lieutenant to employ as many hands as possible, to
+quarry stones, to cut down timber for the wood-work, and to prepare
+everything in short for my house. Having issued my orders, I departed
+for Manilla, promising to return soon. When I reached home, I found
+them in a state of inquietude, for, as nothing had been heard of me,
+it was thought I had fallen a prey to the crocodiles, or a victim to
+the pirates. The recital of my journey, and the description I gave of
+Jala-Jala, far from disgusting my wife with the idea I had conceived
+of inhabiting that country, made her, on the contrary, impatient to
+visit our estate, and to establish herself there. It was, however, a
+farewell she was taking of the capital--of its fêtes, its assemblies,
+and its pleasures.
+
+I paid a visit to the governor. My resignation had been considered as
+null and void: he had preserved all my places for me. I was touched
+by this goodness. I sincerely thanked him, but told him that I was
+really in earnest, that my resolution was irrevocably fixed, and that
+he might otherwise dispose of my employments. I added, that I only
+asked him for one favour, that of commanding all the local gendarmerie
+of the province of La Lagune, with the privilege of having a personal
+guard, which I would form myself. This favour was instantly granted,
+and a few days after I received my commission. It was not ambition
+that suggested to me the idea of asking for this important post,
+but sound reason. My object was to establish an authority for myself
+at Jala-Jala, and to have in my own hands the power of punishing my
+Indians, without recurring to the justice of the alcaid, who lived
+ten leagues away from my dominions.
+
+Wishing to be comfortably settled in my new residence, I drew
+out a plan of my house. It consisted of a first-floor, with five
+bed-chambers, a large hall, a spacious drawing-room, a terrace, and
+bathing rooms. I agreed with a master-mason and a master carpenter
+for the construction of it; and having obtained arms and uniforms
+for my guard, I set out again. On arriving I was received with joy
+by my Indians. My lieutenant had punctually executed my orders. A
+great quantity of material was prepared, and several Indian huts were
+already built.
+
+This activity gave me pleasure, as it evinced a desire for my
+gratification. I immediately set my labourers to work, ordering them
+to clear away the surrounding wood, and I soon had the pleasure of
+laying the foundation of my residence; I then went to Manilla. The
+works lasted for eight months, during which time I passed backwards and
+forwards continually from Manilla to Jala-Jala, and from Jala-Jala to
+Manilla. I had some trouble, but I was well repaid for it when I saw
+a village rise from the earth. My Indians constructed their huts on
+the places I had indicated; they had reserved a site for a church,
+and, until this should be built, mass was to be celebrated in the
+vestibule of my mansion. At length, after many journeys to and fro,
+which gave great uneasiness to my wife, I was enabled to inform her
+that the castle of Jala-Jala was ready to receive its mistress. This
+was a pleasing piece of intelligence, for we were soon to be no
+longer separated.
+
+I quickly sold my horses, my carriages, and useless furniture, and
+freighted a vessel to convey to Jala-Jala all that I required. Then,
+having taken leave of my friends, I quitted Manilla, with the
+intention of not returning to it but through absolute necessity. Our
+journey was prosperous, and on our arrival, we found my Indians
+on the shore, hailing with cries of joy the welcome advent of the
+"Queen of Jala-Jala," for it was thus they called my wife.
+
+We devoted the first days after our arrival to installing ourselves
+in our new residence, which it was necessary to furnish, and make both
+useful and agreeable; this we accordingly effected. And now that years
+have elapsed, and I am far removed from that period of independence
+and perfect liberty, I reflect on the strangeness of my destiny. My
+wife and I were the only white and civilised persons in the midst of a
+bronzed and almost savage population, and yet I felt no apprehension. I
+relied on my arms, on my self-possession, and on the fidelity of my
+guards. Anna was only aware of a part of the dangers we incurred,
+and her confidence in me was so great, that when by my side she knew
+not what it was to fear. When I was well established in my house, I
+undertook a difficult and dangerous task, that of establishing order
+amongst my Indians, and organizing my little town according to the
+custom of the Philippine islands. The Spanish laws, with reference to
+the Indians, are altogether patriarchal. Every township is erected,
+so to speak, into a little republic. Every year a chief is elected,
+dependant for affairs of importance on the governor of the province,
+which latter, in his turn, depends on the governor of the Philippine
+islands. I confess that I have always considered the mode of government
+peculiar to the Philippines as the most convenient and best adapted
+for civilization. The Spaniards, at the period of their conquest,
+found it in full operation in the isle of Luzon.
+
+I shall here enter into some details. Every Indian population is
+divided into two classes, the noble and the popular. The first is
+composed of all Indians who are, or have been cabessas de barangay,
+that is to say, collectors of taxes, which situation is honorary. The
+taxes established by the Spaniards are personal. Every Indian of more
+than twenty-one years of age pays, in four instalments, the annual sum
+of three francs; which tax is the same to the rich and the poor. At a
+certain period of the year, twelve of the cabessas de barangay become
+electors, and assembling together with some of the old inhabitants of
+the township, they elect, by ballot, three of their number, whose names
+are forwarded to the governor of the Philippines. The latter chooses
+from amongst these names whichever he pleases, and confides to him
+for one year the functions of gobernadorcillo, or deputy-governor. To
+distinguish him from the other Indians, the deputy-governor bears
+a gold-headed cane, with which he has a right to strike such of his
+fellow-citizens as may have committed slight faults. His functions
+partake at the same time of those of mayor, justice of the peace,
+and examining magistrate. He watches over good order and public
+tranquillity; he decides, without appeal, suits and differences of
+no higher importance than sixteen piasters (£3 6s. 8d.). He also
+institutes criminal suits of high importance, but there his power
+ceases. The documents connected with these suits are sent by him to
+the governor of the province, who, in his turn, transmits them to
+the royal court of Manilla. The court gives judgment, and the alcaid
+carries it into execution. When the election for deputy-governor takes
+place, the assembled electors choose all the officials who are to act
+under him. These are alguazils, whose number is proportioned to the
+population; two witnesses, or assistants, who are charged with the
+confirmation of the acts of the deputy-governor--for without their
+presence and sanction his acts would be considered null and void;
+a jouès de palma, or palm judge, with the functions of rural guard;
+a vaccinator, bound to be always furnished with vaccine matter, for
+newborn children; and a schoolmaster, charged with public instruction;
+finally, a sort of gendarmerie, to watch banditti and the state of
+the roads within the precincts of the commune and the neighbouring
+lands. Men, grown up, and without employment, form a civic guard, who
+watch over the safety of the village. This guard indicates the hours
+of the night, by blows struck upon a large piece of hollow wood. There
+is in each town a parochial house, which is called Casa Réal, where
+the deputy-governor resides. He is bound to afford hospitality to all
+travellers who pass through the town, which hospitality is like that
+of the Scotch mountaineers--it is given, but never sold. During two
+or three days, the traveller has a right to lodging, in which he is
+supplied with a mat, a pillow, salt, vinegar, wood, cooking vessels,
+and--paying for the same--all descriptions of food necessary for
+his subsistence. If, on his departure, he should even require horses
+and guides to continue his journey, they are procured for him. With
+respect to the prices of provisions, in order to prevent the abuses
+so frequent amongst us, a large placard is fixed up in every Casa
+Réal, containing a tariff of the market prices of meat, poultry,
+fish, fruit, &c. In no case whatever can the deputy-governor exact
+any remuneration for the trouble he is at.
+
+Such were the measures that I wished to adopt, and which, it is true,
+possessed advantages and disadvantages. The greatest inconvenience
+attending them was undoubtedly that of placing myself in a state
+of dependence upon the deputy-governor, whose functions gave him a
+certain right, for I was his administrator. It is true that my rank,
+as commandant of all the gendarmerie of the province, shielded me from
+any injustice that might be contemplated against me. I knew very well
+that, beyond military service, I could inflict no punishment on my men
+without the intervention of the deputy-governor; but I had sufficiently
+studied the Indian character to know that I could only rule it by the
+most perfect justice and a well-understood severity. But whatever were
+the difficulties I foresaw, without any apprehension of the troubles
+and dangers of every description that I should have to surmount,
+I proceeded straightforward towards the object I had traced out for
+myself. The road was sterile and encumbered with rocks; but I entered
+upon it with courage, and I succeeded in obtaining over the Indians
+such an influence, that they ultimately obeyed my voice as they would
+that of a parent. The character of the Tagaloc is extremely difficult
+to define. Lavater and Gall would have been very much embarrassed by
+it; for both physiognomy and craniology would be, perhaps, equally
+at a loss amongst the Philippines.
+
+The natural disposition of the Tagal Indian is a mixture of vices
+and virtues, of good and bad qualities. A worthy priest has said,
+when speaking of them: "They are great children and must be treated
+as if they were little ones."
+
+It is really curious to trace, and still more so to read, the moral
+portrait of a native of the Philippine islands. The Indian keeps his
+word, and yet--will it be believed?--he is a liar. Anger he holds in
+horror, he compares it to madness; and even prefers drunkenness, which,
+however, he despises. He will not hesitate to use the dagger to avenge
+himself for injustice; but what he can least submit to is an insult,
+even when merited. When he has committed a fault, he may be punished
+with a flogging; this he receives without a murmur, but he cannot brook
+an insult. He is brave, generous, and a fatalist. The profession of a
+robber, which he willingly exercises, is agreeable to him, on account
+of the life of liberty and adventure it affords, and not because it may
+lead to riches. Generally speaking, the Tagalocs are good fathers and
+good husbands, both these qualities being inherent. Horribly jealous
+of their wives, but not in the least of the honour of their daughters;
+and it matters little if the women they marry have committed errors
+previous to their union. They never ask for a dowry, they themselves
+provide it, and make presents to the parents of their brides. They
+dislike cowards, but willingly attach themselves to the man who is
+brave enough to face danger. Play is their ruling passion, and they
+delight in the combats of animals, especially in cock-fighting. This
+is a brief compendium of the character of the people I was about
+to govern. My first care was to become master of myself. I made a
+firm resolution never to allow a gesture of impatience to escape me,
+in their presence, even in the most critical moments, and to preserve
+at all times unshaken calmness and sang-froid. I soon learned that it
+was dangerous to listen to the communications that were made to me,
+which might lead me to the commission of injustice, as had already
+happened under the following circumstances.
+
+Two Indians came one day to lodge a complaint against one of their
+comrades, living at some leagues' distance from Jala-Jala. These
+informers accused him of having stolen cattle. After I had heard all
+they had to say, I set off with my guard to seize upon the accused, and
+brought him to my residence. There I endeavoured to make him confess
+his crime, but he denied it, and said he was innocent. It was in vain
+I promised him if he would tell the truth to grant him his pardon, for
+he persisted even in the presence of his accusers. Persuaded, however,
+that he was telling me falsehoods, and disgusted with his obstinacy
+in denying a fact which had been sworn to me, with every appearance
+of sincerity, I ordered him to be tied upon a bench, and receive a
+dozen strokes of a whip. My orders were executed; but the culprit
+denied the charge, as he had done before. This dogged perseverance
+irritated me, and I caused another correction to be administered to him
+the same as the first. The unfortunate man bore his punishment with
+unshaken courage: but in the midst of his sufferings he exclaimed,
+in penetrating accents: "Oh! sir, I swear to you that I am innocent;
+but, as you will not believe me, take me into your house. I will be a
+faithful servant, and you will soon have proofs that I am the victim of
+an infamous calumny." These words affected me. I reflected that this
+unfortunate man was, perhaps, not guilty after all. I began to fear I
+had been deceived, and had unknowingly committed an act of injustice. I
+felt that private enmity might have led these two witnesses to make
+a false declaration, and thus induce me to punish an innocent man. I
+ordered him to be untied. "The proof you demand," I said to him, "is
+easily tried. If you are an honest man, I shall be a father to you;
+but if you deceive me, do not expect any pity from me. From this moment
+you shall be one of my guard; my lieutenant will provide you with
+arms." He thanked me earnestly, and his countenance lit up with sudden
+joy. He was installed in my guard. Oh! human justice! how fragile,
+and how often unintelligible art thou! Some time after this event,
+I learnt that Bazilio de la Cruz--this was the name of the man--was
+innocent. The two wretches who had denounced him had fled, to avoid
+the chastisement they merited. Bazilio kept his promise, and during my
+residence at Jala-Jala he served me faithfully and without malice or
+ill-will. This fact made a lively impression on me; and I vowed that
+for the future I would inflict no punishment without being sure of
+the truth of the charge alleged. I have religiously kept this vow--at
+least I think so; for I have never since ordered a single application
+of the whip until after the culprit had confessed his crime.
+
+I have before said that I had expressed a wish to have a church
+built in my village, not only from a religious feeling, but as a
+means of civilisation: I was particularly desirous of having a curate
+at Jala-Jala. With this view I requested Monseigneur Hilarion, the
+archbishop, whose physician I had been, and with whom I was on terms of
+friendship, to send me a clergyman of my acquaintance, and who was at
+that time unemployed. I had, however, much difficulty in obtaining this
+nomination. "Father Miguel de San-Francisco," the archbishop replied,
+"is a violent man, and very headstrong: you will never be able to live
+with him." I persisted, however; and as perseverance always produces
+some result, I at length succeeded in having him appointed curate
+at Jala-Jala. Father Miguel was of Japanese and Malay descent. He
+was young, strong, brave, and very capable of assisting me in the
+difficult circumstances that might occur; as, for example, if it were
+necessary to defend ourselves against banditti. Indeed I must say that,
+in spite of the anticipations, and I may add the prejudices, of my
+honourable friend the archbishop, I kept him with me during the whole
+time of my abode at Jala-Jala, and never had the slightest difference
+with him. I can only reproach him with one thing to be regretted,
+which is that he did not preach sufficiently to his flock. He gave
+them only one sermon annually, and then his discourse was always the
+same, and divided into two parts: the first was in Spanish, for our
+edification, and the second in Tagaloc, for the Indians. Ah! how many
+men have I since met with who might well imitate the worthy curate
+of Jala-Jala! To the observations I sometimes made he would reply:
+"Let me follow my own course, and fear nothing. So many words are not
+necessary to make a good Christian." Perhaps he was right. Since my
+departure from the place the good priest is dead, bearing with him
+to the tomb the regret of all his parishioners.
+
+As may be seen, I was at the beginning of my labour of
+civilisation. Anna assisted me with all her heart, and with all her
+intelligence, and no fatigue disheartened her. She taught the young
+girls to love that virtue which she practised so well herself. She
+furnished them with clothes, for at this period the young girls from
+ten to twelve years of age were still as naked as savages. Father
+Miguel de San Francisco was charged with the mission more especially
+belonging to his sacred character. The more readily to disseminate
+through the colony that instruction which is the beneficent parent of
+civilisation, the young people were divided into squads of four at a
+time, and went by turns to pass a fortnight at the parsonage. There
+they learned a little Spanish, and were moulded to the customs of
+a world which had been hitherto unknown to them. I superintended
+everything in general. I occupied myself in works of agriculture,
+and giving proper instruction to the shepherds who kept the flocks I
+had purchased to make use of my pasturage. I was also the mediator of
+all the differences which arose amongst my colonists. They preferred
+rather to apply to me than to the deputy-governor; and I succeeded
+at last in obtaining over them the influence I desired. One portion
+of my time, and this was not the least busy, was occupied in driving
+the banditti from my residence and its vicinity. Sometimes I set
+off for this purpose before daybreak and did not return until night;
+and then I always found my wife good, affectionate, and devoted to
+me: her reception repaid me for the labours of the day. Oh, felicity
+almost perfect! I have never forgotten you! Happy period! which has
+left indelible traces in my memory, you are always present to my
+thoughts! I have grown old, but my heart has ever continued young in
+recollecting you.
+
+In our long chit-chat of an evening we recounted to each other the
+labours of the day, and everything that occurred to us. This was
+the season of sweet mutual confidence. Hours too soon vanished,
+alas! Fugitive moments, you will never return! It was also the time
+when I gave audience; real bed of justice, imitated from St. Louis,
+and thrown open to my subjects. The door of my mansion admitted all
+the Indians who had anything to communicate to me. Seated with my
+wife at a great round table, I listened, as I took my tea, to all the
+requests that were made to me, all the claims that were laid before
+me. It was during these audiences that I issued my sentences. My guards
+brought the culprits before me, and, without departing from my ordinary
+calmness, I admonished them for the faults they had committed; but I
+always recollected the error I bad committed in my sentence against
+poor Bazilio, and I was, therefore, very circumspect. I first listened
+to the witnesses; but I never condemned until I heard the culprit say:
+
+"What would you have, sir? It was my destiny. I could not prevent
+myself from doing what I did."
+
+"Every fault merits chastisement," I would reply; "but choose between
+the deputy-governor and me--by which do you wish to be chastised?"
+
+The reply was always the same.
+
+"Kill me, if you will, master; but do not give me up to my own
+countrymen."
+
+I awarded the punishment, and it was inflicted by my guards. When this
+was over, I presented the Indian with a cigar, as a token of pardon,
+I uttered a few kind words to him to induce him not to commit any fresh
+faults, and he went away without hearing any malice to his judge. I
+had, perhaps, been severe, but I had been just; that was enough. The
+order and discipline I had established were a great support for me
+in the minds of the Indians; they gave me a positive influence over
+them. My calmness, my firmness, and my justice--those three great
+qualities without which no government is possible--easily satisfied
+these natures, still untrained and unsophisticated. But one thing,
+however, disquieted them. Was I brave? This is what they were ignorant
+of, and frequently asked of one another. They spurned the idea of being
+commanded by a man who might not be intrepid in the face of danger. I
+had indeed made several expeditions against banditti, but they had
+produced no result, and would not serve as proofs of my bravery
+in the eyes of the Indians. I very well knew that they would form
+their definite opinion upon me from my conduct in the first perilous
+extremity we should encounter together. I was therefore determined
+to undertake anything, that I might show myself at least equal to
+the best and bravest of all my Indians: everything was comprised in
+that. I felt the imperious necessity of showing myself not only equal
+but superior in the struggle, by preserving my self-possession.
+
+An opportunity at length offered.
+
+The Indians look upon buffalo hunting as the most dangerous of all
+their wild sports, and my guards often said they would rather stand
+naked at twenty paces from the muzzle of a carbine than at the same
+distance from a wild buffalo. The difference they said is this, that
+the ball of a carbine may only wound, but the horn of a buffalo is
+sure to kill. I took advantage of the terror they had of this animal,
+and one day declared, with the utmost possible coolness, my intention
+to hunt one. They then made use of all their eloquence to turn me from
+my project; they gave me a very picturesque, but a very discouraging
+description of the dangers and difficulties I should have to encounter,
+especially as I was not accustomed to that sort of warfare,--and such
+a combat is, in fact, a struggle for life or death. But I would listen
+to nothing. I had spoken the word: I would not discuss the point,
+and I looked upon all their counsels as null and void. My decision
+was right; for these kind counsels, these frightful pictures of the
+dangers I was about to incur, had no other object than to entrap
+me; they had concerted amongst themselves to judge of my courage by
+my acceptance or refusal of the combat. My only answer was to give
+orders for the hunt. I took great care that my wife should not be
+informed of our excursion, and I set off, accompanied by half a score
+Indians, nearly all of whom were armed with muskets. Buffalo hunting
+is different in the mountains from what it is in the plains. On the
+plain one only requires a good horse, with address and agility in
+throwing the lasso; but in the mountains it requires something more:
+and, above all, the most extraordinary coolness and self-possession
+are essentially necessary.
+
+This is the way in which it is done: the hunter takes a gun on which
+he can depend, and places himself in such a position that the buffalo
+must see him on issuing from the wood. The moment the animal sees
+him, he rushes on him with the utmost velocity, breaking, rending,
+and trampling under foot every obstacle to the fury of his charge;
+he rushes on as if about to crush the enemy, then stops within some
+paces for a few seconds, and presents his sharp and threatening
+horns. This is the moment that the hunter should fire, and lodge his
+ball in the forehead of the foe. If unfortunately his gun misses fire,
+or if his coolness fails him, if his hand trembles, or his aim is bad,
+he is lost--Providence alone can save him! This was, perhaps, the
+fate that awaited me; but I was resolved to tempt this cruel proof,
+and I went forward with intrepidity--perhaps to death. We at length
+arrived on the skirts of an extensive wood, in which we felt assured
+there were buffaloes, and here we halted. I was sure of my gun,
+and I conceived I was equally so of my self-possession; I therefore
+determined that the hunt should be conducted as if I had been a simple
+Indian. I placed myself at the spot where it was fully expected that
+the animal would come out, and I forbade anyone to remain near me. I
+ordered everyone to his proper place, and I then stood alone on the
+open ground, about two hundred paces from the borders of the forest,
+to await an enemy that would show me no mercy if I missed him. It is,
+I confess, a solemn moment, when one stands between life and death by
+the more or less certainty of a gun, or the greater or less steadiness
+of the arm that holds it. I was, however, perfectly tranquil. When
+all were at their posts two hunters entered the forest, having
+first thrown off some of their clothing, the more readily to climb
+up trees in case of danger: they had no other arms than a cutlass,
+and were accompanied by the dogs. A dead silence continued for
+upwards of half-an-hour; everyone listening for the slightest noise,
+but nothing was heard. The buffalo continues a long time frequently
+without betraying his lair; but at the end of the half-hour we heard
+the repeated barking of the dogs, and the shouts of the hunters:
+the animal was aroused from his cover. He defended himself for some
+time against the dogs, till at length, becoming furious, he sprang
+forward with a bound towards the skirts of the forest. In a few minutes
+after, I heard the crashing of the branches and the young trees that
+the buffalo rent asunder in the terrible velocity of his course. His
+advance could only be compared to the galloping of several horses--to
+the rushing noise of some frightful monster--or, I might almost say,
+of some furious and diabolical being. Down he came like an avalanche;
+and at this moment, I confess, I experienced such lively emotions that
+my heart beat with extraordinary rapidity. Was it not death--aye,
+and frightful death--that was perhaps approaching me? Suddenly the
+buffalo made his appearance. He stopped for an instant; gazed, as if
+frightened, around him; sniffed up the air of the plain which extended
+in the distance; then, with distended nostrils, head bent, and horns
+projected, he rushed towards me, terrible and furious. The moment was
+come. If I had longed for an opportunity of showing off my courage
+and sang-froid to the Indians, these two precious qualities were now
+put to a severe test. There I was, face to face with the peril I had
+courted; the dilemma was one of the most decided and unavoidable that
+could possibly be: conqueror or conquered, there must be a victim--the
+buffalo or me, and we were both equally disposed to defend ourselves.
+
+It would be difficult for me to state exactly what was passing in my
+mind, during the brief period which the buffalo took in clearing the
+distance that lay between us. My heart, so vividly agitated while the
+ferocious animal was rushing through the forest, now beat no longer. My
+eyes were fixed upon him, my gaze was rivetted on his forehead in such
+a manner that I could see nothing else. My mind was concentrated on
+one object alone, in which I was so absorbed, that I could actually
+hear nothing, though the dogs were still barking at a short distance,
+as they followed their prey. At length, the buffalo lowered his head,
+presented his sharp-pointed horns, stopped for a moment, then, with
+a sudden plunge, he rushed upon me, and I fired. My ball pierced his
+skull, and I was half saved. The animal fell within a pace of me, like
+a mass of rock, so loud, and so heavy. I planted my foot between his
+two horns, and was preparing to fire my second barrel, when a long and
+hollow bellowing indicated that my victory was complete--the monster
+had breathed his last sigh. My Indians then came up. Their joy was
+succeeded by admiration; they were in ecstasy; I was everything they
+could wish for. All their doubts had vanished with the smoke of my
+rifle, when, with steady aim, I had shot the buffalo. I was brave;
+I had won their confidence; I had stood the test. My victim was cut
+up in pieces, and borne in triumph to the village. As the victor,
+I took his horns; they were six feet long. I have since deposited
+them in the museum of Nantes. The Indians, those imaginative beings,
+called me thenceforward, "Malamit Oulou," Tagal words, which signify
+"cool head."
+
+I must confess, without vanity, that the proof to which my Indians had
+subjected me was sufficiently serious to give them a decided opinion
+of my courage, and to satisfy them that a Frenchman was as brave as
+themselves. The habit I subsequently acquired of hunting convinced
+me that but little danger is really incurred when the weapon is a
+good one, and the self-possession does not fail. Once every month I
+indulged in this exercise, which imparts such lively sensations; and
+I recognised the facility with which one may lodge a ball in a plain
+surface, a few inches in diameter, and at a few paces distance. But
+it is no less true that our first huntings were very dangerous. Once
+only I permitted a Spaniard named Ocampo to accompany us. I had taken
+the precaution to station two Indians at his side; but when I quitted
+them to take up my own post, he imprudently sent them away, and soon
+after, the buffalo started from the wood, and rushed upon him. He
+fired both his barrels, and missed the animal; we heard the reports
+and ran towards him, but it was too late! Ocampo was no longer in
+existence. The buffalo had gored him through and through, and his body
+was ploughed up with frightful wounds. But no such accident ever took
+place again; for when strangers came to witness our buffalo hunts,
+I made them get up in a tree, or on the crest of a mountain, where
+they might remain as spectators of the combat, without taking any
+part in it, or being exposed to any danger.
+
+And now that I have described buffalo hunting in the mountains,
+I must return to my colonising labours.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+    Description of my House at Jala-Jala--Storms, Gales, and
+    Earthquakes--Reforming the Banditti--Card-playing--Tagal
+    Cock-fighting--Skirmishes with Robbers--Courage of my Wife--Our
+    Domestic Happiness--Visits from Europeans--Their Astonishment at
+    our Civilisation--Visit to a Sick Friend at Manilla--Tour through
+    the Provinces of the Ilocos and Pangasinan Indians--My Reception
+    by the Tinguians--Their Appearance and Habits--Manners and
+    Customs--Indian Fête at Laganguilan y Madalag--Horrible Ceremonies
+    to Celebrate a Victory--Songs and Dances--Our Night-watch--We
+    Explore our Cabin--Discovery of a Secret Well--Tomb of the
+    Tinguian Indians.
+
+
+As I have previously said, my house possessed every comfort that
+could possibly be desired. It was built of hewn stone, so that in
+case of an attack it could serve as a small fortress. The front
+overlooked the lake, which bathed with its clear and limpid waters
+the verdant shore within a hundred steps from my dwelling; the back
+part looked upon woods and hills, where the vegetation was rich and
+plentiful. From our windows we could gaze upon those grand majestic
+scenes which a beautiful tropical sky so frequently affords. At
+times, on a dark night, the summits of the hills suddenly shone
+with a weak faint light, which increased by degrees; then the bright
+moon gradually appeared, and illuminated the tops of the mountains,
+as large beacon-fires would have done; then again, calm, peaceful,
+and serene, she reflected her soft poetic light over the bosom of
+the lake, as tranquil and unruffled as herself. It was indeed an
+imposing sight. Towards evening, Nature at times showed herself
+in all her commanding splendour, infusing a secret terror into the
+very soul. Everything bore evidence of the sacred influence of the
+Divine Creator. At a short distance from our house we could perceive
+a mountain, the base of which was in the lake and the summit in the
+clouds. This mountain served as a lightning conductor to Jala-Jala:
+it attracted the thunder. Frequently heavy black clouds, charged with
+electricity, gathered over this elevated point, looking like other
+mountains trying to overturn it; then a storm began, the thunder roared
+tremendously, the rain fell in torrents; every minute frightful claps
+were heard, and the total darkness was scarcely broken by the lightning
+that flashed in long streams of fire, dashing from the top and sides
+of the mountain enormous blocks of rock, that were hurled into the
+lake with a fearful crash. It was an admirable exemplification of the
+power of the Almighty! Soon the calm was restored, the rain ceased,
+the clouds disappeared, the fragrant air bore on its yet damp wings
+the perfume of the flowers and aromatic plants, and Nature resumed
+her ordinary stillness. Hereafter I shall have occasion to speak
+of other events that happened at certain periods, and were still
+more alarming, for they lasted twelve hours. These were gales of
+wind, called in the Chinese seas Tay-Foung. At several periods of
+the year, particularly at the moment of the change of the monsoon,
+[3] we beheld still more terrifying phenomena than our storms--I
+allude to the earthquakes. These fearful convulsions of nature
+present a very different aspect in the country from what they do in
+cities. If in towns the earth begins to quake, everywhere we hear a
+terrible noise; the edifices give way, and are ready to fall down;
+the inhabitants rush out of their houses, run along the streets, which
+they encumber, and try to escape. The screams of frightened children
+and women bathed in tears are blended with those of the distracted
+men; all are on their knees, with clasped hands, their looks raised to
+Heaven, imploring its mercy with sobbing voices. Everything totters,
+is agitated; all dread death, and terror becomes general. In the
+country it is totally different, and a hundred times more imposing and
+terrific. For instance, in Jala-Jala, at the approach of one of these
+phenomena, a profound, even mournful stillness pervades nature. The
+wind no longer blows; not a breeze nor even a gentle zephyr is
+perceptible. The sun, though cloudless, darkens, and spreads around
+a sepulchral light. The atmosphere is burdened with heavy and sultry
+vapours. The earth is in labour. The frightened animals quietly seek
+shelter from the catastrophe they foresee. The ground shakes; soon it
+trembles under their feet. The trees move, the mountains quake upon
+their foundations, and their summits appear ready to tumble down. The
+waters of the lake quit their bed, and inundate the country. Still
+louder roaring than that produced by the thunder is heard: the earth
+quivers; everywhere its motion is simultaneously felt. But after this
+the convulsion ceases, everything revives. The mountains are again firm
+upon their foundations, and become motionless; the waters of the lake
+return by degrees to their proper reservoir; the heavens are purified
+and resume their brilliant light, and the soft breeze fans the air;
+the wild buffaloes again scour the plain, and other animals quit the
+dens in which they had concealed themselves; the earth has resumed
+her stillness, and nature recovered her accustomed imposing calm.
+
+I have not sought to enter upon those minute descriptions, too tedious
+generally for the reader; I only wished to give an idea of the various
+panoramas that were unfolded to our eyes whilst at Jala-Jala.
+
+I now return to the details of my ordinary life.
+
+As I had killed a wild buffalo when hunting, I had given sufficient
+proofs of my skill, and my Indians were devoted to me, because they
+had confidence in me. Nothing more now pre-occupied me, and I spent
+my time in superintending some necessary alterations. Shortly the
+woods and forests adjoining my domain were cut down, and replaced by
+extensive fields of indigo and rice. I stocked the hills with horned
+cattle, and a fine troop of horses with delicate limbs and haughty
+mien; I also succeeded in dispersing the banditti from Jala-Jala. I
+must say a great many of them abandoned their wandering sinful lives;
+I received them on my land, and made good husbandmen of them. How
+was it that I had collected such a number of recruits? In a strange
+manner, I will admit, and worthy of relating, as it will show how
+an Indian allows himself to be influenced and guided, when he has
+confidence in a man whom he looks upon as his superior. I frequently
+walked in the forests alone, with my gun under my arm. Suddenly a
+bandit would spring out, as if by enchantment, from behind a tree,
+armed from top to toe, and advance towards me.
+
+"Master," said he to me, putting one knee to the ground, "I will be
+an honest man; take me under your protection!"
+
+I asked him his name; if he had been marked out by the high court of
+justice, I would answer him severely:
+
+"Withdraw, and never present yourself again before me; I cannot
+forgive you, and if I meet you again, I must do my duty."
+
+If he was unknown to me, I would kindly say to him:
+
+"Follow me."
+
+I would take him home, and then tell him to lay down his arms; and
+after having preached to him, and exhorted him to persist in his
+resolution, I would point out to him the spot in the village where
+he might build his cabin, and, in order to encourage him, I would
+advance him some money to support himself until he became transformed
+from a bandit into an agriculturist. I congratulated myself each
+day on having left an open door to repentance, since by my cares I
+restored to an honest and laborious life, people who had gone astray
+and been perverted. I endeavoured also to persuade the Indians to
+abandon their vicious wild customs, without being too severe towards
+them; to obtain much from them I knew it was necessary to give way a
+little. The Indians are passionately fond of cards and cock-fighting,
+as I have said before; therefore, in order not to debar them entirely
+from these pleasures, I allowed them to play at cards three times a
+year--the day of the village festival, upon my wife's birthday, and
+upon my own. Woe to the one who was caught playing out of the times
+prescribed above; he was severely punished. As to the cock-fights,
+I allowed them on Sundays and holidays, after Divine service. For
+this purpose I had public arenas built. In these arenas, in presence
+of two judges, whose decrees were without appeal, the spectators
+laid heavy wagers. There is nothing more curious than to witness a
+cock-fight. The two proud animals, purposely chosen and trained for
+the day of the contest, come upon the battle-field armed with long,
+sharp, steel spurs. They bear themselves erect; their deportment
+is bold and warlike; they raise their heads, and beat their sides
+with their wings, the feathers of which spread in the form of
+the proud peacock's fan. They pace the arena haughtily, raising
+their armed legs cautiously, and darting angry looks at each other,
+like two old warriors in armour ready to fight before the eyes of an
+assembled court. Their impatience is violent, their courage impetuous;
+shortly the two adversaries fall upon and attack each other with equal
+fury; the sharp weapons they wear inflict dreadful wounds, but these
+intrepid combatants appear not to feel the cruel effects. Blood flows;
+the champions only appear the more animated. The one that is getting
+weak raises his courage at the idea of victory; if he draw back, it is
+only to recruit his strength, to rush with more ardour than ever upon
+the enemy he wishes to subdue. At length when their fate is decided,
+when one of the heroes, covered with blood and wounds, falls a victim,
+or runs away, he is declared vanquished, and the battle is ended.
+
+The Indians assist with a sort of ferocious joy at this
+amusement. Their attention is so captivated by it that they do not
+utter a word, but follow with particular care the most minute details
+of the conflict. Almost all of them train up a cock, and treat him
+for several years with comical tenderness, when one reflects that
+this animal, taken as much care of as a child, is destined by its
+master to perish the first day it fights. I also found that it was
+necessary to provide some amusement compatible with the tastes,
+manners, and habits of my former bandits, who had led for so long
+a space of time such a wandering vagabond life. For this purpose I
+allowed hunting on all parts of my estate, conditionally, however,
+that I should take beforehand, as tithe, a quarter of any stag or wild
+boar they should kill. I do not think that ever a sportsman--one of
+those men reclaimed from the paths of vice to those of virtue--failed
+in this engagement, or endeavoured to steal any game. I have often
+received seven or eight haunches of venison in a day, and those who
+brought them were delighted to be able to offer them to me.
+
+The church I had laid the foundation of was progressing rapidly;
+the population of the township was daily increasing: and everything
+succeeded according to my wishes. I had still occasional difficulties
+with the hardened robbers who surrounded me; but I pursued them
+without intermission, for it was to my interest to remove them from the
+neighbourhood of my residence. Frequently they annoyed me by the alarms
+that they gave us. These resolute, determined men arrived in gangs to
+besiege our house. My guards surrounded me, and we occasionally fought
+skirmishes, which always terminated in our favour. Providence has
+unfathomable secrets. I was never struck by a ball from a bandit. I
+bear the scars of seventeen wounds; but these wounds were made with
+naked blades. It could be said of me, as in I know not which Scotch
+ballad: "Did not the Devil's soldiers pass through the balls, instead
+of the balls passing through them." Yet I have often been fired at;
+sometimes the barrel of a gun has been pointed at my chest, and that
+at a few paces from me. My clothes have been torn by the bullet,
+but my body has always escaped harm.
+
+One morning I was cautioned to put myself on my guard, because some
+banditti had met together at a few leagues from my house, and intended
+attacking it. Hearing this, I armed my people, and set out to meet
+the band that was coming to assail me, so as to anticipate their
+attack. At the place that had been indicated to me I found nobody,
+and passed the day in exploring the neighbourhood, in hopes of meeting
+the bandits, but my search was useless. Suddenly the thought struck me
+that a secret enemy had imposed upon me, and that, at the moment I was
+going to face imaginary danger, perhaps my house I had left would be
+suddenly attacked. I trembled--I shivered all over. I gallopped off,
+and reached home in the middle of the night. My fears were but too
+well-founded. I had fallen into a snare. I found my servants armed,
+watching, with my wife at their head. "What are you doing here?" I
+exclaimed, going up to her. "I am keeping watch," she replied, with
+great presence of mind; "I was told that the advice given to you
+was false; that you would not find the robbers where you expected,
+and that, during your absence, they would come here." This act of
+heroism proved to me what courage and energy God had given to a woman
+apparently so delicate. The banditti did not attack us: was there
+not some guardian angel watching over my dwelling?
+
+We were more than a year at Jala-Jala without seeing a European. One
+would have thought that we had withdrawn ourselves entirely from the
+civilised world, and that we were going to live for ever with the
+Indians. Our mountains had so bad a reputation, that nobody dared
+expose themselves to the thousand dangers they feared to encounter in
+the locality. We were therefore alone, yet still very happy. It was,
+perhaps, the most pleasant time I spent in my life. I was living with a
+beloved and loving wife; the good work I had undertaken was performed
+under my eyes; the comfort and happiness, the natural results of
+such good work, spread themselves among my vassals, who daily became
+more and more devoted to me. How could I have regretted quitting
+the pleasures and entertainments of a town, where those diversions
+and pleasures are bought by lies, hypocrisy, and deceit--those three
+vices of civilised society? However, the terror spread around by the
+banditti was not great enough to keep away the Europeans entirely;
+and one morning some people, [4] mad enough to dare to visit a mad
+man--such was the name given to me at Manilla, when I left to go and
+live in the country--came to see me, armed to their very teeth. The
+surprise of these venturesome visitors is impossible to be described,
+when they found us at Jala-Jala, calm, and in perfect safety. Their
+astonishment increased when they went entirely through our colony; and
+on their return to town they gave such an account of our retreat, and
+of the entertainments they found there, that shortly after we received
+more visits, and I had not only to give hospitality to friends, but
+likewise to strangers. If, now and then, our affairs compelled us to
+go to Manilla, we very soon came back to our mountains and forests,
+for there only Anna and myself were happy. Very great reasons alone
+could induce us to leave our pleasant abode; however, a slight event
+occurred that obliged us to quit it for a short time. I was informed
+that one of my friends, who had acted as witness to my marriage,
+was seriously ill. [5] What the greatest pleasure, the most heartfelt
+joy, the most splendid banquet, could not obtain from me, friendship
+exacted. At this sad intelligence I determined at once upon going to
+Manilla, to give my advice to the sick man, whose family had solicited
+my aid; and as my absence might be prolonged, I packed up my things,
+and we left, our hearts sadder than ever at having to quit Jala-Jala
+on so melancholy an errand. Upon my arrival there, I was told that
+my friend had been taken from Manilla to Boulacan, a province to the
+north of that town, where it was hoped the country air would hasten
+his recovery. I left Anna at her sister's, and went off to join Don
+Simon, whom I found convalescent; my presence was almost useless,
+and the journey I had made resulted in shaking affectionately my
+former comrade by the hand, whom I would not leave until convinced
+that he was entirely recovered.
+
+In order to utilise my time, I decided upon making a tour to the north
+into the provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan. I had my reasons for so
+doing: I wished, if possible, to make an excursion to the Tinguians
+and Igorrots, wild populations, who were much talked of, but little
+known. I wished to study them myself. I took the precaution not to
+confide this idea to anybody, for then, indeed, people would not
+have known what name to give my folly. I made my preparations, and
+set out with my faithful lieutenant, Alila, who never left me, and
+who was justly styled Mabouti-Tao. We were mounted upon good horses,
+that carried us along like gazelles to Vigan, the chief town of the
+province of South Ilocos, where we left the animals. From there we
+took a guide, who conducted us on foot to the east, close to a small
+river called Abra (opening). This river is the only issue by which
+we could penetrate to the Tinguians. It winds around high mountains
+of basalt; its sides are steep; its bed is encumbered with immense
+blocks of rock, fallen from the sides of the mountains, which render
+it impossible to walk along its banks. To reach the Tinguians, it
+is necessary to have recourse to a slight skiff, that can easily
+pass through the current and the most shallow parts. My guide and
+my lieutenant soon contrived to make a small raft of bamboos; when
+it was finished we embarked, Alila and myself, our guide refusing
+to accompany us. After much trouble and fatigue, casting ourselves
+often into the water to draw our raft along, we at length got clear
+of the first range of mountains, and perceived, in a small plain,
+the first Tinguian village. When we reached there we got out, and
+went towards the huts we had distinguished in the distance. I allow
+it was acting rather foolishly to go and thus expose ourselves,
+in the midst of a colony of ferocious and cruel men whose language
+we did not know; but I relied upon my usual good fortune. I will add
+that I had taken divers objects with me to give as presents, trusting
+to meet some inhabitant speaking the Tagaloc language. I walked on,
+then, without troubling myself about what would become of us. In a
+few minutes we reached the nearest cabins, and the inhabitants gave
+us at first an unwelcome reception. Frightened at seeing us approach,
+they advanced towards us, armed with hatchets and spears; we waited
+for them without recoiling in the least. I spoke to them by signs,
+and showed them some necklaces of glass beads, to make them understand
+we were friendly disposed. They deliberated among themselves, and when
+they had held their consultation, they beckoned us to follow them. We
+obeyed. They led us to their chief, who was an old man. My generosity
+was greater towards him than it had been to his subjects. He appeared
+so delighted with my presents, that he immediately put us at our ease,
+by making us understand that we had nothing to fear, and that he took
+us under his special protection.
+
+This pleasing reception encouraged us.
+
+I then set about examining with attention the men, women, and children
+who surrounded us, and who seemed as much astonished as ourselves. My
+amazement was very great when I beheld tall men, slightly bronzed,
+with straight hair, regular features, aquiline noses, and really
+handsome, elegant women. Was I really among savages? I should rather
+have thought I was among the inhabitants of the south of France,
+had it not been for the costume and language. The only clothing the
+men wore was a sash, and a sort of a turban, made out of the bark of
+the fig tree. They were armed, as they always are, with a long spear,
+a small hatchet, and a shield. The women also wore a sash, and a small
+narrow apron that came down to their knees. Their heads were ornamented
+with pearls, coral beads, and pieces of gold, twisted among their hair;
+the upper parts of their hands were painted blue; their wrists adorned
+with interwoven bracelets, spangled with glass beads--these bracelets
+reached the elbow, and formed a kind of half-plaited sleeve. On this
+subject I learnt a remarkable fact. These interwoven bracelets squeeze
+the arm very much; they are put on when the women are quite young,
+and they prevent the development of the flesh to the advantage of the
+wrist and hand, which swell and become dreadfully big; this is a mark
+of beauty with the Tinguians, as a small foot is with the Chinese,
+and a small waist with the European ladies. I was quite astonished
+to find myself in the midst of this population, where there was no
+reason whatsoever to be alarmed. One thing only annoyed me; it was
+the odour that these people spread around them, which could be smelt
+even at a distance. However, the men and women are cleanly, for they
+are in the habit of bathing twice daily. I attributed the disagreeable
+smell to their sash and turban, which they never leave off, but allow
+to fall into rags. I remarked that the reception given me by the
+chief gained us the good-will of all the inhabitants, and I accepted,
+without hesitation, the hospitality proffered us. This was the only
+means of studying well the manners and customs of my new hosts.
+
+The territory occupied by the Tinguians is situated about 17 degrees
+north latitude, and 27 degrees west longitude; it is divided into
+seventeen villages. Each family possesses two habitations, one for
+the day and the other for the night. The abode for the day is a
+small cabin, made of bamboos and straw, in the same style as most
+Indian huts; the one for the night is smaller, and perched upon great
+posts, or on the top of a tree, about sixty or eighty feet above the
+ground. This height surprised me, but I understood this precaution
+when I knew that thus, under shelter at night, the Tinguians are saved
+from the nocturnal attacks of the Guinanès, their mortal enemies,
+and defend themselves with the stones which they throw from the tops
+of the trees. [6] In the middle of each village there is a large shed,
+in which are held the assemblies, festivities, and public ceremonies. I
+had been already two days in the village of Palan (this was the name
+of the place where I stopped at), when the chiefs received a message
+from the small town of Laganguilan y Madalag, that lies far off to the
+east. By this message the chiefs were informed that the inhabitants of
+this district had fought a battle, and that they had been victorious.
+
+The inhabitants of Palan hearing this news screamed with joy; it
+was quite a tumult when they heard that a fête would be given in
+commemoration of the success at Laganguilan y Madalag. All wished
+to be present--men, women, children; all desired to go to it. But
+the chiefs chose a certain number of warriors, some women, and a
+great many young girls: they made their preparations and set out. It
+was too favourable an opportunity for me not to avail myself of it,
+and I earnestly begged my hosts to allow me to accompany them. They
+consented, and the same night we set out on our journey, being in all
+thirty in number. The men wore their arms, which are composed of a
+hatchet, that they call aligua, a sharp-pointed spear of bamboo, and a
+shield; the women were muffled up in their finest ornaments. I remarked
+that these garments were cotton materials, of showy colours. We walked
+one behind another, according to the custom of the savages. We went
+through many villages, the inhabitants of which were also going to
+the fête; we crossed over mountains, forests, torrents, and at last,
+at break of day, we reached Laganguilan y Madalag. This small town was
+the scene of much rejoicing. On all sides the sound of the gong and
+tom-tom were heard. The first of these instruments is of a Chinese
+shape; the second is in the form of a sharp cone, covered over at
+the bottom with a deer's skin.
+
+Towards eleven o'clock, the chiefs of the town, followed by all the
+population, directed their steps towards the large shed. There everyone
+took his place on the ground, each party, headed by its chiefs,
+occupying a place marked out for it beforehand. In the middle of a
+circle formed by the chiefs of the warriors were large vessels, full
+of basi, a beverage made with the fermented juice of the sugar-cane;
+and four hideous heads of Guinans entirely disfigured--these were
+the trophies of the victory. When all the assistants had taken their
+places, a champion of Laganguilan y Madalag took one of the heads
+and presented it to the chiefs of the town, who showed it to all the
+assistants, making a long speech comprehending many praises for the
+conquerors. This discourse being over, the warrior took up the head,
+divided it with strokes of his hatchet, and took out the brains. During
+this operation, so unpleasant to witness, another champion got a second
+head, and handed it to the chiefs, the same speech was delivered,
+then he broke the skull to pieces in like manner, and took out the
+brains. The same was done with the four bleeding skulls of the subdued
+enemies. When the brains were taken out, the young girls pounded them
+with their hands into the vases containing the liquor of the fermented
+sugar-cane; they stirred the mixture round, and then the vases were
+taken to the chiefs, who dipped in their small osier goblets, through
+the fissures of which the liquid part ran out, and the solid part that
+remained at the bottom they drank with ecstatic sensuality. I felt
+quite sick at this scene, so entirely new to me. After the chieftains'
+turn came the turn of the champions. The vases were presented to them,
+and each one sipped with delight this frightful drink, to the noise
+of wild songs. There was really something infernal in this sacrifice
+to victory.
+
+We sat in a circle and these vases were carried round. I well
+understood that we were about undergoing a disgusting test. Alas! I
+had not long to wait for it. The warriors planted themselves before
+me, and presented me with the basi and the frightful cup. All eyes
+were fixed upon me. The invitation was so direct, to refuse it would
+perhaps be exposing myself to death! It is impossible to describe
+the interior conflict that passed within me. I would rather have
+preferred the carbine of a bandit five paces from my chest; or await,
+as I had already done, the impetuous attack of the wild buffalo. What a
+perplexity! I shall never forget that awful moment. It struck me with
+terror and disgust; however, I contained myself, nothing betraying my
+emotion. I imitated the savages, and, dipping the osier goblet into the
+drink, I approached it to my lips, and passed it to the unfortunate
+Alila, who could not avoid this infernal beverage. The sacrifice was
+complete; the libations were over, but not the songs. The basi is a
+very spirituous and inebriating liquor, and the assistants, who had
+partaken rather too freely of this horrible drink, sang louder to the
+noise of the tom-tom and the gong, while the champions divided the
+human skulls into small pieces destined to be sent as presents to all
+their friends. The distribution was made during the sitting, after
+which, the chiefs declared the ceremony over. They then danced. The
+savages divided themselves into two lines, and howling, as if they
+were furious madmen or terribly provoked, they jumped about, laying
+their right hand upon the shoulder of their partners, and changing
+places with them. These dances continued all day; at last night came
+on, each inhabitant retired with his family and some few guests to
+his aerial abode, and soon afterwards tranquillity was restored.
+
+We cannot help feeling astonished, when we are in Europe--in a
+good bed, under a warm eider-down coverlet, the head luxuriously
+reclining upon good pillows--when we reflect on the singular homes
+of the savages in the woods. How often have I represented to myself
+these families--roosting eighty feet above ground, upon the tops of
+trees. However, I know that they sleep as quietly in those retreats,
+open to every wind, as I in my well-closed and quiet room. Are they
+not like the birds who repose at their sides upon the branches? Have
+they not Nature for a mother, that admirable guardian of all she has
+made, and do they not also close their eyelids under the tutelary
+looks of the Supreme Father of the universe?
+
+My faithful Alila retired with me into one of the low-storied
+cabins to pass the night, as we had been in the habit of doing
+while staying with the Tinguians. For our better security we were
+accustomed to watch one another alternately; we never both slept at
+the same time. Without being timid, ought we not to be prudent? This
+night it was my turn to go to sleep the first. I went to bed, but the
+impressions of the day had been too strong: I felt no inclination to
+sleep. I therefore offered to relieve my lieutenant of his watch; the
+poor fellow was like myself--the heads of the Guinans kept dancing
+before his eyes. He beheld them pale, bloody, hideous; then torn,
+pounded, broken to pieces; then the shocking beverage of the brains,
+that he also so courageously swallowed, came back to his mind,
+and he suffered sufficiently to make him repent our visit. "Master,"
+said he to me, looking very much grieved, "why did we come among these
+devils? Ah! it would have been much better had we remained in our good
+country of Jala-Jala." He was not perhaps in the wrong, but my desire
+to see extraordinary things gave me a courage and a will he did not
+partake of. I answered him thus: "Man must know all, and see all it is
+possible to see. As we cannot sleep, and that we are masters here, let
+us make a night visit; perhaps we shall find things that are unknown
+to us. Light the fire and follow me, Alila." The poor lieutenant
+obeyed without answering a word. He rubbed two pieces of bamboo one
+against the other, and I heard him muttering between his teeth:
+
+"What cursed idea has the master now? What shall we see in
+this miserable cabin--with the exception of the Tic-balan, [7]
+or Assuan? [8] We shall find nothing else." During the Indian's
+reflections the fire burnt up. I lit, without saying a word, a cotton
+wick, plastered over with elemi gum, that I always carried with me in
+my travels, and I began exploring. I went all through the inside of
+the habitation without finding anything, not even the Tic-balan, or
+Assuan, as my lieutenant imagined. I was beginning to think my search
+fruitless, when the idea struck me to go down to the ground-floor of
+the cabin, for all the cabins are raised about eight or ten feet above
+ground, and the under part of the floor, closed with bamboos, is used
+as a store: I descended. Anyone who could have seen me--a white man,
+a European, the child of another hemisphere--wander by night, with a
+taper in my hand, about the hut of a Tinguian Indian, would have been
+really surprised at my audacity, and I may almost say, my obstinacy,
+in seeking out danger while pursuing the wonderful and unknown. But
+I went on, without reflecting on the strangeness of my conduct: as
+the Indians say: "I was following my destiny." When I had reached the
+ground, I perceived in the middle of a square, inclosed with bamboos,
+a sort of trap, and I stopped quite pleased. Alila looked at me with
+astonishment. I lifted up the trap, and saw a rather deep well;
+I looked into it with my light, but could not discover the bottom
+of it. Upon the sides only, at a depth of about six or seven yards,
+I thought I distinguished some openings that I took for entrances
+into sub terraneous galleries. What had I now discovered? Was I,
+like Gil Blas, about to penetrate into the midst of an assemblage of
+banditti, living in the internal parts of the earth; or should I find,
+as in the tales of the "Arabian Nights," some beautiful young girls,
+prisoners of some wicked magician? Indeed, my curiosity increased
+in proportion to my discoveries. "There is something strange here,"
+said I to my lieutenant; "light a second match, I will go down to the
+bottom of the well." Hearing this order, my faithful Alila shrunk back
+in dismay, and ventured to say to me, in a frightfully dismal tone:
+
+"Why, master, you are not content to see what is upon the earth,
+you must also see what is inside of it!"
+
+This simple observation made me smile. He continued: "You wish to
+leave me alone here; and if the souls of the Guinans whose brains I
+have just drank come to fetch me, what will become of me? You will
+not be here to defend me!"
+
+My lieutenant would not have been frightened at twenty banditti, he
+would have struggled against every one of them until death; but his
+legs trembled, his voice faltered, he was terrified at the idea of
+remaining alone in this cabin, exposed to the view of the spirit of
+a Guinan, which would come and ask him to restore his brains! Whilst
+he addressed me these complaints, I had leant my back against one
+side of the well, my knees were applied against the other, and down
+I went. I had already descended about four yards, when I felt some
+rubbish falling upon me. I raised my head, and saw Alila coming down
+too. The poor fellow would not remain alone. "Well done," said I to
+him, "you are becoming curious too; you will be rewarded, believe
+me, for we shall see fine sights." And I continued my under-ground
+research. After proceeding six or seven yards I reached the opening
+I had remarked from above, and stopped. I placed my light before me,
+and espied a corner, where sat the dried black corpse of a Tinguian in
+the same state as a mummy. I said nothing; I waited for my lieutenant,
+anxious as I was to enjoy his surprise. When he was aside of me: "Look,
+look," I exclaimed; "what is that?" He was stupified. "Master," said he
+at last, "I entreat of you to leave this place; let us get out of this
+cursed hole! Take me to fight against the Tinguians of the village--I
+am quite willing to do that--but do not remain among the dead! What
+should we do with our arms, if they suddenly appeared to ask us why
+we are here?" "Be quiet," I answered him; "we shall go no farther." I
+felt satisfied that this well was a tomb, and that lower down I should
+see some more Tinguians in a state of preservation. I respected the
+abode of the dead, and came up, to Alila'a great satisfaction. We
+put everything in its place, and returned to the upper story of the
+cabin. I soon fell asleep, but my lieutenant could not: the thoughts
+of the mummy and horrible beverage kept him awake.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+    Visit to Manabo--Conversation with my Guide--Religion of the
+    Tinguians--Their Marriage Ceremony--Funereal Rites--Mode
+    of Warfare--I take leave of the Tinguians--Journey to the
+    Igorrots--Description of them--Their Dwellings--A Fortunate
+    Escape--Alila and the Bandits--Recollections of Home--A Majestic
+    Fig-tree--Superstition of Alila--Interview with an Igorrot--The
+    Human Hand--Nocturnal Adventure--Consternation of Alila--Probable
+    Origin of the Tinguians and Igorrots.
+
+
+The following morning, before dawn, our hosts began to descend
+from their high regions, and we left our temporary abode, to
+make preparations for our departure. I had resided long enough at
+Laganguilan y Madalag; I was desirous of visiting Manabo, a large
+village, situated at a short distance from Laganguilan. I availed
+myself of the presence of the inhabitants of Manabo, who had come
+to assist at the Brain Feast--this was the appellation I had given
+to this savage fête--and I set out with them. Among the troop there
+was one who had spent some time among the Tagalocs; he spoke their
+language a little, and I knew it tolerably well. I profited by this
+fortunate occurrence, and during the whole of the way I conversed with
+this savage, and questioned him upon the habits, customs, and manners
+of his fellow-countrymen. One point particularly pre-occupied me. I
+was unacquainted with the religion of these people, so very curious to
+study. Until then I had seen no temple; nothing that bore resemblance
+to an idol; I knew not what God they worshipped. My guide, chatty for
+an Indian, gave me quickly every information necessary. He told me
+that the Tinguians have no veneration for the stars; they neither
+adore the sun, nor moon, nor the constellations; they believe in
+the existence of a soul, and pretend that after death it quits the
+body, and remains in the family. As to the god that they adore, it
+varies and changes form according to chance and circumstances. And
+here is the reason: When a Tinguian chief has found in the country
+a rock, or a trunk of a tree, of a strange shape--I mean to say,
+representing tolerably well either a dog, cow, or buffalo--he informs
+the inhabitants of the village of his discovery, and the rock, or
+trunk of a tree, is immediately considered as a divinity--that is to
+say, as something superior to man. Then all the Indians repair to the
+appointed spot, carrying with them provisions and live hogs. When
+they have reached their destination they raise a straw roof above
+the new idol, to cover it, and make a sacrifice by roasting hogs;
+then, at the sound of instruments, they eat, drink, and dance until
+they have no provisions left. When all is eaten and drank, they set
+fire to the thatched roof, and the idol is forgotten until the chief,
+having discovered another one, commands a new ceremony.
+
+With regard to the morals of the Tinguians, my guide informed me that
+the Tinguian has generally one legitimate wife, and many mistresses;
+but the legitimate wife alone inhabits the conjugal house, and the
+mistresses have each of them a separate cabin. The marriage is a
+contract between the two families of the married couple. The day
+of the ceremony, the man and wife bring their dowry in goods and
+chattels; the marriage portion is composed of china vases, glass,
+coral beads, and sometimes a little gold powder. It is of no profit to
+the married couple, for they distribute it to their relations. This
+custom, my guide observed to me, has been established to prevent a
+divorce, which could only take place in entirely restituting all
+the objects that were contributed at the marriage by the party
+asking for divorce--a rather skilful expedient for savages, and
+worthy of being the invention of civilised people. The relatives
+thus become much interested in preventing the separation, as they
+would be obliged to restitute the presents received; and, if one of
+the couple persisted in requesting it, they would prevent him or her
+by making away with one of the objects furnished, such as a coral
+necklace, or a china vase. Without this wise measure, it is to be
+supposed that a husband, with mistresses, would very often endeavour
+to obtain a divorce. My fellow-traveller enlightened me upon all the
+points that I wished to investigate. The government, said he to me,
+after resting himself for a few minutes, is very patriarchal. It is
+the oldest man who commands.--As at Lacedæmonia, thought I, for there
+old age was honoured.--The laws are perpetuated by tradition, as the
+Tinguians have no idea of writing. In some instances they apply the
+punishment of death. When the fatal sentence has been pronounced,
+the Tinguian who has merited it must escape, if he wishes to avoid
+it, and go and live in the forests; for, the old men having spoken,
+all the inhabitants are bound to perform their orders. Society is
+divided into two classes, as with the Tagalocs, the chiefs and the
+commonalty. Whoever possesses and can exhibit to the public a certain
+number of china vases is considered a chief. These jars constitute
+all the wealth of the Tinguians. We were still conversing about the
+natives of the country when we reached Manabo. My guide had scarcely
+ceased talking all the way from Laganguilan.
+
+My attention was now attracted by some flames that were issuing from
+under a cabin, where a large fire was burning. Around it many people
+were sitting, howling like wolves.
+
+"Ah! ah!" said my guide, seemingly very pleased; "here is a funeral. I
+did not tell you anything about these ceremonies; but you will judge
+for yourself of what they are. It will be time enough to-morrow. You
+must be tired. I will take you to my day-cabin, and you may repose
+yourself without any danger of the Guinans, for a funeral compels a
+great many people to be on the watch all night."
+
+I accepted the offer made to me, and we took possession of the Tinguian
+cabin. It was my turn to take the first watch, and my poor Alila,
+a little more at his ease, fell into a sound sleep. I followed his
+example, after my watch, and we did not wake up until it was broad
+daylight.
+
+We had scarcely finished our morning repast, composed of
+kidney-potatoes, palms, and dried venison, when my guide of the
+preceding day came to conduct me to the spot where the funeral of
+the deceased was about to take place. I followed him, and placing
+ourselves a few steps from the cortége, we assisted at a strange
+sight. The deceased sat in the middle of his cabin upon a stool;
+underneath him, and at his side, fires were burning in enormous
+chafing-dishes; at a short distance about thirty assistants were
+seated in a circle. Ten or twelve women formed another circle; they
+were seated nearer to the corpse, close by which the widow was also
+placed, and who was distinguished by a white veil, that covered her
+from head to foot. The women brought some cotton, with which they
+wiped off the moisture that the fire caused to exude from the corpse,
+which was roasting by degrees. From time to time one of the Tinguians
+spoke, and pronounced, in a slow, harmonious tone of voice, a speech,
+which he concluded by a sort of laugh, that was imitated by all the
+assistants; after which they stood up, ate some pieces of dried meat,
+and drank some basi; they then repeated the last words of the orator,
+and danced.
+
+I endured--such is the word--this sight for an hour; but I did not
+feel courage enough to remain in the cabin any longer. The odour that
+exhaled from the corpse was unbearable. I went out, and breathed the
+fresh air; my guide followed me, and I begged him to tell me what
+had occurred from the beginning of the illness of the deceased.
+
+"Willingly," he answered me.
+
+Delighted to breathe freely, I listened with interest to the following
+recital:
+
+"When Dalayapo," said the narrator, "fell sick, they took him to the
+grand square, to apply severe remedies to him; that is to say, all the
+men of the village came in arms, and, to the sound of the gong and
+the tom-tom, they danced around the sick man from the rising to the
+setting of the sun. But this grand remedy had no effect--his illness
+was incurable. At the setting of the sun they placed our friend in
+his house, and no more heed was paid to him: his death was certain,
+as he would not dance with his fellow-countrymen."
+
+I smiled at the remedy and the reasoning, but I did not interrupt
+the narrator.
+
+"For two days Dalayapo was in a state of suffering; then, at the end
+of these two days, he breathed no more; and, when that was perceived,
+they immediately put him on the bench where we saw him just now. Then
+the provisions that he possessed were gathered together to feed the
+assistants, who paid him all due honours. Each one made a speech
+in his praise: his nearest relations began the first, and his body
+was surrounded with fire to dry it up. When the provisions are
+consumed, the strangers will leave the cabin, and only the widow and
+a few relations will wait until the body is thoroughly dried. In a
+fortnight's time he will be placed in a large hole that is dug under
+his house. He will be put in a niche, or aperture, in the wall, where
+already his deceased relatives' remains are deposited, and then all
+is over."
+
+This hole, thought I, must be similar to the one I went into the
+other night at Laganguilan.
+
+The explanation that I had just received completely satisfied me, and
+I did not request to be present again at the ceremony. I resolved,
+since I was very comfortably seated, under the shade of a balété,
+upon availing myself of the obliging disposition of my guide, to ask
+him to inform me, suddenly changing the conversation all the while,
+how his tribe managed to wage war on the Guinans, their mortal enemies.
+
+"The Guinans," said he to me, without drawing in any way on my
+patience, "wear the same arms as we do. They are neither stronger,
+nor more skilful, nor more vigorous. We have two modes of fighting
+them. Sometimes we give them a grand battle at mid-day, and then we
+meet them face to face, under a burning sun; at other times, during
+some dark night, we creep in silence to their dwelling-places, and
+if we be able to surprise any of them we cut off their heads, which
+we take away with us, and then we get up a feast, such as you have
+already witnessed."
+
+That word "feast" recalled to my mind the sanguinary orgie, or
+carousing, I had been present at, and particularly the share I
+had taken in it, so that I felt I was blushing and growing pale by
+turns. The Indian took no heed of it, and went on thus:
+
+"In the grand battles all the men belonging to a village are compelled
+to take up arms, and to march against the foe. It is generally in
+the midst of a wood that the two armies meet. As soon as they come in
+sight of each other they set up crying and howling on both sides. Each
+man then rushes upon his enemy, and upon this shock depends the
+fate of the victory; for one of the armies is always panic-struck,
+and scampers away; then it is that the other pursues it, and kills
+as many as possible, taking care to preserve the heads, which they
+bring home with them." [9]
+
+"Why it is a hide-and-seek fight, the consequences of which are,
+however, very cruel," I said. My Indian was of the same opinion,
+and rejoined:
+
+"In general the conquerors are ever those who are cleverest in
+concealing themselves, in order to surprise their enemies, and who
+then dash on them bawling and howling."
+
+Here my guide stopped short, the fight having no longer any interest
+for him; and then, perceiving I questioned him no longer, he left me
+to myself, when I returned to my habitation and Alila, who was sick
+enough of Manabo. For my own part I had seen enough of the Tinguians,
+and besides I thought I had observed that they seemed not too well
+pleased with the long stay I had made among them. I passed over in my
+mind the brain feast, so I resolved upon leaving. I therefore went to
+take leave of the elders. Unfortunately I had nothing to offer them,
+but I promised them many presents, when I should get back among the
+Christians--and then I left them.
+
+The satisfaction of my faithful lieutenant was at its height when
+we started for home. Not being disposed to go back by the same way
+I had come, I determined upon keeping more to the east, crossing
+over the mountains, and upon taking the sun as my guide. This road
+seemed preferable to me, inasmuch as I was about to traverse a country
+inhabited by a few Igorrots, that other species of the savage tribe I
+was not acquainted with. The mountains we crossed over were crowned
+with magnificent forests. Now and then we perceived lovely fertile
+valleys below our feet, and the grass was so high and thick-set, that
+it was with great difficulty we could pass through it. During our
+journey, my lieutenant kept a sharp look-out, wishing to kill some
+game for our support. As for myself, I was indeed far from thinking
+of the pleasure of shooting, so great was my contemplation of the
+admirable panoramic views that we met with every moment; and I was
+too much enraptured with the virgin and fruitful soil that spread
+itself so incommensurately around us to think even of eating. But my
+faithful Alila was less an enthusiast than I was myself: however,
+in return, he was more prudent. At the close of the day on which
+we started he killed a stag; so we halted on the brink of a stream,
+cut off some palm-tree strips, in guise of rice and bread, and set
+about eating the roasted liver of the animal. Our repast was truly
+a copious one. Ah! how often since that time, when seated before a
+richly served table--having before me delicious and recherché viands,
+and that in dining-rooms where the atmosphere was balmy and perfumed by
+the aroma arising from the highly flavoured dishes--how often, I say,
+have I regretted the supper I partook of with Alila in the forest,
+after a day's ramble on the mountains! Nay, what mortal could forget
+such hours--such places?
+
+Our repast over, we made our bed of some branches we lopped off
+from the trees, and which we joined together on the very moist soil
+in the interior of the vast forest, and there we slept soundly till
+the morrow, without fear, and particularly without having any sombre
+or disagreeable dreams. At the dawn of day we were on foot again,
+all Nature seeming to wake up with ourselves. Oh! how fine and calm
+did she appear to us! The vapours that arose from her breast covered
+her all over with a veil, like a young virgin at her waking; and then
+this veil by degrees would break up into pieces, which pieces, gently
+balanced on the morning breeze, would disappear, and be lost on the
+tops of the trees or the summits of the rocks. On we walked for a long
+time, till at last, towards the middle of the day, we came to a small
+plain inhabited by the Igorrots. We found, in all, three cabins, or
+huts, so that the population was far from being large. At the door
+of one of these cabins I saw a man, of about sixty years of age,
+and a few women. As we had arrived from behind the huts we took the
+savages by surprise, so that they had no time to fly at our approach:
+we were in the midst of them.
+
+I assumed the line of conduct I had pursued on arriving at Palan,
+but as I had no more coral beads or coloured glass, I presented them
+with a part of our stag, making them understand at the same time that
+we came with the most friendly intentions. From that moment there
+was established between us a very curious sort of mimic conversation,
+during which I was able to examine at my ease the new race of beings I
+saw around me. I perceived that the costume of the Igorrots was pretty
+nearly the same as that of the Tinguians, the ornaments excepted,
+but their features and physiognomy were quite different. The men were
+smaller, their breasts being exceedingly broad, their heads immensely
+big, their limbs developed, their strength herculean; their shape was
+not so handsome as that of the savages I had just left; their colour
+of a dark bronze, very dark indeed; their noses are less aquiline,
+their eyes yellow and fully open--a la Chinoise. The women's shape
+was also very protuberant, their complexion dark, their hair long,
+and combed up--a la Chinoise. Unfortunately it was impossible for
+me, with all my mimicry, to obtain the information I wished for, so
+I was obliged to content myself with visiting the cabin, which was
+a real hut, having but the ground-floor. The surrounding parts were
+closed in by very thick piles, covered with a roof in the form of a
+bee-hive. There was but one issue, through which it was impossible to
+have either egress or ingress, except in crawling on all-fours. In
+spite of this difficulty I would see the interior of this Indian
+dwelling; so, having made a sign to my lieutenant to keep watch, I
+penetrated into the hut. The Igorrots seemed quite surprised at my
+so doing, but they made no opposition to it. I found myself within
+an obnoxious hole, or hovel, through a small opening in the summit
+of which the daylight peeped in and the smoke crept out. The floor
+was thickly covered with dust, and it was upon such a soft couch that
+the whole family laid down to rest. In one of the corners I perceived
+some bamboo lances, a few cocoa-nuts divided into two parts, so as to
+serve as cups, a heap of good-sized round pebbles, that were used in
+case of attack, and a few pieces of wood, of very common workmanship,
+that served as pillows.
+
+I soon got out of such a den, from which I was driven by the nauseous
+smell it contained in its every part, but I had been able to see
+everything in it. I then inquired, by signs, of the Igorrot, the way
+I should go, in order to join the Christians. He fully understood
+me, showed me the road with his finger, and we then proceeded on
+our journey. As I journeyed on, I remarked here and there fields
+of patates and sugar-cane, which of course must have been the only
+husbandry of those miserable savages. After about an hour's journey
+we were near running into a very great danger. On entering into a
+vast plain we saw an Igorrot, flying away as quickly as possible. He
+had remarked us, and I attributed his flight to fear, when suddenly I
+heard the sound of the tom-tom and gong, and saw, at the same time,
+twenty men armed with lances, rapidly advancing towards us. I felt
+that a fight was about to ensue, so I told my lieutenant to fire at
+the group, so as to injure none of them.
+
+Alila fired: his bullet passed over the heads of the savages, who were
+so astonished at the detonation that they suddenly halted, and examined
+us attentively. I prudently took advantage of their surprise, and an
+immense forest presenting itself on our right, we entered it, leaving
+the village on our left, but the savages did not follow us into it.
+
+During the whole of this scene my lieutenant did not utter a word. I
+had already remarked that when in presence of danger he became dumb,
+but when he had lost sight of the Igorrots his speech and loquacity
+returned to him.
+
+"Master," said he to me, in a very dissatisfied tone, "how I do regret
+not having fired directly into the middle of those miscreants!"
+
+"And why so?" asked I.
+
+"Because I am certain I should have killed one of them at least."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, master, our journey would not have terminated without our
+sending at least one soul of a savage to the devil."
+
+"Ah! Alila," said I; "so you have become wicked and naughty, have you?"
+
+"No, no, no, master," replied he; "but I cannot conceive why you
+are so kind and compassionate to that infernal race. You, who pursue
+and persecute the Tulisans, [10] who are a hundred times better than
+these wretches are, and who are Christians besides."
+
+"What!" cried I; "brigands, robbers, and assassins better than poor
+primitive beings, who have no one to guide and conduct them to the
+path of virtue!"
+
+"Oh, master!" replied my lieutenant, and most sententiously this time;
+"Oh! the brigands, as it pleases you to call them, are in nowise
+what you think them. The Tulisan is not an assassin. When he takes
+away life it is only when he is compelled, in defence of his own,
+and if he do kill, why it is always de bon coeur."
+
+"Oh! oh!" said I; "and the robberies--how do you explain them?"
+
+"If he rob, why it is only to get possession of a little of the
+superfluity of the rich, and that he divides among the poor--that's
+all. Now, master, do you know what use the Tulisan makes of his
+plunder?"
+
+"No, indeed, master Alila," answered I, smilingly.
+
+"Well, he keeps nothing of it for himself," said my lieutenant, with
+great pride; "in the first place he gives a part of it to the priest,
+to have masses said for him."
+
+"Indeed! it is mighty edifying--go on."
+
+"And then he gives another part of it to his mistress, or bonne amie,
+because he loves her, and likes to see her finely dressed out; and as
+for the remainder, why, faith! he spends it among his friends. You
+may therefore see, master, that the Tulisan possesses himself of
+the superfluity of one person to satisfy several other persons with
+it. [11] Oh! but he is far, very far indeed, from being so wicked as
+those savages, who kill you without saying a word to you, and then eat
+up your brains--fie!" And here Alila heaved a deep sigh, for the brain
+feast was ever present to his mind. His conversation so interested me,
+his system was so curious, and he himself so frank in drawing it out,
+that I almost forgot the Igorrots in listening to him.
+
+We pursued our road through the wood, keeping as much as possible
+to the south, in order to get near the province of Batangas, where
+I was to meet my poor patient, who no doubt was very uneasy about
+my long absence. When I started I said not a word about my project,
+and had I done so it is most likely I should have been thought as no
+longer belonging to this world. The recollection of my wife, whom I
+had left at Manilla, and who was far from supposing me to be among
+the Igorrots, inspired me with the most anxious desire of returning
+home to my family as quick as possible. Absorbed in my thoughts,
+and carried away by my reflections, I walked silently along, without
+even casting a glance upon the luxuriant vegetation all around us. I
+must indeed have been very much pre-occupied, for a virgin forest
+between the tropics, and particularly in the Philippine islands, is in
+nowise to be compared with our European forests. I was aroused from
+my pensiveness, and recalled to the remembrance of my whereabouts,
+by the noise of a torrent, and I gratefully admired nature in her
+gigantic productions. I looked up, and before me I perceived an
+immense balété, an extraordinary fig-tree, that thrives in the sombre
+and mysterious forests of the Philippines, and I stopped to admire
+it. This immense tree springs from a seed similar to the seed of the
+ordinary fig-tree; its wood is white and spongy, and in a few years it
+grows to an extraordinary size. Nature, who has had foresight in all
+things, and who allows the young lamb to leave its wool on the bushes
+for the timid bird to pick it up and build its nest with--Nature,
+I say, has shown herself in all her genius in the fig-tree of the
+Philippine islands, which grows so rapidly and so immensely. The
+branches of this tree generally spring from the base of the trunk;
+they extend themselves horizontally, and, after forming an elbow or
+curve, rise up perpendicularly; but, as I said before, the tree is
+spongy, and easily broken, and the branch, while forming the curve,
+would inevitably be broken, did not a ligament, which the Indians
+call a drop of water--goutte d'eau--fall from the tree and take root
+in the earth; there it swells, and grows in proportion with the size
+of the branch, and acts to it as a living prop. Besides which, around
+the trunk, and at a considerable distance from the ground, are natural
+supports, which rise up in points or spirals to about the middle of the
+trunk. Has not the Grand Architect of the world foreseen everything?
+
+The appearance presented by the balété is very frequently indescribably
+picturesque; and this is so true that, within a space of some hundred
+paces in diameter--which these gigantic fig-trees usually occupy--one
+may see by turns grottoes, halls, chambers, that are often furnished
+with natural seats, formed out of and by the roots themselves. No! no
+vegetation is more diversified, nor more extraordinary! This tree
+sometimes grows out of a rock, where there is not an inch of earth;
+its long roots run along the rock, encompass it, and then plunge into
+the neighbouring brook. It is indeed a masterpiece of nature--a chef
+d'oeuvre--which, however, is very ordinary in the virgin forests of
+the Philippine islands.
+
+"Here," said I to my lieutenant, "is a good spot for us to spend the
+night on."
+
+He recoiled some paces.
+
+"What!" said he; "do you wish to stop here, master?"
+
+"Certainly," replied I.
+
+"Oh! but you don't see that we are in still more danger here than in
+the midst of the Igorrots!"
+
+"And why, then, are we in danger?" asked I.
+
+"Why? why? Do you not know that the Tic-balan dwells in the large
+balétés. If we stop here you may be very sure that I shan't sleep a
+moment, and that we shall be tormented the whole night."
+
+I smiled, which my lieutenant perceiving:
+
+"Oh! master," said he, most dolefully, "what should we do with an
+evil spirit that fears neither bullet nor dagger?"
+
+The terror of the poor Tagal was really too great for me to resist
+him, so I yielded, and we took up our quarters for the night at a
+place much less to my own taste, but much more to Alila's. The night
+passed away like many others--I mean, perfectly well, and we woke up
+to resume our journey through the forest.
+
+We had been walking about two hours, when, on leaving the wood,
+and entering on a plain, we met an Igorrot, mounted upon a buffalo,
+face to face. The encounter was somewhat curious. I levelled my gun at
+the savage: my lieutenant took hold of the animal by the long leather
+strap, and I made a sign to the Igorrot not to stir: then--always
+in my mimic language--I asked if he were alone. I understood from
+him that he was accompanied by no fellow-traveller, and that he was
+going northwards, in the opposite direction to our own. But Alila,
+who decidedly had a grudge against the savages, was most anxious to
+lodge a ball in this fellow's head. However, I strenuously opposed
+such a project, and ordered him to let go the bridle.
+
+"But, master," said he, "allow me at least to see what these jars
+contain."
+
+Around the neck of the Igorrot's buffalo were strung three or four
+jars, covered with leaves of the banana tree.
+
+My lieutenant, without even waiting for my answer, applied his nose
+to them, and discovered, to his infinite satisfaction, that they
+contained a deer or stag ragout, which sent forth a certain perfume;
+so, still without consulting me, he undid the smallest of the jars,
+struck the buffalo a blow with the but-end of his gun, and, letting
+go the animal at the same time, exclaimed:
+
+"Go, you rascal--go!"
+
+The Igorrot, finding himself free, fled as quick as the beast could
+carry him, and we re-entered the woods, taking care to avoid the
+openings, for fear of being surprised by too large a number of savages.
+
+Towards four o'clock we halted to take our repast. This wished-for
+moment was impatiently expected by my lieutenant, as the savage's jar
+sent forth a very savoury smell. At last the desired moment arrived:
+we sat down on the grass. I stuck my poignard into the jar, which
+Alila had brought up to the fire, and I withdrew--an entire human
+hand! [12] My poor lieutenant was as stupified as I was myself, so
+we remained a few minutes without saying a word. At last I gave a
+vigorous kick to the jar, and smashed it in pieces, so that the human
+flesh it contained was scattered over the ground, while still I held
+the fatal hand on the point of my dagger.
+
+That hand horrified me; yet I examined it most carefully, and it
+appeared to me to have been the hand of a child of an Ajetas, a species
+of savages that inhabit the mountains of Nueva-Exica and Maribèles,
+of which race I shall have an opportunity of speaking during the
+course of this work. I took some strips of palm-tree, roasted in the
+burning embers; Alila did the same, and we set out, not in the best
+of humours, in search of another resting-place for the night.
+
+Two hours after sun-rise we issued from the forest and entered upon
+the plain. From time to time--that is, from distance to distance--we
+met with rice-fields, cultivated after the Tagal manner, and then
+did my lieutenant exclaim most joyously to me:
+
+"Master, we are now in Christian ground."
+
+He was right; the road was becoming more easy. We followed on a narrow
+pathway, and towards evening arrived in front of an Indian cabin,
+at the door of which a young girl was sitting, while abundant tears
+trickled down her sorrowful countenance. I drew near her, and inquired
+into the cause of her grief. On hearing my question she rose up, and
+without replying to my queries, conducted us into the interior of the
+habitation, where we beheld the inanimate body of an old woman, whom
+we learned was the mother of the young girl; the brother of the latter
+had gone to the village in quest of the relations of the deceased,
+to aid them in transporting the corpse to its final destination.
+
+This scene affected me very much. I did my best to console the
+poor young girl, and solicited hospitality for the night, which was
+instantly granted. To be in company with a dead body nowise affrighted
+me; but I bethought of Alila, so superstitious and so fearful with
+regard to ghosts and evil spirits.
+
+"Well," said I to him; "are you not afraid to spend the night near
+a corpse?"
+
+"No, master," replied he, courageously; "this dead person is a
+Christian soul, which, far from wishing us evil, will watch over us."
+
+I was really astonished at the answer of the Tagaloc, at his calmness
+and security: the rogue had his own motives for thus speaking to
+me. The Indian huts in the plains, are never composed of more than
+one room; the one we were in was scarcely large enough to hold us
+all four; however, we one and all managed as well as we could. The
+deceased occupied the back part; a small lamp, placed by her head,
+threw out a feeble light, and beside her lay the young Indian girl. I
+had established my quarters at a short distance from the bed of death,
+and my lieutenant was nearest the door, left open purposely to dispel
+the heat and foul air.
+
+Towards two o'clock in the morning I was waked up by a shrill voice,
+and I felt at the same time that some one was passing over me, and
+uttering cries that soon were heard outside the cabin. I immediately
+stretched out my hand towards the place where Alila had lain down,
+but that place was empty; the lamp was out, and the darkness complete.
+
+This made me very uneasy. I called to the young girl, who answered
+me that she had heard, like me, cries and noise, but she was ignorant
+of the cause. I snatched up my gun and sallied forth, calling out to
+my lieutenant; but to no purpose. No one answered; the stillness of
+death reigned all around. I then set out, walking over the fields at
+hazard, calling out now and then Alila's name. I had not, perhaps,
+gone a hundred paces when I heard the following words, pronounced
+most timidly, proceeding from a tree by which I was passing:
+
+"I am here, master."
+
+It was Alila himself. I drew nigh, and saw my lieutenant ensconced
+behind the trunk of the tree, and trembling like one of its leaves.
+
+"What then has happened to you?" I inquired; "and what are you
+doing there?"
+
+"Oh! master," said he to me; "pray forgive me! Bad thoughts got the
+better of me; it was the young Indian girl inspired me with them,
+and the demon blew them into my inner man. I--I--I--drew nigh, during
+the night, to the young girl's resting-place, and when I saw you fast
+asleep--I put out the lamp."
+
+"Well, and then--" said I, most impatiently and angrily.
+
+"And then--I wished to take a kiss from the young girl; but, at the
+very moment I drew nigh, the old dead woman took her daughter's place,
+so I only met with a cold and icy face, and at the same moment two
+long arms stretched out to seize upon me. Oh! it was then I gave such
+a cry--and I fled! fled! fled! but the old woman pursued me--yes,
+the corpse tracked me behind; and she has only just now disappeared,
+on hearing the sound of your voice. I then hid behind this tree,
+where you now see me, in a piteous plight."
+
+The fright of the Tagal and his mistake made me almost laugh out;
+but I severely reprimanded him for the bad intention he had of
+abusing the hospitality that had been so graciously afforded us:
+he repented, and begged of me to excuse him. He was, I should think,
+sufficiently punished by his fright. I wished to take him back to the
+cabin with me; but for no consideration would he return. I therefore
+left my gun in his charge, and went back to the house of mourning,
+where I found the poor young girl just as frightened as he was. I
+soon made her acquainted with the adventure; so thanking her for
+her kind hospitality, and morning coming on, I returned to Alila,
+who was most impatiently expecting me.
+
+The hope of seeing soon again our relations, our homes, our friends,
+gave us new courage, and before sunset we arrived at an Indian village,
+without anything remarkable having taken place: this was to be our
+last stage. [13]
+
+After this long and interesting journey I arrived at Quingua,
+a village in the province of Boulacan, where I had left my friend
+in convalescence.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+    I return to Jala-Jala--An Excursion on the Lake--Relempago's
+    Narrative--Re-organisation of my Government--A Letter from
+    my Brother Henry--His Arrival--He joins me in the Management
+    of my Plantations--Cajoui, the Bandit: Anten-Anten--Indian
+    Superstition--A Combat with the Bandit--His Death--A Piratical
+    Descent--My Lieutenant is Wounded--I extract the Ball, and
+    cure him.
+
+
+My prolonged absence from home caused great uneasiness. Very
+fortunately my wife remained at Manilla, and was totally ignorant of
+the journey I had recently undertaken.
+
+My patient had not exactly followed the prescribed regimen, so that
+his distemper had increased, and he was impatiently expecting to
+return and die, he said, in his house: his wishes were complied
+with. A few days after my arrival we set out and arrived the next
+day at Manilla, where my poor friend rendered his last sigh in the
+middle of his family. This event damped, of course, the pleasure I
+should have enjoyed in beholding my wife once more.
+
+A few days after the demise of our friend we embarked, and set sail
+for Jala-Jala.
+
+We glided most agreeably upon the lake until we left the strait
+of Quinanbutasan, but, once there, we met with so violent an east
+wind, and the water of the lake was so ruffled, that we were obliged
+to re-enter the strait, and cast anchor near the cabin of the old
+fisherman, Relempago, whom I have already noticed.
+
+Our sailors landed to prepare their supper; as for ourselves, we
+remained in our boat, where we stretched ourselves at our ease, the
+old fisherman, as he sat doubled up in the Indian fashion, amusing
+us in the best way he could by the narration of brigand stories.
+
+I interrupted him all on a sudden, saying to him:
+
+"Relempago, I should prefer hearing the history of your own personal
+adventures; do, therefore, relate your misfortunes to us."
+
+The old fisherman heaved a sigh, and then, unwilling to disoblige me,
+began his story in the poetical terms so familiar to the Tagal tongue,
+and which it is almost impossible to reproduce by a translation:
+
+"Lagune is not my native place," said he; "I was born in the
+island of Zébou, and was at the age of twenty what is called a
+fine young man; but, pray believe me, I was by no means proud of my
+physical advantages, and I preferred being the first fisherman of my
+village. Nevertheless, my comrades were jealous of me, and all that
+because the young girls would look at me with a certain complaisant
+air, and seemed to find me to their liking."
+
+I could not but smile at this frank avowal of the old man, which he
+perceiving, continued:
+
+"I tell you these things, sir," replied he, "because at my age
+one can speak of them without fearing to appear ridiculous--it is
+so long ago. And besides, allow me to inform you that I relate to
+you such things, not from vanity--Oh, no! but merely to furnish you
+with an exact recital. Besides, the sly and roguish looks that young
+girls threw at me, as I passed through the village, flattered me in
+no manner. I was in love with Theresa, sir; yes, I was passionately
+in love with her, and my love was returned, for fondly did she love
+me; a look from any other but from her was totally indifferent to
+me. Ah! Theresa was the prettiest lass in the village! but, poor
+soul! she has done like myself--she has greatly altered; for years
+are an enormous weight, which bends and breaks you down in spite of
+yourself, and against which there is no way of struggling.
+
+"When, seated as I am at present, I bethink me of the fine by-gone days
+of my youth--of the strength, the courage, that we used to find in our
+mutual affection--Oh! I shed tears of regret and sensibility. Where
+are now those fine--those happy days? Gone, gone, gone! they have
+fled before the piercing and terrible winds that forerun the storms
+and the hurricanes. Like the day, life has its dawn; like the day,
+also, it has its decline!"
+
+Here the poor old fisherman made a pause, and I was loth to interrupt
+him in his meditation. There then ensued a profound silence, that
+lasted several minutes. Suddenly Relempago seemed to start from a
+dream, and passing his hand over his forehead, looked at us for some
+time, as if to excuse himself for those few moments of mental absence,
+and then he continued as follows:
+
+"We had been brought up together," said he, "and had been affianced as
+soon as we had grown up. Theresa would have died rather than belong to
+any other, and, as I shall hereafter prove it, I would have accepted
+any condition, even the most unfavourable one, rather than abandon the
+friend of my heart. Alas! it is almost always with our tears that we
+trace our painful way through life. Theresa's relations were opposed
+to our union; they even put forward vain and frivolous pretexts;
+and whatever efforts I made to bring them to decide upon bestowing
+her affianced hand on me, I never could succeed. And yet they well
+knew that, like the palm trees, we could not live without each other,
+and were we to be separated, it would be condemning us to die. But our
+tears, our prayers, our griefs, were only heard by senseless people,
+and we were labouring under the most poignant grief, while no one would
+understand or sympathise with our sorrow. I was beginning to lose all
+courage, when one morning there came into my mind the pious thought
+of offering to the Infant Jesus, in the church of Zébou, the first
+pearl I should fish up. I therefore repaired earlier than usual to
+the sea-shore, implored the Almighty to grant me his protection, and
+to have me married to my beloved Theresa. The sun was just beginning
+to dart his burning rays upon the earth, and was gilding the surface
+of the waters. Nature was awaking from her transitory sleep, and
+every living being or object was singing in its language a hymn to
+the Creator.
+
+"With a beating heart I began diving to the bottom of the sea, in
+search of the pearl which I so ardently wished for, but my searches
+and struggles were completely fruitless at first. Had anyone been
+near me at that moment he would have easily read my disappointment
+in my face. Nevertheless, my courage failed me not. I began again,
+but with no better success. 'Oh, Lord!' cried I, 'thou hearest not
+then my prayers, my supplications! Thou wilt not then accept for thy
+beloved son the offering that I destine for him.' [14] For the sixth
+time I plunged, and brought up from the bottom of the sea two enormous
+oysters. Oh! how my heart leaped with joy! I opened one of them, and
+found it contained a pearl so large that never in my life had I seen
+one like it. My joy was so great that I set to dancing in my pirogue,
+as if I had lost my reason. The Lord, then, did vouchsafe to protect
+me, since He enabled me to accomplish my vow. With a joyful heart I
+retraced my steps to my dwelling, and, not wishing to fail in my word,
+I took my magnificent pearl to the curate of Zébou.
+
+"The reverend father," continued the old fisherman, "was delighted with
+my present. That pearl was worth 5,000 piasters (or 25,000 francs,
+i.e., £1,000 English money), and you must have admired it--you, as
+well as all other persons who attend the church--for the Infant Jesus
+always holds it in his hand. The curate thanked and congratulated me
+on my very good idea.
+
+"'Go home in peace, brother,' said he to me; 'go home in peace. Heaven
+will not forget thy meritorious action--yea, the disinterestedness of
+thy good work, and sooner or later thy desires will he hearkened to.'"
+
+"I left the holy man with my heart joyful indeed, and I hastened to
+inform Theresa of the pastor's consoling words: we rejoiced like two
+children together. Ah! true indeed it is to say that youth has been
+endowed by the Almighty with every privilege, particularly with that
+of hope. At the age of twenty if the heart think that it may live
+in hope, away with all cares immediately; and, as the morning breeze
+sips up the drops of moisture that have been left by the storm in the
+chalice of flowers, so does hope dry up the tears that moisten the eyes
+of the young, and drive away the sighs that inflate and oppress the
+breast. So sure were we that our tribulations would ere long be over,
+that we no longer thought of our by gone sorrow! In the spring-time
+of life grief leaves do more trace after it than the nimble foot of
+the wily Indian on the strand, when the sea-wind has blown over it.
+
+"The inhabitants of the village, seeing us so joyful, so purely happy,
+were envious of our lot, and Theresa's relations could no longer
+find any pretext for opposing our being united. We were now in full
+sight of connubial bliss; our boat of life was gently rocked by a
+very mild wind; we were singing the return-home hymn, not supposing,
+alas! that we were going to be dashed against a breaker! Our young
+Indians foresee not in the morning the storm that is to assail them
+in the evening. The buffalo cannot avoid the lasso, and most often,
+in order to avoid it, he anticipates the danger. I roved about, I may
+say heedlessly thoughtless of the precipice before my feet. Misfortune
+marked me for her own when I least expected it.
+
+"One evening, on my return from fishing, at the moment when I was
+repairing to Theresa's, there to repose myself after my fatigues of
+the day, I saw one of my neighbours advancing towards me. That man
+had always shown me the greatest affection, so that on seeing him
+thus advance, my limbs began to tremble, and the pulsations of my
+heart gradually ceased. His face was pale, and entirely altered. His
+haggard eyes threw forth flashes of terror, and his voice was trembling
+and agitated.
+
+"'Los Moros [15] have made a descent upon the coast,' said he to me.
+
+"'Good Heavens!' exclaimed I, covering my face with my hands.
+
+"'They surprised some persons of the village, and carried them off
+prisoners.'
+
+"'And Theresa?' exclaimed I.
+
+"'Carried off with the others,' he replied.
+
+"I heard no more of this revelation, and for some minutes--like the
+warrior pierced to the heart by a poisoned arrow--was completely
+deprived of all consciousness.
+
+"When I came back to myself tears flooded my face, and brought me some
+relief: but suddenly I resumed my courage, and felt that no time was
+to be lost. I ran to the shore where I had left my pirogue, which
+I unfastened, and, as quickly as oars could pull me, I pursued the
+Malays, not in the hope of wresting Theresa from them, but resolved
+upon partaking of her captivity and misfortune. We better endure the
+sufferings we have to undergo when we are two together than when we
+are alone. He who had brought me the fatal tidings saw me start, and
+thought I had lost my senses; the fact is, my countenance bore all the
+traces of mental alienation. Methought I was inspired by the grand
+master-spirit; my pirogue bounded along the troubled waters of the
+ocean as if it possessed wings. One would have said that I had twenty
+rowers at my disposal, and I cleft the waves with the same rapidity
+as the halcyon's flight, when wafted away by the hurricane. After
+a short time's laborious and painful rowing I at last came in view
+of the corsairs who were carrying away my treasure. At the sight my
+strength was renewed again, and I was soon up with them. When I was
+side by side with them I informed them, in words the most feeling,
+and which sprang from my poor lacerated heart, that Theresa was my
+wife, and that I would prefer being a slave with her to abandoning
+her. The pirates listened to my voice, stifled by my tears, and took
+me on board, not from commiseration, but from cruelty. In fact, I was
+a slave more added to their numbers: why should they have repulsed
+me? A few days after that fatal evening we arrived at Jolo. There the
+division of the slaves was made, and the master into whose hands we
+fell took us away with him. Was it, then, to undergo a like destiny
+that I had dived so early in the morning for a pearl for the Infant
+Jesus of Zébou? Yes, was it for this that I had made a vow to bring
+him the first pearl I should find? Notwithstanding my profound sorrow
+I murmured not, neither did I regret my offering. The Lord was the
+master! His will should be done."
+
+Here Relempago paused, and looked towards Heaven with a smile of
+angelic resignation, and we then remarked upon his face the furrows
+traced by the deep sorrows of his life. The wind was still blowing
+with violence, and our boat was dancing on the waves; our sailors had
+finished their repast, and, in order to listen to the fisherman's
+tale of woe, had taken up their place by his side. Their features
+wore an expression of the most innocent attention; so, having made
+a sign to the narrator, he resumed his story as follows:--
+
+"Our captivity lasted two years, during which time we had to endure
+very great sufferings. Very often would my master take me away with
+him to a lake in the interior of the island, and these absences
+lasted for whole months together, during which time I was perforce
+separated from my Theresa, my dear wife; for, not having been able
+to get united by a clergyman, we had joined ourselves, under the
+all-benevolent and protecting eye of the Almighty! On my return,
+I used to find my poor companion still the same good, faithful,
+devoted, and affectionate friend, whose courage sustained my own.
+
+"One circumstance decided me upon taking an audacious
+resolution. Theresa was in an interesting situation! Oh! what would
+not my joy have been had I been at Zébou, in the midst of our family
+and of our friends! What happiness should I not have felt at the idea
+of being a father! Alas! in slavery, that very same thought froze my
+blood with terror, and I firmly resolved upon snatching both mother
+and child from the tortures of captivity. In one of our excursions
+I had been wounded in the leg, and this wound came greatly to my
+aid. One day my master set out for the borders of the grand lake, and,
+knowing I had a bad leg, left me at Jolo. I availed myself of this
+opportunity to put into execution a project that I had formed for a
+long time, that of flying with Theresa. The task was a daring one,
+but the desire of freedom doubles one's strength and increases one's
+courage, so I did not hesitate for a moment. When night had lowered,
+my dear Theresa took a road I had pointed out to her; I went by another
+one, and we both arrived at the sea-shore at a short distance from
+each other. There we jumped into a pirogue, and threw ourselves upon
+the protection of Divine mercy!
+
+"We rowed vigorously the whole night, and never in my life shall
+I forget that mysterious flight. The wind blew rather violently,
+the night was dark, and the stars insensibly lost their vivid
+brightness. Every moment we thought we heard behind us the noise of our
+pursuers, and our hearts beat so loud and so violently that they could
+be heard in the midst of the silence that reigned around all nature.
+
+"Day at last appeared: we descried by degrees, in the mist of the
+morning, the rocks that lined the shore, and we could see far enough
+in the distance that no one was pursuing us. Then were our hearts
+filled with cheering hope, and we continued rowing towards the north,
+in order to land on some Christian isle.
+
+"I had taken with me some cocoa-nuts, but they were a very small
+resource, and we had been at sea three whole days without eating
+anything, when, exhausted by fatigue and want, we fell upon our knees
+and invoked the pity, compassion, and succour of the Infant Jesus of
+Zébou. Our prayer over, we felt our strength completely exhausted;
+the oars fell from our hands, and we lay down in the bottom of the
+pirogue, decided upon dying in each other's arms.
+
+"Our weakness gradually increased, and finally we swooned away,
+the pirogue all the while dashing heedlessly on with the waves.
+
+"When we recovered from our fainting fit--I know not how long it
+lasted--we found ourselves surrounded by Christians, who, having
+perceived us in our light skiff, had come to our aid, conveyed us
+to their hospitable dwelling, and took the most pious care of us. We
+had not long been disembarked when Theresa was taken with the pains
+of labour, and was confined of a very diminutive, sickly child. I
+went down on my knees before the innocent little creature that had
+so miraculously escaped from slavery, and prayed for it--it was a boy!"
+
+Here the poor old fisherman heaved a heavy sigh, while tears were
+fast falling upon his shrunken hands.
+
+We one and all respected this painful recollection of the poor old man.
+
+"Our convalescence was very long indeed," said Relempago; "at last our
+health was sufficiently restored to permit of us leaving the isle of
+Negros, where the Infant Jesus had so miraculously caused us to land,
+and we came to settle here, on the side of this large lake, which,
+being situated in the interior of the isle of Luçon, afforded me the
+means of pursuing my avocation of fisherman without in any way fearing
+the Malays, who might very easily have captured us again at Zébou.
+
+"My first care--yes, the dearest act of my life--on arriving, was to
+have our marriage celebrated in the church of Moron. I had promised it
+to God, and I would not fail in the promise I had made Him who reads
+all hearts. After that I built the little cottage you see hard-by,
+and my existence glided on most peacefully. The fishing trade went
+on prosperously. I was still a young man, active and intelligent,
+and sold my fish very easily to the vessels passing through the
+strait. My son had by this time become a fine young man."
+
+"Of course he resembled his father," said I, recollecting the beginning
+of the old man's tale, but my remark could not excite a smile upon
+his countenance.
+
+"Oh! the lad was a good fisherman," continued he, "and happily did we
+all three live together, till a dreadful misfortune befell us. The
+Infant Jesus had no doubt forsaken us, or perhaps the Almighty was
+displeased with us; but I am far from murmuring. He has visited us
+most severely, since He has overwhelmed us with grief of such a strong
+nature, that it must accompany us to our last resting-place!"
+
+And here the poor old man's tears trickled down his weather-beaten
+cheeks once more, in abundance, in bitterness, and in sorrow.
+
+Ah! how right was the Italian poet, when he said:--
+
+
+            "Nought lasteth here below but tears!"
+
+
+The voice of Relempago was stifled by his sobbing; however, he made
+one more effort, and continued thus:
+
+"One night--a fine moonlight night--we set our nets in a certain part
+of the strait, and as we felt some difficulty in drawing them up,
+the lad plunged into the water to ascertain what obstacle we had to
+contend with, and to set all to rights. I was in my pirogue, leaning
+over the side, waiting for his return, when all of a sudden I thought
+I saw, through the silvery beams of the lamp of night, a large spot
+of blood spreading itself over the surface of the water. Fear took
+possession of me, and I quickly hauled up my nets. My hapless child
+had seized upon and become entangled in them--but, alas! when he came
+to the surface he was a corpse!"
+
+"What! your son?" cried I.
+
+"My poor dear José-Maria," said he, "had his head bitten off by a
+cayman that had got entangled in our nets. Ever since that night--that
+fatal night!--Theresa and I offer up our prayers to the Omnipotent,
+imploring Him to take us to himself; for, alas! nothing now has
+any charms for us here below. The first of us that will depart for
+that bourn from whence no traveller returns will be interred by the
+survivor beside our beloved child--there, under that little hillock
+yonder, which is surmounted by a wooden cross, in front of my humble
+cottage; and the last of us two to leave this valley of tears will no
+doubt meet with some charitable Christian hand, to place our mortal
+remains beside the bodies of those we loved so tenderly during our
+hapless pilgrimage here below."
+
+Here Relempago ceased his painful history, and, that he might give a
+free course to his grief and tears, he rose up, and bowed us his adieu,
+which we returned to him with hearts oppressed with sympathetic sorrow.
+
+The wind had ceased blowing, and the attentive sailors were awaiting
+our orders, so that in a few moments afterwards we were sailing
+towards Jala-Jala, where we landed before sunset.
+
+On the morrow of my arrival I entered on the business of my little
+government, to which my absence had been far from useful or favourable,
+so that I was obliged to suppress many abuses that had crept into it
+while I had been away. Some slight corrections, joined to an active
+and incessant surveillance, or inspection, soon established once more
+the most perfect order and discipline; so that, from that moment, I
+was at liberty to devote all my time and attention to the cultivation
+of my lands.
+
+We were now at the beginning of the winter--the rainy and windy
+season. No stranger had dared crossing the lake, to come and visit us,
+so that, alone with my dear wife, our days glided most happily and
+tranquilly away, for we knew not what ennui was or meant: our mutual
+affection was so great that our own presence was sufficient company
+for each other.
+
+This delightful solitude was soon interrupted by a fortunate and
+unforeseen event. A letter from Manilla--a very rare circumstance at
+Jala-Jala--reached me, informing me that my eldest brother, Henry,
+had just arrived there; that he had put up at my brother-in-law's;
+and that he was expecting me with all imaginable impatience. I was
+not aware that he had left France to come and see me, so that such
+news, and his sudden, as well as unexpected, arrival, surprised and
+overjoyed me.
+
+I was once more to see one of my dearest relations--a brother whom I
+had always tenderly loved. Ah! he who has never quitted his home, his
+family, and his early attachments, will with difficulty understand the
+emotions I experienced on receiving this agreeable letter. When the
+first transports of my joy were somewhat allayed, I resolved to set
+out at once for Manilla. Preparations for my departure were speedily
+made. I chose my lightest canoe, and my two strongest Indians, and a
+few minutes after, having embraced my beloved Anna, I was scudding
+over the waters of the lake, slowly--too slowly for my impatience,
+as I wished to be able to give wings to my fragile skiff, and to
+traverse the distance that separated me from my brother as rapidly as
+my thoughts: no journey ever appeared to me so long, and nevertheless
+my two robust rowers exerted all their strength to favour my wishes. At
+length I arrived, and immediately hastened to my brother-in-law's,
+and there I threw myself into Henry's arms. Our emotions were such
+that for some time we could not speak; the abundant tears we shed
+alone showed the joy of our hearts. When the first transport was
+over, I asked him questions beyond number. Not one member of my
+family was forgotten; the smallest details concerning these beloved
+beings were to me of the greatest interest. We passed the remainder
+of the day and the following night in incessant and interesting
+conversation. The next day we started for Jala-Jala. Henry was eager
+to become acquainted with his sister-in-law, and I to make the dear
+companion of my life a sharer in my happiness. Excellent Anna! my joy
+was joy for you--my happiness was your delight! You received Henry
+as a brother, and this sisterly attachment was always, on your part,
+as sincere as your affection for me had ever been.
+
+After a few days spent in the most agreeable conversation about
+France, and about all those beloved friends who remained there,
+feelings of sadness that I could with difficulty repress became
+intermingled with my joy. I thought of our numerous family, so far
+distant, and so scattered over the globe. My youngest brother was,
+to my great regret, dead at Madagascar. My second brother, Robert,
+resided at Porto-Rico; and my two brothers-in-law, both captains of
+vessels, engaged in long voyages, were gone to the Indies. My poor
+mother and my poor sisters were alone, without protectors, without
+support: what sad moments of fear and anxiety you must have spent in
+your solitude! Ah! how I should have rejoiced to have you near me; but,
+alas! a whole world separated us, and the hope of seeing you again
+one day could alone scatter the clouds that darkened occasionally
+the happy days adorned by the presence of my brother.
+
+After some time of rest, Henry asked to join me in my labours. I then
+made him acquainted with my mode of cultivation, and he took upon
+himself the management of the plantations and of their products. I
+reserved to myself the regulation of my Indians, the charge of the
+flocks, and that of putting down the bandits.
+
+I had frequent quarrels, and even incessant conflicts, with these
+turbulent Indians; but I never boasted of these petty engagements, in
+which I was often obliged to take a most active part. On the contrary,
+I recommended strict silence to my attendants, for I did not wish to
+cause anxiety to my excellent Anna, nor to give my brother the desire
+of accompanying me. I did not like to expose him to the dangers I
+ran myself, as I had not equal hopes of safety for him. I relied
+upon my star, and really, to a certain degree, all modesty aside,
+I think that the bandits' balls respected me. When I was engaged in
+contests in the plain, or in some of the skirmishes, the danger was
+not great; but it was quite a different thing when it was necessary
+to fight hand to hand, which happened more than once; and I cannot
+forbear the pleasure of relating one of those circumstances that made
+me say just now the bandits' balls respected me.
+
+One day I was alone with my lieutenant, having both of us only our
+daggers, and we were coming back to our habitation, and passing through
+a thick forest, situated at the end of the lake. Alila said to me:
+"Master, this neighbourhood is much frequented by Cajoui." Cajoui
+was known as the chief of a most daring gang of brigands. Among
+his numerous atrocities he had amused himself, on that very day, by
+drowning twenty of his fellow-countrymen. I then determined to free
+the country of the odious assassin, and the advice of my lieutenant
+induced me to take a narrow path, that led us to a hut concealed in
+the midst of the woods. I told Alila to remain below, and to watch,
+while I went to endeavour to reconnoitre the persons who inhabited
+it. I went up by the small ladder that leads to the interior of the
+Tagalese huts; a young Indian woman was there, quite alone, and very
+busy plaiting a mat. I asked her for some fire to light my cigar, and
+returned to my lieutenant. Having accidentally cast my eyes upon the
+exterior of the hut, it appeared much larger than it did inside. I
+ran up again quickly, and looked all round the place in which the
+young girl was, and observed at the extremity of it a small door,
+covered over by a mat. I gave it a strong push, and at the moment,
+Cajoui, who, with his carbine on cock, was waiting for me behind the
+door, fired straight at me. The fire and the smoke blinded me, and
+by a most inconceivable chance the ball slightly grazed my clothes
+without wounding me. Alila, knowing I had no fire-arms, hearing the
+report, thought I was killed. He ran up to the top of the steps, and
+found me enveloped in a cloud of smoke, with my dagger in my hand,
+trying to find my enemy, who seeing me still standing erect, after he
+had shot at me, thought, no doubt, I had about me some anten-anten--a
+certain diabolic incantation that, according to the Indian belief,
+makes a man invulnerable to all sorts of fire-arms. The bandit was
+frightened, jumped out of a window, and ran away as fast as he could
+across the forest.
+
+Alila could not believe what had happened to me; he felt all over
+my body, in order to convince himself that the ball had not passed
+through me. When he was quite sure that I had not received a wound,
+he said to me:
+
+"Master, if you had not had the anten-anten about you you would have
+been killed."
+
+My Indians always believed I was possessed of this secret, as well
+as of many others. For instance, when they often saw me go for
+twenty-four, even for thirty-six hours, without eating or drinking,
+they became persuaded that I could live in that manner for an
+indefinite period; and one day, a good Tagalese padre, in whose
+house I chanced to be, almost went upon his knees while begging me
+to communicate to him the power I possessed, as he said, to live
+without food.
+
+The Tagals have retained all their old superstitions. However, thanks
+to the Spaniards, they are all Christians; but they understand that
+religion nearly in the way that children do. They believe that to
+attend on Sundays and festival days at the Divine offices, and to go
+to confession and to communion once a year, is sufficient for the
+remission of all their sins. A little anecdote that occurred to me
+will show how far they understand evangelical charity.
+
+One day two young Indians stole some poultry from one of their
+neighbours, and they came to sell them to my major-domo for about
+sixpence. I had them called before me, to administer a lecture, and
+to punish them. With the utmost simplicity they made me this answer:
+
+"It is true, master, we have done wrong, but we could not do otherwise;
+we are to go to communion to-morrow, and we had not money enough to
+get a cup of chocolate."
+
+It is a custom with them to take a cup of chocolate after communion,
+and it was considered by them a greater sin to miss taking that than
+to commit the trifling theft of which they were guilty.
+
+Two evil-doing demons play an important part among them, and in which
+all believed before the conquest of the Philippine islands. One
+of those malevolent demons is the Tic-balan which I have already
+mentioned, who dwells in the forests, in the interior of the large
+fig-trees. This demon can do every possible harm to anyone who dares
+not to respect him, or who does not carry certain herbs about his
+person; every time an Indian passes under one of these fig-trees
+he makes a movement towards it with his hand, saying: "Tavit-po,"
+Tagal words, signifying: "Lord! with your permission!" The lord of
+the place is the Tic-balan.
+
+The other demon is called Azuan. She presides especially over
+parturitions in an evil manner, and an Indian is often seen, when his
+wife is in labour, perched upon the roof of his hut, with a sabre in
+his hand, thrusting the point into the air, and striking on all sides
+with the edge, to drive away, as he says, the Azuan. Sometimes he
+continues this manoeuvring for hours, until the labour is over. One
+of their beliefs--and one that Europeans might envy--is, that when
+a child that has not reached the age of reason dies, it is happy for
+all the family, since it is an angel that has gone to heaven, to be
+the protector of all its relations. The day of the interment is a
+grand fête-day; relations and friends are invited; they drink, they
+dance, and they sing all night in the hut where the child died. But I
+perceive that the superstitions of the Indians are drawing me from my
+subject. I shall have occasion, further on, to describe the manners
+and customs of these singular people.
+
+I now resume my statement, at the moment when my lieutenant tried to
+assure me that I had some anten-anten, and that consequently I could
+not be wounded by a shot fired at me.
+
+He then addressed the young girl, who had remained in the corner,
+more dead than alive.
+
+"Ah! cursed creature!" said he to her; "you are Cajoui's mistress:
+now your turn is come!"
+
+At this moment he advanced towards her with his dagger in his hand. I
+ran between him and the poor girl, for I knew he was capable of
+killing anyone, particularly after I had been attacked in a manner
+that had placed me in danger.
+
+"Wretch!" said I to him, "what are you going to do?"
+
+"No great things, master; only to cut off the hair and ears of this
+vile woman, and then send her to tell Cajoui that we shall soon
+catch him!"
+
+It cost me much trouble to prevent him from executing his plan. I was
+obliged to use all my authority, and to allow him to burn the cabin,
+after the terrified young girl, thanks to my protection, had fled
+into the forest.
+
+My lieutenant was right in sending word to Cajoui that we should catch
+him. Some months after, and several leagues from the place where we had
+set fire to his cabin, one day, when three men of my guard accompanied
+me, we discovered, in the thickest part of the wood, a small hut. My
+Indians rushed forward in quick time to surround it; but almost all
+round it there was found a morass, covered over with sedges and bushes,
+when all three sunk in the mud, up to their middle. As I did not run
+as fast as they did I perceived the danger, and went round the marsh,
+so as to reach the cabin by the only accessible way. Suddenly I found
+myself face to face with Cajoui, and near enough almost to touch him. I
+had my dagger in my hand; he also had his--the struggle began. For
+a few seconds we aimed many strokes at each other, which each of us
+tried to avoid as well as he could. I think, however, that fortune was
+turning against me; the point of Cajoui's poignard had already entered
+rather deeply into my right arm, when with my left hand I took from
+my belt a large-sized pistol. I discharged it full at his breast:
+the ball and the wadding went through his body. For a few seconds
+Cajoui endeavoured still to defend himself; I struck him with all my
+force, and he fell at my feet; I then wrested from him his dagger,
+which I still retain. My people came out of the mud-hole and joined
+me. Compassion soon replaced the animosity we bore against Cajoui. We
+made a sort of litter; I bandaged his wound, and we carried him more
+than six leagues in this manner to my habitation, where he received
+all the care his state required. Every moment I expected him to die;
+every quarter of an hour my people came to tell me how he was; and
+they kept saying to me:
+
+"Master, he cannot die, because he has the anten-anten upon him; and
+it is very lucky that you have some of it too, and that you fired at
+him, for our arms would have been of no avail against him."
+
+I laughed at their simplicity, and expected from one minute to
+another to hear that the wounded man had breathed his last, when my
+lieutenant brought me, quite joyously, a small manuscript, about two
+inches square, saying to me:
+
+"Here, master, is the anten-anten I found upon Cajoui's body."
+
+At the same time one of my men announced his death.
+
+"Ah!" said Alila, "if I had not taken the anten-anten from him he
+would be still alive."
+
+I searched the small book through and through; prayers and
+invocations that had not much sense were therein written in the
+Tagalese language. A good friar who was present took it out of my
+hands. I imagined that he had the same curiosity as I had, but by
+no means; he rose up and went into the kitchen, and in a short time
+after came out and told me that he had made an auto-da-fé of it. My
+poor lieutenant almost cried with vexation, for he considered the
+little book to be his property, and thought that in possession of it
+he would be invulnerable. I should also have wished to have kept it,
+as a curious specimen of Indian superstition. The next day I had much
+trouble to persuade my stout friend, Father Miguel, to bury Cajoui in
+the cemetery. He maintained that a man who died with the anten-anten
+upon him ought not to receive Christian burial. To make him accede to
+my wishes it was necessary to tell him that the anten-anten had been
+taken from Cajoui before his death, and that he had time to repent.
+
+A few days after Cajoui's death it was my faithful Alila's turn to
+encounter danger, not less imminent than that to which I had been
+exposed, at the time of my combat with the bandit chief. But Alila
+was brave, and, although he had no anten-anten, fire-arms did not
+frighten him.
+
+Large vessels--real Noah's arks--freighted by various merchants,
+sailed every week from the town of Pasig for that of Santa-Cruz, where
+every Thursday a large market was held. Eight daring and determined
+brigands went on board one of these vessels: they hid their arms among
+the bales of goods. The ship was scarcely out at sea when they seized
+them, and a horrible scene of slaughter ensued. All who endeavoured
+to resist them were butchered, even the pilot was thrown overboard;
+at length, finding no more resistance, they plundered the passengers
+of the money they had upon them, took every article of value they
+could find, and, loaded with their booty, they steered the vessel to
+a deserted spot on the shore, where they landed.
+
+I had been informed of this nefarious enterprise, and went with haste
+to the spot where they landed. Unfortunately I arrived too late, for
+they had already escaped to the mountains, after they had divided the
+spoil. Notwithstanding the slight hope I entertained of overtaking
+them, I set off in pursuit, and after a long march I met an Indian,
+who informed me that one of the bandits, not so good a walker as the
+others, was not far off, and that if I and my guards ran quickly we
+might overtake him. Alila was the best runner--he was as fleet as
+a deer; so I told him: "Set out, Alila, and bring me that runaway,
+either dead or alive."
+
+My brave lieutenant, to be less encumbered in the race, left his
+gun with us, took a long spear, and went off. Shortly after we had
+lost sight of him we heard the report of firearms; we knew it must
+be the brigand firing upon Alila, and we all thought that he was
+killed or wounded. We hastened forward, in the hopes of arriving in
+time to render him assistance; but we soon saw him coming leisurely
+towards us; his face and clothes were covered with blood, the spear
+in his right hand, and in his left the hideous head of the bandit,
+which he carried by the hair--as Judith had formerly done with that
+of Holophernes. But my poor Alila was wounded, and my first care was
+to examine if the wound was serious. When I was satisfied it was not
+dangerous, I asked him for the details of his combat.
+
+"Master," said he to me, "shortly after I left you I perceived the
+bandit; he saw me also, and ran off as quickly as he could, but I ran
+faster than he, and was soon close to him. When he lost all hopes
+of escaping he turned upon me and presented his pistol; I was not
+alarmed, and advanced towards him at all risk. The pistol was fired,
+and I felt myself wounded in the face; this wound did not stop me. I
+darted at him and pierced his body with my spear; but, as he was too
+heavy for me to bring to you, I cut off his head, and here it is."
+
+When I had congratulated Alila upon his success, I examined his wound,
+and found that a fragment of a ball, cut into four pieces, had hit
+him upon the cheek, and was flattened on the bone. I extracted it,
+and a speedy cure followed.
+
+Now, as I have almost terminated, and shall not return to, my numerous
+adventures with the bandits, I resume the continuation of my ordinary
+life at Jala-Jala.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    Death of my Brother Robert--Our Party at Jala-Jala--Illness and
+    Last Moments of my Friend Bermigan--Recovery and Departure for
+    France or Lafond--Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity--Tremendous
+    Gale of Wind--Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake--Safe Return
+    to Jala-Jala--Destruction of my House and the Village by a
+    Typhoon--Rendezvous with a Bandit--Ineffectual Attempts to Reform
+    Him--His Death--Journey to Tapuzi--Its Inaccessibility--Government
+    of the Tapuzians--Morality and Religious Character of their
+    Chief--Their Curiosity at Beholding a White Man--Former Wickedness
+    and Divine Punishment--We bid Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return
+    to Jala-Jala.
+
+
+At this period a sad event plunged my house into mourning. Letters from
+my family announced to me that my brother Robert had returned from
+Porto-Rico, but that soon after a serious illness had carried him to
+the grave. He died in the arms of my mother and sisters, in the small
+house of La Planche, where, as I said before, we had all been brought
+up. My excellent Anna, wept with us, and exerted every means that
+interesting affection could suggest to alleviate the grief my brother
+Henry and myself experienced from this melancholy bereavement. A few
+months afterwards a new source of sorrow fell to our lot. Our little
+social party at Jala-Jala consisted of my sister-in-law; of Delaunay,
+a young man from St. Malo, who had come from Bourbon to establish at
+Manilla some manufactories for baking sugar; of Bermigan, a young
+Spaniard; and my friend, Captain Gabriel Lafond, like myself, from
+Nantes. He had come to the Philippine islands on board the Fils de
+France, had passed some years in South America, and had occupied
+several places of distinction in the navy, as captain-commandant,
+until at last, after many adventures and vicissitudes, he came with
+a small fortune to Manilla, where he bought a vessel, and set sail
+for the Pacific Ocean, to fish for the balaté or sea-worm. He had
+scarcely readied the island of Tongatabou when the vessel struck upon
+the rocks that surround this island; he saved himself by swimming
+to the shore, having lost everything. From thence he went to the
+Marianne islands, where grief and bad food caused him to fall ill;
+he returned to Manilla, labouring under dysentry. I had him brought
+to my house, and whilst there attended to him with all the care
+a fellow-countryman and a good friend, endowed with sterling and
+amiable qualities, deserved. Our evenings were spent in amusing and
+instructive conversation. As we had all travelled a great deal, each
+had something to relate. During the day the invalids kept company
+with the ladies, while my brother and myself followed our respective
+avocations. But soon, alas! a shocking event disturbed the calm that
+reigned at Jala-Jala. Bermigan fell so dangerously ill, that a few days
+sufficed to convince me there was no hope of saving him. I shall never
+forget the fatal night: we were all assembled in the drawing-room,
+grief and consternation were in every heart and pourtrayed in every
+countenance; in an adjoining room a few short steps from us, we heard
+the death-rattle of poor Bermigan, who had only a few minutes to
+live. My excellent friend, Lafond, whom sickness had reduced almost
+to the last stage, broke silence, and said: "Well! poor Bermigan goes
+to-day, and in a few days, perhaps to-morrow, it will be my turn. Just
+see! my dear Don Pablo; I may almost say that I no longer exist. Look
+at my feet--my body! I am a mere skeleton; I can scarcely take any
+food. Ah! it is better to be dead than live like this!"
+
+I was so persuaded that his forebodings would not be delayed in being
+realized, that I scarcely dared to utter the smallest consolation or
+any hopes. Who could then have told me that he and I alone were to
+survive all those who surrounded us, full of life and health? But,
+alas! let us not here anticipate future events.
+
+Poor Bermigan breathed his last. Our house at Jala-Jala was no longer
+untouched by the hand of Death--a human being had expired therein;
+and on the following day, in sadness and silence, we all proceeded
+to the cemetery, to inter the body of our friend, and to render him
+the last proofs of our respect. The body was laid at the foot of a
+large cross, which is placed in the centre of the grave-yard. For
+many days sadness and silence prevailed in our home at Jala-Jala.
+
+Some time afterwards I had the gratification to see the efforts
+I employed for my friend Lafond were successful. By means of the
+strong remedies I administered his health was speedily restored, his
+appetite returned, and he was soon able to set sail for France. He
+is now residing in Paris, married to a woman possessed of every
+quality necessary to make a man happy, and is the father of three
+children. Holding an honourable position, and enjoying public esteem,
+he has never forgotten the six months he spent at Jala-Jala, for
+ingratitude never sullied his noble, loving, and devoted heart. A
+sincere attachment still subsists between us, and I am happy thus to
+assure him that he is, and ever will be, to me a valued friend. [16]
+
+As I have now mentioned several persons who resided for some time at
+Jala-Jala, I must not forget one of my colonists, Joachim Balthazard,
+a native of Marseilles, as eccentric a man as I have ever known. When
+Joachim was young, he set sail from Marseilles. When he arrived at
+Bourbon, his name not being on the crew's list, he was arrested,
+and put on board the Astrolabe, which was then making a voyage
+round the world. He deserted at the Marianne islands, and came to
+the Philippines in the greatest distress, and addressed himself to
+some good friars, in order, as he said, to effect his conversion
+and his salvation. He lived among them, and at their expense, for
+nearly two years; afterwards he opened a coffee-house at Manilla,
+and spent in pleasure and debauchery a large sum of money that a
+fellow-countryman and I had advanced him. He afterwards built upon
+my grounds a large straw edifice, that had more the appearance of
+a huge magazine than of a house. There he kept a kind of seraglio,
+adopted all the children which his numerous wives gave him, and, with
+his own family, made his house not unlike a mutual school. Whenever
+he was weary of either of his wives he called one of his workmen,
+saying to him in the most serious manner:
+
+"There is a wife that I give you; be a good husband, treat her well:
+and you, woman, this is your husband, be faithful to him. Go, may
+God bless you! Be off, and let me never see you again."
+
+He was generally without a farthing, or all of a sudden rich with heavy
+sums, that were spent in a few days. He borrowed from everybody, and
+never paid them back; he lived like a real Indian, and was as cowardly
+as a half-drowned chicken. His light-coloured hair, sallow complexion,
+and beardless face, gave him the nick-name among the Indians of
+Onela-Dogou, Tagalese words, that signify "one who has no blood."
+
+As I was one day crossing over the lake in a small canoe with him and
+two Indians, we were assailed by one of those extraordinary gales of
+wind, which in the Chinese seas are called Tay-Foung (typhoon). These
+gales of wind, though extremely rare, are tremendous. The sky is
+covered with the heaviest clouds; the rain pours in torrents; the
+day-light disappears, almost as much as in the densest fog; and the
+wind blows with such fury that it throws down everything it reaches
+in its course. [17]
+
+We were in our canoe; the wind had scarcely begun to blow with all
+its violence than Balthazard commenced to invoke all the saints in
+Paradise. Almost in despair, he cried out aloud:
+
+"Oh, God! have mercy upon me, a wretched sinner! Grant me the grace
+that I may have an opportunity of confessing my sins, and of receiving
+absolution!"
+
+All these lamentations and appeals served only to frighten my two
+Indians, and most undoubtedly our position was critical enough for us
+to endeavour to retain our presence of mind, so as to attend to the
+management of our little boat, which from one moment to another was in
+danger of being swamped. However, I was certain that, being provided
+with two large beams of bamboos, it could keep its position in the
+current between two waters and not capsize, if we had the precaution
+and strength to scud before the wind, and not turn the side to a wave,
+for in such case we should all have been drowned. What I foresaw,
+happened. A wave burst upon us; for a few minutes we were plunged
+in the deep, but when the wave passed over we came above water. Our
+canoe was swamped between the currents, but we did not abandon it;
+we put our legs under the seats, and held them fast; the half of
+our body was above water. But every time that a wave came towards
+us it passed over our heads, and then went off, giving us time to
+breathe until another wave came and dashed over us. Every three or
+four minutes the same manoeuvring took place. My Indians and I used
+all our strength and skill to scud on before the wind. Balthazard
+had ceased his lamentations; we all kept silence; from time to time
+I only uttered these words:
+
+"Take courage, boys, we shall reach the shore."
+
+Our position then became much worse, for night set in. The rain
+continued to pour in torrents, the wind increased in fury. From time to
+time we received some light from globes of fire, like what the sailors
+call "Saint Elmo's fire." While these rays of light continued I looked
+as far around me as I could, and only perceived an immense body of
+water in furious agitation. For nearly two hours we were tossed about
+by the waves that drove us towards the beach, and, at a moment when
+we least expected it, we found ourselves driven into the midst of an
+extensive grove of lofty bamboos. I then knew that we were over the
+land, and that the lake had inundated the country for several miles
+around. We were up to our breasts in water, and it was not in our power
+to pass through the inundation. The darkness was too great to allow
+us to go in any direction; our canoe was no longer of any use to us,
+as it was entangled among the bamboos. We climbed up the trees as well
+as we could, even to the height where the bamboos end in sharp points;
+our bodies were much torn by the sharp thorns growing on the small
+branches; the rain continued to pour without intermission; the wind
+still blowed, and each gust caused the bamboos to bend, the flexible
+branches of which tore our bodies and faces. I have suffered a great
+deal in the course of my life, but no night ever appeared to me so
+long and cruel as this! Joachim Balthazard then recovered his speech,
+and, in a trembling, broken voice, said to me:
+
+"Ah! Don Pablo, do write I beg of you, to my mother, and tell her
+the tragical end of her son!"
+
+I could not help answering him: "You cowardly rascal! Do you think,
+then, that I am more at my ease than you are? Hold your tongue,
+otherwise I shall make you turn diver, so that I may never hear you
+again." Poor Joachim then knew what to do, and did not utter a word;
+only from time to time he made us aware of his trouble by his deep
+moans.
+
+The wind, which was blowing from the north-west, towards four o'clock
+in the morning suddenly changed to the east, and shortly afterwards
+gave over. It was almost daylight: we were saved. We could at last
+see one another; all four of us looked in a wretched condition; our
+clothes being torn to pieces. Our bodies were lacerated, and covered
+with deep scratches. The cold had penetrated into the very marrow
+of our bones, and the long bath we had taken had wrinkled the skin;
+we looked just like drowned people taken out of the water, where
+they had been for some hours. Nevertheless, crippled as we were, we
+slipped down from the bamboos, and were soon bathing in the waters
+of the lake. The effect was healthful and agreeable: it seemed like
+a warm bath at 30 degrees of heat.
+
+We were quite restored by this mild temperature. We got our canoe out
+of the grove, where fortunately it had been caught so fast that neither
+the waves nor the currents could drive it any farther. We again set it
+afloat, and soon succeeded in reaching an Indian hut, where we dried
+ourselves, and recruited our strength. Calm was now re-established;
+the sun shone in all its splendour, but everywhere traces of the
+typhoon were visible. In the course of the day we reached Jala-Jala,
+where our arrival caused great joy. They knew at home that I was on
+the lake, and everything led them to presume that I had perished. My
+good and dear Anna threw herself into my arms in tears; she had been
+in such anxiety for my safety, that for some moments the tears that
+flowed down her cheeks alone expressed her joy at again seeing me.
+
+Balthazard returned to his seraglio. As long as he was under my
+protection the Indians respected him, but after my departure from
+Jala-Jala he was assassinated; and all those who knew him agreed that
+he had deserved his fate for more than one cause.
+
+As I have mentioned this typhoon, I am going to anticipate a little,
+in describing, as briefly as possible, a still more frightful one than
+that which I experienced in my slight canoe and in the bamboo grove.
+
+I had just completed some pretty baths upon the lake opposite my
+house. I was quite satisfied and proud of procuring this new pleasure
+for my wife. On the very day that the Indians had added the last
+ornaments to them, towards evening a western wind began to blow
+furiously; by degrees the waters of the lake became agitated, and
+shortly we no longer doubted but that we were going to have a typhoon.
+
+My brother and I stayed some time examining, through the panes of
+glass, whether the baths would resist the strength of the wind,
+but in a heavy squall my poor edifice disappeared like a castle
+made of cards. We withdrew from the window, and luckily too, for a
+heavier squall than that which had destroyed the baths burst in the
+windows that faced to the west. The wind drove through the house,
+and opened a way for itself, by throwing down all the wall over the
+entrance-door. The lake was so agitated that the waves went over my
+house, and inundated all the apartments. We were not able to remain
+there any longer. By assisting each other, my wife, my brother, a young
+Frenchman who was then staying at Jala-Jala, and myself, succeeded in
+reaching a room on the ground-floor; the light came from a very small
+window; there, in almost total darkness, we spent the greater part of
+the night, my brother and I leaning our shoulders against the window,
+opposing with all our strength that of the wind, which threatened to
+force it in. In this small room there were several jars of brandy: my
+excellent Anna poured some into the hollow of her hand, and gave it us
+to drink, to support our strength and to warm us. At break of day the
+wind ceased, and calm re-appeared. All the furniture and decorations
+of my house were broken and shattered to pieces; all the rooms were
+inundated, and the store-rooms were full of sand, carried there by the
+waters of the lake. Soon my house became an asylum for my colonists,
+who had all spent a wretched night, and were without shelter.
+
+The sun soon shone splendidly; the sky was cloudless; but my sadness
+was extreme when, from a window, I examined the disasters produced
+by the typhoon. There was no village! Every hut was levelled to the
+ground. The church was thrown down--my store-houses, my sugar factory,
+were entirely destroyed; there was then nothing more than heaps of
+ruins. My fine cane-fields were altogether destroyed, and the country,
+which previously had appeared so beautiful, seemed as if it had passed
+through a long wintry season. There was no longer any verdure to be
+seen; the trees were entirely leafless, with their boughs broken, and
+portions of the wood were entirely torn down; and all this devastation
+had taken place within a few hours. During that and the following day
+the lake threw up, upon the shore, the bodies of several unfortunate
+Indians who had perished. The first care of Padre Miguel was to
+bury the dead, and for a long time afterwards there were to be seen,
+in the grave-yard of Jala-Jala, crosses, with the inscription: "An
+unknown who died during the typhoon." My Indians began immediately to
+rebuild their huts, and I, as far as possible, to repair my disasters.
+
+The fertile nature of the Philippine islands speedily effaced the
+aspect of mourning which it had assumed. In less than eight days
+the trees were completely covered with new leaves, and exhibited
+themselves as in a brilliant summer, after the frightful winter had
+passed over. The typhoon had embraced a diameter of about two leagues,
+and, like a violent hurricane, had upset and shattered everything it
+met during its course.
+
+But enough of disasters: I return to the epoch when the death of poor
+Bermigan caused affliction to us all.
+
+All was prosperity in my dwelling: my Indians were happy; the
+population of Jala-Jala increased every day; I was beloved and
+respected. I had rendered great service to the Spanish government
+by the incessant warfare I carried on against the bandits; and I may
+say that even amongst them I enjoyed a high reputation. They looked
+upon me, indeed, as their enemy, but in the light of a brave enemy,
+incapable of committing any act of baseness against them, and who
+carried on an honourable warfare; and the Indian character was so
+well known to me, that I did not fear they would play me any low
+tricks, or would treacherously attack me. Such was my conviction,
+that around my house I was never accompanied by day or by night. I
+traversed without fear all the forests and mountains, and I often even
+treated with these honourable bandits, as one power does with another,
+by not disdaining the invitations sometimes sent to me to come to a
+certain place, where, without fear of surprise, they could consult me,
+or even invoke my assistance. This sort of rendezvous was always held
+in the night, and in very lonely places. On their side, as well as
+on mine, a promise given of not doing any injury to each other was
+religiously observed. In these nocturnal conversations, held without
+witnesses, I often brought back to a life of peace mistaken men, whom
+the turbulence of youth had thrown into a series of crimes, which
+the laws would have visited with most severe punishment. Sometimes,
+however, I failed in my attempts, and especially when I had to do
+with proud and untameable characters, such as are to be found among
+men who never have had any other guide but natural instinct. One day,
+among others, I received a letter from a half-breed, a great criminal,
+who infested the neighbouring province of Laguna; he told me that
+he wished to see me, and begged me to come alone in the middle of
+the night to a wild spot, where he would also come alone: I did not
+hesitate to go to the place appointed. I found him there as he had
+promised me. He told me that he wished to change his mode of life,
+and to dwell on my estate. He added, that he had never committed any
+crime against the Spaniards, but only against the Indians and the
+half-breeds. It would have been impossible for me to have received
+him without compromising myself. I proposed to place him in the house
+of a friar, where he might remain concealed for several years, until
+his crimes were forgotten, and then he could enter into society. After
+a moment's reflection, he replied:
+
+"No, that would be to lose my liberty. To live as a slave! I would
+prefer to die."
+
+I then proposed to him to go to Tapuzi, a place where the bandits, when
+hotly pursued, were enabled to conceal themselves with impunity.--(I
+shall very soon have occasion to speak of this village.)--The
+half-breed, with an insignificant gesture, replied:
+
+"No; the person I wish to take with me would not come there. You can
+do nothing for me, adieu!"
+
+He then pressed my hand, and we separated. Some days afterwards, a hut
+in which he was seen, near Manilla, was surrounded by the troops of
+the line. The bandit then caused the owners of the hut to quit it,
+and when he saw them out of danger he took his carabine and began
+firing upon the soldiers, who on their side returned the attack on
+the hut. When it was riddled with balls, and the bandit had ceased
+to defend himself, a soldier approached the hut and set fire to it,
+so great was the fear they entertained of then finding him alive.
+
+These nocturnal interviews having led me to mention Tapuzi, I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to this remarkable retreat,
+where men, when proscribed by the law, live together in a sort of
+accord and union of a most extraordinary kind.
+
+Tapuzi, [18] which in the Tagal language, signifies "end of the world,"
+is a little village, situate in the interior of the mountains, nearly
+twenty-five leagues from Jala-Jala. It was formed there by bandits
+and men who had escaped from the galleys, who live in liberty, govern
+themselves, and are altogether, on account of the inaccessible position
+which they occupy, safe from any pursuit which could be ordered against
+them by the Spanish government. I had often heard this singular village
+mentioned, but I had never met anyone who had visited it, or could give
+me any positive details relative to it. One day, therefore, I resolved
+to go thither myself. I stated my intention to my lieutenant, who said:
+
+"Master, I shall find there, no doubt, some of my old comrades,
+and then we shall have nothing to fear."
+
+Three of us set out together, under the pretext of quite a different
+journey. For two days we walked in the midst of mountains, by paths
+almost impracticable. The third day we reached a torrent, the bed of
+which was blocked up by enormous stones. This ravine was the only road
+by which we could get to Tapuzi; it was the natural and impregnable
+rampart which defended the village against the attack of the Spanish
+troops. My lieutenant had just told me:
+
+"Look, master, above your head. None but the inhabitants of Tapuzi
+know the paths which lead to the top of the mountains. All along the
+length of the ravine they have placed enormous stones, that they have
+only to push to throw them down upon those who should come to attack
+them; a whole army could not penetrate among them, if they wished to
+give any opposition."
+
+I clearly saw that we were not in a very agreeable position, and
+against which, if the Tapuzians should consider us as enemies, we could
+oppose no defence. But we were involved in it, and there was no means
+of retreating, it was absolutely necessary to go to Tapuzi. We had
+been already more than an hour in this ravine when an immense block
+of stone fell down perpendicularly, and broke into pieces only twenty
+yards before us: it was a warning. We stopped, laid down our arms,
+and sat down. Perhaps just such another block as what had fallen was
+hanging over our heads, ready to crush us to pieces. We heard a scream
+near us. I told my lieutenant to proceed alone towards the direction
+it came from. In a few minutes he returned, accompanied by two Indians,
+who, confident in my pacific intentions towards them, came to fetch us,
+to take us to the village. We proceeded cheerfully on the remainder
+of the road until we reached the spot where ended the sort of funnel
+we were walking in. Upon this height there was to be seen a plain,
+some miles in circumference, surrounded by high mountains. The part
+that we were in was stopped up by enormous blocks of rocks, lying
+one on the top of the other. From behind stretched forth an abrupt
+threatening mountain, without any signs of vegetation--not unlike
+an ancient European fortress, that some magical power had raised in
+the midst of the high mountains that commanded it. With one glance I
+beheld the whole of the site we were crossing, and at the same time
+reflected upon the great varieties nature presents to our view. We
+soon reached the long wished-for object of our journey--the village of
+Tapuzi. It lies at the extreme end of a plain, composed of about sixty
+thatched huts, similar to those of the Indians. The inhabitants were
+all at their windows, to witness our arrival. Our guides conducted
+us to their chief, or Matanda-sanayon, a fine old man, from the look
+of his face about eighty years of age. He bowed affably to us, and
+addressed himself to me.
+
+"How are you come here--as a friend, or is it curiosity--or do the
+cruel laws of the Spaniards perhaps compel you to seek refuge among
+us? If such is the case, you are welcome; you will find us brothers."
+
+"No," I said to him; "we do not come to stay among you. I am your
+neighbour, and lord of Jala-Jala. I am come to see you, to offer you
+my friendship, and to ask yours."
+
+At the name Jala-Jala the old man looked quite astonished; he then
+said to me:
+
+"It is a long time since I heard you spoken of as an agent of the
+government for pursuing unfortunate men, but I have heard also that
+you fulfilled your mission with much kindness, and that often you
+were their protector, so be welcome."
+
+After this first recognition they presented us some milk and some
+kidney potatoes, and during our repast the old man conversed freely
+with me.
+
+"Several years ago," said he to me, "at a period I cannot recollect,
+some men came to live in Tapuzi. The peace and safety they enjoyed
+made others imitate their example, who sought like themselves to avoid
+the punishment of some faults they had committed. We soon saw fathers
+of families, with their wives and children flock hither; this was
+the foundation of the small government that you see. Now here almost
+all is in common; some fields of kidney potatoes or Indian corn, and
+hunting, suffice for us; he who possesses anything gives to him who has
+nothing. Almost all our clothing is knitted and woven by our wives;
+the abaca, or vegetable silk, from the forest supplies us the thread
+that is necessary; we do not know what money is, we do not require
+any. Here there is no ambition; each one is certain of not suffering
+from hunger. From time to time strangers come to visit us. If they
+are willing to submit to our laws, they remain with us; they have a
+fortnight of probation to go through before they decide. Our laws
+are lenient and indulgent. We have not forgotten the religion of
+our forefathers, and God no doubt will forgive me my first faults,
+on account of my efforts for so many years to promote his worship,
+and the well-being of my equals."
+
+"But," said I to him, "who is your chief, who are your judges and
+priests?"
+
+"It is I," said he, "who fulfil all those functions. Formerly they
+lived like savages here. I was young, robust, and devoted to all my
+brothers. Their chief had just expired: I was chosen to replace him. I
+then took care to do nothing but what was just, and conducive to the
+happiness of those who confided in me. Until then they had devoted
+but little attention to religion: I wished to put my people in mind
+that they were born Christians. I appointed one hour every Sunday
+for us to pray together, and I have invested myself with all the
+attributes of a minister of the Gospel. I celebrate the marriages, I
+pour water upon the foreheads of the infants, and I offer consolations
+to the dying. In my youth, I was a chorister; I remembered the church
+ceremonies; and if I do not actually possess the necessary attributes
+for the functions I have given myself, I practise them with faith and
+love. This is the reason I trust that my good intentions will obtain
+my forgiveness from Him who is the Sovereign Lord of all."
+
+During the whole time of the old man's conversation I was in continual
+admiration. I was among people who had the reputation of living in
+the greatest licentiousness as thieves and robbers. Their character
+was altogether misunderstood. It was a real, great phalanstery,
+composed of brothers, almost all worthy of the name. Above all I
+admired this fine old man, who with moral principles and simple laws,
+had governed them for so many years. On the other hand, what an example
+that was of free men not being able to live without choosing a chief,
+and bringing one another back to the practice of virtuous actions!
+
+I explained to the old man all my thoughts. I bestowed upon him a
+thousand praises for his conduct, and assured him that the Archbishop
+of Manilla would approve all the religious acts he performed with so
+noble an object. I even offered to intercede with the archbishop in
+his behalf, that he might send a pastor to assist him. But he replied:
+
+"No, thank you, sir; never speak about us. We should certainly
+be glad to have a minister of the Gospel here, but soon, under his
+influence, we should be subjected to the Spanish government. It would
+be requisite for us to have money to pay our contributions. Ambition
+would soon creep in amongst us, and from the freedom which we now
+enjoy, we should gradually sink into a state of slavery, and should
+no longer be happy. Once more I entreat of you, do not speak of us:
+give me your word that you will not."
+
+This argument appeared so just to me that I acquiesced to his
+request. I again gave him all the praise he deserved, and promised
+never to disturb the peace of the inhabitants of his village under
+any pretext whatever.
+
+In the evening we received visits from all the inhabitants,
+particularly from the women and children, who all had an immoderate
+curiosity to see a white man. None of the Tapuzian women had ever been
+out of their village, and had scarcely ever lost sight of their huts;
+it was not, therefore, astonishing that they were so curious.
+
+The next day I went round the plain, and visited the fields of
+kidney potatoes and Indian corn, the principal nourishment of the
+inhabitants. The old chief and some elderly people accompanied
+me. When we reached the spot where, upon the eve, I had already
+remarked enormous blocks of rock, the old man paused and told me:
+
+"Look yonder, Castilla. [19] At a time when the Tapuzians were without
+religion, and lived as wild beasts, God punished them. Look at all
+the part of that mountain quite stripped of vegetation: one night,
+during a tremendous earthquake, that mountain split in two--one part
+swallowed up the half of the village that then stood on the place
+where those enormous rocks are. A few hundred steps further on all
+would have been destroyed; there would no longer have existed a single
+person in Tapuzi: but a part of the population was not injured, and
+came and settled themselves where the village now is. Since then we
+pray to the Almighty, and live in a manner so as not to deserve so
+severe a chastisement as that experienced by the wretched victims of
+that awful night."
+
+The conversation and society of this old man--I might say the King
+of Tapuzi--was most interesting to me. But I had already been four
+days absent from Jala-Jala. I ordered my lieutenant to prepare for
+our departure. We bid most affectionate adieus to our hosts, and set
+off. In two days I returned home, quite pleased with my journey and
+the good inhabitants of Tapuzi.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+    Suppression of War between two Indian Towns--Flourishing Condition
+    of Jala-Jala--Hospitality to Strangers--Field Sports--Bat
+    and Lizard Shooting--Visit to, and Description of, the Isle
+    of Socolme--Adventure with a Cayman--Cormorants--We Visit Los
+    Banos--Monkey Shooting--Expedition to, and Description of, the
+    Grotto of Sun-Mateo--Magnificent aspect of the Interior.
+
+
+I found Anna in great trouble, not only on account of my absence,
+but because, on the previous evening, information had been received
+that the inhabitants of the two largest towns in the province had,
+as it was stated, declared war against each other; the most courageous
+amongst them, to the number of three or four hundred on each side, had
+started for the island of Talem. There both parties, in the presence
+of each other, were upon the point of engaging in a battle; already,
+while skirmishing, several had been mortally wounded.
+
+This news frightened Anna she knew that I was not a man who would
+await quietly at home the issue of the battle; she already fancied
+she saw me, with my ten guards, engaged in the thick of the fight,
+and perhaps a victim of my devotedness. I comforted her as I had
+always done, promising to be prudent, and not forget her; but there
+was not a moment to lose; it was necessary, at all risks, to try to
+put an end to a conflict that might no doubt cause the death of many
+men. How could I do so with my ten guards? Dare I pretend to impose my
+will as law on this vast multitude? Clearly not. To attempt to do it
+by force would be to sacrifice all: what was to be done? Arm all my
+Indians--but I had not boats enough to carry them to Talem: in this
+difficulty I decided upon setting out alone with my lieutenant. We
+took our arms, and set sail in a canoe, that we steered ourselves; we
+had scarcely come near the beach within hail of the shore, when some
+armed Indians called out to us to stand off, otherwise they would fire
+upon us. Without paying attention to this threat, my lieutenant and I,
+some minutes later, jumped boldly on shore, and after a few steps we
+found ourselves in the midst of the combatants.
+
+I went immediately up to the chiefs and addressed them, "Wretched
+men," I said to them, "what are you going to do? It is upon you who
+command that the severity of the law will fall. It is still time:
+try to deserve your pardon. Order your men to give me up their arms;
+lay down your own, or else in a few minutes I will place myself at
+the head of your enemies to fight against you. Obey, if not you will
+be treated as rebels."
+
+They listened attentively to me; they were half conquered. However,
+one of them made me this reply:
+
+"And if you take away our arms who will satisfy us that our enemies
+will not come to attack us?"
+
+"I will," I told them; "I give you my word; and if they do not obey
+me as you are going to do, I will return to you, I will give you back
+your arms, and will fight at your head."
+
+These words, said with a tone of authority and command, produced the
+effect I expected. The chiefs, without uttering a word, laid their
+arms at my feet. Their example was followed by all the combatants,
+and, in a moment, a heap of carabines, guns, spears, and cutlasses
+were laid down before me. I appointed ten among these individuals
+who had just obeyed me, gave them each a gun, and told them:
+
+"I confide to you the care of these arms. If anyone attempts to take
+possession of them, fire upon the assailants."
+
+I pretended to take down their names, and went off to the opposite
+camp, where I found all the combatants on foot, ready to march and
+fight against their enemies. I stopped them, saying:
+
+"The battle is over--your enemies are disarmed. You, too, must give
+me up your arms, or else immediately embark in your canoes, and go
+home. If you do not obey me, I will give back their arms instantly to
+your opponents, and I will put myself at their head to fight against
+you. Perform what I command you; I promise you all shall be forgotten."
+
+There was no room for hesitation. The Indians knew that I did not
+allow much time for reflection, and that my threats and chastisements
+followed each other closely. Shortly after, they all embarked in
+their canoes. I remained on the beach alone, with my lieutenant,
+until I had almost lost sight of this small fleet. I then returned
+to the other camp, where I was impatiently expected. I announced to
+the Indians they had no longer any enemies, and that consequently
+they could go back quietly to their village.
+
+But a few days elapsed, as may be seen, without my having new dangers
+to encounter. I was accustomed to them: I relied upon my star, and
+triumphed from all my imprudences. My Indians were blindly submissive
+to me. I was so certain of their fidelity, that I no longer took
+against them the precautions which I considered necessary during the
+first year of my residence at Jala-Jala.
+
+My Anna took part every day more and more in my labours, anxieties,
+and even in some of my dangers. Would it have been possible not to
+have loved her with deeper affection, than that which one feels for a
+companion leading a peaceful and insignificant life? With what gladness
+she received me after the shortest absence! Joy and satisfaction
+shone on her face, her caresses were as a balsam that healed all my
+lassitude, and even the reproaches she addressed me so gently, for the
+uneasiness I had caused her, fell upon my heart us drops of beatitude.
+
+Jala-Jala was most flourishing; immense fields of rice, sugar-cane,
+and coffee, had taken the place of woods and forests unproductive
+in themselves. Rich pasture-grounds were covered with numerous
+flocks; and a fine Indian village stood in the centre of the
+labouring-ground. Here, there was everywhere to be seen plenty,
+activity; and joy smiled on the countenances of all the inhabitants. My
+own dwelling had become the rendezvous, or resorting-place, of all
+the travellers arriving at Manilla, and a refuge of convalescence
+of many patients, who would come and breath the good and mild air of
+Jala-Jala, as well as enjoy its pleasures and amusements. Under that
+roof there was no distinction, no difference; all were equals in our
+eyes, whether French, Spanish, English, American. No matter to what
+nation belonged those who landed at Jala-Jala, they were received like
+brothers, and with all that cordial hospitality to be found formerly
+in our colonies. My visitors enjoyed full and active liberty on my
+little estate; but he who was not desirous of eating alone was obliged
+to remember the time of meals: during the other hours of the day one
+and all followed their own inclinations. For instance, naturalists
+went in pursuit of insects and birds, and made an ample harvest of
+every species of plants. Persons ailing met with the assiduous care
+of a physician, as well as with the kind attention and enjoyed the
+company of a most amiable and well-informed mistress of the house,
+who had the natural talent of enchanting all those who spent but a
+short time in her society. They who liked walking might look about for
+the fine views, and choose their resting-place either in the woods,
+the mountains, near the cascades or the brooks, or on the beautiful
+borders of the lake.
+
+But to sportsmen Jala-Jala was really a "promised land;" there they
+always found a good pack of hounds, Indians to guide them, good
+stout horses to carry them across the various mountains and plains,
+where the stag and wild boar were to be met with most plentifully;
+and were they desirous of less fatiguing exercise, they only had to
+jump into some of our light canoes, and skim over the blue waters,
+shooting on their way at the hosts of aquatic birds flying around
+them in all directions,--they could even land on the various small
+islands situated between Jala-Jala and the isle of Talem. There
+they could find a sort of sport utterly unknown in Europe--that is,
+immense bats, a species of vampire, designated by naturalists by the
+name of roussettes. During six months in the year, at the period of the
+eastern monsoon, every tree on these little isles is covered, from the
+topmost down to the lowest branch, with those huge bats, that supply
+the place of the foliage which they have entirely destroyed. Muffled
+up in their vast wings they sleep during the whole day, and in the
+nighttime they start off in large bodies roaming about in search
+of their prey. But as soon as the western monsoon has succeeded the
+eastern, they disappear, and repair always to the same place,--the
+eastern coast of Luzon, where they take shelter; after the monsoon
+changed, they return to their former quarters.
+
+As soon as our guests would alight upon one of these islands, they
+opened their fire, and continued it till--frightened by so many
+explosions and the screams of the wounded, clinging to and hanging
+from the branches--the bats would fly away in a body--en masse. For
+some time they would whirl and turn round and round like a dense
+cloud over their abandoned home, imitating, in a most perfect way,
+those furies we see in certain engravings representing the infernal
+regions, and then, flying off a short distance, would perch upon the
+trees in a neighbouring isle. If the sportsmen were not over-fatigued
+by the slaughter they might then follow them, and set-to again; but
+they generally found they had made victims enough, and diversified
+their pleasure by picking up the slain from under the trees. The bat
+shooting over, our sportsmen would then proceed to a new sport--
+
+
+                  "To fresh fields and pastures new;"
+
+
+that is, in pursuit of and shooting at the iguanas, a large species of
+lizard, measuring from five to six feet long, which infest the rocks
+on the borders of the lake. Tired of firing without being obliged to
+show any skill, our chasseurs would re-embark in their pirogues and
+row in search of new amusement,--this was, to shoot at the eagles that
+came hovering over their heads. Here skill was requisite, as well
+as a prompt, sure glance of the eye, as it is only with ball that
+these enormous birds of prey can be reached. Our fowlers would then
+return home, with their boats full of game; and everyone, of course,
+had his own feats of prowess to relate.
+
+The flesh of the iguana and the bat is savoury and delicate; but as
+for its taste, that entirely depends upon the imagination, as may
+here be seen.
+
+After returning from one of these grand shooting excursions to the
+minor islands, a young American informed me that his friends and he
+himself were most desirous of tasting the iguana and the bat; so,
+supposing them all to be of the same mind, I ordered my maître-d'hôtel
+to prepare for dinner a curry of iguana and a ragout of bats. The
+first dish served round at dinner was the curry, of which they one
+and all partook with very good appetite; upon which I ventured to say:
+"You see the flesh of the iguana is most delicate." At these words all
+my guests turned pale, and they all, by a sudden motion, pushed their
+plates from before them, not even being able to swallow what their
+mouths contained. I was therefore obliged to order the removal of
+the entrées of iguana and bats before we could proceed with the repast.
+
+When it was in my power, I would accompany my guests in their
+excursions, and then the chase was abundant and full of interest,
+because I ever took care to guide them towards places abounding
+in game and very picturesque. Sometimes I would take them to
+the isle of Socolme, a still more curious place indeed than
+the bat islands. Socolme is a circular lake--being one league in
+circumference--in the midst of the great lake of Bay, from which it
+is separated by a cordon or ribbon of land; or, to express myself
+better, by a mountain which rises to an elevation of from twelve to
+fifteen hundred feet; the centre of the mountain at the summit is
+occupied by the lake of Socolme, and is evidently the crater of an
+extinct volcano. Both sides are completely covered with large trees
+of luxuriant growth. It is on the border of the small lake--where
+the Indians never go, through fear of the caymans--that almost all
+the aquatic birds of the grand lake resort to lay their eggs. Every
+tree, white with the guano which they deposit there, is covered with
+birds'-nests, full of eggs and birds of every size and age.
+
+One day, in company of my brother and Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, [20] an
+Englishman, who was as fearless an explorer as ourselves, I started
+from the plantation, with the intention of having some light canoes
+carried across the high ground which separates the Socolme lake from
+the lake of Bay, and of using them on the lake; and, after overcoming
+many difficulties, we, by the assistance of our Indians, carried out
+this project.
+
+We were the first tourists that ever ventured to expose our lives
+on this Socolme lake. The Indians who had come with us refused most
+decidedly to enter the boats, and exerted all their eloquence to
+prevent us from going on the water. They spoke to us thus:--
+
+"You are going, for no good purpose, to expose yourselves to very
+great dangers, against which you have no means of defence, for
+before you have gone far you will see thousands of caymans rising
+out of the deep water; they will come to attack you, and what can
+you oppose to those ferocious and invulnerable monsters? Your guns
+and bullets cannot wound them. And as for escape by rowing quickly,
+that is not possible. In their own element they swim much faster
+than your canoes, and when they come up to you they will turn your
+boats up-side-down with far more ease than you can drive it along;
+and then the frightful scene will begin, from which you cannot escape."
+
+There was much good sense in what they said, and there can be no doubt
+that it was most imprudent of us to embark in a little frail canoe,
+and to make a trip over a lake inhabited by such numbers of caymans,
+and especially since it was to be feared that the lake did not supply
+fish enough to satisfy their voracity; and of course when enraged by
+hunger they were more to be dreaded.
+
+But we were never deterred by dangers or difficulties; so, taking
+no account of the prognostics of my prudent Indians, we, while they
+were delivering their long speeches, had lashed together two canoes
+for greater security.
+
+We had not proceeded many yards from the bank, when we all experienced
+feelings of alarm, attributable, no doubt, to the expectation of
+danger being immediate, as well as to the aspect of the place which
+presented itself to our view.
+
+We were down in the deepest part of a gulf, surrounded by lofty
+and precipitous mountains, which were externally covered with very
+thick vegetation. They, on all sides, presented a barrier, through
+which it was impossible to pass. The shadows which they cast over
+the water, at the extreme point of the lake, produced the effect of
+half darkness, which, in conjunction with the silence prevailing in
+that dismal solitude, gave it an aspect so dreary and saddening,
+as to produce in us most painful feelings; each of us as it were,
+struck with terror, kept his thoughts to himself, and no one spoke.
+
+Our canoes went on, moving farther and farther from the brink from
+which we had embarked; and it glided easily over the glassy sheet of
+water, which is never agitated by even the roughest gales, and does not
+receive the rays of the sun except when that luminary is at the zenith.
+
+The silence in which we were absorbed was suddenly broken by the
+appearance of a cayman, which raised its hideous head, and opened
+its enormous jaws, as if about to swallow the canoes, as it darted
+after us.
+
+The moment was come; the grand drama announced by the Indians was
+about to be realised, or all our fears would be dissipated without any
+delay. There was not one instant to be spared, and we had no choice
+but to try and escape as fast as we could, for the enemy was gaining
+on us, and it would be madness to await his attack. I was steering,
+and I exerted myself to the utmost to get away from the danger and
+to escape to the shore. But the amphibious beast was approaching so
+fast that he could almost seize us, when Lindsay, running all risks,
+fired his gun direct at the brute.
+
+The effect produced by the detonation was prodigious, for, as it were
+by enchantment, it dispelled all our apprehensions. The awful silence
+was broken in the most striking manner; the cayman was frightened, and
+sank abruptly to the bottom of the lake; hundreds of echoes resounded
+from all sides, like the discharges of a rifle corps, and these were
+repeated to the tops of the mountains, while clouds of cormorants,
+starting from all the trees around, uttered their screaming and
+piercing cries, in which they were joined by the Indians, who shouted
+with joy on seeing from the bank the flight of the hostile beast,
+of which they are always so much afraid.
+
+All then became tranquil, and we proceeded at our leisure. From time
+to time a cayman made his appearance; but the explosions caused by
+our firing soon drove the monsters down into the deepest parts of
+the lake, more frightened than hurt, for even when we struck them
+our balls rebounded from their scales without piercing them.
+
+We went close to the large trees, the branches of which were spreading
+over the water; they were thickly covered with nests, filled with eggs,
+and so great a quantity of young birds, that we not only captured as
+many as we wished, but could have filled several boats with them.
+
+The cormorants, alarmed by the explosions we made, whirled over us
+continually, like an immense cloud, during the time we troubled their
+gloomy abode, and seemed to "disturb their solitary reign;" but they
+did not wish to go far from their nests, in which their young broods
+were crying out for parental care.
+
+After we had rowed round the lake, we came to the spot from which we
+started, having ended our expedition happily without any accident,
+and even without having incurred all the dangers that our Indians,
+who were awaiting our return in order to take our boats once more
+across the mountain, had wished to make us believe.
+
+Resolved not to finish the excursion without producing some beneficial
+results for the sake of scientific knowledge, we measured the
+circumference of the lake, which we found to be about two miles and
+a-half. We were able to take soundings in the deepest parts towards
+the middle, where we found the depth about three hundred feet; while at
+some few fathoms from the banks we found it was invariably one hundred
+and eighty feet. And here the remark may be made, that in no part of
+the great Lake of Bay has the depth been found to exceed seventy-five
+feet; from which it may be concluded, as we have previously stated,
+that the lake of Socolme is formed within the crater of an extinct
+volcano, its waters having percolated or filtered through from the
+outer lake of Bay.
+
+From Socolme I took my guests to Los Banos, at the foot of a mountain,
+several thousand feet high, from which several springs of boiling
+water flow into the lake, and, mixing with its waters, produce every
+temperature to be desired in a natural bath. There also, on the hill,
+we were sure to meet with good and plentiful sport. Wild pigeons and
+beautiful doves, perched upon majestic trees, "mistrustful of their
+doom," allowed our sportsmen to approach very near, and they never
+returned from "the baths" without having "bagged" plenty of them.
+
+Upon our appointed days of relaxation from labour, we would go into the
+neighbouring woods, and wage war on the monkeys, our harvest's greatest
+enemies. As soon as a little dog, purposely brought up to this mode
+of warfare, warned us by his barkings that marauders were in sight,
+we repaired to the spot, and then the firing was opened. Fright seized
+hold on the mischievous tribe, every member of which hid itself in its
+tree, and became as invisible as it possibly could. But the little
+dog would not leave his post, while we would turn round the tree,
+and never failed discovering the hidden inmate. We then commence
+the attack, not ceasing until pug was laid prostrate. After having
+made several victims, I sent them to be hung up on forks around the
+sugar-cane fields, as scarecrows to those that had escaped; I, however,
+always sent the largest one to Father Miguel, our excellent curate,
+who was very fond of a monkey ragout.
+
+Sometimes I would take my guests to a distance of several days' march,
+to show them admirable views, cascades, grottoes, or those wonders
+of vegetation produced by the fertile nature of the Philippines.
+
+One day, Mr. Lindsay, the most intrepid traveller I had ever known,
+and who had recently accompanied me to the lake of Socolme, proposed
+to me to go with him to the grotto of San-Mateo, a place that several
+travellers and myself had visited more than once, but always in
+so incomplete a manner, that we had only been able to explore
+a small portion of it. I was too well pleased with the proposal
+not to accept it with eagerness; but this time I resolved that I
+would not return from this expedition, as I had from former ones,
+without having made every possible effort to explore its dimensions
+and recesses. Lindsay, Dr. Genu, and my brother, participated in
+my resolution of verifying whether or not there was any semblance
+of truth in what the Indians related concerning that grotto; or if,
+as I had so often experienced it myself, their poetic minds did not
+create what had never existed. Their old Indian traditions attributed
+to that cavern an immense extent. There, they would say, are to be
+seen fairy palaces, with which nothing could be compared, and which
+were the residences of fantastical beings. Determined, then, on seeing
+with our own eyes all these wonders, we set out for San-Mateo, taking
+with us an Indian, having with him a crowbar and a couple of pickaxes,
+to dig us out a way, should we have the chance of prolonging our
+subterraneous walk beyond the limits which we all already knew. We
+also took with us a good provision of flambeaus, so necessary to
+put our project into execution. We arrived early at San-Mateo, and
+spent the remaining part of the day in visiting admirable views and
+situations in the neighbourhood. We also went down into the bed of
+a torrent that takes its source in the mountains, and passes through
+the north side of this district; there we saw several Indians, male
+and female, all busy in washing the sand in search of gold-dust. Their
+daily produce at this work varies from one to ten francs; this depends
+on the more or less fortunate vein that perchance they fall on. This
+trade, together with the tilling of land--to be equalled by no other
+in fertility--and hewing timber for building, which is to be found
+most plentifully on the neighbouring mountains, is all the wealth of
+the inhabitants, who, in most part, live in abundance and prosperity.
+
+At the next day's dawn we were on our way to the grotto, which is
+about two hours' walk from the village. The road, which is bordered
+by nature's most beautiful productions in vegetation, traverses the
+finest rice plantations, and is of most easy access; however, about
+half-way, it suddenly becomes dangerous and even difficult. Here we
+leave the cultivated fields, and follow along the banks of the river,
+which flows in the midst of not very high mountains, and has so many
+bends, twistings, and meanderings, that, in order to cross it, it is
+necessary at almost every moment to have recourse to swimming, and
+then to take the narrow paths leading from its margin. Nothing, until
+at a very short distance from the grotto, interrupts the monotony of
+these rural sites and situations. The traveller plods his way through
+a gorge, or ravine, where upon all sides the view is bounded by rocks,
+and a long line of verdant vegetation, composed of the shrubs that
+cover the hills. But through a vast winding, or rather turning, made
+by the river, the eye is suddenly dazzled by the splendid panorama
+that seems to develop itself and move on with fairy magnificence. Let
+the reader imagine that he is standing at the base of two immense
+mountains, resembling two pyramids in their form, both equally alike
+and similar in height. The space that intervenes between them allows
+the eye to plunge into the distance, and to discover there a tableau,
+a picture, or view, which is impossible to be described. Between
+the two monster mountains the river has found an issue, and there
+the traveller beholds it at his feet, precipitating itself like an
+impetuous torrent in the midst of white marble rocks. The water, both
+limpid and glossy, seems to play with every object that impedes its
+course; at one moment it will form a noisy cascade, and then suddenly
+disappear at the foot of an enormous rock, and soon after appear again,
+bubbling and foaming, just as if some supernatural strength had worked
+it from the bowels of the earth. Farther on, and in forming itself into
+a continuous number of minor cascades, this same river flows, with a
+vast silvery surface, over a bed of marble, as white and as brilliant
+as alabaster, and falls upon others of still equal whiteness. Finally,
+after having passed over all difficulties, all dangers, it flows with
+much more modesty over a humble bed, where may be seen the reflection
+of the admirable vegetation its banks are embellished with.
+
+The famous grotto is situated in the mountain on the right side of
+the river, which the traveller crosses over by jumping from one block
+of marble to another; and then, after having ascended a steep height
+of about two hundred yards, he finds himself at the entrance to the
+grotto, whither I shall conduct the reader step by step.
+
+The entrance, the form of which is almost regular, represents pretty
+well the portico of a church, with a full arch, adorned with verdant
+festoons, composed of creeping plants and bind-weeds. When the visitor
+has once passed under the portico he enters into a large and spacious
+hall, studded with stalactites of a very yellowish colour, and there
+a dense crowd of bats, frightened by the light of the torches, fly
+out with great noise and precipitation. For about a hundred paces,
+in advancing towards the interior, the vault continues to be very
+lofty, and the gallery is spacious; but suddenly the former declines
+immensely, and the latter becomes so narrow that it scarce admits
+of a passage for one man, who is obliged to crawl on his hands and
+knees to pass through, and continue in this painful position for
+about a hundred yards. And now the gallery becomes wide again, and
+the vault rises several feet high. But here, again, a new difficulty
+soon presents itself, and which must be overcome; a sort of wall,
+three or four yards high, must be climbed over, and immediately behind
+which lies a most dangerous subterraneous place, where two enormous
+precipices, with open mouths on a level with the ground, seem ready
+to swallow up the imprudent traveller, who, although he have his
+torch lighted, would not walk, step by step, and with the greatest
+precaution, through this gloomy labyrinth. A few stones thrown into
+these gulfs attest, by the hollow noise produced by their falling
+to the bottom, that they are several hundred feet deep. Then the
+gallery, which is still wide and spacious, runs on without presenting
+anything remarkable till the visitor arrives on the spot where the
+last researches stopped at. Here it seems to terminate by a sort of
+rotunda, surrounded by stalactites of divers forms, and which, in one
+part, represents a real dome supported by columns. This dome looks
+over a small lake, out of which a murmuring stream flows continually
+into the precipices already described. It was here that we began our
+serious investigations, desirous of ascertaining if it were possible
+to prolong this subterraneous peregrination. We dived several times
+into the lake without discovering anything favourable to our desires;
+we then directed our steps to the right, examining all the while, by
+the light of our torches, the smallest gaps to be seen in the sides
+of the gallery, when at last, after many unsuccessful attempts, we
+discovered a hole through which a man's arm could scarcely pass. By
+introducing a torch into it, how great was our surprise to see within
+it an immense space, studded with rock-crystal. I need not add that
+such a discovery inspired us with the greatest desire of more closely
+examining that which we had but an imperfect view of. We therefore
+set our Indian to work with his pick-axe, to widen the hole and make
+a passage for us; his labour went on slowly, he struck his blows
+gently and cautiously, so as to avoid a falling-in of the rock, which
+would not only have marred our hopes, but would, besides, have caused
+a great disaster. The vault of rocks suspended over our heads might
+bury us all alive, and, as will be seen by the sequel, the precautions
+we had taken were not fruitless. At the very moment when our hopes
+were about to be realised,--the aperture being now wide enough
+to admit of us passing through it--suddenly, and above our heads,
+we heard a hollow prolonged rustling noise that froze us to death;
+the vault had been shaken, and we dreaded its falling upon us. For a
+moment, which seemed to us, however, very long, we were all terrified;
+the Indian himself was standing as motionless as a statue, with his
+hands upon the handle of his pick-axe, just in the same position as
+he was when he gave his last blow. After a moment's solemn silence,
+when our fright had a little subsided, we began to examine the nature
+of the danger we had just escaped. Above our heads a long and wide
+split ran along the vault to a distance of several yards, and, at
+the place where it stopped, an enormous rock, detached from the dome,
+had been most providentially impeded in its fall downwards by one of
+the columns, which, acting as a sort of buttress, kept it suspended
+over the opening we had just made. Having, after mature examination,
+ascertained that the column and the rock were pretty solid, like rash
+men, accustomed to daunt all danger and surmount any sort of obstacle
+and difficulty, we resolved upon gliding one by one into the dangerous
+yawning. Dr. Genu, who till then had kept a profound silence, on
+hearing of our resolution was suddenly seized with such a panic fear
+that he recovered his voice, imploring and begging of us to take him
+out of the cavern; and, as if he had been suddenly seized with a sort
+of vertigo, he told us, with interrupted accents, that he could not
+breathe--that he felt himself as if he were smothering--that his heart
+was beating so violently, were he to stay any longer amidst the dangers
+we were running he was certain of dying from the effects of a rupture
+of the heart. He offered all he possessed on earth to him who would
+save his life, and with clasped hands he supplicated our Indians not
+to forsake him, but to guide him out of the place. We therefore took
+compassion upon his state of mind, and allowed the Indian to guide
+him out; but as soon as the latter returned, and having ascertained
+during his absence that neither the rocky fragment nor the column had
+stirred, but which had been the momentary cause of our alarm, we put
+our project into execution, and like serpents, one after the other,
+we crawled into the dangerous opening, which was scarcely large enough
+for our passing through. We soon ceased thinking of our past dangers,
+nor did our present imprudence much pre-occupy our minds, all our
+attention being entirely absorbed by what presented itself to our
+ravished eyes. Here we were in the midst of a saloon wearing a most
+fairy aspect, and, by the light of our torches, the vault, the floor,
+and the wall were shining and dazzling, as if they had been covered
+over with the most admirably transparent rock-crystal. Even in some
+places did the hand of man seem to have presided over the ornamenting
+of this enchanted palace. Numberless stalactites and stalagmites, as
+pellucid as the limpid stream that has just been seized by the frost,
+assumed here and there the most fantastic forms and shapes--they
+represented brilliant draperies, rows of columns, lustres, and
+chandeliers. At one end, close to the wall, was to be seen an altar,
+with steps leading up to it, and which seemed to be in expectation
+of the priest to celebrate divine service. It would be impossible
+for my pen to describe everything that transported us with joy, and
+drew forth our admiration; we really imagined ourselves to be in one
+of the Arabian Nights' palaces, and the Indians themselves were far
+from guessing the one-half of the wonders we had just discovered.
+
+Having left this dazzling palace, we continued our underground ramble,
+penetrating more and more into the bowels of the earth, following
+step by step a winding labyrinth, but which for a whole half-league
+offered nothing remarkable to our view, except now and then the
+sight of the very great dangers our undauntable curiosity urged us
+on to. In certain parts the vault no longer presented the aspect
+of being as solid as stone, earth alone seemed to be its component
+parts; and here and there, recent proofs of falling-in showed us that
+still more considerable ones might take place, and cut off from us
+all means of retreat. Nevertheless we pushed on still, far beyond
+our present adventurous discovery, and at last arrived at a new,
+magnificent, and extensive space, all bespangled, like the first,
+with brilliant stalactites, and in no way inferior to the former in
+the gorgeous beauty of its details. Here again we gave ourselves up
+to the most minute examination of the many wonders surrounding us,
+and which shone like prisms by the light of our torches. We gathered
+from off the ground several small stalagmites, as large and as round
+as hazel-nuts, and so like that fruit, when preserved, that some days
+later, at a ball at Manilla, we presented some of them to the ladies,
+whose first movement was to put them to their mouth; but soon finding
+out their mistake, they entreated to be allowed to keep them, to
+have them, as they said, converted into ear-ring drops. Having fully
+enjoyed the beautiful and brilliant spectacle presented to our eyes,
+we now began to feel the effects of hunger and fatigue. We had been
+walking in this subterraneous domain to the extent of more than three
+miles, had taken no rest or refreshment since morning, and the day
+was already far advanced.
+
+I have often experienced that our moral strength decreases in
+proportion as our physical strength does; and of course we must have
+been in that state when sinister suppositions took possession of
+our imaginations. One of our party communicated to us a reflection
+he had just made--which was, that a falling-in might have taken
+place between us and the issue from the grotto; or, what appeared
+still more probable, that the enormous rock, that was suspended and
+buttressed up by the column, might have fallen down, and thus bar
+up all passage through the hole we had so rashly made. Had such a
+misfortune happened to us, what a horrible situation we should have
+been in! We could hope for no help from without, even from our friend
+Genu, who, as we had witnessed, had been so upset by fear; so that,
+rather than suffer the anguish and die the death of the wretch buried
+alive in a sepulchre, our poignards must have been our last resource.
+
+All these reflections, which we analysed and commented upon, one by
+one, made us resolve upon returning, and leaving to others, more
+imprudent than ourselves, if any there be, the care of exploring
+the space we had still to travel over. We soon got over the ground
+that separated us from the place we had most to dread. Providence
+had favoured and protected us--the large fragment of rock, that
+object of all our fears, was still propped up. One after the other
+did we squeeze ourselves through the narrow opening, avoiding as
+much as possible the least friction, till at last we had all passed
+through. Joyous indeed were we on seeing ourselves out of danger after
+so perilous an enterprise, and we were already beginning to direct
+our steps towards the outlet of the cavern, when suddenly a hollow,
+prolonged noise, and below our feet a rapid trembling excited once
+more all our fears. But those fears were soon calmed by our Indian,
+who came running towards us at full speed, brandishing in his hand
+his pick-axe. The imprudent fellow, unwilling to sacrifice it, had
+waited till we were some paces distant, and then pulling it to him
+most forcibly, while all the while he took good care to keep quickly
+moving away, when thanks to Providence, or to his own nimbleness,
+he was not crushed to atoms by the fragment of the rock, which,
+being no longer buttressed up by the column that had been shaken,
+had fallen to the ground, completely stopping up the issue through
+which we had passed one after the other: so that no doubt no one,
+after us, will be able to penetrate into the beautiful part of that
+grotto which we had just passed through so fortunately. After this
+last episode we no longer hesitated in returning, and it was with great
+delight that we beheld once more the great luminary of the world, and
+found our friend Genu sitting upon a block of marble, reflecting on
+our long absence, and, at the same time, on our unqualifiable temerity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+    Dumont d'Urville--Rear-Admiral Laplace: Desertion of
+    Sailors from his Ship--I recover them for him--Origin of
+    the Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands--Their General
+    Disposition--Hospitality and Respect for Old Age--Tagal
+    Marriage Ceremony--Indian Legal Eloquence--Explanation of the
+    Matrimonial Speeches--The Caymans, or Alligators--Instances of
+    their Ferocity--Imprudence and Death of my Shepherd--Method
+    of entrapping the Monster which had devoured him--We Attack
+    and eventually Capture it--Its Dimensions--We Dissect and
+    Examine the Contents of its Stomach--Boa-Constrictors--Their
+    large size--Attack of a Boa-Constrictor on a Wild Boar--We Kill
+    and Skin it--Unsuccessful Attempt to capture a Boa-Constrictor
+    alive--A Man Devoured--Dangerous Venomous Reptiles.
+
+
+I shall perhaps be accused of exaggeration for what I say of the
+enjoyments and emotions of my existence at Jala-Jala: nevertheless
+I adhere to the strict truth, and it would be very easy for me to
+cite the names of many persons in support of the truth of all my
+narrative. Moreover, the various travellers who have spent some time at
+my habitation have published, in their works, the tableau or recital of
+my existence in the midst of my dear Indians, who were all so devoted
+to me. Among other works, I shall cite "The Voyage Round the World,"
+by the unfortunate Dumont d'Urville; and that of Rear-Admiral Laplace,
+in each of which works will be found a special article dedicated to
+Jala-Jala. [21]
+
+Since I have named M. Laplace, I shall here relate a little anecdote
+of which he was the hero, and which will show to what a degree my
+influence was generally considered and looked up to in the province
+of Lagune.
+
+Several sailors, belonging to the crew of the frigate commanded
+by M. Laplace, had deserted at Manilla, and, notwithstanding all
+the searches that the Spanish government had caused to be made,
+it was found impossible to discover the hiding-place of five of
+them. M. Laplace coming to pay a few weeks' visit to my little domain,
+the governor said to him: "If you wish to find out your men you have
+only to apply to M. Gironiere--no one will discover them if he do not;
+convey to him my orders to set out immediately in pursuit of them."
+
+On arriving at my habitation M. Laplace communicated to me this order,
+but I was too independent to think of executing it: my business and
+occupation had nothing to do with deserters. A few days afterwards a
+captain, accompanied by about a hundred soldiers, under his orders,
+arrived at Jala-Jala, to inform M. Laplace that he had scoured
+the province without being able to obtain the least news of the
+deserters, whom he had been looking after for the last fortnight; at
+which news M. Laplace was very much grieved, and coming to me, said:
+"M. de la Gironiere, I perceive I shall be obliged to sail without the
+hands that have deserted, if you yourself will not look after them. I
+therefore beg and beseech of you to sacrifice a little of your time,
+and render me that important service."
+
+This entreaty was no order: it was a prayer, a supplication, that
+was addressed to me, consequently I took but little time to reply
+as follows: "Commander, in one hour hence I shall be on my way,
+and before forty-eight hours are expired you shall have your men here."
+
+"Oh! take care," replied he; "mind, you have to do with more than
+rough fellows: do not therefore expose your life, and should they
+perchance make any resistance, give them no quarter, but fire on them."
+
+A few minutes afterwards, accompanied by my faithful lieutenant and
+one soldier, I crossed over the lake, and went in the direction
+where I thought that the French sailors had taken refuge. I was
+soon on their track; and on the second day afterwards I fulfilled
+the promise I had made Commander Laplace, and delivered up to him
+his five deserters against whom I had been obliged to employ neither
+violence nor fire-arms.
+
+I have already had the occasion of speaking about the Tagalocs, and
+describing their disposition. However, I have not yet entered into
+the necessary details to make well known a population so submissive
+to the Spaniards, and whose primitive origin never can be anything
+but hypothesis--yea, a true problem.
+
+It is probable, and almost incontestible, that the Philippine Islands
+were primitively peopled by aborigines, a small race of negroes still
+inhabiting the interior of the forests in pretty large numbers, called
+Ajetas by the Tagalocs, and Négritos by the Spaniards. Doubtless
+at a very distant period the Malays invaded the shores, and drove
+the indigenous population into the interior beyond the mountains;
+afterwards, whether by accidents on sea, or desirous of availing
+themselves of the richness of the soil, they were joined by the
+Chinese, the Japanese, the inhabitants of the archipelago of the
+South Seas, the Javanese, and even the Indians. It must not, then,
+be wondered at, that from the mixture proceeding from the union of
+these various people, all of unequal physiognomy, there have risen
+the different nuances, distinctions and types; upon which, however,
+is generally depicted Malay physiognomy and cruelty.
+
+The Tagal is well made, rather tall than otherwise. His hair is long,
+his beard thin, his colour brass-like, yet sometimes inclining to
+European whiteness; his eye expanded and vivacious, somewhat á la
+Chinoise; nose large; and, true to the Malay race, his cheek bones are
+high and prominent. He is passionately fond of dancing and music; is,
+when in love, very loving; cruel towards his enemies; never forgives an
+act of injustice, and ever avenges it with his poignard, which--like
+the kris with the Malays--is his favourite weapon. Whenever he has
+pledged his word in serious business, it is sacred; he gives himself
+passionately to games of hazard; he is a good husband, a good father;
+jealous of his wife's honour, but careless of his daughter's; who,
+despite any little faux-pas, meets with no difficulty in getting
+a husband.
+
+The Tagal is of very sober habits: all he requires is water, a
+little rice, and salt-fish. In his estimation an aged man is an
+object of great veneration; and where there exists a family of them
+in all periods of life, the youngest is naturally most subservient
+to the eldest.
+
+The Tagal, like the Arab, is hospitably inclined, without any sentiment
+of egotism, and certainly without any other idea than that of relieving
+suffering humanity: so that when a stranger appears before an Indian
+hut at meal-time, were the poor Indian only to have what was strictly
+necessary for his family, it is his greatest pleasure to invite and
+press the stranger to take a place at his humble board, and partake
+of his family cheer. When an old man, whose days are dwindling to
+the shortest span, can work no longer, he is sure to find a refuge,
+an asylum, a home, at a neighbour's, where he is looked upon as one
+of the family. There he may remain till he is called to "that bourne
+from whence no traveller returns."
+
+Amongst the Tagals the marriage ceremony is somewhat peculiar. It
+is preceded by two other ceremonies, the first of which is called
+Tain manoc, Tagal words, signifying or meaning "the cock looking
+after his hen." Therefore, when once a young man has informed his
+father and mother that he has a predeliction for a young Indian girl,
+his parents pay a visit to the young girl's parents upon some fine
+evening, and after some very ordinary chat the mamma of the young man
+offers a piaster to the mamma of the young lady. Should the future
+mother-in-law accept, the young lover is admitted, and then his future
+mother-in-law is sure to go and spend the very same piaster in betel
+and cocoa-wine. During the greater portion of the night the whole
+company assembled upon the occasion chews betel, drinks cocoa-wine,
+and discusses upon all other subjects but marriage. The young men
+never make their appearance till the piaster has been accepted,
+because in that case they look upon it as being the first and most
+essential step towards their marriage.
+
+On the next day the young man pays a visit to the mother, father,
+and other relatives of his affianced bride. There he is received as
+one of the family; he sleeps there, he lodges there, takes a part in
+all the labours, and most particularly in those labours depending
+upon the young maid's superintendence. He now undertakes a service
+or task that lasts, more or less, two, three, or four years, during
+which time he must look well to himself; for if anything be found
+out against him he is discarded, and never more can pretend to the
+hand of her he would espouse.
+
+The Spaniards did their best to suppress this custom, on account of the
+inconveniencies it entailed. Very often the father of a young girl,
+in order to keep in his service a man who cost him nothing, keeps on
+this state of servitude indefinitely, and sometimes dismisses him who
+has served him for two or three years, and takes another under the same
+title of prétendant, or lover. But it also frequently happens that
+if the two lovers grow impatient for the celebration of the marriage
+ceremony--for "hope deferred maketh the heart sick,"--some day or
+other the girl takes the young man by the hair, and presenting him
+to the curate of the village, tells him she has just run away with
+her lover, therefore they must be married. The wedding ceremony then
+takes place without the consent of the parents. But were the young
+man to carry off the young girl, he would be severely punished,
+and she restored to her family.
+
+If all things have passed off in good order, if the lover has undergone
+two or three years of voluntary slavery, and if his future relations
+be quite satisfied with his conduct and temper, then comes the day
+of the second ceremony, called Tajin-bojol, "the young man desirous
+of tying the union knot."
+
+This second ceremony is a grand festival-day. The relations and
+friends of both families are all assembled at the bride's house,
+and divided into two camps, each of which discusses the interests of
+the young couple; but each family has an advocate, who alone has the
+right to speak in favour of his client. The relations have no right
+to speak; they only make, in a low tone of voice, to their advocate,
+the observations they think fit.
+
+The Indian woman never brings a marriage portion with her. When she
+takes a husband unto herself she possesses nothing; the young man alone
+brings the portion, and this is why the young girl's advocate speaks
+first, and asks for it, in order to settle the basis of the treaty.
+
+I will here set before my readers the speeches of two advocates in a
+ceremony of this kind, at which I had the curiosity to be present. In
+order not to wound the susceptibility of the parties, the advocates
+never speak but in allegorical terms, and at the ceremony which
+I honoured with my presence the advocate of the young Indian girl
+thus began:--
+
+"A young man and a young girl were joined together in the holy
+bands of wedlock; they possessed nothing--nay, they had not even a
+shelter. For several years the young woman was very badly off. At last
+her misfortunes came to an end, and one day she found herself in a
+fine large cottage that was her own. She became the mother of a pretty
+little babe, a girl, and on the day of her confinement there appeared
+unto her an angel, who said to her:--'Bear in mind thy marriage,
+and the time of penury thou didst go through. The child that has
+just been born unto thee will I take under my protection. When she
+will have grown up and be a fine lass, give her but to him who will
+build her up a temple, where there will be ten columns, each composed
+of ten stones. If thou dost not execute these my orders thy daughter
+will be as miserable as thou hast been thyself.'"
+
+After this short speech, the adverse advocate replied:--"Once upon a
+time there lived a queen, whose kingdom lay on the sea-side. Amongst
+the laws of her realm there was one which she followed with the
+greatest rigour. Every ship arriving in her states' harbour could,
+according to that law, cast anchor but at one hundred fathoms deep,
+and he who violated the said law was put to death without pity or
+remorse. Now it came to pass one day that a brave captain of a ship was
+surprised by a dreadful tempest, and after many fruitless endeavours
+to save his vessel, he was obliged to put into the queen's harbour,
+and cast anchor there, although his cable was only eighty fathoms
+long, for he preferred death on the scaffold to the loss of his ship
+and crew. The enraged queen commanded him to her audit chamber. He
+obeyed, and throwing himself at her feet, told her that necessity
+alone had compelled him to infringe upon the laws, and that, having
+but eighty fathoms long, he could not possibly cast out a hundred,
+so he besought her most graciously to pardon him."
+
+And here ended his speech, but the other advocate took it up, and
+thus went on:--
+
+"The queen, moved to pity by the prayer of the suppliant captain,
+and his inability to cast his anchor one hundred fathoms deep,
+instantly pardoned him, and well did she devise."
+
+On hearing these last words joy shone upon every countenance,
+and the musicians began playing on the guitar. The bride and
+bridegroom, who had been waiting in an adjoining chamber, now made
+their appearance. The young man took from off his neck his rosary, or
+string of beads, put it round the young girl's neck, and took back hers
+in lieu of the one he had given her. The night was spent in dancing
+and merriment, and the marriage ceremony--just as Christian-like as
+our own--was arranged to take place in a week.
+
+I shall now, just as I heard it myself, give the explanation of the
+advocates' speeches, which I did not entirely understand. The bride's
+mother had married without a wedding portion on her husband's side,
+so she had gone through very adverse and pinching circumstances. The
+temple that the angel had told her to demand for her daughter was, a
+house; and the ten columns, composed of ten stones each, signified that
+with the house a sum of one hundred piasters would be requisite--that
+is, twenty pounds sterling.
+
+The speech of the young man's advocate explained that he would give
+the house, as he said nothing about it; but, being worth only eighty
+piasters, he threw himself at the feet of the parents of his betrothed,
+that the twenty piasters which he was minus, might offer no obstacle
+to his marriage. The pardon accorded by the queen signified the grace
+shown to the young man, who was accepted with his eighty piasters only.
+
+The servitude which precedes matrimony, and of which I have spoken,
+was practised long before the conquest of these isles by the
+Spaniards. This would seem to prove the origin I attribute to the
+Tagalocs, whom I believe to be descended from the Malays, and these
+latter, being all Mussulmans, would naturally have preserved some of
+the ancient patriarchal customs.
+
+Believing that I have sufficiently described the Indians and their
+habits, I will now introduce to my readers two species of monsters
+that I have often bad occasion to observe, mid even to combat--the
+one a denizen of forests, the boa constrictor; the other of lakes
+and rivers, the cayman or alligator. At the period at which I first
+occupied my habitation, and began to colonise the village of Jala-Jala,
+caymans abounded on that side of the lake. From my windows I daily
+saw them sporting in the water, and waylaying and snapping at the
+dogs that ventured too near the brink. One day, a female servant of my
+wife's, having been so imprudent as to bathe at the edge of the lake,
+was surprised by one of them, a monster of enormous size. One of my
+guards came up at the moment she was being carried off; he fired his
+musket at the brute, and hit it under the fore-leg, or arm-pit, which
+is the only vulnerable part. But the wound was insufficient to check
+the cayman's progress, and it disappeared with its prey. Nevertheless,
+this little bullet hole was the cause of its death; and here it is
+to be observed, that the slightest wound received by the cayman is
+incurable. The shrimps which abound in the lake get into the orifice,
+gradually their number increases, until at last they penetrate deep
+into the solid flesh, and into the very interior of the body. This
+is what happened to the one which devoured my wife's maid. A month
+after the frightful occurrence the cayman was found dead upon the
+bank, five or six leagues from my house. Some Indians brought back
+to me the unfortunate woman's earrings, which they had found in the
+monster's stomach.
+
+Upon another occasion, a Chinese was riding onwards in advance
+of me. We reached a river, and I let him go on alone, in order to
+ascertain whether the river was very deep or not. Suddenly, three or
+four caymans which lay in waiting under the water, threw themselves
+upon him; horse and rider disappeared, and for some minutes afterwards
+the water was tinged with blood.
+
+I was curious to obtain a near view of one of these voracious animals,
+and, at the time when they frequented the vicinity of my house, I made
+several attempts to accomplish my wishes. One night I baited a huge
+hook, secured by a chain and strong cord, with an entire sheep. Next
+morning, sheep and chain had disappeared. I lay in wait for the
+creatures with my gun, but the bullets rebounded, half flattened
+upon their scales, without doing the slightest injury. One evening
+that a large dog of mine had died, belonging to a race peculiar to
+the Philippines, and exceeding in size any of the canine species of
+Europe, I had his carcass dragged to the shore of the lake, and hid
+myself in a little thicket, with my gun ready cocked, in the event
+of any cayman presenting itself to carry off the bait. Presently
+I fell asleep; when I awoke, the dog had disappeared, the cayman,
+luckily for me, not mistaking his prey.
+
+In the course of a few years' time, these monsters had disappeared
+from the environs of Jala-Jala; but one morning, when out with my
+shepherds, at some leagues' distance from my house, we came to a river,
+which could only be crossed by swimming. One of my people said to me:
+
+"Master, the water is deep here, and we are in the courses where the
+caymans abound; an accident soon happens, let us try further up the
+river, and pass over in a shallower spot."
+
+We were about to follow this advice, when another man, more rash
+than his comrades, said: "I'm not afraid of caymans!" and spurred
+his horse into the stream. He had scarcely got half-way across, when
+we perceived a monstrous cayman rise and advance to meet him. We
+uttered a warning shout, the Indian himself perceived the danger,
+threw himself from his horse, and swam for the bank with all his
+strength. He had already reached it, but imprudently stopped behind
+the trunk of a tree that had been felled by the force of the current,
+and where he had the water up to his knees. Believing himself secure,
+he drew his cutlass, and watched the movements of the cayman, which,
+meanwhile, had reached the horse just as, the Indian quitted the
+animal. Rearing his enormous head out of the water, the monster threw
+himself upon the steed and seized him by the saddle. The horse made
+a violent effort, the girths broke, and thus enabled him to reach
+the shore. Soon, however, finding that his prey had escaped, the
+cayman dropped the saddle, and made towards the Indian. We perceived
+this movement, and quickly cried out: "Run, run, or the cayman will
+have you!" The Indian, however, would not stir, but calmly waited,
+cutlass in hand. The monster advanced towards him; the Indian struck
+him a blow on the head, which took no more effect than a flip of the
+fingers would have on the horns of a bull. The cayman made a spring,
+seized him by one of his thighs, and for more than a minute we beheld
+my poor shepherd--his body erect above the surface of the water,
+his hands joined, his eyes turned to heaven, in the attitude of a man
+imploring Divine mercy--dragged back again into the lake. The drama
+was over: the cayman's stomach was his tomb. During these agonizing
+moments, we all remained silent, but no sooner had my poor shepherd
+disappeared than we all swore to avenge him.
+
+I caused to be made three nets of strong cords, each of which nets
+was large enough to form a complete barrier across the river. I also
+had a hut built, and put an Indian to live in it, whose duty was to
+keep constant watch, and to let me know as soon as the cayman returned
+to the river. He watched in vain, for upwards of two months, but at
+the end of that time he came and told me that the monster had seized
+a horse, and had dragged it into the river to devour at leisure. I
+immediately repaired to the spot, accompanied by my guards, and by my
+priest, who positively would see a cayman hunt, and by an American
+friend of mine, Mr. Russell, [22] who was then staying with me. I
+had the nets spread at intervals, so that the cayman could not escape
+back into the lake. This operation was not effected without some acts
+of imprudence; thus, for instance, when the nets were arranged, an
+Indian dived to make sure that they were at the bottom, and that our
+enemy could not escape by passing below them. But it might very well
+have happened that the cayman was in the interval between the nets,
+and so have gobbled up my Indian. Fortunately everything passed off
+as we wished. When all was ready, I launched three pirogues, strongly
+fastened together, side by side, with some Indians in the centre,
+armed with lances, and with long bamboos, with which they could touch
+the bottom. At last, all measures having been taken to attain my end,
+without risk of accident, my Indians began to explore the river with
+their long bamboos.
+
+An animal so formidable in size as the one we were in search of,
+could not hide himself very easily, and soon we beheld him on the
+surface of the river, lashing the water with his long tail, snapping
+and clattering with his jaws, and endeavouring to get at those
+who disturbed him in his retreat. A universal shout of joy greeted
+his appearance; the Indians in the pirogues hurled their lances at
+him, whilst we, upon either shore of the lake, fired a volley. The
+bullets rebounded from the monster's scales, which they were unable
+to penetrate; the keener lances made their way between the scales,
+and entered into the cayman's body some eight or ten inches. Thereupon
+he disappeared, swimming with incredible rapidity, and reached the
+first net. The resistance it opposed turned him back; he re-ascended
+the river, and again appeared on the top of the water. This violent
+movement, broke the staves of the lances which the Indians had stuck
+into him, and the iron alone remained in the wounds. Each time that
+he appeared the firing recommenced, and fresh lances were plunged
+into his enormous body. Perceiving, however, how ineffectual firearms
+were to pierce his cuirass of invulnerable scales, I excited him by
+my shouts and gestures, and when he came to the edge of the water,
+opening his enormous jaws all ready to devour me, I approached the
+muzzle of my gun to within a few inches, and fired both barrels, in
+the hope that the bullets would find something softer than scales in
+the interior of that formidable cavern, and that they would penetrate
+to his brain. All was futile. The jaws closed with a terrible noise,
+seizing only the fire and smoke that issued from my gun, and the balls
+flattened against his bones without injuring them. The animal, which
+had now become furious, made inconceivable efforts to seize one of
+his enemies; his strength seemed to increase, rather than to diminish,
+whilst our resources were nearly exhausted. Almost all our lances were
+sticking in his body, and our ammunition drew to an end. The fight
+had lasted more than six hours, without any result that could make us
+hope for its speedy termination, when an Indian struck the cayman,
+whilst at the bottom of the water, with a lance of unusual strength
+and size. Another Indian, at his comrade's request, struck two vigorous
+blows with a mace upon the but-end of the lance; the iron entered deep
+into the animal's body, and immediately, with a movement as swift as
+lightning, he darted towards the nets and disappeared. The lance pole,
+detached from the iron head, returned to the surface of the water;
+for some minutes we waited in vain for the monster's re-appearance;
+we thought that his last effort had enabled him to reach the lake, and
+that our chase would result fruitlessly. We hauled in the first net, a
+large hole in which convinced us that our supposition was correct. The
+second net was in the same condition as the first. Disheartened by
+our failure, we were hauling in the third, when we felt a strong
+resistance. Several of the Indians began to drag it towards the bank,
+and presently, to our great joy, we saw the cayman upon the surface
+of the water. He was expiring. We threw over him several lassos of
+strong cords, and when he was well secured, we drew him to land. It
+was no easy matter to haul him up on the bank; the strength of forty
+Indians hardly sufficed. When at last we had got him completely out
+of the water, and had him before our eyes, we stood stupified with
+astonishment, for it was a very different thing to see his body thus
+and to see him swimming, when he was fighting against us. Mr. Russell,
+a very competent person, was charged with his measurements. From the
+extremity of his nostrils to the tip of his tail, he was found to
+be twenty-seven feet long, and his circumference was eleven feet,
+measured under the arm pits. His belly was much more voluminous,
+but we thought it unnecessary to measure him there, judging that the
+horse upon which he had breakfasted must considerably have increased
+his bulk.
+
+This process at an end, we took counsel as to what we should do
+with the dead cayman. Every one gave his opinion. My wish was to
+convey it bodily to my residence, but that was impossible; it would
+have required a vessel of five or six tons burthen, and we could not
+procure such a craft. One man wanted the skin, the Indians begged for
+the flesh, to dry it, and use it as a specific against asthma. They
+affirm, that any asthmatic person who nourishes himself for a certain
+time with this flesh, is infallibly cured. Somebody else desired to
+have the fat, as an antidote to rheumatic pains; and, finally, my
+worthy priest demanded that the stomach should be opened, in order to
+ascertain how many Christians the monster had devoured. Every time,
+he said, that a cayman eats a Christian he swallows a large pebble;
+thus, the number of pebbles we should find in him would positively
+indicate the number of the faithful to whom his enormous stomach had
+afforded sepulture. To satisfy everybody, I sent for an axe wherewith,
+to cut off the head, which I reserved for myself, abandoning the rest
+of the carcass to all who had taken part in the capture. It was no
+easy matter to decapitate the monster. The axe buried itself in the
+flesh to half-way up the handle without reaching the bones; at last,
+after many efforts, we succeeded in getting the head off. Then we
+opened the stomach, and took out of it, by fragments, the horse which
+had been devoured by the monster that morning. The cayman does not
+masticate, he snaps off a huge lump with his teeth, and swallows it
+entire. Thus we found the whole of the horse, divided only into seven
+or eight pieces. Then we came to about a hundred and fifty pounds'
+weight of pebbles, varying from the size of a fist to that of a
+walnut. When my priest saw this great quantity of stones:
+
+"It is a mere tale," he could not help saying; "it is impossible that
+this animal could have devoured so great a number of Christians."
+
+It was eight o'clock at night when we had finished the cutting up. I
+left the body to our assistants, and had the head placed in a boat to
+convey it to my house. I very much desired to preserve this monstrous
+trophy as nearly as possible in the state in which it then was, but
+that would have required a great quantity of arsenical soap, and I
+was out of that chemical. So I made up my mind to dissect it, and
+preserve the skeleton. I weighed it before detaching the ligaments;
+its weight was four hundred and fifty pounds; its length, from the
+nose to the first vertebræ, five feet six inches.
+
+I found all my bullets, which had become flattened against the bones
+of the jaws and palate as they would have done against a plate of
+iron. The lance thrust which had slain the cayman was a chance--a sort
+of miracle. When the Indian struck with his mace upon the but-end
+of the pole, the iron pierced through the nape, into the vertebral
+column, and penetrated the spinal marrow, the only vulnerable part.
+
+When this formidable head was well prepared, and the bones dried and
+whitened, I had the pleasure of presenting it to my friend Russell,
+who has since deposited it in the museum at Boston, United States.
+
+The other monster, of which I have promised a description, is the
+boa-constrictor. The species is common in the Philippines, but it is
+rare to meet with a specimen of very large dimensions. It is possible,
+nay probable, that centuries of time are necessary for this reptile to
+attain its largest size; and to such an age, the various accidents to
+which animals are exposed, rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas
+are consequently to be met with only in the gloomiest, most remote,
+and most solitary forests.
+
+I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our
+European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my
+house, and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my
+bed. Several times, when passing through the woods with my Indians,
+I heard the piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot
+whence they proceeded, we almost invariably found a wild boar, about
+whose body a boa had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting
+him up into the tree round which it had coiled itself.
+
+When the wild boar had reached a certain height, the snake pressed
+him against a tree with a force that crushed his bones and stifled
+him. Then the boa let its prey fall, descended the tree, and prepared
+to swallow it. This last operation was much too lengthy for us to
+await its end. To simplify matters, I sent a ball into the boa's
+head. My Indians took the flesh to dry it for food, and the skin to
+make dagger sheaths of. It is unnecessary to say that the wild boar
+was not forgotten, although it was a prey that had cost us but little
+trouble to secure. One day an Indian surprised one of these reptiles
+asleep, after it had swallowed an enormous deer. Its size was so great,
+that a buffalo waggon would have been necessary to transport it to the
+village. The Indian cut it in pieces, and contented himself with as
+much as he could carry off. Having been informed of this, I sent after
+the remains, and my people brought me a piece about eight feet long,
+and so large in circumference that the skin, when dried, enveloped the
+tallest man like a cloak. I presented it to my friend Hamilton Lindsay.
+
+I had not yet seen any of these largest sized serpents alive, when,
+one afternoon, crossing the mountains with two of my shepherds, our
+attention was drawn to the constant barking of my dogs, which seemed
+to be assailing some animal that stood upon its defence. We at first
+thought that it was a buffalo that they had roused from its lair, and
+approached the spot with due caution. My dogs were dispersed along the
+brink of a deep ravine, in which was an enormous boa constrictor. The
+monster raised his head to a height of five or six feet, directing it
+from one edge to the other of the ravine, and menacing his assailants
+with his forked tongue; but the dogs, more active than he was, easily
+avoided his attacks. My first impulse was to shoot him; but then it
+occurred to me to take him alive, and to send him to France. Assuredly
+he would have been the most monstrous boa that had ever been seen
+there. To carry my design into execution we manufactured nooses of
+cane, strong enough to resist the efforts of the most powerful wild
+buffalo. With great precaution we succeeded in passing one of our
+nooses round the boa's neck; then we tied him tightly to a tree,
+in such a manner as to keep his head at its usual height--about six
+feet from the ground. This done, we crossed to the other side of the
+ravine, and threw another noose over him, which we secured like the
+first. When he felt himself thus fixed at both ends, he coiled and
+writhed, and grappled several little trees which grew within his reach
+along the edge of the ravine. Unluckily for him everything yielded
+to his efforts: he tore up the young trees by the roots, broke off
+the branches, and dislodged enormous stones, round which he sought in
+vain to obtain the hold or point of resistance he needed. The nooses
+were strong, and withstood his almost furious efforts.
+
+To convey an animal like this, several buffaloes and a whole system
+of cordage were necessary. Night approached; confident in our nooses,
+we left the place, proposing to return next morning and complete
+the capture; but we reckoned without our host. In the night the
+boa changed his tactics, got his body round some huge blocks of
+basalt, and finally succeeded in breaking his bonds and getting
+clear off. When I had assured myself that our prey had escaped us,
+and that all search for the reptile in the neighbourhood would be
+futile, my disappointment was very great, for I much doubted if a like
+opportunity would ever present itself. It is only on rare occasions
+that accidents are caused by these enormous reptiles. I once knew of
+a man becoming their victim. It happened thus:--
+
+This man having committed some offence, ran away, and sought refuge
+in a cavern. His father, who alone knew the place of his concealment,
+visited him occasionally to supply him with food. One day he found,
+in place of his son, an enormous boa sleeping. He killed it, and
+found his son in its stomach. The poor wretch had been surprised
+in the night, crushed to death, and swallowed. The curate of the
+village, who had gone in quest of the body to give it burial, and
+who saw the remains of the boa, described them to me as being of
+an almost incredible size. Unfortunately this circumstance happened
+at a considerable distance from my habitation, and I was only made
+acquainted with the particulars when it was too late to verify them
+myself: but still there is nothing surprising that a boa which can
+swallow a deer should as easily swallow a man. Several other feats of
+a similar nature were related to me by the Indians. They told me of
+their comrades, who, roaming about the woods, had been seized by boas,
+crushed against trees, and afterwards devoured; but I was always on my
+guard against Indian tales, and I am only able to verify positively the
+instance, I have just cited, which was related to me by the curate of
+the village, as well as by many other witnesses. Still there would be
+nothing surprising that a similar accident should occur more than once.
+
+The boa is one of the serpents the least to be feared among those
+infesting the Philippines. Of an exceedingly venomous description is
+one which the Indians call dajon-palay, (rice leaf). Burning with
+a red-hot ember is the only antidote to its bite; if that be not
+promptly resorted to, horrible sufferings are followed by certain
+death. The alin-morani is another kind, eight or ten feet long, and,
+if anything, more dangerous still than the "rice leaf," inasmuch as
+its bite is deeper, and more difficult to cauterise. I was never
+bitten by any of these reptiles, despite the slight precaution I
+observed in wandering about the woods, by night as well as by day.
+
+Twice only I endangered myself: the first time was by treading upon
+a dajon-palay; I was warned by a movement under my foot. I pressed
+hard with that leg, and saw the snake's little head stretching out
+to bite me on the ankle; fortunately my foot was on him at so short a
+distance from his head that he could not get at me. I drew my dagger,
+and cut off his head. On another occasion, I noticed two eagles
+rising and falling like arrows amongst the bushes, always at the
+same place. Curious to see what kind of animal they were attacking,
+I approached the place; but no sooner had I done so, than an enormous
+alin-morani, furious with the wounds the eagles had inflicted on him,
+advanced to meet me. I retreated; he coiled himself up, gave a spring,
+and almost caught me on the face. By an instantaneous movement,
+I made a spring backwards, and avoided him; but I took care not to
+turn my back and run, for then I should have been lost. The serpent
+returned to the charge, bounding towards me; I again avoided him, and
+was trying, but in vain, to reach him with my dagger, when an Indian,
+who perceived me from a distance, ran up, armed with a stout switch,
+and rid me of him.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+    The Prosperity and Happiness of my Life at
+    Jala-Jala--Destructiveness of the Locusts--Agriculture in the
+    Philippines--My Herds of Oxen, Buffaloes, and Horses--My Wife
+    presents me with a Daughter, who Dies--The Admiration of the Indian
+    Women for my Wife--Birth of my Son--Continued Prosperity--Death
+    of my brother Henry--My Friendship with Malvilain--His Marriage
+    with my eldest Sister--His Premature Death--I take my Wife to
+    Manilla--Melancholy Adieus--We Return to Jala-Jala--Death of my
+    Wife--My friend Vidie--I determine to Return to France.
+
+
+Never was life more actively spent, or more crowded with emotions,
+than the time I passed at Jala-Jala, but it suited my tastes and
+my character, and I enjoyed as perfect happiness as one can look
+for when far away from one's home and country. My Anna was to
+me an angel of goodness; my Indians were happy, peace and plenty
+smiled upon their families; my fields were covered with abundant
+crops, and my pasturages with numerous herds. It was not, however,
+without great difficulty and much toil that I accomplished my aim;
+how often did I find all my courage and all my philosophy necessary
+to face, without despair, reverses which it was impossible for me
+to avoid? How often did I behold hurricanes and inundations destroy
+the fine harvest that I had protected with so much labour against
+the buffaloes, the wild boars, the monkeys, and even against an
+insect more destructive still than all the other pests which I have
+just mentioned--the locust, one of the plagues of Egypt, apparently
+transported into this province, and which almost regularly, every seven
+years, leave the isles of the south in clouds, and fall upon Luzon,
+bringing desolation, and often famine. It is indeed necessary to have
+witnessed this desolation to be able to form any idea of it. When the
+locusts arrive, a fire-coloured cloud is perceived in the horizon,
+formed of countless myriads of these destructive insects. They fly
+rapidly, often covering, in a closely packed body, a space of two or
+three leagues in diameter, and occupy from five to six consecutive
+hours in passing over head. If they perceive a fine green field they
+pounce down upon it, and in a few minutes all verdure has disappeared,
+the ground is stripped completely bare; they then continue their flight
+elsewhere, bearing on their wings destruction and famine. At evening
+it is in the forests, upon the trees, that they take shelter. They
+hang in such dense masses upon the ends of the boughs that they break
+down even the stoutest limbs from the trees. During the night, from
+the spot where they are reposing, there issues a continual croaking,
+and so loud a noise, that one scarcely believes it to be produced by
+so small an insect. The following morning they leave at day-break, and
+the trees upon which they have reposed are left stripped and broken,
+as though the lightning had swept the forest in every direction; they
+pursue their course elsewhere to commit fresh ravages. At certain
+periods they remain on vast plains or on fertile mountains; where,
+elongating the extremity of their bodies in the form of a gimblet,
+they pierce the earth to the depth of an inch and upwards to deposit
+their eggs. The operation of laying being completed, they leave
+the ground pierced like a sieve, and disappear, for their existence
+has now reached its termination. Three weeks afterwards, however,
+the eggs open, and myriads of young locusts swarm the earth. On
+the spot where they are born, whatever will serve them for food is
+quickly consumed. As soon as they have acquired sufficient strength
+they abandon their birth-place, destroy all kinds of vegetation that
+comes in their way, and direct their course to the cultivated fields,
+which they desolate until the period when their wings appear. They
+then take flight in order to devastate more distant plantations.
+
+As may be seen, agriculture in the Philippines presents many
+difficulties, but it also yields results that may be looked for in
+vain in any other country. During the years which are exempt from
+the calamities I have described the earth is covered with riches;
+every kind of colonial produce is raised in extraordinary abundance,
+frequently in the proportion of eighty to one, and on many plantations
+two crops of the same species are harvested in one year. The rich and
+extensive pasturages offer great facilities for raising a large number
+of cattle, which absolutely cost nothing but the trifling wages paid
+by the proprietor to a few shepherds.
+
+Upon my property I possessed three herds--one of three thousand
+head of oxen, another of eight hundred buffaloes, and the other of
+six hundred horses. At that period of the year when the rice was
+harvested, the shepherds explored the mountains, and drove these
+animals to a vast plain at a short distance from my dwelling. This
+plain was covered by these three species of domesticated animals,
+and presented, especially to the proprietor, an admirable sight. At
+night they were herded in large cattle-folds, near the village, and on
+the following day a selection was made of the oxen that were fit for
+slaughter, of the horses that were old enough for breaking-in, of the
+buffaloes that were strong enough to be employed in working. The herds
+were then re-driven to the plain, there to remain until night. This
+operation lasted during a fortnight, after which time the animals
+were set at liberty until the same period of the following year. When
+at liberty the herd divided itself into bands, and thus roamed about
+the mountains and the valleys they had previously quitted, the only
+trouble caused to the shepherds being an occasional ramble about the
+spots where the animals tranquilly grazed.
+
+Around me all was prosperity. My Indians were also happy,
+and entertained towards me a respect and obedience bordering on
+idolatry. My brother gave me every assistance in my labours, and when
+near my beloved Anna I forgot all the toils and the contrarieties I
+had experienced. About this time a new source of hope sprung up, which
+augmented the happiness I enjoyed with her, and made her dearer to me
+than ever. During several months the health of my wife had changed: she
+then found all the symptoms of pregnancy. We had been married twelve
+years, and she had never yet shown any signs of maternity. I was so
+persuaded that we should never have children that the derangement
+of her health was causing me serious uneasiness, when one morning
+as I was going to my work she said to me: "I don't feel well to-day,
+and I wish you to remain with me." Two hours afterwards, to my great
+surprise, she gave premature birth to a little girl, whose arrival no
+one expected. The infant was born before the due time, and lived only
+one hour, just sufficient to receive baptism, which I administered to
+her. This was the second human being that had expired in the house
+of Jala-Jala; but she was also the first that had there first drawn
+the breath of life. The regret which we all experienced from the loss
+was softened by the certainty that my dear Anna might again become a
+mother, under more favourable circumstances. Her health was speedily
+re-established, and she was again gay and beautiful as ever: indeed
+she appeared so handsome, that often Indian women came from a long
+distance for the sole purpose of looking at her. They would remain for
+half-an-hour gazing at her, and afterwards returned to their villages,
+where they gave birth to creatures little resembling the model which
+they had taken such pains to observe, with a confidence approaching
+to simplicity.
+
+Eventually Anna exhibited new signs of maternity; her pregnancy went
+through the usual course, and her health was not much affected. In due
+time she presented me with a little boy, weakly and delicate, but full
+of life. Our joy was at the highest, for we possessed that which we
+had so long wished for, and that which alone was in my opinion wanting.
+
+My Indians were delighted with the birth, and for several days there
+was a round of rejoicings at Jala-Jala; and my Anna, although confined
+to bed, was obliged to receive visits, at first from all the women
+and maidens of the village, and afterwards from all the Indians who
+were fathers of families. Each brought some little present for the
+newly born, and the cleverest man of them was commissioned to express
+a compliment in the name of all; which comprised their best wishes
+for the happiness of the mother and child, and full assurances of
+the satisfaction they felt in thinking that they would one day be
+ruled over by the son of the master from whom they had experienced so
+much kindness, and who had conferred upon them such benefits. Their
+gratitude was sincere.
+
+The news of the accouchement of my wife brought a very numerous
+party of friends and relations to my house, where they waited for
+the baptism, which took place in my drawing-room. Anna, then almost
+thoroughly well, was present on the occasion: my son was named Henry,
+after his uncle. At this time I was happy; Oh, so truly happy! for my
+wishes were nearly gratified. There was but one not so--and that was
+to see again my aged mother and my sisters; but I hoped that the time
+was not far distant when I should realise the project of revisiting
+my native country. My farming speculation was most prosperous: my
+receipts were every year on the increase; my fields were covered with
+the richest crops of sugar-canes, to the cultivation of which, and of
+rice, I had joined that of coffee. My brother had taken upon himself
+the management of a very large plantation, which promised the most
+brilliant results; and appeared likely to secure the premium which
+the Spanish government had promised to give to the proprietor of a
+plantation of eighty thousand feet of coffee in product. But, alas! the
+period of my happiness had passed away, and what pain and what grief
+was I not doomed to suffer before I again saw my native country.
+
+My brother--my poor Henry--committed some imprudences, and was
+suddenly attacked with an intermittent fever, which in a few days
+carried him off.
+
+My Anna and I shed abundance of tears, for we both loved Henry with
+the warmest affection. For several years we had lived together; he
+participated in all our labours, our troubles, and our pleasures. He
+was the only relative I had in the Philippines. He had left France,
+where he had filled an honourable position, with the sole object
+of coming to see me, and of aiding me in the great task which I
+had undertaken. His amiable qualities and his excellent heart had
+endeared him to us: his loss was irreparable, and the thought that I
+had no longer a brother added poignancy to my bitter grief. Prudent,
+the youngest, had died at Madagascar; Robert, the next to me, died
+at La Planche, near Nantes, in the little dwelling where we spent
+our childhood; and my poor Henry at Jala-Jala. I erected a simple
+tomb for him near the door of the church, and for several months
+Jala-Jala was a place of grief and mourning.
+
+We had scarcely begun, not indeed to console ourselves, but rather
+to bear with resignation the loss we had experienced, when a new
+dispensation of fate came to strike me to the earth.
+
+On my arrival in the Philippines, and while I resided at Cavite,
+I formed a close connection with Malvilain, a native of St. Malo,
+and mate of a ship from that port. During several years which he
+spent at Cavite our friendship was most intimate. A day seldom passed
+that we did not see each other, and two days never, for we were much
+attached. Our two ships were at anchor in the port, not far one from
+the other. One day as I was walking on deck, waiting for a boat to
+take me on board Malvilain's ship, I saw his crew at work in regulating
+one of the masts, when a rope suddenly snapped, and the mast fell with
+a frightful crash on the deck, in the midst of the men, amongst whom
+Malvilain was standing. From the deck of my own ship I beheld all that
+passed on that of my friend, who I thought was killed or wounded. My
+feelings were worked to the highest pitch of anguish and alarm; I
+could not control myself; I jumped into the water and swam to his
+ship, where I had the pleasure of finding him uninjured, although
+considerably stunned by the danger from which he had escaped. Wet
+as I was from my sea-bath I caught him in my arms, and pressed him
+to my heart; and then hastened to afford relief to some of the crew,
+who had not been so fortunate to escape without injury as he had been.
+
+Another time I was the cause of serious alarm to Malvilain. One day,
+a mass of black and thick clouds was gathered close over the point
+of Cavite, and a frightful--that is, a tropical--storm burst. The
+claps of thunder followed each other from minute to minute, and
+before each clap the lightning, in long serpent-like lines of fire,
+darted from the clouds, and drove on to the point of Cavite, where
+it tore up the ground of the little plain situate at the extremity,
+and near which the ships were moored. Notwithstanding the storm I was
+going to see Malvilain, and was almost in the act of placing my foot on
+the deck of his vessel, when the lightning fell into the sea so near
+to me that I lost my breath. Instantly I felt an acute pain in the
+back, as if a burning torch had been laid between my shoulders. The
+pain was so violent, that the moment I recovered myself I uttered a
+sharp scream. Malvilain, who was within a few paces of me, felt very
+sensibly the electric shock which had struck me, and, on hearing my
+cry, imagined that I was dangerously hurt. He rushed towards me and
+held me in his arms until I was able to give every assurance of my
+recovery. The electric fluid had grazed me, but without causing any
+positive injury.
+
+I have related these two slight anecdotes to show the intimacy that
+subsisted between us, and how I afterwards suffered in my dearest
+affections.
+
+My existence has to this day, when I write these lines, been filled
+with such extraordinary facts, that I have been naturally led to
+believe that the destiny of man is regulated by an order of things
+which must infallibly be accomplished. This idea has had great
+influence over me, and taught me to endure all the evils which have
+afflicted me. Was it, then, my destiny which bound me to Malvilain,
+and bound him to me in the same manner? I have no doubt of it.
+
+Some days before the terrible scourge of the cholera broke out in
+the Philippines, Malvilain's ship set sail for France. With hearts
+oppressed with grief we separated, after promising each that we should
+meet again; but, alas! fate had ordained it otherwise. Malvilain
+returned home, went to Nantes to take the command of a ship, and there
+became acquainted with my eldest sister, and married her. This news,
+which reached me while I resided in Manilla, gave me the greatest
+satisfaction, for if I had had to choose a husband for my dear sister
+Emilie, this marriage was the only one to satisfy the wishes I had
+formed for the happiness of both.
+
+After his marriage Malvilain continued to sail from the port of
+Nantes. His noble disposition and his accurate knowledge of his
+duties caused him to be highly esteemed by the leading merchants. His
+affairs were in a state sufficiently good as not to require him to
+expose himself longer to the dangers of the sea, and he was on his
+last voyage, when, at the Mauritius, he was attacked by an illness,
+which carried him off, leaving my sister inconsolable, and with three
+very young girls to lament him.
+
+This fresh and irreparable loss, the news of which had then reached
+me, added to my grief for the sad death of my poor brother. Every
+calamity seemed to oppress me. After some years of happiness I saw,
+by little and little, disappear from this world, the persons on whom I
+had concentrated my dearest affections; but, alas! I had not even then
+reached the term of my sorrows, for other and most bitter sufferings
+were still to be passed through.
+
+I saw with pleasure my boy was enjoying the best health, and that he
+was daily increasing in strength; and yet I was far from being happy,
+and to the melancholy caused by the losses I had experienced was
+added another most fearful alarm. My beloved Anna had never thoroughly
+recovered after her accouchement, and day by day her health was growing
+weaker. She did not seem aware of her state. Her happiness at being
+a mother was so great that she did not think of her own condition.
+
+I had gathered in my sugar-cane crop, which was most abundant,
+and my plantations were finished, when, wishing to procure some
+amusement for my wife, I proposed to go and spend some time at the
+house of her sister Josephine, for whom she entertained the warmest
+affection. She, with great pleasure, agreed to do so. We set out with
+our dear little Henry and his nurse, and took up our quarters at the
+house of my brother-in-law, Don Julian Calderon, then residing in a
+pretty country-house on the banks of the river Pasig, half a league
+from Manilla.
+
+Of the three sisters of my wife, Josephine was the one for whom I had
+the most affection: I loved her as I did my own sister. The day of our
+arrival was one of rejoicing. All our friends at Manilla came to see
+us, and Anna was so pleased in seeing our little Henry admired that
+her health seemed to have improved considerably; but this apparent
+amelioration lasted but a few days, and soon, to my grief, I saw that
+she was growing worse than ever. I sent for the only medical man in
+Manilla in whom I had confidence, my friend Genu. He came frequently
+to see her, and after six weeks of constant attention, he advised
+me to take her back to my residence near the lake, where persons
+attacked with the same malady as my dear Anna had often recovered. As
+she herself wished to return, I appointed a day for our departure. A
+commodious boat, with good rowers, was ready for us on the Pasig, at
+the end of my brother-in-law's garden; and a numerous assemblage of our
+friends accompanied us to the water's edge. The moment of separation
+was one of most melancholy feelings to us all. The countenance of each
+seemed to ask: "Shall we meet again?" My sister-in-law Josephine, in a
+flood of tears, threw herself into Anna's arms. I had great difficulty
+in separating them; but we were obliged to set out. I took my wife
+into the boat, and then those two sisters, who had always maintained
+towards each other the most tender love, addressed with their voices
+their last adieus, while promising not to be long separated, and that
+they would see each other very soon.
+
+Those painful adieus and the sufferings of my wife caused the trip,
+which we had often previously made with the greatest gaiety, to be
+melancholy and silent. On our arrival, I did not look on Jala-Jala with
+the usual feelings of satisfaction. I had my poor patient placed in
+bed, and did not quit her room, hoping by my continual care to afford
+her some relief in her sufferings. But, alas! from day to day the
+malady made fearful progress. I was in despair. I wrote to Josephine,
+and sent a boat to Manilla for her to come and take care of her sister,
+who was most anxious to see her. The boat returned without her; but a
+letter from kind-hearted Josephine informed me that she was herself
+dangerously ill, and confined to her room, and could not even leave
+her bed; that she was very sorry for it, but I might assure Anna that
+they would soon be re-united, never again to be separated.
+
+Fifty days--longer to me than a century--had scarcely elapsed since our
+return to Jala-Jala than all my hopes vanished. Death was approaching
+with rapid strides, and the fatal moment was at hand when I was to be
+separated from her whom I loved with such intensity. She preserved her
+senses to the last, and saw my profound melancholy, and my features
+altered by grief; and finding her last hour was near, she called me
+to her, and said: "Adieu, my beloved Paul, adieu. Console thyself--we
+shall meet again in Heaven! Preserve thyself for the sake of our dear
+boy. When I shall be no more, return home to thy own country, to see
+thy aged mother. Never marry again, except in France, if thy mother
+requires thee to do so. Do not marry in the Philippines, for thou wilt
+never find a companion here to love thee as I have loved." These words
+were the last which this good and gentle angel spoke. The most sacred
+ties, the tenderest and purest union, were then severed--my Anna was
+no more! I held her lifeless body clasped in my arms, as if I hoped by
+my caresses to recall her to life; but, alas! her destiny was decided!
+
+It required absolute force to tear me from the precious remains which
+I pressed against my heart, and to draw me into a neighbouring room,
+where my son was. While I pressed him convulsively to my breast,
+I wished to weep; but my eyes were tearless, and I was insensible to
+the caresses even of my poor child.
+
+The strongest constitution cannot resist the fatigue of fifty days
+of constant watching and uneasiness; and the state of annihilation in
+which I was, both physically and morally, after despair had taken the
+place of the glimmering hope which sustained us to the last moment,
+was such that I fell into a state of insensibility, which ended
+in a profound sleep. I awoke on the following day with my son in my
+arms. But how frightful was my state on awaking. All that was horrible
+in my position presented itself to my imagination. Alas! she was no
+more; my adorable companion, that beloved angel and consolatrix,
+who had, on my account, abandoned all--parents, friends, and the
+pleasures of a capital--to shut herself up with me in a deserted
+wilderness, where she was exposed to a thousand dangers, and had but
+me to support her. She was no more; and fatal destiny had torn her
+from me, to sink me for ever in desolation and grief.
+
+The funeral took place on the following day, and was attended by
+every inhabitant of Jala-Jala. Her body was deposited near the altar
+in the humble church which I had caused to be erected, and before
+which altar she had so often poured forth prayers for my happiness.
+
+For a long time mourning and consternation reigned in Jala-Jala. All
+my Indians showed the deepest sympathy for the loss which they had
+suffered. Anna was, during her life, beloved even to idolatry, and
+after her death she was most sincerely lamented.
+
+For several days I continued in a thorough depression, unable to attend
+to anything, except to the cares which my son, then my only remaining
+consolation, required. Three weeks elapsed before I quitted the room in
+which my poor wife had expired. I then received a note from Josephine,
+in which she stated that her illness had grown worse. The note ended
+with these words: "Come, my dear Paul; come to me: we shall weep
+together. I feel that your presence will afford some consolation."
+
+I did not hesitate to comply with the request of dear Josephine, for
+whom I entertained an affection as if for my own sister. My presence
+might prove a solace to her, and I myself felt that it would prove
+to me a great consolation to see a person who had so sincerely loved
+my Anna. The hope of being useful to her re-animated my courage a
+little. I left my house under the care of Prosper Vidie, an excellent
+friend, who during the last days of my wife's life had not quitted me,
+and departed, accompanied by my son.
+
+After the first emotion which Josephine and I felt on meeting, and when
+we both had shed abundant tears, I examined her state. It required a
+strong effort on my part to conceal from her my anxiety, on finding
+her labouring under a most serious malady, and which gave me grounds
+for fearing that a fresh misfortune was not far distant. Alas! my
+forebodings were correct; for eight days afterwards poor Josephine
+expired in my arms, after the most poignant sufferings. What abundant
+sources of woe in so short a space of time! It required a constitution
+strong as mine was to bear up against such a number of sorrows,
+and not to fail under the burthen.
+
+When I had paid the last duties to my sister-in-law I went back to
+Jala-Jala. To me everything was burthensome. I was obliged to betake
+myself to my forests and to my mountains, in order to recover a little
+calmness. Some months passed over before I could attend to my affairs;
+but the last wishes of my poor wife required to be fulfilled, and I
+was to quit the Philippines and return to my country. I commenced
+preparations for the purpose. I made over my establishment to my
+friend Vidie, who was, as I considered, the person best adapted for
+carrying out my plans, and for treating my poor Indians well. He
+requested me to stop a little time with him, and to show him the
+secrets of my little government. I consented, and the more willingly,
+as those few months would serve to render my son stronger, and better
+able to support the fatigues of a long voyage. I therefore remained at
+Jala-Jala; but life had become painful to me, and without an object,
+so that it was positively a trouble. There was nothing to distract
+me--nothing to remove the most painful thoughts from me. The pretty
+spots of Jala-Jala, over which I had often looked with the greatest
+pleasure, had become altogether indifferent to me. I sought out
+the most melancholy and silent places. I often went to the banks
+of a rivulet, concealed in the midst of high mountains, and shaded
+by lofty trees. This spot was perhaps known to no other person; and
+probably no human being had ever previously been seated in it. There
+I gave free vent to my bitter recollections--my wife, my brothers,
+my sister-in-law, engrossed my imagination. When the thought of my
+son drove away these sombre reveries, I returned slowly to my house,
+where I found the poor child, who, by his caresses, seemed to try to
+find some way to cause a change in my grief; but they seemed only to
+recall the time when Anna always came to welcome me home, and when,
+clasping me in her arms, she caused me to forget all the toil and
+trouble I met with when absent from her. Alas! that blissful time
+had flown away, and was never to return; and in losing my companion
+I lost every happiness.
+
+My friend Vidie tried every means in his power to rouse me. He spoke to
+me often of France, of my mother, and of the consolation I should feel
+on presenting my son to her. The love of my country, and the thought
+of finding there those affections of which I stood so much in need,
+was a soft balm, which lulled for a while the sufferings that were
+constantly vibrating in the bottom of my heart.
+
+My Indians were deeply afflicted on learning the resolution I had
+taken of quitting them. They showed their trouble by saying to me,
+every time they addressed me! "Oh, master: what will become of us
+when we shall not see you again?" I quieted them as well as I could,
+by assuring them that Vidie would exert himself for their welfare;
+that when my son should be grown up, I would come back with him and
+then never leave them. They answered me with their prayers: "May God
+grant it, master! But what a long time we shall have to pass without
+seeing you! However, we shall not forget you."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+    My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at Jala-Jala--The Bamboo
+    Cane--The Cocoa-Nut Tree--The Banana--Majestic Forests of Gigantic
+    Trees--The Leeches--A Tropical Storm in a Forest--An Indian
+    Bridge--"Bernard the Hermit"--We arrive at Binangon-de-Lampon--The
+    Ajetas--Veneration of the Ajetas for their Dead--Poison used by
+    the Ajetas--I carry away a Skeleton--We Embark on the Pacific in
+    an old Canoe, reach Maoban, and ultimately arrive at Jala-Jala.
+
+
+At this epoch of my recollections, in the midst of my melancholy and
+of my troubles, I formed an intimate and enduring friendship with
+a compatriot, a good and excellent man, for whom I always preserve
+the attachment first formed in a foreign country, several thousand
+leagues from home. I now speak of Adolphe Barrot, who was sent as
+consul-general to Manilla. He came with several friends to spend
+some days at Jala-Jala. Being unwilling that he should suffer any
+unpleasantness from the state of my feelings, I endeavoured to render
+his stay at Jala-Jala as agreeable as in my power. I arranged several
+hunting and shooting parties, and excursions through the mountains
+and on the lake. For his sake I resumed my old mode of life, such as
+I had been used to before I was overwhelmed by misfortune.
+
+The days which I thus spent in company with Adolphe Barrot aroused
+within me my former taste for exercise, and my ruling passion for
+adventure. My friend Vidie--always with the intention of exciting me
+to action--pressed me very much to go and visit a certain class of
+the natives which I had often expressed a wish to examine. My affairs
+being almost regulated; my son being placed under his care, and that
+of his nurse, and of a housekeeper in whom I had every confidence;
+I was induced, by this feeling of security, and by the instances of my
+friend, to proceed to visit the district of the Ajetas, or Black-men,
+who were a wild race, altogether in a state of nature. They were the
+aborigines of the Philippines, and had for a long time been masters
+of Luzon. At a time not very far distant, when the Spaniards conquered
+the country, the Ajetas levied a kind of black-mail from the Tagalese
+villages situated on the banks of the lake of Bay. At a fixed period
+they quitted their forests, entered the villages, and forced the
+inhabitants to give them a certain quantity of rice and maize; and
+if the Tagalese refused or were unable to pay these contributions,
+they cut off a number of heads, which they carried away as trophies
+for their barbarian festivities. After the conquest of the Philippines
+by the Spaniards, the latter took upon themselves the defence of the
+Tagalese, and the Ajetas, terrified by their fire-arms, remained in
+the forests, and did not re-appear among the Indians.
+
+The same race is found in various parts of the Malay country; and the
+people of New Zealand--the Paponins--resemble them very much in form
+and colour.
+
+My intention was to pass some days amongst those wild savages, and
+our preparations were speedily made. I chose two of my best Indians to
+accompany me. It is not requisite to state that my lieutenant was one
+of the party, for he was always with me in all my perilous expeditions.
+
+We took each of us a small haversack, containing rice for three or
+four days, some dried venison, a good provision of powder, ball,
+and shot for game, some coloured handkerchiefs, and a considerable
+quantity of cigars for our own use, and to insure a welcome
+amongst the Ajetas. Each of us carried a good double-barreled gun
+and his poignard. Our clothes were those which we wore in all our
+expeditions,--on our heads the common salacote, a shirt of raw silk,
+the pantaloon turned up to above the knee; the feet and legs remained
+uncovered. With these simple preparations we set out on a trip of
+some weeks, during which, and from the second day of our starting,
+we could expect no shelter but the trees of the forest, and no food
+but the game we shot, and the edible parts of the palm tree.
+
+I took special care not to forget the vade mecum which I always
+took with me, whenever I made these excursions for any number of
+days--I mean paper and a pencil, with which I made notes, to aid my
+recollections, and enable me afterwards to write down in a journal
+the remarks I made during my travels. Every preparation being made,
+we one morning started from Jala-Jala. We traversed the peninsula
+formed by my settlement, and embarked on the other side in a small
+canoe, which took us to the bottom of the lake to the north-east of
+my habitation. We passed the night in the large village of Siniloan,
+and at an early hour the following day resumed our march. This first
+day's journey was one of toil and suffering: we were then beginning
+the rainy season, and the heavy storms had swelled the rivers. We
+marched for some time along the banks of a torrent, which rushed
+down from the mountains, and which we were obliged to swim through
+fifteen times during the day. In the evening we came to the foot of
+the mountains where begin the forests of gigantic trees, which cover
+almost all the centre of the island of Luzon. There we made our first
+halt, lighted our fires, and prepared our beds and our supper. I think
+that I have already described our beds, which use and fatigue always
+rendered agreeable to us, when no accident occurred to disturb our
+repose. But I have said nothing of the simple composition of our meals,
+nor of our manner of preparing them. Our rice and palms required to
+be cooked, an operation which might seem rather embarrassing, for we
+had with us no large kitchen articles: we sometimes wanted a fire-box
+and tinder. But the bamboo supplied all these. The bamboo is one of
+the three tropical plants which Nature, in her beneficence and care,
+seems to have given to man to supply most of his wants. And here I
+cannot forbear dedicating a few lines to the description of those
+three products of the tropics, viz: the bamboo, the cocoa-nut tree,
+and the banana-plant.
+
+The bamboo belongs to the gramineous family; it grows in thick groves,
+in the woods, on the river banks, and wherever it finds a humid
+soil. In the Philippines there are counted twenty-five or thirty kinds,
+different in form and thickness. There are some of the diameter of the
+human body, and hollow in the interior: this kind serves especially
+for the construction of huts, and for making vessels to transport
+and to keep water. The filaments are used for making baskets, hats,
+and all kinds of basket-work, cords, and cables of great solidity.
+
+Another bamboo, of smaller dimensions, and hollow within, which
+is covered with varnish, almost as hard as steel, is employed in
+building Indian houses. Cut to a point it is extremely sharp, and is
+used for many purposes. The Indians make lances of it, and arrows,
+and fleams for bleeding horses, and lancets for opening abscesses,
+and for taking thorns or other things out of the flesh.
+
+A third kind, much more solid, and as thick as one's arm, and not
+hollow within, is used in such parts of the buildings as require sold
+timber, and especially in the roofing.
+
+A fourth kind, much smaller, and also without being hollow, serves to
+make the fences that surround enclosed fields when tilled. The other
+kinds are not so much employed, but still they are found to be useful.
+
+To preserve the plants, and to render them very productive, the shoots
+are cut at ten feet from the ground. These shoots look like the tubes
+of an organ, and are surrounded with branches and thorns. At the
+beginning of the rainy season there grows from each of those groves a
+quantity of thick bamboos, resembling large asparagus, which shoot up
+as it were by enchantment. In the space of a month they become from
+fifty to sixty feet long, and after a short time they acquire all the
+solidity necessary for the various works to which they are destined.
+
+The cocoa-nut tree belongs to the palm family: it requires to grow
+seven years before it bears fruit; but after this period, and for
+a whole century, it yields continually the same product--that is,
+every month about twenty large nuts. This produce never fails, and
+on the same tree may be seen continually flowers and fruits of all
+sizes. The cocoa-nut affords, as everyone knows, nutritious food,
+and when pressed yields a quantity of oil. The shell of the nut
+serves to make vases, and the filamentary parts are spun into ropes
+and cables for ships, and even into coarse clothing. The leaves are
+used to make baskets and brooms, and for thatching the huts.
+
+A liquor is also taken from the cocoa-nut tree, called cocoa-wine;
+it is a most stupifying drink, of which the Indians make great use
+at their festivities. To produce the cocoa-wine, large groves of
+the cocoa-trees are laid out, from which merely the sap or juice
+is expected, but nothing in the shape of fruit. These trees have
+long bamboos laid at their tops from one to another, on which the
+Indians pass over every morning, bearing large vessels, in which they
+collect the liquid. It is a laborious and dangerous employment,--a
+real promenade in the air, at the height of from sixty to eighty
+feet from the ground. It is from the bud which ought to produce the
+flower that the liquid is drawn of which the spirit is afterwards
+made. As soon as the bud is about to burst, the Indian employed in
+collecting the liquid ties it very tight, a few inches from its point,
+and then cuts across the point beyond the tying. From this cutting,
+or from the pores which are left uncovered, a saccharine liquid
+flows, which is sweetish and agreeable to the palate before it has
+fermented. After it has passed the fermentation it is carried to the
+still, and submitted to the process of distillation, it then becomes
+the alcoholic liquor known in the country as cocoa-wine.
+
+Besides these uses, the cocoa-nut shell, when burned, gives the fine
+black colour which the Indians make use of to dye their straw hats.
+
+The banana is an herbaceous plant, without any woody matter: the
+trunk of each is formed of leaves placed one above the other. This
+trunk rises from twelve to fifteen feet from the ground, and then
+spreads out into long broad leaves, not less than five or six feet
+each. From the middle of these leaves the flower rises, and also the
+spike (régime). By this word is to be understood a hundred of large
+bananas growing from the same stalk, forming together a long branch,
+that turns towards the sun.
+
+Before the fruit has reached its full ripeness, the spike is cut, and
+becomes fit for use. The part of the plant which is in the earth is
+a kind of large root, from which proceed successively thirty shoots,
+and each shoot ought not to have more than one spike, or bunch; it
+is then cut fronting the sun, and as all the shoots rising from the
+same trunk are of different ages, there are fruits to be found in all
+the stages of growth; so that every month or fortnight, and at all
+seasons, a spike or two may be gathered from the same plant. There
+is also a species of banana the fruit of which is not good to eat,
+but from which raw silk is formed, called abaca, which is used to make
+clothes, and all kinds of cordage. This filament is found in the trunk
+of the plant, which, as I have said, consists of leaves placed one
+over another, which, after being separated into long strips, and left
+for some hours in the sun, is then placed on an iron blade, not sharp,
+and then dragged with force over it. The parenchyme of the plant is
+taken off by the iron blade, and the filaments then separate. Nothing
+is now wanting but to expose them for some time to the sun's rays;
+after which they are brought to market.
+
+I observe that I have left my journey aside to describe three tropical
+plants, which afford a sufficiency for all the wants of man. Those
+plants are well-known; yet there may be some persons ignorant of
+the utility, and of the various services which they render to the
+inhabitants of the tropics. My readers will from them be naturally
+led to reflect how the inhabitants of the torrid zone are favoured
+by nature, in comparison with those of our frigid climate.
+
+We were at the foot of the mountains, preparing to pass the night. Our
+labour was always divided: one got the beds ready, another the fire,
+a third the cookery. He who had to prepare the fire collects a quantity
+of dry wood and of brambles. Under this heap of firewood he puts about
+twelve pounds of elemi gum, which is common in the Philippines, where
+it is found in quantities at the foot of the large trees from which
+it flows naturally. He then takes a piece of bamboo, half a yard long,
+which he splits to its length, tears with poignard so as to make very
+thin shavings, which he rubs together while rolling them between his
+hands, and then puts them into the hollow part of the other piece,
+and lays it down on the ground, and then with the sharp side of the
+piece from which he had taken the shavings, he rubs strongly the
+piece lying on the ground, as if he wished to saw it across. In a
+short time the bamboo containing the shavings is cut through and on
+fire. The flame rising from the shavings, when blown lightly upon,
+quickly sets the elemi gum in a blaze, and in an instant there is a
+fire sufficient to roast an ox.
+
+He who had to manage the cooking cut two or three pieces of the large
+bamboo, and put in each whatever he wished to cook--usually rice or
+some part of the palm tree--he added some water, stopped the ends of
+the bamboo with leaves, and laid it in the middle of the fire. This
+bamboo was speedily burned on the outside, but the interior was
+moistened by the water, and the food within was as well boiled as
+in any earthen vessels. For plates we had the large palm leaves. Our
+meals, as may be observed, were Spartan enough, even during the days
+while our provision of rice and dried venison lasted. But when game
+was found, and that a stag or a buffalo fell to our lot, we fed like
+epicures. We drank pure water whenever a spring or a rivulet tempted
+us, but if we were at a loss we cut long pieces of the liana, called
+"the traveller's drink," from which flowed a clear and limpid draught,
+preferable perhaps to any which we might have procured from a better
+source.
+
+It was evident I was not travelling like a nabob; and it would have
+been impossible to take more baggage. How could any one, with large
+provisions and a pompous retinue move in the midst of mountains
+covered with forests literally along untouched by human feet, and
+forced, in order to get through them, at every instant to swim across
+torrents, and having no other guide than the sun, or the blowing of
+the breeze. There was no choice but to travel in the Indian style,
+as I did, or to remain at home.
+
+The first night we spent in the open air passed quietly; our strength
+was restored, and we were recruited for the journey. At an early hour
+we were up, and, after a frugal breakfast, we resumed our march. For
+more than two hours we climbed up a mountain covered with heavy timber,
+the ascent was rough and fatiguing, at last we reached the top,
+quite exhausted, where there was a vast flat, which it would take us
+some days to traverse. It was there, on this flat, that I beheld the
+most majestic, the finest virgin forest that existed in the world. It
+consists of gigantic trees, grown up as straight as a rush, and to
+a prodigious height. Their tops, where alone their branches grow,
+are laced into one another, so as to form a vault impenetrable to
+the rays of the sun. Under this vault, and among those fine trees,
+prolific nature has given birth to a crowd of climbing plants of
+a most remarkable description. The rattan and the flexible liana
+mount up to the topmost branches, and re-descending to the earth,
+take fresh root, receive new sustenance, and then remount anew, and
+at various distances they join themselves to the friendly trunks
+of their supporting columns, and thus they form very often most
+beautiful decorations. Varieties of the pandanus are to be seen,
+of which the leaves, in bunches, start from the ground, forming
+beautiful sheaves. Enormous ferns were to be met with, real trees
+in shape, and up which we clambered often, to cut the top branches,
+for their delicious perfume and which serve as food nearly the same as
+the palms. But, in the midst of this extraordinary vegetation nature
+is gloomy and silent; not a sound is to be heard, unless perhaps
+the wind that shakes the tops of the trees, or from time to time the
+distant noise of a torrent, which, falling precipitately, cascades
+from the heights of the mountains to their base. The ground is moist,
+as it never receives the sun's rays: the little lakes and the rivers,
+that never flow unless when swollen by the storms, present to the eye
+water black and stagnant, on which the reflection of the fine clear
+blue sky is never to be seen.
+
+The sole inhabitants of these melancholy though majestic solitudes
+are deer, buffaloes and wild boars, which being hidden in their lairs
+and dens in the daytime, come out at night in search of food. Birds
+are seldom seen, and the monkeys so common in the Philippines, shun
+the solitude of these immense forests. One kind of insect is met
+with in great abundance, and it plagues the traveller to the utmost;
+they are the small leeches, which are found on all the mountains of
+the Philippines that are covered with forests. They lie close to the
+ground in the grass, or on the leaves of the trees, and dart like
+grasshoppers on their prey, to which they fasten. Travellers are
+therefore always provided with little knives, cut from the bamboo,
+to loosen the hold of the insects, after which they rub the wound
+with a little chewed tobacco. But soon another leech, attracted by
+the flowing blood, takes the place of the one which was removed, and
+constant care is necessary to avoid being victimised by those little
+insects, of which the voracity far exceeds that of our common leeches.
+
+Our way lay through these singular creations of nature, and I was
+engaged in looking at and examining the curiosities around me, while my
+Indians were seeking some kind of game--deer, buffalo, or wild boar--to
+replace our stock of rice and venison, which was exhausted. We were at
+length reduced to the palms as our only resource; but the palms, though
+pleasing to the palate, are not sufficiently nutritive to recruit the
+strength of poor travellers, when, suffering under extreme fatigue,
+and after a laborious march, they find no lodging but the moist ground,
+and no shelter but the vault of the sky.
+
+We directed our course as near as possible towards the eastern coast,
+which is bathed by the Pacific ocean. We knew that it was in that
+direction the Ajetas commenced their settlement. We wished also to pass
+through the large Tagalese village, Binangonan de Lampon, which is to
+be found, isolated and hidden, at the foot of the eastern mountains,
+in the midst of the savages. We had already spent several nights in
+the forest, and without experiencing any great inconvenience. The
+fires which we lighted every evening warmed us, and saved us from
+the myriads of terrible leeches, which otherwise would certainly
+have devoured us. We imagined that we were within one day's march of
+the sea-shore, where we expected to take some time for rest, when,
+of a sudden, a burst of thunder at a distance gave us reason to
+apprehend a storm. Nevertheless, we continued our journey; but in
+a short time the growling of the thunder approached so near as to
+leave no doubt that the hurricane would burst over us. We stopped,
+lighted our fires, cooked our evening's repast, and placed some of
+the palm leaves on poles by the side of a slope to save us from the
+heavy rain. We had not finished all our preparations when the storm
+broke. If we had not had the glimmering glare of our firebrands we
+should have been in profound obscurity, although it was not yet
+night. We all three, with pieces of palm branches in our hands,
+crouched under the slight shelter which we had improvised, and there
+awaited the full force of the storm. The thunder-claps were redoubled;
+the rain began with violence to batter the trees, and then to assail
+us like a torrent. Our fires were speedily extinguished; we found
+ourselves in the deepest darkness, interrupted only by the lightning,
+which from time to time rushed, serpent-like, through the trees of
+the forest, scattering a dazzling light, to leave us the moment after
+in profound obscurity. Around us the din was horrible; the thunder
+was continuous, the echoes of the mountains repeating from distance
+to distance its sound, sometimes deadened, and sometimes with awful
+grandeur. The wind, which blew with violence, shattered the uppermost
+parts of the trees, breaking off large branches, which fell with a
+crash to the ground. Some trunks were uprooted, and, while falling,
+tore down the boughs of the neighbouring trees. The rain was incessant,
+and in the intervals between the thunder we could hear the awful roar
+of the waters of a torrent which rushed madly past the base of the
+mound where we had taken refuge. Amidst all this frightful commotion,
+mournful and dismal sounds were heard, like the howls of a large
+dog which had lost its master: they were the cries of the deer in
+their distress, seeking for a place of shelter. Nature seemed to
+be in convulsions, and to have declared war in every element. The
+loose thatch under which we had taken refuge was soon penetrated,
+and we were completely deluged. We soon quitted this miserable hole,
+preferring to move our stiffened and almost deadened limbs, covered
+with the fearful little leeches, which terrible infliction deprived
+us of the strength so necessary in our awful position.
+
+I avow that at this moment I sincerely repented my fatal curiosity,
+for which I paid so dearly. I could compare this frightful night only
+to the one I had passed in the bamboos, when I was wrecked on the
+lake. In appearance there was not such pressing danger, for we could
+not be swallowed up by the waves; but there were large trees, under
+which we were obliged to stop, and one of which might be uprooted
+and fall upon us; a bough torn off by the wind might crush us; and
+the lightning, equally terrific in its reports and its effects,
+might strike us at any moment. One thing was especially painful,
+and that was the cold, and the difficulty of moving our frozen and
+almost paralysed limbs. We awaited with impatience the cessation of
+the storm; but it was not until after three hours of mortal agony that
+the thunder gradually ceased. The wind fell; the rain subsided; and
+for some time we heard nothing but the large drops which dripped from
+the trees, and the dread sound of the torrents. Calm was restored;
+the sky became pure and starry: but we were deprived of that view
+which gives hope to the traveller, for the forest presented only a
+dome of green, impenetrable to the sight.
+
+Exhausted as we were by our exposure to the elements and our
+exertions, we were so overpowered by nature's great renovator sleep,
+that, notwithstanding our clothes were saturated with the rain,
+we were able to pass the remainder of the night in tranquillity. At
+break of day the forest, which a few hours previously had been the
+scene of the terrors which I have described, was again tranquil
+and silent. When we quitted our lair we were frightful to look at;
+we were covered with leeches, and the marks of blood on our faces
+rendered us hideous. On looking at my two poor Indians I could not
+avoid laughing aloud; they also looked at me, but their respect
+for me prevented their laughing. I was no doubt equally punished,
+and my white skin must have served to show well the ravages of those
+creatures. We were, indeed, knocked up; we could scarcely move, so
+weak had we become. However, act we must, and promptly,--to light a
+fire quickly, in order to warm us; to cook some of the palm stalks;
+to cross, by swimming, a torrent which, with a terrible noise, was
+rushing on below us; and to reach, during the day, the shores of the
+Pacific ocean. If we delayed to start it might not be possible to pass
+through the torrents,--we had left several behind us,--we might find
+ourselves in the impossibility of going either backward or forward,
+and perhaps be obliged to remain several days waiting for the waters
+to subside before we could proceed. Besides, other storms might arise,
+frequent as they are at this season, and we should have to remain for
+several weeks in a desert spot without resources, and where the first
+night passed under such a bad roof was no recommendation, There was no
+time to be lost. From a large heap of palm leaves, where we had placed
+and covered up our haversacks in order to preserve them from the wet,
+we drew them out safe; our precautions had fortunately been successful,
+they were quite dry. We made a large fire, thanks to the elemi gum,
+which burns with such ease. Our feelings were delightful when the
+heat entered our frames, dried our dripping garments, re-animated our
+courage, and gave us some strength. But, to enjoy that satisfaction
+fully, one should have acquired it at the same cost as I had. I very
+much doubt that any European would like to participate in the scenes
+of that night simply for the enjoyments of the following day.
+
+Our scanty cookery was soon ready, and expeditiously dispatched,
+and we moved off in quick time.
+
+My Indians were uneasy, as they feared they would not be able to
+pass through the torrent which was heard at a distance, consequently
+they marched quicker than I did. On reaching the bank I found them
+in a consternation. "Oh, master!" said my faithful Alila, "it is not
+possible to pass; so we must spend some days here." I cast my eyes
+on the torrent, which was rolling between steep rocks, in a yellow,
+muddy stream: it had all the appearance of a cascade, and was carrying
+down the trunks of trees and branches broken off during the storm. My
+Indians had already come to a decision, and were arranging a spot for
+a fit bivouac; but I did not wish to give up all hopes of success so
+speedily, and set about examining with care the means of overcoming
+the difficulty.
+
+The torrent was not more than a hundred yards in breadth, and a
+good swimmer could with ease get over in a few minutes. But it was
+necessary, on the opposite side, to arrive at a spot which was not too
+steep, and where one could find safe footing, and out of the torrent;
+otherwise the risk would be run of being drawn down, no one could
+tell whither.
+
+From the bank on which we were it was easy to jump into the water,
+but on the other side, for a hundred yards down the stream, there was
+but one spot where the rocks were interrupted. A small stream joined
+there the one we wished to cross. After I had carefully calculated by
+sight the length of the passage, I considered myself strong enough to
+attempt it. I was a better swimmer than my Indians; and I was certain
+if I was once on the other side, that they would follow. I told them
+that I was going to cross over the torrent.
+
+But one reflection caused me to hesitate. How could I preserve our
+haversacks, and save our precious provision of powder? How keep
+our guns from injury? It would not be possible to think of carrying
+those articles on my back through a torrent so rapid, and in which,
+beyond doubt, I should be under water more than once before I gained
+the other side.
+
+The Indians, being fertile in expedients, speedily extricated me
+from this difficulty: they cut several rattans, and joined the ends
+together, so as to form a considerable length. One of them climbed a
+tree which leant over the torrent, and there fastened one end of the
+rattan length, while I took the other end to carry it over to the other
+bank. All our arrangements being effected I plunged into the water,
+and without much difficulty gained the opposite side, having the end
+of the rattan with me, which I fastened to a tree on the steep bank I
+had gained, allowing a slight inclination of the line towards me, yet
+raised sufficiently over the water to allow the articles which we were
+anxious to pass over to slide along without touching the water. Our
+newly constructed bridge was wonderfully successful. The articles
+came across quite safe and dry; and my Indians, by its aid, quickly
+joined me. We congratulated each other on our fortunate passage,
+and the more so, as we expected before sunset to reach the Pacific
+ocean. Of the woods we had had enough: and we now looked for the sun,
+which for several days had been obscured by clouds; the leeches caused
+us considerable suffering, and weakened us very much, and our miserable
+diet was not sufficient to recruit our exhausted frames. Moreover we
+did not doubt that, on reaching the sea, we should be amply recompensed
+for all the privations we had endured. In fine, with renewed hopes we
+found our courage revive, and soon forgot the fatal night of the storm.
+
+I walked nearly as quick as my Indians, who, like me, hastened to
+get clear of the insupportable humidity in which we had existed for
+several days.
+
+Two hours after we had passed the torrent a dull and distant sound
+struck our ears. At first we supposed it to be a fresh storm; but
+soon we knew, from its regularity, that it was nothing less than the
+murmur of the Pacific ocean, and the sound of the waves which come
+from afar to break themselves on the eastern shore of Luzon. This
+certainty caused me a most pleasing emotion. In a few hours I should
+again see the blue sky, warm myself in the generous rays of the sun,
+and find a boundless horizon. I should also get rid of the fearful
+leeches, and should soon salute Nature, animated in creation, in
+exchange for the solitudes from which we had just emerged.
+
+We were now on the declivity of the mountains, the descent of which
+was gentle and our march easy. The sound of the waves increased by
+degrees. Near three o'clock in the afternoon we perceived through the
+trees that the sun was clear; and an instant afterwards we beheld the
+sea, and a magnificent beach, covered with fine glittering sand. The
+first movement of all three was to strip off our clothes and to
+plunge into the waves; and while we thus enjoyed a salutary bath, we
+amused ourselves in collecting off the rocks a quantity of shell-fish,
+which enabled us to make the most hearty meal we had eaten since we
+started from home.
+
+Having thus satisfied our hunger, our thoughts were directed to taking
+rest, of which we stood in great need; but it was no longer on knotty
+and rough pieces of timber, that we were going to repose,--it was on
+the soft sand, which the shore offered to us, warmed as it was by the
+last rays of the setting sun. It was almost night when we stretched
+ourselves on this bed, which to us was preferable to one of down. Our
+sacks served as pillows; we laid our guns, which were properly primed,
+close by our sides, and after a few minutes were buried in a profound
+sleep. I know not how long I had enjoyed this invigorating balm when
+I was awakened by the painful feeling of something crawling over
+me. I felt the prickings of sharp claws, which fastened in my skin,
+and occasionally caused me great pain. Similar sensations had awakened
+my two Indians. We collected the embers which were still ignited, and
+were able to see the new kind of enemies which assailed us. They were
+the crabs called "Bernard the Hermit," [23] and in such quantities that
+the ground was crawling with them, of all sizes and of all ages. We
+swept the sand on which we laid down, hoping to drive them away,
+and to have some sleep; but the troublesome--or rather, the famishing
+hermits--returned to the charge, and left us neither peace or quiet. We
+were busy in resisting their attacks, when suddenly, on the edge of
+the forest, we perceived a light, which came towards us. We seized
+our guns, and awaited its approach in profound silence and without
+any movement. We then saw a man and woman coming out of the wood,
+each having a torch in their hands. We knew them to be Ajetas, who
+were coming, no doubt, to catch fish on the beach. When they reached
+within a few steps from us, they stood for an instant motionless and
+gazed at us with fixed attention. We three were seated, watching them,
+and trying to guess their intentions. One of them put his hand to his
+shoulder, as if to take his bow; and I instantly cocked my gun. The
+noise caused by the movement of the gun-lock was sufficient to frighten
+them: they threw down their light, and scampered off like two wild
+beasts, in the highest alarm, to hide themselves in the forest.
+
+Their appearance was enough to prove that we were in a place frequented
+by the Ajetas. The two savages whom we had seen were perhaps gone to
+inform their friends, who might come in great numbers and let fly
+at us their poisoned arrows. This dread, and the incessant attacks
+of Bernard the Hermit, caused us to spend the remainder of the night
+near a large fire.
+
+As soon as day broke we made an excellent breakfast, thanks to the
+abundance of shell-fish, of which we could take whatever quantity we
+liked, and then set out again. Our way lay sometimes along the shore,
+and at other times through the woods. The journey was very fatiguing,
+but without any incident worthy of notice. It was after night-fall
+when we arrived at the village of Binangonan de Lampon. This village,
+inhabited by Tagalocs, is thrown, like an oasis of men, somewhat
+civilised, in the midst of forests and savage people, and who had no
+direct communication with the other districts which are governed by
+the Spaniards.
+
+My name was known to the inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon,
+consequently we were received with open arms, and all the heads of
+the village disputed with each other for the honour of having me as
+a guest. I gave the preference to him who had first invited me, and
+in his dwelling I experienced the kindest hospitality. I had scarcely
+entered when the mistress of the house herself wished to wash my feet,
+and to show me all those attentions which proved to me the pleasure
+they felt that I had given them this preference.
+
+During supper, while I was enjoying the good food which was before me,
+the small house in which I was seated became filled with young girls,
+who gazed at me with a curiosity which was really comic. When I had
+finished my meal the conversation with my host began to weary me,
+and I stretched myself on a mat, which on that occasion I regarded
+as an excellent substitute for a feather-bed.
+
+I spent three days with the kind Tagalocs, who received and treated me
+like a prince. On the fourth day I bade them adieu, and we shaped our
+course to the northward, in the midst of mountains covered with thick
+forests, and which, like those that we had quitted, showed no path
+for the traveller, except some tracks or openings through which wild
+animals passed. We proceeded with great caution, for we found ourselves
+in the district peopled by Ajetas. At night we concealed our fire, and
+each of us in turn kept watch, for what we dreaded most was a surprise.
+
+One morning, while marching in silence, we heard before us a number
+of shrill voices, resembling rather the cries of birds than human
+sounds. We kept strict watch, and shaded ourselves as much as possible
+by the aid of the trees and of the brushwood. Suddenly we perceived
+before us, at a very little distance, forty savages of both sexes,
+and of all ages; they absolutely seemed to be mere brutes; they were
+on the bank of a river, and close to a large fire. We advanced some
+steps presenting the but-end of our guns. The moment they saw us
+they set up a shrill cry, and were about to take to flight; but I
+made signs, and showed the packet of cigars which we wished to give
+them. Fortunately I had learned at Binangonan the way by which I was
+to approach them. As soon as they understood us they ranged themselves
+in a line, like men about to be reviewed; that was the signal that we
+might come near them. We approached with the cigars in our hands, and
+at one end of the line I began to distribute my presents. It was highly
+important to make friends of them, and, according to their custom,
+to give to each an equal share. My distribution being finished, our
+alliance was cemented, and peace concluded: the savages and we had
+nothing to dread from each other. They all began smoking. A stag
+had been suspended to a tree; their chief cut three large pieces
+from it with a bamboo knife, which he threw into the glowing fire,
+and a moment afterwards drew it out again and handed it round, a piece
+being given to each of us. The outside of this steak was burned, and a
+little spotted with cinders, but the inside was raw and full of blood;
+however it was necessary not to show any repugnance, and to make a
+cannibal feast, otherwise my hosts would have been affronted, and I
+was anxious to live with them for some days on a good understanding. I
+therefore eat my portion of the stag, which, after all, was not bad:
+my Indians did as I had done. Good relations were thus established
+between us, and treachery was not then to be expected.
+
+I now found myself in the midst of a tribe of men whom I had come from
+Jala-Jala to see, and I set about examining them at my ease, and for
+as long as I wished. We fixed our bivouac some steps from theirs, as
+if we wished to form part of the family of our new friends. I could
+not address them but by signs, and I had the greatest difficulty in
+making them understand me, but on the day after my arrival I had an
+interpreter. A woman came to me with a child, to which she wished
+to give a name; she had been reared amongst the Tagalocs; she had
+spoken that language, of which she remembered a little, and could
+give, although with much difficulty, all the information I desired
+which was to me of interest.
+
+The creatures with whom I had thus formed a connection for a few days,
+and as I saw them, seemed rather to be a large family of monkeys than
+human beings. Their voices very much resembled the shrill cries of
+those animals, and in their gestures they were exactly like them. The
+only difference I could see was that they knew how to handle a bow
+and a lance, and to make a fire. To describe them properly I shall
+give a sketch of their forms and physiognomies.
+
+The Ajeta, or little negro, is as black as ebony, like the Africans;
+his greatest height is four feet and a-half; his hair is woolly,
+and as he takes no trouble about cutting it, and knows not how to
+arrange it, it forms around his head a sort of crown, which gives him
+an odd aspect, and, at a distance makes him appear as if surrounded
+with a kind of halo; his eye is yellowish, but lively and brilliant,
+like that of an eagle. The necessity of living by the chase, and of
+pursuing his prey, produces the effect on this organ of giving to
+it the most extraordinary vivacity. The features of the Ajetas have
+something of the African black, but the lips are not so prominent;
+while young their forms are pretty; but their lives being spent in the
+woods, sleeping always in the open air without shelter, eating much
+one day and often having nothing--long fastings, followed by repasts
+swallowed with the voracity of wild beasts--gave them a protruding
+stomach, and made their extremities lank and shrivelled. They never
+wear any clothing, unless a belt of the rind of a tree, from eight to
+ten inches in breadth, which they tie round their waist; their arms
+are composed of a bamboo lance, a bow of the palm tree, and poisoned
+arrows. Their food consists of roots, of fruits, and of the products
+of the chase; the flesh they eat nearly raw; and they live in tribes
+composed of from fifty to sixty individuals. During the day, the old
+men, the infirm, and the children, remain near a large fire, while
+the others are engaged in hunting; when they have a sufficiency of
+food to last for some days, they remain round their fire, and sleep
+pell-mell among the cinders.
+
+It is extremely curious to see collected together fifty or sixty of
+these brutes of every age, and each more or less deformed; the old
+women especially are hideous, their decrepit limbs, their big bellies
+and their extraordinary heads of hair, give them all the looks of
+furies, or of old witches.
+
+I had scarcely arrived than women with very young children came in
+crowds to me. In order to satisfy them I caressed their babes: but
+that was not what they wanted, and, notwithstanding their gestures
+and their words, I could not make out their wishes. On the following
+day, the woman whom I have already mentioned as having lived for
+some time among the Tagalocs, arrived from a neighbouring tribe,
+accompanied by ten other women, each of whom had an infant in her
+arms. She explained what I was not able to comprehend on the previous
+day, and said: "We have amongst us very few words for conversation:
+all our children take at their birth the name of the place where they
+are born. There is great confusion, then, and we have brought them
+to you that you may give them names."
+
+As soon as I understood this explanation, I wished to celebrate
+the ceremony with all the pomp that the circumstances and the
+place allowed. I went to a small rivulet, and there, as I knew the
+formula for applying the baptismal water, I took my two Indians as
+sponsors, and during several days baptised about fifty of these poor
+children. Each mother who brought her infant was accompanied by two
+persons of her own family. I pronounced the sacramental words, and
+poured water on the head of the child, and then announced aloud the
+name I had given to the child. Therefore, as they have no means of
+perpetuating their recollections, from the time that I pronounced
+the name,--Francis, for instance,--the mother and her accompanying
+witnesses repeated it very often, until they learned to say it
+correctly, and commit it to memory. Then they went away, and were
+constantly repeating the name, which they were anxious to retain.
+
+The first day the ceremony was rather long; but the second day the
+number lessened, and I was allowed to pursue my examination of the
+character of my hosts. I had retained the woman who spoke Tagaloc,
+and in the long conversations which I held with her, she initiated
+me thoroughly in all their customs and usages.
+
+The Ajetas have no religion; they do not adore any star. It
+seems, however, that they have transmitted to, or received from,
+the Tinguianes, the practice of adoring, during one day, a rock or
+a trunk of any tree on which they find any resemblance whatever of
+an animal; they then abandon it, and think no more of an idol until
+they meet with a strange form, which, for a short time, constitutes
+the object of their frivolous worship. They have a strong veneration
+for the dead; and during several years it is their practice to visit
+their graves, and there to leave a little tobacco or betel. The bow
+and arrows which once belonged to the deceased are hung up over his
+grave on the day of his interment; and every night, according to
+the belief of his surviving comrades, he rises up out of his grave,
+and goes to hunt in the forest.
+
+Interments take place without any ceremony. The dead body is laid at
+full length in a grave, which is covered up with earth. But whenever
+one of the Ajetas is dangerously ill, and his recovery despaired of,
+or that he has been even slightly wounded by a poisoned arrow, his
+friends place him seated in a deep hole, with the arms crossed over
+his breast, and thus inter him while living.
+
+I thought of speaking to my interpreter on religion, and asked her
+if she did not believe in a Supreme Being--an all-powerful Divinity,
+on whom all nature--even we ourselves--depend in all things; and who
+had created the firmament, and who was looking on at our acts. She
+looked at me with a smile, and said: "When I was young, amongst
+your brothers, I remember that they spoke to me of a master, who, as
+they said, had Heaven for his dwelling-place; but all that was lies;
+for see"--(she here took up a small stone and threw it into the air,
+saying, in a very serious tone)--"how can a king, as you say, remain
+in the sky any more than that stone?" What answer could I give to
+such reasoning? I left religion aside, to put to her other questions.
+
+I have already stated that the Ajetas did not often wait for the death
+of a person to put him into the ground. As soon as the last honours are
+rendered to a deceased, it is requisite, conformably to their usages,
+to take revenge for his death. The hunters of the tribe to which he
+belonged set out, with their lances and their arrows, to kill the first
+living creature which should appear before their eyes--be it man,
+stag, wild boar, or buffalo. From the moment they start in search
+of a victim, they take care, in every part of the forest through
+which they pass, to break the young shoots of the arbustus shrub,
+by pointing its tops in the direction which they are following. This
+is done to give a caution to their friends, and other passers-by,
+to avoid those places in which they are searching for a victim, for
+if one of themselves fell into their hands, he would, without fail,
+be taken as the expiatory victim.
+
+They are faithful in marriage, and have but one wife. When a young
+man has made his choice, his friends or his parents make a demand for
+the young girl; a refusal is never given. A day is chosen; and on the
+morning of that day the young girl is sent into the forest, where she
+hides herself or not, just as she pleases, and according as she wishes
+to be married to the young man who has asked her. An hour after her
+departure, the young man is sent to find out his bride. If he has the
+good luck to find her, and to bring her back to her parents before
+sunset, the marriage is concluded, and she becomes his wife without
+fail; but if, on the contrary, he returns to the camp without her,
+he is not allowed to renew his addresses.
+
+Among the Ajetas old age is highly respected. It is always one of
+the oldest men who governs the assembled body. All the savages of
+this race live, as I have stated, in large families of from sixty to
+eighty persons. They ramble about through the forests, without having
+any fixed spot for their abode; and they change their encampment
+according to the greater or less quantity of game which they find in
+various places.
+
+While thus living in a state of nature altogether primitive, these
+savages have no instrument of music, and their language imitating,
+as I have stated, the cries of monkeys, has very few sounds, which
+are extremely difficult for a stranger to pronounce, how much soever
+may be his eagerness to study them. They are excellent hunters, and
+make a wonderful use of the bow. The young negroes, however little,
+of each sex, while their parents are out hunting, amuse themselves on
+the banks of the rivulets with their small bows. If by chance they
+see any fish in the translucent stream they let fly an arrow at it,
+and it is seldom that they miss their aim.
+
+All the weapons of the Ajetas are poisoned; a simple arrow could not
+cause a wound so severe as to stop a strong animal, such as a deer,
+in its course; but if the dart has been smeared with the poison known
+to them, the smallest puncture of it produces in the wounded animal
+an inextinguishable thirst, and death ensues upon satisfying it. The
+hunters then cut out the flesh around the wound, and use the remainder
+as food, without any danger; but if they neglect this precaution,
+the meat becomes so exceedingly bitter that even the Ajetas themselves
+cannot eat it.
+
+Never having given credit to the famous boab of Java, I made
+experiments at Sumatra on the sort of poison of which the Malays make
+use to poison their weapons. I discovered that it was simply a strong
+solution of arsenic in citron juice, with which they coated their arms
+several times. I tried to find the poison used by the Ajetas. They
+led me to the foot of a large tree, and tore off a piece of its bark,
+and told me that that was the poison they used. I chewed some of it
+before them; it was insupportably bitter, but otherwise not injurious
+in its natural state. But the Ajetas make a preparation of it, the
+secret of which they refused to impart to me. When their poison is
+made up as a paste, they give to their arms a thin coating of it,
+about an eighth of an inch in thickness.
+
+The Ajetas in their movements are active and supple to an incredible
+degree; they climb up the highest trees like monkeys, by seizing the
+trunk with both hands, and using the soles of their feet. They run
+like a deer in the pursuit of the wild animals: this is their favourite
+occupation. It is a very curious sight to see these savages set out on
+a hunting excursion; men, women, and children move together, very much
+like a troop of ourang-outangs when going on a plundering party. They
+have always with them one or two little dogs, of a very special breed,
+which they employ in tracking out their prey whenever it is wounded.
+
+I enjoyed quite at my ease the hospitality exercised towards me by
+these primitive men. I saw amongst them, and with my own eyes, all
+that I was desirous of knowing. The painful life which I had led
+since my departure from home, without any shelter but the trees,
+and eating nothing but what the savages provided, began to tire me
+exceedingly: I resolved to return to Jala-Jala. Having previously
+noticed several graves at a short distance from our bivouac, an idea
+struck me of carrying away a skeleton of one of the savages, which
+would, in my judgment, be a curiosity to present to the Jardin des
+Plantes or to the Museum of Anatomy at Paris. The undertaking was one
+of great danger, on account of the veneration of the Ajetas for their
+dead. They might surprise us while violating their graves, and then
+no quarter was to be expected. I was, however, so much accustomed to
+overcome whatever opposed my will, that the danger did not deter me
+from acting upon my resolution. I communicated my intentions to my
+Indians, who did not oppose my project.
+
+Some few days afterwards we packed up our baggage, and took farewell
+of our hosts. We shaped our course towards the Indian cemetery. In
+the first graves which we opened we found the bones decayed in part,
+and I could only procure two skulls, which were not worth the danger
+to which they exposed us. However, we continued our researches, and
+towards the close of the day discovered the remains of a woman, who,
+from the position of the body in the grave, must have been buried
+before her death. The bones were still covered with skin; but the
+body was dry, and almost like a mummy. This was a fit subject. We
+had taken the body out of the grave, and were beginning to pack it
+up piece by piece into a sack, when we heard small shrill cries at a
+distance. The Ajetas were coming upon us, and there was no time to be
+lost. We seized our prize and started off as quick as possible. We had
+not got a hundred yards, when we heard the arrows whistling about our
+ears. The Ajetas, perched on the tops of the trees, waited for us and
+attacked us, without our having any means of defence. Fortunately night
+came to our aid; their arrows, usually so sure, were badly directed,
+and did not touch us. While escaping we fired a gun to frighten them,
+and were soon able to leave them far behind, without having received
+any other injury than the alarm, and a sufficient notice of the danger
+to be encountered in disturbing the repose of their dead. On emerging
+from the wood, some drops of blood caused me to remark a slight
+scratch on the forefinger of my right hand; I attributed this to the
+hurry of my flight, and did not trouble myself much about it, as was
+my practice with trifles, but continued my march towards the sea-shore.
+
+We still retained the skeleton, which we laid on the sandy beach,
+as well as our haversacks and guns, and sat down to rest after the
+fatigue of the journey. My companions then began to make reflections
+on our position, and my lieutenant, inspired by his affection for me,
+and his sense of the danger we were exposed to, addressed me in the
+following strain:
+
+"Oh, master! what have we done, and what is to become of us? To-morrow
+morning the enraged Ajetas will come to attack us for the execrable
+booty which we have carried off from them at the risk of our lives. If
+they would attack in the open ground, with our guns we might defend
+ourselves; but what can one do against those animals, perched here
+and there like monkeys in the top branches of the trees of their
+forest? Those places are for them so many fortresses, from which they
+will to-morrow shower down upon us those darts, which, alas! never fail
+to do mischief. Luckily it was night when they attacked us just now,
+for otherwise we at this hour should have a lance through each of our
+bodies, and then they would have cut off our heads to serve as trophies
+for a superb fête. Your head, master, would first have been laid on the
+ground, and the brutes would have danced round it, and, as our leader,
+you would have been a target of honour for them to practise upon.
+
+"And now, master, all that which would have occurred to us if the
+night had not favoured our escape is but deferred, for, alas! we cannot
+remain continually on this beach, although it is the only spot where
+we can protect ourselves against these black rascals. We must go to
+our homes, and this we cannot do without passing through the woods
+inhabited by these abominable creatures, who made us eat raw meat,
+and seasoned only with cinders. Well, master, before you undertook
+this excursion, you ought to have recollected all that happened to
+us among the Tinguians and the Igorrots."
+
+I listened calmly to this touching lamentation of my lieutenant, who
+was perfectly right in all he said; but when he finished I sought to
+rouse his courage, and replied:
+
+"What! my brave Alila! are you afraid? I thought the Tic-balan, and
+the evil spirits could alone affect your courage. Do you want to make
+me think that men like yourself, without any arms but bad arrows, are
+enough to make you quake? Come, enough of this cowardice; to-morrow
+we shall have daylight, and we shall see what is to be done. In
+the meantime let us search for shell-fish, for I am very hungry,
+notwithstanding the alarm into which you are trying to throw me."
+
+This little sermon gave courage to Alila, who immediately set about
+making a fire, and then, by the aid of lighted bamboos, he and his
+comrade went to the rocks to find out the shell-fish.
+
+Alila was nevertheless quite right, and I myself could not disguise
+the fact, that good luck alone could extricate us from the critical
+position in which we were placed by my fault, in having thought of
+my country, and in wishing to ornament the Museum of Paris with a
+skeleton of an Ajetas. [24]
+
+From disposition and habit I was not a man to alarm myself with any
+danger which was not immediate; yet I avow that the last words I
+had said to Alila:--"To-morrow we shall have daylight, and we shall
+see what is to be done:"--came back to my mind, and for a short time
+occupied my thoughts.
+
+My Indians brought back a large quantity of shell-fish, sufficient
+for our supper, and Alila ran up quite breathless, saying:
+
+"Master, I have made a discovery! A hundred steps from this I have
+found a canoe, which the sea has cast upon the beach; it is large
+enough to hold us three. We can make use of it to get to Binangonan,
+and there we shall be safe from the poisoned arrows of these dogs
+the Ajetas."
+
+This discovery was either that Providence had come to our aid, or it
+was a complication of dangers greater than those reserved to us on
+land on awaking in the morning.
+
+I went instantly to the spot where Alila had made his important
+discovery, and having disencumbered the canoe from the sand with which
+it was partly covered, I soon became certain that, with some bamboos,
+and by stopping a few cracks, it would be staunch enough to take us
+over the Pacific ocean, away from the Ajetas.
+
+"Well," said I to Alila, "you see I was right, and you must admit the
+hand of Providence is here. Is it not evident that this fine boat,
+built, perhaps, several thousand leagues from this, has arrived
+express from the Polynesian islands to carry us away from the claws
+of the savages."
+
+"True, master, true; it is our luck. To-morrow they will finely be
+taken in on not finding us here; but let us set to work, for we have
+much to do before this fine boat, as you call it, will be in a fit
+state for going through the water."
+
+We immediately made a large fire on the shore, and went into the
+woods to cut down bamboos and rattans; then we set to work to stop
+the holes, which decreased fast enough under our handy-work upon the
+abandoned canoe.
+
+Persons who have never travelled amongst the savages cannot imagine
+how, without having been instructed in the arts, and without nails,
+one could stop up the fissures in such a boat, and put it in a state
+fit for sea. Yet the means were very simple; our poignards, bamboos,
+and rattans supplied everything; by scraping a bamboo we obtained from
+it something like tow, which we put into the chinks, so that the water
+could not enter. If it was necessary to stop any breach a few inches
+in width, we took from the bamboo a little plank, somewhat larger
+than the opening we wished to close, and then with the point of the
+poignard we pierced it all round with little holes, to match those
+which were made in the same manner in the boat itself. Afterwards,
+with long strings of the rattan, which we split up and made fine,
+we sewed the little plank to the boat, just as one would a piece of
+cloth on a coat; we covered the sewing with the elemi gum, and were
+sure the water could not pass through. The rattan served instead of
+hemp, and supplied all our necessities on the occasion.
+
+We worked with ardour at this our new and only means of safety. Once
+caulked, we placed in it two large bamboos as beams, for without
+those beams we could not have sailed for ten minutes without being
+upset. Another bamboo served as our mast; the large sack of matting
+that contained our skeleton was transformed into a sail. At last,
+before the night was far advanced, every preparation was finished. The
+wind was favourable, and we hastened to try our boat, and to struggle
+with new difficulties.
+
+We placed in the canoe our arms and the skeleton, the cause of our new
+troubles; we then pushed the boat over the sand and got it afloat. It
+took us a good half-hour to get clear of the breakers. We were every
+moment in danger of being swamped by the large waves, which rolled
+on, dashing against the rocks that bound the shore. At last, after
+we had overcome a thousand difficulties and dangers, we reached the
+open sea, and the regular wave--a real movable mountain--lifted up,
+without any sudden shock, our frail boat almost to the skies, and
+then in the same quiet manner let it sink into an abyss, from which
+it was again raised to the top of a liquid mountain. These large
+waves, which follow each other usually from interval to interval very
+regularly, cause no danger to a good pilot, who takes the precaution
+of turning the prow of his boat so as to meet them. But woe to him
+if he forgets himself, and makes a false manoeuvre, he is then sure
+to be upset and wrecked. Being used to the management of canoes,
+and, more confident in my own vigilance when at sea than in that
+of my Indians, I took the helm. The wind was favourable; we set
+up our little sail, and went very fast, although every moment I
+was obliged to turn the prow to the heavy waves. We were already a
+sufficient distance from the shore not to fear, if the wind changed,
+that we should be driven in among the breakers. Everything led us to
+expect a safe voyage, when unfortunately my poor Indians were taken
+ill. They had never sailed before except on the lakes of fresh water,
+and were now attacked with sea-sickness. This was vexatious to me,
+for I knew from experience that a person so attacked for the first
+time is altogether incapable of rendering any service, and even of
+protecting himself against the smallest danger that threatens him. I
+had no one to aid me in managing the boat, and was obliged to rely
+on my own exertions. I told him who held the sheet of the sail to
+hand it to me, and I twisted it round my foot, for both my hands
+were engaged in holding the paddle which was our helm. My Indians,
+like two inanimate bodies, lay at the bottom of the boat.
+
+When I reflect on my position,--on the ocean, in a frail boat; having
+only for helps two individuals who could not move, two skulls, and a
+skeleton of an Ajetas,--I cannot help thinking that the reader may
+imagine that I have concocted a story for his amusement. However,
+I relate facts exactly as they occurred, and I leave all at liberty
+to believe as they please.
+
+I was, as it were, alone in my frail boat, struggling continually
+with the large waves, which obliged me every moment to deviate from
+the course. I longed for daylight, for I hoped to be able to discern
+the beach of Binangonan de Lampon, as a place of refuge, where I
+should find the frank hospitality and the valuable assistance of my
+old friends.
+
+At last the long-wished-for sun arose above the horizon, and I saw
+that we were about three leagues from the coast. I had gone far too
+much out to sea, and had passed Binangonan a long way. It was not
+possible to steer back, the wind would not allow it; so I decided on
+pursuing the same course, and on doing my best to reach, before night,
+Maoban, a large Tagaloc village, situate on the coast of Luzon, and
+which is separated by a small ridge of mountains from the lake of
+Bay. The first rays of the sun and a little calm restored my Indians
+to a state of being able to render me some service. We passed the
+day without eating or drinking, and we had the regret of seeing that
+we had not attained our purpose. Our position was most distressing:
+a storm might rise, the wind might blow with force, and our only
+resource then would be to throw ourselves into the breakers, and to
+reach the shore as well as we could. But luckily nothing of the kind
+took place; and about midnight we knew, from meeting a small island,
+that we were in front of the village of Maoban. I steered to it, and
+in a short time we arrived in a calm quiet bay, near a sandy shore. The
+fatigue and want of food had thoroughly exhausted my strength. I had no
+sooner landed than I threw myself on the ground, and fell into a deep
+sleep, which lasted until day. When I awoke I found the sun's rays
+were shining full upon me: it was near seven o'clock. On any other
+occasion I should have been ashamed of my laziness, but could I feel
+dissatisfied with myself for sleeping soundly after thirty-six hours'
+fasting, and spent in such extraordinary exertions? During my sleep
+one of my Indians went into the village in search of provisions, and
+I found excellent rice and salt fish near me. We made a delicious and
+splendid breakfast. My Indians, on behalf of the inhabitants, asked me
+to go to the village, and spend the day, but I was too eager to reach
+home. I knew by walking quickly we could get through the mountains,
+and arrive at night on the banks of the lake, within a few hours'
+journey from my house. I determined to start without any delay. We took
+our things out of the boat; the little sail retook its former shape,
+as a sack, to hold the skulls and the skeleton, the cause of all the
+disasters to which we had been exposed, and, with reunited strength,
+and abundant provisions for the day, we began to mount the high hills
+which separate the gulf of Maoban from the lake of Bay. The journey
+was laborious and painful. At seven o'clock we embarked on the lake,
+and towards midnight we reached Jala-Jala, where I very speedily
+forgot all the toil and trouble of my long and dangerous journey,
+while pressing my son in my arms and covering him with paternal kisses.
+
+My excellent friend Vidie, to whom I sold my house and establishment,
+gave me letters which he had received from Manilla, and from them I
+learned that my presence was desired there on affairs of importance. I
+resolved to start on the following day.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+    I Determine not again to Separate from my Son--I take
+    him to Manilla--The Effects of the Wound I received among
+    the Ajetas--My Recovery--Kindness of the Spanish and other
+    Inhabitants of Manilla--Illness of my Son--I return with him to
+    Jala-Jala--Sorrowful Remembrances--The Death of my poor Boy--His
+    Interment--My frantic Grief and Despair--I Determine to Quit the
+    Philippines--I am Called to Manilla by Madame Dolorès Seneris--My
+    Final Departure from Jala-Jala--I Arrive at Manilla, where I
+    resume Practice as a Surgeon--I Embark for France--Discontent--My
+    Travels through Europe--I Marry again--Death of my Mother and my
+    Second Wife--Conclusion.
+
+
+Having now concluded my last trip into the interior of the Philippines,
+I was desirous of not separating myself again from my son, the only
+being that remained to me of all those whom I had loved so tenderly. I
+took him with me to Manilla; but I did not altogether bid farewell
+to Jala-Jala, yet I had almost the intention of never going back to it.
+
+The journey was as agreeable as my melancholy recollections would
+permit. I experienced such pleasure in holding my boy in my arms,
+and in receiving his gentle caresses, that I occasionally forgot
+every sorrow.
+
+I arrived at Manilla, and took up my quarters in the environs, at
+the abode of Baptiste Vidie, brother of the friend whom I had left
+at Jala-Jala.
+
+After my escape from the Ajetas, I had noticed a small wound on
+the forefinger of my right hand, which I attributed to having
+been accidentally scratched by a branch or a thorn, while we were
+endeavouring to make our escape with such precipitation from the arrows
+which the savages let fly at us. The first night I spent at Manilla,
+I felt in the place where the wound was such extreme pain that I fell
+down twice totally senseless. The agony increased every instant, and
+became so violent that I could no longer doubt that it was caused by
+the poison of an arrow, shot at me by the Ajetas. I sent for one of
+my confréres, and after a most careful examination, he made a large
+incision, which did not, however, afford me any relief: the hand,
+on the contrary, festered up. By little and little the inflammation
+extended itself up my arm, and I was soon in an alarming state.
+
+In short, after suffering during a whole month, and after the most
+cruel incertitude, it seemed that the poison had passed into my
+breast. I could not sleep for an instant; and, in spite of me, dead
+and painful cries came forth from my breast, which was on fire. My
+eyes were veiled--I could not see; a burning sweat covered my face;
+my blood was on fire, and did not circulate in my veins; my life
+seemed about to become extinct. The medical men declared that I could
+not pass through the night. According to the usages of the country,
+I was told that I ought to regulate my affairs for death. I asked
+that the consul-general of France, my excellent friend Adolphe Barrot,
+should be sent for.
+
+Adolphe I knew to be a man of true heart and affection, and to him I
+recommended my poor boy. He promised to take care of him as if he were
+his own son, to take him to France, and to give him over to my family.
+
+Lastly a good Dominican friar came, and with him I had several long
+conferences, and after he had dispensed to me the consolations of his
+ministry, he gave me extreme unction. Everything was done according
+to the customary form, and nothing was wanting but my death.
+
+However, amidst all these preparations, I alone was not so eager;
+and, although in excessive anguish, I preserved my presence of
+mind, and declared I should not die. Was it courage? Was it great
+confidence in my strength and robust health, which made me believe in
+my recovery? Was it a presentiment, or was it an inward voice which
+told me: "The doctors are wrong, and how great will be their surprise
+tomorrow on finding me better?" In short, I did not wish to die; for,
+according to my system, my will ought to stop the order of nature,
+and to make me survive all imaginable pain.
+
+The following day I was better: the doctors found my pulse regular,
+and without any intermitting symptom. Some days afterwards the poison
+passed out to my skin: my whole body was covered with a miliary
+eruption, and thenceforth I was safe. My recovery was very gradual,
+and for more than a year I felt acute pains in my breast.
+
+During the course of my illness I received the kindest attention from
+my fellow-countrymen, and in general from all the Spanish inhabitants
+of Manilla; and here I ought to state, to the praise of the latter
+class, that during twenty years spent in the Philippines, I always
+found amongst those with whom I had dealings, a great nobleness of
+soul and a devotedness free from egotism. I shall never forget the
+kindnesses I received from this noble race, for which I entertain
+feelings of the warmest gratitude. To me, every Spaniard is a brother;
+and to him I shall always be happy to prove that his countrymen have
+not conferred obligations on an ungrateful character. I hope the
+reader will pardon me for having quitted my subject for a short time
+to fulfil the duty of gratitude; but are they not my recollections
+which I am detailing? [25]
+
+The wish to undertake, together with my boy, the voyage which would
+restore me to my country; the hope of seeing my kind good mother,
+my sisters, and all the friends whom I had left behind, reconciled me
+somewhat to existence, and made me experience a little happiness. I was
+awaiting with impatience the time for embarking; but, alas! my mission
+was not yet terminated in the Philippines, and a new catastrophe,
+quickly opened afresh all my sorrows.
+
+I was scarcely recovered, when my dear boy--my sole delight the last
+beloved being that remained to me on this earth, so fruitful in joys,
+and still so destructive of them--my poor Henry fell suddenly ill,
+and his disease made the most rapid progress. My friends immediately
+foreboded that a great misfortune would befall me. I alone did not know
+the state in which my child really was. I loved him with such an ardent
+passion, that I believed it impossible that Providence would deprive
+me of him. My medical attendant, or rather my friend, Genu, advised
+me to take him to Jala-Jala, where his native air and the country,
+as he said, would without doubt promote his recovery. I liked the
+advice, for so many persons had recovered their health at Jala-Jala
+that I hoped for my child a similar good result. I set out with him
+and his governess; the voyage was one of sadness, for I saw my poor
+boy continually suffering, without being able to afford him any relief.
+
+On our arrival Vidie came to receive us, and in a few moments I
+occupied, with my Henry, the room which brought to my remembrance two
+very sorrowful losses--the death of my little daughter and that of my
+beloved Anna. It was, moreover, in that very room my Henry was born,--a
+cruel association of the happiest moments of my existence with that
+when I was bewailing the state of my beloved boy. Nevertheless, I did
+not altogether despair, for I had hopes in my art and experience. I
+seated myself by his bedside, and did not leave him for a moment. I
+slept close to him, and I passed every day in administering the
+medicine and all the comforts in my power, but without any good result,
+or any relief for his sufferings. I lost all hope, and on the ninth
+day after our arrival the dear boy expired in my arms.
+
+It is not possible for me to give an account of my feelings on this
+last trial. My heart was broken, my head on fire! I became mad, and
+never did despair take such a hold on me. I listened to nothing but
+my sorrow; and force became necessary to tear from my arms the mortal
+remains of my child.
+
+On the following day he was laid close to his mother, and another
+tomb was erected in the church of Jala-Jala.
+
+In vain did my friend Vidie endeavour to afford me consolation, or
+to change the current of my affliction. Several times he tried to
+remove me from the fatal room, which I now looked upon as a scene
+of misfortunes, but he could not succeed. I hoped at the time--and
+I also thought that I too had a right--to die there, where my wife
+and my son had breathed their last sighs. My tears refused to flow,
+and even words failed me to express the full extent of my grief. An
+ardent fever, which devoured me, was far too slow for the eagerness
+of my wishes. In a moment of bewilderment, I was near committing
+the greatest act of cowardice which man can perpetrate against his
+Creator. I double-locked the door; I seized the poignard which I had
+so often used to protect my life, and pointed it against myself. I
+was already choosing the spot in which I should strike, in order by
+one blow to terminate my miserable existence. My arm, strengthened by
+delirium, was about to smite my breast, when one sudden thought came to
+prevent me from consummating the crime which has no pardon--although
+the crime of despair. My mother, my poor mother, whom I had so much
+loved, my good mother presented herself to my mind, and said to me:
+"Thou wouldst abandon me--I shall see thee no more!" I recollected
+then the words of Anna: "Go, and see thy mother again!" This thought
+changed my resolution completely. I threw the poniard aside with
+horror, and fell on my bed quite exhausted. My eyes, which during many
+days had been dry and burning, were once again overflowing with tears,
+which removed the heavy weight from my lacerated heart.
+
+The force of mind of which I stood so much in need was awakened again
+within me: I no longer thought of death, but of fulfilling my rigorous
+destiny. Calmed and relieved already by the abundant flow of tears,
+I gave myself up wholly to the idea of embracing my mother and my
+sisters. Then I wished to add the following pages to my journal. My
+head was not thoroughly right. I shall translate what I then wrote
+in Spanish, which was my adopted and familiar language, in preference
+even to French, which I had scarcely spoken during twenty years:--
+
+"How have I strength to take this pen? My poor boy!--my son!--my
+beloved Henry!--is no more: his soul has flown to his Creator! Oh,
+God! pardon this complaint in my distress. What have I done to be
+thus cruelly afflicted? My boy!--my dear son!--my only hope!--my last
+happiness!--I shall never again see thee! Formerly I was happy; I had
+my good Anna and my dear child; but cruel fate soon tore my companion
+from me. My trouble was indeed great, and my affliction was profound;
+but thou wast still with me, Oh, my child! and all my affections were
+concentrated in thee. "With thy caresses thou didst dry my tears; thy
+smile was like that of thy mother, and thy beautiful features reminded
+me of her, and in thee I found her again. But to-day, alas! I have
+lost you both. What a void! Oh, God! what a solitude! Oh! I ought to
+die in this room which is the depository of all my misfortunes. Here I
+bewailed my poor brother; here I closed the eyes of my daughter; here,
+also, Anna, when dying, bade me, bathed in tears, her last adieus;
+and here, at last, thou, my son, they tore thee from my arms, to lay
+thee near the ashes of thy mother.
+
+"So many afflictions and so many troubles for one man! Oh, God of
+goodness and mercy, will you not restore to me my poor child? Alas! I
+scarcely feel that I am mistaken: but He will pity my bewilderment--he
+who has been beloved and who has seen carried off, one by one, all
+the elements of his happiness. As for me, an isolated being, and
+henceforward useless on this earth, it matters little where I shall
+sink under the weight of my afflictions. If it was not from the hope of
+seeing my mother and sisters, I should terminate my wretched existence,
+my grave should be with you--you all!--whom I loved so much. I should
+remain near you, and during the rest of my miserable existence I should
+every day visit your tombs! But no; a sacred duty obliges me to leave
+you, and to separate for ever from you. Cruel! Oh, cruel indeed will
+be the hour when I shall depart from you. And thou, my beloved, my
+good, excellent wife, my Anna, thy last words shall be accomplished. I
+will set out, but regret and grief accompany me during the voyage; my
+heart and my memory will remain at Jala-Jala. Oh! land bedewed with
+my sweat, with my blood, and with my tears! when fate brought me to
+thy shores thou wast covered with dismal forests which this day have
+given place to rich harvests: among thy inhabitants order, abundance,
+and prosperity have taken the place of debauchery and misery. My
+efforts were crowned with full success; all was prosperity around
+me. Alas! I was too happy! But while misfortune strikes me down and
+overwhelms me, it will have stricken me alone, my work will outlive
+me. You will be happy, Oh, my friends! and if I myself have been so
+in contributing to your welfare, let a thought sometimes awaken your
+feelings towards him to whom you often gave the name of 'Father;'
+and if you preserve gratitude towards him, Oh, take a religious care
+of the tombs, trebly dear to him, which he now intrusts to you."
+
+My readers will pardon this melancholy and long lamentation; they
+will understand it if they examine with care my position. Separated
+from my country by five thousand five hundred leagues, the stroke
+of fate which laid all my cherished hopes in the dust was the
+more acutely felt as it was unexpected. I had no relatives in the
+Philippines; in France alone I might yet find some affections; and,
+at the moment of quitting Jala-Jala for ever, the idea of parting with
+my Indians--attached, devoted, as they were to me--was an additional
+grief to the many which overpowered me. Thus I could not resolve to
+acquaint them beforehand of this separation. I remained in my room,
+without quitting it even at meal times. My friend Vidie did everything
+possible to prepare me for these adieus, and to console me. He pressed
+me to start speedily for Manilla, and to make arrangements for my
+departure; but an irresistible force retained me at Jala-Jala. I
+was weak; my heart was so crushed by sorrows that I had no courage
+to adopt any resolutions. I put it off from day to day, and from day
+to day I was more undecided. An unexpected occasion was necessary in
+order to conquer my apathy; it was requisite also to triumph over me
+by sentiments of gratitude--sentiments which I could never resist.
+
+On this occasion, the motive which decided my departure was furnished
+by Providence. I had a friend in Manilla, a lady of angelic goodness,
+gentleness, and devotedness. United from the period of my arrival in
+the most intimate manner with all her family, I had known her as a
+child, and afterwards married to a highly honourable man, of whom when
+she was subsequently bereaved, I afforded her all the consolations
+which the sincerest friendship could offer. She was a witness of the
+happiness which I enjoyed with my dear Anna, and, hearing that I was
+unhappy, she did not hesitate to undertake a long journey, and in her
+turn to come and take a part in my troubles. The excellent Dolorès
+Seneris arrived one morning at Jala-Jala; she threw herself into my
+arms, and for some moments tears alone were the interpreters of our
+thoughts. When we recovered from our first emotions, she told me that
+she had come to take me away, and she herself made the preparations
+for my departure. I was too grateful for this proof of the friendship
+of the good Dolorès not to acquiesce in her wishes, and it was decided
+that on the following day I should quit Jala-Jala for ever.
+
+The report was soon spread among my Indians. They all came to bid me
+farewell: they wept, and they said to me:
+
+"Oh, master, do not deprive us of all hope of seeing you again. Go,
+and receive consolation from your mother, and then return to your
+children." That day was filled with most distressing feelings.
+
+The day following was Sunday. I went to say adieu to the remains of
+those whom I had loved even in their tombs. I heard for the last time
+the divine service in the modest little church which I had erected,
+and in which for a long time, surrounded by my dearest friends, I was
+happy to assemble, on the same day of the week, the small congregation
+of Jala-Jala.
+
+After the service I proceeded to the beach, where the boat was waiting,
+which was to take me to Manilla. There--surrounded by my Indians, the
+good parish priest, Padre Miguel, and my friend Vidie--I bade adieu
+to them all for the last time. Dolorès and I got into the boat, which
+was scarcely pushed off from the shore when every arm was stretched
+out towards me, and every one exclaimed:--"May your voyage be happy,
+master! And oh! return soon!"
+
+One of the oldest Indians made a sign for silence, and then in a loud
+voice uttered these solemn words:--"Brothers, let us weep and pray,
+for the sun is obscured to us; the star which is going has shed light
+on our best days, and now for the future, being deprived of that light,
+we cannot tell how long will last the night in which we are plunged
+by the misfortune of his departure."
+
+This exhortation of the old Indian were the last words that reached
+us: the boat moved away, as I, for the last time, fixed my eyes on
+the beloved land which I was never again to behold.
+
+We reached Manilla late: it was one of those enchanting nights, which
+I have described in the happy period of my voyages. Dolorès insisted
+that I should not lodge in any house but hers. Before she set out
+her careful friendship had provided for everything. I was surrounded
+by all those little attentions of which woman alone has the secret,
+and which she knows how to confer with such grace on him who is the
+object for whom they are designed.
+
+My windows looked on the pretty river Pasig. I there passed whole
+days in looking at the graceful Indian canoes gliding over the water,
+and receiving the visits of my friends, who came with eagerness to
+endeavour to divert my thoughts, and to afford sources of pleasing
+conversation.
+
+When I was alone I sought to dispel my melancholy by thinking of my
+voyage; on the happiness I should experience on seeing again my poor
+mother and sisters, a brother-in-law whom I did not know, and nieces
+born during my absence.
+
+The obligation of returning the visits I received, and the
+re-establishment of my health, allowed me at length to enter into
+affairs connected with my departure.
+
+My friend, Adolphe Barrot, consul-general of France, was every day in
+expectation of intelligence from his government, with orders for his
+return home. He proposed to me to wait for him, so that we might make
+the voyage together. I accepted the proposal with pleasure, and we
+decided amongst ourselves that, for our return, we should take the
+route of India, of the Red Sea, and of Egypt.
+
+While I stayed at Manilla I did not wish to be idle. The Spaniards
+reminded me that at a former epoch I had carried on the art of
+medicine, and with great success. I soon had patients from all quarters
+of the island, and I resumed my old profession, and gave advice. But
+what difference between this time and that of my débût. Then I was
+young, full of strength and of hope; then I indulged in the illusions
+usual to youth; a long future of happiness presented itself to my
+imagination. Now, overwhelmed by the weight of troubles and of the
+laborious works I had executed, there was only one wish to excite
+me, and that was, to see France again; and yet my recollections took
+me continually back to Jala-Jala. Poor little corner of the globe,
+which I civilised! where my best years were spent in a life of labour,
+of emotions, of happiness, and of bitterness! Poor Indians! who loved
+me so much! I was never to see you again! We were soon to be separated
+by the immensity of the ocean.
+
+Reflections and recollections beyond number thus occupied my mind. But,
+alas! it is vain to struggle against one's destiny; and Providence,
+in its impenetrable views, was reserving me for rude trials and
+fresh misfortunes.
+
+Having again become a doctor at Manilla, where I had such difficulty
+at my commencement, I visited patients from morning until night. To
+Dolorès and to her sister Trinidad I was indebted for the most touching
+and most delicate attentions, calculated to heal the wounds which were
+still bleeding in the bottom of my heart. I frequently saw the two
+sisters of my poor wife, Joaquina and Mariquita, as well as my young
+niece, the daughter of excellent Josephine, for whom I had entertained
+so warm a friendship, and who so soon followed my darling Anna to
+the grave. By little and little I was forming new ties of affection,
+which I was soon to break, and never afterwards to renew. I could
+not forget Jala-Jala, and my recollections never quitted that place
+where were deposited the remains of those whom of all the world I
+had most loved. My eager wishes induced me to hope that my work of
+colonisation should continue, and that my friend Vidie should find some
+compensation for the rough task he had undertaken. At this period, even
+while I remained in Manilla, a great misfortune was nearly the cause
+of throwing Jala-Jala back into its former state of barbarism. The
+bandits, who always respected the place while I was in possession of
+it, came one night to attack it, and made themselves masters of the
+house in which Vidie had shut himself up, and defended until he was
+forced to escape out of a window, and to run and hide in the woods,
+leaving his daughter, then very young, to the care of an Indian
+nurse. The bandits pillaged and shattered everything in the house;
+wounded his daughter by a sabre-cut, of which to this day she bears the
+marks; and then went off with the plunder they had made. But Jala-Jala
+had become too important a point to be neglected; and the Spanish
+government sent troops to it, to protect Vidie, and to maintain order.
+
+At last, Adolphe Barrot received from the French government the
+long-awaited instructions to return home; all my preparations were
+made for setting out. It was in 1839; twenty years had passed over
+since I left my country, which I was now about to return to with
+satisfaction. For a long time I had received no news from my mother,
+and the pleasure which I anticipated from seeing her was troubled by
+the dread of having new sorrows to experience on my arrival. My mother
+was then very old; her life had been passed in long tribulations,
+and in complete sacrifice of self. The numerous moral troubles which
+she had gone through must have affected her state of health. Besides,
+I had been so unfortunate: fate seemed to have so roughly treated all
+my affections, that I could not refrain from thinking that I should
+never again see her for whom I abandoned my much-loved country. The
+day for sailing came; yet it was not without a heartfelt grief that
+I tore myself away from my friends, and bade adieu to the Philippines.
+
+
+
+Here ought to terminate the account which I proposed: yet I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to my return to my native land.
+
+On board various vessels I passed the coasts of India, the Persian
+Gulf, and the Red Sea.
+
+After having often admired the grand works of Nature, I felt a strong
+desire to see the gigantic works executed by the hand of man.
+
+I went to Thebes, and there visited in detail its palaces, its tombs,
+and its monolithes. I descended the Nile, stopping at every place
+which contained any monuments worthy of my curiosity. I ascended
+one of the Pyramids. I passed several days in Cairo, and set out for
+Alexandria, where I embarked anew, to pass over the small space of
+sea which separated me from Europe.
+
+I have sometimes wished to compare the grandest of human productions
+with the works of the Creator; the comparison is by no means
+favourable to the former, for all those useless ornaments are nothing
+but lasting proofs of pride, and of the fanaticism of a few men, who
+were obeyed by a people in slavery. I also saw all that remained of
+the traces of destruction committed by two of the greatest conquerors
+of the world: the first was but a haughty despot, causing cohorts of
+slaves to act as he pleased, and carrying the sword and destruction
+amongst peaceful people, to profane their tombs, to follow up useless
+conquests,--history afterwards shows him dying of an orgie; and the
+other, alas! was enchained to a rock.
+
+From the summit of one of the Pyramids, in religious abstraction, I
+had contemplated the majestic Nile, which glides serpent-like through
+a vast plain, bordered by the Desert and arid mountains. Looking,
+then, below me, I could with difficulty descry some of my travelling
+companions, who were gazing at the Sphinx, and who appeared like little
+spots on the sand. And I then exclaimed: "It is not these useless
+monuments that we ought to admire, but rather this magnificent river,
+which, in obedience to the laws of all-powerful wisdom, overflows
+every year, at a fixed period, its limits, and spreads itself, like
+a vast sea, to water and to vivify these immense plains, which are
+afterwards covered with rich harvests. If this immutable and beneficent
+order of Nature did not endure, all these fertile districts would be
+but a desert waste, where no living creature could exist."
+
+These reflections took their origin, without doubt, from my having
+spent almost all my life amidst those grand creations of Nature,
+from which man continually derives sentiments that elevate him to
+the Supreme Being. I had studied that Nature--in all her details,
+her beneficence, and her magnificence--too attentively to allow
+the productions of man's genius to make upon me the impression
+which I thought might be expected, when I first formed the wish
+to see the monuments of Egypt; and, while sailing for Europe, I
+already anticipated the feeling that a short sojourn in the midst of
+civilisation would cause me to regret my ancient freedom, my mountains,
+and my solitudes in the Philippine Islands.
+
+On arriving at Malta I was for eighteen days locked up in Fort Manuel,
+and then passed the quarantine. I there received news of my family. My
+mother and sisters wrote to me that they were in the enjoyment of
+excellent health, and were awaiting with impatience my coming to
+them. After the quarantine was over, I stopped nearly a week in
+the city, while waiting for a steamer that was going to France. I
+embraced the opportunity of seeing every curiosity in the island. I
+then resumed my voyage to my native land, and the following week I
+recognised the arid rocks of Provence and France, from which I had
+been absent for twenty years.
+
+In a few days I reached Nantes, where for some time I enjoyed, in every
+respect, all the happiness which one feels when those beloved beings
+from whom one had been long severed, and who formed the last living
+ties of affection for an unhappy being who had been severely tried
+by a capricious destiny. But the want of excitement in which I lived
+soon became irksome; my life had been too active, so that the sudden
+transition could not fail to prove injurious to my health, and the idea
+of submitting during the remainder of my existence to a life sterile
+and monotonous became intolerable. Not knowing how to employ myself,
+I resolved to travel through Europe, and to study the civilised world,
+which was then so strange to me. I travelled through France, England,
+Belgium, Spain, and Italy, and returned to my family, without being
+able to discover anything that could induce me to forget my Indians,
+Jala-Jala, and my solitary excursions in the virgin forests. The
+society of men reared in extreme civilisation could not efface from my
+memory my past modest life. Notwithstanding all my efforts, I retained
+in my heart a fund of sadness, which it was not possible to conceal. My
+kind-hearted mother, who with deep regret observed my repugnance
+to establish myself in any part of the country, and who entertained
+fears, perhaps well-founded ones, that I should yet endeavour to go
+back to the Philippines, used every means to prevent me. She spoke
+to me of marriage, and in all her letters repeated that she should
+not be happy until I agreed to enter into the ties of a new union:
+she said my name would otherwise become extinct, and, as her last
+consolation, she asked me to allow her to choose a companion for me.
+
+The wish to satisfy her, and also the remembrance of Anna's last words:
+"Return to thy country, and marry one of thy countrywomen," decided
+my resolution.
+
+I soon made choice of one, who would have fully rendered a man happy
+who had not too frequently before him the remembrance of a previous
+union. Nevertheless, I was as happy as I could be. My new wife
+possessed every quality necessary for my happiness. By her I became
+father of two children, and I began to bless the determination which my
+mother had contributed so much to make me adopt; but, alas! happiness
+was never for me lasting; the cup of bitterness was not yet exhausted,
+and I had still to shed many tears.
+
+In the cemetery of Vertoux, a modest tomb for thee, poor mother! is
+erected, between that of a husband and a son; and soon after another
+grave was opened at Neuilly. In profound affliction I had the following
+lines engraved on the latter:
+
+
+        "Veille, du haut des cieux, sur ta triste famille;
+        Conserve-moi ton fils et revis dans ta fille." [26]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+[1] Pablo signifies Paul, my Christian name. I was always called thus
+at Manilla and at Cavite.
+
+[2] The betel is a species of pepper plant, the leaves of which
+are wrapped round areca nuts and the chunam--the latter is a kind
+of burnt-lime made of shells, and the areca nut is the fruit of
+a species of palm. The Indians, Chinese, half-breeds, and a great
+number of Creoles, continually chew this mixture, which is reputed
+to sweeten the breath and assist digestion.
+
+[3] During six months the winds blow continually from the north-east,
+and during the other six months from the north-west: these two periods
+are termed north-east monsoon and north-west monsoon.
+
+[4] At their head was Don José Fuentès, my constant friend.
+
+[5] Don Simon Fernandez, Oidor at the Court Royal.
+
+[6] The most bitter enemies of the Tinguians are a race of cruel,
+blood-thirsty savages, who inhabit the interior of the mountains. They
+have also to fear the Igorrots, who live nearer, but who are less
+savage.
+
+[7] Evil Spirit.
+
+[8] A malicious divinity of the Tagalocs.
+
+[9] It is on account of this cruel custom of beheading their victims
+that the Spaniards have given to these savages the name of "corta
+cabesas," "decapitators."
+
+[10] Banditti.
+
+[11] "The nakedness of the poor might be clothed out of the trimmings
+of the vain."--Dr. Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield."--Tr.
+
+[12] The Igorrots, however, according to the reports of the Indians,
+are not anthropophagi; perhaps the one in question had received these
+ragouts from some other savages--the Guinans, for instance.
+
+[13] It would be difficult to establish from what nations the divers
+species of men who inhabit the interior of Luzon originally came. The
+Tinguians, from their fine shape, their colour, their eyes, their
+almost aquiline nose, the value they set upon china vases, their music,
+and finally from their habits, would appear to be the descendants
+of the Japanese. It is most likely that at a very distant period
+some junks from the Japan coasts, hurried along by strong northern
+winds, may have been wrecked upon the Luzon shores, and that their
+crews, seeing no possibility of returning to their native country,
+as well as to avoid the Malayan population that was in possession
+of the beaches,--it is possible, I say, that the shipwrecked persons
+withdrew into the interior of the mountains, the difficulty of access
+to which protected them from all invasion.
+
+The Japanese sailors, who are merely coasters, sail about with their
+wives, as I had an opportunity of witnessing on board many junks,
+whither I went through mere curiosity. Those same junks, beaten by
+the tempest, had steered for shelter to the eastern coast of Luzon,
+where they anchored for four months, waiting for the return of the
+monsoon; and had they not met with a protecting government, their crews
+would have been compelled to fly into the mountains, as I suppose the
+Tinguians had been obliged to do. The latter having some women with
+them, must have procured others from among the neighbouring population,
+and as they inhabit the finest and healthiest country in the world,
+their number must have considerably increased. They are now spread
+over sixteen villages: Palan, Jalamey, Mabuantoc, Dalayap, Lanquiden,
+Baac, Padanquitan y Pangal, Campasan y Danglas, Lagayan, Ganagan,
+Malaylay, Bucay, Gaddani, Laganguilan y Madalag, Manab, Palog y Amay.
+
+The Igorrots, whom I had less opportunities of studying, seem to
+be the descendants of the remains of the grand naval army of the
+Chinese Lima-On, who, after attacking Manilla, on the 30th November,
+1574, had taken refuge in the province of Pangasinan, in the gulf of
+Lingayan, where he was a second time defeated, and his fleet completely
+destroyed. A part of the crew escaped into the mountains of Pangasinan,
+where the Spaniards could not pursue them.
+
+The Igorrot has long hair, eyes à la Chinoise, a flat nose, thick
+lips, high cheek bones, broad shoulders, strong and nervous limbs,
+and bronze colour; he greatly resembles the Chinese of the southern
+provinces of the Celestial Empire.
+
+I could obtain no information as to extraction concerning the Guinans,
+another people of savages, ferocious and cruel, who live in the
+neighbourhood of the Tinguians.
+
+I keep back for a future period a description of the Ajetas, or
+Negritos, the aborigines of Luzon.
+
+[14] According to Indian tradition, and to Spanish tradition
+likewise, the Infant Jesus of Zébou existed before the discovery of
+the Philippines. After the conquest the Infant was found upon the
+sea-shore; the Spanish conquerors deposited it in the cathedral,
+where it performed great miracles.
+
+[15] The Malays.
+
+[16] See Appendix, I.
+
+[17] I experienced two such gales during my residence at Jala-Jala--the
+one I am now speaking of, and another to which I shall afterwards
+allude.
+
+[18] Tapuzi is situated in the mountains of Limutan. Limutan is a
+Tagalese word, signifying "altogether forgotten."
+
+[19] In the eyes of the natives of Tagal all Europeans are Spaniards.
+
+[20] While this work was in the press, Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, who has
+already published an account of his "Voyage to the Northern Ports of
+China," kindly furnished the Publishers with confirmatory proofs of
+M. de la Gironiere's narrative, see Appendix, No. II.
+
+[21] See Appendix III. and IV.
+
+[22] Of the house of Russell and Sturges, a good and true friend, the
+recollection of whom, often present to my mind, will never be effaced.
+
+[23] Bernard the Hermit is a crab, which lodges in the abandoned
+shell of the molluscæ, and comes at night in search of food, which
+it finds on the sea beach.
+
+[24] The skeleton is now in the Musée Anatomique of Paris.
+
+[25] Gratitude here requires that I should name some of those to
+whom I am specially indebted for marks of affection and kindness. It
+would be indeed ungrateful on my part to forget them, and I beg them
+to accept this proof of my recollections.
+
+The Governors of the Philippines to whom I owe these remembrances
+are:--Generals Martinès, Ricafort, Torres Enrile, Camba, and Salazar;
+in the various administrations of the colony, the Judges (Oidorrs)
+Don Inigo Asaola, Otin-i Doazo, Don Matias Mier, Don Jacobo Varela,
+administrator-general of the liquors; Don José de la Fuente, commissary
+of the engineers, who rendered me innumerable kindnesses; Colonel Don
+Thomas de Murieta, corregidor of Tondoc; the colonel of engineers, Don
+Mariano Goicochea; the Colonel-Commandant Lante Romana; the Governor of
+the province, Don José Atienza; the brothers Ramos, sons of the judge;
+all the family Calderon; that of Seneris; Don Balthazar Mier, Don
+José Ascaraga; and lastly my friend, Don Domingo Roxas, whose son, Don
+Mariano Roxas, after having received a solid and brilliant education at
+Manilla, came to travel in Europe. He has acquired the most extensive
+information in the sciences and arts, and when he shall have returned
+to the Philippine Islands, he will most worthily replace his dignified
+father, whom a premature death has snatched away from the industry,
+the agriculture, and the advancement of his country. If gratitude
+has induced me to mention here the Spaniards from whom I experienced
+many acts of kindness, the same feeling compels me to allude to an
+English gentleman to whom I was indebted for one of those important
+services which are never to be forgotten. I allude to Mr. Thomas Dent,
+with whom I have frequently conversed upon our hunting parties at
+Jala-Jala, in which he was occasionally one of the principal actors.
+
+[26]        "From Heaven's height look down and see
+            The sorrows of thy family;
+            Preserve for me thy only boy,
+            And in thy daughter give me joy."
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE PHILIPPINES ***
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+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by
+Paul P. de La Gironière</p>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Adventures in the Philippine Islands</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Paul P. de La Gironière</div>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October 27, 2009 [eBook #30347]<br>
+[Most recently updated: December 4, 2022]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries.)</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE PHILIPPINES ***</div>
+
+
+<div class="front">
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p215"><img border="0" src="images/p215.jpg"
+alt="A Native Woman seized by a Cayman." width="720" height="484">
+<p class="figureHead">A Native Woman seized by a Cayman.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="titlePage">
+<h1 class="docTitle">Adventures<br>
+ in the<br>
+ Philippine Islands.</h1>
+
+<h2 class="byline">Translated from the French of<br>
+ <span class="docAuthor">Paul P. de la Gironiere</span>,<br>
+ Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour.</h2>
+
+<h2 class="docImprint">Revised and extended by the author,<br>
+ Expressly for this edition.<br>
+ London: Charles H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p000"><img border="0" src="images/p000.jpg"
+alt="Portrait of the Author." width="397" height="381">
+<p class="figureHead">Portrait of the Author.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e157" href=
+"#xd0e157">xiii</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="pre" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="normal">Preface.</h2>
+
+<p>On hearing a recital of some adventures which had occurred to me
+during my long voyages, many of my friends have frequently begged of me
+to publish a narrative of them, which might perhaps be interesting.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing can be more easy for you,&rdquo; they said, &ldquo;as
+you have always kept a journal since your departure from
+France.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated, however, to follow their advice, or to yield to their
+wishes, when I was one day surprised to see my name in one of the <i
+lang="fr">feuilletons</i> in the &ldquo;<i lang=
+"fr">Constitutionnel</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>M. Alexandre Dumas was publishing, under the title of &ldquo;<i><a
+class="pglink" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href=
+"https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15208">The Thousand-and-One
+Phantoms</a></i>,&rdquo; a <i>romance</i>, one of the principal
+personages of which, in a voyage to the Philippine Islands, must have
+known me when I was residing at Jala-Jala, in the colony that I founded
+there. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e182" href=
+"#xd0e182">xiv</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>It must be evident that the lively romancist has ranked me in the
+category of his <i>Thousand-and-One Phantoms</i>; but, to prove to the
+public that I am really in existence, I have resolved to take up the
+pen, under an impression, that facts of the most scrupulous veracity,
+and which can be attested by some hundreds of persons, might possess
+some interest, and be read without <i>ennui</i>, by those especially
+who are desirous of learning the customs of the savage tribes amongst
+whom I have resided.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="body"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb17" href=
+"#pb17">17</a>]</span>
+<div id="ch1" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter I.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>A Family Sketch&mdash;My Youthful Days&mdash;I Study for the Medical
+Profession&mdash;Obtain a Naval Surgeon&rsquo;s Diploma&mdash;Early
+Voyages&mdash;Sail for Manilla in the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>&mdash;Adventurous Habits&mdash;Cholera and Massacre at
+Manilla and Cavite&mdash;Captain Drouant&rsquo;s Rescue&mdash;Personal
+Dangers and Timely Escapes&mdash;How Business may make Friends of
+one&rsquo;s Enemies&mdash;An Unprincipled Captain&mdash;Tranquility
+restored at Manila&mdash;Pleasures of the Chase&mdash;The <i>
+Cultivateur</i> sails without me&mdash;First Embarrassments.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p017"><img border="0" src="images/p017.jpg"
+alt="Nantes." width="489" height="543">
+<p class="figureHead">Nantes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">My father was born at Nantes, and held the rank of
+captain in the regiment of Auvergne. The Revolution caused him the loss
+of his commission and his fortune, and left him, as sole remaining
+resource, a little property called <i lang="fr">La Planche</i>, <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb18" href="#pb18">18</a>]</span>belonging to
+my mother, and <span class="corr" id="xd0e217" title="Source: situate">
+situated</span> about two leagues from Nantes, in the parish of
+Vertoux.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of the Empire he wished to enter the service
+again; but at that period his name was an obstacle, and he failed in
+every attempt to obtain even the rank of lieutenant. With scarcely the
+means of existence, he retired to <i lang="fr">La Planche</i> with his
+family. There he lived for some years, suffering the grief and the many
+annoyances caused by the sudden change from opulence to want, and by
+the impossibility of supplying all the requirements of his numerous
+family. A short illness terminated his distressed existence, and his
+mortal remains were deposited in the cemetery of Vertoux. My mother, a
+pattern of courage and devotedness, remained a widow, with six
+children, two girls and four boys; she continued to reside in the
+country, imparting to us the first elements of instruction.</p>
+
+<p>The free life of the fields, and the athletic exercises to which my
+elder brothers and I accustomed ourselves, tended to make me hardy, and
+rendered me capable of enduring every kind of fatigue and privation.
+This country life, with its liberty, and I may well say its happiness,
+passed too quickly away; and the period soon came when my education
+compelled me to pursue my daily studies in a school at Nantes. I had
+four leagues to walk, but I trudged the distance light-heartedly<span
+class="corr" id="xd0e227" title="Source: .">,</span> and at night, when
+I returned home, I ever found awaiting me the kind solicitude of our
+dear mother, and the attentive cares of two sisters whom I tenderly
+loved.</p>
+
+<p>It was decided that I should enter the medical profession. I studied
+several years at the H&ocirc;tel-Dieu of Nantes, and I passed my
+examination for naval surgeon at an age when many a young man is shut
+up within the four walls of a college, still prosecuting his studies.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb19" href="#pb19">19</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to form any idea of my joy when I saw myself
+in possession of my surgeon&rsquo;s diploma. Thenceforward I regarded
+myself as an important being, about to take my place among reasonable
+and industrious men; and what perhaps rendered me still more joyous
+was, that I could earn my own livelihood, and contribute to the comfort
+of my mother and my sisters.</p>
+
+<p>I was also seized with a strong desire to travel abroad, and make
+myself acquainted with foreign countries.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-four hours after my nomination as surgeon I went and offered
+my services to a ship-owner who was about freighting a vessel to the
+East Indies. We were not long in arranging terms, and, at forty francs
+per month, I engaged myself for the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Within twelve months afterwards I returned home. Who can depict the
+sweet emotions which, as a young man, I felt on again beholding my
+native land? I stayed a month on shore, surrounded by the affectionate
+attentions of my mother and sisters. Despite their assiduities I was
+seized with <i>ennui</i>. I made a second and a third voyage; then,
+after having rounded the Cape of Good Hope half-a-dozen times, I
+undertook one which separated me from my country during twenty
+years.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th October, 1819, I embarked on board the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>, an old half-rotten three-masted vessel, commanded by
+an equally old captain, who, long ashore, had given up navigating for
+many years. An old captain with an old ship! Such were the conditions
+in which I undertook this voyage. I ought, however, to add, that I
+obtained an increase of pay.</p>
+
+<p>We touched at Bourbon; we ran along the entire coast of Sumatra, a
+part of Java, the isles of Sonde, and that of Banca; and at last,
+towards the end of May, eight months after our <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb20" href="#pb20">20</a>]</span>departure from Nantes, we
+arrived in the magnificent bay of Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cultivateur</i> anchored near the little town of Cavite. I
+obtained leave to reside on shore, and took lodgings in Cavite, which
+is situate about five or six leagues from Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>To make up for my long inactivity on board ship, I eagerly engaged
+in my favourite exercises, exploring the country in all directions with
+my gun upon my shoulder. Taking for a guide the first Indian whom I
+met, I made long excursions, less occupied in shooting than in admiring
+the magnificent scenery. I knew a little Spanish, and soon acquired a
+few <i>Tagaloc</i> words. Whether it was for excitement&rsquo;s sake,
+or from a vague desire of braving danger, I know not, but I was
+particularly fond of wandering in remote places, said to be frequented
+by robbers. With these I occasionally fell in, but the sight of my gun
+kept them in check. I may say, with truth, that at that period of my
+life I had so little sense of danger, that I was always ready to put
+myself forward when there was an enemy to fight or a peril to be
+encountered.</p>
+
+<p>I had only resided a short time at Cavite when that terrible
+scourge, the cholera, broke out at Manilla, in September, 1820, and
+quickly ravaged the whole island. Within a few days of its first
+appearance the epidemic spread rapidly; the Indians succumbed by
+thousands; at all hours of the day and of the night the streets were
+crowded with the dead-carts. Next to the fright occasioned by the
+epidemic, quickly succeeded rage and despair. The Indians said, one to
+another, that the strangers poisoned the rivers and the fountains, in
+order to destroy the native population and possess themselves of the
+Philippines.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th October, 1820, the anniversary of my departure <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb21" href="#pb21">21</a>]</span>from France, a
+dreadful massacre commenced at Manilla and at Cavite. Poor Dibard, the
+captain of the <i>Cultivateur</i>, was one of the first victims. Almost
+all the French who resided at Manilla were slain, and their houses
+pillaged and destroyed. The carnage only ceased when there were no
+longer any victims. One eye-witness escaped this butchery, namely, M.
+Gautrin, a captain of the merchant service, who, at the moment I am
+writing, happens to be residing in Paris. He saved his life by his
+courage and his muscular strength. After seeing one of his friends
+mercilessly cut to pieces, he precipitated himself into the midst of
+the assassins, with no other means of defence than his fists. He
+succeeded in fighting his way through the crowd, but shortly afterwards
+fell exhausted, having received three sabre-cuts upon his head, and a
+lance-thrust in his body. Fortunately, some soldiers happened to pass
+by at the time, who picked him up and carried him to a guard-house,
+where his wounds were quickly attended to.</p>
+
+<p>I myself was dodged about Cavite, but I contrived to escape, and to
+reach a pirogue, into which I jumped, and took refuge on board the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>. I had scarcely been there ten minutes when I was
+requested to attend the mate of an American vessel, who had just been
+stabbed on board his ship by some custom-house guards. When I had
+finished dressing the wound, several officers, belonging to the
+different French vessels lying in the bay, acquainted me that one of
+their brethren, Captain Drouant, of Marseilles, was still ashore, and
+that there might yet be time to save him. There was not a moment to
+lose; night was approaching, and it was necessary to profit by the last
+half-hour of daylight. I set off in a cutter, and, on nearing the land,
+I directed my men to keep the boat afloat, in order to prevent a
+surprise on the part of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb22" href=
+"#pb22">22</a>]</span>Indians, but yet to hug the shore sufficiently
+close to land promptly, in case the captain or myself signaled them. I
+then quickly set about searching for Drouant.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching a small square, called <i>Puerta Baga</i>, I observed a
+group of three or four hundred Indians. I had a presentiment that it
+was in that direction I ought to prosecute my search. I approached, and
+beheld the unfortunate Drouant, pale as a corpse. A furious Indian was
+on the point of plunging his kreese into his breast. I threw myself
+between the captain and the poignard, violently pushing on either side
+the murderer and his victim, so as to separate them. &ldquo;Run!&rdquo;
+I cried in French; &ldquo;a boat awaits you.&rdquo; So great was the
+stupefaction of the Indians that the captain escaped unpursued.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p022"><img border="0" src="images/p022.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere saves the life of Captain Drouant." width="720"
+height="486">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere saves the life of Captain
+Drouant.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was now time for me to get out of the dangerous situation in
+which I was involved. Four hundred Indians surrounded me; the only way
+of dealing with them was by audacity. I said in Tagaloc to the Indian
+who had attempted to stab the captain: &ldquo;You are a
+scoundrel.&rdquo; The Indian sprang towards me; he raised his arm: I
+struck him on the head with a cane which I held in my hand; he waited
+in astonishment for a moment, and then returned towards his companions
+to excite them. Daggers were drawn on every side; the crowd formed a
+circle around me, which gradually concentrated. Mysterious influence of
+the white man over his coloured brother! Of all these four hundred
+Indians, not one dared attack me the first; they all wished to strike
+together. Suddenly a native soldier, armed with a musket, broke through
+the crowd; he struck down my adversary, took away his dagger, and
+holding his musket by the bayonet end, he swung it round and round his
+head, thus enlarging the circle at first, and then dispersing a portion
+of my enemies. &ldquo;Fly, sir!&rdquo; said my liberator; &ldquo;now
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb23" href="#pb23">23</a>]</span>that I
+am here, no one will touch a hair of your head.&rdquo; In fact the
+crowd divided, and left me a free passage. I was saved, without knowing
+by whom, or for what reason, until the native soldier called after me:
+&ldquo;You attended my wife who was sick, and you never asked payment
+of me. I now settle my debt.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As Captain Drouant had doubtless gone off in the cutter, it was
+impossible for me to return on board the <i>Cultivateur</i>. I directed
+my steps towards my lodgings, creeping along the walls, and taking
+advantage of the obscurity, when, on turning the corner of a street, I
+fell into the midst of a band of dockyard workmen, armed with axes, and
+about to proceed to the attack of the French vessels then in harbour.
+Here again I owed my preservation to an acquaintance, to whom I had
+rendered some service in the practice of my profession. A <i>
+M&eacute;tis</i>, or half-breed, who had quickly pushed me into the
+entry of a house, and covered me with his body, said: &ldquo;Stir not,
+Doctor Pablo!&rdquo;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e308src" href=
+"#xd0e308">1</a> When the crowd had dispersed, my protector advised me
+to conceal myself, and, above all, not to go on board; he then started
+off to rejoin his comrades. But all was not yet over. I had scarcely
+entered my lodgings when I heard a knocking at the door.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Doctor Pablo,&rdquo; said a voice, which was not unknown to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I opened, and I saw, as pale as death, a Chinese, who kept a
+tea-store on the ground-floor of the same house.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter, Yang-Po?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Save yourself, Doctor!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And wherefore?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Because the Indians will attack you this very night; they
+have decided upon it!&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb24" href=
+"#pb24">24</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is it not your apprehension on account of your shop,
+Yang-Po?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, no! do not treat this matter lightly. If you remain here
+you are doomed; you have struck an Indian, and his friends cry aloud
+for vengeance.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The fears of Yang-Po were, I saw, too well-founded; but what could I
+do? To shut my door and await was the safest plan.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said I to the Chinese; &ldquo;thank you for
+your kind advice, but I shall remain here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Remain here, Signor Doctor! Can you think of so
+doing?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now, Yang-Po, a service: go and say to these Indians that I
+have, at their service, a brace of pistols and a double-barreled gun,
+which I know how to use.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese departed sighing deeply, from a notion that the attack
+upon the Doctor might end in the pillage of his wares. I barricaded my
+door with the furniture of the room; I then loaded my weapons, and put
+out the lights.</p>
+
+<p>It was now eight o&rsquo;clock in the evening. The least noise made
+me think that the moment had arrived when Providence alone could save
+me. I was so fatigued that, despite the anxiety natural to my position,
+I had frequently to struggle against an inclination to sleep. Towards
+eleven o&rsquo;clock some one knocked at my door. I seized my pistols,
+and listened attentively. At a second summons, I approached the door on
+tip-toe.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s there?&rdquo; I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>A voice replied to me: &ldquo;We come to save you. Lose not an
+instant. Get out on the roof, and climb over to the other side, where
+we will await you, in the street of the <i>Campanario</i>.&rdquo; Then
+two or three persons descended the stairs rapidly. I had <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb25" href="#pb25">25</a>]</span>recognised the voice
+of a M&eacute;tis, whose good feelings on my behalf were beyond doubt.
+There was now no time to be lost, for at the moment I got out of a
+window which served to light the staircase, and led on to the roof, the
+Indians had arrived in front of the house, and in a few minutes were
+breaking and plundering the little I possessed. I quickly traversed the
+roof, and descended into the street of the <i>Campanario</i>, where my
+new preservers awaited me. They conducted me to their dwelling: there,
+a profound sleep caused me quickly to forget the dangers I had passed
+through.</p>
+
+<p>The following day my friends prepared a small pirogue to convey me
+on board the <i>Cultivateur</i>, where, apparently, I should be in
+greater security than on shore. I was about to embark when one of my
+preservers handed me a letter which he had just received. It was
+addressed to me, and bore the signatures of all the captains whose
+vessels were lying in the harbour, and it informed me that, seeing
+themselves exposed every moment to an attack by the Indians, they were
+decided to raise anchor and seek a wider offing; but that two among
+them, Drouant and Perroux, had been compelled to leave on shore a
+portion of their possessions, and all their sails and fresh water. They
+entreated me to lend them my assistance, and had arranged that a skiff
+should be placed at my command. I communicated this letter to my
+friends, and declared that I would not return on board without
+endeavouring to satisfy the wishes of my countrymen; it was a question
+of saving the lives of the crews of two vessels, and hesitation was
+impossible. They used every effort to shake my resolution. &ldquo;If
+you show yourself in any part of the town,&rdquo; said they, &ldquo;you
+are lost; even supposing the Indians were not to kill you, they would
+not fail to steal every object intrusted to them.&rdquo; I remained
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb26" href=
+"#pb26">26</a>]</span>immovable, and pointed out to them that it was a
+question of honour and humanity. &ldquo;Go alone, then!&rdquo;
+exclaimed that M&eacute;tis who had contributed the most to my escape;
+&ldquo;not one of us will follow you; we would not have it said that we
+assisted in your destruction.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I thanked my friends, and, after shaking hands with them, passed on
+through the streets of Cavite, my pistols in my belt, and my thoughts
+occupied as to the best means of extricating myself from my perilous
+position. However, I already knew sufficient of the Indian character to
+be aware that boldness would conciliate, rather than enrage them. I
+went towards the same <span class="corr" id="xd0e361" title="Source:
+landing-pace">landing-place</span> where once before I had escaped a
+great danger. The shore was covered with Indians, watching the ships at
+anchor. As I advanced, all turned their looks upon me; but, as I had
+foreseen, the countenances of these men, whose feelings had become
+calmed during the night that had intervened, expressed more
+astonishment than anger.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Will you earn money?&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;To those who work
+with me I will give a dollar at the end of the day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A moment&rsquo;s silence followed this proposition; then one of them
+said: &ldquo;You do not fear us!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Judge if I am alarmed,&rdquo; I replied, showing him my
+pistols; &ldquo;with these I could take two lives for one&mdash;the
+advantage is on my side.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My words had a magical effect, and my questioner replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Put up your weapons; you have a brave heart, and deserve to
+be safe amongst us. Speak! what do you require? We will follow
+you.&rdquo; I saw these men, who but yesterday would have killed me,
+now willing to bear me in triumph. I then explained to them that I
+wished to take some articles which had been left on shore to my
+comrades, and to those <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb27" href=
+"#pb27">27</a>]</span>who assisted me in this object I would give the
+promised recompense. I told the one who had addressed me to select two
+hundred men, nearly double the number necessary; during the time he
+made up his party I signaled a skiff to approach the shore, and wrote a
+few words in pencil, in order that the boats from the French vessels
+might be in readiness to receive the stores as soon as they were
+brought to the water&rsquo;s edge. I then marched at the head of my
+Indian troop of two hundred men, and by their aid the sails,
+provisions, biscuits, and wines, were soon on board the boats. That
+which most embarrassed me was the transport of a large sum of money
+belonging to Captain Drouant. If the Indians had conceived the least
+suspicion of this wealth, they would no longer have kept faith with me.
+I therefore determined to fill my own pockets with the gold, and to
+traverse the distance between the house and the boats as many times as
+was necessary to embark it. There, concealed by the sailors, I
+deposited piece after piece as quietly as possible. In carrying the
+sails belonging to Captain Perroux, a circumstance occurred which might
+have been fatal to me. A few days before the massacre, a French sailor,
+who was working as sail maker, had died of the cholera. His alarmed
+companions wrapped the body in a sail, and then hurried on board their
+ships. My Indians now discovered the corpse, which was already in a
+state of putrefaction. Terrified at first, their terror soon changed to
+fury; for an instant I feared they would fall upon me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your friends,&rdquo; they cried, &ldquo;have left this body
+here purposely, that it might poison the air and increase the violence
+of the epidemic.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! you are afraid of a poor devil dead of the
+cholera!&rdquo; I said to them, affecting to be as tranquil as
+possible; &ldquo;never <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb28" href=
+"#pb28">28</a>]</span>fear, I will soon rid you of him;&rdquo; and,
+despite the aversion I felt, I covered the body with a small sail, and
+carried it down to the beach. There I made a rude grave, in which I
+placed it; and two pieces of wood, in the shape of a cross, for some
+days indicated the spot where lay the unhappy one, who probably had no
+prayers save mine.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a busy and agitating day, but towards the evening I
+finished my task, and everything was embarked. I paid the Indians, and
+in addition gave them a barrel of spirits.</p>
+
+<p>I did not fear their intoxication, being the only Frenchman there,
+and when it was dark I got into a boat, and towed a dozen casks of
+fresh water at her stern. Since the previous day I had not eaten; I
+felt worn out by fatigue and want of food, and threw myself down to
+rest upon the seats of the boat. Ere long a mortal chilliness passed
+through my veins, and I became insensible. In this state I remained
+more than an hour. At last I reached the <i>Cultivateur</i>, and was
+taken on board, and, by the aid of friction, brandy, and other
+remedies, was restored to consciousness. Food and rest quickly
+renovated my powers of mind and body, and the next day I was calm as
+usual among my comrades. I thought of my personal position; the events
+of the two last days made the review extremely simple. I had lost
+everything. A small venture of merchandise, in which I invested the
+savings of my previous voyages, had been intrusted to the captain for
+sale at Manilla. These goods were destroyed, together with all I
+possessed, at Cavite. There remained to me but the clothes I had
+on&mdash;a few old things I could wear only on board ship&mdash;and
+thirty-two dollars. I was but a little richer than Bias. Unfortunately
+I recollected that an English captain&mdash;whose ship I had seen in
+the roads&mdash;owed me something like a hundred dollars. In <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb29" href="#pb29">29</a>]</span>my present
+circumstances this sum appeared a fortune. The captain in question,
+from fear of the Indians, had dropped down as far as
+Marib&eacute;l&eacute;, at the entrance of the bay, ten leagues from
+Cavite. To obtain payment it was necessary I should go on board his
+vessel. I borrowed a boat, and the services of four sailors, from
+Captain Perroux, and departed. I reached the ship at dusk. The
+unprincipled captain, who knew himself to be in deep water and safe
+from pursuit, replied that he did not understand what I was saying to
+him. I insisted upon being paid, and he laughed in my face. I was
+treated as a cheat. He threatened to have me thrown into the sea; in
+short, after a useless discussion, and at the moment when the captain
+called five or six of his sailors to execute his threat, I retreated to
+my boat. The night was dark, and as a violent and contrary wind had
+sprung up, it was impossible to regain the ship, so we passed the night
+floating upon the waves, ignorant as to the direction we were going. In
+the morning I discovered our efforts had been thrown away; Cavite was
+far behind us. The wind becoming calmer, we again commenced rowing, and
+two hours after noon reached the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile tranquillity was restored at Cavite and Manilla. The
+Spanish authorities took measures to prevent a recurrence of the
+frightful scenes I have detailed, and the priests of Cavite launched a
+public excommunication against all those who had attempted my life. I
+attributed this solicitude to the character of my profession, being in
+fact the only &AElig;sculapius in the place. When I left the town the
+sick were obliged to content themselves with the hazardous presumptions
+of Indian sorcerers. One morning, I had almost decided upon returning
+to land, when an Indian, in a smartly decorated pirogue, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb30" href="#pb30">30</a>]</span>came alongside the
+<i>Cultivateur</i>. I had met this man in some of my shooting
+excursions, and he now proposed that I should go with him to his house,
+situated ten leagues from Cavite, near the mountains of Marigondon. The
+prospect of some good sport soon decided me to accept this offer.
+Taking with me my thirty-two dollars and double-barreled gun&mdash;in
+fact, my whole fortune&mdash;I intrusted myself to this friend, whose
+acquaintance I had just made. His little habitation was delightfully
+situated, in the cool shadow of the palm and yang-yang&mdash;immense
+trees, whose flowers spread around a delicious perfume. Two charming
+Indian girls were the Eves of this paradise. My good friend kept the
+promises he had made me on leaving the vessel; I was treated both by
+himself and family with every attention and kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Hunting was my principal amusement, and, above all, the chase of the
+stag, which involves violent exercise. I was still ignorant of
+wild-buffalo hunting, of which, however, I shall have to speak later in
+my narrative; and I often requested my host to give me a taste of this
+sport, but he always refused, saying it was too dangerous. For three
+weeks I lived with the Indian family without receiving any news from
+Manilla, when one morning, a letter came from the first mate&mdash;who,
+on the death of the unfortunate Dibard, had taken the command of the
+<i>Cultivateur</i>&mdash;telling me he was about to sail, and that I
+must go on board at once if I wished to leave a country which had been
+so fatal to all of us. This summons was already several days old, and
+despite the reluctance I felt to quit the Indian&rsquo;s pleasant
+retreat, it was necessary that I should prepare to start. I presented
+my gun to my kind host, but had nothing to give his daughters, for to
+have offered them money would have been an insult. The next day I
+arrived at Manilla, still <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb31" href=
+"#pb31">31</a>]</span>thinking of the cool shade of the palm and the
+perfumed flowers of the yang-yang. My first impulse was to go to the
+quay; but, alas! the <i>Cultivateur</i> had sailed, and I had the
+misery of beholding her already far away in the horizon, moving
+sluggishly before a gentle breeze towards the mouth of the bay. I asked
+some Indian boatmen to take me to the ship; they replied that it might
+be practicable if the wind did not freshen, but demanded twelve dollars
+to make the attempt. I had but twenty-five remaining. I considered for
+a few moments, should I not reach the vessel, what would become of me
+in a remote colony, where I knew no one, and my stock of money reduced
+to thirteen dollars, and with no articles of dress than those I had
+on&mdash;a white jacket, trousers, and striped shirt. A sudden thought
+crossed my mind: what if I were to remain at Manilla, and practise my
+profession? Young and inexperienced, I ventured to think myself the
+cleverest physician in the Philippine Islands. Who has not felt this
+self-confidence so natural to youth? I turned my back upon the ship,
+and walked briskly into Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>Before continuing this recital, let me describe the capital of the
+Philippines. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb32" href=
+"#pb32">32</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p032"><img border="0" src="images/p032.jpg"
+alt="Mouth of the Bay of Manilla." width="489" height="477">
+<p class="figureHead">Mouth of the Bay of Manilla.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e308src" id="xd0e308">1</a></span> Pablo signifies Paul, my
+Christian name. I was always called thus at Manilla and at Cavite.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch2" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter II.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Description of Manilla&mdash;The two Towns&mdash;Gaiety of
+Binondoc&mdash;Dances&mdash;Gaming&mdash;Beauty of the
+Women&mdash;Their Fascinating Costume&mdash;Male Costume&mdash;The
+Military Town&mdash;Personal Adventures&mdash;My First
+Patient&mdash;His Generous Confidence&mdash;Commencement of my
+Practice&mdash;The Artificial Eye&mdash;Brilliant Success&mdash;The
+Charming Widow&mdash;Auspicious Introduction&mdash;My
+Marriage&mdash;Treachery and Fate of Iturbide&mdash;Our Loss of
+Fortune&mdash;Return to France postponed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Manilla and its suburbs contain a population of
+about one hundred and fifty thousand souls, of which Spaniards and
+Creoles hardly constitute the tenth part; the remainder is composed of
+Tagalocs, or Indians, M&eacute;tis, and Chinese. <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb33" href="#pb33">33</a>]</span>The city is divided into two
+sections&mdash;the military and the mercantile&mdash;the latter of
+which is the suburb. The former, surrounded by lofty walls, is bounded
+by the sea on one side, and upon another by an extensive plain, where
+the troops are exercised, and where of an evening the indolent Creoles,
+lazily extended in their carriages, repair to exhibit their elegant
+dresses and to inhale the sea-breezes. This public
+promenade&mdash;where intrepid horsemen and horsewomen, and European
+vehicles, cross each other in every direction&mdash;may be styled the
+Champs-Elys&eacute;es, or the Hyde Park, of the Indian Archipelago. On
+a third side, the military town is separated from the trading town by
+the river Pasig, upon which are seen all the day boats laden with
+merchandize, and charming gondolas conveying idlers to different parts
+of the suburbs, or to visit the ships in the bay.</p>
+
+<p>The military town communicates by the bridge of Binondoc with the
+mercantile town, inhabited principally by the Spaniards engaged in
+public affairs; its aspect is dull and monotonous; all the streets,
+perfectly straight, are bordered by wide granite footpaths. In general,
+the highways are macadamised, and kept in good condition. Such is the
+effeminacy of the people, they could not endure the noise of carriages
+upon pavement. The houses&mdash;large and spacious, palaces in
+appearance&mdash;are built in a particular manner, calculated to
+withstand the earthquakes and hurricanes so frequent in this part of
+the world. They have all one story, with a ground-floor; the upper
+part, generally occupied by the family, is surrounded by a wide
+gallery, opened or shut by means of large sliding panels, the panes of
+which are thin mother-of-pearl. The mother-of-pearl permits the passage
+of light to the apartments, and excludes the heat of the sun. In the
+military town are all the monasteries and convents, the archbishopric,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb34" href="#pb34">34</a>]</span>the
+courts of justice, the custom-house, the hospital, the governor&rsquo;s
+palace, and the citadel, which overlooks both towns. There are three
+principal entrances to Manilla&mdash;<i>Puerta Santa Lucia</i>, <i>
+Puerto R&eacute;al</i>, and <i>Puerta Parian</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At one o&rsquo;clock the drawbridges are raised, and the gates
+pitilessly closed, when the tardy resident must seek his night&rsquo;s
+lodging in the suburb, or mercantile town, called Binondoc. This
+portion of Manilla wears a much gayer and more lively aspect than the
+military section. There is less regularity in the streets, and the
+buildings are not so fine as those in what may be called Manilla
+proper; but in Binondoc all is movement, all is life. Numerous canals,
+crowded with pirogues, gondolas, and boats of various kinds, intersect
+the suburb, where reside the rich merchants&mdash;Spanish, English,
+Indian, Chinese, and M&eacute;tis. The newest and most elegant houses
+are built upon the banks of the river Pasig. Simple in exterior, they
+contain the most costly inventions of English and Indian luxury.
+Precious vases from China, Japan ware, gold, silver, and rich silks,
+dazzle the eyes on entering these unpretending habitations. Each house
+has a landing-place from the river, and little bamboo palaces, serving
+as bathing-houses, to which the residents resort several times daily,
+to relieve the fatigue caused by the intense heat of the climate. The
+cigar manufactory, which affords employment continually to from fifteen
+to twenty thousand workmen and other assistants, is situated in
+Binondoc; also the Chinese custom-house, and all the large working
+establishments of Manilla. During the day, the Spanish ladies, richly
+dressed in the transparent muslins of India and China, lounge about
+from store to store, and sorely test the patience of the Chinese
+salesman, who unfolds uncomplainingly, and without showing the least
+ill-humour, thousands of pieces <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb35"
+href="#pb35">35</a>]</span>of goods before his customers, which are
+frequently examined simply for amusement, and not half a yard
+purchased. The balls and entertainments, given by the half-breeds of
+Binondoc to their friends, are celebrated throughout the Philippines.
+The quadrilles of Europe are succeeded by the dances of India, and
+while the young people execute the fandango, the bolero, the cachucha,
+or the lascivious movements of the bayad&egrave;res, the enterprising
+half-breed, the indolent Spaniard, and the sedate Chinese, retire to
+the gaming saloons, to try their fortune at cards and dice. The passion
+for play is carried to such an extent, that the traders lose or gain in
+one night sums of 50,000 piasters (&pound;10,000 sterling). The
+half-breeds, Indians, and Chinese, have also a great passion for
+cock-fighting; these combats take place in a large arena. I have seen
+&pound;1,500 betted upon a cock which had cost &pound;150; in a few
+minutes this costly champion fell, struck dead by his antagonist. In
+fine, if Binondoc be exclusively the city of pleasure, luxury, and
+activity, it is also that of amorous intrigues and gallant adventures.
+In the evening, Spaniards, English, and French, go to the promenades to
+ogle the beautiful and facile half-breed women, whose transparent robes
+reveal their splendid figures. That which distinguishes the female
+half-breeds (Spanish-Tagals, or Chinese-Tagals) is a singularly
+intelligent and expressive physiognomy. Their hair, drawn back from the
+face, and sustained by long golden pins, is of marvellous luxuriance.
+They wear upon the head a kerchief, transparent like a veil, made of
+the pine fibre, finer than our finest cambric; the neck is ornamented
+by a string of large coral beads, fastened by a gold medallion. A
+transparent chemisette, of the same stuff as the head-dress, descends
+as far as the waist, covering, but not concealing, a <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb36" href="#pb36">36</a>]</span>bosom that has never
+been imprisoned in stays. Below, and two or three inches from the edge
+of the chemisette, is attached a variously coloured petticoat of very
+bright hues. Over this garment, a large and costly silk sash closely
+encircles the figure, and shows its outline from the waist to the knee.
+The small and white feet, always naked, are thrust into embroidered
+slippers, which cover but the extremities. Nothing can be more
+charming, coquettish, and fascinating, than this costume, which excites
+in the highest degree the admiration of strangers. The half-breed and
+Chinese Tagals know so well the effect it produces on the Europeans,
+that nothing would induce them to alter it.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p036"><img border="0" src="images/p036.jpg"
+alt="Spanish Metis, or Half-Breeds." width="376" height="405">
+<p class="figureHead">Spanish Metis, or Half-Breeds.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>While on the subject of dress, that of the men is also <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb37" href="#pb37">37</a>]</span>worthy of remark.
+The Indian and the half-breed wear upon the head a large straw hat,
+black or white, or a sort of Chinese covering, called a <i>
+salacote</i>; upon the shoulders, the pine fibre kerchief embroidered;
+and round the neck, a rosary of coral beads; their shirts are also made
+from the fibres of the pine, or of vegetable silk; trousers of coloured
+silk, with embroidery near the bottom, and a girdle of red China crape,
+complete their costume. The feet, without stockings, are covered with
+European shoes.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p037"><img border="0" src="images/p037.jpg"
+alt="Chinese Metis, or Half-Breeds." width="367" height="414">
+<p class="figureHead">Chinese Metis, or Half-Breeds.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The military town, so quiet during the day, assumes a more lively
+appearance towards the evening, when the inhabitants ride out in their
+very magnificent carriages, which are invariably conducted by
+postilions; they then mix with the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb38"
+href="#pb38">38</a>]</span>walking population of Binondoc. Afterwards
+visits, balls, and the more intimate <i>r&eacute;unions</i> take place.
+At the latter they talk, smoke the cigars of Manilla, and chew the
+betel,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e469src" href="#xd0e469">1</a> drink
+glasses of iced <i lang="fr">eau sucr&eacute;e</i>, and eat innumerable
+sweetmeats; towards midnight those guests retire who do not stay supper
+with the family, which is always served luxuriously, and generally
+prolonged until two o&rsquo;clock in the morning. Such is the life
+spent by the wealthy classes under these skies so favoured by Heaven.
+But there exists, as in Europe, and even to a greater extent, the most
+abject misery, of which I shall speak hereafter, throwing a shade over
+this brilliant picture.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now return to my personal adventures. While I spoke with the
+Indians upon the shore, I had noticed a young European standing not
+many paces from me; I again met him on the road I took towards Manilla,
+and I thought I would address him. This young man was a surgeon, about
+returning to Europe. I partly told him the plans I wished to form, and
+asked him for some information respecting the city where I purposed
+locating myself. He readily satisfied my inquiries, and encouraged me
+in the resolution to exercise my profession in the Philippine Islands.
+He had himself, he said, conceived the same project, but family affairs
+obliged him to return to his country. I did not conceal the misfortune
+of my position, and observed that it would be almost impossible to pay
+visits in the costume, worse than plain, which I then wore.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That is of no consequence,&rdquo; he replied; &ldquo;I have
+all you would require: a coat almost new, and six capital lancets. I
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb39" href="#pb39">39</a>]</span>will
+sell you these things for their cost price in France; they will be a
+great bargain.&rdquo; The affair was soon concluded. He took me to his
+hotel, and I shortly left it encased in a garment sufficiently good,
+but much too large and too long for me. Nevertheless, it was some time
+since I had seen myself so well clad, and I could not help admiring my
+new acquisition.</p>
+
+<p>I had hidden my poor little white jacket in my hat, and I strode
+along the causeway of Manilla more proud than Artaban himself. I was
+the owner of a coat and six lancets; but there remained, for all my
+fortune, the sum of one dollar only; this consideration slightly
+tempered the joy that I felt in gazing on my brilliant costume. I
+thought of where I could pass the night, and subsist on the morrow and
+the following days, if the sick were not ready for me.</p>
+
+<p>Reflecting thus I slowly wandered from Binondoc to the military
+town, and from the military town back to Binondoc,&mdash;when,
+suddenly, a bright idea shot across my brain. At Cavite I had heard
+spoken of a Spanish captain, by name Don Juan Porras, whom an accident
+had rendered almost blind. I resolved to seek him, and offer my
+services; it remained but to find his residence. I addressed a hundred
+persons, but each replied that he did not know, and passed on his way.
+An Indian who kept a small shop, and to whom I spoke, relieved my
+trouble: &ldquo;If the senor is a captain,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;your
+excellency would obtain his address at the first barrack on your
+road.&rdquo; I thanked him, and eagerly followed his counsel. At the
+infantry barracks, where I presented myself, the officer on duty sent a
+soldier to guide me to the captain&rsquo;s dwelling: it was time, the
+night had already fallen. Don Juan Porras was an Andalusian, a good
+man, and of an extremely cheerful disposition. I found him with his
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb40" href="#pb40">40</a>]</span>head
+wrapped in a Madras handkerchief, busied in completely covering his
+eyes with two enormous poultices.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Senor Captain,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I am a physician, and a
+skilful oculist. I have come hither to take care of you, and I am fully
+convinced that I shall cure you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Basta</i>&rdquo; (enough is said), was his answer;
+&ldquo;all the physicians in Manilla are asses.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This more than sceptical reply did not discourage me. I resolved to
+turn it to account. &ldquo;My opinion is precisely the same as
+yours,&rdquo; I promptly answered; &ldquo;and it is because I am
+strongly convinced of the ignorance of the native doctors, that I have
+made up my mind to come and practise in the Philippines.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of what nation are you, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am a Frenchman.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A French physician!&rdquo; cried Don Juan; &ldquo;Ah! that is
+quite another matter. I ask your pardon for having spoken so
+irreverently of men of your profession. A French physician! I put
+myself entirely into your hands. Take my eyes, Senor Medico, and do
+what you will with them!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was taking a favourable turn: I hastened to broach
+the principal question:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your eyes are very bad, Senor Captain,&rdquo; said I;
+&ldquo;to accomplish a speedy cure, it is absolutely necessary that I
+should never quit you for a moment.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Would you consent to come and pass some time with me,
+doctor?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here was the principal consideration settled.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I consent,&rdquo; replied I, &ldquo;but on one condition;
+namely, that I shall pay you for my board and lodging.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That shall not part us&mdash;you are free to do so,&rdquo;
+said the worthy man; &ldquo;and so the matter is settled. I have a nice
+room, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb41" href=
+"#pb41">41</a>]</span>and a good bed, all ready; there is nothing to do
+but to send for your baggage. I will call my servant.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The terrible word, &ldquo;baggage,&rdquo; sounded in my ears like a
+knell. I cast a melancholy look at the crown of my hat&mdash;my only
+portmanteau&mdash;within which were deposited all my
+clothes&mdash;consisting of my little white jacket; and I feared Don
+Juan would take me for some runaway sailor trying to dupe him. There
+was no retreat; so I mustered my courage, and briefly related my sad
+position, adding that I could not pay for my board and lodging until
+the end of the month&mdash;if I was so fortunate as to find patients.
+Don Juan Porras listened to me very quietly. When my tale was told he
+burst into a loud laugh, which made me shiver from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; cried he, &ldquo;I am well pleased it should be
+so; you are poor; you will have more time to devote to my malady, and a
+greater interest in curing me. What think you of the
+syllogism?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is excellent, Senor Captain, and before long you will
+find, I hope, that I am not the man to compromise so distinguished a
+logician as yourself. To-morrow morning I will examine your eyes, and I
+will not leave you till I have radically cured them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We talked for some time longer in this joyous strain, after which I
+retired to my chamber, where the most delightful dreams visited my
+pillow.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I rose early, put on my doctoral coat, and entered the
+chamber of my host. I examined his eyes; they were in a dreadful state.
+The sight of one was not only destroyed, but threatened the life of the
+sufferer. A cancer had formed, and the enormous size it had attained
+rendered the result of an operation doubtful. The left eye contained
+many fibres, but there was hope of saving it. I frankly acquainted
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb42" href="#pb42">42</a>]</span>Don Juan
+with my fears and hopes, and insisted upon the entire removal of the
+right eye. The Captain, at first astonished, decided courageously upon
+submitting to the operation, which I accomplished on the following day
+with complete success. Shortly afterwards the inflammatory symptoms
+disappeared, and I could assure my host of a safe recovery. I then
+bestowed all my attention upon the left eye. I desired the more
+ardently to restore to Don Juan his vision, from the good effect I was
+convinced his case would produce at Manilla. For me it would be fortune
+and reputation. Besides, I had already acquired, in the few days, some
+slight patronage, and was in a position to pay for my board and lodging
+at the end of the month. After six weeks&rsquo; careful treatment Don
+Juan was perfectly cured, and could use his eye as well as he did
+previous to his accident. Nevertheless, to my great regret, the Captain
+still continued to immure himself; his re-appearance in society, which
+he had forsaken for more than a year, would have produced an immense
+sensation, and I should have been considered the first doctor in the
+Philippines. One day I touched upon this delicate topic.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Senor Captain,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;what are you thinking
+about, to remain thus shut up between four walls, and why do you not
+resume your old habits? You must go and visit your friends, your
+acquaintances.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Doctor,&rdquo; interrupted Don Juan, &ldquo;how can I show
+myself in public with an eye the less? When I pass along the street all
+the women would say: &lsquo;There goes Don Juan the One-eyed!&rsquo;
+No, no; before I leave the house you must get me an artificial eye from
+Paris.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t mean that? It would be eighteen months before
+the eye arrived.&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb43" href=
+"#pb43">43</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then here goes for eighteen months&rsquo; seclusion,&rdquo;
+said Don Juan.</p>
+
+<p>I persisted for upwards of an hour, but the Captain would not listen
+to reason. He carried his coquetry so far that, although I had covered
+the empty orbit with black silk, he had his shutters closed whenever
+visitors came; so that, as they always found him in the dark, none
+would credit his cure. I was very anxious to thwart Don Juan&rsquo;s
+obstinacy, as may well be imagined; I had not the time to waste, during
+eighteen months, in dancing attendance at fortune&rsquo;s door;
+therefore I determined to make this eye myself, without which the
+coquetish captain would not be seen. I took some pieces of glass, a
+tube, and set to work. After many fruitless attempts, I at last
+succeeded in obtaining the perfect form of an eye; but this was not
+all&mdash;it must be coloured to resemble nature. I sent for a poor
+carriage-painter, who managed to imitate tolerably well the left eye of
+Don Juan. It was necessary to preserve this painting from contact with
+the tears, which would soon have destroyed it. To accomplish this I had
+made by a jeweller a silver globe, smaller than the glass eye, inside
+which I united it by means of sealing-wax. I carefully polished the
+edges upon a stone, and after eight days&rsquo; labour I obtained a
+satisfactory result. The eye which I had succeeded in producing was
+really not so bad after all. I was anxious to place it within the
+vacant orbit. It somewhat inconvenienced the Senor Don Juan, but I
+persuaded him that he would soon become accustomed to it. Placing
+across his nose a pair of spectacles, he examined himself in the
+looking-glass, and was so satisfied with his appearance that he decided
+on commencing his visits the following day.</p>
+
+<p>As I had anticipated, the re-appearance in the world of <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb44" href="#pb44">44</a>]</span>Captain Juan Porras
+made a great sensation, and soon the consequence was, that Senor Don
+Pablo, the eminent French physician&mdash;most especially the clever
+oculist&mdash;was much spoken of. From all quarters patients came to
+me. Notwithstanding my youth and inexperience, my first success gave me
+such confidence that I performed several operations upon persons
+afflicted with cataracts, which succeeded most fortunately. I no longer
+sufficed to my large connection, and in a few days, from the greatest
+distress, I attained perfect opulence: I had a carriage-and-four in my
+stables. I could not, however, notwithstanding this change of fortune,
+resign myself to leave Don Juan&rsquo;s house, out of gratitude for the
+hospitality he so generously offered me. In my leisure hours he kept me
+company, and amused me with the recital of his battle stories and
+personal adventures. I had already spent nearly six months with him,
+when a circumstance, which forms an epoch in my life, changed my
+existence, and compelled me to quit the lively captain. One of my
+American friends often called my attention in our walks towards a young
+lady in mourning, who passed for one of the prettiest senoras of the
+town. Each time we met her my American friend never failed to praise
+the beauty of the Marquesa de Las Salinas. She was about eighteen or
+nineteen years of age; her features were both regular and placid; she
+had beautiful black hair, and large expressive eyes; she was the widow
+of a colonel in the guards, who married her when almost a child. The
+sight of this young lady produced so lively an impression upon me, that
+I explored all the saloons at Binondoc, to endeavour to meet her
+elsewhere than in my walks. Fruitless attempts! The young widow saw
+nobody. I almost despaired of finding an opportunity of speaking to
+her, when one morning an Indian <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb45"
+href="#pb45">45</a>]</span>came to request me to visit his master. I
+got into the carriage and set off, without informing myself of the name
+of the sick person. The carriage stopped before the door of one of the
+finest houses in the Faubourg of Santa-Crux. Having examined the
+patient, and conversed a few minutes with him, I went to the table to
+write a prescription; suddenly I heard the rustling of a silk dress; I
+turned round&mdash;the pen fell from my hand. Before me stood the very
+lady I had so long sought after&mdash;appearing to me as in a dream! My
+amazement was so great that I muttered a few unintelligible words, and
+bowed with such awkwardness that she smiled. She simply addressed me to
+inquire the state of her nephew&rsquo;s health, and withdrew almost
+immediately. As to myself, instead of making my ordinary calls, I
+returned home; questioned Don Juan minutely about Madame de Las
+Salinas: he entirely satisfied my curiosity. He was acquainted with all
+the family of this youthful widow, and they were highly respected in
+the colony. The next morning, and following days, I returned to this
+charming widow, who graciously condescended to receive me with favour.
+These details being so completely personal, I pass them over. Six
+months after my first interview with Madame de Las Salinas, I asked her
+hand, and obtained it. I had therefore found, at more than five
+thousand leagues from my country, both happiness and wealth. I agreed
+that we should go to France as soon as my wife&rsquo;s property, the
+greater part of which lay in Mexico, should be realised. In the
+meantime my house was the rendezvous of foreigners, particularly of the
+French, who were already rather numerous at Manilla. At this period the
+Spanish government named me Surgeon-Major of the 1st Light Regiment,
+and of the first battalion of the militia of Panjanga. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb46" href="#pb46">46</a>]</span>Having been so
+successful in so short a time, I never once doubted but that fortune
+would continue to bestow her smiling favours upon me. I had already
+prepared everything for my return to France; for we hourly expected the
+arrival of the galleons that plied from Acapulco to Manilla, which were
+to bring my wife&rsquo;s fortune. Her fortune was no less than 700,000
+francs (&pound;28,000 sterling).</p>
+
+<p>One evening, as we were taking tea, we were informed that the
+vessels from Acapulco had been telegraphed, and that the next morning
+they would be in; our piasters were to be on board; I leave you to
+guess if our wishes were not gratified. But, alas! how our hopes were
+frustrated: the vessels did not bring us a single piaster. This is what
+occurred: five or six millions were sent by land from Mexico to San
+Blas, the place of embarkation, and the Mexican government had the van
+escorted by a regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel Iturbide. On
+the journey he took possession of the van, and fled with his regiment
+into the independent states. It is well known that later Iturbide was
+proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, then dethroned, and at last shot, after
+an expedition that offers more than one analogy with that of Murat. The
+very day of the arrival of the vessels we learnt that our fortune was
+entirely lost, without even hopes of regaining the smallest part. My
+wife and self supported this event with tolerable philosophy. It was
+not the loss of our piasters that distressed us the most, but the
+necessity we were in to abandon, or at least to postpone, our journey
+to France. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb47" href=
+"#pb47">47</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p047"><img border="0" src="images/p047.jpg"
+alt="Spanish Metis of the superior class." width="436" height="465">
+<p class="figureHead">Spanish Metis of the superior class.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e469src" id="xd0e469">1</a></span> The betel is a species of
+pepper plant, the leaves of which are wrapped round areca nuts and the
+chunam&mdash;the latter is a kind of burnt-lime made of shells, and the
+areca nut is the fruit of a species of palm. The Indians, Chinese,
+half-breeds, and a great number of Creoles, continually chew this
+mixture, which is reputed to sweeten the breath and assist
+digestion.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch3" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter III.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Continued Prosperity in Practice&mdash;Attempted Political
+Revolution&mdash;Desperate Street Engagement&mdash;Subjugation of the
+Insurgents&mdash;The Emperor of a Day&mdash;Dreadful
+Executions&mdash;Illness and Insanity of my Wife&mdash;Her Recovery and
+Relapse&mdash;Removal to the Country&mdash;Beneficial
+Results&mdash;Dangerous Neighbours&mdash;Repentant
+Banditti&mdash;Fortunate Escape&mdash;The Anonymous Friend&mdash;A
+Confiding Wife&mdash;Her Final Recovery, and our Domestic Happiness
+Restored.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Despite the misfortune I have alluded to, I kept up
+my house in the same style as before. My connection, and the different
+posts I occupied, permitted me to lead the life of a grandee belonging
+to the Spanish colonies; and probably I should have made my fortune in
+a few years, if <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb48" href=
+"#pb48">48</a>]</span>I had continued in the medical profession, but
+the wish for unlimited liberty caused me to abandon all these
+advantages for a life of peril and anxiety. At the same time do not let
+us anticipate too suddenly, and let the reader patiently peruse a few
+more pages about Manilla, and various events wherein I figured, either
+as actor or witness, before taking leave of a sybarite citizen&rsquo;s
+life.</p>
+
+<p>I was, as I said before, surgeon-major of the 1st Light Regiment of
+the line, and on intimate terms with the staff, and more particularly
+with Captain Noval&egrave;s, a Creole by birth, possessing a courageous
+and venturesome disposition. He was suspected of endeavouring to excite
+his regiment to rebel in behalf of the Independence. An inquiry was
+consequently instituted, which ended without proof of the
+captain&rsquo;s culpability; nevertheless, as the governor still
+maintained his <span class="corr" id="xd0e567" title="Source:
+suspicious">suspicions</span>, he gave orders for him to be sent to one
+of the southern provinces, under the inspection of an alcaide.
+Noval&egrave;s came to see me the morning of his departure, and
+complained bitterly of the injustice of the governor towards him, and
+added that those who had no confidence in his honour would repent, and
+that he would soon be back. I endeavoured to pacify him: we shook
+hands, and in the evening he went on board the vessel commissioned to
+take him to his destination. The night after Noval&egrave;s departure,
+I was startled out of my sleep by the report of fire-arms. I
+immediately dressed myself in my uniform, and hastened to the barracks
+of my regiment. The streets were deserted; sentinels were stationed at
+about fifty paces apart. I understood that an extraordinary event had
+occurred in some part of the town. When I reached the barracks I was no
+little astonished to find the gates wide open, the sentry&rsquo;s box
+vacant, and not a soldier within. I went into the infirmary, set apart
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb49" href="#pb49">49</a>]</span>for the
+special service of the cholera patients, and there a serjeant told me
+that the bad weather had compelled the vessel that was taking
+Noval&egrave;s into exile to return into the port; that about one
+o&rsquo;clock in the morning, Noval&egrave;s, accompanied by Lieutenant
+Ruiz, came to the barracks, and having made himself certain of the
+votes of the Creole non-commissioned officers, put the regiment under
+arms, took possession of the gates, and proclaimed himself Emperor of
+the Philippines.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p050"><img border="0" src="images/p050.jpg"
+alt="Bridge of Manilla." width="481" height="323">
+<p class="figureHead">Bridge of Manilla.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This extraordinary intelligence caused me some anxiety. My regiment
+had openly revolted; if I joined it, and were defeated, I should be
+considered a traitor, and, as such, shot; if, on the contrary, I fought
+against it, and the rebels proved victorious, I knew Noval&egrave;s
+sufficiently well to be convinced that he would not spare me.
+Nevertheless I could not hesitate: duty bound me to the Spanish
+government, by which I had been so well treated. I left the barracks,
+rambling where chance might lead me. I shortly found myself at the
+head-quarters of the artillery; an officer behind the gate stood
+observing me. I went up to him, and asked him whether he was for Spain.
+Upon his answering me in the affirmative, I begged him to open the
+gate, declaring that I wished to join his party, and would willingly
+offer my services as surgeon to them. I went in, and took the
+commander&rsquo;s orders, which soon showed me how matters stood.
+During the night Ruiz went, in the name of Noval&egrave;s, to General
+Folgueras, the commander during the absence of Governor
+Martin&egrave;s, who was detained at his country house, a short
+distance from Manilla. He took the guard unawares, and seized the keys
+of the town, after having stabbed Folgueras; from thence he went to the
+prisons, set the prisoners at liberty, and put in their places the
+principal men of the public offices belonging to the colony. The 1st
+Regiment <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb50" href=
+"#pb50">50</a>]</span>was on Government Place, ready to engage in
+battle; twice it attempted to fall unexpectedly upon the artillery and
+citadel, but was driven back. Many expected assistance from without,
+and orders from General Martin&egrave;s to attack the rebels. Very soon
+we heard a discharge of artillery: it was General Martin&egrave;s, who,
+at the head of the Queen&rsquo;s Regiment, broke open Saint
+Lucy&rsquo;s Gate, and advanced into the besieged town. The body of the
+artillery joined the governor-general, and we marched towards
+Government Place. The insurgents placed two cannons at the corner of
+each street. Scarcely had we approached the palace, than we were
+exposed to a violent discharge of loaded muskets. The head chaplain of
+the regiment was the first victim. We were then engaged in a street, by
+the side of the fortifications, and from which it was impossible to
+attack the enemy with advantage. General Martin&egrave;s changed the
+position of the attack, and in this condition we came back by the
+street of Saint Isabelle. The troops in two lines followed <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb51" href="#pb51">51</a>]</span>both sides of the
+street, and left the road free; in the meantime the Panpangas regiment,
+crossing the bridge, reached us by one of the opposite streets: the
+rebels were then exposed to the opposite attacks. They nevertheless
+defended themselves furiously, and their sharpshooters did us some
+harm. Noval&egrave;s was everywhere, encouraging his soldiers by words,
+exploits, and example, while Lieutenant Ruiz was busy pointing one of
+the cannons, that swept the middle of the street we were coming up. At
+length, after three hours&rsquo; contest, the rebels succumbed. The
+troops fell upon everything they found, and Noval&egrave;s was taken
+prisoner to the governor&rsquo;s. As to Ruiz, although he had received
+a blow on his arm from a ball, he was fortunate enough to jump over the
+fortifications, and succeeded, for the time, in escaping; three days
+afterwards he was taken. The conflict was scarcely over, than a
+court-martial was held. Noval&egrave;s was tried the first. At midnight
+he was outlawed; at two o&rsquo;clock in the morning proclaimed
+Emperor; and at five in the evening shot. Such changes in fortune are
+not uncommon in Spanish colonies.</p>
+
+<p>The court-martial, without adjourning, tried, until the middle of
+the following day, all the prisoners arrested with arms. The tenth part
+of the regiment was sent to the hulks, and all the non-commissioned
+officers were condemned to death. I received orders to be at Government
+Place by four o&rsquo;clock, on which spot the executions were to take
+place; two companies of each battalion of the garrison, and all the
+staff, were to be present.</p>
+
+<p>Towards five the doors of the town-hall opened, and between a double
+file of soldiers advanced seventeen non-commissioned officers, each one
+assisted by two monks of the order of Misericordia. Mournful silence
+prevailed, interrupted <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb52" href=
+"#pb52">52</a>]</span>every now and then by the doleful beating of the
+drums, and the prayers of the agonising, chanted by the monks. The
+procession moved slowly on, and after some time reached the palace; the
+seventeen non-commissioned officers were ordered to kneel, their faces
+turned towards the wall. After a lengthened beating of the drums the
+monks left their victims, and at a second beating a discharge of
+muskets resounded: the seventeen young men fell prostrate on the
+ground. One, however, was not dead; he had fallen with the others, and
+seemed apparently motionless. A few minutes after the monks threw their
+black veils upon the victims: they now belonged to Divine justice. I
+witnessed all that had just happened. I stood a few steps from him who
+feigned death so well, and my heart beat with force enough to burst
+through my chest. Would that it had been in my power to lead one of the
+monks towards this unfortunate young man who must have experienced such
+mortal anguish; but, alas! after having been so miraculously spared, at
+the moment the black veil was about to cover him, an officer informed
+the commander that a guilty man had escaped being punished; the monks
+were arrested in their pious ministry, and two soldiers received orders
+to approach and fire upon the poor fellow.</p>
+
+<p>I was indignant at this. I advanced towards the informer and
+reproached him for his cruelty; he wished to reply; I treated him as a
+coward, and turned my back to him. Express orders from my colonel
+compelled me to leave my house, to assist at this frightful execution;
+still, deep anxiety ought to have prevented me from so doing, as I will
+explain. On the eve when the battle was over, and the insurgents
+routed, the distress of my dear Anna came across my mind. It was now
+one o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, and she had received no tidings
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb53" href="#pb53">53</a>]</span>from me
+since three in the morning; might she not think me dead, or in the
+midst of the rebellion? Ah! if duty could make me forget for a moment
+she whom I loved more than life, now all danger was over her charming
+image returned to my mind. Dearest Anna! I beheld her pale, agitated;
+asking herself at each report of the cannon whether it rendered her a
+widow; when my mind became so agitated that I ran home to calm her
+fears. Having reached my house I went quickly up stairs, my heart
+beating violently; I paused for a moment at her door, then summoning a
+little courage I entered. Anna was kneeling down praying; hearing my
+footsteps she raised her head, and threw herself into my arms without
+uttering a word. At first I attributed this silence to emotion, but,
+alas! upon examining her lovely face, I saw her eyes looked wild, her
+features contracted: I started back. I discovered in her all the
+symptoms of congestion of the brain. I dreaded lest my wife had lost
+her senses, and this fear alarmed me greatly. How fortunate it was that
+it lay in my power to relieve her. I had her placed in bed, and
+ministered myself to her wants. She was tolerably composed; the few
+words she uttered were inconsistent; she seemed to think that somebody
+was going to poison or kill her. All her confidence was placed in me.
+During three days the remedies I prescribed and administered were
+useless; the poor creature derived no benefit from them. I therefore
+determined to consult the doctors in Manilla, although I had no great
+opinion of their skill. They advised some insignificant drugs, and
+declared to me that there were no hopes, adding, as a philosophical
+mode of consolation, that death was preferable to the loss of reason. I
+did not agree on this point with these gentlemen: I would have
+preferred insanity to death, for I hoped that her madness <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb54" href="#pb54">54</a>]</span>would die away by
+degrees, and eventually disappear altogether. How many mad people are
+cured, what numbers daily recover, yet death is the last word of
+humanity; and, as a young poet has truly said, is &ldquo;the stone of
+the tomb.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Between the world and God a curtain falls! I determined to wage a
+war against death, and to save my Anna by having recourse to the most
+indisputable resources of science. I looked now upon my brotherhood
+with more contempt than ever, and, confident in my love and zealous
+will, I began my struggle with a destiny, tinged indeed with gloomy
+clouds. I shut myself up in the sick-chamber, and never left my wife. I
+had great difficulty in getting her to take the medicaments I trusted
+she would derive so much benefit from; I was obliged to call to my
+assistance all the influence I had over her, in order to persuade her
+that the draughts I presented to her were not poisoned. She did not
+sleep, but appeared very drowsy; these symptoms denoted very clearly
+great disorder of the brain. For nine days she remained in this
+dreadful state; during which time I scarcely knew whether she was dead
+or alive; at every moment I besought the Almighty to work a miracle in
+her behalf. One morning the poor creature closed her eyes. I cannot
+describe my feelings of anguish. Would she ever awake again? I leant
+over her; I heard her breathing gently, without apparent effort; I felt
+her pulse, it beat calmer and more regular; she was evidently better. I
+stood by her in deep anxiety. She still remained in a calm sleep, and
+at the end of half-an-hour I felt convinced that this satisfactory
+crisis would restore my invalid to life and reason. I sat down by her
+bed-side, and stayed there eighteen hours, watching her slightest
+movements. At length, after such cruel suspense, my patient awoke, as
+if out of a dream. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb55" href=
+"#pb55">55</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Have you been long watching?&rdquo; she said, giving me her
+hand: &ldquo;Have I, then, been very ill? What care you have taken of
+me! Luckily you may rest now, for I feel I am recovered.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I think I have during my life been a sharer of the strongest
+emotions of joy or of sadness man can feel; but never had I experienced
+such real, heartfelt joy as when I heard Anna&rsquo;s words. It is easy
+to imagine the state of my mind in recollecting the bitter grief I was
+in for ten days; then can be understood the mental anguish I felt.
+Having witnessed such strange scenes for a considerable time, it would
+not have been surprising had I lost my senses. I was an actor in a
+furious battle; I had seen the wounded falling around me, and heard the
+death-rattle. After the frightful execution, I went home, and there
+still deeper grief awaited me. I had watched by the bed-side of a
+beloved wife, knowing not whether I should lose her for ever, or see
+her spared to me deprived of reason; when all at once, as if by a
+miracle, this dear companion of my life, restored to health, threw
+herself into my arms. I wept with her; my burning eyes, aching for want
+of rest, found at last some tears, but they were tears of joy and
+gladness. Soon we became more composed; we related to each other all
+that we had suffered. Oh! the sympathy of loving hearts! Our sorrows
+bad been the same, we had shared the same fears, she for me and I for
+her. Anna&rsquo;s rapid recovery, after her renovating slumber, enabled
+her to get up; she dressed herself as usual, and the people who saw her
+could not believe she had passed ten days struggling between death and
+insanity&mdash;two gulphs, from which love and faith had preserved
+us.</p>
+
+<p>I was happy; my deep sadness was speedily changed to gladness, even
+visible on my features. Alas! this joy was transitory, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb56" href="#pb56">56</a>]</span>like all happiness;
+man here below is a continual prey to misfortune! My wife, at the end
+of a month, relapsed into her former sickly state; the same symptoms
+showed themselves again, with similar prospects, during the same space
+of time. I remained again nine days at her bed-side, and on the tenth a
+refreshing sleep brought her to her senses. But this time, guided by
+experience, that pitiless mistress, who gives us lessons we should ever
+remember, I did not rejoice as I had done the month before. I feared
+lest this sudden cure might only be a temporary recovery, and that
+every month my poor invalid would relapse, until her brain becoming
+weaker and weaker, she would be deranged for life. This sad idea
+wounded my heart, and caused me such grief that I could not even
+dissimulate it before her who inspired it. I exhausted all the
+resources of medicine; all these expedients proved unavailable. I
+thought that perhaps, if I removed my poor invalid from the spot where
+the events had occurred that caused her disorder, her cure might be
+more easily effected; that perhaps bathing and country walks in the
+fine weather would contribute to hasten her recovery; therefore I
+invited one of her relations to accompany us, and we set out for
+Tierra-Alta, a delightful spot, a real oasis, where all things were
+assembled that could endear one to life. The first days of our settling
+there were full of joy, hope, and happiness. Anna got better and better
+every day, and her health very much improved. We walked in beautiful
+gardens, under the shade of orange-trees; they were so thick that even
+during the most intense heat we were cool under their shade. A lovely
+river of blue and limpid water ran through our orchard; I had some
+Indian baths erected there. We went out in a pretty, light, open
+carriage, drawn by four good horses, through <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb57" href="#pb57">57</a>]</span>beautiful avenues, lined on each
+side with the pliant bamboo, and sown with all the various flowers of
+the tropics. I leave you to judge, by this short account, that nothing
+that can be wished for in the country was wanting in Tierra-Alta. For
+an invalid it was a Paradise; but those are right who say there is no
+perfect happiness here below. I had a wife I adored, and who loved me
+with all the sincerity of a pure young heart. We lived in an Eden, away
+from the world, from the noise and bustle of a city, and far, too, from
+the jealous and envious. We breathed a fragrant air; the pure and
+limpid waters that bathed our feet reflecting, by turns a sunny sky,
+and one spangled with twinkling stars. Anna&rsquo;s health was
+improving: it pleased me to see her so happy. What, then, was there to
+trouble us in our lovely retreat? A troop of banditti! These robbers
+were distributed around the suburbs of Tierra-Alta, and spread
+desolation over the country and neighbourhood by the robberies and
+murders they committed. There was a regiment in search of them; this
+they little cared about. They were numerous, clever, and audacious;
+and, notwithstanding the vigilance of the government, the band
+continued their highway robberies and assassinations. In the house
+where I then resided, and which I afterwards left, Aguilar, the
+commander of the cavalry, who had replaced me as occupant, was fallen
+upon unexpectedly, and stabbed. Several years after this period, the
+government was obliged to come to some terms with these bandits, and
+one day twenty men, all armed with carbines and swords, entered
+Manilla. Their chieftain led them; they walked with their heads
+upright, their carriage was proud and manly; in this order they went to
+the governor, who made them a speech, ordered them to lay down their
+arms, and sent them to the archbishop that <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb58" href="#pb58">58</a>]</span>he might exhort them. The
+archbishop in a religious discourse implored of them to repent of their
+crimes, and become honest citizens, and to return to their villages.
+These men, who had bathed their hands in the blood of their
+fellow-creatures, and who had sought in crime&mdash;or rather, in every
+crime&mdash;the gold they coveted, listened attentively to God&rsquo;s
+minister, changed completely their conduct, and became, in the end,
+good and quiet husbandmen.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us return to my residence at Tierra-Alta, at the period when
+the bandits were not converted, and might have disturbed my peaceful
+abode and security. Nevertheless, whether it was carelessness, or the
+confidence I had in my Indian, with whom I spent some time after the
+ravages occasioned with the cholera, and with whose influence I was
+acquainted, I did not fear the bandits at all. This Indian lived a few
+leagues off from Tierra-Alta; he came often to see me, and said to me
+on different occasions: &ldquo;Fear nothing from the robbers, Senor
+Doctor Pablo; they know we are friends, and that alone would suffice to
+prevent them attacking you, for they would dread to displease me, and
+to make me their enemy.&rdquo; These words put an end to my fears, and
+I soon had an opportunity of seeing that the Indian had taken me under
+his protection.</p>
+
+<p>If any of my readers for whom I write these souvenirs feel the same
+desire as I experienced to visit the cascades of Tierra-Alta, let them
+go to a place called Yang-Yang; it was near this spot where my Indian
+protector resided. At this part the river, obstructed in its course by
+the narrowness of its channel, falls from only one waterspout, about
+thirty or forty feet high, into an immense basin, out of which the
+water calmly flows onwards, to form, lower down, three other
+waterfalls, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb59" href=
+"#pb59">59</a>]</span>not so lofty, but extending over the breadth of
+the river, thereby making three sheets of water, clear and transparent
+as crystal. What beautiful sights are offered to the eyes of man by the
+all-powerful hands of the Creator! And how often have I remarked that
+the works of nature are far superior to those that men tire themselves
+to erect and invent!</p>
+
+<p>As we went one morning to the cascades we were about to alight at
+Yang-Yang, when all at once our carriage was surrounded with brigands,
+flying from the soldiers of the line. The chief&mdash;for we supposed
+him to be so at first&mdash;said to his companions, not paying the
+slightest attention to us, nor even addressing us: &ldquo;We must kill
+the horses!&rdquo; By this I saw he feared lest their enemies should
+make use of our horses to pursue them. With a presence of mind which
+fortunately never abandons me in difficult or perilous <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e618" title="Source: cicumstances">circumstances</span>,
+I said to him: &ldquo;Do not fear; my horses shall not be used by your
+enemies to pursue you: rely upon my word.&rdquo; The chief put his hand
+to his cap, and thus addressed his comrades: &ldquo;If such be the
+case, the Spanish soldiers will do us no harm to-day, neither let us do
+any. Follow me!&rdquo; They marched off, and I instantly drove rapidly
+away in quite an opposite direction from the soldiers. The bandits
+looked after me; my good faith in keeping my word was successful. I not
+only lived a few months in safety at Tierra-Alta, but many years after,
+when, I resided in Jala-Jala, and, in my quality of commander of the
+territorial horse-guards of the province of Lagune, was naturally a
+declared enemy of the bandits, I received the following note:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p>&ldquo;<span class="smallcaps">Sir</span>,&mdash;Beware of Pedro
+Tumbaga; we are invited by him to go to your house and to take you by
+surprise; we remember the morning we spoke to you at the cascades, and
+the sincerity of your word. You are an honourable man. If we find
+ourselves face to face <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb60" href=
+"#pb60">60</a>]</span>with you, and it be necessary, we will fight, but
+faithfully, and never after having laid a snare. Keep, therefore, on
+your guard; beware of Pedro <span class="corr" id="xd0e629" title=
+"Source: Tumbago">Tumbaga</span>; he is cowardly enough to hide himself
+in order to shoot you.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Everybody must acknowledge I had to do with most polite robbers.</p>
+
+<p>I answered them thus:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p>&ldquo;You are brave fellows. I thank you for your advice, but I do
+not fear Pedro Tumbaga. I cannot conceive how it is you keep among you
+a man capable of hiding himself to kill his enemy; if I had a soldier
+like him, I would soon let him have justice, and without consulting the
+law.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A fortnight after my answer, Tumbaga was no more; a bandit&rsquo;s
+bullet disembarrassed me of him.</p>
+
+<p>I will now return to the recital I have just interrupted. When I had
+left the bandits at Yang-Yang, I pulled up my horses and bethought me
+of Anna. I was anxious to know what impression had been produced on her
+mind from this unpleasant encounter. Fortunately my fears were
+unfounded; my wife had not been at all alarmed, and when I asked her if
+she was frightened, she replied: &ldquo;Frightened, indeed! am I not
+with you?&rdquo; Subsequently I had good proofs that she told me the
+truth, for in many perilous circumstances she always presented the same
+presence of mind. When I thought there was no longer any danger we
+retraced our steps and went home, satisfied with the conduct of the
+bandits towards us, for their manner of acting clearly showed us that
+they intended us no harm. I mentally thanked my Indian friend, for to
+him I attributed the peace our turbulent neighbours allowed us to
+enjoy. The fatal time was drawing near when my wife would again be
+suffering from another attack of that frightful malady <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb61" href="#pb61">61</a>]</span>brought on by
+Noval&egrave;s revolt. I had hoped that the country air, the baths, and
+amusements of every kind would cure my poor invalid; my hopes were
+deceived, and, as in the preceding month, I had the grief once more to
+assist at a period of physical and mental suffering. I despaired: I
+knew not what course to pursue. I decided, however, upon remaining at
+Tierra-Alta. My dear companion was happy there on the days her health
+was better, and on the other days I never left her, endeavouring by
+every means that art and imagination could invent to fight against this
+fatal malady. At length my care, attempts, and efforts were successful,
+and at the periods the symptoms usually returned I had the happiness
+not to observe them, and believed in the certainty of a final cure. I
+then felt the joy one experiences after having for a long time been on
+the point of losing a very dear friend, who suddenly recovers. I now
+gave myself up without fear to the various pleasures Tierra-Alta
+offers. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb62" href=
+"#pb62">62</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p062"><img border="0" src="images/p062.jpg"
+alt="Stag Hunting in the Marigondon Mountains." width="468" height=
+"374">
+<p class="figureHead">Stag Hunting in the Marigondon Mountains.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch4" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter IV.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Hunting the Stag&mdash;Indian Mode of Chasing the Wild Buffalo: its
+Ferocity&mdash;Dangerous Sport&mdash;Capture of a Buffalo&mdash;Narrow
+Escape of an Indian Hunter&mdash;Return to Manilla&mdash;Injustice of
+the Governor&mdash;My Resignation of Office&mdash;I Purchase Property
+at Jala-Jala&mdash;Retire from Manilla to Take Possession of my
+Domains&mdash;Chinese Legend&mdash;Festival of St
+Nicholas&mdash;Quinaboutasan&mdash;Description of
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Interview with a Bandit Chief&mdash;Formation of a
+Guard&mdash;Preparations for Building&mdash;Visit to Manilla, and
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Completion of my House&mdash;Reception of my
+Wife by the Natives&mdash;The Government of the
+Philippines&mdash;Character of the Tagaloc Indians&mdash;Unmerited
+Chastisement&mdash;A Curate Appointed&mdash;Our Labours at
+Civilisation&mdash;My Hall of Justice&mdash;Buffalo Hunting
+Expedition.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Naturally fond of hunting, I often went to the home
+of my Indian friend in the Marigondon mountains. Together we chased the
+stag, and killed the various kinds of birds which abound in these
+regions to such an extent that one may <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb63" href="#pb63">63</a>]</span>always choose between fifteen or
+twenty different species of pigeons, wild ducks, and fowl, and it
+frequently happened that I brought down five or six at a shot. The
+manner of killing wild fowl (a sort of pheasant) much amused me. We
+rode across the large plains, strewed with young wood, on good and
+beautiful horses, broken in for the purpose; the dogs raised the game,
+and, armed with whips, we endeavoured to knock the birds down at a
+single blow, which is not so difficult as might be imagined. When a
+number of the frightened flocks left the shelter of the wood we put our
+steeds to the gallop, and it became a veritable steeple-chase, such as
+amateur jockeys would much delight in. I also hunted the stag with the
+lance, on horseback; this sport is likewise very amusing, but,
+unfortunately, often attended with accidents. This is how they
+occur:&mdash;The horses employed are so well trained to the sport, that
+as soon as they perceive the stag it is no longer necessary, neither is
+it possible, to guide them; they pursue the animal at the top of their
+speed, and leap over every obstruction before them. The horseman
+carries a lance seven or eight feet long, which he holds in readiness
+to cast as soon as he thinks himself within reach of the stag. If he
+misses his aim the lance sticks in the ground, and it then requires
+great skill to avoid coming in contact with the opposite end, which
+often wounds either the hunter or the horse. I speak not of the falls
+to which one is liable from going at a furious gallop along unknown and
+uneven roads. I had already enjoyed this sport during my first sojourn
+at the Indian&rsquo;s, but, well as I acquitted myself, I was never
+able to gain his permission that I should assist at a chase far more
+dangerous, and which I might almost call a combat&mdash;that of the
+wild buffalo. To all my questions my host had replied: &ldquo;In this
+sport there is <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb64" href=
+"#pb64">64</a>]</span>much to fear: I would not expose you to the
+risk.&rdquo; He avoided, also, taking me near that part of the plain
+touching upon the mountains of Marigondon, where these animals could
+generally be found. However, after repeated solicitation, I managed to
+obtain what I so ardently desired; the Indian only wished to know
+whether I was a good horseman, if I possessed dexterity; and when he
+had satisfied himself on these two points, we started one fine morning,
+accompanied by nine huntsmen and a small pack of dogs. In this part of
+the Philippines the buffalo is hunted on horseback, and taken with the
+lasso, the Indians not being much accustomed to the use of guns. In
+other parts fire-arms are used, as I shall have occasion to recount in
+another part of my narrative; but, in whichever case, there is little
+difference in the danger, for the one requires good riding and great
+skill, the other much presence of mind and a good gun.</p>
+
+<p>The wild buffalo is quite different from the domesticated animal; it
+is a terrible creature, pursuing the hunter as soon as it gets sight of
+him, and, should he transfix him with its terrible horns, he would
+promptly expiate his rashness. My faithful Indian was much more anxious
+about my safety than his own. He objected to my taking a gun; he had
+little confidence in my skill with the lasso, and preferred that I
+should merely sit on horseback, unarmed and unencumbered in my
+movements; accordingly I set out, with a dagger for my sole weapon. We
+divided our party by threes, and rode gently about the plains, taking
+care to keep at a distance from the edge of the wood, lest we should be
+surprised by the animal we were seeking.</p>
+
+<p>After riding for about an hour, we at last heard the baying of the
+dogs, and understood that the enemy was forced from its <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb65" href="#pb65">65</a>]</span>forest retreat. We
+watched with the deepest attention the spot where we expected him to
+break forth. He required a great deal of coaxing before he would show;
+at last there was a sudden crashing noise in the wood; branches were
+broken, young trees overthrown, and a superb buffalo showed himself, at
+about one hundred and fifty paces&rsquo; distance. He was of a
+beautiful black, and his horns were of very large dimensions. He
+carried his head high, and snuffed the air as though scenting his
+enemies. Suddenly starting off at a speed incredible in so bulky an
+animal, he made for one of our groups, composed of three Indians, who
+immediately put their horses to a gallop, and distributed themselves in
+the form of a triangle. The buffalo selected one of them, and
+impetuously charged him. As he did so, another of the Indians, whom he
+passed in his furious career, wheeled his horse and threw the lasso he
+held ready in his hand; but he was not expert, and missed his aim.
+Thereupon the buffalo changed his course, and pursued the imprudent man
+who had thus attacked him, and who now rode right in our direction. A
+second detachment of three hunters went to meet the brute; one of them
+passed near him at a gallop, and threw his lasso, but was as
+unsuccessful as his comrade. Three other hunters made the attempt; not
+one of them succeeded. I, as a mere spectator, looked on with
+admiration at this combat&mdash;at those evolutions, flights, and
+pursuits, executed with such order and courage, and with a precision
+that was truly extraordinary.</p>
+
+<p>I had often witnessed bull-fights, and often had I shuddered at
+seeing the <i>toreadors</i> adopt a similar method in order to turn the
+furious animal from the pursuit of the <i>picador</i>. But what
+comparison could possibly be established between a combat in an
+enclosed arena and this one in the open plain&mdash;between the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb66" href="#pb66">66</a>]</span>most terrible
+of bulls and a wild buffalo? Fiery and hot-blooded Spaniards, proud
+Castilians, eager for perilous spectacles, go, hunt the buffalo in the
+plains of the Marigondon! After much flight and pursuit, hard riding,
+and imminent peril, a dexterous hunter encircled the animal&rsquo;s
+horns with his lasso. The buffalo slackened his speed, and shook and
+tossed his head, stopping now and then to try to get rid of the
+obstacle which impeded his career. Another Indian, not less skilful
+than his predecessor, threw his lasso with a like rapidity and success.
+The furious beast now ploughed the earth with his horns, making the
+soil fly around him, as if anxious to display his strength, and to show
+what havoc he would have made with any of us who had allowed themselves
+to be surprised by him. With much care and precaution the Indians
+conveyed their prize into a neighbouring thicket. The hunters uttered a
+shout of joy; for my part I could not repress a cry of admiration. The
+animal was vanquished; it needed but a few precautions to master him
+completely. I was much surprised to see the Indians excite him with
+voice and gesture until he resumed the offensive, and bounded from the
+ground with fury. What would have been our fate had he succeeded in
+shaking off or breaking the lassos! Fortunately, there was no danger of
+this. An Indian dismounted, and, with great agility, attached to the
+trunk of a solid tree the two lassos that retained the savage beast;
+then he gave the signal that his office was accomplished, and retired.
+Two hunters approached, threw their lassos over the animal, and fixed
+the ends to the ground with stakes; and now our prey was thoroughly
+subdued, and reduced to immobility, so that we could approach him with
+impunity. With blows of their cutlasses the Indians hacked off his
+horns, which would so well have revenged him had he been free to use
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb67" href="#pb67">67</a>]</span>them;
+then, with a pointed bamboo, they pierced the membranes that separate
+the nostrils, and passed through them a cane <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e683" title="Source: twiste ">twisted</span> in the form of a ring.
+In this state of martyrdom they fastened him securely behind two tame
+buffaloes, and led him to the next village.</p>
+
+<p>Here the animal was killed, and the hunters divided the carcass, the
+flesh of which is equal in flavour to beef. I had been fortunate in my
+first essay, for such encounters with these shaggy sovereigns of the
+plain do not always end so easily. A few days afterwards we renewed the
+sport, which, alas! terminated with an accident of too frequent
+occurrence. An Indian was surprised by a buffalo, at the moment the
+animal issued from the wood. With one blow from his horns the horse was
+impaled and cast to the earth, while his Indian rider fell near to him.
+The inequality of the ground offered some chance of the man escaping
+the notice of his redoubtable foe, until the latter, by a sudden
+movement of his head, turned the horse over upon his rider, and
+inflicted several blows with his horns, either of which would have
+proved fatal, but from the force becoming diminished in traversing the
+carcass of the horse. Fortunately some of the other sportsmen succeeded
+in turning the animal, and compelled him to abandon his victim. It was
+indeed time, for we found the poor Indian half dead, and terribly gored
+by the horns of the buffalo. We succeeded in stopping the blood which
+flowed copiously from his wounds, and carried him to the village upon a
+hastily constructed litter. It was only by considerable care and
+attention that his care was eventually effected, and my friend the
+Indian strongly opposed my assisting at such dangerous sport for the
+future.</p>
+
+<p>Anna&rsquo;s health was now completely re-established. I no longer
+dreaded the return of her fearful malady. During the <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb68" href="#pb68">68</a>]</span>space of several
+months I had enjoyed all the pleasures that Tierra-Alta afforded, and
+my affairs now requiring my presence at Manilla we set out for that
+city. Immediately after my arrival I was compelled, much to my regret,
+to resume my ordinary occupation; that is, to visit the sick from
+morning to night, and from night to morning. My profession did not well
+accord with my natural character, for I was not sufficiently
+philosophic to witness, without pain, the sufferings I was incapable of
+alleviating, and, above all, to watch the death-beds of fathers, of
+mothers, and of dearly loved children. In a word, I did not act
+professionally, for I never sent in my bills; my patients paid me when
+and how they could. To their honour, I am bound to say that I rarely
+had to complain of forgetfulness. Besides, my appointments permitted me
+to live sumptuously, to have eight horses in my stables, and to keep
+open house to my friends and the strangers who visited Manilla. Soon,
+however, what my friends designated a <i lang="fr">
+coup-de-t&ecirc;te</i> caused me to lose all these advantages.</p>
+
+<p>Every month I summoned a council of revision in the regiment to
+which I belonged. One day I brought forward a young soldier for
+rejection; all went well; but a native surgeon, long jealous of my
+reputation, was nominated by the governor to make inquiry and check my
+declaration. He naturally inserted in his report that I was deceived;
+that the malady of which I spoke was imaginary; and he succeeded in all
+this so well that the governor, enraged, condemned me in a penalty of
+six piasters. The following month I again brought forward the same
+soldier, as being incapable of performing his duties; a commission of
+eight surgeons was nominated; their decision was unanimous in my
+favour, and the soldier was accordingly discharged. This reparation not
+quite <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb69" href=
+"#pb69">69</a>]</span>satisfying me, I presented an appeal to the
+governor, who would not receive it, upon the strange pretext that the
+decision of the medical committee could not annul his. I confess that I
+did not understand this argument. This method of reasoning, if
+reasoning it was, appeared to me specious in the extreme. Why allow the
+innocent to suffer, and the ignorant practitioner, who had contradicted
+my opinions and deceived himself, to escape? This injustice revolted
+me. I am a Breton, and I have lived with Indians&mdash;two natures
+which love only right and justice. I was so much annoyed by the
+governor&rsquo;s conduct towards me that I went to him, not to make
+another reclamation, but to tender my resignation of the important
+offices which I held. He received me with a specious smile, and told me
+that after a little reflection I should change my mind. The poor
+governor, however, was deceived, for, on leaving his palace, I went
+direct to the minister of finance and purchased the property of
+Jala-Jala. My course was marked out, my resolution unshakable. Although
+my resignation was not yet duly accepted, I began to act as though I
+was completely free. I had at the beginning informed Anna of the
+matter, and had asked her if she would reside at Jala-Jala. &ldquo;With
+you I should be happy anywhere.&rdquo; Such was her answer. I was free,
+then, to act as I pleased, and could go wherever my destiny might lead
+me. I forthwith decided upon visiting the land that I had
+purchased.</p>
+
+<p>For the execution of this project it was necessary to find a
+faithful Indian upon whom I could rely. From among my domestics I chose
+the coachman, a brave and discreet man, who was devoted to me. I took
+some arms, ammunition, and provisions. At Lapindan, a small village
+near the town of Santa Anna, I freighted a small boat worked by three
+Indians: <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb70" href=
+"#pb70">70</a>]</span>and one morning, without making my project known
+to my friends, and without inquiring whether the governor had replaced
+me, I set out to take possession of my domains, respiring the vivifying
+and pure air of liberty. I ascended in my pirogue&mdash;which skimmed
+along the surface of the waters like a sea-gull&mdash;the pretty river
+Pasig, which issues from the lake of Bay, and traverses, on its way to
+the sea, the suburbs of Manilla. The banks of this river are planted
+with thickets of bamboo, and studded with pretty Indian habitations;
+above the large town of Pasig it receives the waters of the river St.
+Mateo, at the spot where that river unites itself with that of the
+Pasig. Upon the left bank are still seen the ruins of the chapel and
+parsonage of St. Nicholas, built by the Chinese, as the legend I am
+about to relate informs us.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p070"><img border="0" src="images/p070.jpg"
+alt="Passage boat on the River Pasig." width="503" height="362">
+<p class="figureHead">Passage boat on the River Pasig.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb71" href="#pb71">71</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>At an unknown epoch, a Chinese who was once sailing in a canoe,
+either upon the river Pasig, or that of St. Mateo, suddenly perceived
+an alligator making for his frail bark, which it immediately capsized.
+On his finding himself thus plunged in the water, the unfortunate
+Chinese whose only prospect was that of making a meal for the ferocious
+animal, invoked the aid of St. Nicholas. You, perhaps, would not have
+done so, nor I either; and we should have been wrong, for the idea was
+a good one. The good St. Nicholas listened to the cries of the unhappy
+castaway, appeared to his wondering eyes, and with a stroke of a wand,
+like some benevolent fairy, changed the threatening crocodile into a
+rock, and the Chinese was saved. But do not imagine that the legend
+ends here; the Chinese are not an ungrateful people&mdash;China is the
+land of porcelain, of tea, and of gratitude. The Chinese who had thus
+escaped from the cruel fate that awaited him, felt desirous of
+consecrating the memory of the miracle; and, in concert with his
+brethren of Manilla, he built a pretty chapel and parsonage in honour
+of the good St. Nicholas. This chapel was for a long time officiated in
+by a bonze; and every year, at the festival of the saint, the rich
+Chinese of Manilla assembled there in thousands, to give a series of
+f&ecirc;tes which lasted for fifteen days. But it happened that an
+archbishop of Manilla, looking upon this worship offered up by Chinese
+gratitude as nothing but paganism, caused both the chapel and parsonage
+to be unroofed. These harsh measures had no other result than to admit
+the rain into the buildings; but the worship due to St. Nicholas still
+continued, and remains to this day. Perhaps this arises from the
+attempt to suppress it!</p>
+
+<p>At present, at the period when this festival takes place&mdash;<span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb72" href="#pb72">72</a>]</span>that is, about
+the 6th of November every year&mdash;a delightful view presents itself.
+During the night large vessels may be seen, upon which are built
+palaces actually several stories high, terminating in pyramids, and lit
+up from the base to the summit. All these lights are reflected in the
+placid waters of the river, and seem to augment the number of the
+stars, whose tremulous images dance on the surface of the waters: it is
+an extemporised Venice! In these palaces they give themselves up to
+play, to smoking opium, and to the pleasures of music. The <i>
+p&eacute;v&eacute;t&eacute;</i>, a species of Chinese incense, is
+burning everywhere and at all times in honour of St. Nicholas, who is
+invoked every morning by throwing into the river small square pieces of
+paper of various colours. St. Nicholas, however, does not make his
+appearance; but the f&ecirc;te continues for a fortnight, at the
+termination of which the faithful retire till the year following.</p>
+
+<p>And now that the reader is acquainted with the legend of the
+crocodile, of the Chinese, and of the good St. Nicholas, I will resume
+my voyage.</p>
+
+<p>I sailed on peaceably upon the Pasig, proceeding to the conquest of
+my new dominions, and indulging in golden dreams. I gazed on the light
+smoke of my cigarette, without reflecting that my dreams, my castles in
+the air, must evaporate like it! I soon found myself in the lake of
+Bay. The lake occupies an extent of thirty leagues, and I greatly
+admired this fine sheet of water, bounded in the distance by mountains
+of fantastic forms. At length I arrived at <i>
+Quinaboutasan</i>&mdash;this is a Tagal word, which signifies
+&ldquo;that which is perforated.&rdquo; Quinaboutasan is situated on a
+strait, which separates the island of Talem from the continent. We
+stopped for an hour in the only Indian hut there was in the place, to
+cook some rice and take our repast. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb73"
+href="#pb73">73</a>]</span>This hut was inhabited by a very old
+fisherman and his wife. They were still, however, able to supply their
+wants by fishing. At a later period I shall have occasion to speak of
+old Relempago, or the &ldquo;Thunderer,&rdquo; and to recount his
+history. When I was in the centre of the sheet of water which separates
+Talem from Jala-Jala, I came in sight of the new domain which I had so
+easily acquired, and I could form some opinion of my acquisition at a
+glance. Jala-Jala is a long peninsula, extending from north to south,
+in the middle of the lake of Bay. This peninsula is divided
+longitudinally for the space of three leagues by a chain of mountains,
+which diminish gradually in height till they become mere hillocks.
+These mountains, are easy of access, and generally covered on one side
+with forests, and on the other with fine pasturage, abounding with
+waving and flexible grass, three or four feet high, which, agitated by
+the breeze, resembles the waves of the sea when in motion. It is
+impossible to find more splendid vegetation, which is watered by pure
+and limpid springs that gush from the mountain heights, and roll in a
+meandering course to join the waters of the lake. These pasture grounds
+constitute Jala-Jala the greatest game preserve in the island: wild
+boars, deer, buffaloes, fowls, quail, snipe, pigeons of fifteen or
+twenty different varieties, parrots&mdash;in short all sorts of birds
+abound in them. The lake is equally well supplied with aquatic birds,
+and particularly wild ducks. Notwithstanding its extent, the island
+produces neither noxious nor carnivorous animals; the only things to be
+apprehended are the civet cat, which only preys upon birds, and the
+monkeys, which issue in troops from the forests to ravage the fields of
+maize and sugar-cane. The lake, which abounds with excellent fish, is
+less favoured in this respect than the land, for it contains numerous
+crocodiles and alligators, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb74" href=
+"#pb74">74</a>]</span>of such immense size that in a few moments one of
+them can tear a horse to pieces, and swallow it in its monstrous
+stomach. The accidents they occasion are frequent and terrible, and I
+have seen many Indians become their victims, as I shall subsequently
+relate. I ought, doubtless, to have begun by speaking of the human
+beings who inhabited the forests of Jala-Jala, but I am a sportsman,
+and must therefore be excused for beginning with the game.</p>
+
+<p>At the time I purchased it Jala-Jala was inhabited by some Malay
+Indians, who lived in the woods, and cultivated a few spots of ground.
+During the night they carried on the trade of piracy, and gave shelter
+to all the banditti of the neighbouring provinces. At Manilla this
+country had been described to me in the most gloomy colours. According
+to the citizens of that place it would not be long before I fell a
+victim to these robbers. My adventurous disposition, however, only made
+all these predictions, instead of frightening me, increase my desire to
+visit these men, who lived in an almost savage state. As soon as I had
+purchased Jala-Jala, I had laid down a line of conduct for myself, the
+object of which was to attach to me such of the inhabitants as were the
+most to be dreaded. I resolved to become the friend of these banditti,
+and for this purpose I knew that I must go amongst them, not like a
+sordid and exacting landlord but like a father. For the execution of my
+enterprise, everything depended on the first impression that I should
+make on these Indians, who had become my vassals. When I had landed, I
+directed my steps along the borders of the lake, towards a little
+hamlet composed of a few cabins. I was accompanied by my faithful
+coachman; we were both armed with a good double-barreled gun, a brace
+of pistols, and a sabre. I had taken the precaution of ascertaining
+from some <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb75" href=
+"#pb75">75</a>]</span>fishermen the name of the Indian to whom I should
+especially address myself. This man, who was the most respected amongst
+his countrymen, was called in the Tagal language, &ldquo;<i lang=
+"tl">Mabutiu-Tajo</i>,&rdquo; which may be translated the
+&ldquo;bravest of the brave&rdquo; he was a thorough-paced robber, a
+real piratical chief; a fellow that would not hesitate to commit five
+or six murders in one expedition; but he was brave, and with a
+primitive people bravery is a quality before which they bow with
+respect. My conference with Mabutiu-Tajo was not long. A few words were
+enough to win me his favour, and to make him my faithful servant during
+the whole time I remained at Jala-Jala. This is the manner in which I
+spoke to him: &ldquo;You are a great villain,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;I
+am the lord of Jala-Jala. I insist on your changing your conduct; if
+you refuse, I shall punish you for all your misdeeds. I have occasion
+for a guard: will you pledge me your honour to become an honest man,
+and I will make you my lieutenant?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After these few words, Alila (this was the name of the robber)
+continued silent for a few moments, while his countenance displayed the
+marks of profound reflection. I awaited his answer with considerable
+anxiety and doubt as to what it would be.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; he at length replied, with enthusiasm,
+presenting me his hand, and bending one knee to the ground: &ldquo;I
+shall be faithful to you till death!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His answer made me happy, but I did not let him see my
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well and good,&rdquo; I replied; &ldquo;to show you that I
+confide in you, take this weapon, and use it only against the
+enemy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I gave him a Tagal sabre, which bore the following Spanish
+inscription, in large letters: &ldquo;<i lang="es">No me sacas sin
+rason, ni me <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb76" href=
+"#pb76">76</a>]</span>envainas sin honor</i>.&rdquo; &ldquo;Never draw
+me unjustly, and never sheath me with dishonour.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I translated this legend into the Tagaloc language: Alila thought it
+sublime, and vowed never to deviate from it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When I go to Manilla,&rdquo; I added, &ldquo;I shall procure
+you a handsome uniform, with epaulettes; but you must lose no time in
+assembling the soldiers you will have to command, and who are to form
+my guard. Conduct me to the house of one of your comrades whom you
+think most capable of obeying you as serjeant.&rdquo; We went some
+distance from his cabin to the hut of one of his friends, who almost
+always accompanied him in his piratical excursions. A few words like
+those I had spoken to my future lieutenant produced a similar influence
+on his comrade, and induced him to accept the rank I offered him. We
+occupied the day in recruiting amongst the various huts, and in the
+evening we had a guard of ten effective men, infantry and cavalry, a
+number I did not wish to exceed.</p>
+
+<p>Of these I took the command as captain; and thus, as will be seen, I
+went promptly to work. The following day I assembled the population of
+the peninsula, and, surrounded by my extempore guard, I chose a
+situation where I wished to found a village, and a site on which I
+wished my own habitation to be built. I ordered the heads of families
+to construct their huts on an allotment which I indicated, and I
+directed my lieutenant to employ as many hands as possible, to quarry
+stones, to cut down timber for the wood-work, and to prepare everything
+in short for my house. Having issued my orders, I departed for Manilla,
+promising to return soon. When I reached home, I found them in a state
+of inquietude, for, as nothing had been heard of me, it was thought I
+had fallen a prey to the crocodiles, or a victim to the pirates. The
+recital <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb77" href=
+"#pb77">77</a>]</span>of my journey, and the description I gave of
+Jala-Jala, far from disgusting my wife with the idea I had conceived of
+inhabiting that country, made her, on the contrary, impatient to visit
+our estate, and to establish herself there. It was, however, a farewell
+she was taking of the capital&mdash;of its f&ecirc;tes, its assemblies,
+and its pleasures.</p>
+
+<p>I paid a visit to the governor. My resignation had been considered
+as null and void: he had preserved all my places for me. I was touched
+by this goodness. I sincerely thanked him, but told him that I was
+really in earnest, that my resolution was irrevocably fixed, and that
+he might otherwise dispose of my employments. I added, that I only
+asked him for one favour, that of commanding all the local gendarmerie
+of the province of La Lagune, with the privilege of having a personal
+guard, which I would form myself. This favour was instantly granted,
+and a few days after I received my commission. It was not ambition that
+suggested to me the idea of asking for this important post, but sound
+reason. My object was to establish an authority for myself at
+Jala-Jala, and to have in my own hands the power of punishing my
+Indians, without recurring to the justice of the alcaid, who lived ten
+leagues away from my dominions.</p>
+
+<p>Wishing to be comfortably settled in my new residence, I drew out a
+plan of my house. It consisted of a first-floor, with five
+bed-chambers, a large hall, a spacious drawing-room, a terrace, and
+bathing rooms. I agreed with a master-mason and a master carpenter for
+the construction of it; and having obtained arms and uniforms for my
+guard, I set out again. On arriving I was received with joy by my
+Indians. My lieutenant had punctually executed my orders. A great
+quantity of material was prepared, and several Indian huts were already
+built. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb78" href=
+"#pb78">78</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>This activity gave me pleasure, as it evinced a desire for my
+gratification. I immediately set my labourers to work, ordering them to
+clear away the surrounding wood, and I soon had the pleasure of laying
+the foundation of my residence; I then went to Manilla. The works
+lasted for eight months, during which time I passed backwards and
+forwards continually from Manilla to Jala-Jala, and from Jala-Jala to
+Manilla. I had some trouble, but I was well repaid for it when I saw a
+village rise from the earth. My Indians constructed their huts on the
+places I had indicated; they had reserved a site for a church, and,
+until this should be built, mass was to be celebrated in the vestibule
+of my mansion. At length, after many journeys to and fro, which gave
+great uneasiness to my wife, I was enabled to inform her that the
+castle of Jala-Jala was ready to receive its mistress. This was a
+pleasing piece of intelligence, for we were soon to be no longer
+separated.</p>
+
+<p>I quickly sold my horses, my carriages, and useless furniture, and
+freighted a vessel to convey to Jala-Jala all that I required. Then,
+having taken leave of my friends, I quitted Manilla, with the intention
+of not returning to it but through absolute necessity. Our journey was
+prosperous, and on our arrival, we found my Indians on the shore,
+hailing with cries of joy the welcome advent of the &ldquo;<i>Queen of
+Jala-Jala</i>,&rdquo; for it was thus they called my wife.</p>
+
+<p>We devoted the first days after our arrival to installing ourselves
+in our new residence, which it was necessary to furnish, and make both
+useful and agreeable; this we accordingly effected. And now that years
+have elapsed, and I am far removed from that period of independence and
+perfect liberty, I reflect on the strangeness of my destiny. My wife
+and I were the only white and civilised persons in the midst of a <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb79" href="#pb79">79</a>]</span>bronzed and
+almost savage population, and yet I felt no apprehension. I relied on
+my arms, on my self-possession, and on the fidelity of my guards. Anna
+was only aware of a part of the dangers we incurred, and her confidence
+in me was so great, that when by my side she knew not what it was to
+fear. When I was well established in my house, I undertook a difficult
+and dangerous task, that of establishing order amongst my Indians, and
+organizing my little town according to the custom of the Philippine
+islands. The Spanish laws, with reference to the Indians, are
+altogether patriarchal. Every township is erected, so to speak, into a
+little republic. Every year a chief is elected, dependant for affairs
+of importance on the governor of the province, which latter, in his
+turn, depends on the governor of the Philippine islands. I confess that
+I have always considered the mode of government peculiar to the
+Philippines as the most convenient and best adapted for civilization.
+The Spaniards, at the period of their conquest, found it in full
+operation in the isle of Luzon.</p>
+
+<p>I shall here enter into some details. Every Indian population is
+divided into two classes, the noble and the popular. The first is
+composed of all Indians who are, or have been <i>cabessas de
+barangay</i>, that is to say, collectors of taxes, which situation is
+honorary. The taxes established by the Spaniards are personal. Every
+Indian of more than twenty-one years of age pays, in four instalments,
+the annual sum of three francs; which tax is the same to the rich and
+the poor. At a certain period of the year, twelve of the cabessas de
+barangay become electors, and assembling together with some of the old
+inhabitants of the township, they elect, by ballot, three of their
+number, whose names are forwarded to the governor of the Philippines.
+The latter chooses from amongst these names <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb80" href="#pb80">80</a>]</span>whichever he pleases, and confides
+to him for one year the functions of <i>gobernadorcillo</i>, or
+deputy-governor. To distinguish him from the other Indians, the
+deputy-governor bears a gold-headed cane, with which he has a right to
+strike such of his fellow-citizens as may have committed slight faults.
+His functions partake at the same time of those of mayor, justice of
+the peace, and examining magistrate. He watches over good order and
+public tranquillity; he decides, without appeal, suits and differences
+of no higher importance than sixteen piasters (&pound;3 6s. 8d.). He
+also institutes criminal suits of high importance, but there his power
+ceases. The documents connected with these suits are sent by him to the
+governor of the province, who, in his turn, transmits them to the royal
+court of Manilla. The court gives judgment, and the alcaid carries it
+into execution. When the election for deputy-governor takes place, the
+assembled electors choose all the officials who are to act under him.
+These are alguazils, whose number is proportioned to the population;
+two witnesses, or assistants, who are charged with the confirmation of
+the acts of the deputy-governor&mdash;for without their presence and
+sanction his acts would be considered null and void; a <i lang="fr">
+jou&egrave;s de palma</i>, or palm judge, with the functions of rural
+guard; a vaccinator, bound to be always furnished with vaccine matter,
+for newborn children; and a schoolmaster, charged with public
+instruction; finally, a sort of gendarmerie, to watch banditti and the
+state of the roads within the precincts of the commune and the
+neighbouring lands. Men, grown up, and without employment, form a civic
+guard, who watch over the safety of the village. This guard indicates
+the hours of the night, by blows struck upon a large piece of hollow
+wood. There is in each town a parochial house, which is called Casa
+R&eacute;al, where <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb81" href=
+"#pb81">81</a>]</span>the deputy-governor resides. He is bound to
+afford hospitality to all travellers who pass through the town, which
+hospitality is like that of the Scotch mountaineers&mdash;it is given,
+but never sold. During two or three days, the traveller has a right to
+lodging, in which he is supplied with a mat, a pillow, salt, vinegar,
+wood, cooking vessels, and&mdash;paying for the same&mdash;all
+descriptions of food necessary for his subsistence. If, on his
+departure, he should even require horses and guides to continue his
+journey, they are procured for him. With respect to the prices of
+provisions, in order to prevent the abuses so frequent amongst us, a
+large placard is fixed up in every Casa R&eacute;al, containing a
+tariff of the market prices of meat, poultry, fish, fruit, &amp;c. In
+no case whatever can the deputy-governor exact any remuneration for the
+trouble he is at.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the measures that I wished to adopt, and which, it is
+true, possessed advantages and disadvantages. The greatest
+inconvenience attending them was undoubtedly that of placing myself in
+a state of dependence upon the deputy-governor, whose functions gave
+him a certain right, for I was his administrator. It is true that my
+rank, as commandant of all the gendarmerie of the province, shielded me
+from any injustice that might be contemplated against me. I knew very
+well that, beyond military service, I could inflict no punishment on my
+men without the intervention of the deputy-governor; but I had
+sufficiently studied the Indian character to know that I could only
+rule it by the most perfect justice and a well-understood severity. But
+whatever were the difficulties I foresaw, without any apprehension of
+the troubles and dangers of every description that I should have to
+surmount, I proceeded straightforward towards the object I had traced
+out for myself. The road was sterile and encumbered with rocks; but I
+entered <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb82" href=
+"#pb82">82</a>]</span>upon it with courage, and I succeeded in
+obtaining over the Indians such an influence, that they ultimately
+obeyed my voice as they would that of a parent. The character of the
+Tagaloc is extremely difficult to define. Lavater and Gall would have
+been very much embarrassed by it; for both physiognomy and craniology
+would be, perhaps, equally at a loss amongst the Philippines.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p082"><img border="0" src="images/p082.jpg"
+alt="Tagal Indians pounding rice." width="375" height="424">
+<p class="figureHead">Tagal Indians pounding rice.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The natural disposition of the Tagal Indian is a mixture of vices
+and virtues, of good and bad qualities. A worthy priest has said, when
+speaking of them: &ldquo;They are great children and must be treated as
+if they were little ones.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is really curious to trace, and still more so to read, the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb83" href="#pb83">83</a>]</span>moral portrait
+of a native of the Philippine islands. The Indian keeps his word, and
+yet&mdash;will it be believed?&mdash;he is a liar. Anger he holds in
+horror, he compares it to madness; and even prefers drunkenness, which,
+however, he despises. He will not hesitate to use the dagger to avenge
+himself for injustice; but what he can least submit to is an insult,
+even when merited. When he has committed a fault, he may be punished
+with a flogging; this he receives without a murmur, but he cannot brook
+an insult. He is brave, generous, and a fatalist. The profession of a
+robber, which he willingly exercises, is agreeable to him, on account
+of the life of liberty and adventure it affords, and not because it may
+lead to riches. Generally speaking, the Tagalocs are good fathers and
+good husbands, both these qualities being inherent. Horribly jealous of
+their wives, but not in the least of the honour of their daughters; and
+it matters little if the women they marry have committed errors
+previous to their union. They never ask for a dowry, they themselves
+provide it, and make presents to the parents of their brides. They
+dislike cowards, but willingly attach themselves to the man who is
+brave enough to face danger. Play is their ruling passion, and they
+delight in the combats of animals, especially in cock-fighting. This is
+a brief compendium of the character of the people I was about to
+govern. My first care was to become master of myself. I made a firm
+resolution never to allow a gesture of impatience to escape me, in
+their presence, even in the most critical moments, and to preserve at
+all times unshaken calmness and <i lang="fr">sang-froid</i>. I soon
+learned that it was dangerous to listen to the communications that were
+made to me, which might lead me to the commission of injustice, as had
+already happened under the following circumstances. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb84" href="#pb84">84</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>Two Indians came one day to lodge a complaint against one of their
+comrades, living at some leagues&rsquo; distance from Jala-Jala. These
+informers accused him of having stolen cattle. After I had heard all
+they had to say, I set off with my guard to seize upon the accused, and
+brought him to my residence. There I endeavoured to make him confess
+his crime, but he denied it, and said he was innocent. It was in vain I
+promised him if he would tell the truth to grant him his pardon, for he
+persisted even in the presence of his accusers. Persuaded, however,
+that he was telling me falsehoods, and disgusted with his obstinacy in
+denying a fact which had been sworn to me, with every appearance of
+sincerity, I ordered him to be tied upon a bench, and receive a dozen
+strokes of a whip. My orders were executed; but the culprit denied the
+charge, as he had done before. This dogged perseverance irritated me,
+and I caused another correction to be administered to him the same as
+the first. The unfortunate man bore his punishment with unshaken
+courage: but in the midst of his sufferings he exclaimed, in
+penetrating accents: &ldquo;Oh! sir, I swear to you that I am innocent;
+but, as you will not believe me, take me into your house. I will be a
+faithful servant, and you will soon have proofs that I am the victim of
+an infamous calumny.&rdquo; These words affected me. I reflected that
+this unfortunate man was, perhaps, not guilty after all. I began to
+fear I had been deceived, and had unknowingly committed an act of
+injustice. I felt that private enmity might have led these two
+witnesses to make a false declaration, and thus induce me to punish an
+innocent man. I ordered him to be untied. &ldquo;The proof you
+demand,&rdquo; I said to him, &ldquo;is easily tried. If you are an
+honest man, I shall be a father to you; but if you deceive me, do not
+expect any pity from me. From this <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb85"
+href="#pb85">85</a>]</span>moment you shall be one of my guard; my
+lieutenant will provide you with arms.&rdquo; He thanked me earnestly,
+and his countenance lit up with sudden joy. He was installed in my
+guard. Oh! human justice! how fragile, and how often unintelligible art
+thou! Some time after this event, I learnt that Bazilio de la
+Cruz&mdash;this was the name of the man&mdash;was innocent. The two
+wretches who had denounced him had fled, to avoid the chastisement they
+merited. Bazilio kept his promise, and during my residence at Jala-Jala
+he served me faithfully and without malice or ill-will. This fact made
+a lively impression on me; and I vowed that for the future I would
+inflict no punishment without being sure of the truth of the charge
+alleged. I have religiously kept this vow&mdash;at least I think so;
+for I have never since ordered a single application of the whip until
+after the culprit had confessed his crime.</p>
+
+<p>I have before said that I had expressed a wish to have a church
+built in my village, not only from a religious feeling, but as a means
+of civilisation: I was particularly desirous of having a curate at
+Jala-Jala. With this view I requested Monseigneur Hilarion, the
+archbishop, whose physician I had been, and with whom I was on terms of
+friendship, to send me a clergyman of my acquaintance, and who was at
+that time unemployed. I had, however, much difficulty in obtaining this
+nomination. &ldquo;Father Miguel de San-Francisco,&rdquo; the
+archbishop replied, &ldquo;is a violent man, and very headstrong: you
+will never be able to live with him.&rdquo; I persisted, however; and
+as perseverance always produces some result, I at length succeeded in
+having him appointed curate at Jala-Jala. Father Miguel was of Japanese
+and Malay descent. He was young, strong, brave, and very capable of
+assisting me in the difficult circumstances that might occur; as, for
+example, if it were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb86" href=
+"#pb86">86</a>]</span>necessary to defend ourselves against banditti.
+Indeed I must say that, in spite of the anticipations, and I may add
+the prejudices, of my honourable friend the archbishop, I kept him with
+me during the whole time of my abode at Jala-Jala, and never had the
+slightest difference with him. I can only reproach him with one thing
+to be regretted, which is that he did not preach sufficiently to his
+flock. He gave them only one sermon annually, and then his discourse
+was always the same, and divided into two parts: the first was in
+Spanish, for our edification, and the second in Tagaloc, for the
+Indians. Ah! how many men have I since met with who might well imitate
+the worthy curate of Jala-Jala! To the observations I sometimes made he
+would reply: &ldquo;Let me follow my own course, and fear nothing. So
+many words are not necessary to make a good Christian.&rdquo; Perhaps
+he was right. Since my <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb87" href=
+"#pb87">87</a>]</span>departure from the place the good priest is dead,
+bearing with him to the tomb the regret of all his parishioners.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p086"><img border="0" src="images/p086.jpg"
+alt="Father Miguel." width="318" height="348">
+<p class="figureHead">Father Miguel.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As may be seen, I was at the beginning of my labour of civilisation.
+Anna assisted me with all her heart, and with all her intelligence, and
+no fatigue disheartened her. She taught the young girls to love that
+virtue which she practised so well herself. She furnished them with
+clothes, for at this period the young girls from ten to twelve years of
+age were still as naked as savages. Father Miguel de San Francisco was
+charged with the mission more especially belonging to his sacred
+character. The more readily to disseminate through the colony that
+instruction which is the beneficent parent of civilisation, the young
+people were divided into squads of four at a time, and went by turns to
+pass a fortnight at the parsonage. There they learned a little Spanish,
+and were moulded to the customs of a world which had been hitherto
+unknown to them. I superintended everything in general. I occupied
+myself in works of agriculture, and giving proper instruction to the
+shepherds who kept the flocks I had purchased to make use of my
+pasturage. I was also the mediator of all the differences which arose
+amongst my colonists. They preferred rather to apply to me than to the
+deputy-governor; and I succeeded at last in obtaining over them the
+influence I desired. One portion of my time, and this was not the least
+busy, was occupied in driving the banditti from my residence and its
+vicinity. Sometimes I set off for this purpose before daybreak and did
+not return until night; and then I always found my wife good,
+affectionate, and devoted to me: her reception repaid me for the
+labours of the day. Oh, felicity almost perfect! I have never forgotten
+you! Happy period! which has left indelible traces in my memory, you
+are always present to my <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb88" href=
+"#pb88">88</a>]</span>thoughts! I have grown old, but my heart has ever
+continued young in recollecting you.</p>
+
+<p>In our long chit-chat of an evening we recounted to each other the
+labours of the day, and everything that occurred to us. This was the
+season of sweet mutual confidence. Hours too soon vanished, alas!
+Fugitive moments, you will never return! It was also the time when I
+gave audience; real bed of justice, imitated from St. Louis, and thrown
+open to my subjects. The door of my mansion admitted all the Indians
+who had anything to communicate to me. Seated with my wife at a great
+round table, I listened, as I took my tea, to all the requests that
+were made to me, all the claims that were laid before me. It was during
+these audiences that I issued my sentences. My guards brought the
+culprits before me, and, without departing from my ordinary calmness, I
+admonished them for the faults they had committed; but I always
+recollected the error I bad committed in my sentence against poor
+Bazilio, and I was, therefore, very circumspect. I first listened to
+the witnesses; but I never condemned until I heard the culprit say:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What would you have, sir? It was my destiny. I could not
+prevent myself from doing what I did.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Every fault merits chastisement,&rdquo; I would reply;
+&ldquo;but choose between the deputy-governor and me&mdash;by which do
+you wish to be chastised?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The reply was always the same.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Kill me, if you will, master; but do not give me up to my own
+countrymen.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I awarded the punishment, and it was inflicted by my guards. When
+this was over, I presented the Indian with a cigar, as a token of
+pardon, I uttered a few kind words to him <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb89" href="#pb89">89</a>]</span>to induce him not to commit any fresh
+faults, and he went away without hearing any malice to his judge. I
+had, perhaps, been severe, but I had been just; that was enough. The
+order and discipline I had established were a great support for me in
+the minds of the Indians; they gave me a positive influence over them.
+My calmness, my firmness, and my justice&mdash;those three great
+qualities without which no government is possible&mdash;easily
+satisfied these natures, still untrained and <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e842" title="Source: unsophiscated">unsophisticated</span>. But one
+thing, however, disquieted them. Was I brave? This is what they were
+ignorant of, and frequently asked of one another. They spurned the idea
+of being commanded by a man who might not be intrepid in the face of
+danger. I had indeed made several expeditions against banditti, but
+they had produced no result, and would not serve as proofs of my
+bravery in the eyes of the Indians. I very well knew that they would
+form their definite opinion upon me from my conduct in the first
+perilous extremity we should encounter together. I was therefore
+determined to undertake anything, that I might show myself at least
+equal to the best and bravest of all my Indians: everything was
+comprised in that. I felt the imperious necessity of showing myself not
+only equal but superior in the struggle, by preserving my
+self-possession.</p>
+
+<p>An opportunity at length offered.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians look upon buffalo hunting as the most dangerous of all
+their wild sports, and my guards often said they would rather stand
+naked at twenty paces from the muzzle of a carbine than at the same
+distance from a wild buffalo. The difference they said is this, that
+the ball of a carbine may only wound, but the horn of a buffalo is sure
+to kill. I took advantage of the terror they had of this animal, and
+one day declared, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb90" href=
+"#pb90">90</a>]</span>with the utmost possible coolness, my intention
+to hunt one. They then made use of all their eloquence to turn me from
+my project; they gave me a very picturesque, but a very discouraging
+description of the dangers and difficulties I should have to encounter,
+especially as I was not accustomed to that sort of warfare,&mdash;and
+such a combat is, in fact, a struggle for life or death. But I would
+listen to nothing. I had spoken the word: I would not discuss the
+point, and I looked upon all their counsels as null and void. My
+decision was right; for these kind counsels, these frightful pictures
+of the dangers I was about to incur, had no other object than to entrap
+me; they had concerted amongst themselves to judge of my courage by my
+acceptance or refusal of the combat. My only answer was to give orders
+for the hunt. I took great care that my wife should not be informed of
+our excursion, and I set off, accompanied by half a score Indians,
+nearly all of whom were armed with muskets. Buffalo hunting is
+different in the mountains from what it is in the plains. On the plain
+one only requires a good horse, with address and agility in throwing
+the lasso; but in the mountains it requires something more: and, above
+all, the most extraordinary coolness and self-possession are
+essentially necessary.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p092"><img border="0" src="images/p092.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere&rsquo;s First Shot at a Buffalo." width="720" height=
+"488">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere&rsquo;s First Shot at a Buffalo.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This is the way in which it is done: the hunter takes a gun on which
+he can depend, and places himself in such a position that the buffalo
+must see him on issuing from the wood. The moment the animal sees him,
+he rushes on him with the utmost velocity, breaking, rending, and
+trampling under foot every obstacle to the fury of his charge; he
+rushes on as if about to crush the enemy, then stops within some paces
+for a few seconds, and presents his sharp and threatening horns. This
+is the moment that the hunter should fire, and <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb91" href="#pb91">91</a>]</span>lodge his ball in the forehead
+of the foe. If unfortunately his gun misses fire, or if his coolness
+fails him, if his hand trembles, or his aim is bad, he is
+lost&mdash;Providence alone can save him! This was, perhaps, the fate
+that awaited me; but I was resolved to tempt this cruel proof, and I
+went forward with intrepidity&mdash;perhaps to death. We at length
+arrived on the skirts of an extensive wood, in which we felt assured
+there were buffaloes, and here we halted. I was sure of my gun, and I
+conceived I was equally so of my self-possession; I therefore
+determined that the hunt should be conducted as if I had been a simple
+Indian. I placed myself at the spot where it was fully expected that
+the animal would come out, and I forbade anyone to remain near me. I
+ordered everyone to his proper place, and I then stood alone on the
+open ground, about two hundred paces from the borders of the forest, to
+await an enemy that would show me no mercy if I missed him. It is, I
+confess, a solemn moment, when one stands between life and death by the
+more or less certainty of a gun, or the greater or less steadiness of
+the arm that holds it. I was, however, perfectly tranquil. When all
+were at their posts two hunters entered the forest, having first thrown
+off some of their clothing, the more readily to climb up trees in case
+of danger: they had no other arms than a cutlass, and were accompanied
+by the dogs. A dead silence continued for upwards of half-an-hour;
+everyone listening for the slightest noise, but nothing was heard. The
+buffalo continues a long time frequently without betraying his lair;
+but at the end of the half-hour we heard the repeated barking of the
+dogs, and the shouts of the hunters: the animal was aroused from his
+cover. He defended himself for some time against the dogs, till at
+length, becoming furious, he sprang forward with a bound <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb92" href="#pb92">92</a>]</span>towards the skirts
+of the forest. In a few minutes after, I heard the crashing of the
+branches and the young trees that the buffalo rent asunder in the
+terrible velocity of his course. His advance could only be compared to
+the galloping of several horses&mdash;to the rushing noise of some
+frightful monster&mdash;or, I might almost say, of some furious and
+diabolical being. Down he came like an avalanche; and at this moment, I
+confess, I experienced such lively emotions that my heart beat with
+extraordinary rapidity. Was it not death&mdash;aye, and frightful
+death&mdash;that was perhaps approaching me? Suddenly the buffalo made
+his appearance. He stopped for an instant; gazed, as if frightened,
+around him; sniffed up the air of the plain which extended in the
+distance; then, with distended nostrils, head bent, and horns
+projected, he rushed towards me, terrible and furious. The moment was
+come. If I had longed for an opportunity of showing off my courage and
+<i lang="fr">sang-froid</i> to the Indians, these two precious
+qualities were now put to a severe test. There I was, face to face with
+the peril I had courted; the dilemma was one of the most decided and
+unavoidable that could possibly be: conqueror or conquered, there must
+be a victim&mdash;the buffalo or me, and we were both equally disposed
+to defend ourselves.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p093"><img border="0" src="images/p093.jpg"
+alt="Horns of the Buffalo." width="454" height="374">
+<p class="figureHead">Horns of the Buffalo.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It would be difficult for me to state exactly what was passing in my
+mind, during the brief period which the buffalo took in clearing the
+distance that lay between us. My heart, so vividly agitated while the
+ferocious animal was rushing through the forest, now beat no longer. My
+eyes were fixed upon him, my gaze was rivetted on his forehead in such
+a manner that I could see nothing else. My mind was concentrated on one
+object alone, in which I was so absorbed, that I could actually hear
+nothing, though the dogs were still barking <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb93" href="#pb93">93</a>]</span>at a short distance, as they
+followed their prey. At length, the buffalo lowered his head, presented
+his sharp-pointed horns, stopped for a moment, then, with a sudden
+plunge, he rushed upon me, and I fired. My ball pierced his skull, and
+I was half saved. The animal fell within a pace of me, like a mass of
+rock, so loud, and so heavy. I planted my foot between his two horns,
+and was preparing to fire my second barrel, when a long and hollow
+bellowing indicated that my victory was complete&mdash;the monster had
+breathed his last sigh. My Indians then came up. Their joy was
+succeeded by admiration; they were in <span class="corr" id="xd0e881"
+title="Source: ecstacy">ecstasy</span>; I was everything they could
+wish for. All their doubts had vanished with the smoke of my rifle,
+when, with steady aim, I had shot the buffalo. I was brave; I had won
+their confidence; I had stood the test. My victim was cut up in pieces,
+and borne in triumph to the village. As the <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb94" href="#pb94">94</a>]</span>victor, I took his horns; they
+were six feet long. I have since deposited them in the museum of
+Nantes. The Indians, those imaginative beings, called me thenceforward,
+&ldquo;<i lang="tl">Malamit Oulou</i>,&rdquo; Tagal words, which
+signify &ldquo;cool head.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I must confess, without vanity, that the proof to which my Indians
+had subjected me was sufficiently serious to give them a decided
+opinion of my courage, and to satisfy them that a Frenchman was as
+brave as themselves. The habit I subsequently acquired of hunting
+convinced me that but little danger is really incurred when the weapon
+is a good one, and the self-possession does not fail. Once every month
+I indulged in this exercise, which imparts such lively sensations; and
+I recognised the facility with which one may lodge a ball in a plain
+surface, a few inches in diameter, and at a few paces distance. But it
+is no less true that our first huntings were very dangerous. Once only
+I permitted a Spaniard named Ocampo to accompany us. I had taken the
+precaution to station two Indians at his side; but when I quitted them
+to take up my own post, he imprudently sent them away, and soon after,
+the buffalo started from the wood, and rushed upon him. He fired both
+his barrels, and missed the animal; we heard the reports and ran
+towards him, but it was too late! Ocampo was no longer in existence.
+The buffalo had gored him through and through, and his body was
+ploughed up with frightful wounds. But no such accident ever took place
+again; for when strangers came to witness our buffalo hunts, I made
+them get up in a tree, or on the crest of a mountain, where they might
+remain as spectators of the combat, without taking any part in it, or
+being exposed to any danger.</p>
+
+<p>And now that I have described buffalo hunting in the mountains, I
+must return to my colonising labours. <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb95" href="#pb95">95</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p095"><img border="0" src="images/p095.jpg"
+alt="My House at Jala-Jala." width="486" height="401">
+<p class="figureHead">My House at Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch5" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter V.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Description of my House at Jala-Jala&mdash;Storms, Gales, and
+Earthquakes&mdash;Reforming the Banditti&mdash;Card-playing&mdash;Tagal
+Cock-fighting&mdash;Skirmishes with Robbers&mdash;Courage of my
+Wife&mdash;Our Domestic Happiness&mdash;Visits from
+Europeans&mdash;Their Astonishment at our Civilisation&mdash;Visit to a
+Sick Friend at Manilla&mdash;Tour through the Provinces of the Ilocos
+and Pangasinan Indians&mdash;My Reception by the Tinguians&mdash;Their
+Appearance and Habits&mdash;Manners and Customs&mdash;Indian F&ecirc;te
+at Laganguilan y Madalag&mdash;Horrible Ceremonies to Celebrate a
+Victory&mdash;Songs and Dances&mdash;Our Night-watch&mdash;We Explore
+our Cabin&mdash;Discovery of a Secret Well&mdash;Tomb of the Tinguian
+Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">As I have previously said, my house possessed every
+comfort that could possibly be desired. It was built of hewn stone, so
+that in case of an attack it could serve as a small fortress. The front
+overlooked the lake, which bathed with its clear and limpid waters the
+verdant shore within a hundred steps from my dwelling; the back part
+looked upon woods and hills, where <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb96"
+href="#pb96">96</a>]</span>the vegetation was rich and plentiful. From
+our windows we could gaze upon those grand majestic scenes which a
+beautiful tropical sky so frequently affords. At times, on a dark
+night, the summits of the hills suddenly shone with a weak faint light,
+which increased by degrees; then the bright moon gradually appeared,
+and illuminated the tops of the mountains, as large beacon-fires would
+have done; then again, calm, peaceful, and serene, she reflected her
+soft poetic light over the bosom of the lake, as tranquil and unruffled
+as herself. It was indeed an imposing sight. Towards evening, Nature at
+times showed herself in all her commanding splendour, infusing a secret
+terror into the very soul. Everything bore evidence of the sacred
+influence of the Divine Creator. At a short distance from our house we
+could perceive a mountain, the base of which was in the lake and the
+summit in the clouds. This mountain served as a lightning conductor to
+Jala-Jala: it attracted the thunder. Frequently heavy black clouds,
+charged with electricity, gathered over this elevated point, looking
+like other mountains trying to overturn it; then a storm began, the
+thunder roared tremendously, the rain fell in torrents; every minute
+frightful claps were heard, and the total darkness was scarcely broken
+by the lightning that flashed in long streams of fire, dashing from the
+top and sides of the mountain enormous blocks of rock, that were hurled
+into the lake with a fearful crash. It was an admirable exemplification
+of the power of the Almighty! Soon the calm was restored, the rain
+ceased, the clouds disappeared, the fragrant air bore on its yet damp
+wings the perfume of the flowers and aromatic plants, and Nature
+resumed her ordinary stillness. Hereafter I shall have occasion to
+speak of other events that happened at certain periods, and were still
+more alarming, for they lasted twelve hours. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb97" href="#pb97">97</a>]</span>These were gales of wind, called
+in the Chinese seas <i>Tay-Foung</i>. At several periods of the year,
+particularly at the moment of the change of the monsoon,<a class=
+"noteref" id="xd0e914src" href="#xd0e914">1</a> we beheld still more
+terrifying phenomena than our storms&mdash;I allude to the earthquakes.
+These fearful convulsions of nature present a very different aspect in
+the country from what they do in cities. If in towns the earth begins
+to quake, everywhere we hear a terrible noise; the edifices give way,
+and are ready to fall down; the inhabitants rush out of their houses,
+run along the streets, which they encumber, and try to escape. The
+screams of frightened children and women bathed in tears are blended
+with those of the distracted men; all are on their knees, with clasped
+hands, their looks raised to Heaven, imploring its mercy with sobbing
+voices. Everything totters, is agitated; all dread death, and terror
+becomes general. In the country it is totally different, and a hundred
+times more imposing and terrific. For instance, in Jala-Jala, at the
+approach of one of these phenomena, a profound, even mournful stillness
+pervades nature. The wind no longer blows; not a breeze nor even a
+gentle zephyr is perceptible. The sun, though cloudless, darkens, and
+spreads around a sepulchral light. The atmosphere is burdened with
+heavy and sultry vapours. The earth is in labour. The frightened
+animals quietly seek shelter from the catastrophe they foresee. The
+ground shakes; soon it trembles under their feet. The trees move, the
+mountains quake upon their foundations, and their summits appear ready
+to tumble down. The waters of the lake quit their bed, and inundate the
+country. Still louder roaring than that produced by the thunder is
+heard: the earth <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb98" href=
+"#pb98">98</a>]</span>quivers; everywhere its motion is simultaneously
+felt. But after this the convulsion ceases, everything revives. The
+mountains are again firm upon their foundations, and become motionless;
+the waters of the lake return by degrees to their proper reservoir; the
+heavens are purified and resume their brilliant light, and the soft
+breeze fans the air; the wild buffaloes again scour the plain, and
+other animals quit the dens in which they had concealed themselves; the
+earth has resumed her stillness, and nature recovered her accustomed
+imposing calm.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p098"><img border="0" src="images/p098.jpg"
+alt="Herd of Wild Buffaloes." width="479" height="374">
+<p class="figureHead">Herd of Wild Buffaloes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have not sought to enter upon those minute descriptions, too
+tedious generally for the reader; I only wished to give an <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb99" href="#pb99">99</a>]</span>idea of the various
+panoramas that were unfolded to our eyes whilst at Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>I now return to the details of my ordinary life.</p>
+
+<p>As I had killed a wild buffalo when hunting, I had given sufficient
+proofs of my skill, and my Indians were devoted to me, because they had
+confidence in me. Nothing more now pre-occupied me, and I spent my time
+in superintending some necessary alterations. Shortly the woods and
+forests adjoining my domain were cut down, and replaced by extensive
+fields of indigo and rice. I stocked the hills with horned cattle, and
+a fine troop of horses with delicate limbs and haughty mien; I also
+succeeded in dispersing the banditti from Jala-Jala. I must say a great
+many of them abandoned their wandering sinful lives; I received them on
+my land, and made good husbandmen of them. How was it that I had
+collected such a number of recruits? In a strange manner, I will admit,
+and worthy of relating, as it will show how an Indian allows himself to
+be influenced and guided, when he has confidence in a man whom he looks
+upon as his superior. I frequently walked in the forests alone, with my
+gun under my arm. Suddenly a bandit would spring out, as if by
+enchantment, from behind a tree, armed from top to toe, and advance
+towards me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he to me, putting one knee to the ground,
+&ldquo;I will be an honest man; take me under your
+protection!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I asked him his name; if he had been marked out by the high court of
+justice, I would answer him severely:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Withdraw, and never present yourself again before me; I
+cannot forgive you, and if I meet you again, I must do my duty.&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb100" href="#pb100">100</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>If he was unknown to me, I would kindly say to him:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Follow me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I would take him home, and then tell him to lay down his arms; and
+after having preached to him, and exhorted him to persist in his
+resolution, I would point out to him the spot in the village where he
+might build his cabin, and, in order to encourage him, I would advance
+him some money to support himself until he became transformed from a
+bandit into an agriculturist. I congratulated myself each day on having
+left an open door to repentance, since by my cares I restored to an
+honest and laborious life, people who had gone astray and been
+perverted. I endeavoured also to persuade the Indians to abandon their
+vicious wild customs, without being too severe towards them; to obtain
+much from them I knew it was necessary to give way a little. The
+Indians are passionately fond of cards and cock-fighting, as I have
+said before; therefore, in order not to debar them entirely from these
+pleasures, I allowed them to play at cards three times a year&mdash;the
+day of the village festival, upon my wife&rsquo;s birthday, and upon my
+own. Woe to the one who was caught playing out of the times prescribed
+above; he was severely punished. As to the cock-fights, I allowed them
+on Sundays and holidays, after Divine service. For this purpose I had
+public arenas built. In these arenas, in presence of two judges, whose
+decrees were without appeal, the spectators laid heavy wagers. There is
+nothing more curious than to witness a cock-fight. The two proud
+animals, purposely chosen and trained for the day of the contest, come
+upon the battle-field armed with long, sharp, steel spurs. They bear
+themselves erect; their deportment is bold and warlike; they raise
+their heads, and beat their sides with their wings, the feathers of
+which spread in the form of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb101"
+href="#pb101">101</a>]</span>proud peacock&rsquo;s fan. They pace the
+arena haughtily, raising their armed legs cautiously, and darting angry
+looks at each other, like two old warriors in armour ready to fight
+before the eyes of an assembled court. Their impatience is violent,
+their courage impetuous; shortly the two adversaries fall upon and
+attack each other with equal fury; the sharp weapons they wear inflict
+dreadful wounds, but these intrepid combatants appear not to feel the
+cruel effects. Blood flows; the champions only appear the more
+animated. The one that is getting weak raises his courage at the idea
+of victory; if he draw back, it is only to recruit his strength, to
+rush with more <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb102" href=
+"#pb102">102</a>]</span>ardour than ever upon the enemy he wishes to
+subdue. At length when their fate is decided, when one of the heroes,
+covered with blood and wounds, falls a victim, or runs away, he is
+declared vanquished, and the battle is ended.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p101"><img border="0" src="images/p101.jpg"
+alt="Tagal cock-fighting." width="485" height="383">
+<p class="figureHead">Tagal cock-fighting.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Indians assist with a sort of ferocious joy at this amusement.
+Their attention is so captivated by it that they do not utter a word,
+but follow with particular care the most minute details of the
+conflict. Almost all of them train up a cock, and treat him for several
+years with comical tenderness, when one reflects that this animal,
+taken as much care of as a child, is destined by its master to perish
+the first day it fights. I also found that it was necessary to provide
+some amusement compatible with the tastes, manners, and habits of my
+former bandits, who had led for so long a space of time such a
+wandering vagabond life. For this purpose I allowed hunting on all
+parts of my estate, conditionally, however, that I should take
+beforehand, as tithe, a quarter of any stag or wild boar they should
+kill. I do not think that ever a sportsman&mdash;one of those men
+reclaimed from the paths of vice to those of virtue&mdash;failed in
+this engagement, or endeavoured to steal any game. I have often
+received seven or eight haunches of venison in a day, and those who
+brought them were delighted to be able to offer them to me.</p>
+
+<p>The church I had laid the foundation of was progressing rapidly; the
+population of the township was daily increasing: and everything
+succeeded according to my wishes. I had still occasional difficulties
+with the hardened robbers who surrounded me; but I pursued them without
+intermission, for it was to my interest to remove them from the
+neighbourhood of my residence. Frequently they annoyed me by the alarms
+that they gave us. These resolute, determined men arrived in gangs to
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb103" href=
+"#pb103">103</a>]</span>besiege our house. My guards surrounded me, and
+we occasionally fought skirmishes, which always terminated in our
+favour. Providence has unfathomable secrets. I was never struck by a
+ball from a bandit. I bear the scars of seventeen wounds; but these
+wounds were made with naked blades. It could be said of me, as in I
+know not which Scotch ballad: &ldquo;Did not the Devil&rsquo;s soldiers
+pass through the balls, instead of the balls passing through
+them.&rdquo; Yet I have often been fired at; sometimes the barrel of a
+gun has been pointed at my chest, and that at a few paces from me. My
+clothes have been torn by the bullet, but my body has always escaped
+harm.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p103"><img border="0" src="images/p103.jpg"
+alt="Tagal Indians." width="332" height="410">
+<p class="figureHead">Tagal Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One morning I was cautioned to put myself on my guard, because some
+banditti had met together at a few leagues from <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb104" href="#pb104">104</a>]</span>my house, and intended
+attacking it. Hearing this, I armed my people, and set out to meet the
+band that was coming to assail me, so as to anticipate their attack. At
+the place that had been indicated to me I found nobody, and passed the
+day in exploring the neighbourhood, in hopes of meeting the bandits,
+but my search was useless. Suddenly the thought struck me that a secret
+enemy had imposed upon me, and that, at the moment I was going to face
+imaginary danger, perhaps my house I had left would be suddenly
+attacked. I trembled&mdash;I shivered all over. I gallopped off, and
+reached home in the middle of the night. My fears were but too
+well-founded. I had fallen into a snare. I found my servants armed,
+watching, with my wife at their head. &ldquo;What are you doing
+here?&rdquo; I exclaimed, going up to her. &ldquo;I am keeping
+watch,&rdquo; she replied, with great presence of mind; &ldquo;I was
+told that the advice given to you was false; that you would not find
+the robbers where you expected, and that, during your absence, they
+would come here.&rdquo; This act of heroism proved to me what courage
+and energy God had given to a woman apparently so delicate. The
+banditti did not attack us: was there not some guardian angel watching
+over my dwelling?</p>
+
+<p>We were more than a year at Jala-Jala without seeing a European. One
+would have thought that we had withdrawn ourselves entirely from the
+civilised world, and that we were going to live for ever with the
+Indians. Our mountains had so bad a reputation, that nobody dared
+expose themselves to the thousand dangers they feared to encounter in
+the locality. We were therefore alone, yet still very happy. It was,
+perhaps, the most pleasant time I spent in my life. I was living with a
+beloved and loving wife; the good work I had undertaken was performed
+under my eyes; the comfort and happiness, the <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb105" href="#pb105">105</a>]</span>natural results of such good
+work, spread themselves among my vassals, who daily became more and
+more devoted to me. How could I have regretted quitting the pleasures
+and entertainments of a town, where those diversions and pleasures are
+bought by lies, hypocrisy, and deceit&mdash;those three vices of
+civilised society? However, the terror spread around by the banditti
+was not great enough to keep away the Europeans entirely; and one
+morning some people,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e973src" href=
+"#xd0e973">2</a> mad enough to dare to visit a mad man&mdash;such was
+the name given to me at Manilla, when I left to go and live in the
+country&mdash;came to see me, armed to their very teeth. The surprise
+of these venturesome visitors is impossible to be described, when they
+found us at Jala-Jala, calm, and in perfect safety. Their astonishment
+increased when they went entirely through our colony; and on their
+return to town they gave such an account of our retreat, and of the
+entertainments they found there, that shortly after we received more
+visits, and I had not only to give hospitality to friends, but likewise
+to strangers. If, now and then, our affairs compelled us to go to
+Manilla, we very soon came back to our mountains and forests, for there
+only Anna and myself were happy. Very great reasons alone could induce
+us to leave our pleasant abode; however, a slight event occurred that
+obliged us to quit it for a short time. I was informed that one of my
+friends, who had acted as witness to my marriage, was seriously ill.<a
+class="noteref" id="xd0e979src" href="#xd0e979">3</a> What the greatest
+pleasure, the most heartfelt joy, the most splendid banquet, could not
+obtain from me, friendship exacted. At this sad intelligence I
+determined at once upon going to Manilla, to give my advice to the sick
+man, whose family had solicited my aid; and as my absence might be
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb106" href=
+"#pb106">106</a>]</span>prolonged, I packed up my things, and we left,
+our hearts sadder than ever at having to quit Jala-Jala on so
+melancholy an errand. Upon my arrival there, I was told that my friend
+had been taken from Manilla to Boulacan, a province to the north of
+that town, where it was hoped the country air would hasten his
+recovery. I left Anna at her sister&rsquo;s, and went off to join Don
+Simon, whom I found convalescent; my presence was almost useless, and
+the journey I had made resulted in shaking affectionately my former
+comrade by the hand, whom I would not leave until convinced that he was
+entirely recovered.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p106"><img border="0" src="images/p106.jpg"
+alt="Ilocos Indians." width="351" height="412">
+<p class="figureHead">Ilocos Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In order to utilise my time, I decided upon making a tour to the
+north into the provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan. I had <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb107" href="#pb107">107</a>]</span>my reasons for so
+doing: I wished, if possible, to make an excursion to the Tinguians and
+Igorrots, wild populations, who were much talked of, but little known.
+I wished to study them myself. I took the precaution not to confide
+this idea to anybody, for then, indeed, people would not have known
+what name to give my folly. I made my preparations, and set out with my
+faithful lieutenant, Alila, who never left me, and who was justly
+styled <i lang="tl">Mabouti-Tao</i>. We were mounted upon good horses,
+that carried us along like gazelles to Vigan, the chief town of the
+province of South Ilocos, where we left the animals. From there we took
+a guide, who conducted us on foot to the east, close to a small river
+called Abra (opening). This river is the only issue by which we could
+penetrate to the Tinguians. It winds around high mountains of basalt;
+its sides are steep; its bed is encumbered with immense blocks of rock,
+fallen from the sides of the mountains, which render it impossible to
+walk along its banks. To reach the Tinguians, it is necessary to have
+recourse to a slight skiff, that can easily pass through the current
+and the most shallow parts. My guide and my lieutenant soon contrived
+to make a small raft of bamboos; when it was finished we embarked,
+Alila and myself, our guide refusing to accompany us. After much
+trouble and fatigue, casting ourselves often into the water to draw our
+raft along, we at length got clear of the first range of mountains, and
+perceived, in a small plain, the first Tinguian village. When we
+reached there we got out, and went towards the huts we had
+distinguished in the distance. I allow it was acting rather foolishly
+to go and thus expose ourselves, in the midst of a colony of ferocious
+and cruel men whose language we did not know; but I relied upon my
+usual good fortune. I will add that I had taken divers objects with me
+to give as presents, trusting to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb108"
+href="#pb108">108</a>]</span>meet some inhabitant speaking the Tagaloc
+language. I walked on, then, without troubling myself about what would
+become of us. In a few minutes we reached the nearest cabins, and the
+inhabitants gave us at first an unwelcome reception. Frightened at
+seeing us approach, they advanced towards us, armed with hatchets and
+spears; we waited for them without recoiling in the least. I spoke to
+them by signs, and showed them some necklaces of glass beads, to make
+them understand we were friendly disposed. They deliberated among
+themselves, and when they had held their consultation, they beckoned us
+to follow them. We obeyed. They led us to their chief, who was an old
+man. My generosity was greater towards him than it had been to his
+subjects. He appeared so delighted with my presents, that he
+immediately put us at our ease, by making us understand that we had
+nothing to fear, and that he took us under his special protection.</p>
+
+<p>This pleasing reception encouraged us.</p>
+
+<p>I then set about examining with attention the men, women, and
+children who surrounded us, and who seemed as much astonished as
+ourselves. My amazement was very great when I beheld tall men, slightly
+bronzed, with straight hair, regular features, aquiline noses, and
+really handsome, elegant women. Was I really among savages? I should
+rather have thought I was among the inhabitants of the south of France,
+had it not been for the costume and language. The only clothing the men
+wore was a sash, and a sort of a turban, made out of the bark of the
+fig tree. They were armed, as they always are, with a long spear, a
+small hatchet, and a shield. The women also wore a sash, and a small
+narrow apron that came down to their knees. Their heads were ornamented
+with pearls, coral beads, and pieces of gold, twisted among their <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb109" href="#pb109">109</a>]</span>hair; the
+upper parts of their hands were painted blue; their wrists adorned with
+interwoven bracelets, spangled with glass beads&mdash;these bracelets
+reached the elbow, and formed a kind of half-plaited sleeve. On this
+subject I learnt a remarkable fact. These interwoven bracelets squeeze
+the arm very much; they are put on when the women are quite young, and
+they prevent the development of the flesh to the advantage of the wrist
+and hand, which swell and become dreadfully big; this is a mark of
+beauty with the Tinguians, as a small foot is with the Chinese, and a
+small waist with the European ladies. I was quite astonished to find
+myself in the midst of this population, where there was no reason
+whatsoever to be alarmed. One thing only annoyed me; it was the odour
+that these people spread around them, which could be smelt even at a
+distance. However, the men and women are cleanly, for they are in the
+habit of bathing twice daily. I attributed the disagreeable smell to
+their sash and turban, which they never leave off, but allow to fall
+into rags. I remarked that the reception given me by the chief gained
+us the good-will of all the inhabitants, and I accepted, without
+hesitation, the hospitality proffered us. This was the only means of
+studying well the manners and customs of my new hosts.</p>
+
+<p>The territory occupied by the Tinguians is situated about 17 degrees
+north latitude, and 27 degrees west longitude; it is divided into
+seventeen villages. Each family possesses two habitations, one for the
+day and the other for the night. The abode for the day is a small
+cabin, made of bamboos and straw, in the same style as most Indian
+huts; the one for the night is smaller, and perched upon great posts,
+or on the top of a tree, about sixty or eighty feet above the ground.
+This height surprised me, but I understood this precaution when I knew
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb110" href="#pb110">110</a>]</span>that
+thus, under shelter at night, the Tinguians are saved from the
+nocturnal attacks of the Guinan&egrave;s, their mortal enemies, and
+defend themselves with the stones which they throw from the tops of the
+trees.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1011src" href="#xd0e1011">4</a> In the
+middle of each village there is a large shed, in which are held the
+assemblies, festivities, and public ceremonies. I had been already two
+days in the village of Palan (this was the name of the place where I
+stopped at), when the chiefs received a message from the small town of
+Laganguilan y Madalag, that lies far off to the east. By this message
+the chiefs were informed that the inhabitants of this district had
+fought a battle, and that they had been victorious.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of Palan hearing this news screamed with joy; it was
+quite a tumult when they heard that a f&ecirc;te would be given in
+commemoration of the success at Laganguilan y Madalag. All wished to be
+present&mdash;men, women, children; all desired to go to it. But the
+chiefs chose a certain number of warriors, some women, and a great many
+young girls: they made their preparations and set out. It was too
+favourable an opportunity for me not to avail myself of it, and I
+earnestly begged my hosts to allow me to accompany them. They
+consented, and the same night we set out on our journey, being in all
+thirty in number. The men wore their arms, which are composed of a
+hatchet, that they call <i lang="es">aligua</i>, a sharp-pointed spear
+of bamboo, and a shield; the women were muffled up in their finest
+ornaments. I remarked that these garments were cotton materials, of
+showy colours. We walked one behind another, according to the custom of
+the savages. We went <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb111" href=
+"#pb111">111</a>]</span>through many villages, the inhabitants of which
+were also going to the f&ecirc;te; we crossed over mountains, forests,
+torrents, and at last, at break of day, we reached Laganguilan y
+Madalag. This small town was the scene of much rejoicing. On all sides
+the sound of the gong and tom-tom were heard. The first of these
+instruments is of a Chinese shape; the second is in the form of a sharp
+cone, covered over at the bottom with a deer&rsquo;s skin.</p>
+
+<p>Towards eleven o&rsquo;clock, the chiefs of the town, followed by
+all the population, directed their steps towards the large shed. There
+everyone took his place on the ground, each party, headed by its
+chiefs, occupying a place marked out for it beforehand. In the middle
+of a circle formed by the chiefs of the warriors were large vessels,
+full of <i>basi</i>, a beverage made with the fermented juice of the
+sugar-cane; and four hideous heads of Guinans entirely
+disfigured&mdash;these were the trophies of the victory. When all the
+assistants had taken their places, a champion of Laganguilan y Madalag
+took one of the heads and presented it to the chiefs of the town, who
+showed it to all the assistants, making a long speech comprehending
+many praises for the conquerors. This discourse being over, the warrior
+took up the head, divided it with strokes of his hatchet, and took out
+the brains. During this operation, so unpleasant to witness, another
+champion got a second head, and handed it to the chiefs, the same
+speech was delivered, then he broke the skull to pieces in like manner,
+and took out the brains. The same was done with the four bleeding
+skulls of the subdued enemies. When the brains were taken out, the
+young girls pounded them with their hands into the vases containing the
+liquor of the fermented sugar-cane; they stirred the mixture round, and
+then the vases were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb112" href=
+"#pb112">112</a>]</span>taken to the chiefs, who dipped in their small
+osier goblets, through the fissures of which the liquid part ran out,
+and the solid part that remained at the bottom they drank with ecstatic
+sensuality. I felt quite sick at this scene, so entirely new to me.
+After the chieftains&rsquo; turn came the turn of the champions. The
+vases were presented to them, and each one sipped with delight this
+frightful drink, to the noise of wild songs. There was really something
+infernal in this sacrifice to victory.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p112"><img border="0" src="images/p112.jpg"
+alt="The Brain Feast of the Tinguian Indians." width="720" height=
+"495">
+<p class="figureHead">The Brain Feast of the Tinguian Indians.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We sat in a circle and these vases were carried round. I well
+understood that we were about undergoing a disgusting test. Alas! I had
+not long to wait for it. The warriors planted themselves before me, and
+presented me with the basi and the frightful cup. All eyes were fixed
+upon me. The invitation was so direct, to refuse it would perhaps be
+exposing myself to death! It is impossible to describe the interior
+conflict that passed within me. I would rather have preferred the
+carbine of a bandit five paces from my chest; or await, as I had
+already done, the impetuous attack of the wild buffalo. What a
+perplexity! I shall never forget that awful moment. It struck me with
+terror and disgust; however, I contained myself, nothing betraying my
+emotion. I imitated the savages, and, dipping the osier goblet into the
+drink, I approached it to my lips, and passed it to the unfortunate
+Alila, who could not avoid this infernal beverage. The sacrifice was
+complete; the libations were over, but not the songs. The basi is a
+very spirituous and inebriating liquor, and the assistants, who had
+partaken rather too freely of this horrible drink, sang louder to the
+noise of the tom-tom and the gong, while the champions divided the
+human skulls into small pieces destined to be sent as presents to all
+their friends. The <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb113" href=
+"#pb113">113</a>]</span>distribution was made during the sitting, after
+which, the chiefs declared the ceremony over. They then danced. The
+savages divided themselves into two lines, and howling, as if they were
+furious madmen or terribly provoked, they jumped about, laying their
+right hand upon the shoulder of their partners, and changing places
+with them. These dances continued all day; at last night came on, each
+inhabitant retired with his family and some few guests to his aerial
+abode, and soon afterwards tranquillity was restored.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot help feeling astonished, when we are in Europe&mdash;in a
+good bed, under a warm eider-down coverlet, the head luxuriously
+reclining upon good pillows&mdash;when we reflect on the singular homes
+of the savages in the woods. How often have I represented to myself
+these families&mdash;roosting eighty feet above ground, upon the tops
+of trees. However, I know that they sleep as quietly in those retreats,
+open to every wind, as I in my well-closed and quiet room. Are they not
+like the birds who repose at their sides upon the branches? Have they
+not Nature for a mother, that admirable guardian of all she has made,
+and do they not also close their eyelids under the tutelary looks of
+the Supreme Father of the universe?</p>
+
+<p>My faithful Alila retired with me into one of the low-storied cabins
+to pass the night, as we had been in the habit of doing while staying
+with the Tinguians. For our better security we were accustomed to watch
+one another alternately; we never both slept at the same time. Without
+being timid, ought we not to be prudent? This night it was my turn to
+go to sleep the first. I went to bed, but the impressions of the day
+had been too strong: I felt no inclination to sleep. I therefore
+offered to relieve my lieutenant of his watch; the poor fellow was like
+myself&mdash;the heads of the Guinans kept <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb114" href="#pb114">114</a>]</span>dancing before his eyes. He
+beheld them pale, bloody, hideous; then torn, pounded, broken to
+pieces; then the shocking beverage of the brains, that he also so
+courageously swallowed, came back to his mind, and he suffered
+sufficiently to make him repent our visit. &ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said
+he to me, looking very much grieved, &ldquo;why did we come among these
+devils? Ah! it would have been much better had we remained in our good
+country of Jala-Jala.&rdquo; He was not perhaps in the wrong, but my
+desire to see extraordinary things gave me a courage and a will he did
+not partake of. I answered him thus: &ldquo;Man must know all, and see
+all it is possible to see. As we cannot sleep, and that we are masters
+here, let us make a night visit; perhaps we shall find things that are
+unknown to us. Light the fire and follow me, Alila.&rdquo; The poor
+lieutenant obeyed without answering a word. He rubbed two pieces of
+bamboo one against the other, and I heard him muttering between his
+teeth:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What cursed idea has the master now? What shall we see in
+this miserable cabin&mdash;with the exception of the <i>
+Tic-balan</i>,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1055src" href=
+"#xd0e1055">5</a> or <i>Assuan</i>?<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1061src"
+href="#xd0e1061">6</a> We shall find nothing else.&rdquo; During the
+Indian&rsquo;s reflections the fire burnt up. I lit, without saying a
+word, a cotton wick, plastered over with elemi gum, that I always
+carried with me in my travels, and I began exploring. I went all
+through the inside of the habitation without finding anything, not even
+the Tic-balan, or Assuan, as my lieutenant imagined. I was beginning to
+think my search fruitless, when the idea struck me to go down to the
+ground-floor of the cabin, for all the cabins are raised about eight or
+ten feet above ground, and the under part of the floor, closed with
+bamboos, is used as a store: I descended. Anyone who could have <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb115" href="#pb115">115</a>]</span>seen
+me&mdash;a white man, a European, the child of another
+hemisphere&mdash;wander by night, with a taper in my hand, about the
+hut of a Tinguian Indian, would have been really surprised at my
+audacity, and I may almost say, my obstinacy, in seeking out danger
+while pursuing the wonderful and unknown. But I went on, without
+reflecting on the strangeness of my conduct: as the Indians say:
+&ldquo;I was following my destiny.&rdquo; When I had reached the
+ground, I perceived in the middle of a square, inclosed with bamboos, a
+sort of trap, and I stopped quite pleased. Alila looked at me with
+astonishment. I lifted up the trap, and saw a rather deep well; I
+looked into it with my light, but could not discover the bottom of it.
+Upon the sides only, at a depth of about six or seven yards, I thought
+I distinguished some openings that I took for entrances into sub
+terraneous galleries. What had I now discovered? Was I, like Gil Blas,
+about to penetrate into the midst of an assemblage of banditti, living
+in the internal parts of the earth; or should I find, as in the tales
+of the &ldquo;Arabian Nights,&rdquo; some beautiful young girls,
+prisoners of some wicked magician? Indeed, my curiosity increased in
+proportion to my discoveries. &ldquo;There is something strange
+here,&rdquo; said I to my lieutenant; &ldquo;light a second match, I
+will go down to the bottom of the well.&rdquo; Hearing this order, my
+faithful Alila shrunk back in dismay, and ventured to say to me, in a
+frightfully dismal tone:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, master, you are not content to see what is upon the
+earth, you must also see what is inside of it!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This simple observation made me smile. He continued: &ldquo;You wish
+to leave me alone here; and if the souls of the Guinans whose brains I
+have just drank come to fetch me, what will become of me? You will not
+be here to defend me!<span class="corr" id="xd0e1070" title="Not in
+source">&rdquo;</span></p>
+
+<p>My lieutenant would not have been frightened at twenty <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb116" href="#pb116">116</a>]</span>banditti, he
+would have struggled against every one of them until death; but his
+legs trembled, his voice faltered, he was terrified at the idea of
+remaining alone in this cabin, exposed to the view of the spirit of a
+Guinan, which would come and ask him to restore his brains! Whilst he
+addressed me these complaints, I had leant my back against one side of
+the well, my knees were applied against the other, and down I went. I
+had already descended about four yards, when I felt some rubbish
+falling upon me. I raised my head, and saw Alila coming down too. The
+poor fellow would not remain alone. &ldquo;Well done,&rdquo; said I to
+him, &ldquo;you are becoming curious too; you will be rewarded, believe
+me, for we shall see fine sights.&rdquo; And I continued my
+under-ground research. After proceeding six or seven yards I reached
+the opening I had remarked from above, and stopped. I placed my light
+before me, and espied a corner, where sat the dried black corpse of a
+Tinguian in the same state as a mummy. I said nothing; I waited for my
+lieutenant, anxious as I was to enjoy his surprise. When he was aside
+of me: &ldquo;Look, look,&rdquo; I exclaimed; &ldquo;what is
+that?&rdquo; He was stupified. &ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he at last,
+&ldquo;I entreat of you to leave this place; let us get out of this
+cursed hole! Take me to fight against the Tinguians of the
+village&mdash;I am quite willing to do that&mdash;but do not remain
+among the dead! What should we do with our arms, if they suddenly
+appeared to ask us why we are here?&rdquo; &ldquo;Be quiet,&rdquo; I
+answered him; &ldquo;we shall go no farther.&rdquo; I felt satisfied
+that this well was a tomb, and that lower down I should see some more
+Tinguians in a state of preservation. I respected the abode of the
+dead, and came up, to Alila&rsquo;a great satisfaction. We put
+everything in its place, and returned to the upper story of the cabin.
+I soon fell asleep, but my lieutenant could not: the thoughts of the
+mummy and horrible beverage kept him awake. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb117" href="#pb117">117</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p117"><img border="0" src="images/p117.jpg"
+alt="Guinan Indians." width="369" height="425">
+<p class="figureHead">Guinan Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e914src" id="xd0e914">1</a></span> During six months the winds
+blow continually from the north-east, and during the other six months
+from the north-west: these two periods are termed north-east monsoon
+and north-west monsoon.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e973src" id="xd0e973">2</a></span> At their head was Don <span
+class="corr" id="xd0e975" title="Source: Jos&egrave;">
+Jos&eacute;</span> Fuent&egrave;s, my constant friend.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e979src" id="xd0e979">3</a></span> Don Simon Fernandez, <i>
+Oidor</i> at the Court Royal.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1011src" id="xd0e1011">4</a></span> The most bitter enemies of
+the Tinguians are a race of cruel, blood-thirsty savages, who inhabit
+the interior of the mountains. They have also to fear the Igorrots, who
+live nearer, but who are less savage.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1055src" id="xd0e1055">5</a></span> Evil Spirit.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1061src" id="xd0e1061">6</a></span> A malicious divinity of the
+Tagalocs.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch6" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter VI.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Visit to Manabo&mdash;Conversation with my Guide&mdash;Religion of
+the Tinguians&mdash;Their Marriage Ceremony&mdash;Funereal
+Rites&mdash;Mode of Warfare&mdash;I take leave of the
+Tinguians&mdash;Journey to the Igorrots&mdash;Description of
+them&mdash;Their Dwellings&mdash;A Fortunate Escape&mdash;Alila and the
+Bandits&mdash;Recollections of Home&mdash;A Majestic
+Fig-tree&mdash;Superstition of Alila&mdash;Interview with an
+Igorrot&mdash;The Human Hand&mdash;Nocturnal
+Adventure&mdash;Consternation of Alila&mdash;Probable Origin of the
+Tinguians and Igorrots.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">The following morning, before dawn, our hosts began
+to descend from their high regions, and we left our temporary abode, to
+make preparations for our departure. I had resided long enough at
+Laganguilan y Madalag; I was desirous of <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb118" href="#pb118">118</a>]</span>visiting Manabo, a large village,
+situated at a short distance from Laganguilan. I availed myself of the
+presence of the inhabitants of Manabo, who had come to assist at the
+Brain Feast&mdash;this was the appellation I had given to this savage
+f&ecirc;te&mdash;and I set out with them. Among the troop there was one
+who had spent some time among the Tagalocs; he spoke their language a
+little, and I knew it tolerably well. I profited by this fortunate
+occurrence, and during the whole of the way I conversed with this
+savage, and questioned him upon the habits, customs, and manners of his
+fellow-countrymen. One point particularly pre-occupied me. I was
+unacquainted with the religion of these people, so very curious to
+study. Until then I had seen no temple; nothing that bore resemblance
+to an idol; I knew not what God they worshipped. My guide, chatty for
+an Indian, gave me quickly every information necessary. He told me that
+the Tinguians have no veneration for the stars; they neither adore the
+sun, nor moon, nor the constellations; they believe in the existence of
+a soul, and pretend that after death it quits the body, and remains in
+the family. As to the god that they adore, it varies and changes form
+according to chance and circumstances. And here is the reason: When a
+Tinguian chief has found in the country a rock, or a trunk of a tree,
+of a strange shape&mdash;I mean to say, representing tolerably well
+either a dog, cow, or buffalo&mdash;he informs the inhabitants of the
+village of his discovery, and the rock, or trunk of a tree, is
+immediately considered as a divinity&mdash;that is to say, as something
+superior to man. Then all the Indians repair to the appointed spot,
+carrying with them provisions and live hogs. When they have reached
+their destination they raise a straw roof above the new idol, to cover
+it, and make a sacrifice by roasting hogs; then, at <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb119" href="#pb119">119</a>]</span>the sound of
+instruments, they eat, drink, and dance until they have no provisions
+left. When all is eaten and drank, they set fire to the thatched roof,
+and the idol is forgotten until the chief, having discovered another
+one, commands a new ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the morals of the Tinguians, my guide informed me
+that the Tinguian has generally one legitimate wife, and many
+mistresses; but the legitimate wife alone inhabits the conjugal house,
+and the mistresses have each of them a separate cabin. The marriage is
+a contract between the two families of the married couple. The day of
+the ceremony, the man and wife bring their dowry in goods and chattels;
+the marriage portion is composed of china vases, glass, coral beads,
+and sometimes a little gold powder. It is of no profit to the married
+couple, for they distribute it to their relations. This custom, my
+guide observed to me, has been established to prevent a divorce, which
+could only take place in entirely restituting all the objects that were
+contributed at the marriage by the party asking for divorce&mdash;a
+rather skilful expedient for savages, and worthy of being the invention
+of civilised people. The relatives thus become much interested in
+preventing the separation, as they would be obliged to restitute the
+presents received; and, if one of the couple persisted in requesting
+it, they would prevent him or her by making away with one of the
+objects furnished, such as a coral necklace, or a china vase. Without
+this wise measure, it is to be supposed that a husband, with
+mistresses, would very often endeavour to obtain a divorce. My
+fellow-traveller enlightened me upon all the points that I wished to
+investigate. The government, said he to me, after resting himself for a
+few minutes, is very patriarchal. It is the oldest man who
+commands.&mdash;As <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb120" href=
+"#pb120">120</a>]</span>at Laced&aelig;monia, thought I, for there old
+age was honoured.&mdash;The laws are perpetuated by tradition, as the
+Tinguians have no idea of writing. In some instances they apply the
+punishment of death. When the fatal sentence has been pronounced, the
+Tinguian who has merited it must escape, if he wishes to avoid it, and
+go and live in the forests; for, the old men having spoken, all the
+inhabitants are bound to perform their orders. Society is divided into
+two classes, as with the Tagalocs, the chiefs and the commonalty.
+Whoever possesses and can exhibit to the public a certain number of
+china vases is considered a chief. These jars constitute all the wealth
+of the Tinguians. We were still conversing about the natives of the
+country when we reached Manabo. My guide had scarcely ceased talking
+all the way from Laganguilan.</p>
+
+<p>My attention was now attracted by some flames that were issuing from
+under a cabin, where a large fire was burning. Around it many people
+were sitting, howling like wolves.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! ah!&rdquo; said my guide, seemingly very pleased;
+&ldquo;here is a funeral. I did not tell you anything about these
+ceremonies; but you will judge for yourself of what they are. It will
+be time enough to-morrow. You must be tired. I will take you to my
+day-cabin, and you may repose yourself without any danger of the
+Guinans, for a funeral compels a great many people to be on the watch
+all night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I accepted the offer made to me, and we took possession of the
+Tinguian cabin. It was my turn to take the first watch, and my poor
+Alila, a little more at his ease, fell into a sound sleep. I followed
+his example, after my watch, and we did not wake up until it was broad
+daylight.</p>
+
+<p>We had scarcely finished our morning repast, composed of
+kidney-potatoes, palms, and dried venison, when my guide of <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb121" href="#pb121">121</a>]</span>the
+preceding day came to conduct me to the spot where the funeral of the
+deceased was about to take place. I followed him, and placing ourselves
+a few steps from the <i>cort&eacute;ge</i>, we assisted at a strange
+sight. The deceased sat in the middle of his cabin upon a stool;
+underneath him, and at his side, fires were burning in enormous
+chafing-dishes; at a short distance about thirty assistants were seated
+in a circle. Ten or twelve women formed another circle; they were
+seated nearer to the corpse, close by which the widow was also placed,
+and who was distinguished by a white veil, that covered her from head
+to foot. The women brought some cotton, with which they wiped off the
+moisture that the fire caused to exude from the corpse, which was
+roasting by degrees. From time to time one of the Tinguians spoke, and
+pronounced, in a slow, harmonious tone of voice, a speech, which he
+concluded by a sort of laugh, that was imitated by all the assistants;
+after which they stood up, <span class="corr" id="xd0e1112" title=
+"Source: eat">ate</span> some pieces of dried meat, and drank some
+basi; they then repeated the last words of the orator, and danced.</p>
+
+<p>I endured&mdash;such is the word&mdash;this sight for an hour; but I
+did not feel courage enough to remain in the cabin any longer. The
+odour that exhaled from the corpse was unbearable. I went out, and
+breathed the fresh air; my guide followed me, and I begged him to tell
+me what had occurred from the beginning of the illness of the
+deceased.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Willingly,&rdquo; he answered me.</p>
+
+<p>Delighted to breathe freely, I listened with interest to the
+following recital:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When Dalayapo,&rdquo; said the narrator, &ldquo;fell sick,
+they took him to the grand square, to apply severe remedies to him;
+that is to say, all the men of the village came in arms, and, to the
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb122" href="#pb122">122</a>]</span>sound
+of the gong and the tom-tom, they danced around the sick man from the
+rising to the setting of the sun. But this grand remedy had no
+effect&mdash;his illness was incurable. At the setting of the sun they
+placed our friend in his house, and no more heed was paid to him: his
+death was certain, as he would not dance with his
+fellow-countrymen.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I smiled at the remedy and the reasoning, but I did not interrupt
+the narrator.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;For two days Dalayapo was in a state of suffering; then, at
+the end of these two days, he breathed no more; and, when that was
+perceived, they immediately put him on the bench where we saw him just
+now. Then the provisions that he possessed were gathered together to
+feed the assistants, who paid him all due honours. Each one made a
+speech in his praise: his nearest relations began the first, and his
+body was surrounded with fire to dry it up. When the provisions are
+consumed, the strangers will leave the cabin, and only the widow and a
+few relations will wait until the body is thoroughly dried. In a
+fortnight&rsquo;s time he will be placed in a large hole that is dug
+under his house. He will be put in a niche, or aperture, in the wall,
+where already his deceased relatives&rsquo; remains are deposited, and
+then all is over.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This hole, thought I, must be similar to the one I went into the
+other night at Laganguilan.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation that I had just received completely satisfied me,
+and I did not request to be present again at the ceremony. I resolved,
+since I was very comfortably seated, under the shade of a <i>
+bal&eacute;t&eacute;</i>, upon availing myself of the obliging
+disposition of my guide, to ask him to inform me, suddenly changing the
+conversation all the while, how his tribe managed to wage war on the
+Guinans, their mortal enemies. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb123"
+href="#pb123">123</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p123"><img border="0" src="images/p123.jpg"
+alt="Weapons of the Tinguian Indians." width="296" height="301">
+<p class="figureHead">Weapons of the Tinguian Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Guinans,&rdquo; said he to me, without drawing in any way
+on my patience, &ldquo;wear the same arms as we do. They are neither
+stronger, nor more skilful, nor more vigorous. We have two modes of
+fighting them. Sometimes we give them a grand battle at mid-day, and
+then we meet them face to face, under a burning sun; at other times,
+during some dark night, we creep in silence to their dwelling-places,
+and if we be able to surprise any of them we cut off their heads, which
+we take away with us, and then we get up a feast, such as you have
+already witnessed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>That word &ldquo;feast&rdquo; recalled to my mind the sanguinary
+orgie, or carousing, I had been present at, and particularly the share
+I had taken in it, so that I felt I was blushing and growing pale by
+turns. The Indian took no heed of it, and went on thus:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In the grand battles all the men belonging to a village are
+compelled to take up arms, and to march against the foe. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb124" href="#pb124">124</a>]</span>It is generally
+in the midst of a wood that the two armies meet. As soon as they come
+in sight of each other they set up crying and howling on both sides.
+Each man then rushes upon his enemy, and upon this shock depends the
+fate of the victory; for one of the armies is always panic-struck, and
+scampers away; then it is that the other pursues it, and kills as many
+as possible, taking care to preserve the heads, which they bring home
+with them.&rdquo;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1150src" href=
+"#xd0e1150">1</a></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why it is a hide-and-seek fight, the consequences of which
+are, however, very cruel,&rdquo; I said. My Indian was of the same
+opinion, and rejoined:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In general the conquerors are ever those who are cleverest in
+concealing themselves, in order to surprise their enemies, and who then
+dash on them bawling and howling.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here my guide stopped short, the fight having no longer any interest
+for him; and then, perceiving I questioned him no longer, he left me to
+myself, when I returned to my habitation and Alila, who was sick enough
+of Manabo. For my own part I had seen enough of the Tinguians, and
+besides I thought I had observed that they seemed not too well pleased
+with the long stay I had made among them. I passed over in my mind the
+brain feast, so I resolved upon leaving. I therefore went to take leave
+of the elders. Unfortunately I had nothing to offer them, but I
+promised them many presents, when I should get back among the
+Christians&mdash;and then I left them.</p>
+
+<p>The satisfaction of my faithful lieutenant was at its height when we
+started for home. Not being disposed to go back by the same way I had
+come, I determined upon keeping more to <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb125" href="#pb125">125</a>]</span>the east, crossing over the
+mountains, and upon taking the sun as my guide. This road seemed
+preferable to me, inasmuch as I was about to traverse a country
+inhabited by a few Igorrots, that other species of the savage tribe I
+was not acquainted with. The mountains we crossed over were crowned
+with magnificent forests. Now and then we perceived lovely fertile
+valleys below our feet, and the grass was so high and thick-set, that
+it was with great difficulty we could pass through it. During our
+journey, my lieutenant kept a sharp look-out, wishing to kill some game
+for our support. As for myself, I was indeed far from thinking of the
+pleasure of shooting, so great was my contemplation of the admirable
+panoramic views that we met with every moment; and I was too much
+enraptured with the virgin and fruitful soil that spread itself so
+incommensurately around us to think even of eating. But my faithful
+Alila was less an enthusiast than I was myself: however, in return, he
+was more prudent. At the close of the day on which we started he killed
+a stag; so we halted on the brink of a stream, cut off some palm-tree
+strips, in guise of rice and bread, and set about eating the roasted
+liver of the animal. Our repast was truly a copious one. Ah! how often
+since that time, when seated before a richly served table&mdash;having
+before me delicious and <i>recherch&eacute;</i> viands, and that in
+dining-rooms where the atmosphere was balmy and perfumed by the aroma
+arising from the highly flavoured dishes&mdash;how often, I say, have I
+regretted the supper I partook of with Alila in the forest, after a
+day&rsquo;s ramble on the mountains! Nay, what mortal could forget such
+hours&mdash;such places?</p>
+
+<p>Our repast over, we made our bed of some branches we lopped off from
+the trees, and which we joined together on the very moist soil in the
+interior of the vast forest, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb126"
+href="#pb126">126</a>]</span>there we slept soundly till the morrow,
+without fear, and particularly without having any sombre or
+disagreeable dreams. At the dawn of day we were on foot again, all
+Nature seeming to wake up with ourselves. Oh! how fine and calm did she
+appear to us! The vapours that arose from her breast covered her all
+over with a veil, like a young virgin at her waking; and then this veil
+by degrees would break up into pieces, which pieces, gently balanced on
+the morning breeze, would disappear, and be lost on the tops of the
+trees or the summits of the rocks. On we walked for a long time, till
+at last, towards the middle of the day, we came to a small plain
+inhabited by the Igorrots. We found, in all, three cabins, or huts, so
+that the population was far from being large. At the door of one of
+these cabins I saw a man, of about sixty years of age, and a few women.
+As we had arrived from behind the huts we took the savages by surprise,
+so that they had no time to fly at our approach: we were in the midst
+of them.</p>
+
+<p>I assumed the line of conduct I had pursued on arriving at Palan,
+but as I had no more coral beads or coloured glass, I presented them
+with a part of our stag, making them understand at the same time that
+we came with the most friendly intentions. From that moment there was
+established between us a very curious sort of mimic conversation,
+during which I was able to examine at my ease the new race of beings I
+saw around me. I perceived that the costume of the Igorrots was pretty
+nearly the same as that of the Tinguians, the ornaments excepted, but
+their features and physiognomy were quite different. The men were
+smaller, their breasts being exceedingly broad, their heads immensely
+big, their limbs developed, their strength herculean; their shape was
+not so handsome as that of the savages I had just left; their colour
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb127" href="#pb127">127</a>]</span>of a
+dark bronze, very dark indeed; their noses are less aquiline, their
+eyes yellow and fully open&mdash;<i>a la Chinoise</i>. The
+women&rsquo;s shape was also very protuberant, their complexion dark,
+their hair long, and combed up&mdash;<i>a la Chinoise</i>.
+Unfortunately it was impossible for me, with all my mimicry, to obtain
+the information I wished for, so I was obliged to content myself with
+visiting the cabin, which was a real hut, having but the ground-floor.
+The surrounding parts were closed in by very thick piles, covered with
+a roof in the form of a bee-hive. There was but one issue, through
+which it was impossible to have either egress or ingress, except in
+crawling on all-fours. In spite of this difficulty I would see the
+interior of this Indian dwelling; so, having made a sign to my
+lieutenant to keep watch, I penetrated into the hut. The Igorrots
+seemed quite surprised at my so doing, but they made no opposition to
+it. I found myself within an obnoxious hole, or hovel, through a small
+opening in the summit of which the daylight peeped in and the smoke
+crept out. The floor was thickly covered with dust, and it was upon
+such a soft couch that the whole family laid down to rest. In one of
+the corners I perceived some bamboo lances, a few cocoa-nuts divided
+into two parts, so as to serve as cups, a heap of good-sized round
+pebbles, that were used in case of attack, and a few pieces of wood, of
+very common workmanship, that served as pillows.</p>
+
+<p>I soon got out of such a den, from which I was driven by the
+nauseous smell it contained in its every part, but I had been able to
+see everything in it. I then inquired, by signs, of the Igorrot, the
+way I should go, in order to join the Christians. He fully understood
+me, showed me the road with his finger, and we then proceeded on our
+journey. As I journeyed on, I remarked here and there fields of <i>
+patates</i> and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb128" href=
+"#pb128">128</a>]</span>sugar-cane, which of course must have been the
+only husbandry of those miserable savages. After about an hour&rsquo;s
+journey we were near running into a very great danger. On entering into
+a vast plain we saw an Igorrot, flying away as quickly as possible. He
+had remarked us, and I attributed his flight to fear, when suddenly I
+heard the sound of the tom-tom and gong, and saw, at the same time,
+twenty men armed with lances, rapidly advancing towards us. I felt that
+a fight was about to ensue, so I told my lieutenant to fire at the
+group, so as to injure none of them.</p>
+
+<p>Alila fired: his bullet passed over the heads of the savages, who
+were so astonished at the detonation that they suddenly halted, and
+examined us attentively. I prudently took advantage of their surprise,
+and an immense forest presenting itself on our right, we entered it,
+leaving the village on our left, but the savages did not follow us into
+it.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of this scene my lieutenant did not utter a word. I
+had already remarked that when in presence of danger he became dumb,
+but when he had lost sight of the Igorrots his speech and loquacity
+returned to him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he to me, in a very dissatisfied tone,
+&ldquo;how I do regret not having fired directly into the middle of
+those miscreants!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And why so?&rdquo; asked I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Because I am certain I should have killed one of them at
+least.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, master, our journey would not have terminated without
+our sending at least one soul of a savage to the devil.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! Alila,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;so you have become wicked
+and naughty, have you?&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb129"
+href="#pb129">129</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, no, no, master,&rdquo; replied he; &ldquo;but I cannot
+conceive why you are so kind and compassionate to that infernal race.
+You, who pursue and persecute the <i>Tulisans</i>,<a class="noteref"
+id="xd0e1212src" href="#xd0e1212">2</a> who are a hundred times better
+than these wretches are, and who are Christians besides.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What!&rdquo; cried I; &ldquo;brigands, robbers, and assassins
+better than poor primitive beings, who have no one to guide and conduct
+them to the path of virtue!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, master!&rdquo; replied my lieutenant, and most
+sententiously this time; &ldquo;Oh! the brigands, as it pleases you to
+call them, are in nowise what you think them. The Tulisan is not an
+assassin. When he takes away life it is only when he is compelled, in
+defence of his own, and if he do kill, why it is always <i lang="fr">de
+bon c&oelig;ur</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! oh!&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;and the robberies&mdash;how do
+you explain them?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If he rob, why it is only to get possession of a little of
+the superfluity of the rich, and that he divides among the
+poor&mdash;that&rsquo;s all. Now, master, do you know what use the
+Tulisan makes of his plunder?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, indeed, master Alila,&rdquo; answered I, smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, he keeps nothing of it for himself,&rdquo; said my
+lieutenant, with great pride; &ldquo;in the first place he gives a part
+of it to the priest, to have masses said for him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed! it is mighty edifying&mdash;go on.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And then he gives another part of it to his mistress, or <i
+lang="fr">bonne amie</i>, because he loves her, and likes to see her
+finely dressed out; and as for the remainder, why, faith! he spends it
+among his friends. You may therefore see, master, that the Tulisan
+possesses himself of the superfluity of one person to <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb130" href="#pb130">130</a>]</span>satisfy several
+other persons with it.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1239src" href=
+"#xd0e1239">3</a> Oh! but he is far, very far indeed, from being so
+wicked as those savages, who kill you without saying a word to you, and
+then eat up your brains&mdash;fie!&rdquo; And here Alila heaved a deep
+sigh, for the brain feast was ever present to his mind. His
+conversation so interested me, his system was so curious, and he
+himself so frank in drawing it out, that I almost forgot the Igorrots
+in listening to him.</p>
+
+<p>We pursued our road through the wood, keeping as much as possible to
+the south, in order to get near the province of Batangas, where I was
+to meet my poor patient, who no doubt was very uneasy about my long
+absence. When I started I said not a word about my project, and had I
+done so it is most likely I should have been thought as no longer
+belonging to this world. The recollection of my wife, whom I had left
+at Manilla, and who was far from supposing me to be among the Igorrots,
+inspired me with the most anxious desire of returning home to my family
+as quick as possible. Absorbed in my thoughts, and carried away by my
+reflections, I walked silently along, without even casting a glance
+upon the luxuriant vegetation all around us. I must indeed have been
+very much pre-occupied, for a virgin forest between the tropics, and
+particularly in the Philippine islands, is in nowise to be compared
+with our European forests. I was aroused from my pensiveness, and
+recalled to the remembrance of my whereabouts, by the noise of a
+torrent, and I gratefully admired nature in her gigantic productions. I
+looked up, and before me I perceived an immense <i>
+bal&eacute;t&eacute;</i>, an extraordinary fig-tree, that thrives in
+the sombre and mysterious forests of the Philippines, and I stopped to
+admire <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb131" href=
+"#pb131">131</a>]</span>it. This immense tree springs from a seed
+similar to the seed of the ordinary fig-tree; its wood is white and
+spongy, and in a few years it grows to an extraordinary size. Nature,
+who has had foresight in all things, and who allows the young lamb to
+leave its wool on the bushes for the timid bird to pick it up and build
+its nest with&mdash;Nature, I say, has shown herself in all her genius
+in the fig-tree of the Philippine islands, which grows so rapidly and
+so immensely. The branches of this tree generally spring from the base
+of the trunk; they extend themselves horizontally, and, after forming
+an elbow or curve, rise up perpendicularly; but, as I said before, the
+tree is spongy, and easily broken, and the branch, while forming the
+curve, would inevitably be broken, did not a ligament, which the
+Indians call a drop of water&mdash;<i lang="fr">goutte
+d&rsquo;eau</i>&mdash;fall from the tree and take root in the earth;
+there it swells, and grows in proportion with the size of the branch,
+and acts to it as a living prop. Besides which, around the trunk, and
+at a considerable distance from the ground, are natural supports, which
+rise up in points or spirals to about the middle of the trunk. Has not
+the Grand Architect of the world foreseen everything?</p>
+
+<p>The appearance presented by the bal&eacute;t&eacute; is very
+frequently indescribably picturesque; and this is so true that, within
+a space of some hundred paces in diameter&mdash;which these gigantic
+fig-trees usually occupy&mdash;one may see by turns grottoes, halls,
+chambers, that are often furnished with natural seats, formed out of
+and by the roots themselves. No! no vegetation is more diversified, nor
+more extraordinary! This tree sometimes grows out of a rock, where
+there is not an inch of earth; its long roots run along the rock,
+encompass it, and then plunge into the neighbouring brook. It is indeed
+a masterpiece of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb132" href=
+"#pb132">132</a>]</span>nature&mdash;a <i lang="fr">chef
+d&rsquo;&oelig;uvre</i>&mdash;which, however, is very ordinary in the
+virgin forests of the Philippine islands.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Here,&rdquo; said I to my lieutenant, &ldquo;is a good spot
+for us to spend the night on.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He recoiled some paces.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What!&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;do you wish to stop here,
+master?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; replied I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! but you don&rsquo;t see that we are in still more danger
+here than in the midst of the Igorrots!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And why, then, are we in danger?&rdquo; asked I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why? why? Do you not know that the Tic-balan dwells in the
+large bal&eacute;t&eacute;s. If we stop here you may be very sure that
+I shan&rsquo;t sleep a moment, and that we shall be tormented the whole
+night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I smiled, which my lieutenant perceiving:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! master,&rdquo; said he, most dolefully, &ldquo;what
+should we do with an evil spirit that fears neither bullet nor
+dagger?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The terror of the poor Tagal was really too great for me to resist
+him, so I yielded, and we took up our quarters for the night at a place
+much less to my own taste, but much more to Alila&rsquo;s. The night
+passed away like many others&mdash;I mean, perfectly well, and we woke
+up to resume our journey through the forest.</p>
+
+<p>We had been walking about two hours, when, on leaving the wood, and
+entering on a plain, we met an Igorrot, mounted upon a buffalo, face to
+face. The encounter was somewhat curious. I levelled my gun at the
+savage: my lieutenant took hold of the animal by the long leather
+strap, and I made a sign to the Igorrot not to stir: then&mdash;always
+in my mimic language&mdash;I asked if he were alone. I understood from
+him that he was accompanied by no fellow-traveller, and that he <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb133" href="#pb133">133</a>]</span>was going
+northwards, in the opposite direction to our own. But Alila, who
+decidedly had a grudge against the savages, was most anxious to lodge a
+ball in this fellow&rsquo;s head. However, I strenuously opposed such a
+project, and ordered him to let go the bridle.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But, master,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;allow me at least to see
+what these jars contain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Around the neck of the Igorrot&rsquo;s buffalo were strung three or
+four jars, covered with leaves of the banana tree.</p>
+
+<p>My lieutenant, without even waiting for my answer, applied his nose
+to them, and discovered, to his infinite satisfaction, that they
+contained a deer or stag ragout, which sent forth a certain perfume;
+so, still without consulting me, he undid the smallest of the jars,
+struck the buffalo a blow with the but-end of his gun, and, letting go
+the animal at the same time, exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go, you rascal&mdash;go!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Igorrot, finding himself free, fled as quick as the beast could
+carry him, and we re-entered the woods, taking care to avoid the
+openings, for fear of being surprised by too large a number of
+savages.</p>
+
+<p>Towards four o&rsquo;clock we halted to take our repast. This
+wished-for moment was impatiently expected by my lieutenant, as the
+savage&rsquo;s jar sent forth a very savoury smell. At last the desired
+moment arrived: we sat down on the grass. I stuck my poignard into the
+jar, which Alila had brought up to the fire, and I withdrew&mdash;an
+entire human hand!<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1298src" href=
+"#xd0e1298">4</a> My poor lieutenant was as stupified as I was myself,
+so we remained a few minutes without saying a word. At last I gave a
+vigorous <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb134" href=
+"#pb134">134</a>]</span>kick to the jar, and smashed it in pieces, so
+that the human flesh it contained was scattered over the ground, while
+still I held the fatal hand on the point of my dagger.</p>
+
+<p>That hand horrified me; yet I examined it most carefully, and it
+appeared to me to have been the hand of a child of an Ajetas, a species
+of savages that inhabit the mountains of Nueva-Exica and
+Marib&egrave;les, of which race I shall have an opportunity of speaking
+during the course of this work. I took some strips of palm-tree,
+roasted in the burning embers; Alila did the same, and we set out, not
+in the best of humours, in search of another resting-place for the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours after sun-rise we issued from the forest and entered upon
+the plain. From time to time&mdash;that is, from distance to
+distance&mdash;we met with rice-fields, cultivated after the Tagal
+manner, and then did my lieutenant exclaim most joyously to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, we are now in Christian ground.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was right; the road was becoming more easy. We followed on a
+narrow pathway, and towards evening arrived in front of an Indian
+cabin, at the door of which a young girl was sitting, while abundant
+tears trickled down her sorrowful countenance. I drew near her, and
+inquired into the cause of her grief. On hearing my question she rose
+up, and without replying to my queries, conducted us into the interior
+of the habitation, where we beheld the inanimate body of an old woman,
+whom we learned was the mother of the young girl; the brother of the
+latter had gone to the village in quest of the relations of the
+deceased, to aid them in transporting the corpse to its final
+destination.</p>
+
+<p>This scene affected me very much. I did my best to console the poor
+young girl, and solicited hospitality for the night, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb135" href="#pb135">135</a>]</span>which was
+instantly granted. To be in company with a dead body nowise affrighted
+me; but I bethought of Alila, so superstitious and so fearful with
+regard to ghosts and evil spirits.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said I to him; &ldquo;are you not afraid to
+spend the night near a corpse?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, master,&rdquo; replied he, courageously; &ldquo;this dead
+person is a Christian soul, which, far from wishing us evil, will watch
+over us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was really astonished at the answer of the Tagaloc, at his
+calmness and security: the rogue had his own motives for thus speaking
+to me. The Indian huts in the plains, are never composed of more than
+one room; the one we were in was scarcely large enough to hold us all
+four; however, we one and all managed as well as we could. The deceased
+occupied the back part; a small lamp, placed by her head, threw out a
+feeble light, and beside her lay the young Indian girl. I had
+established my quarters at a short distance from the bed of death, and
+my lieutenant was nearest the door, left open purposely to dispel the
+heat and foul air.</p>
+
+<p>Towards two o&rsquo;clock in the morning I was waked up by a shrill
+voice, and I felt at the same time that some one was passing over me,
+and uttering cries that soon were heard outside the cabin. I
+immediately stretched out my hand towards the place where Alila had
+lain down, but that place was empty; the lamp was out, and the darkness
+complete.</p>
+
+<p>This made me very uneasy. I called to the young girl, who answered
+me that she had heard, like me, cries and noise, but she was ignorant
+of the cause. I snatched up my gun and sallied forth, calling out to my
+lieutenant; but to no purpose. No one answered; the stillness of death
+reigned all around. I then set out, walking over the fields at hazard,
+calling out <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb136" href=
+"#pb136">136</a>]</span>now and then Alila&rsquo;s name. I had not,
+perhaps, gone a hundred paces when I heard the following words,
+pronounced most timidly, proceeding from a tree by which I was
+passing:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am here, master.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was Alila himself. I drew nigh, and saw my lieutenant ensconced
+behind the trunk of the tree, and trembling like one of its leaves.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What then has happened to you?&rdquo; I inquired; &ldquo;and
+what are you doing there?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! master,&rdquo; said he to me; &ldquo;pray forgive me! Bad
+thoughts got the better of me; it was the young Indian girl inspired me
+with them, and the demon blew them into my inner man.
+I&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;drew nigh, during the night, to the young
+girl&rsquo;s resting-place, and when I saw you fast asleep&mdash;I put
+out the lamp.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, and then&mdash;&rdquo; said I, most impatiently and
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And then&mdash;I wished to take a kiss from the young girl;
+but, at the very moment I drew nigh, the old dead woman took her
+daughter&rsquo;s place, so I only met with a cold and icy face, and at
+the same moment two long arms stretched out to seize upon me. Oh! it
+was then I gave such a cry&mdash;and I fled! fled! fled! but the old
+woman pursued me&mdash;yes, the corpse tracked me behind; and she has
+only just now disappeared, on hearing the sound of your voice. I then
+hid behind this tree, where you now see me, in a piteous
+plight.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The fright of the Tagal and his mistake made me almost laugh out;
+but I severely reprimanded him for the bad intention he had of abusing
+the hospitality that had been so graciously afforded us: he repented,
+and begged of me to excuse him. He was, I should think, sufficiently
+punished by his fright. I wished to take him back to the cabin with me;
+but <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb137" href=
+"#pb137">137</a>]</span>for no consideration would he return. I
+therefore left my gun in his charge, and went back to the house of
+mourning, where I found the poor young girl just as frightened as he
+was. I soon made her acquainted with the adventure; so thanking her for
+her kind hospitality, and morning coming on, I returned to Alila, who
+was most impatiently expecting me.</p>
+
+<p>The hope of seeing soon again our relations, our homes, our friends,
+gave us new courage, and before sunset we arrived at an Indian village,
+without anything remarkable having taken place: this was to be our last
+stage.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1345src" href="#xd0e1345">5</a> <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb138" href="#pb138">138</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p138"><img border="0" src="images/p138.jpg"
+alt="Inhabitants of Boulacan." width="381" height="376">
+<p class="figureHead">Inhabitants of Boulacan.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After this long and interesting journey I arrived at Quingua, a
+village in the province of Boulacan, where I had left my friend in
+convalescence. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb139" href=
+"#pb139">139</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p139"><img border="0" src="images/p139.jpg"
+alt="Manilla Fishing Raft." width="475" height="431">
+<p class="figureHead">Manilla Fishing Raft.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1150src" id="xd0e1150">1</a></span> It is on account of this
+cruel custom of beheading their victims that the Spaniards have given
+to these savages the name of &ldquo;<i lang="es">corta
+cabesas</i>,&rdquo; &ldquo;decapitators.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1212src" id="xd0e1212">2</a></span> Banditti.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1239src" id="xd0e1239">3</a></span> &ldquo;The nakedness of the
+poor might be clothed out of the trimmings of the
+vain.&rdquo;&mdash;Dr. Goldsmith&rsquo;s &ldquo;Vicar of
+Wakefield.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smallcaps">Tr</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1298src" id="xd0e1298">4</a></span> The Igorrots, however,
+according to the reports of the Indians, are not anthropophagi; perhaps
+the one in question had received these ragouts from some other
+savages&mdash;the Guinans, for instance.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1345src" id="xd0e1345">5</a></span> It would be difficult to
+establish from what nations the divers species of men who inhabit the
+interior of Luzon originally came. The Tinguians, from their fine
+shape, their colour, their eyes, their almost aquiline nose, the value
+they set upon china vases, their music, and finally from their habits,
+would appear to be the descendants of the Japanese. It is most likely
+that at a very distant period some junks from the Japan coasts, hurried
+along by strong northern winds, may have been wrecked upon the Luzon
+shores, and that their crews, seeing no possibility of returning to
+their native country, as well as to avoid the Malayan population that
+was in possession of the beaches,&mdash;it is possible, I say, that the
+shipwrecked persons withdrew into the interior of the mountains, the
+difficulty of access to which protected them from all invasion.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Japanese sailors, who are merely coasters, sail
+about with their wives, as I had an opportunity of witnessing on board
+many junks, whither I went through mere curiosity. Those same junks,
+beaten by the tempest, had steered for shelter to the eastern coast of
+Luzon, where they anchored for four months, waiting for the return of
+the monsoon; and had they not met with a protecting government, their
+crews would have been compelled to fly into the mountains, as I suppose
+the Tinguians had been obliged to do. The latter having some women with
+them, must have procured others from among the neighbouring population,
+and as they inhabit the finest and healthiest country in the world,
+their number must have considerably increased. They are now spread over
+sixteen villages: Palan, Jalamey, Mabuantoc, Dalayap, Lanquiden, Baac,
+Padanquitan y Pangal, Campasan y Danglas, Lagayan, Ganagan, Malaylay,
+Bucay, Gaddani, Laganguilan y Madalag, Manab, Palog y Amay.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Igorrots, whom I had less opportunities of
+studying, seem to be the descendants of the remains of the grand naval
+army of the Chinese <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e1352" href=
+"#xd0e1352">134n</a>]</span>Lima-On, who, after attacking Manilla, on
+the 30th November, 1574, had taken refuge in the province of
+Pangasinan, in the gulf of Lingayan, where he was a second time
+defeated, and his fleet completely destroyed. A part of the crew
+escaped into the mountains of Pangasinan, where the Spaniards could not
+pursue them.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Igorrot has long hair, eyes <i lang="fr">
+&agrave; la Chinoise</i>, a flat nose, thick lips, high cheek bones,
+broad shoulders, strong and nervous limbs, and bronze colour; he
+greatly resembles the Chinese of the southern provinces of the
+Celestial Empire.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">I could obtain no information as to extraction
+concerning the Guinans, another people of savages, ferocious and cruel,
+who live in the neighbourhood of the Tinguians.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">I keep back for a future period a description of
+the Ajetas, or Negritos, the aborigines of Luzon.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch7" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter VII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>I return to Jala-Jala&mdash;An Excursion on the
+Lake&mdash;Relempago&rsquo;s Narrative&mdash;Re-organisation of my
+Government&mdash;A Letter from my Brother Henry&mdash;His
+Arrival&mdash;He joins me in the Management of my
+Plantations&mdash;Cajoui, the Bandit: Anten-Anten&mdash;Indian
+Superstition&mdash;A Combat with the Bandit&mdash;His Death&mdash;A
+Piratical Descent&mdash;My Lieutenant is Wounded&mdash;I extract the
+Ball, and cure him.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">My prolonged absence from home caused great
+uneasiness. Very fortunately my wife remained at Manilla, and was
+totally ignorant of the journey I had recently undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>My patient had not exactly followed the prescribed regimen, so that
+his distemper had increased, and he was impatiently <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb140" href="#pb140">140</a>]</span>expecting to
+return and die, he said, in his house: his wishes were complied with. A
+few days after my arrival we set out and arrived the next day at
+Manilla, where my poor friend rendered his last sigh in the middle of
+his family. This event damped, of course, the pleasure I should have
+enjoyed in beholding my wife once more.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the demise of our friend we embarked, and set sail
+for Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>We glided most agreeably upon the lake until we left the strait of
+Quinanbutasan, but, once there, we met with so violent an east wind,
+and the water of the lake was so ruffled, that we were obliged to
+re-enter the strait, and cast anchor near the cabin of the old
+fisherman, Relempago, whom I have already noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Our sailors landed to prepare their supper; as for ourselves, we
+remained in our boat, where we stretched ourselves at our ease, the old
+fisherman, as he sat doubled up in the Indian fashion, amusing us in
+the best way he could by the narration of brigand stories.</p>
+
+<p>I interrupted him all on a sudden, saying to him:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Relempago, I should prefer hearing the history of your own
+personal adventures; do, therefore, relate your misfortunes to
+us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The old fisherman heaved a sigh, and then, unwilling to disoblige
+me, began his story in the poetical terms so familiar to the Tagal
+tongue, and which it is almost impossible to reproduce by a
+translation:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Lagune is not my native place,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;I was
+born in the island of Z&eacute;bou, and was at the age of twenty what
+is called a fine young man; but, pray believe me, I was by no means
+proud of my physical advantages, and I preferred being <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb141" href="#pb141">141</a>]</span>the first
+fisherman of my village. Nevertheless, my comrades were jealous of me,
+and all that because the young girls would look at me with a certain
+complaisant air, and seemed to find me to their liking.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I could not but smile at this frank avowal of the old man, which he
+perceiving, continued:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I tell you these things, sir,&rdquo; replied he,
+&ldquo;because at my age one can speak of them without fearing to
+appear ridiculous&mdash;it is so long ago. And besides, allow me to
+inform you that I relate to you such things, not from vanity&mdash;Oh,
+no! but merely to furnish you with an exact recital. Besides, the sly
+and roguish looks that young girls threw at me, as I passed through the
+village, flattered me in no manner. I was in love with Theresa, sir;
+yes, I was passionately in love with her, and my love was returned, for
+fondly did she love me; a look from any other but from her was totally
+indifferent to me. Ah! Theresa was the prettiest lass in the village!
+but, poor soul! she has done like myself&mdash;she has greatly altered;
+for years are an enormous weight, which bends and breaks you down in
+spite of yourself, and against which there is no way of struggling.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When, seated as I am at present, I bethink me of the fine
+by-gone days of my youth&mdash;of the strength, the courage, that we
+used to find in our mutual affection&mdash;Oh! I shed tears of regret
+and sensibility. Where are now those fine&mdash;those happy days? Gone,
+gone, gone! they have fled before the piercing and terrible winds that
+forerun the storms and the hurricanes. Like the day, life has its dawn;
+like the day, also, it has its decline!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here the poor old fisherman made a pause, and I was loth to
+interrupt him in his meditation. There then ensued a profound silence,
+that lasted several minutes. Suddenly Relempago <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb142" href="#pb142">142</a>]</span>seemed to start from a
+dream, and passing his hand over his forehead, looked at us for some
+time, as if to excuse himself for those few moments of mental absence,
+and then he continued as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We had been brought up together,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and
+had been affianced as soon as we had grown up. Theresa would have died
+rather than belong to any other, and, as I shall hereafter prove it, I
+would have accepted any condition, even the most unfavourable one,
+rather than abandon the friend of my heart. Alas! it is almost always
+with our tears that we trace our painful way through life.
+Theresa&rsquo;s relations were opposed to our union; they even put
+forward vain and frivolous pretexts; and whatever efforts I made to
+bring them to decide upon bestowing her affianced hand on me, I never
+could succeed. And yet they well knew that, like the palm trees, we
+could not live without each other, and were we to be separated, it
+would be condemning us to die. But our tears, our prayers, our griefs,
+were only heard by senseless people, and we were labouring under the
+most poignant grief, while no one would understand or sympathise with
+our sorrow. I was beginning to lose all courage, when one morning there
+came into my mind the pious thought of offering to the Infant Jesus, in
+the church of Z&eacute;bou, the first pearl I should fish up. I
+therefore repaired earlier than usual to the sea-shore, implored the
+Almighty to grant me his protection, and to have me married to my
+beloved Theresa. The sun was just beginning to dart his burning rays
+upon the earth, and was gilding the surface of the waters. Nature was
+awaking from her transitory sleep, and every living being or object was
+singing in its language a hymn to the Creator.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;With a beating heart I began diving to the bottom of the
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb143" href="#pb143">143</a>]</span>sea,
+in search of the pearl which I so ardently wished for, but my searches
+and struggles were completely fruitless at first. Had anyone been near
+me at that moment he would have easily read my disappointment in my
+face. Nevertheless, my courage failed me not. I began again, but with
+no better success. &lsquo;Oh, Lord!&rsquo; cried I, &lsquo;thou hearest
+not then my prayers, my supplications! Thou wilt not then accept for
+thy beloved son the offering that I destine for him.&rsquo;<a class=
+"noteref" id="xd0e1422src" href="#xd0e1422">1</a> For the sixth time I
+plunged, and brought up from the bottom of the sea two enormous
+oysters. Oh! how my heart leaped with joy! I opened one of them, and
+found it contained a pearl so large that never in my life had I seen
+one like it. My joy was so great that I set to dancing in my pirogue,
+as if I had lost my reason. The Lord, then, did vouchsafe to protect
+me, since He enabled me to accomplish my vow. With a joyful heart I
+retraced my steps to my dwelling, and, not wishing to fail in my word,
+I took my magnificent pearl to the curate of Z&eacute;bou.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The reverend father,&rdquo; continued the old fisherman,
+&ldquo;was delighted with my present. That pearl was worth 5,000
+piasters (or 25,000 francs, <i>i.e</i>., &pound;1,000 English money),
+and you must have admired it&mdash;you, as well as all other persons
+who attend the church&mdash;for the Infant Jesus always holds it in his
+hand. The curate thanked and congratulated me on my very good idea.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Go home in peace, brother,&rsquo; said he to me;
+&lsquo;go home in peace. Heaven will not forget thy meritorious
+action&mdash;yea, the disinterestedness of thy good work, and sooner or
+later thy desires will he hearkened to.&rsquo;<span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e1432" title="Not in source">&rdquo;</span> <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb144" href="#pb144">144</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I left the holy man with my heart joyful indeed, and I
+hastened to inform Theresa of the pastor&rsquo;s consoling words: we
+rejoiced like two children together. Ah! true indeed it is to say that
+youth has been endowed by the Almighty with every privilege,
+particularly with that of hope. At the age of twenty if the heart think
+that it may live in hope, away with all cares immediately; and, as the
+morning breeze sips up the drops of moisture that have been left by the
+storm in the chalice of flowers, so does hope dry up the tears that
+moisten the eyes of the young, and drive away the sighs that inflate
+and oppress the breast. So sure were we that our tribulations would ere
+long be over, that we no longer thought of our by gone sorrow! In the
+spring-time of life grief leaves do more trace after it than the nimble
+foot of the wily Indian on the strand, when the sea-wind has blown over
+it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The inhabitants of the village, seeing us so joyful, so
+purely happy, were envious of our lot, and Theresa&rsquo;s relations
+could no longer find any pretext for opposing our being united. We were
+now in full sight of connubial bliss; our boat of life was gently
+rocked by a very mild wind; we were singing the return-home hymn, not
+supposing, alas! that we were going to be dashed against a breaker! Our
+young Indians foresee not in the morning the storm that is to assail
+them in the evening. The buffalo cannot avoid the lasso, and most
+often, in order to avoid it, he anticipates the danger. I roved about,
+I may say heedlessly thoughtless of the precipice before my feet.
+Misfortune marked me for her own when I least expected it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One evening, on my return from fishing, at the moment when I
+was repairing to Theresa&rsquo;s, there to repose myself after my
+fatigues of the day, I saw one of my neighbours advancing towards me.
+That man had always shown me the greatest <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb145" href="#pb145">145</a>]</span>affection, so that on seeing him
+thus advance, my limbs began to tremble, and the pulsations of my heart
+gradually ceased. His face was pale, and entirely altered. His haggard
+eyes threw forth flashes of terror, and his voice was trembling and
+agitated.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;<i lang="es">Los Moros</i><a class="noteref" id=
+"xd0e1448src" href="#xd0e1448">2</a> have made a descent upon the
+coast,&rsquo; said he to me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Good Heavens!&rsquo; exclaimed I, covering my face
+with my hands.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;They surprised some persons of the village, and
+carried them off prisoners.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;And Theresa?&rsquo; exclaimed I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Carried off with the others,&rsquo; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I heard no more of this revelation, and for some
+minutes&mdash;like the warrior pierced to the heart by a poisoned
+arrow&mdash;was completely deprived of all consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When I came back to myself tears flooded my face, and brought
+me some relief: but suddenly I resumed my courage, and felt that no
+time was to be lost. I ran to the shore where I had left my pirogue,
+which I unfastened, and, as quickly as oars could pull me, I pursued
+the Malays, not in the hope of wresting Theresa from them, but resolved
+upon partaking of her captivity and misfortune. We better endure the
+sufferings we have to undergo when we are two together than when we are
+alone. He who had brought me the fatal tidings saw me start, and
+thought I had lost my senses; the fact is, my countenance bore all the
+traces of mental alienation. Methought I was inspired by the grand
+master-spirit; my pirogue bounded along the troubled waters of the
+ocean as if it possessed wings. One would have said that I had twenty
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb146" href=
+"#pb146">146</a>]</span>rowers at my disposal, and I cleft the waves
+with the same rapidity as the halcyon&rsquo;s flight, when wafted away
+by the hurricane. After a short time&rsquo;s laborious and painful
+rowing I at last came in view of the corsairs who were carrying away my
+treasure. At the sight my strength was renewed again, and I was soon up
+with them. When I was side by side with them I informed them, in words
+the most feeling, and which sprang from my poor lacerated heart, that
+Theresa was my wife, and that I would prefer being a slave with her to
+abandoning her. The pirates listened to my voice, stifled by my tears,
+and took me on board, not from commiseration, but from cruelty. In
+fact, I was a slave more added to their numbers: why should they have
+repulsed me? A few days after that fatal evening we arrived at Jolo.
+There the division of the slaves was made, and the master into whose
+hands we fell took us away with him. Was it, then, to undergo a like
+destiny that I had dived so early in the morning for a pearl for the
+Infant Jesus of Z&eacute;bou? Yes, was it for this that I had made a
+vow to bring him the first pearl I should find? Notwithstanding my
+profound sorrow I murmured not, neither did I regret my offering. The
+Lord was the master! His will should be done.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here Relempago paused, and looked towards Heaven with a smile of
+angelic resignation, and we then remarked upon his face the furrows
+traced by the deep sorrows of his life. The wind was still blowing with
+violence, and our boat was dancing on the waves; our sailors had
+finished their repast, and, in order to listen to the fisherman&rsquo;s
+tale of woe, had taken up their place by his side. Their features wore
+an expression of the most innocent attention; so, having made a sign to
+the narrator, he resumed his story as follows:&mdash; <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb147" href="#pb147">147</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Our captivity lasted two years, during which time we had to
+endure very great sufferings. Very often would my master take me away
+with him to a lake in the interior of the island, and these absences
+lasted for whole months together, during which time I was perforce
+separated from my Theresa, my dear wife; for, not having been able to
+get united by a clergyman, we had joined ourselves, under the
+all-benevolent and protecting eye of the Almighty! On my return, I used
+to find my poor companion still the same good, faithful, devoted, and
+affectionate friend, whose courage sustained my own.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One circumstance decided me upon taking an audacious
+resolution. Theresa was in an interesting situation! Oh! what would not
+my joy have been had I been at Z&eacute;bou, in the midst of our family
+and of our friends! What happiness should I not have felt at the idea
+of being a father! Alas! in slavery, that very same thought froze my
+blood with terror, and I firmly resolved upon snatching both mother and
+child from the tortures of captivity. In one of our excursions I had
+been wounded in the leg, and this wound came greatly to my aid. One day
+my master set out for the borders of the grand lake, and, knowing I had
+a bad leg, left me at Jolo. I availed myself of this opportunity to put
+into execution a project that I had formed for a long time, that of
+flying with Theresa. The task was a daring one, but the desire of
+freedom doubles one&rsquo;s strength and increases one&rsquo;s courage,
+so I did not hesitate for a moment. When night had lowered, my dear
+Theresa took a road I had pointed out to her; I went by another one,
+and we both arrived at the sea-shore at a short distance from each
+other. There we jumped into a pirogue, and threw ourselves upon the
+protection of Divine mercy! <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb148" href=
+"#pb148">148</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We rowed vigorously the whole night, and never in my life
+shall I forget that mysterious flight. The wind blew rather violently,
+the night was dark, and the stars insensibly lost their vivid
+brightness. Every moment we thought we heard behind us the noise of our
+pursuers, and our hearts beat so loud and so violently that they could
+be heard in the midst of the silence that reigned around all
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Day at last appeared: we descried by degrees, in the mist of
+the morning, the rocks that lined the shore, and we could see far
+enough in the distance that no one was pursuing us. Then were our
+hearts filled with cheering hope, and we continued rowing towards the
+north, in order to land on some Christian isle.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I had taken with me some cocoa-nuts, but they were a very
+small resource, and we had been at sea three whole days without eating
+anything, when, exhausted by fatigue and want, we fell upon our knees
+and invoked the pity, compassion, and succour of the Infant Jesus of
+Z&eacute;bou. Our prayer over, we felt our strength completely
+exhausted; the oars fell from our hands, and we lay down in the bottom
+of the pirogue, decided upon dying in each other&rsquo;s arms.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Our weakness gradually increased, and finally we swooned
+away, the pirogue all the while dashing heedlessly on with the
+waves.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When we recovered from our fainting fit&mdash;I know not how
+long it lasted&mdash;we found ourselves surrounded by Christians, who,
+having perceived us in our light skiff, had come to our aid, conveyed
+us to their hospitable dwelling, and took the most pious care of us. We
+had not long been disembarked when Theresa was taken with the pains of
+labour, and was confined of a very diminutive, sickly child. I went
+down on <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb149" href=
+"#pb149">149</a>]</span>my knees before the innocent little creature
+that had so miraculously escaped from slavery, and prayed for
+it&mdash;it was a boy!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here the poor old fisherman heaved a heavy sigh, while tears were
+fast falling upon his shrunken hands.</p>
+
+<p>We one and all respected this painful recollection of the poor old
+man.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Our convalescence was very long indeed,&rdquo; said
+Relempago; &ldquo;at last our health was sufficiently restored to
+permit of us leaving the isle of Negros, where the Infant Jesus had so
+miraculously caused us to land, and we came to settle here, on the side
+of this large lake, which, being situated in the interior of the isle
+of Lu&ccedil;on, afforded me the means of pursuing my avocation of
+fisherman without in any way fearing the Malays, who might very easily
+have captured us again at Z&eacute;bou.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My first care&mdash;yes, the dearest act of my life&mdash;on
+arriving, was to have our marriage celebrated in the church of Moron. I
+had promised it to God, and I would not fail in the promise I had made
+Him who reads all hearts. After that I built the little cottage you see
+hard-by, and my existence glided on most peacefully. The fishing trade
+went on prosperously. I was still a young man, active and intelligent,
+and sold my fish very easily to the vessels passing through the strait.
+My son had by this time become a fine young man.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course he resembled his father,&rdquo; said I,
+recollecting the beginning of the old man&rsquo;s tale, but my remark
+could not excite a smile upon his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! the lad was a good fisherman,&rdquo; continued he,
+&ldquo;and happily did we all three live together, till a dreadful
+misfortune befell us. The Infant Jesus had no doubt forsaken <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb150" href="#pb150">150</a>]</span>us, or
+perhaps the Almighty was displeased with us; but I am far from
+murmuring. He has visited us most severely, since He has overwhelmed us
+with grief of such a strong nature, that it must accompany us to our
+last resting-place!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And here the poor old man&rsquo;s tears trickled down his
+weather-beaten cheeks once more, in abundance, in bitterness, and in
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! how right was the Italian poet, when he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="lgouter ">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;Nought lasteth here below but tears!&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The voice of Relempago was stifled by his sobbing; however, he made
+one more effort, and continued thus:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One night&mdash;a fine moonlight night&mdash;we set our nets
+in a certain part of the strait, and as we felt some difficulty in
+drawing them up, the lad plunged into the water to ascertain what
+obstacle we had to contend with, and to set all to rights. I was in my
+pirogue, leaning over the side, waiting for his return, when all of a
+sudden I thought I saw, through the silvery beams of the lamp of night,
+a large spot of blood spreading itself over the surface of the water.
+Fear took possession of me, and I quickly hauled up my nets. My hapless
+child had seized upon and become entangled in them&mdash;but, alas!
+when he came to the surface he was a corpse!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! your son?&rdquo; cried I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My poor dear Jos&eacute;-Maria,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;had
+his head bitten off by a cayman that had got entangled in our nets.
+Ever since that night&mdash;that fatal night!&mdash;Theresa and I offer
+up our prayers to the Omnipotent, imploring Him to take us to himself;
+for, alas! nothing now has any charms for us here below. The first of
+us that will depart for that bourn from whence no traveller returns
+will be interred by the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb151" href=
+"#pb151">151</a>]</span>survivor beside our beloved child&mdash;there,
+under that little hillock yonder, which is surmounted by a wooden
+cross, in front of my humble cottage; and the last of us two to leave
+this valley of tears will no doubt meet with some charitable Christian
+hand, to place our mortal remains beside the bodies of those we loved
+so tenderly during our hapless pilgrimage here below.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here Relempago ceased his painful history, and, that he might give a
+free course to his grief and tears, he rose up, and bowed us his adieu,
+which we returned to him with hearts oppressed with sympathetic
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>The wind had ceased blowing, and the attentive sailors were awaiting
+our orders, so that in a few moments afterwards we were sailing towards
+Jala-Jala, where we landed before sunset.</p>
+
+<p>On the morrow of my arrival I entered on the business of my little
+government, to which my absence had been far from useful or favourable,
+so that I was obliged to suppress many abuses that had crept into it
+while I had been away. Some slight corrections, joined to an active and
+incessant surveillance, or inspection, soon established once more the
+most perfect order and discipline; so that, from that moment, I was at
+liberty to devote all my time and attention to the cultivation of my
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>We were now at the beginning of the winter&mdash;the rainy and windy
+season. No stranger had dared crossing the lake, to come and visit us,
+so that, alone with my dear wife, our days glided most happily and
+tranquilly away, for we knew not what <i>ennui</i> was or meant: our
+mutual affection was so great that our own presence was sufficient
+company for each other.</p>
+
+<p>This delightful solitude was soon interrupted by a fortunate <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb152" href="#pb152">152</a>]</span>and
+unforeseen event. A letter from Manilla&mdash;a very rare circumstance
+at Jala-Jala&mdash;reached me, informing me that my eldest brother,
+Henry, had just arrived there; that he had put up at my
+brother-in-law&rsquo;s; and that he was expecting me with all
+imaginable impatience. I was not aware that he had left France to come
+and see me, so that such news, and his sudden, as well as unexpected,
+arrival, surprised and overjoyed me.</p>
+
+<p>I was once more to see one of my dearest relations&mdash;a brother
+whom I had always tenderly loved. Ah! he who has never quitted his
+home, his family, and his early attachments, will with difficulty
+understand the emotions I experienced on receiving this agreeable
+letter. When the first transports of my joy were somewhat allayed, I
+resolved to set out at once for Manilla. Preparations for my departure
+were speedily made. I chose my lightest canoe, and my two strongest
+Indians, and a few minutes after, having embraced my beloved Anna, I
+was scudding over the waters of the lake, slowly&mdash;too slowly for
+my impatience, as I wished to be able to give wings to my fragile
+skiff, and to traverse the distance that separated me from my brother
+as rapidly as my thoughts: no journey ever appeared to me so long, and
+nevertheless my two robust rowers exerted all their strength to favour
+my wishes. At length I arrived, and immediately hastened to my
+brother-in-law&rsquo;s, and there I threw myself into Henry&rsquo;s
+arms. Our emotions were such that for some time we could not speak; the
+abundant tears we shed alone showed the joy of our hearts. When the
+first transport was over, I asked him questions beyond number. Not one
+member of my family was forgotten; the smallest details concerning
+these beloved beings were to me of the greatest interest. We passed the
+remainder of the day and the following night in incessant and
+interesting conversation. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb153" href=
+"#pb153">153</a>]</span>The next day we started for Jala-Jala. Henry
+was eager to become acquainted with his sister-in-law, and I to make
+the dear companion of my life a sharer in my happiness. Excellent Anna!
+my joy was joy for you&mdash;my happiness was your delight! You
+received Henry as a brother, and this sisterly attachment was always,
+on your part, as sincere as your affection for me had ever been.</p>
+
+<p>After a few days spent in the most agreeable conversation about
+France, and about all those beloved friends who remained there,
+feelings of sadness that I could with difficulty repress became
+intermingled with my joy. I thought of our numerous family, so far
+distant, and so scattered over the globe. My youngest brother was, to
+my great regret, dead at Madagascar. My second brother, Robert, resided
+at Porto-Rico; and my two brothers-in-law, both captains of vessels,
+engaged in long voyages, were gone to the Indies. My poor mother and my
+poor sisters were alone, without protectors, without support: what sad
+moments of fear and anxiety you must have spent in your solitude! Ah!
+how I should have rejoiced to have you near me; but, alas! a whole
+world separated us, and the hope of seeing you again one day could
+alone scatter the clouds that darkened occasionally the happy days
+adorned by the presence of my brother.</p>
+
+<p>After some time of rest, Henry asked to join me in my labours. I
+then made him acquainted with my mode of cultivation, and he took upon
+himself the management of the plantations and of their products. I
+reserved to myself the regulation of my Indians, the charge of the
+flocks, and that of putting down the bandits.</p>
+
+<p>I had frequent quarrels, and even incessant conflicts, with these
+turbulent Indians; but I never boasted of these petty <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb154" href="#pb154">154</a>]</span>engagements, in
+which I was often obliged to take a most active part. On the contrary,
+I recommended strict silence to my attendants, for I did not wish to
+cause anxiety to my excellent Anna, nor to give my brother the desire
+of accompanying me. I did not like to expose him to the dangers I ran
+myself, as I had not equal hopes of safety for him. I relied upon my
+star, and really, to a certain degree, all modesty aside, I think that
+the bandits&rsquo; balls respected me. When I was engaged in contests
+in the plain, or in some of the skirmishes, the danger was not great;
+but it was quite a different thing when it was necessary to fight hand
+to hand, which happened more than once; and I cannot forbear the
+pleasure of relating one of those circumstances that made me say just
+now <i>the bandits&rsquo; balls respected me</i>.</p>
+
+<p>One day I was alone with my lieutenant, having both of us only our
+daggers, and we were coming back to our habitation, and passing through
+a thick forest, situated at the end of the lake. Alila said to me:
+&ldquo;Master, this neighbourhood is much frequented by Cajoui.&rdquo;
+Cajoui was known as the chief of a most daring gang of brigands. Among
+his numerous atrocities he had amused himself, on that very day, by
+drowning twenty of his fellow-countrymen. I then determined to free the
+country of the odious assassin, and the advice of my lieutenant induced
+me to take a narrow path, that led us to a hut concealed in the midst
+of the woods. I told Alila to remain below, and to watch, while I went
+to endeavour to reconnoitre the persons who inhabited it. I went up by
+the small ladder that leads to the interior of the Tagalese huts; a
+young Indian woman was there, quite alone, and very busy plaiting a
+mat. I asked her for some fire to light my cigar, and returned to my
+lieutenant. Having accidentally cast my eyes upon the <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb155" href="#pb155">155</a>]</span>exterior of the
+hut, it appeared much larger than it did inside. I ran up again
+quickly, and looked all round the place in which the young girl was,
+and observed at the extremity of it a small door, covered over by a
+mat. I gave it a strong push, and at the moment, Cajoui, who, with his
+carbine on cock, was waiting for me behind the door, fired straight at
+me. The fire and the smoke blinded me, and by a most inconceivable
+chance the ball slightly grazed my clothes without wounding me. Alila,
+knowing I had no fire-arms, hearing the report, thought I was killed.
+He ran up to the top of the steps, and found me enveloped in a cloud of
+smoke, with my dagger in my hand, trying to find my enemy, who seeing
+me still standing erect, after he had shot at me, thought, no doubt, I
+had about me some <i>anten-anten</i>&mdash;a certain diabolic
+incantation that, according to the Indian belief, makes a man
+invulnerable to all sorts of fire-arms. The bandit was frightened,
+jumped out of a window, and ran away as fast as he could across the
+forest.</p>
+
+<p>Alila could not believe what had happened to me; he felt all over my
+body, in order to convince himself that the ball had not passed through
+me. When he was quite sure that I had not received a wound, he said to
+me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, if you had not had the <i>anten-anten</i> about you
+you would have been killed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My Indians always believed I was possessed of this secret, as well
+as of many others. For instance, when they often saw me go for
+twenty-four, even for thirty-six hours, without eating or drinking,
+they became persuaded that I could live in that manner for an
+indefinite period; and one day, a good Tagalese padre, in whose house I
+chanced to be, almost went upon his knees while begging me to
+communicate to him the power I possessed, as he said, to live without
+food. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb156" href=
+"#pb156">156</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Tagals have retained all their old superstitions. However,
+thanks to the Spaniards, they are all Christians; but they understand
+that religion nearly in the way that children do. They believe that to
+attend on Sundays and festival days at the Divine offices, and to go to
+confession and to communion once a year, is sufficient for the
+remission of all their sins. A little anecdote that occurred to me will
+show how far they understand evangelical charity.</p>
+
+<p>One day two young Indians stole some poultry from one of their
+neighbours, and they came to sell them to my major-domo for about
+sixpence. I had them called before me, to administer a lecture, and to
+punish them. With the utmost simplicity they made me this answer:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is true, master, we have done wrong, but we could not do
+otherwise; we are to go to communion to-morrow, and we had not money
+enough to get a cup of chocolate.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is a custom with them to take a cup of chocolate after communion,
+and it was considered by them a greater sin to miss taking that than to
+commit the trifling theft of which they were guilty.</p>
+
+<p>Two evil-doing demons play an important part among them, and in
+which all believed before the conquest of the Philippine islands. One
+of those malevolent demons is the Tic-balan which I have already
+mentioned, who dwells in the forests, in the interior of the large
+fig-trees. This demon can do every possible harm to anyone who dares
+not to respect him, or who does not carry certain herbs about his
+person; every time an Indian passes under one of these fig-trees he
+makes a movement towards it with his hand, saying: &ldquo;<i lang=
+"tl">Tavit-po</i>,&rdquo; Tagal words, signifying: &ldquo;Lord! with
+your permission!&rdquo; The lord of the place is the Tic-balan. <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb157" href="#pb157">157</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The other demon is called Azuan. She presides especially over
+parturitions in an evil manner, and an Indian is often seen, when his
+wife is in labour, perched upon the roof of his hut, with a sabre in
+his hand, thrusting the point into the air, and striking on all sides
+with the edge, to drive away, as he says, the Azuan. Sometimes he
+continues this man&oelig;uvring for hours, until the labour is over.
+One of their beliefs&mdash;and one that Europeans might envy&mdash;is,
+that when a child that has not reached the age of reason dies, it is
+happy for all the family, since it is an angel that has gone to heaven,
+to be the protector of all its relations. The day of the interment is a
+grand f&ecirc;te-day; relations and friends are invited; they drink,
+they dance, and they sing all night in the hut where the child died.
+But I perceive that the superstitions of the Indians are drawing me
+from my subject. I shall have occasion, further on, to describe the
+manners and customs of these singular people.</p>
+
+<p>I now resume my statement, at the moment when my lieutenant tried to
+assure me that I had some anten-anten, and that consequently I could
+not be wounded by a shot fired at me.</p>
+
+<p>He then addressed the young girl, who had remained in the corner,
+more dead than alive.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! cursed creature!&rdquo; said he to her; &ldquo;you are
+Cajoui&rsquo;s mistress: now your turn is come!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment he advanced towards her with his dagger in his hand.
+I ran between him and the poor girl, for I knew he was capable of
+killing anyone, particularly after I had been attacked in a manner that
+had placed me in danger.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wretch!&rdquo; said I to him, &ldquo;what are you going to
+do?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No great things, master; only to cut off the hair and ears of
+this vile woman, and then send her to tell Cajoui that we shall soon
+catch him!&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb158" href=
+"#pb158">158</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>It cost me much trouble to prevent him from executing his plan. I
+was obliged to use all my authority, and to allow him to burn the
+cabin, after the terrified young girl, thanks to my protection, had
+fled into the forest.</p>
+
+<p>My lieutenant was right in sending word to Cajoui that we should
+catch him. Some months after, and several leagues from the place where
+we had set fire to his cabin, one day, when three men of my guard
+accompanied me, we discovered, in the thickest part of the wood, a
+small hut. My Indians rushed forward in quick time to surround it; but
+almost all round it there was found a morass, covered over with sedges
+and bushes, when all three sunk in the mud, up to their middle. As I
+did not run as fast as they did I perceived the danger, and went round
+the marsh, so as to reach the cabin by the only accessible way.
+Suddenly I found myself face to face with Cajoui, and near enough
+almost to touch him. I had my dagger in my hand; he also had
+his&mdash;the struggle began. For a few seconds we aimed many strokes
+at each other, which each of us tried to avoid as well as he could. I
+think, however, that fortune was turning against me; the point of
+Cajoui&rsquo;s poignard had already entered rather deeply into my right
+arm, when with my left hand I took from my belt a large-sized pistol. I
+discharged it full at his breast: the ball and the wadding went through
+his body. For a few seconds Cajoui endeavoured still to defend himself;
+I struck him with all my force, and he fell at my feet; I then wrested
+from him his dagger, which I still retain. My people came out of the
+mud-hole and joined me. Compassion soon replaced the animosity we bore
+against Cajoui. We made a sort of litter; I bandaged his wound, and we
+carried him more than six leagues in this manner to my habitation,
+where he received all the care his state <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb159" href="#pb159">159</a>]</span>required. Every moment I expected
+him to die; every quarter of an hour my people came to tell me how he
+was; and they kept saying to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, he cannot die, because he has the anten-anten upon
+him; and it is very lucky that you have some of it too, and that you
+fired at him, for our arms would have been of no avail against
+him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I laughed at their simplicity, and expected from one minute to
+another to hear that the wounded man had breathed his last, when my
+lieutenant brought me, quite joyously, a small manuscript, about two
+inches square, saying to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Here, master, is the anten-anten I found upon Cajoui&rsquo;s
+body.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At the same time one of my men announced his death.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Alila, &ldquo;if I had not taken the
+anten-anten from him he would be still alive.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I searched the small book through and through; prayers and
+invocations that had not much sense were therein written in the
+Tagalese language. A good friar who was present took it out of my
+hands. I imagined that he had the same curiosity as I had, but by no
+means; he rose up and went into the kitchen, and in a short time after
+came out and told me that he had made an <i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> of
+it. My poor lieutenant almost cried with vexation, for he considered
+the little book to be his property, and thought that in possession of
+it he would be invulnerable. I should also have wished to have kept it,
+as a curious specimen of Indian superstition. The next day I had much
+trouble to persuade my stout friend, Father Miguel, to bury Cajoui in
+the cemetery. He maintained that a man who died with the anten-anten
+upon him ought not to receive Christian burial. To make him accede to
+my wishes it was necessary to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb160"
+href="#pb160">160</a>]</span>tell him that the anten-anten had been
+taken from Cajoui before his death, and that he had time to repent.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after Cajoui&rsquo;s death it was my faithful
+Alila&rsquo;s turn to encounter danger, not less imminent than that to
+which I had been exposed, at the time of my combat with the bandit
+chief. But Alila was brave, and, although he had no anten-anten,
+fire-arms did not frighten him.</p>
+
+<p>Large vessels&mdash;real Noah&rsquo;s arks&mdash;freighted by
+various merchants, sailed every week from the town of Pasig for that of
+Santa-Cruz, where every Thursday a large market was held. Eight daring
+and determined brigands went on board one of these vessels: they hid
+their arms among the bales of goods. The ship was scarcely out at sea
+when they seized them, and a horrible scene of slaughter ensued. All
+who endeavoured to resist them were butchered, even the pilot was
+thrown overboard; at length, finding no more resistance, they plundered
+the passengers of the money they had upon them, took every article of
+value they could find, and, loaded with their booty, they steered the
+vessel to a deserted spot on the shore, where they landed.</p>
+
+<p>I had been informed of this nefarious enterprise, and went with
+haste to the spot where they landed. Unfortunately I arrived too late,
+for they had already escaped to the mountains, after they had divided
+the spoil. Notwithstanding the slight hope I entertained of overtaking
+them, I set off in pursuit, and after a long march I met an Indian, who
+informed me that one of the bandits, not so good a walker as the
+others, was not far off, and that if I and my guards ran quickly we
+might overtake him. Alila was the best runner&mdash;he was as fleet as
+a deer; so I told him: &ldquo;Set out, Alila, and bring me that
+runaway, either dead or alive.&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb161" href="#pb161">161</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>My brave lieutenant, to be less encumbered in the race, left his gun
+with us, took a long spear, and went off. Shortly after we had lost
+sight of him we heard the report of firearms; we knew it must be the
+brigand firing upon Alila, and we all thought that he was killed or
+wounded. We hastened forward, in the hopes of arriving in time to
+render him assistance; but we soon saw him coming leisurely towards us;
+his face and clothes were covered with blood, the spear in his right
+hand, and in his left the hideous head of the bandit, which he carried
+by the hair&mdash;as Judith had formerly done with that of Holophernes.
+But my poor Alila was wounded, and my first care was to examine if the
+wound was serious. When I was satisfied it was not dangerous, I asked
+him for the details of his combat.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he to me, &ldquo;shortly after I left you
+I perceived the bandit; he saw me also, and ran off as quickly as he
+could, but I ran faster than he, and was soon close to him. When he
+lost all hopes of escaping he turned upon me and presented his pistol;
+I was not alarmed, and advanced towards him at all risk. The pistol was
+fired, and I felt myself wounded in the face; this wound did not stop
+me. I darted at him and pierced his body with my spear; but, as he was
+too heavy for me to bring to you, I cut off his head, and here it
+is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When I had congratulated Alila upon his success, I examined his
+wound, and found that a fragment of a ball, cut into four pieces, had
+hit him upon the cheek, and was flattened on the bone. I extracted it,
+and a speedy cure followed.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I have almost terminated, and shall not return to, my
+numerous adventures with the bandits, I resume the continuation of my
+ordinary life at Jala-Jala. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb162" href=
+"#pb162">162</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p162"><img border="0" src="images/p162.jpg"
+alt="The House of La Planche." width="482" height="372">
+<p class="figureHead">The House of La Planche.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1422src" id="xd0e1422">1</a></span> According to Indian
+tradition, and to Spanish tradition likewise, the Infant Jesus of
+Z&eacute;bou existed before the discovery of the Philippines. After the
+conquest the Infant was found upon the sea-shore; the Spanish
+conquerors deposited it in the cathedral, where it performed great
+miracles.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1448src" id="xd0e1448">2</a></span> The Malays.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch8" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter VIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Death of my Brother Robert&mdash;Our Party at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Illness and Last Moments of my Friend
+Bermigan&mdash;Recovery and Departure for France or
+Lafond&mdash;Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity&mdash;Tremendous Gale
+of Wind&mdash;Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake&mdash;Safe Return to
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destruction of my House and the Village by a
+Typhoon&mdash;Rendezvous with a Bandit&mdash;Ineffectual Attempts to
+Reform Him&mdash;His Death&mdash;Journey to Tapuzi&mdash;Its
+Inaccessibility&mdash;Government of the Tapuzians&mdash;Morality and
+Religious Character of their Chief&mdash;Their Curiosity at Beholding a
+White Man&mdash;Former Wickedness and Divine Punishment&mdash;We bid
+Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return to Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">At this period a sad event plunged my house into
+mourning. Letters from my family announced to me that my brother Robert
+had returned from Porto-Rico, but that soon after a serious illness had
+carried him to the grave. He died in the arms of my mother and sisters,
+in the small house of La Planche, where, as I said before, we had all
+been brought up. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb163" href=
+"#pb163">163</a>]</span>My excellent Anna, wept with us, and exerted
+every means that interesting affection could suggest to alleviate the
+grief my brother Henry and myself experienced from this melancholy
+bereavement. A few months afterwards a new source of sorrow fell to our
+lot. Our little social party at Jala-Jala consisted of my
+sister-in-law; of Delaunay, a young man from St. Malo, who had come
+from Bourbon to establish at Manilla some manufactories for baking
+sugar; of Bermigan, a young Spaniard; and my friend, Captain Gabriel
+Lafond, like myself, from Nantes. He had come to the Philippine islands
+on board the <i lang="fr">Fils de France</i>, had passed some years in
+South America, and had occupied several places of distinction in the
+navy, as captain-commandant, until at last, after many adventures and
+vicissitudes, he came with a small fortune to Manilla, where he bought
+a vessel, and set sail for the Pacific Ocean, to fish for the <i>
+balat&eacute;</i> or sea-worm. He had scarcely readied the island of
+Tongatabou when the vessel struck upon the rocks that surround this
+island; he saved himself by swimming to the shore, having lost
+everything. From thence he went to the Marianne islands, where grief
+and bad food caused him to fall ill; he returned to Manilla, labouring
+under dysentry. I had him brought to my house, and whilst there
+attended to him with all the care a fellow-countryman and a good
+friend, endowed with sterling and amiable qualities, deserved. Our
+evenings were spent in amusing and instructive conversation. As we had
+all travelled a great deal, each had something to relate. During the
+day the invalids kept company with the ladies, while my brother and
+myself followed our respective avocations. But soon, alas! a shocking
+event disturbed the calm that reigned at Jala-Jala. Bermigan fell so
+dangerously ill, that a few days sufficed to convince me there was no
+hope <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb164" href=
+"#pb164">164</a>]</span>of saving him. I shall never forget the fatal
+night: we were all assembled in the drawing-room, grief and
+consternation were in every heart and pourtrayed in every countenance;
+in an adjoining room a few short steps from us, we heard the
+death-rattle of poor Bermigan, who had only a few minutes to live. My
+excellent friend, Lafond, whom sickness had reduced almost to the last
+stage, broke silence, and said: &ldquo;Well! poor Bermigan goes to-day,
+and in a few days, perhaps to-morrow, it will be my turn. Just see! my
+dear Don Pablo; I may almost say that I no longer exist. Look at my
+feet&mdash;my body! I am a mere skeleton; I can scarcely take any food.
+Ah! it is better to be dead than live like this!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was so persuaded that his forebodings would not be delayed in
+being realized, that I scarcely dared to utter the smallest consolation
+or any hopes. Who could then have told me that he and I alone were to
+survive all those who surrounded us, full of life and health? But,
+alas! let us not here anticipate future events.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Bermigan breathed his last. Our house at Jala-Jala was no
+longer untouched by the hand of Death&mdash;a human being had expired
+therein; and on the following day, in sadness and silence, we all
+proceeded to the cemetery, to inter the body of our friend, and to
+render him the last proofs of our respect. The body was laid at the
+foot of a large cross, which is placed in the centre of the grave-yard.
+For many days sadness and silence prevailed in our home at
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>Some time afterwards I had the gratification to see the efforts I
+employed for my friend Lafond were successful. By means of the strong
+remedies I administered his health was speedily restored, his appetite
+returned, and he was soon able to set sail for France. He is now
+residing in Paris, married <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb165" href=
+"#pb165">165</a>]</span>to a woman possessed of every quality necessary
+to make a man happy, and is the father of three children. Holding an
+honourable position, and enjoying public esteem, he has never forgotten
+the six months he spent at Jala-Jala, for ingratitude never sullied his
+noble, loving, and devoted heart. A sincere attachment still subsists
+between us, and I am happy thus to assure him that he is, and ever will
+be, to me a valued friend.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1662src" href=
+"#xd0e1662">1</a></p>
+
+<p>As I have now mentioned several persons who resided for some time at
+Jala-Jala, I must not forget one of my colonists, Joachim Balthazard, a
+native of Marseilles, as eccentric a man as I have ever known. When
+Joachim was young, he set sail from Marseilles. When he arrived at
+Bourbon, his name not being on the crew&rsquo;s list, he was arrested,
+and put on board the <i>Astrolabe</i>, which was then making a voyage
+round the world. He deserted at the Marianne islands, and came to the
+Philippines in the greatest distress, and addressed himself to some
+good friars, in order, as he said, to effect his conversion and his
+salvation. He lived among them, and at their expense, for nearly two
+years; afterwards he opened a coffee-house at Manilla, and spent in
+pleasure and debauchery a large sum of money that a fellow-countryman
+and I had advanced him. He afterwards built upon my grounds a large
+straw edifice, that had more the appearance of a huge magazine than of
+a house. There he kept a kind of seraglio, adopted all the children
+which his numerous wives gave him, and, with his own family, made his
+house not unlike a mutual school. Whenever he was weary of either of
+his wives he called one of his workmen, saying to him in the most
+serious manner:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There is a wife that I give you; be a good husband, treat her
+well: and you, woman, this is your husband, be faithful <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb166" href="#pb166">166</a>]</span>to him. Go, may
+God bless you! Be off, and let me never see you again.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was generally without a farthing, or all of a sudden rich with
+heavy sums, that were spent in a few days. He borrowed from everybody,
+and never paid them back; he lived like a real Indian, and was as
+cowardly as a half-drowned chicken. His light-coloured hair, sallow
+complexion, and beardless face, gave him the nick-name among the
+Indians of <i>Onela-Dogou</i>, Tagalese words, that signify &ldquo;one
+who has no blood.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As I was one day crossing over the lake in a small canoe with him
+and two Indians, we were assailed by one of those extraordinary gales
+of wind, which in the Chinese seas are called <i>Tay-Foung</i>
+(typhoon). These gales of wind, though extremely rare, are tremendous.
+The sky is covered with the heaviest clouds; the rain pours in
+torrents; the day-light disappears, almost as much as in the densest
+fog; and the wind blows with such fury that it throws down everything
+it reaches in its course.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1684src" href=
+"#xd0e1684">2</a></p>
+
+<p>We were in our canoe; the wind had scarcely begun to blow with all
+its violence than Balthazard commenced to invoke all the saints in
+Paradise. Almost in despair, he cried out aloud:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, God! have mercy upon me, a wretched sinner! Grant me the
+grace that I may have an opportunity of confessing my sins, and of
+receiving absolution!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>All these lamentations and appeals served only to frighten my two
+Indians, and most undoubtedly our position was critical enough for us
+to endeavour to retain our presence of mind, so <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb167" href="#pb167">167</a>]</span>as to attend to the
+management of our little boat, which from one moment to another was in
+danger of being swamped. However, I was certain that, being provided
+with two large beams of bamboos, it could keep its position in the
+current between two waters and not capsize, if we had the precaution
+and strength to scud before the wind, and not turn the side to a wave,
+for in such case we should all have been drowned. What I foresaw,
+happened. A wave burst upon us; for a few minutes we were plunged in
+the deep, but when the wave passed over we came above water. Our canoe
+was swamped between the currents, but we did not abandon it; we put our
+legs under the seats, and held them fast; the half of our body was
+above water. But every time that a wave came towards us it passed over
+our heads, and then went off, giving us time to breathe until another
+wave came and dashed over us. Every three or four minutes the same
+man&oelig;uvring took place. My Indians and I used all our strength and
+skill to scud on before the wind. Balthazard had ceased his
+lamentations; we all kept silence; from time to time I only uttered
+these words:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Take courage, boys, we shall reach the shore.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Our position then became much worse, for night set in. The rain
+continued to pour in torrents, the wind increased in fury. From time to
+time we received some light from globes of fire, like what the sailors
+call &ldquo;Saint Elmo&rsquo;s fire.&rdquo; While these rays of light
+continued I looked as far around me as I could, and only perceived an
+immense body of water in furious agitation. For nearly two hours we
+were tossed about by the waves that drove us towards the beach, and, at
+a moment when we least expected it, we found ourselves driven into the
+midst of an extensive grove of lofty bamboos. I then knew that we were
+over the land, and that the lake had inundated the country for <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb168" href="#pb168">168</a>]</span>several
+miles around. We were up to our breasts in water, and it was not in our
+power to pass through the inundation. The darkness was too great to
+allow us to go in any direction; our canoe was no longer of any use to
+us, as it was entangled among the bamboos. We climbed up the trees as
+well as we could, even to the height where the bamboos end in sharp
+points; our bodies were much torn by the sharp thorns growing on the
+small branches; the rain continued to pour without intermission; the
+wind still blowed, and each gust caused the bamboos to bend, the
+flexible branches of which tore our bodies and faces. I have suffered a
+great deal in the course of my life, but no night ever appeared to me
+so long and cruel as this! Joachim Balthazard then recovered his
+speech, and, in a trembling, broken voice, said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! Don Pablo, do write I beg of you, to my mother, and tell
+her the tragical end of her son!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I could not help answering him: &ldquo;You cowardly rascal! Do you
+think, then, that I am more at my ease than you are? Hold your tongue,
+otherwise I shall make you turn diver, so that I may never hear you
+again.&rdquo; Poor Joachim then knew what to do, and did not utter a
+word; only from time to time he made us aware of his trouble by his
+deep moans.</p>
+
+<p>The wind, which was blowing from the north-west, towards four
+o&rsquo;clock in the morning suddenly changed to the east, and shortly
+afterwards gave over. It was almost daylight: we were saved. We could
+at last see one another; all four of us looked in a wretched condition;
+our clothes being torn to pieces. Our bodies were lacerated, and
+covered with deep scratches. The cold had penetrated into the very
+marrow of our bones, and the long bath we had taken had wrinkled the
+skin; we looked just like drowned people taken out of the <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb169" href="#pb169">169</a>]</span>water, where they
+had been for some hours. Nevertheless, crippled as we were, we slipped
+down from the bamboos, and were soon bathing in the waters of the lake.
+The effect was healthful and agreeable: it seemed like a warm bath at
+30 degrees of heat.</p>
+
+<p>We were quite restored by this mild temperature. We got our canoe
+out of the grove, where fortunately it had been caught so fast that
+neither the waves nor the currents could drive it any farther. We again
+set it afloat, and soon succeeded in reaching an Indian hut, where we
+dried ourselves, and recruited our strength. Calm was now
+re-established; the sun shone in all its splendour, but everywhere
+traces of the typhoon were visible. In the course of the day we reached
+Jala-Jala, where our arrival caused great joy. They knew at home that I
+was on the lake, and everything led them to presume that I had
+perished. My good and dear Anna threw herself into my arms in tears;
+she had been in such anxiety for my safety, that for some moments the
+tears that flowed down her cheeks alone expressed her joy at again
+seeing me.</p>
+
+<p>Balthazard returned to his seraglio. As long as he was under my
+protection the Indians respected him, but after my departure from
+Jala-Jala he was assassinated; and all those who knew him agreed that
+he had deserved his fate for more than one cause.</p>
+
+<p>As I have mentioned this typhoon, I am going to anticipate a little,
+in describing, as briefly as possible, a still more frightful one than
+that which I experienced in my slight canoe and in the bamboo
+grove.</p>
+
+<p>I had just completed some pretty baths upon the lake opposite my
+house. I was quite satisfied and proud of procuring this new pleasure
+for my wife. On the very day that <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb170"
+href="#pb170">170</a>]</span>the Indians had added the last ornaments
+to them, towards evening a western wind began to blow furiously; by
+degrees the waters of the lake became agitated, and shortly we no
+longer doubted but that we were going to have a typhoon.</p>
+
+<p>My brother and I stayed some time examining, through the panes of
+glass, whether the baths would resist the strength of the wind, but in
+a heavy squall my poor edifice disappeared like a castle made of cards.
+We withdrew from the window, and luckily too, for a heavier squall than
+that which had destroyed the baths burst in the windows that faced to
+the west. The wind drove through the house, and opened a way for
+itself, by throwing down all the wall over the entrance-door. The lake
+was so agitated that the waves went over my house, and inundated all
+the apartments. We were not able to remain there any longer. By
+assisting each other, my wife, my brother, a young Frenchman who was
+then staying at Jala-Jala, and myself, succeeded in reaching a room on
+the ground-floor; the light came from a very small window; there, in
+almost total darkness, we spent the greater part of the night, my
+brother and I leaning our shoulders against the window, opposing with
+all our strength that of the wind, which threatened to force it in. In
+this small room there were several jars of brandy: my excellent Anna
+poured some into the hollow of her hand, and gave it us to drink, to
+support our strength and to warm us. At break of day the wind ceased,
+and calm re-appeared. All the furniture and decorations of my house
+were broken and shattered to pieces; all the rooms were inundated, and
+the store-rooms were full of sand, carried there by the waters of the
+lake. Soon my house became an asylum for my colonists, who had all
+spent a wretched night, and were without shelter. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb171" href="#pb171">171</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The sun soon shone splendidly; the sky was cloudless; but my sadness
+was extreme when, from a window, I examined the disasters produced by
+the typhoon. There was no village! Every hut was levelled to the
+ground. The church was thrown down&mdash;my store-houses, my sugar
+factory, were entirely destroyed; there was then nothing more than
+heaps of ruins. My fine cane-fields were altogether destroyed, and the
+country, which previously had appeared so beautiful, seemed as if it
+had passed through a long wintry season. There was no longer any
+verdure to be seen; the trees were entirely leafless, with their boughs
+broken, and portions of the wood were entirely torn down; and all this
+devastation had taken place within a few hours. During that and the
+following day the lake threw up, upon the shore, the bodies of several
+unfortunate Indians who had perished. The first care of Padre Miguel
+was to bury the dead, and for a long time afterwards there were to be
+seen, in the grave-yard of Jala-Jala, crosses, with the inscription:
+&ldquo;<i>An unknown who died during the typhoon</i>.&rdquo; My Indians
+began immediately to rebuild their huts, and I, as far as possible, to
+repair my disasters.</p>
+
+<p>The fertile nature of the Philippine islands speedily effaced the
+aspect of mourning which it had assumed. In less than eight days the
+trees were completely covered with new leaves, and exhibited themselves
+as in a brilliant summer, after the frightful winter had passed over.
+The typhoon had embraced a diameter of about two leagues, and, like a
+violent hurricane, had upset and shattered everything it met during its
+course.</p>
+
+<p>But enough of disasters: I return to the epoch when the death of
+poor Bermigan caused affliction to us all.</p>
+
+<p>All was prosperity in my dwelling: my Indians were happy; the
+population of Jala-Jala increased every day; I was beloved <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb172" href="#pb172">172</a>]</span>and respected. I
+had rendered great service to the Spanish government by the incessant
+warfare I carried on against the bandits; and I may say that even
+amongst them I enjoyed a high reputation. They looked upon me, indeed,
+as their enemy, but in the light of a brave enemy, incapable of
+committing any act of baseness against them, and who carried on an
+honourable warfare; and the Indian character was so well known to me,
+that I did not fear they would play me any low tricks, or would
+treacherously attack me. Such was my conviction, that around my house I
+was never accompanied by day or by night. I traversed without fear all
+the forests and mountains, and I often even treated with these
+honourable bandits, as one power does with another, by not disdaining
+the invitations sometimes sent to me to come to a certain place, where,
+without fear of surprise, they could consult me, or even invoke my
+assistance. This sort of rendezvous was always held in the night, and
+in very lonely places. On their side, as well as on mine, a promise
+given of not doing any injury to each other was religiously observed.
+In these nocturnal conversations, held without witnesses, I often
+brought back to a life of peace mistaken men, whom the turbulence of
+youth had thrown into a series of crimes, which the laws would have
+visited with most severe punishment. Sometimes, however, I failed in my
+attempts, and especially when I had to do with proud and untameable
+characters, such as are to be found among men who never have had any
+other guide but natural instinct. One day, among others, I received a
+letter from a half-breed, a great criminal, who infested the
+neighbouring province of Laguna; he told me that he wished to see me,
+and begged me to come alone in the middle of the night to a wild spot,
+where he would also come alone: I did not hesitate to go to the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb173" href="#pb173">173</a>]</span>place
+appointed. I found him there as he had promised me. He told me that he
+wished to change his mode of life, and to dwell on my estate. He added,
+that he had never committed any crime against the Spaniards, but only
+against the Indians and the half-breeds. It would have been impossible
+for me to have received him without compromising myself. I proposed to
+place him in the house of a friar, where he might remain concealed for
+several years, until his crimes were forgotten, and then he could enter
+into society. After a moment&rsquo;s reflection, he replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, that would be to lose my liberty. To live as a slave! I
+would prefer to die.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I then proposed to him to go to Tapuzi, a place where the bandits,
+when hotly pursued, were enabled to conceal themselves with
+impunity.&mdash;(I shall very soon have occasion to speak of this
+village.)&mdash;The half-breed, with an insignificant gesture,
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No; the person I wish to take with me would not come there.
+You can do nothing for me, adieu!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He then pressed my hand, and we separated. Some days afterwards, a
+hut in which he was seen, near Manilla, was surrounded by the troops of
+the line. The bandit then caused the owners of the hut to quit it, and
+when he saw them out of danger he took his carabine and began firing
+upon the soldiers, who on their side returned the attack on the hut.
+When it was riddled with balls, and the bandit had ceased to defend
+himself, a soldier approached the hut and set fire to it, so great was
+the fear they entertained of then finding him alive.</p>
+
+<p>These nocturnal interviews having led me to mention Tapuzi, I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to this <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb174" href="#pb174">174</a>]</span>remarkable retreat, where men,
+when proscribed by the law, live together in a sort of accord and union
+of a most extraordinary kind.</p>
+
+<p>Tapuzi,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1751src" href="#xd0e1751">3</a>
+which in the Tagal language, signifies &ldquo;end of the world,&rdquo;
+is a little village, situate in the interior of the mountains, nearly
+twenty-five leagues from Jala-Jala. It was formed there by bandits and
+men who had escaped from the galleys, who live in liberty, govern
+themselves, and are altogether, on account of the inaccessible position
+which they occupy, safe from any pursuit which could be ordered against
+them by the Spanish government. I had often heard this singular village
+mentioned, but I had never met anyone who had visited it, or could give
+me any positive details relative to it. One day, therefore, I resolved
+to go thither myself. I stated my intention to my lieutenant, who
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, I shall find there, no doubt, some of my old
+comrades, and then we shall have nothing to fear.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Three of us set out together, under the pretext of quite a different
+journey. For two days we walked in the midst of mountains, by paths
+almost impracticable. The third day we reached a torrent, the bed of
+which was blocked up by enormous stones. This ravine was the only road
+by which we could get to Tapuzi; it was the natural and impregnable
+rampart which defended the village against the attack of the Spanish
+troops. My lieutenant had just told me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look, master, above your head. None but the inhabitants of
+Tapuzi know the paths which lead to the top of the mountains. All along
+the length of the ravine they have placed enormous stones, that they
+have only to push to throw them <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb175"
+href="#pb175">175</a>]</span>down upon those who should come to attack
+them; a whole army could not penetrate among them, if they wished to
+give any opposition.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I clearly saw that we were not in a very agreeable position, and
+against which, if the Tapuzians should consider us as enemies, we could
+oppose no defence. But we were involved in it, and there was no means
+of retreating, it was absolutely necessary to go to Tapuzi. We had been
+already more than an hour in this ravine when an immense block of stone
+fell down perpendicularly, and broke into pieces only twenty yards
+before us: it was a warning. We stopped, laid down our arms, and sat
+down. Perhaps just such another block as what had fallen was hanging
+over our heads, ready to crush us to pieces. We heard a scream near us.
+I told my lieutenant to proceed alone towards the direction it came
+from. In a few minutes he returned, accompanied by two Indians, who,
+confident in my pacific intentions towards them, came to fetch us, to
+take us to the village. We proceeded cheerfully on the remainder of the
+road until we reached the spot where ended the sort of funnel we were
+walking in. Upon this height there was to be seen a plain, some miles
+in circumference, surrounded by high mountains. The part that we were
+in was stopped up by enormous blocks of rocks, lying one on the top of
+the other. From behind stretched forth an abrupt threatening mountain,
+without any signs of vegetation&mdash;not unlike an ancient European
+fortress, that some magical power had raised in the midst of the high
+mountains that commanded it. With one glance I beheld the whole of the
+site we were crossing, and at the same time reflected upon the great
+varieties nature presents to our view. We soon reached the long
+wished-for object of our journey&mdash;the village of Tapuzi. It lies
+at the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb176" href=
+"#pb176">176</a>]</span>extreme end of a plain, composed of about sixty
+thatched huts, similar to those of the Indians. The inhabitants were
+all at their windows, to witness our arrival. Our guides conducted us
+to their chief, or <i>Matanda-sanayon</i>, a fine old man, from the
+look of his face about eighty years of age. He bowed affably to us, and
+addressed himself to me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How are you come here&mdash;as a friend, or is it
+curiosity&mdash;or do the cruel laws of the Spaniards perhaps compel
+you to seek refuge among us? If such is the case, you are welcome; you
+will find us brothers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I said to him; &ldquo;we do not come to stay among
+you. I am your neighbour, and lord of Jala-Jala. I am come to see you,
+to offer you my friendship, and to ask yours.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At the name Jala-Jala the old man looked quite astonished; he then
+said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is a long time since I heard you spoken of as an agent of
+the government for pursuing unfortunate men, but I have heard also that
+you fulfilled your mission with much kindness, and that often you were
+their protector, so be welcome.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After this first recognition they presented us some milk and some
+kidney potatoes, and during our repast the old man conversed freely
+with me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Several years ago,&rdquo; said he to me, &ldquo;at a period I
+cannot recollect, some men came to live in Tapuzi. The peace and safety
+they enjoyed made others imitate their example, who sought like
+themselves to avoid the punishment of some faults they had committed.
+We soon saw fathers of families, with their wives and children flock
+hither; this was the foundation of the small government that you see.
+Now here almost all is in common; some fields of kidney potatoes or
+Indian corn, and hunting, suffice for us; he who possesses anything
+gives <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb177" href=
+"#pb177">177</a>]</span>to him who has nothing. Almost all our clothing
+is knitted and woven by our wives; the abaca, or vegetable silk, from
+the forest supplies us the thread that is necessary; we do not know
+what money is, we do not require any. Here there is no ambition; each
+one is certain of not suffering from hunger. From time to time
+strangers come to visit us. If they are willing to submit to our laws,
+they remain with us; they have a fortnight of probation to go through
+before they decide. Our laws are lenient and indulgent. We have not
+forgotten the religion of our forefathers, and God no doubt will
+forgive me my first faults, on account of my efforts for so many years
+to promote his worship, and the well-being of my equals.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But,&rdquo; said I to him, &ldquo;who is your chief, who are
+your judges and priests?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is I,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;who fulfil all those
+functions. Formerly they lived like savages here. I was young, robust,
+and devoted to all my brothers. Their chief had just expired: I was
+chosen to replace him. I then took care to do nothing but what was
+just, and conducive to the happiness of those who confided in me. Until
+then they had devoted but little attention to religion: I wished to put
+my people in mind that they were born Christians. I appointed one hour
+every Sunday for us to pray together, and I have invested myself with
+all the attributes of a minister of the Gospel. I celebrate the
+marriages, I pour water upon the foreheads of the infants, and I offer
+consolations to the dying. In my youth, I was a chorister; I remembered
+the church ceremonies; and if I do not actually possess the necessary
+attributes for the functions I have given myself, I practise them with
+faith and love. This is the reason I trust that my good intentions will
+obtain my forgiveness from Him who is the Sovereign Lord of all.&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb178" href="#pb178">178</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>During the whole time of the old man&rsquo;s conversation I was in
+continual admiration. I was among people who had the reputation of
+living in the greatest licentiousness as thieves and robbers. Their
+character was altogether misunderstood. It was a real, great
+phalanstery, composed of brothers, almost all worthy of the name. Above
+all I admired this fine old man, who with moral principles and simple
+laws, had governed them for so many years. On the other hand, what an
+example that was of free men not being able to live without choosing a
+chief, and bringing one another back to the practice of virtuous
+actions!</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p178"><img border="0" src="images/p178.jpg"
+alt="Church of Pandacan, in the environs of Manilla." width="476"
+height="380">
+<p class="figureHead">Church of Pandacan, in the environs of
+Manilla.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I explained to the old man all my thoughts. I bestowed upon him a
+thousand praises for his conduct, and assured him that the Archbishop
+of Manilla would approve all the religious <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb179" href="#pb179">179</a>]</span>acts he performed with so noble
+an object. I even offered to intercede with the archbishop in his
+behalf, that he might send a pastor to assist him. But he replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, thank you, sir; never speak about us. We should certainly
+be glad to have a minister of the Gospel here, but soon, under his
+influence, we should be subjected to the Spanish government. It would
+be requisite for us to have money to pay our contributions. Ambition
+would soon creep in amongst us, and from the freedom which we now
+enjoy, we should gradually sink into a state of slavery, and should no
+longer be happy. Once more I entreat of you, do not speak of us: give
+me your word that you will not.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This argument appeared so just to me that I acquiesced to his
+request. I again gave him all the praise he deserved, and promised
+never to disturb the peace of the inhabitants of his village under any
+pretext whatever.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening we received visits from all the inhabitants,
+particularly from the women and children, who all had an immoderate
+curiosity to see a white man. None of the Tapuzian women had ever been
+out of their village, and had scarcely ever lost sight of their huts;
+it was not, therefore, astonishing that they were so curious.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I went round the plain, and visited the fields of
+kidney potatoes and Indian corn, the principal nourishment of the
+inhabitants. The old chief and some elderly people accompanied me. When
+we reached the spot where, upon the eve, I had already remarked
+enormous blocks of rock, the old man paused and told me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look yonder, Castilla.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1809src"
+href="#xd0e1809">4</a> At a time when the Tapuzians <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb180" href="#pb180">180</a>]</span>were without
+religion, and lived as wild beasts, God punished them. Look at all the
+part of that mountain quite stripped of vegetation: one night, during a
+tremendous earthquake, that mountain split in two&mdash;one part
+swallowed up the half of the village that then stood on the place where
+those enormous rocks are. A few hundred steps further on all would have
+been destroyed; there would no longer have existed a single person in
+Tapuzi: but a part of the population was not injured, and came and
+settled themselves where the village now is. Since then we pray to the
+Almighty, and live in a manner so as not to deserve so severe a
+chastisement as that experienced by the wretched victims of that awful
+night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The conversation and society of this old man&mdash;I might say the
+King of Tapuzi&mdash;was most interesting to me. But I had already been
+four days absent from <span class="corr" id="xd0e1816" title="Source:
+Jala-Jula">Jala-Jala</span>. I ordered my lieutenant to prepare for our
+departure. We bid most affectionate adieus to our hosts, and set off.
+In two days I returned home, quite pleased with my journey and the good
+inhabitants of Tapuzi. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb181" href=
+"#pb181">181</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p181"><img border="0" src="images/p181.jpg"
+alt="Hunting party at Jala-Jala." width="445" height="532">
+<p class="figureHead">Hunting party at Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1662src" id="xd0e1662">1</a></span> See Appendix, I.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1684src" id="xd0e1684">2</a></span> I experienced two such gales
+during my residence at Jala-Jala&mdash;the one I am now speaking of,
+and another to which I shall afterwards allude.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1751src" id="xd0e1751">3</a></span> Tapuzi is situated in the
+mountains of Limutan. Limutan is a Tagalese word, signifying
+&ldquo;altogether forgotten.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1809src" id="xd0e1809">4</a></span> In the eyes of the natives of
+Tagal all Europeans are Spaniards.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch9" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter IX.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Suppression of War between two Indian Towns&mdash;Flourishing
+Condition of Jala-Jala&mdash;Hospitality to Strangers&mdash;Field
+Sports&mdash;Bat and Lizard Shooting&mdash;Visit to, and Description
+of, the Isle of Socolme&mdash;Adventure with a
+Cayman&mdash;Cormorants&mdash;We Visit Los Banos&mdash;Monkey
+Shooting&mdash;Expedition to, and Description of, the Grotto of
+Sun-Mateo&mdash;Magnificent aspect of the Interior.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">I found Anna in great trouble, not only on account
+of my absence, but because, on the previous evening, information had
+been received that the inhabitants of the two largest towns <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb182" href="#pb182">182</a>]</span>in the
+province had, as it was stated, declared war against each other; the
+most courageous amongst them, to the number of three or four hundred on
+each side, had started for the island of Talem. There both parties, in
+the presence of each other, were upon the point of engaging in a
+battle; already, while skirmishing, several had been mortally
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>This news frightened Anna she knew that I was not a man who would
+await quietly at home the issue of the battle; she already fancied she
+saw me, with my ten guards, engaged in the thick of the fight, and
+perhaps a victim of my devotedness. I comforted her as I had always
+done, promising to be prudent, and not forget her; but there was not a
+moment to lose; it was necessary, at all risks, to try to put an end to
+a conflict that might no doubt cause the death of many men. How could I
+do so with my ten guards? Dare I pretend to impose my will as law on
+this vast multitude? Clearly not. To attempt to do it by force would be
+to sacrifice all: what was to be done? Arm all my Indians&mdash;but I
+had not boats enough to carry them to Talem: in this difficulty I
+decided upon setting out alone with my lieutenant. We took our arms,
+and set sail in a canoe, that we steered ourselves; we had scarcely
+come near the beach within hail of the shore, when some armed Indians
+called out to us to stand off, otherwise they would fire upon us.
+Without paying attention to this threat, my lieutenant and I, some
+minutes later, jumped boldly on shore, and after a few steps we found
+ourselves in the midst of the combatants.</p>
+
+<p>I went immediately up to the chiefs and addressed them,
+&ldquo;Wretched men,&rdquo; I said to them, &ldquo;what are you going
+to do? It is upon you who command that the severity of the law will
+fall. It is still time: try to deserve your pardon. Order your <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb183" href="#pb183">183</a>]</span>men to give
+me up their arms; lay down your own, or else in a few minutes I will
+place myself at the head of your enemies to fight against you. Obey, if
+not you will be treated as rebels.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>They listened attentively to me; they were half conquered. However,
+one of them made me this reply:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And if you take away our arms who will satisfy us that our
+enemies will not come to attack us?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I will,&rdquo; I told them; &ldquo;I give you my word; and if
+they do not obey me as you are going to do, I will return to you, I
+will give you back your arms, and will fight at your head.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>These words, said with a tone of authority and command, produced the
+effect I expected. The chiefs, without uttering a word, laid their arms
+at my feet. Their example was followed by all the combatants, and, in a
+moment, a heap of carabines, guns, spears, and cutlasses were laid down
+before me. I appointed ten among these individuals who had just obeyed
+me, gave them each a gun, and told them:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I confide to you the care of these arms. If anyone attempts
+to take possession of them, fire upon the assailants.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I pretended to take down their names, and went off to the opposite
+camp, where I found all the combatants on foot, ready to march and
+fight against their enemies. I stopped them, saying:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The battle is over&mdash;your enemies are disarmed. You, too,
+must give me up your arms, or else immediately embark in your canoes,
+and go home. If you do not obey me, I will give back their arms
+instantly to your opponents, and I will put myself at their head to
+fight against you. Perform what I command you; I promise you all shall
+be forgotten.&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb184" href=
+"#pb184">184</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>There was no room for hesitation. The Indians knew that I did not
+allow much time for reflection, and that my threats and chastisements
+followed each other closely. Shortly after, they all embarked in their
+canoes. I remained on the beach alone, with my lieutenant, until I had
+almost lost sight of this small fleet. I then returned to the other
+camp, where I was impatiently expected. I announced to the Indians they
+had no longer any enemies, and that consequently they could go back
+quietly to their village.</p>
+
+<p>But a few days elapsed, as may be seen, without my having new
+dangers to encounter. I was accustomed to them: I relied upon my star,
+and triumphed from all my imprudences. My Indians were blindly
+submissive to me. I was so certain of their fidelity, that I no longer
+took against them the precautions which I considered necessary during
+the first year of my residence at Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>My Anna took part every day more and more in my labours, anxieties,
+and even in some of my dangers. Would it have been possible not to have
+loved her with deeper affection, than that which one feels for a
+companion leading a peaceful and insignificant life? With what gladness
+she received me after the shortest absence! Joy and satisfaction shone
+on her face, her caresses were as a balsam that healed all my
+lassitude, and even the reproaches she addressed me so gently, for the
+uneasiness I had caused her, fell upon my heart us drops of
+beatitude.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p185"><img border="0" src="images/p185.jpg"
+alt="Cascade near Jala-Jala." width="484" height="688">
+<p class="figureHead">Cascade near Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Jala-Jala was most flourishing; immense fields of rice, sugar-cane,
+and coffee, had taken the place of woods and forests unproductive in
+themselves. Rich pasture-grounds were covered with numerous flocks; and
+a fine Indian village stood in the centre of the labouring-ground.
+Here, there was everywhere <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb185" href=
+"#pb185">185</a>]</span>to be seen plenty, activity; and joy smiled on
+the countenances of all the inhabitants. My own dwelling had become the
+rendezvous, or resorting-place, of all the travellers arriving at
+Manilla, and a refuge of convalescence of many patients, who would come
+and breath the good and mild air of Jala-Jala, as well as enjoy its
+pleasures and amusements. Under that roof there was no distinction, no
+difference; all were equals in our eyes, <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb186" href="#pb186">186</a>]</span>whether French, Spanish, English,
+American. No matter to what nation belonged those who landed at
+Jala-Jala, they were received like brothers, and with all that cordial
+hospitality <span class="corr" id="xd0e1873" title="Source: to to">
+to</span> be found formerly in our colonies. My visitors enjoyed full
+and active liberty on my little estate; but he who was not desirous of
+eating alone was obliged to remember the time of meals: during the
+other hours of the day one and all followed their own inclinations. For
+instance, naturalists went in pursuit of insects and birds, and made an
+ample harvest of every species of plants. Persons ailing met with the
+assiduous care of a physician, as well as with the kind attention and
+enjoyed the company of a most amiable and well-informed mistress of the
+house, who had the natural talent of enchanting all those who spent but
+a short time in her society. They who liked walking might look about
+for the fine views, and choose their resting-place either in the woods,
+the mountains, near the cascades or the brooks, or on the beautiful
+borders of the lake.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p186"><img border="0" src="images/p186.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere in his hunting dress." width="513" height="720">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere in his hunting dress.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But to sportsmen Jala-Jala was really a &ldquo;promised land;&rdquo;
+there they always found a good pack of hounds, Indians to guide them,
+good stout horses to carry them across the various mountains and
+plains, where the stag and wild boar were to be met with most
+plentifully; and were they desirous of less fatiguing exercise, they
+only had to jump into some of our light canoes, and skim over the blue
+waters, shooting on their way at the hosts of aquatic birds flying
+around them in all directions,&mdash;they could even land on the
+various small islands situated between Jala-Jala and the isle of Talem.
+There they could find a sort of sport utterly unknown in
+Europe&mdash;that is, immense bats, a species of vampire, designated by
+naturalists by the name of <i>roussettes</i>. During six months in the
+year, at <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb187" href=
+"#pb187">187</a>]</span>the period of the eastern monsoon, every tree
+on these little isles is covered, from the topmost down to the lowest
+branch, with those huge bats, that supply the place of the foliage
+which they have entirely destroyed. Muffled up in their vast wings they
+sleep during the whole day, and in the nighttime they start off in
+large bodies roaming about in search of their prey. But as soon as the
+western monsoon has succeeded the eastern, they disappear, and repair
+always to the same place,&mdash;the eastern coast of Luzon, where they
+take shelter; after the monsoon changed, they return to their former
+quarters.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as our guests would alight upon one of these islands, they
+opened their fire, and continued it till&mdash;frightened by so many
+explosions and the screams of the wounded, clinging to and hanging from
+the branches&mdash;the bats would fly away in a body&mdash;<i>en
+masse</i>. For some time they would whirl and turn round and round like
+a dense cloud over their abandoned home, imitating, in a most perfect
+way, those furies we see in certain engravings representing the
+infernal regions, and then, flying off a short distance, would perch
+upon the trees in a neighbouring isle. If the sportsmen were not
+over-fatigued by the slaughter they might then follow them, and set-to
+again; but they generally found they had made victims enough, and
+diversified their pleasure by picking up the slain from under the
+trees. The bat shooting over, our sportsmen would then proceed to a new
+sport&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="lgouter ">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;To fresh fields and pastures new;&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>that is, in pursuit of and shooting at the iguanas, a large species
+of lizard, measuring from five to six feet long, which infest the rocks
+on the borders of the lake. Tired of firing <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb188" href="#pb188">188</a>]</span>without being obliged to show
+any skill, our chasseurs would re-embark in their pirogues and row in
+search of new amusement,&mdash;this was, to shoot at the eagles that
+came hovering over their heads. Here skill was requisite, as well as a
+prompt, sure glance of the eye, as it is only with ball that these
+enormous birds of prey can be reached. Our fowlers would then return
+home, with their boats full of game; and everyone, of course, had his
+own feats of prowess to relate.</p>
+
+<p>The flesh of the iguana and the bat is savoury and delicate; but as
+for its taste, that entirely depends upon the imagination, as may here
+be seen.</p>
+
+<p>After returning from one of these grand shooting excursions to the
+minor islands, a young American informed me that his friends and he
+himself were most desirous of tasting the iguana and the bat; so,
+supposing them all to be of the same mind, I ordered my <i>
+ma&icirc;tre-d&rsquo;h&ocirc;tel</i> to prepare for dinner a curry of
+iguana and a ragout of bats. The first dish served round at dinner was
+the curry, of which they one and all partook with very good appetite;
+upon which I ventured to say: &ldquo;You see the flesh of the iguana is
+most delicate.&rdquo; At these words all my guests turned pale, and
+they all, by a sudden motion, pushed their plates from before them, not
+even being able to swallow what their mouths contained. I was therefore
+obliged to order the removal of the <i>entr&eacute;es</i> of iguana and
+bats before we could proceed with the repast.</p>
+
+<p>When it was in my power, I would accompany my guests in their
+excursions, and then the chase was abundant and full of interest,
+because I ever took care to guide them towards places abounding in game
+and very picturesque. Sometimes I would take them to the isle of
+Socolme, a still more curious place indeed than the bat islands.
+Socolme is a circular lake&mdash;<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb189"
+href="#pb189">189</a>]</span>being one league in circumference&mdash;in
+the midst of the great lake of Bay, from which it is separated by a
+cordon or ribbon of land; or, to express myself better, by a mountain
+which rises to an elevation of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet; the
+centre of the mountain at the summit is occupied by the lake of
+Socolme, and is evidently the crater of an extinct volcano. Both sides
+are completely covered with large trees of luxuriant growth. It is on
+the border of the small lake&mdash;where the Indians never go, through
+fear of the caymans&mdash;that almost all the aquatic birds of the
+grand lake resort to lay their eggs. Every tree, white with the guano
+which they deposit there, is covered with birds&rsquo;-nests, full of
+eggs and birds of every size and age.</p>
+
+<p>One day, in company of my brother and Mr. Hamilton Lindsay,<a class=
+"noteref" id="xd0e1923src" href="#xd0e1923">1</a> an Englishman, who
+was as fearless an explorer as ourselves, I started from the
+plantation, with the intention of having some light canoes carried
+across the high ground which separates the Socolme lake from the lake
+of Bay, and of using them on the lake; and, after overcoming many
+difficulties, we, by the assistance of our Indians, carried out this
+project.</p>
+
+<p>We were the first tourists that ever ventured to expose our lives on
+this Socolme lake. The Indians who had come with us refused most
+decidedly to enter the boats, and exerted all their eloquence to
+prevent us from going on the water. They spoke to us thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are going, for no good purpose, to expose yourselves to
+very great dangers, against which you have no means of defence, for
+before you have gone far you will see thousands of <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb190" href="#pb190">190</a>]</span>caymans rising
+out of the deep water; they will come to attack you, and what can you
+oppose to those ferocious and invulnerable monsters? Your guns and
+bullets cannot wound them. And as for escape by rowing quickly, that is
+not possible. In their own element they swim much faster than your
+canoes, and when they come up to you they will turn your boats
+up-side-down with far more ease than you can drive it along; and then
+the frightful scene will begin, from which you cannot
+escape.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was much good sense in what they said, and there can be no
+doubt that it was most imprudent of us to embark in a little frail
+canoe, and to make a trip over a lake inhabited by such numbers of
+caymans, and especially since it was to be feared that the lake did not
+supply fish enough to satisfy their voracity; and of course when
+enraged by hunger they were more to be dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>But we were never deterred by dangers or difficulties; so, taking no
+account of the prognostics of my prudent Indians, we, while they were
+delivering their long speeches, had lashed together two canoes for
+greater security.</p>
+
+<p>We had not proceeded many yards from the bank, when we all
+experienced feelings of alarm, attributable, no doubt, to the
+expectation of danger being immediate, as well as to the aspect of the
+place which presented itself to our view.</p>
+
+<p>We were down in the deepest part of a gulf, surrounded by lofty and
+precipitous mountains, which were externally covered with very thick
+vegetation. They, on all sides, presented a barrier, through which it
+was impossible to pass. The shadows which they cast over the water, at
+the extreme point of the lake, produced the effect of half darkness,
+which, in conjunction with the silence prevailing in that dismal
+solitude, gave it an aspect so dreary and saddening, as to produce in
+us most painful <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb191" href=
+"#pb191">191</a>]</span>feelings; each of us as it were, struck with
+terror, kept his thoughts to himself, and no one spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Our canoes went on, moving farther and farther from the brink from
+which we had embarked; and it glided easily over the glassy sheet of
+water, which is never agitated by even the roughest gales, and does not
+receive the rays of the sun except when that luminary is at the
+zenith.</p>
+
+<p>The silence in which we were absorbed was suddenly broken by the
+appearance of a cayman, which raised its hideous head, and opened its
+enormous jaws, as if about to swallow the canoes, as it darted after
+us.</p>
+
+<p>The moment was come; the grand drama announced by the Indians was
+about to be realised, or all our fears would be dissipated without any
+delay. There was not one instant to be spared, and we had no choice but
+to try and escape as fast as we could, for the enemy was gaining on us,
+and it would be madness to await his attack. I was steering, and I
+exerted myself to the utmost to get away from the danger and to escape
+to the shore. But the amphibious beast was approaching so fast that he
+could almost seize us, when Lindsay, running all risks, fired his gun
+direct at the brute.</p>
+
+<p>The effect produced by the detonation was prodigious, for, as it
+were by enchantment, it dispelled all our apprehensions. The awful
+silence was broken in the most striking manner; the cayman was
+frightened, and sank abruptly to the bottom of the lake; hundreds of
+echoes resounded from all sides, like the discharges of a rifle corps,
+and these were repeated to the tops of the mountains, while clouds of
+cormorants, starting from all the trees around, uttered their screaming
+and piercing cries, in which they were joined by the Indians, who
+shouted with joy on seeing from the bank <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb192" href="#pb192">192</a>]</span>the flight of the hostile beast,
+of which they are always so much afraid.</p>
+
+<p>All then became tranquil, and we proceeded at our leisure. From time
+to time a cayman made his appearance; but the explosions caused by our
+firing soon drove the monsters down into the deepest parts of the lake,
+more frightened than hurt, for even when we struck them our balls
+rebounded from their scales without piercing them.</p>
+
+<p>We went close to the large trees, the branches of which were
+spreading over the water; they were thickly covered with nests, filled
+with eggs, and so great a quantity of young birds, that we not only
+captured as many as we wished, but could have filled several boats with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The cormorants, alarmed by the explosions we made, whirled over us
+continually, like an immense cloud, during the time we troubled their
+gloomy abode, and seemed to &ldquo;disturb their solitary reign;&rdquo;
+but they did not wish to go far from their nests, in which their young
+broods were crying out for parental care.</p>
+
+<p>After we had rowed round the lake, we came to the spot from which we
+started, having ended our expedition happily without any accident, and
+even without having incurred all the dangers that our Indians, who were
+awaiting our return in order to take our boats once more across the
+mountain, had wished to make us believe.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved not to finish the excursion without producing some
+beneficial results for the sake of scientific knowledge, we measured
+the circumference of the lake, which we found to be about two miles and
+a-half. We were able to take soundings in the deepest parts towards the
+middle, where we found the depth about three hundred feet; while at
+some few fathoms <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb193" href=
+"#pb193">193</a>]</span>from the banks we found it was invariably one
+hundred and eighty feet. And here the remark may be made, that in no
+part of the great Lake of Bay has the depth been found to exceed
+seventy-five feet; from which it may be concluded, as we have
+previously stated, that the lake of Socolme is formed within the crater
+of an extinct volcano, its waters having percolated or filtered through
+from the outer lake of Bay.</p>
+
+<p>From Socolme I took my guests to Los Banos, at the foot of a
+mountain, several thousand feet high, from which several springs of
+boiling water flow into the lake, and, mixing with its waters, produce
+every temperature to be desired in a natural bath. There also, on the
+hill, we were sure to meet with good and plentiful sport. Wild pigeons
+and beautiful doves, perched upon majestic trees, &ldquo;mistrustful of
+their doom,&rdquo; allowed our sportsmen to approach very near, and
+they never returned from &ldquo;the baths&rdquo; without having
+&ldquo;bagged&rdquo; plenty of them.</p>
+
+<p>Upon our appointed days of relaxation from labour, we would go into
+the neighbouring woods, and wage war on the monkeys, our
+harvest&rsquo;s greatest enemies. As soon as a little dog, purposely
+brought up to this mode of warfare, warned us by his barkings that
+marauders were in sight, we repaired to the spot, and then the firing
+was opened. Fright seized hold on the mischievous tribe, every member
+of which hid itself in its tree, and became as invisible as it possibly
+could. But the little dog would not leave his post, while we would turn
+round the tree, and never failed discovering the hidden inmate. We then
+commence the attack, not ceasing until pug was laid prostrate. After
+having made several victims, I sent them to be hung up on forks around
+the sugar-cane fields, as scarecrows to those that had escaped; I,
+however, always sent the largest <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb194"
+href="#pb194">194</a>]</span>one to Father Miguel, our excellent
+curate, who was very fond of a monkey ragout.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I would take my guests to a distance of several
+days&rsquo; march, to show them admirable views, cascades, grottoes, or
+those wonders of vegetation produced by the fertile nature of the
+Philippines.</p>
+
+<p>One day, Mr. Lindsay, the most intrepid traveller I had ever known,
+and who had recently accompanied me to the lake of Socolme, proposed to
+me to go with him to the grotto of San-Mateo, a place that several
+travellers and myself had visited more than once, but always in so
+incomplete a manner, that we had only been able to explore a small
+portion of it. I was too well pleased with the proposal not to accept
+it with eagerness; but this time I resolved that I would not return
+from this expedition, as I had from former ones, without having made
+every possible effort to explore its dimensions and recesses. Lindsay,
+Dr. Genu, and my brother, participated in my resolution of verifying
+whether or not there was any semblance of truth in what the Indians
+related concerning that grotto; or if, as I had so often experienced it
+myself, their poetic minds did not create what had never existed. Their
+old Indian traditions attributed to that cavern an immense extent.
+There, they would say, are to be seen fairy palaces, with which nothing
+could be compared, and which were the residences of fantastical beings.
+Determined, then, on seeing with our own eyes all these wonders, we set
+out for San-Mateo, taking with us an Indian, having with him a crowbar
+and a couple of pickaxes, to dig us out a way, should we have the
+chance of prolonging our subterraneous walk beyond the limits which we
+all already knew. We also took with us a good provision of flambeaus,
+so necessary to put our project <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb195"
+href="#pb195">195</a>]</span>into execution. We arrived early at
+San-Mateo, and spent the remaining part of the day in visiting
+admirable views and situations in the neighbourhood. We also went down
+into the bed of a torrent that takes its source in the mountains, and
+passes through the north side of this district; there we saw several
+Indians, male and female, all busy in washing the sand in search of
+gold-dust. Their daily produce at this work varies from one to ten
+francs; this depends on the more or less fortunate vein that perchance
+they fall on. This trade, together with the tilling of land&mdash;to be
+equalled by no other in fertility&mdash;and hewing timber for building,
+which is to be found most plentifully on the neighbouring mountains, is
+all the wealth of the inhabitants, who, in most part, live in abundance
+and prosperity.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p195"><img border="0" src="images/p195.jpg"
+alt="View at San-Mateo." width="473" height="384">
+<p class="figureHead">View at San-Mateo.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb196" href=
+"#pb196">196</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>At the next day&rsquo;s dawn we were on our way to the grotto, which
+is about two hours&rsquo; walk from the village. The road, which is
+bordered by nature&rsquo;s most beautiful productions in vegetation,
+traverses the finest rice plantations, and is of most easy access;
+however, about half-way, it suddenly becomes dangerous and even
+difficult. Here we leave the cultivated fields, and follow along the
+banks of the river, which flows in the midst of not very high
+mountains, and has so many bends, twistings, and meanderings, that, in
+order to cross it, it is necessary at almost every moment to have
+recourse to swimming, and then to take the narrow paths leading from
+its margin. Nothing, until at a very short distance from the grotto,
+interrupts the monotony of these rural sites and situations. The
+traveller plods his way through a gorge, or ravine, where upon all
+sides the view is bounded by rocks, and a long line of verdant
+vegetation, composed of the shrubs that cover the hills. But through a
+vast winding, or rather turning, made by the river, the eye is suddenly
+dazzled by the splendid panorama that seems to develop itself and move
+on with fairy magnificence. Let the reader imagine that he is standing
+at the base of two immense mountains, resembling two pyramids in their
+form, both equally alike and similar in height. The space that
+intervenes between them allows the eye to plunge into the distance, and
+to discover there a tableau, a picture, or view, which is impossible to
+be described. Between the two monster mountains the river has found an
+issue, and there the traveller beholds it at his feet, precipitating
+itself like an impetuous torrent in the midst of white marble rocks.
+The water, both limpid and glossy, seems to play with every object that
+impedes its course; at one moment it will form a noisy cascade, and
+then suddenly disappear at the foot of an enormous rock, and soon <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb197" href="#pb197">197</a>]</span>after
+appear again, bubbling and foaming, just as if some supernatural
+strength had worked it from the bowels of the earth. Farther on, and in
+forming itself into a continuous number of minor cascades, this same
+river flows, with a vast silvery surface, over a bed of marble, as
+white and as brilliant as alabaster, and falls upon others of still
+equal whiteness. Finally, after having passed over all difficulties,
+all dangers, it flows with much more modesty over a humble bed, where
+may be seen the reflection of the admirable vegetation its banks are
+embellished with.</p>
+
+<p>The famous grotto is situated in the mountain on the right side of
+the river, which the traveller crosses over by jumping from one block
+of marble to another; and then, after having ascended a steep height of
+about two hundred yards, he finds himself at the entrance to the
+grotto, whither I shall conduct the reader step by step.</p>
+
+<p>The entrance, the form of which is almost regular, represents pretty
+well the portico of a church, with a full arch, adorned with verdant
+festoons, composed of creeping plants and bind-weeds. When the visitor
+has once passed under the portico he enters into a large and spacious
+hall, studded with stalactites of a very yellowish colour, and there a
+dense crowd of bats, frightened by the light of the torches, fly out
+with great noise and precipitation. For about a hundred paces, in
+advancing towards the interior, the vault continues to be very lofty,
+and the gallery is spacious; but suddenly the former declines
+immensely, and the latter becomes so narrow that it scarce admits of a
+passage for one man, who is obliged to crawl on his hands and knees to
+pass through, and continue in this painful position for about a hundred
+yards. And now the gallery becomes wide again, and the vault rises
+several feet <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb198" href=
+"#pb198">198</a>]</span>high. But here, again, a new difficulty soon
+presents itself, and which must be overcome; a sort of wall, three or
+four yards high, must be climbed over, and immediately behind which
+lies a most dangerous subterraneous place, where two enormous
+precipices, with open mouths on a level with the ground, seem ready to
+swallow up the imprudent traveller, who, although he have his torch
+lighted, would not walk, step by step, and with the greatest
+precaution, through this gloomy labyrinth. A few stones thrown into
+these gulfs attest, by the hollow noise produced by their falling to
+the bottom, that they are several hundred feet deep. Then the gallery,
+which is still wide and spacious, runs on without presenting anything
+remarkable till the visitor arrives on the spot where the last
+researches stopped at. Here it seems to terminate by a sort of rotunda,
+surrounded by stalactites of divers forms, and which, in one part,
+represents a real dome supported by columns. This dome looks over a
+small lake, out of which a murmuring stream flows continually into the
+precipices already described. It was here that we began our serious
+investigations, desirous of ascertaining if it were possible to prolong
+this subterraneous peregrination. We dived several times into the lake
+without discovering anything favourable to our desires; we then
+directed our steps to the right, examining all the while, by the light
+of our torches, the smallest gaps to be seen in the sides of the
+gallery, when at last, after many unsuccessful attempts, we discovered
+a hole through which a man&rsquo;s arm could scarcely pass. By
+introducing a torch into it, how great was our surprise to see within
+it an immense space, studded with rock-crystal. I need not add that
+such a discovery inspired us with the greatest desire of more closely
+examining that which we had but an imperfect view of. We therefore set
+our Indian to work <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb199" href=
+"#pb199">199</a>]</span>with his pick-axe, to widen the hole and make a
+passage for us; his labour went on slowly, he struck his blows gently
+and cautiously, so as to avoid a falling-in of the rock, which would
+not only have marred our hopes, but would, besides, have caused a great
+disaster. The vault of rocks suspended over our heads might bury us all
+alive, and, as will be seen by the sequel, the precautions we had taken
+were not fruitless. At the very moment when our hopes were about to be
+realised,&mdash;the aperture being now wide enough to admit of us
+passing through it&mdash;suddenly, and above our heads, we heard a
+hollow prolonged rustling noise that froze us to death; the vault had
+been shaken, and we dreaded its falling upon us. For a moment, which
+seemed to us, however, very long, we were all terrified; the Indian
+himself was standing as motionless as a statue, with his hands upon the
+handle of his pick-axe, just in the same position as he was when he
+gave his last blow. After a moment&rsquo;s solemn silence, when our
+fright had a little subsided, we began to examine the nature of the
+danger we had just escaped. Above our heads a long and wide split ran
+along the vault to a distance of several yards, and, at the place where
+it stopped, an enormous rock, detached from the dome, had been most
+providentially impeded in its fall downwards by one of the columns,
+which, acting as a sort of buttress, kept it suspended over the opening
+we had just made. Having, after mature examination, ascertained that
+the column and the rock were pretty solid, like rash men, accustomed to
+daunt all danger and surmount any sort of obstacle and difficulty, we
+resolved upon gliding one by one into the dangerous yawning. Dr. Genu,
+who till then had kept a profound silence, on hearing of our resolution
+was suddenly seized with such a panic fear that he recovered his voice,
+imploring and begging of us to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb200"
+href="#pb200">200</a>]</span>take him out of the cavern; and, as if he
+had been suddenly seized with a sort of vertigo, he told us, with
+interrupted accents, that he could not breathe&mdash;that he felt
+himself as if he were smothering&mdash;that his heart was beating so
+violently, were he to stay any longer amidst the dangers we were
+running he was certain of dying from the effects of a rupture of the
+heart. He offered all he possessed on earth to him who would save his
+life, and with clasped hands he supplicated our Indians not to forsake
+him, but to guide him out of the place. We therefore took compassion
+upon his state of mind, and allowed the Indian to guide him out; but as
+soon as the latter returned, and having ascertained during his absence
+that neither the rocky fragment nor the column had stirred, but which
+had been the momentary cause of our alarm, we put our project into
+execution, and like serpents, one after the other, we crawled into the
+dangerous opening, which was scarcely large enough for our passing
+through. We soon ceased thinking of our past dangers, nor did our
+present imprudence much pre-occupy our minds, all our attention being
+entirely absorbed by what presented itself to our ravished eyes. Here
+we were in the midst of a saloon wearing a most fairy aspect, and, by
+the light of our torches, the vault, the floor, and the wall were
+shining and dazzling, as if they had been covered over with the most
+admirably transparent rock-crystal. Even in some places did the hand of
+man seem to have presided over the ornamenting of this enchanted
+palace. Numberless stalactites and stalagmites, as pellucid as the
+limpid stream that has just been seized by the frost, assumed here and
+there the most fantastic forms and shapes&mdash;they represented
+brilliant draperies, rows of columns, lustres, and chandeliers. At one
+end, close to the wall, was to be seen an altar, with steps leading up
+to it, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb201" href=
+"#pb201">201</a>]</span>which seemed to be in expectation of the priest
+to celebrate divine service. It would be impossible for my pen to
+describe everything that transported us with joy, and drew forth our
+admiration; we really imagined ourselves to be in one of the Arabian
+Nights&rsquo; palaces, and the Indians themselves were far from
+guessing the one-half of the wonders we had just discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Having left this dazzling palace, we continued our underground
+ramble, penetrating more and more into the bowels of the earth,
+following step by step a winding labyrinth, but which for a whole
+half-league offered nothing remarkable to our view, except now and then
+the sight of the very great dangers our undauntable curiosity urged us
+on to. In certain parts the vault no longer presented the aspect of
+being as solid as stone, earth alone seemed to be its component parts;
+and here and there, recent proofs of falling-in showed us that still
+more considerable ones might take place, and cut off from us all means
+of retreat. Nevertheless we pushed on still, far beyond our present
+adventurous discovery, and at last arrived at a new, magnificent, and
+extensive space, all bespangled, like the first, with brilliant
+stalactites, and in no way inferior to the former in the gorgeous
+beauty of its details. Here again we gave ourselves up to the most
+minute examination of the many wonders surrounding us, and which shone
+like prisms by the light of our torches. We gathered from off the
+ground several small stalagmites, as large and as round as hazel-nuts,
+and so like that fruit, when preserved, that some days later, at a ball
+at Manilla, we presented some of them to the ladies, whose first
+movement was to put them to their mouth; but soon finding out their
+mistake, they entreated to be allowed to keep them, to have them, as
+they said, converted into ear-ring drops. <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb202" href="#pb202">202</a>]</span>Having fully enjoyed the beautiful
+and brilliant spectacle presented to our eyes, we now began to feel the
+effects of hunger and fatigue. We had been walking in this
+subterraneous domain to the extent of more than three miles, had taken
+no rest or refreshment since morning, and the day was already far
+advanced.</p>
+
+<p>I have often experienced that our moral strength decreases in
+proportion as our physical strength does; and of course we must have
+been in that state when sinister suppositions took possession of our
+imaginations. One of our party communicated to us a reflection he had
+just made&mdash;which was, that a falling-in might have taken place
+between us and the issue from the grotto; or, what appeared still more
+probable, that the enormous rock, that was suspended and buttressed up
+by the column, might have fallen down, and thus bar up all passage
+through the hole we had so rashly made. Had such a misfortune happened
+to us, what a horrible situation we should have been in! We could hope
+for no help from without, even from our friend Genu, who, as we had
+witnessed, had been so upset by fear; so that, rather than suffer the
+anguish and die the death of the wretch buried alive in a sepulchre,
+our poignards must have been our last resource.</p>
+
+<p>All these reflections, which we analysed and commented upon, one by
+one, made us resolve upon returning, and leaving to others, more
+imprudent than ourselves, if any there be, the care of exploring the
+space we had still to travel over. We soon got over the ground that
+separated us from the place we had most to dread. Providence had
+favoured and protected us&mdash;the large fragment of rock, that object
+of all our fears, was still propped up. One after the other did we
+squeeze ourselves through the narrow opening, avoiding as much as
+possible the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb203" href=
+"#pb203">203</a>]</span>least friction, till at last we had all passed
+through. Joyous indeed were we on seeing ourselves out of danger after
+so perilous an enterprise, and we were already beginning to direct our
+steps towards the outlet of the cavern, when suddenly a hollow,
+prolonged noise, and below our feet a rapid trembling excited once more
+all our fears. But those fears were soon calmed by our Indian, who came
+running towards us at full speed, brandishing in his hand his pick-axe.
+The imprudent fellow, unwilling to sacrifice it, had waited till we
+were some paces distant, and then pulling it to him most forcibly,
+while all the while he took good care to keep quickly moving away, when
+thanks to Providence, or to his own nimbleness, he was not crushed to
+atoms by the fragment of the rock, which, being no longer buttressed up
+by the column that had been shaken, had fallen to the ground,
+completely stopping up the issue through which we had passed one after
+the other: so that no doubt no one, after us, will be able to penetrate
+into the beautiful part of that grotto which we had just passed through
+so fortunately. After this last episode we no longer hesitated in
+returning, and it was with great delight that we beheld once more the
+great luminary of the world, and found our friend Genu sitting upon a
+block of marble, reflecting on our long absence, and, at the same time,
+on our unqualifiable temerity. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb204"
+href="#pb204">204</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p204"><img border="0" src="images/p204.jpg"
+alt="Dumont d&rsquo;Urville." width="301" height="334">
+<p class="figureHead">Dumont d&rsquo;Urville.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1923src" id="xd0e1923">1</a></span> While this work was in the
+press, Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, who has already published an account of
+his &ldquo;Voyage to the Northern Ports of China,&rdquo; kindly
+furnished the Publishers with confirmatory proofs of M. de la
+Gironiere&rsquo;s narrative, see Appendix, No. II.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch10" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter X.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Dumont d&rsquo;Urville&mdash;Rear-Admiral Laplace: Desertion of
+Sailors from his Ship&mdash;I recover them for him&mdash;Origin of the
+Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands&mdash;Their General
+Disposition&mdash;Hospitality and Respect for Old Age&mdash;Tagal
+Marriage Ceremony&mdash;Indian Legal Eloquence&mdash;Explanation of the
+Matrimonial Speeches&mdash;The Caymans, or Alligators&mdash;Instances
+of their Ferocity&mdash;Imprudence and Death of my
+Shepherd&mdash;Method of entrapping the Monster which had devoured
+him&mdash;We Attack and eventually Capture it&mdash;Its
+Dimensions&mdash;We Dissect and Examine the Contents of its
+Stomach&mdash;Boa-Constrictors&mdash;Their large size&mdash;Attack of a
+Boa-Constrictor on a Wild Boar&mdash;We Kill and Skin
+it&mdash;Unsuccessful Attempt to capture a Boa-Constrictor
+alive&mdash;A Man Devoured&mdash;Dangerous Venomous Reptiles.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">I shall perhaps be accused of exaggeration for what
+I say of the enjoyments and emotions of my existence at Jala-Jala:
+nevertheless I adhere to the strict truth, and it would be very easy
+for me to cite the names of many persons in support of the truth of all
+my narrative. Moreover, the various travellers who have spent some time
+at my habitation have published, in their works, the tableau or recital
+of my existence <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb205" href=
+"#pb205">205</a>]</span>in the midst of my dear Indians, who were all
+so devoted to me. Among other works, I shall cite &ldquo;The Voyage
+Round the World,&rdquo; by the unfortunate Dumont d&rsquo;Urville; and
+that of Rear-Admiral Laplace, in each of which works will be found a
+special article dedicated to Jala-Jala.<a class="noteref" id=
+"xd0e2024src" href="#xd0e2024">1</a></p>
+
+<p>Since I have named M. Laplace, I shall here relate a little anecdote
+of which he was the hero, and which will show to what a degree my
+influence was generally considered and looked up to in the province of
+Lagune.</p>
+
+<p>Several sailors, belonging to the crew of the frigate commanded by
+M. Laplace, had deserted at Manilla, and, notwithstanding all the
+searches that the Spanish government had caused to be made, it was
+found impossible to discover the hiding-place of five of them. M.
+Laplace coming to pay a few weeks&rsquo; visit to my little domain, the
+governor said to him: &ldquo;If you wish to find out your men you have
+only to apply to M. Gironiere&mdash;no one will discover them if he do
+not; convey to him my orders to set out immediately in pursuit of
+them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at my habitation M. Laplace communicated to me this
+order, but I was too independent to think of executing it: my business
+and occupation had nothing to do with deserters. A few days afterwards
+a captain, accompanied by about a hundred soldiers, under his orders,
+arrived at Jala-Jala, to inform M. Laplace that he had scoured the
+province without being able to obtain the least news of the deserters,
+whom he had been looking after for the last fortnight; at which news M.
+Laplace was very much grieved, and coming to me, said: &ldquo;M. de la
+Gironiere, I perceive I shall be obliged to sail without the hands that
+have deserted, if you yourself will not look after <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb206" href="#pb206">206</a>]</span>them. I therefore
+beg and beseech of you to sacrifice a little of your time, and render
+me that important service.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This entreaty was no order: it was a prayer, a supplication, that
+was addressed to me, consequently I took but little time to reply as
+follows: &ldquo;Commander, in one hour hence I shall be on my way, and
+before forty-eight hours are expired you shall have your men
+here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! take care,&rdquo; replied he; &ldquo;mind, you have to do
+with more than rough fellows: do not therefore expose your life, and
+should they perchance make any resistance, give them no quarter, but
+fire on them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes afterwards, accompanied by my faithful lieutenant and
+one soldier, I crossed over the lake, and went in the direction where I
+thought that the French sailors had taken refuge. I was soon on their
+track; and on the second day afterwards I fulfilled the promise I had
+made Commander Laplace, and delivered up to him his five deserters
+against whom I had been obliged to employ neither violence nor
+fire-arms.</p>
+
+<p>I have already had the occasion of speaking about the Tagalocs, and
+describing their disposition. However, I have not yet entered into the
+necessary details to make well known a population so submissive to the
+Spaniards, and whose primitive origin never can be anything but
+hypothesis&mdash;yea, a true problem.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable, and almost incontestible, that the Philippine
+Islands were primitively peopled by aborigines, a small race of negroes
+still inhabiting the interior of the forests in pretty large numbers,
+called Ajetas by the Tagalocs, and N&eacute;gritos by the Spaniards.
+Doubtless at a very distant period the Malays invaded the shores, and
+drove the indigenous population into the interior beyond the mountains;
+afterwards, whether by accidents <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb207"
+href="#pb207">207</a>]</span>on sea, or desirous of availing themselves
+of the richness of the soil, they were joined by the Chinese, the
+Japanese, the inhabitants of the archipelago of the South Seas, the
+Javanese, and even the Indians. It must not, then, be wondered at, that
+from the mixture proceeding from the union of these various people, all
+of unequal physiognomy, there have risen the different <i>nuances</i>,
+distinctions and types; upon which, however, is generally depicted
+Malay physiognomy and cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>The Tagal is well made, rather tall than otherwise. His hair is
+long, his beard thin, his colour brass-like, yet sometimes inclining to
+European whiteness; his eye expanded and vivacious, somewhat <i>
+&aacute; la Chinoise</i>; nose large; and, true to the Malay race, his
+cheek bones are high and prominent. He is passionately fond of dancing
+and music; is, when in love, very loving; cruel towards his enemies;
+never forgives an act of injustice, and ever avenges it with his
+poignard, which&mdash;like the kris with the Malays&mdash;is his
+favourite weapon. Whenever he has pledged his word in serious business,
+it is sacred; he gives himself passionately to games of hazard; he is a
+good husband, a good father; jealous of his wife&rsquo;s honour, but
+careless of his daughter&rsquo;s; who, despite any little <i>
+faux-pas</i>, meets with no difficulty in getting a husband.</p>
+
+<p>The Tagal is of very sober habits: all he requires is water, a
+little rice, and salt-fish. In his estimation an aged man is an object
+of great veneration; and where there exists a family of them in all
+periods of life, the youngest is naturally most subservient to the
+eldest.</p>
+
+<p>The Tagal, like the Arab, is hospitably inclined, without any
+sentiment of egotism, and certainly without any other idea than that of
+relieving suffering humanity: so that when a stranger appears before an
+Indian hut at meal-time, were the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb208"
+href="#pb208">208</a>]</span>poor Indian only to have what was strictly
+necessary for his family, it is his greatest pleasure to invite and
+press the stranger to take a place at his humble board, and partake of
+his family cheer. When an old man, whose days are dwindling to the
+shortest span, can work no longer, he is sure to find a refuge, an
+asylum, a home, at a neighbour&rsquo;s, where he is looked upon as one
+of the family. There he may remain till he is called to &ldquo;that
+bourne from whence no traveller returns.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p208"><img border="0" src="images/p208.jpg"
+alt="A Tagal Indian Dwelling." width="479" height="385">
+<p class="figureHead">A Tagal Indian Dwelling.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Amongst the Tagals the marriage ceremony is somewhat peculiar. It is
+preceded by two other ceremonies, the first of which is called <i lang=
+"tl">Tain manoc</i>, Tagal words, signifying or meaning &ldquo;the cock
+looking after his hen.&rdquo; Therefore, when once a young man has
+informed his father and mother that he has a predeliction for a young
+Indian girl, his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb209" href=
+"#pb209">209</a>]</span>parents pay a visit to the young girl&rsquo;s
+parents upon some fine evening, and after some very ordinary chat the
+mamma of the young man offers a piaster to the mamma of the young lady.
+Should the future mother-in-law accept, the young lover is admitted,
+and then his future mother-in-law is sure to go and spend the very same
+piaster in betel and cocoa-wine. During the greater portion of the
+night the whole company assembled upon the occasion chews betel, drinks
+cocoa-wine, and discusses upon all other subjects but marriage. The
+young men never make their appearance till the piaster has been
+accepted, because in that case they look upon it as being the first and
+most essential step towards their marriage.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p209"><img border="0" src="images/p209.jpg"
+alt="Young Tagal Indian and his Betrothed." width="336" height="427">
+<p class="figureHead">Young Tagal Indian and his Betrothed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb210" href=
+"#pb210">210</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>On the next day the young man pays a visit to the mother, father,
+and other relatives of his affianced bride. There he is received as one
+of the family; he sleeps there, he lodges there, takes a part in all
+the labours, and most particularly in those labours depending upon the
+young maid&rsquo;s superintendence. He now undertakes a service or task
+that lasts, more or less, two, three, or four years, during which time
+he must look well to himself; for if anything be found out against him
+he is discarded, and never more can pretend to the hand of her he would
+espouse.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards did their best to suppress this custom, on account of
+the inconveniencies it entailed. Very often the father of a young girl,
+in order to keep in his service a man who cost him nothing, keeps on
+this state of servitude indefinitely, and sometimes dismisses him who
+has served him for two or three years, and takes another under the same
+title of <i lang="fr">pr&eacute;tendant</i>, or lover. But it also
+frequently happens that if the two lovers grow impatient for the
+celebration of the marriage ceremony&mdash;for &ldquo;hope deferred
+maketh the heart sick,&rdquo;&mdash;some day or other the girl takes
+the young man by the hair, and presenting him to the curate of the
+village, tells him she has just run away with her lover, therefore they
+must be married. The wedding ceremony then takes place without the
+consent of the parents. But were the young man to carry off the young
+girl, he would be severely punished, and she restored to her
+family.</p>
+
+<p>If all things have passed off in good order, if the lover has
+undergone two or three years of voluntary slavery, and if his future
+relations be quite satisfied with his conduct and temper, then comes
+the day of the second ceremony, called <i lang="tl">Tajin-bojol</i>,
+&ldquo;the young man desirous of tying the union knot.&rdquo; <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb211" href="#pb211">211</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>This second ceremony is a grand festival-day. The relations and
+friends of both families are all assembled at the bride&rsquo;s house,
+and divided into two camps, each of which discusses the interests of
+the young couple; but each family has an advocate, who alone has the
+right to speak in favour of his client. The relations have no right to
+speak; they only make, in a low tone of voice, to their advocate, the
+observations they think fit.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian woman never brings a marriage portion with her. When she
+takes a husband unto herself she possesses nothing; the young man alone
+brings the portion, and this is why the young girl&rsquo;s advocate
+speaks first, and asks for it, in order to settle the basis of the
+treaty.</p>
+
+<p>I will here set before my readers the speeches of two advocates in a
+ceremony of this kind, at which I had the curiosity to be present. In
+order not to wound the susceptibility of the parties, the advocates
+never speak but in allegorical terms, and at the ceremony which I
+honoured with my presence the advocate of the young Indian girl thus
+began:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A young man and a young girl were joined together in the holy
+bands of wedlock; they <span class="corr" id="xd0e2103" title="Source:
+possesed">possessed</span> nothing&mdash;nay, they had not even a
+shelter. For several years the young woman was very badly off. At last
+her misfortunes came to an end, and one day she found herself in a fine
+large cottage that was her own. She became the mother of a pretty
+little babe, a girl, and on the day of her confinement there appeared
+unto her an angel, who said to her:&mdash;&lsquo;Bear in mind thy
+marriage, and the time of penury thou didst go through. The child that
+has just been born unto thee will I take under my protection. When she
+will have grown up and be a fine lass, give her but to him who will
+build her up a temple, where <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb212" href=
+"#pb212">212</a>]</span>there will be ten columns, each composed of ten
+stones. If thou dost not execute these my orders thy daughter will be
+as miserable as thou hast been thyself.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After this short speech, the adverse advocate
+replied:&mdash;&ldquo;Once upon a time there lived a queen, whose
+kingdom lay on the sea-side. Amongst the laws of her realm there was
+one which she followed with the greatest rigour. Every ship arriving in
+her states&rsquo; harbour could, according to that law, cast anchor but
+at one hundred fathoms deep, and he who violated the said law was put
+to death without pity or remorse. Now it came to pass one day that a
+brave captain of a ship was surprised by a dreadful tempest, and after
+many fruitless endeavours to save his vessel, he was obliged to put
+into the queen&rsquo;s harbour, and cast anchor there, although his
+cable was only eighty fathoms long, for he preferred death on the
+scaffold to the loss of his ship and crew. The enraged queen commanded
+him to her audit chamber. He obeyed, and throwing himself at her feet,
+told her that necessity alone had compelled him to infringe upon the
+laws, and that, having but eighty fathoms long, he could not possibly
+cast out a hundred, so he besought her most graciously to pardon
+him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And here ended his speech, but the other advocate took it up, and
+thus went on:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The queen, moved to pity by the prayer of the suppliant
+captain, and his inability to cast his anchor one hundred fathoms deep,
+instantly pardoned him, and well did she devise.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On hearing these last words joy shone upon every countenance, and
+the musicians began playing on the guitar. The bride and bridegroom,
+who had been waiting in an adjoining chamber, now made their
+appearance. The young man took from off his neck his rosary, or string
+of beads, put it round <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb213" href=
+"#pb213">213</a>]</span>the young girl&rsquo;s neck, and took back hers
+in lieu of the one he had given her. The night was spent in dancing and
+merriment, and the marriage ceremony&mdash;just as Christian-like as
+our own&mdash;was arranged to take place in a week.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now, just as I heard it myself, give the explanation of the
+advocates&rsquo; speeches, which I did not entirely understand. The
+bride&rsquo;s mother had married without a wedding portion on her
+husband&rsquo;s side, so she had gone through very adverse and pinching
+circumstances. The temple that the angel had told her to demand for her
+daughter was, a house; and the ten columns, composed of ten stones
+each, signified that with the house a sum of one hundred piasters would
+be requisite&mdash;that is, twenty pounds sterling.</p>
+
+<p>The speech of the young man&rsquo;s advocate explained that he would
+give the house, as he said nothing about it; but, being worth only
+eighty piasters, he threw himself at the feet of the parents of his
+betrothed, that the twenty piasters which he was minus, might offer no
+obstacle to his marriage. The pardon accorded by the queen signified
+the grace shown to the young man, who was accepted with his eighty
+piasters only.</p>
+
+<p>The servitude which precedes matrimony, and of which I have spoken,
+was practised long before the conquest of these isles by the Spaniards.
+This would seem to prove the origin I attribute to the Tagalocs, whom I
+believe to be descended from the Malays, and these latter, being all
+Mussulmans, would naturally have preserved some of the ancient
+patriarchal customs.</p>
+
+<p>Believing that I have sufficiently described the Indians and their
+habits, I will now introduce to my readers two species of monsters that
+I have often bad occasion to observe, mid even to combat&mdash;the one
+a denizen of forests, the boa constrictor; <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb214" href="#pb214">214</a>]</span>the other of lakes and rivers,
+the cayman or alligator. At the period at which I first occupied my
+habitation, and began to colonise the village of Jala-Jala, caymans
+abounded on that side of the lake. From my windows I daily saw them
+sporting in the water, and waylaying and snapping at the dogs that
+ventured too near the brink. One day, a female servant of my
+wife&rsquo;s, having been so imprudent as to bathe at the edge of the
+lake, was surprised by one of them, a monster of enormous size. One of
+my guards came up at the moment she was being carried off; he fired his
+musket at the brute, and hit it under the fore-leg, or arm-pit, which
+is the only vulnerable part. But the wound was insufficient to check
+the cayman&rsquo;s progress, and it disappeared with its prey.
+Nevertheless, this little bullet hole was the cause of its death; and
+here it is to be observed, that the slightest wound received by the
+cayman is incurable. The shrimps which abound in the lake get into the
+orifice, gradually their number increases, until at last they penetrate
+deep into the solid flesh, and into the very interior of the body. This
+is what happened to the one which devoured my wife&rsquo;s maid. A
+month after the frightful occurrence the cayman was found dead upon the
+bank, five or six leagues from my house. Some Indians brought back to
+me the unfortunate woman&rsquo;s earrings, which they had found in the
+monster&rsquo;s stomach.</p>
+
+<p>Upon another occasion, a Chinese was riding onwards in advance of
+me. We reached a river, and I let him go on alone, in order to
+ascertain whether the river was very deep or not. Suddenly, three or
+four caymans which lay in waiting under the water, threw themselves
+upon him; horse and rider disappeared, and for some minutes afterwards
+the water was tinged with blood. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb215"
+href="#pb215">215</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was curious to obtain a near view of one of these voracious
+animals, and, at the time when they frequented the vicinity of my
+house, I made several attempts to accomplish my wishes. One night I
+baited a huge hook, secured by a chain and strong cord, with an entire
+sheep. Next morning, sheep and chain had disappeared. I lay in wait for
+the creatures with my gun, but the bullets rebounded, half flattened
+upon their scales, without doing the slightest injury. One evening that
+a large dog of mine had died, belonging to a race peculiar to the
+Philippines, and exceeding in size any of the canine species of Europe,
+I had his carcass dragged to the shore of the lake, and hid myself in a
+little thicket, with my gun ready cocked, in the event of any cayman
+presenting itself to carry off the bait. Presently I fell asleep; when
+I awoke, the dog had disappeared, the cayman, luckily for me, not
+mistaking his prey.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of a few years&rsquo; time, these monsters had
+disappeared from the environs of Jala-Jala; but one morning, when out
+with my shepherds, at some leagues&rsquo; distance from my house, we
+came to a river, which could only be crossed by swimming. One of my
+people said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, the water is deep here, and we are in the courses
+where the caymans abound; an accident soon happens, let us try further
+up the river, and pass over in a shallower spot.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We were about to follow this advice, when another man, more rash
+than his comrades, said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid of caymans!&rdquo;
+and spurred his horse into the stream. He had scarcely got half-way
+across, when we perceived a monstrous cayman rise and advance to meet
+him. We uttered a warning shout, the Indian himself perceived the
+danger, threw himself from his horse, and swam for the bank with all
+his strength. He had already reached it, but imprudently stopped behind
+the trunk <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb216" href=
+"#pb216">216</a>]</span>of a tree that had been felled by the force of
+the current, and where he had the water up to his knees. Believing
+himself secure, he drew his cutlass, and watched the movements of the
+cayman, which, meanwhile, had reached the horse just as, the Indian
+quitted the animal. Rearing his enormous head out of the water, the
+monster threw himself upon the steed and seized him by the saddle. The
+horse made a violent effort, the girths broke, and thus enabled him to
+reach the shore. Soon, however, finding that his prey had escaped, the
+cayman dropped the saddle, and made towards the Indian. We perceived
+this movement, and quickly cried out: &ldquo;Run, run, or the cayman
+will have you!&rdquo; The Indian, however, would not stir, but calmly
+waited, cutlass in hand. The monster advanced towards him; the Indian
+struck him a blow on the head, which took no more effect than a flip of
+the fingers would have on the horns of a bull. The cayman made a
+spring, seized him by one of his thighs, and for more than a minute we
+beheld my poor shepherd&mdash;his body erect above the surface of the
+water, his hands joined, his eyes turned to heaven, in the attitude of
+a man imploring Divine mercy&mdash;dragged back again into the lake.
+The drama was over: the cayman&rsquo;s stomach was his tomb. During
+these agonizing moments, we all remained silent, but no sooner had my
+poor shepherd disappeared than we all swore to avenge him.</p>
+
+<p>I caused to be made three nets of strong cords, each <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e2143" title="Source: of of">of</span> which nets was
+large enough to form a complete barrier across the river. I also had a
+hut built, and put an Indian to live in it, whose duty was to keep
+constant watch, and to let me know as soon as the cayman returned to
+the river. He watched in vain, for upwards of two months, but at the
+end of that time he came and told me that the monster had seized <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb217" href="#pb217">217</a>]</span>a horse,
+and had dragged it into the river to devour at leisure. I immediately
+repaired to the spot, accompanied by my guards, and by my priest, who
+positively would see a cayman hunt, and by an American friend of mine,
+Mr. Russell,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2148src" href="#xd0e2148">2</a>
+who was then staying with me. I had the nets spread at intervals, so
+that the cayman could not escape back into the lake. This operation was
+not effected without some acts of imprudence; thus, for instance, when
+the nets were arranged, an Indian dived to make sure that they were at
+the bottom, and that our enemy could not escape by passing below them.
+But it might very well have happened that the cayman was in the
+interval between the nets, and so have gobbled up my Indian.
+Fortunately everything passed off as we wished. When all was ready, I
+launched three pirogues, strongly fastened together, side by side, with
+some Indians in the centre, armed with lances, and with long bamboos,
+with which they could touch the bottom. At last, all measures having
+been taken to attain my end, without risk of accident, my <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e2151" title="Source: indians">Indians</span> began to
+explore the river with their long bamboos.</p>
+
+<p>An animal so formidable in size as the one we were in search of,
+could not hide himself very easily, and soon we beheld him on the
+surface of the river, lashing the water with his long tail, snapping
+and clattering with his jaws, and endeavouring to get at those who
+disturbed him in his retreat. A universal shout of joy greeted his
+appearance; the Indians in the pirogues hurled their lances at him,
+whilst we, upon either shore of the lake, fired a volley. The bullets
+rebounded from the monster&rsquo;s scales, which they were unable to
+penetrate; the keener lances made their way between the scales, <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb218" href="#pb218">218</a>]</span>and entered
+into the cayman&rsquo;s body some eight or ten inches. Thereupon he
+disappeared, swimming with incredible rapidity, and reached the first
+net. The resistance it opposed turned him back; he re-ascended the
+river, and again appeared on the top of the water. This violent
+movement, broke the staves of the lances which the Indians had stuck
+into him, and the iron alone remained in the wounds. Each time that he
+appeared the firing recommenced, and fresh lances were plunged into his
+enormous body. Perceiving, however, how ineffectual firearms were to
+pierce his cuirass of invulnerable scales, I excited him by my shouts
+and gestures, and when he came to the edge of the water, opening his
+enormous jaws all ready to devour me, I approached the muzzle of my gun
+to within a few inches, and fired both barrels, in the hope that the
+bullets would find something softer than scales in the interior of that
+formidable cavern, and that they would penetrate to his brain. All was
+futile. The jaws closed with a terrible noise, seizing only the fire
+and smoke that issued from my gun, and the balls flattened against his
+bones without injuring them. The animal, which had now become furious,
+made inconceivable efforts to seize one of his enemies; his strength
+seemed to increase, rather than to diminish, whilst our resources were
+nearly exhausted. Almost all our lances were sticking in his body, and
+our ammunition drew to an end. The fight had lasted more than six
+hours, without any result that could make us hope for its speedy
+termination, when an Indian struck the cayman, whilst at the bottom of
+the water, with a lance of unusual strength and size. Another Indian,
+at his comrade&rsquo;s request, struck two vigorous blows with a mace
+upon the but-end of the lance; the iron entered deep into the
+animal&rsquo;s body, and immediately, with a movement as swift as
+lightning, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb219" href=
+"#pb219">219</a>]</span>he darted towards the nets and disappeared. The
+lance pole, detached from the iron head, returned to the surface of the
+water; for some minutes we waited in vain for the monster&rsquo;s
+re-appearance; we thought that his last effort had enabled him to reach
+the lake, and that our chase would result fruitlessly. We hauled in the
+first net, a large hole in which convinced us that our supposition was
+correct. The second net was in the same condition as the first.
+Disheartened by our failure, we were hauling in the third, when we felt
+a strong resistance. Several of the Indians began to drag it towards
+the bank, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb220" href=
+"#pb220">220</a>]</span>and presently, to our great joy, we saw the
+cayman upon the surface of the water. He was expiring. We threw over
+him several lassos of strong cords, and when he was well secured, we
+drew him to land. It was no easy matter to haul him up on the bank; the
+strength of forty Indians hardly sufficed. When at last we had got him
+completely out of the water, and had him before our eyes, we stood
+stupified with astonishment, for it was a very different thing to see
+his body thus and to see him swimming, when he was fighting against us.
+Mr. Russell, a very competent person, was charged with his
+measurements. From the extremity of his nostrils to the tip of his
+tail, he was found to be twenty-seven feet long, and his circumference
+was eleven feet, measured under the arm pits. His belly was much more
+voluminous, but we thought it unnecessary to measure him there, judging
+that the horse upon which he had breakfasted must considerably have
+increased his bulk.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p219"><img border="0" src="images/p219.jpg"
+alt="Attacking the Cayman." width="483" height="456">
+<p class="figureHead">Attacking the Cayman.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This process at an end, we took counsel as to what we should do with
+the dead cayman. Every one gave his opinion. My wish was to convey it
+bodily to my residence, but that was impossible; it would have required
+a vessel of five or six tons burthen, and we could not procure such a
+craft. One man wanted the skin, the Indians begged for the flesh, to
+dry it, and use it as a specific against asthma. They affirm, that any
+asthmatic person who nourishes himself for a certain time with this
+flesh, is infallibly cured. Somebody else desired to have the fat, as
+an antidote to rheumatic pains; and, finally, my worthy priest demanded
+that the stomach should be opened, in order to ascertain how many
+Christians the monster had devoured. Every time, he said, that a cayman
+eats a Christian he swallows a large pebble; thus, the number of
+pebbles <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb221" href=
+"#pb221">221</a>]</span>we should find in him would positively indicate
+the number of the faithful to whom his enormous stomach had afforded
+sepulture. To satisfy everybody, I sent for an axe wherewith, to cut
+off the head, which I reserved for myself, abandoning the rest of the
+carcass to all who had taken part in the capture. It was no easy matter
+to decapitate the monster. The axe buried itself in the flesh to
+half-way up the handle without reaching the bones; at last, after many
+efforts, we succeeded in getting the head off. Then we opened the
+stomach, and took out of it, by fragments, the horse which had been
+devoured by the monster that morning. The cayman does not masticate, he
+snaps off a huge lump with his teeth, and swallows it entire. Thus we
+found the whole of the horse, divided only into seven or eight pieces.
+Then we came to about a hundred and fifty pounds&rsquo; weight of
+pebbles, varying from the size of a fist to that of a walnut. When my
+priest saw this great quantity of stones:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is a mere tale,&rdquo; he could not help saying; &ldquo;it
+is impossible that this animal could have devoured so great a number of
+<span class="corr" id="xd0e2176" title="Source: Chrstians">
+Christians</span>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was eight o&rsquo;clock at night when we had finished the cutting
+up. I left the body to our assistants, and had the head placed in a
+boat to convey it to my house. I very much desired to preserve this
+monstrous trophy as nearly as possible in the state in which it then
+was, but that would have required a great quantity of arsenical soap,
+and I was out of that chemical. So I made up my mind to dissect it, and
+preserve the skeleton. I weighed it before detaching the ligaments; its
+weight was four hundred and fifty pounds; its length, from the nose to
+the first vertebr&aelig;, five feet six inches.</p>
+
+<p>I found all my bullets, which had become flattened against the bones
+of the jaws and palate as they would have done <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb222" href="#pb222">222</a>]</span>against a plate of iron.
+The lance thrust which had slain the cayman was a chance&mdash;a sort
+of miracle. When the Indian struck with his mace upon the but-end of
+the pole, the iron pierced through the nape, into the vertebral column,
+and penetrated the spinal marrow, the only vulnerable part.</p>
+
+<p>When this formidable head was well prepared, and the bones dried and
+whitened, I had the pleasure of presenting it to my friend Russell, who
+has since deposited it in the museum at Boston, United States.</p>
+
+<p>The other monster, of which I have promised a description, is the
+boa-constrictor. The species is common in the Philippines, but it is
+rare to meet with a specimen of very large dimensions. It is possible,
+nay probable, that centuries of time are necessary for this reptile to
+attain its largest size; and to such an age, the various accidents to
+which animals are exposed, rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas
+are consequently to be met with only in the gloomiest, most remote, and
+most solitary forests.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p222"><img border="0" src="images/p222.jpg"
+alt="A Wild Boar attacked by a Boa Constrictor." width="486" height=
+"720">
+<p class="figureHead">A Wild Boar attacked by a Boa Constrictor.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb222" class="pageref">222</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our
+European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my house,
+and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my bed.
+Several times, when passing through the woods with my Indians, I heard
+the piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot whence they
+proceeded, we almost invariably found a wild boar, about whose body a
+boa had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting him up into the
+tree round which it had coiled itself.</p>
+
+<p>When the wild boar had reached a certain height, the snake pressed
+him against a tree with a force that crushed his bones and stifled him.
+Then the boa let its prey fall, descended the tree, and prepared to
+swallow it. This last <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb223" href=
+"#pb223">223</a>]</span>operation was much too lengthy for us to await
+its end. To simplify matters, I sent a ball into the boa&rsquo;s head.
+My Indians took the flesh to dry it for food, and the skin to make
+dagger sheaths of. It is unnecessary to say that the wild boar was not
+forgotten, although it was a prey that had cost us but little trouble
+to secure. One day an Indian surprised one of these reptiles asleep,
+after it had swallowed an enormous deer. Its size was so great, that a
+buffalo waggon would have been necessary to transport it to the
+village. The Indian cut it in pieces, and contented himself with as
+much as he could carry off. Having been informed of this, I sent after
+the remains, and my people brought me a piece about eight feet long,
+and so large in circumference that the skin, when dried, enveloped the
+tallest man like a cloak. I presented it to my friend Hamilton
+Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>I had not yet seen any of these largest sized serpents alive, when,
+one afternoon, crossing the mountains with two of my shepherds, our
+attention was drawn to the constant barking of my dogs, which seemed to
+be assailing some animal that stood upon its defence. We at first
+thought that it was a buffalo that they had roused from its lair, and
+approached the spot with due caution. My dogs were dispersed along the
+brink of a deep ravine, in which was an enormous boa constrictor. The
+monster raised his head to a height of five or six feet, directing it
+from one edge to the other of the ravine, and menacing his assailants
+with his forked tongue; but the dogs, more active than he was, easily
+avoided his attacks. My first impulse was to shoot him; but then it
+occurred to me to take him alive, and to send him to France. Assuredly
+he would have been the most monstrous boa that had ever been seen
+there. To carry my design into execution we manufactured <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb224" href="#pb224">224</a>]</span>nooses of cane,
+strong enough to resist the efforts of the most powerful wild buffalo.
+With great precaution we succeeded in passing one of our nooses round
+the boa&rsquo;s neck; then we tied him tightly to a tree, in such a
+manner as to keep his head at its usual height&mdash;about six feet
+from the ground. This done, we crossed to the other side of the ravine,
+and threw another noose over him, which we secured like the first. When
+he felt himself thus fixed at both ends, he coiled and writhed, and
+grappled several little trees which grew within his reach along the
+edge of the ravine. Unluckily for him everything yielded to his
+efforts: he tore up the young trees by the roots, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb225" href="#pb225">225</a>]</span>broke off the
+branches, and dislodged enormous stones, round which he sought in vain
+to obtain the hold or point of resistance he needed. The nooses were
+strong, and withstood his almost furious efforts.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p224"><img border="0" src="images/p224.jpg"
+alt="Attacking the Boa-Constrictor." width="485" height="463">
+<p class="figureHead">Attacking the Boa-Constrictor.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To convey an animal like this, several buffaloes and a whole system
+of cordage were necessary. Night approached; confident in our nooses,
+we left the place, proposing to return next morning and complete the
+capture; but we reckoned without our host. In the night the boa changed
+his tactics, got his body round some huge blocks of basalt, and finally
+succeeded in breaking his bonds and getting clear off. When I had
+assured myself that our prey had escaped us, and that all search for
+the reptile in the neighbourhood would be futile, my disappointment was
+very great, for I much doubted if a like opportunity would ever present
+itself. It is only on rare occasions that accidents are caused by these
+enormous reptiles. I once knew of a man becoming their victim. It
+happened thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>This man having committed some offence, ran away, and sought refuge
+in a cavern. His father, who alone knew the place of his concealment,
+visited him occasionally to supply him with food. One day he found, in
+place of his son, an enormous boa sleeping. He killed it, and found his
+son in its stomach. The poor wretch had been surprised in the night,
+crushed to death, and swallowed. The curate of the village, who had
+gone in quest of the body to give it burial, and who saw the remains of
+the boa, described them to me as being of an almost incredible size.
+Unfortunately this circumstance happened at a considerable distance
+from my habitation, and I was only made acquainted with the particulars
+when it was too late to verify them myself: but still there is nothing
+surprising that a boa which can swallow a deer should as easily <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb226" href="#pb226">226</a>]</span>swallow a
+man. Several other feats of a similar nature were related to me by the
+Indians. They told me of their comrades, who, roaming about the woods,
+had been seized by boas, crushed against trees, and afterwards
+devoured; but I was always on my guard against Indian tales, and I am
+only able to verify positively the instance, I have just cited, which
+was related to me by the curate of the village, as well as by many
+other witnesses. Still there would be nothing surprising that a similar
+accident should occur more than once.</p>
+
+<p>The boa is one of the serpents the least to be feared among those
+infesting the Philippines. Of an exceedingly venomous description is
+one which the Indians call <i lang="tl">dajon-palay</i>, (rice leaf).
+Burning with a red-hot ember is the only antidote to its bite; if that
+be not promptly resorted to, horrible sufferings are followed by
+certain death. The <i lang="tl">alin-morani</i> is another kind<span
+class="corr" id="xd0e2232" title="Source: .">,</span> eight or ten feet
+long, and, if anything, more dangerous still than the &ldquo;rice
+leaf,&rdquo; inasmuch as its bite is deeper, and more difficult to
+cauterise. I was never bitten by any of these reptiles, despite the
+slight precaution I observed in wandering about the woods, by night as
+well as by day.</p>
+
+<p>Twice only I endangered myself: the first time was by treading upon
+a dajon-palay; I was warned by a movement under my foot. I pressed hard
+with that leg, and saw the snake&rsquo;s little head stretching out to
+bite me on the ankle; fortunately my foot was on him at so short a
+distance from his head that he could not get at me. I drew my dagger,
+and cut off his head. On another occasion, I noticed two eagles rising
+and falling like arrows amongst the bushes, always at the same place.
+Curious to see what kind of animal they were attacking, I approached
+the place; but no sooner had I done so, than an enormous alin-morani,
+furious with the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb227" href=
+"#pb227">227</a>]</span>wounds the eagles had inflicted on him,
+advanced to meet me. I retreated; he coiled himself up, gave a spring,
+and almost caught me on the face. By an instantaneous movement, I made
+a spring backwards, and avoided him; but I took care not to turn my
+back and run, for then I should have been lost. The serpent returned to
+the charge, bounding towards me; I again avoided him, and was trying,
+but in vain, to reach him with my dagger, when an Indian, who perceived
+me from a distance, ran up, armed with a stout switch, and rid me of
+him. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb228" href=
+"#pb228">228</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p228"><img border="0" src="images/p228.jpg"
+alt="Rice stacking in the Philippines." width="392" height="486">
+<p class="figureHead">Rice stacking in the Philippines.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2024src" id="xd0e2024">1</a></span> See Appendix III. and IV.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2148src" id="xd0e2148">2</a></span> Of the house of Russell and
+Sturges, a good and true friend, the recollection of whom, often
+present to my mind, will never be effaced.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch11" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter XI.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>The Prosperity and Happiness of my Life at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destructiveness of the Locusts&mdash;Agriculture in the
+Philippines&mdash;My Herds of Oxen, Buffaloes, and Horses&mdash;My Wife
+presents me with a Daughter, who Dies&mdash;The Admiration of the
+Indian Women for my Wife&mdash;Birth of my Son&mdash;Continued
+Prosperity&mdash;Death of my brother Henry&mdash;My Friendship with
+Malvilain&mdash;His Marriage with my eldest Sister&mdash;His Premature
+Death&mdash;I take my Wife to Manilla&mdash;Melancholy Adieus&mdash;We
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Death of my Wife&mdash;My friend
+Vidie&mdash;I determine to Return to France.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Never was life more actively spent, or more crowded
+with emotions, than the time I passed at Jala-Jala, but it suited my
+tastes and my character, and I enjoyed as perfect happiness <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb229" href="#pb229">229</a>]</span>as one can
+look for when far away from one&rsquo;s home and country. My Anna was
+to me an angel of goodness; my Indians were happy, peace and plenty
+smiled upon their families; my fields were covered with abundant <span
+class="corr" id="xd0e2255" title="Source: corps">crops</span>, and my
+pasturages with numerous herds. It was not, however, without great
+difficulty and much toil that I accomplished my aim; how often did I
+find all my courage and all my philosophy necessary to face, without
+despair, reverses which it was impossible for me to avoid? How often
+did I behold hurricanes and inundations destroy the fine harvest that I
+had protected with so much labour against the buffaloes, the wild
+boars, the monkeys, and even against an insect more destructive still
+than all the other pests which I have just mentioned&mdash;the locust,
+one of the plagues of Egypt, apparently transported into this province,
+and which almost regularly, every seven years, leave the isles of the
+south in clouds, and fall upon Luzon, bringing desolation, and often
+famine. It is indeed necessary to have witnessed this desolation to be
+able to form any idea of it. When the locusts arrive, a fire-coloured
+cloud is perceived in the horizon, formed of countless myriads of these
+destructive insects. They fly rapidly, often covering, in a closely
+packed body, a space of two or three leagues in diameter, and occupy
+from five to six consecutive hours in passing over head. If they
+perceive a fine green field they pounce down upon it, and in a few
+minutes all verdure has disappeared, the ground is stripped completely
+bare; they then continue their flight elsewhere, bearing on their wings
+destruction and famine. At evening it is in the forests, upon the
+trees, that they take shelter. They hang in such dense masses upon the
+ends of the boughs that they break down even the stoutest limbs from
+the trees. During the night, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb230" href=
+"#pb230">230</a>]</span>from the spot where they are reposing, there
+issues a continual croaking, and so loud a noise, that one scarcely
+believes it to be produced by so small an insect. The following morning
+they leave at day-break, and the trees upon which they have reposed are
+left stripped and broken, as though the lightning had swept the forest
+in every direction; they pursue their course elsewhere to commit fresh
+ravages. At certain periods they remain on vast plains or on fertile
+mountains; where, elongating the extremity of their bodies in the form
+of a gimblet, they pierce the earth to the depth of an inch and upwards
+to deposit their eggs. The operation of laying being completed, they
+leave the ground pierced like a sieve, and disappear, for their
+existence has now reached its termination. Three weeks afterwards,
+however, the eggs open, and myriads of young locusts swarm the earth.
+On the spot where they are born, whatever will serve them for food is
+quickly consumed. As soon as they have acquired sufficient strength
+they abandon their birth-place, destroy all kinds of vegetation that
+comes in their way, and direct their course to the cultivated fields,
+which they desolate until the period when <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb231" href="#pb231">231</a>]</span>their wings appear. They then take
+flight in order to devastate more distant plantations.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatLeft" id="p230" style="width: 285px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p230.jpg" alt="The Locust." width="285" height=
+"211">
+<p class="figureHead">The Locust.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As may be seen, agriculture in the Philippines presents many
+difficulties, but it also yields results that may be looked for in vain
+in any other country. During the years which are exempt from the
+calamities I have described the earth is covered with riches; every
+kind of colonial produce is raised in extraordinary abundance,
+frequently in the proportion of eighty to one, and on many plantations
+two crops of the same species are harvested in one year. The rich and
+extensive pasturages offer great facilities for raising a large number
+of cattle, which absolutely cost nothing but the trifling wages paid by
+the proprietor to a few shepherds.</p>
+
+<p>Upon my property I possessed three herds&mdash;one of three thousand
+head of oxen, another of eight hundred buffaloes, and the other of six
+hundred horses. At that period of the year when the rice was harvested,
+the shepherds explored the mountains, and drove these animals to a vast
+plain at a short distance from my dwelling. This plain was covered by
+these three species of domesticated animals, and presented, especially
+to the proprietor, an admirable sight. At night they were herded in
+large cattle-folds, near the village, and on the following day a
+selection was made of the oxen that were fit for slaughter, of the
+horses that were old enough for breaking-in, of the buffaloes that were
+strong enough to be employed in working. The herds were then re-driven
+to the plain, there to remain until night. This operation lasted during
+a fortnight, after which time the animals were set at liberty until the
+same period of the following year. When at liberty the herd divided
+itself into bands, and thus roamed about the mountains and the valleys
+they had previously quitted, the only trouble <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb232" href="#pb232">232</a>]</span>caused to the shepherds being
+an occasional ramble about the spots where the animals tranquilly
+grazed.</p>
+
+<p>Around me all was prosperity. My Indians were also happy, and
+entertained towards me a respect and obedience bordering on idolatry.
+My brother gave me every assistance in my labours, and when near my
+beloved Anna I forgot all the toils and the contrarieties I had
+experienced. About this time a new source of hope sprung up, which
+augmented the happiness I enjoyed with her, and made her dearer to me
+than ever. During several months the health of my wife had changed: she
+then found all the symptoms of pregnancy. We had been married twelve
+years, and she had never yet shown any signs of maternity. I was so
+persuaded that we should never have children that the derangement of
+her health was causing me serious uneasiness, when one morning as I was
+going to my work she said to me: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel well to-day,
+and I wish you to remain with me.&rdquo; Two hours afterwards, to my
+great surprise, she gave premature birth to a little girl, whose
+arrival no one expected. The infant was born before the due time, and
+lived only one hour, just sufficient to receive baptism, which I
+administered to her. This was the second human being that had expired
+in the house of Jala-Jala; but she was also the first that had there
+first drawn the breath of life. The regret which we all experienced
+from the loss was softened by the certainty that my dear Anna might
+again become a mother, under more favourable circumstances. Her health
+was speedily re-established, and she was again gay and beautiful as
+ever: indeed she appeared so handsome, that often Indian women came
+from a long distance for the sole purpose of looking at her. They would
+remain for half-an-hour gazing at her, and afterwards returned to their
+villages, where they gave birth to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb233"
+href="#pb233">233</a>]</span>creatures little resembling the model
+which they had taken such pains to observe, with a confidence
+approaching to simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually Anna exhibited new signs of maternity; her pregnancy went
+through the usual course, and her health was not much affected. In due
+time she presented me with a little boy, weakly and delicate, but full
+of life. Our joy was at the highest, for we possessed that which we had
+so long wished for, and that which alone was in my opinion wanting.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians were delighted with the birth, and for several days there
+was a round of rejoicings at Jala-Jala; and my Anna, although confined
+to bed, was obliged to receive visits, at first from all the women and
+maidens of the village, and afterwards from all the Indians who were
+fathers of families. Each brought some little present for the newly
+born, and the cleverest man of them was commissioned to express a
+compliment in the name of all; which comprised their best wishes for
+the happiness of the mother and child, and full assurances of the
+satisfaction they felt in thinking that they would one day be ruled
+over by the son of the master from whom they had experienced so much
+kindness, and who had conferred upon them such benefits. Their
+gratitude was sincere.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the accouchement of my wife brought a very numerous
+party of friends and relations to my house, where they waited for the
+baptism, which took place in my drawing-room. Anna, then almost
+thoroughly well, was present on the occasion: my son was named Henry,
+after his uncle. At this time I was happy; Oh, so truly happy! for my
+wishes were nearly gratified. There was but one not so&mdash;and that
+was to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb234" href=
+"#pb234">234</a>]</span>see again my aged mother and my sisters; but I
+hoped that the time was not far distant when I should realise the
+project of revisiting my native country. My farming speculation was
+most prosperous: my receipts were every year on the increase; my fields
+were covered with the richest crops of sugar-canes, to the cultivation
+of which, and of rice, I had joined that of coffee. My brother had
+taken upon himself the management of a very large plantation, which
+promised the most brilliant results; and appeared likely to secure the
+premium which the Spanish government had promised to give to the
+proprietor of a plantation of eighty thousand feet of coffee in
+product. But, alas! the period of my happiness had passed away, and
+what pain and what grief was I not doomed to suffer before I again saw
+my native country.</p>
+
+<p>My brother&mdash;my poor Henry&mdash;committed some imprudences, and
+was suddenly attacked with an intermittent fever, which in a few days
+carried him off.</p>
+
+<p>My Anna and I shed abundance of tears, for we both loved Henry with
+the warmest affection. For several years we had lived together; he
+participated in all our labours, our troubles, and our pleasures. He
+was the only relative I had in the Philippines. He had left France,
+where he had filled an honourable position, with the sole object of
+coming to see me, and of aiding me in the great task which I had
+undertaken. His amiable qualities and his excellent heart had endeared
+him to us: his loss was irreparable, and the thought that I had no
+longer a brother added poignancy to my bitter grief. Prudent, the
+youngest, had died at Madagascar; Robert, the next to me, died at La
+Planche, near Nantes, in the little dwelling where we spent our
+childhood; and my poor Henry at Jala-Jala. I erected a simple tomb for
+him near the door <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb235" href=
+"#pb235">235</a>]</span>of the church, and for several months Jala-Jala
+was a place of grief and mourning.</p>
+
+<p>We had scarcely begun, not indeed to console ourselves, but rather
+to bear with resignation the loss we had experienced, when a new
+dispensation of fate came to strike me to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>On my arrival in the Philippines, and while I resided at Cavite, I
+formed a close connection with Malvilain, a native of St. Malo, and
+mate of a ship from that port. During several years which he spent at
+Cavite our friendship was most intimate. A day seldom passed that we
+did not see each other, and two days never, for we were much attached.
+Our two ships were at anchor in the port, not far one from the other.
+One day as I was walking on deck, waiting for a boat to take me on
+board Malvilain&rsquo;s ship, I saw his crew at work in regulating one
+of the masts, when a rope suddenly snapped, and the mast fell with a
+frightful crash on the deck, in the midst of the men, amongst whom
+Malvilain was standing. From the deck of my own ship I beheld all that
+passed on that of my friend, who I thought was killed or wounded. My
+feelings were worked to the highest pitch of anguish and alarm; I could
+not control myself; I jumped into the water and swam to his ship, where
+I had the pleasure of finding him uninjured, although considerably
+stunned by the danger from which he had escaped. Wet as I was from my
+sea-bath I caught him in my arms, and pressed him to my heart; and then
+hastened to afford relief to some of the crew, who had not been so
+fortunate to escape without injury as he had been.</p>
+
+<p>Another time I was the cause of serious alarm to Malvilain. One day,
+a mass of black and thick clouds was gathered close over the point of
+Cavite, and a frightful&mdash;that is, a tropical&mdash;<span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb236" href="#pb236">236</a>]</span>storm burst. The
+claps of thunder followed each other from minute to minute, and before
+each clap the lightning, in long serpent-like lines of fire, darted
+from the clouds, and drove on to the point of Cavite, where it tore up
+the ground of the little plain situate at the extremity, and near which
+the ships were moored. Notwithstanding the storm I was going to see
+Malvilain, and was almost in the act of placing my foot on the deck of
+his vessel, when the lightning fell into the sea so near to me that I
+lost my breath. Instantly I felt an acute pain in the back, as if a
+burning torch had been laid between my shoulders. The pain was so
+violent, that the moment I recovered myself I uttered a sharp scream.
+Malvilain, who was within a few paces of me, felt very sensibly the
+electric shock which had struck me, and, on hearing my cry, imagined
+that I was dangerously hurt. He rushed towards me and held me in his
+arms until I was able to give every assurance of my recovery. The
+electric fluid had grazed me, but without causing any positive
+injury.</p>
+
+<p>I have related these two slight anecdotes to show the intimacy that
+subsisted between us, and how I afterwards suffered in my dearest
+affections.</p>
+
+<p>My existence has to this day, when I write these lines, been filled
+with such extraordinary facts, that I have been naturally led to
+believe that the destiny of man is regulated by an order of things
+which must infallibly be accomplished. This idea has had great
+influence over me, and taught me to endure all the evils which have
+afflicted me. Was it, then, my destiny which bound me to Malvilain, and
+bound him to me in the same manner? I have no doubt of it.</p>
+
+<p>Some days before the terrible scourge of the cholera broke out in
+the Philippines, Malvilain&rsquo;s ship set sail for France. <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb237" href="#pb237">237</a>]</span>With hearts
+oppressed with grief we separated, after promising each that we should
+meet again; but, alas! fate had ordained it otherwise. Malvilain
+returned home, went to Nantes to take the command of a ship, and there
+became acquainted with my eldest sister, and married her. This news,
+which reached me while I resided in Manilla, gave me the greatest
+satisfaction, for if I had had to choose a husband for my dear sister
+Emilie, this marriage was the only one to satisfy the wishes I had
+formed for the happiness of both.</p>
+
+<p>After his marriage Malvilain continued to sail from the port of
+Nantes. His noble disposition and his accurate knowledge of his duties
+caused him to be highly esteemed by the leading merchants. His affairs
+were in a state sufficiently good as not to require him to expose
+himself longer to the dangers of the sea, and he was on his last
+voyage, when, at the Mauritius, he was attacked by an illness, which
+carried him off, leaving my sister inconsolable, and with three very
+young girls to lament him.</p>
+
+<p>This fresh and irreparable loss, the news of which had then reached
+me, added to my grief for the sad death of my poor brother. Every
+calamity seemed to oppress me. After some years of happiness I saw, by
+little and little, disappear from this world, the persons on whom I had
+concentrated my dearest affections; but, alas! I had not even then
+reached the term of my sorrows, for other and most bitter sufferings
+were still to be passed through.</p>
+
+<p>I saw with pleasure my boy was enjoying the best health, and that he
+was daily increasing in strength; and yet I was far from being happy,
+and to the melancholy caused by the losses I had experienced was added
+another most fearful alarm. My beloved Anna had never thoroughly
+recovered <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb238" href=
+"#pb238">238</a>]</span>after her accouchement, and day by day her
+health was growing weaker. She did not seem aware of her state. Her
+happiness at being a mother was so great that she did not think of her
+own condition.</p>
+
+<p>I had gathered in my sugar-cane crop, which was most abundant, and
+my plantations were finished, when, wishing to procure some amusement
+for my wife, I proposed to go and spend some time at the house of her
+sister Josephine, for whom she entertained the warmest affection. She,
+with great pleasure, agreed to do so. We set out with our dear little
+Henry and his nurse, and took up our quarters at the house of my
+brother-in-law, Don Julian Calderon, then residing in a pretty
+country-house on the banks of the river Pasig, half a league from
+Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>Of the three sisters of my wife, Josephine was the one for whom I
+had the most affection: I loved her as I did my own sister. The day of
+our arrival was one of rejoicing. All our friends at Manilla came to
+see us, and Anna was so pleased in seeing our little Henry admired that
+her health seemed to have improved considerably; but this apparent
+amelioration lasted but a few days, and soon, to my grief, I saw that
+she was growing worse than ever. I sent for the only medical man in
+Manilla in whom I had confidence, my friend Genu. He came frequently to
+see her, and after six weeks of constant attention, he advised me to
+take her back to my residence near the lake, where persons attacked
+with the same malady as my dear Anna had often recovered. As she
+herself wished to return, I appointed a day for our departure. A
+commodious boat, with good rowers, was ready for us on the Pasig, at
+the end of my brother-in-law&rsquo;s garden; and a numerous assemblage
+of our friends accompanied us to the water&rsquo;s edge. The moment of
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb239" href=
+"#pb239">239</a>]</span>separation was one of most melancholy feelings
+to us all. The countenance of each seemed to ask: &ldquo;Shall we meet
+again?&rdquo; My sister-in-law Josephine, in a flood of tears, threw
+herself into Anna&rsquo;s arms. I had great difficulty in separating
+them; but we were obliged to set out. I took my wife into the boat, and
+then those two sisters, who had always maintained towards each other
+the most tender love, addressed with their voices their last adieus,
+while promising not to be long separated, and that they would see each
+other very soon.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p239"><img border="0" src="images/p239.jpg"
+alt="View on the River Pasig." width="468" height="376">
+<p class="figureHead">View on the River Pasig.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Those painful adieus and the sufferings of my wife caused the trip,
+which we had often previously made with the greatest gaiety, to be
+melancholy and silent. On our arrival, I did not look on Jala-Jala with
+the usual feelings of satisfaction. I had my poor patient placed in
+bed, and did not quit her room, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb240"
+href="#pb240">240</a>]</span>hoping by my continual care to afford her
+some relief in her sufferings. But, alas! from day to day the malady
+made fearful progress. I was in despair. I wrote to Josephine, and sent
+a boat to Manilla for her to come and take care of her sister, who was
+most anxious to see her. The boat returned without her; but a letter
+from kind-hearted Josephine informed me that she was herself
+dangerously ill, and confined to her room, and could not even leave her
+bed; that she was very sorry for it, but I might assure Anna that they
+would soon be re-united, never again to be separated.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty days&mdash;longer to me than a century&mdash;had scarcely
+elapsed since our return to Jala-Jala than all my hopes vanished. Death
+was approaching with rapid strides, and the fatal moment was at hand
+when I was to be separated from her whom I loved with such intensity.
+She preserved her senses to the last, and saw my profound melancholy,
+and my features altered by grief; and finding her last hour was near,
+she called me to her, and said: &ldquo;Adieu, my beloved Paul, adieu.
+Console thyself&mdash;we shall meet again in Heaven! Preserve thyself
+for the sake of our dear boy. When I shall be no more, return home to
+thy own country, to see thy aged mother. Never marry again, except in
+France, if thy mother requires thee to do so. Do not marry in the
+Philippines, for thou wilt never find a companion here to love thee as
+I have loved.&rdquo; These words were the last which this good and
+gentle angel spoke. The most sacred ties, the tenderest and purest
+union, were then severed&mdash;my Anna was no more! I held her lifeless
+body clasped in my arms, as if I hoped by my caresses to recall her to
+life; but, alas! her destiny was decided!</p>
+
+<p>It required absolute force to tear me from the precious remains
+which I pressed against my heart, and to draw me <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb241" href="#pb241">241</a>]</span>into a neighbouring room,
+where my son was. While I pressed him convulsively to my breast, I
+wished to weep; but my eyes were tearless, and I was insensible to the
+caresses even of my poor child.</p>
+
+<p>The strongest constitution cannot resist the fatigue of fifty days
+of constant watching and uneasiness; and the state of annihilation in
+which I was, both physically and morally, after despair had taken the
+place of the glimmering hope which sustained us to the last moment, was
+such that I fell into a state of insensibility, which ended in a
+profound sleep. I awoke on the following day with my son in my arms.
+But how frightful was my state on awaking. All that was horrible in my
+position presented itself to my imagination. Alas! she was no more; my
+adorable companion, that beloved angel and consolatrix, who had, on my
+account, abandoned all&mdash;parents, friends, and the pleasures of a
+capital&mdash;to shut herself up with me in a deserted wilderness,
+where she was exposed to a thousand dangers, and had but me to support
+her. She was no more; and fatal destiny had torn her from me, to sink
+me for ever in desolation and grief.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral took place on the following day, and was attended by
+every inhabitant of Jala-Jala. Her body was deposited near the altar in
+the humble church which I had caused to be erected, and before which
+altar she had so often poured forth prayers for my happiness.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time mourning and consternation reigned in Jala-Jala. All
+my Indians showed the deepest sympathy for the loss which they had
+suffered. Anna was, during her life, beloved even to idolatry, and
+after her death she was most sincerely lamented.</p>
+
+<p>For several days I continued in a thorough depression, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb242" href="#pb242">242</a>]</span>unable to attend
+to anything, except to the cares which my son, then my only remaining
+consolation, required. Three weeks elapsed before I quitted the room in
+which my poor wife had expired. I then received a note from Josephine,
+in which she stated that her illness had grown worse. The note ended
+with these words: &ldquo;Come, my dear Paul; come to me: we shall weep
+together. I feel that your presence will afford some
+consolation.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I did not hesitate to comply with the request of dear Josephine, for
+whom I entertained an affection as if for my own sister. My presence
+might prove a solace to her, and I myself felt that it would prove to
+me a great consolation to see a person who had so sincerely loved my
+Anna. The hope of being useful to her re-animated my courage a little.
+I left my house under the care of Prosper Vidie, an excellent friend,
+who during the last days of my wife&rsquo;s life had not quitted me,
+and departed, accompanied by my son.</p>
+
+<p>After the first emotion which Josephine and I felt on meeting, and
+when we both had shed abundant tears, I examined her state. It required
+a strong effort on my part to conceal from her my anxiety, on finding
+her labouring under a most serious malady, and which gave me grounds
+for fearing that a fresh misfortune was not far distant. Alas! my
+forebodings were correct; for eight days afterwards poor Josephine
+expired in my arms, after the most poignant sufferings. What abundant
+sources of woe in so short a space of time! It required a constitution
+strong as mine was to bear up against such a number of sorrows, and not
+to fail under the burthen.</p>
+
+<p>When I had paid the last duties to my sister-in-law I went back to
+Jala-Jala. To me everything was burthensome. I was obliged to betake
+myself to my forests and to my mountains, <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb243" href="#pb243">243</a>]</span>in order to recover a little
+calmness. Some months passed over before I could attend to my affairs;
+but the last wishes of my poor wife required to be fulfilled, and I was
+to quit the Philippines and return to my country. I commenced
+preparations for the purpose. I made over my establishment to my friend
+Vidie, who was, as I considered, the person best adapted for carrying
+out my plans, and for treating my poor Indians well. He requested me to
+stop a little time with him, and to show him the secrets of my little
+government. I consented, and the more willingly, as those few months
+would serve to render my son stronger, and better able to support the
+fatigues of a long voyage. I therefore remained at Jala-Jala; but life
+had become painful to me, and without an object, so that it was
+positively a trouble. There was nothing to distract me&mdash;nothing to
+remove the most painful thoughts from me. The pretty spots of
+Jala-Jala, over which I had often looked with the greatest pleasure,
+had become altogether indifferent to me. I sought out the most
+melancholy and silent places. I often went to the banks of a rivulet,
+concealed in the midst of high mountains, and shaded by lofty trees.
+This spot was perhaps known to no other person; and probably no human
+being had ever previously been seated in it. There I gave free vent to
+my bitter recollections&mdash;my wife, my brothers, my sister-in-law,
+engrossed my imagination. When the thought of my son drove away these
+sombre reveries, I returned slowly to my house, where I found the poor
+child, who, by his caresses, seemed to try to find some way to cause a
+change in my grief; but they seemed only to recall the time when Anna
+always came to welcome me home, and when, clasping me in her arms, she
+caused me to forget all the toil and trouble I met with when absent
+from her. Alas! that blissful time had <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb244" href="#pb244">244</a>]</span>flown away, and was never to
+return; and in losing my companion I lost every happiness.</p>
+
+<p>My friend Vidie tried every means in his power to rouse me. He spoke
+to me often of France, of my mother, and of the consolation I should
+feel on presenting my son to her. The love of my country, and the
+thought of finding there those affections of which I stood so much in
+need, was a soft balm, which lulled for a while the sufferings that
+were constantly vibrating in the bottom of my heart.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians were deeply afflicted on learning the resolution I had
+taken of quitting them. They showed their trouble by saying to me,
+every time they addressed me! &ldquo;Oh, master: what will become of us
+when we shall not see you again?&rdquo; I quieted them as well as I
+could, by assuring them that Vidie would exert himself for their
+welfare; that when my son should be grown up, I would come back with
+him and then never leave them. They answered me with their prayers:
+&ldquo;May God grant it, master! But what a long time we shall have to
+pass without seeing you! However, we shall not forget you.&rdquo; <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb245" href="#pb245">245</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p245"><img border="0" src="images/p245.jpg"
+alt="Ajetas Indians." width="410" height="511">
+<p class="figureHead">Ajetas Indians.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch12" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter XII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at Jala-Jala&mdash;The Bamboo
+Cane&mdash;The Cocoa-Nut Tree&mdash;The Banana&mdash;Majestic Forests
+of Gigantic Trees&mdash;The Leeches&mdash;A Tropical Storm in a
+Forest&mdash;An Indian Bridge&mdash;&ldquo;Bernard the
+Hermit&rdquo;&mdash;We arrive at Binangon-de-Lampon&mdash;The
+Ajetas&mdash;Veneration of the Ajetas for their Dead&mdash;Poison used
+by the Ajetas&mdash;I carry away a Skeleton&mdash;We Embark on the
+Pacific in an old Canoe, reach Maoban, and ultimately arrive at
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">At this epoch of my recollections, in the midst of
+my melancholy and of my troubles, I formed an intimate and enduring
+friendship with a compatriot, a good and excellent man, for whom I
+always preserve the attachment first formed <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb246" href="#pb246">246</a>]</span>in a foreign country, several
+thousand leagues from home. I now speak of Adolphe Barrot, who was sent
+as consul-general to Manilla. He came with several friends to spend
+some days at Jala-Jala. Being unwilling that he should suffer any
+unpleasantness from the state of my feelings, I endeavoured to render
+his stay at Jala-Jala as agreeable as in my power. I arranged several
+hunting and shooting parties, and excursions through the mountains and
+on the lake. For his sake I resumed my old mode of life, such as I had
+been used to before I was overwhelmed by misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>The days which I thus spent in company with Adolphe Barrot aroused
+within me my former taste for exercise, and my ruling passion for
+adventure. My friend Vidie&mdash;always with the intention of exciting
+me to action&mdash;pressed me very much to go and visit a certain class
+of the natives which I had often expressed a wish to examine. My
+affairs being almost regulated; my son being placed under his care, and
+that of his nurse, and of a housekeeper in whom I had every confidence;
+I was induced, by this feeling of security, and by the instances of my
+friend, to proceed to visit the district of the Ajetas, or Black-men,
+who were a wild race, altogether in a state of nature. They were the
+aborigines of the Philippines, and had for a long time been masters of
+Luzon. At a time not very far distant, when the Spaniards conquered the
+country, the Ajetas levied a kind of black-mail from the Tagalese
+villages situated on the banks of the lake of Bay. At a fixed period
+they quitted their forests, entered the villages, and forced the
+inhabitants to give them a certain quantity of rice and maize; and if
+the Tagalese refused or were unable to pay these contributions, they
+cut off a number of heads, which they carried away as trophies for
+their barbarian festivities. After the conquest <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb247" href="#pb247">247</a>]</span>of the Philippines by the
+Spaniards, the latter took upon themselves the defence of the Tagalese,
+and the Ajetas, terrified by their fire-arms, remained in the forests,
+and did not re-appear among the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>The same race is found in various parts of the Malay country; and
+the people of New Zealand&mdash;the Paponins&mdash;resemble them very
+much in form and colour.</p>
+
+<p>My intention was to pass some days amongst those wild savages, and
+our preparations were speedily made. I chose two of my best Indians to
+accompany me. It is not requisite to state that my lieutenant was one
+of the party, for he was always with me in all my perilous
+expeditions.</p>
+
+<p>We took each of us a small haversack, containing rice for three or
+four days, some dried venison, a good provision of powder, ball, and
+shot for game, some coloured handkerchiefs, and a considerable quantity
+of cigars for our own use, and to insure a welcome amongst the Ajetas.
+Each of us carried a good double-barreled gun and his poignard. Our
+clothes were those which we wore in all our expeditions,&mdash;on our
+heads the common salacote, a shirt of raw silk, the pantaloon turned up
+to above the knee; the feet and legs remained uncovered. With these
+simple preparations we set out on a trip of some weeks, during which,
+and from the second day of our starting, we could expect no shelter but
+the trees of the forest, and no food but the game we shot, and the
+edible parts of the palm tree.</p>
+
+<p>I took special care not to forget the <i>vade mecum</i> which I
+always took with me, whenever I made these excursions for any number of
+days&mdash;I mean paper and a pencil, with which I made notes, to aid
+my recollections, and enable me afterwards to write down in a journal
+the remarks I made during my travels. Every preparation being made, we
+one morning <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb248" href=
+"#pb248">248</a>]</span>started from Jala-Jala. We traversed the
+peninsula formed by my settlement, and embarked on the other side in a
+small canoe, which took us to the bottom of the lake to the north-east
+of my habitation. We passed the night in the large village of Siniloan,
+and at an early hour the following day resumed our march. This first
+day&rsquo;s journey was one of toil and suffering: we were then
+beginning the rainy season, and the heavy storms had swelled the
+rivers. We marched for some time along the banks of a torrent, which
+rushed down from the mountains, and which we were obliged to swim
+through fifteen times during the day. In the evening we came to the
+foot of the mountains where begin the forests of gigantic trees, which
+cover almost all the centre of the island of Luzon. There we made our
+first halt, lighted our fires, and prepared our beds and our supper. I
+think that I have already described our beds, which use and fatigue
+always rendered agreeable to us, when no accident <span class="corr"
+id="xd0e2393" title="Source: occured">occurred</span> to disturb our
+repose. But I have said nothing of the simple composition of our meals,
+nor of our manner of preparing them. Our rice and palms required to be
+cooked, an operation which might seem rather embarrassing, for we had
+with us no large kitchen articles: we sometimes wanted a fire-box and
+tinder. But the bamboo supplied all these. The bamboo is one of the
+three tropical plants which Nature, in her beneficence and care, seems
+to have given to man to supply most of his wants. And here I cannot
+forbear dedicating a few lines to the description of those three
+products of the tropics, viz: the bamboo, the cocoa-nut tree, and the
+banana-plant.</p>
+
+<p>The bamboo belongs to the gramineous family; it grows in thick
+groves, in the woods, on the river banks, and wherever it finds a humid
+soil. In the Philippines there are counted <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb249" href="#pb249">249</a>]</span>twenty-five or thirty kinds,
+different in form and thickness. There are some of the diameter of the
+human body, and hollow in the interior: this kind serves especially for
+the construction of huts, and for making vessels to transport and to
+keep water. The filaments are used for making baskets, hats, and all
+kinds of basket-work, cords, and cables of great solidity.</p>
+
+<p>Another bamboo, of smaller dimensions, and hollow within, which is
+covered with varnish, almost as hard as steel, is employed in building
+Indian houses. Cut to a point it is extremely sharp, and is used for
+many purposes. The Indians make lances of it, and arrows, and fleams
+for bleeding horses, and lancets for opening <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e2402" title="Source: abcesses">abscesses</span>, and for taking
+thorns or other things out of the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>A third kind, much more solid, and as thick as one&rsquo;s arm, and
+not hollow within, is used in such parts of the buildings as require
+sold timber, and especially in the roofing.</p>
+
+<p>A fourth kind, much smaller, and also without being hollow, serves
+to make the fences that surround enclosed fields when tilled. The other
+kinds are not so much employed, but still they are found to be
+useful.</p>
+
+<p>To preserve the plants, and to render them very productive, the
+shoots are cut at ten feet from the ground. These shoots look like the
+tubes of an organ, and are surrounded with branches and thorns. At the
+beginning of the rainy season there grows from each of those groves a
+quantity of thick bamboos, resembling large asparagus, which shoot up
+as it were by enchantment. In the space of a month they become from
+fifty to sixty feet long, and after a short time they acquire all the
+solidity necessary for the various works to which they are
+destined.</p>
+
+<p>The cocoa-nut tree belongs to the palm family: it requires to <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb250" href="#pb250">250</a>]</span>grow seven
+years before it bears fruit; but after this period, and for a whole
+century, it yields continually the same product&mdash;that is, every
+month about twenty large nuts. This produce never fails, and on the
+same tree may be seen continually flowers and fruits of all sizes. The
+cocoa-nut affords, as everyone knows, nutritious food, and when pressed
+yields a quantity of oil. The shell of the nut serves to make vases,
+and the filamentary parts are spun into ropes and cables for ships, and
+even into coarse clothing. The leaves are used to make baskets and
+brooms, and for thatching the huts.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatLeft" id="p250" style="width: 235px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p250.jpg" alt="The Cocoa-Nut." width="235"
+height="283">
+<p class="figureHead">The Cocoa-Nut.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A liquor is also taken from the cocoa-nut tree, called cocoa-wine;
+it is a most stupifying drink, of which the Indians make great use at
+their festivities. To produce the cocoa-wine, large groves of the
+cocoa-trees are laid out, from which merely the sap or juice is
+expected, but nothing in the shape of fruit. These trees have long
+bamboos laid at their tops from one to another, on which the Indians
+pass over every morning, bearing large vessels, in which they collect
+the liquid. It is a laborious and dangerous employment,&mdash;a real
+promenade in the air, at the height of from sixty to eighty feet from
+the ground. It is from the bud which ought to produce the flower that
+the liquid is drawn of which the spirit is afterwards made. As soon as
+the bud is about to burst, the Indian employed in collecting the liquid
+ties it very tight, a few inches from its point, and then cuts across
+the point beyond the tying. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb251" href=
+"#pb251">251</a>]</span>From this cutting, or from the pores which are
+left uncovered, a saccharine liquid flows, which is sweetish and
+agreeable to the palate before it has fermented. After it has passed
+the fermentation it is carried to the still, and submitted to the
+process of distillation, it then becomes the alcoholic liquor known in
+the country as cocoa-wine.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these uses, the cocoa-nut shell, when burned, gives the fine
+black colour which the Indians make use of to dye their straw hats.</p>
+
+<p>The banana is an herbaceous plant, without any woody matter: the
+trunk of each is formed of leaves placed one above the other. This
+trunk rises from twelve to fifteen feet from the ground, and then
+spreads out into long broad leaves, not less than five or six feet
+each. From the middle of these leaves the flower rises, and also the
+spike (<i>r&eacute;gime</i>). By this word is to be understood a
+hundred of large bananas growing from the same stalk, forming together
+a long branch, that turns towards the sun.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatRight" id="p251" style="width: 190px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p251.jpg" alt="The Banana." width="190" height=
+"272">
+<p class="figureHead">The Banana.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before the fruit has reached its full ripeness, the spike is cut,
+and becomes fit for use. The part of the plant which is in the earth is
+a kind of large root, from which proceed successively thirty shoots,
+and each shoot ought not to have more than one spike, or bunch; it is
+then cut fronting the sun, and as all the shoots rising from the same
+trunk are of different ages, there are fruits to be found in all the
+stages of growth; so that every month or fortnight, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb252" href="#pb252">252</a>]</span>and at all
+seasons, a spike or two may be gathered from the same plant. There is
+also a species of banana the fruit of which is not good to eat, but
+from which raw silk is formed, called abaca, which is used to make
+clothes, and all kinds of cordage. This filament is found in the trunk
+of the plant, which, as I have said, consists of leaves placed one over
+another, which, after being separated into long strips, and left for
+some hours in the sun, is then placed on an iron blade, not sharp, and
+then dragged with force over it. The parenchyme of the plant is taken
+off by the iron blade, and the filaments then separate. Nothing is now
+wanting but to expose them for some time to the sun&rsquo;s rays; after
+which they are brought to market.</p>
+
+<p>I observe that I have left my journey aside to describe three
+tropical plants, which afford a sufficiency for all the wants of man.
+Those plants are well-known; yet there may be some persons ignorant of
+the utility, and of the various services which they render to the
+inhabitants of the tropics. My readers will from them be naturally led
+to reflect how the inhabitants of the torrid zone are favoured by
+nature, in comparison with those of our frigid climate.</p>
+
+<p>We were at the foot of the mountains, preparing to pass the night.
+Our labour was always divided<span class="corr" id="xd0e2444" title=
+"Not in source">:</span> one got the beds ready, another the fire, a
+third the cookery. He who had to prepare the fire collects a quantity
+of dry wood and of brambles. Under this heap of firewood he puts about
+twelve pounds of elemi gum, which is common in the Philippines, where
+it is found in quantities at the foot of the large trees from which it
+flows naturally. He then takes a piece of bamboo, half <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e2447" title="Source: a-yard">a yard</span> long, which
+he splits to its length, tears with poignard so as to make very thin
+shavings, which he rubs together while rolling <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb253" href="#pb253">253</a>]</span>them between his hands, and
+then puts them into the hollow part of the other piece, and lays it
+down on the ground, and then with the sharp side of the piece from
+which he had taken the shavings, he rubs strongly the piece lying on
+the ground, as if he wished to saw it across. In a short time the
+bamboo containing the shavings is cut through and on fire. The flame
+rising from the shavings, when blown lightly upon, quickly sets the
+elemi gum in a blaze, and in an instant there is a fire sufficient to
+roast an ox.</p>
+
+<p>He who had to manage the cooking cut two or three pieces of the
+large bamboo, and put in each whatever he wished to cook&mdash;usually
+rice or some part of the palm tree&mdash;he added some water, stopped
+the ends of the bamboo with leaves, and laid it in the middle of the
+fire. This bamboo was speedily burned on the outside, but the interior
+was moistened by the water, and the food within was as well boiled as
+in any earthen vessels. For plates we had the large palm leaves. Our
+meals, as may be observed, were Spartan enough, even during the days
+while our provision of rice and dried venison lasted. But when game was
+found, and that a stag or a buffalo fell to our lot, we fed like
+epicures. We drank pure water whenever a spring or a rivulet tempted
+us, but if we were at a loss we cut long pieces of the liana, called
+&ldquo;the traveller&rsquo;s drink,&rdquo; from which flowed a clear
+and limpid draught, preferable perhaps to any which we might have
+procured from a better source.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident I was not travelling like a nabob; and it would have
+been impossible to take more baggage. How could any one, with large
+provisions and a pompous retinue move in the midst of mountains covered
+with forests literally along untouched by human feet, and forced, in
+order to get through <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb254" href=
+"#pb254">254</a>]</span>them, at every instant to swim across torrents,
+and having no other guide than the sun, or the blowing of the breeze.
+There was no choice but to travel in the Indian style, as I did, or to
+remain at home.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p254"><img border="0" src="images/p254.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere and his Indians traversing a Native Forest." width=
+"720" height="488">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere and his Indians traversing a Native
+Forest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb254" class="pageref">254</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first night we spent in the open air passed quietly; our
+strength was restored, and we were recruited for the journey. At an
+early hour we were up, and, after a frugal breakfast, we resumed our
+march. For more than two hours we climbed up a mountain covered with
+heavy timber, the ascent was rough and fatiguing, at last we reached
+the top, quite exhausted, where there was a vast flat, which it would
+take us some days to traverse. It was there, on this flat, that I
+beheld the most majestic, the finest virgin forest that existed in the
+world. It consists of gigantic trees, grown up as straight as a rush,
+and to a prodigious height. Their tops, where alone their branches
+grow, are laced into one another, so as to form a vault impenetrable to
+the rays of the sun. Under this vault, and among those fine trees,
+prolific nature has given birth to a crowd of climbing plants of a most
+remarkable description. The rattan and the flexible liana mount up to
+the topmost branches, and re-descending to the earth, take fresh root,
+receive new sustenance, and then remount anew, and at various distances
+they join themselves to the friendly trunks of their supporting
+columns, and thus they form very often most beautiful decorations.
+Varieties of the pandanus are to be seen, of which the leaves, in
+bunches, start from the ground, forming beautiful sheaves. Enormous
+ferns were to be met with, real trees in shape, and up which we
+clambered often, to cut the top branches, for their delicious perfume
+and which serve as food nearly the same as the palms. But, in the midst
+of this extraordinary vegetation nature is gloomy and <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb255" href="#pb255">255</a>]</span>silent; not a
+sound is to be heard, unless perhaps the wind that shakes the tops of
+the trees, or from time to time the distant noise of a torrent, which,
+falling precipitately, cascades from the heights of the mountains to
+their base. The ground is moist, as it never receives the sun&rsquo;s
+rays: the little lakes and the rivers, that never flow unless when
+swollen by the storms, present to the eye water black and stagnant, on
+which the reflection of the fine clear blue sky is never to be
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>The sole inhabitants of these melancholy though majestic solitudes
+are deer, buffaloes and wild boars, which being hidden in their lairs
+and dens in the daytime, come out at night in search of food. Birds are
+seldom seen, and the monkeys so common in the Philippines, shun the
+solitude of these immense forests. One kind of insect is met with in
+great abundance, and it plagues the traveller to the utmost; they are
+the small leeches, which are found on all the mountains of the
+Philippines that are covered with forests. They lie close to the ground
+in the grass, or on the leaves of the trees, and dart like grasshoppers
+on their prey, to which they fasten. Travellers are therefore always
+provided with little knives, cut from the bamboo, to loosen the hold of
+the insects, after which they rub the wound with a little chewed
+tobacco. But soon another leech, attracted by the flowing blood, takes
+the place of the one which was removed, and constant care is necessary
+to avoid being victimised by those little insects, of which the
+voracity far exceeds that of our common leeches.</p>
+
+<p>Our way lay through these singular creations of nature, and I was
+engaged in looking at and examining the curiosities around me, while my
+Indians were seeking some kind of game&mdash;deer, buffalo, or wild
+boar&mdash;to replace our stock of rice and venison, which was
+exhausted. We were at length reduced <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb256" href="#pb256">256</a>]</span>to the palms as our only resource;
+but the palms, though pleasing to the palate, are not sufficiently
+nutritive to recruit the strength of poor travellers, when, suffering
+under extreme fatigue, and after a laborious march, they find no
+lodging but the moist ground, and no shelter but the vault of the
+sky.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatRight" id="p256" style="width: 191px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p256.jpg" alt="Fruit of the Palm Tree." width=
+"191" height="272">
+<p class="figureHead">Fruit of the Palm Tree.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We directed our course as near as possible towards the eastern
+coast, which is bathed by the Pacific ocean. We knew that it was in
+that direction the Ajetas commenced their settlement. We wished also to
+pass through the large Tagalese village, Binangonan de Lampon, which is
+to be found, isolated and hidden, at the foot of the eastern mountains,
+in the midst of the savages. We had already spent several nights in the
+forest, and without experiencing any great inconvenience. The fires
+which we lighted every evening warmed us, and saved us from the myriads
+of terrible leeches, which otherwise would certainly have devoured us.
+We imagined that we were within one day&rsquo;s march of the sea-shore,
+where we expected to take some time for rest, when, of a sudden, a
+burst of thunder at a distance gave us reason to apprehend a storm.
+Nevertheless, we continued our journey; but in a short time the
+growling of the thunder approached so near as to leave no doubt that
+the hurricane would burst over us. We stopped, lighted our fires,
+cooked our evening&rsquo;s repast, and placed some of the palm leaves
+on poles by the side of a slope to save us from the heavy rain. <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb257" href="#pb257">257</a>]</span>We had not
+finished all our preparations when the storm broke. If we had not had
+the glimmering glare of our firebrands we should have been in profound
+obscurity, although it was not yet night. We all three, with pieces of
+palm branches in our hands, crouched under the slight shelter which we
+had improvised, and there awaited the full force of the storm. The
+thunder-claps were redoubled; the rain began with violence to batter
+the trees, and then to assail us like a torrent. Our fires were
+speedily extinguished; we found ourselves in the deepest darkness,
+interrupted only by the lightning, which from time to time rushed,
+serpent-like, through the trees of the forest, scattering a dazzling
+light, to leave us the moment after in profound obscurity. Around us
+the din was horrible; the thunder was continuous, the echoes of the
+mountains repeating from distance to distance its sound, sometimes
+deadened, and sometimes with awful grandeur. The wind, which blew with
+violence, shattered the uppermost parts of the trees, breaking off
+large branches, which fell with a crash to the ground. Some trunks were
+uprooted, and, while falling, tore down the boughs of the neighbouring
+trees. The rain was incessant, and in the intervals between the thunder
+we could hear the awful roar of the waters of a torrent which rushed
+madly past the base of the mound where we had taken refuge. Amidst all
+this frightful commotion, mournful and dismal sounds were heard, like
+the howls of a large dog which had lost its master: they were the cries
+of the deer in their distress, seeking for a place of shelter. Nature
+seemed to be in convulsions, and to have declared war in every element.
+The loose thatch under which we had taken refuge was soon penetrated,
+and we were completely deluged. We soon quitted this miserable hole,
+preferring to move our stiffened and almost deadened limbs, covered
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb258" href="#pb258">258</a>]</span>with
+the fearful little leeches, which terrible infliction deprived us of
+the strength so necessary in our awful position.</p>
+
+<p>I avow that at this moment I sincerely repented my fatal curiosity,
+for which I paid so dearly. I could compare this frightful night only
+to the one I had passed in the bamboos, when I was wrecked on the lake.
+In appearance there was not such pressing danger, for we could not be
+swallowed up by the waves; but there were large trees, under which we
+were obliged to stop, and one of which might be uprooted and fall upon
+us; a bough torn off by the wind might crush us; and the lightning,
+equally terrific in its reports and its effects, might strike us at any
+moment. One thing was especially painful, and that was the cold, and
+the difficulty of moving our frozen and almost paralysed limbs. We
+awaited with impatience the cessation of the storm; but it was not
+until after three hours of mortal agony that the thunder gradually
+ceased. The wind fell; the rain subsided; and for some time we heard
+nothing but the large drops which dripped from the trees, and the dread
+sound of the torrents. Calm was restored; the sky became pure and
+starry: but we were deprived of that view which gives hope to the
+traveller, for the forest presented only a dome of green, impenetrable
+to the sight.</p>
+
+<p>Exhausted as we were by our exposure to the elements and our
+exertions, we were so overpowered by nature&rsquo;s great renovator
+sleep, that, notwithstanding our clothes were saturated with the rain,
+we were able to pass the remainder of the night in tranquillity. At
+break of day the forest, which a few hours previously had been the
+scene of the terrors which I have described, was again tranquil and
+silent. When we quitted our lair we were frightful to look at; we were
+covered with leeches, and the marks of blood on our faces rendered us
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb259" href=
+"#pb259">259</a>]</span>hideous. On looking at my two poor Indians I
+could not avoid laughing aloud; they also looked at me, but their
+respect for me prevented their laughing. I was no doubt equally
+punished, and my white skin must have served to show well the ravages
+of those creatures. We were, indeed, knocked up; we could scarcely
+move, so weak had we become. However, act we must, and
+promptly,&mdash;to light a fire quickly, in order to warm us; to cook
+some of the palm stalks; to cross, by swimming, a torrent which, with a
+terrible noise, was rushing on below us; and to reach, during the day,
+the shores of the Pacific ocean. If we delayed to start it might not be
+possible to pass through the torrents,&mdash;we had left several behind
+us,&mdash;we might find ourselves in the impossibility of going either
+backward or forward, and perhaps be obliged to remain several days
+waiting for the waters to subside before we could proceed. Besides,
+other storms might arise, frequent as they are at this season, and we
+should have to remain for several weeks in a desert spot without
+resources, and where the first night passed under such a bad roof was
+no recommendation, There was no time to be lost. From a large heap of
+palm leaves, where we had placed and covered up our haversacks in order
+to preserve them from the wet, we drew them out safe; our precautions
+had fortunately been successful, they were quite dry. We made a large
+fire, thanks to the elemi gum, which burns with such ease. Our feelings
+were delightful when the heat entered our frames, dried our dripping
+garments, re-animated our courage, and gave us some strength. But, to
+enjoy that satisfaction fully, one should have acquired it at the same
+cost as I had. I very much doubt that any European would like to
+participate in the scenes of that night simply for the enjoyments of
+the following day. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb260" href=
+"#pb260">260</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>Our scanty cookery was soon ready, and expeditiously dispatched, and
+we moved off in quick time.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians were uneasy, as they feared they would not be able to
+pass through the torrent which was heard at a distance, consequently
+they marched quicker than I did. On reaching the bank I found them in a
+consternation. &ldquo;Oh, master!&rdquo; said my faithful Alila,
+&ldquo;it is not possible to pass; so we must spend some days
+here.&rdquo; I cast my eyes on the torrent, which was rolling between
+steep rocks, in a yellow, muddy stream: it had all the appearance of a
+cascade, and was carrying down the trunks of trees and branches broken
+off during the storm. My Indians had already come to a decision, and
+were arranging a spot for a fit bivouac; but I did not wish to give up
+all hopes of success so speedily, and set about examining with care the
+means of overcoming the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The torrent was not more than a hundred yards in breadth, and a good
+swimmer could with ease get over in a few minutes. But it was
+necessary, on the opposite side, to arrive at a spot which was not too
+steep, and where one could find safe footing, and out of the torrent;
+otherwise the risk would be run of being drawn down, no one could tell
+whither.</p>
+
+<p>From the bank on which we were it was easy to jump into the water,
+but on the other side, for a hundred yards down the stream, there was
+but one spot where the rocks were interrupted. A small stream joined
+there the one we wished to cross. After I had carefully calculated by
+sight the length of the passage, I considered myself strong enough to
+attempt it. I was a better swimmer than my Indians; and I was certain
+if I was once on the other side, that they would follow. I told them
+that I was going to cross over the torrent. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb261" href="#pb261">261</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>But one reflection caused me to hesitate. How could I preserve our
+haversacks, and save our precious provision of powder? How keep our
+guns from injury? It would not be possible to think of carrying those
+articles on my back through a torrent so rapid, and in which, beyond
+doubt, I should be under water more than once before I gained the other
+side.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians, being fertile in expedients, speedily extricated me
+from this difficulty: they cut several rattans, and joined the ends
+together, so as to form a considerable length. One of them climbed a
+tree which leant over the torrent, and there fastened one end of the
+rattan length, while I took the other end to carry it over to the other
+bank. All our arrangements being effected I plunged into the water, and
+without much difficulty gained the opposite side, having the end of the
+rattan with me, which I fastened to a tree on the steep bank I had
+gained, allowing a slight inclination of the line towards me, yet
+raised sufficiently over the water to allow the articles which we were
+anxious to pass over to slide along without touching the water. Our
+newly constructed bridge was wonderfully successful. The articles came
+across quite safe and dry; and my Indians, by its aid, quickly joined
+me. We congratulated each other on our fortunate passage, and the more
+so, as we expected before sunset to reach the Pacific ocean. Of the
+woods we had had enough: and we now looked for the sun, which for
+several days had been obscured by clouds; the leeches caused us
+considerable suffering, and weakened us very much, and our miserable
+diet was not sufficient to recruit our exhausted frames. Moreover we
+did not doubt that, on reaching the sea, we should be amply recompensed
+for all the privations we had endured. In fine, with renewed hopes we
+found our courage revive, and soon forgot the fatal night of the storm.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb262" href="#pb262">262</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>I walked nearly as quick as my Indians, who, like me, hastened to
+get clear of the insupportable humidity in which we had existed for
+several days.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours after we had passed the torrent a dull and distant sound
+struck our ears. At first we supposed it to be a fresh storm; but soon
+we knew, from its regularity, that it was nothing less than the murmur
+of the Pacific ocean, and the sound of the waves which come from afar
+to break themselves on the eastern shore of Luzon. This certainty
+caused me a most pleasing emotion. In a few hours I should again see
+the blue sky, warm myself in the generous rays of the sun, and find a
+boundless horizon. I should also get rid of the fearful leeches, and
+should soon salute Nature, animated in creation, in exchange for the
+solitudes from which we had just emerged.</p>
+
+<p>We were now on the declivity of the mountains, the descent of which
+was gentle and our march easy. The sound of the waves increased by
+degrees. Near three o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon we perceived through
+the trees that the sun was clear; and an instant afterwards we beheld
+the sea, and a magnificent beach, covered with fine glittering sand.
+The first movement of all three was to strip off our clothes and to
+plunge into the waves; and while we thus enjoyed a salutary bath, we
+amused ourselves in collecting off the rocks a quantity of shell-fish,
+which enabled us to make the most hearty meal we had eaten since we
+started from home.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus satisfied our hunger, our thoughts were directed to
+taking rest, of which we stood in great need; but it was no longer on
+knotty and rough pieces of timber, that we were going to
+repose,&mdash;it was on the soft sand, which the shore offered to us,
+warmed as it was by the last rays of the setting sun. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb263" href="#pb263">263</a>]</span>It was almost
+night when we stretched ourselves on this bed, which to us was
+preferable to one of down. Our sacks served as pillows; we laid our
+guns, which were properly primed, close by our sides, and after a few
+minutes were buried in a profound sleep. I know not how long I had
+enjoyed this invigorating balm when I was awakened by the painful
+feeling of something crawling over me. I felt the prickings of sharp
+claws, which fastened in my skin, and occasionally caused me great
+pain. Similar sensations had awakened my two Indians. We collected the
+embers which were still ignited, and were able to see the new kind of
+enemies which assailed us. They were the crabs called &ldquo;Bernard
+the Hermit,&rdquo;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2522src" href=
+"#xd0e2522">1</a> and in such quantities that the ground was crawling
+with them, of all sizes and of all ages. We swept the sand on which we
+laid down, hoping to drive them away, and to have some sleep; but the
+troublesome&mdash;or rather, the famishing hermits&mdash;returned to
+the charge, and left us neither peace or quiet. We were busy in
+resisting their attacks, when suddenly, on the edge of the forest, we
+perceived a light, which came towards us. We seized our guns, and
+awaited its approach in profound silence and without any movement. We
+then saw a man and woman coming out of the wood, each having a torch in
+their hands. We knew them to be Ajetas, who were coming, no doubt, to
+catch fish on the beach. When they reached within a few steps from us,
+they stood for an instant motionless and gazed at us with fixed
+attention. We three were seated, watching them, and trying to guess
+their intentions. One of them put his hand to his shoulder, as if to
+take his bow; and I instantly cocked my <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb264" href="#pb264">264</a>]</span>gun. The noise caused by the
+movement of the gun-lock was sufficient to frighten them: they threw
+down their light, and scampered off like two wild beasts, in the
+highest alarm, to hide themselves in the forest.</p>
+
+<p>Their appearance was enough to prove that we were in a place
+frequented by the Ajetas. The two savages whom we had seen were perhaps
+gone to inform their friends, who might come in great numbers and let
+fly at us their poisoned arrows. This dread, and the incessant attacks
+of Bernard the Hermit, caused us to spend the remainder of the night
+near a large fire.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as day broke we made an excellent breakfast, thanks to the
+abundance of shell-fish, of which we could take whatever quantity we
+liked, and then set out again. Our way lay sometimes along the shore,
+and at other times through the woods. The journey was very fatiguing,
+but without any incident worthy of notice. It was after night-fall when
+we arrived at the village of Binangonan de Lampon. This village,
+inhabited by Tagalocs, is thrown, like an oasis of men, somewhat
+civilised, in the midst of forests and savage people, and who had no
+direct communication with the other districts which are governed by the
+Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>My name was known to the inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon,
+consequently we were received with open arms, and all the heads of the
+village disputed with each other for the honour of having me as a
+guest. I gave the preference to him who had first invited me, and in
+his dwelling I experienced the kindest hospitality. I had scarcely
+entered when the mistress of the house herself wished to wash my feet,
+and to show me all those attentions which proved to me the pleasure
+they felt that I had given them this preference. <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb265" href="#pb265">265</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p265"><img border="0" src="images/p265.jpg"
+alt="Inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon." width="360" height="413">
+<p class="figureHead">Inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>During supper, while I was enjoying the good food which was before
+me, the small house in which I was seated became filled with young
+girls, who gazed at me with a curiosity which was really comic. When I
+had finished my meal the conversation with my host began to weary me,
+and I stretched myself on a mat, which on that occasion I regarded as
+an excellent substitute for a feather-bed.</p>
+
+<p>I spent three days with the kind Tagalocs, who received and treated
+me like a prince. On the fourth day I bade them adieu, and we shaped
+our course to the northward, in the midst of mountains covered with
+thick forests, and which, like those that we had quitted, showed no
+path for the traveller, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb266" href=
+"#pb266">266</a>]</span>except some tracks or openings through which
+wild animals passed. We proceeded with great caution, for we found
+ourselves in the district peopled by Ajetas. At night we concealed our
+fire, and each of us in turn kept watch, for what we dreaded most was a
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, while marching in silence, we heard before us a number
+of shrill voices, resembling rather the cries of birds than human
+sounds. We kept strict watch, and shaded ourselves as much as possible
+by the aid of the trees and of the brushwood. Suddenly we perceived
+before us, at a very little distance, forty savages of both sexes, and
+of all ages; they absolutely seemed to be mere brutes; they were on the
+bank of a river, and close to a large fire. We advanced some steps
+presenting the but-end of our guns. The moment they saw us they set up
+a shrill cry, and were about to take to flight; but I made signs, and
+showed the packet of cigars which we wished to give them. Fortunately I
+had learned at Binangonan the way by which I was to approach them. As
+soon as they understood us they ranged themselves in a line, like men
+about to be reviewed; that was the signal that we might come near them.
+We approached with the cigars in our hands, and at one end of the line
+I began to distribute my presents. It was highly important to make
+friends of them, and, according to their custom, to give to each an
+equal share. My distribution being finished, our alliance was cemented,
+and peace concluded: the savages and we had nothing to dread from each
+other. They all began smoking. A stag had been suspended to a tree;
+their chief cut three large pieces from it with a bamboo knife, which
+he threw into the glowing fire, and a moment afterwards drew it out
+again and handed it round, a piece being given to each of us. The
+outside <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb267" href=
+"#pb267">267</a>]</span>of this steak was burned, and a little spotted
+with cinders, but the inside was raw and full of blood; however it was
+necessary not to show any repugnance, and to make a cannibal feast,
+otherwise my hosts would have been affronted, and I was anxious to live
+with them for some days on a good understanding. I therefore eat my
+portion of the stag, which, after all, was not bad: my Indians did as I
+had done. Good relations were thus established between us, and
+treachery was not then to be expected.</p>
+
+<p>I now found myself in the midst of a tribe of men whom I had come
+from Jala-Jala to see, and I set about examining them at my ease, and
+for as long as I wished. We fixed our bivouac some steps from theirs,
+as if we wished to form part of the family of our new friends. I could
+not address them but by signs, and I had the greatest difficulty in
+making them understand me, but on the day after my arrival I had an
+interpreter. A woman came to me with a child, to which she wished to
+give a name; she had been reared amongst the Tagalocs; she had spoken
+that language, of which she remembered a little, and could give,
+although with much difficulty, all the information I desired which was
+to me of interest.</p>
+
+<p>The creatures with whom I had thus formed a connection for a few
+days, and as I saw them, seemed rather to be a large family of monkeys
+than human beings. Their voices very much resembled the shrill cries of
+those animals, and in their gestures they were exactly like them. The
+only difference I could see was that they knew how to handle a bow and
+a lance, and to make a fire. To describe them properly I shall give a
+sketch of their forms and physiognomies.</p>
+
+<p>The Ajeta, or little negro, is as black as ebony, like the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb268" href="#pb268">268</a>]</span>Africans;
+his greatest height is four feet and a-half; his hair is woolly, and as
+he takes no trouble about cutting it, and knows not how to arrange it,
+it forms around his head a sort of crown, which gives him an odd
+aspect, and, at a distance makes him appear as if surrounded with a
+kind of halo; his eye is yellowish, but lively and brilliant, like that
+of an eagle. The necessity of living by the chase, and of pursuing his
+prey, produces the effect on this organ of giving to it the most
+extraordinary vivacity. The features of the Ajetas have something of
+the African black, but the lips are not so prominent; while young their
+forms are pretty; but their lives being spent in the woods, sleeping
+always in the open air without shelter, eating much one day and often
+having nothing&mdash;long fastings, followed by repasts swallowed with
+the voracity of wild beasts&mdash;gave them a protruding stomach, and
+made their extremities lank and shrivelled. They never wear any
+clothing, unless a belt of the rind of a tree, <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e2563" title="Source: fromeight">from eight</span> to ten inches in
+breadth, which they tie round their waist; their arms are composed of a
+bamboo lance, a bow of the palm tree, and poisoned arrows. Their food
+consists of roots, of fruits, and of the products of the chase; the
+flesh they eat nearly raw; and they live in tribes composed of from
+fifty to sixty individuals. During the day, the old men, the infirm,
+and the children, remain near a large fire, while the others are
+engaged in hunting; when they have a sufficiency of food to last for
+some days, they remain round their fire, and sleep pell-mell among the
+cinders.</p>
+
+<p>It is extremely curious to see collected together fifty or sixty of
+these brutes of every age, and each more or less deformed; the old
+women especially are hideous, their <span class="corr" id="xd0e2568"
+title="Source: decrepid">decrepit</span> limbs, their big bellies and
+their extraordinary heads of hair, give them all the looks of furies,
+or of old witches. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb269" href=
+"#pb269">269</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>I had scarcely arrived than women with very young children came in
+crowds to me. In order to satisfy them I caressed their babes: but that
+was not what they wanted, and, notwithstanding their gestures and their
+words, I could not make out their wishes. On the following day, the
+woman whom I have already mentioned as having lived for some time among
+the Tagalocs, arrived from a neighbouring tribe, accompanied by ten
+other women, each of whom had an infant in her arms. She explained what
+I was not able to comprehend on the previous day, and said: &ldquo;We
+have amongst us very few words for conversation: all our children take
+at their birth the name of the place where they are born. There is
+great confusion, then, and we have brought them to you that you may
+give them names.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I understood this explanation, I wished to celebrate the
+ceremony with all the pomp that the circumstances and the place
+allowed. I went to a small rivulet, and there, as I knew the formula
+for applying the baptismal water, I took my two Indians as sponsors,
+and during several days baptised about fifty of these poor children.
+Each mother who brought her infant was accompanied by two persons of
+her own family. I pronounced the sacramental words, and poured water on
+the head of the child, and then announced aloud the name I had given to
+the child. Therefore, as they have no means of perpetuating their
+recollections, from the time that I pronounced the name,&mdash;Francis,
+for instance,&mdash;the mother and her accompanying witnesses repeated
+it very often, until they learned to say it correctly, and commit it to
+memory. Then they went away, and were constantly repeating the name,
+which they were anxious to retain.</p>
+
+<p>The first day the ceremony was rather long; but the second <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb270" href="#pb270">270</a>]</span>day the
+number lessened, and I was allowed to pursue my examination of the
+character of my hosts. I had retained the woman who spoke Tagaloc, and
+in the long conversations which I held with her, she initiated me
+thoroughly in all their customs and usages.</p>
+
+<p>The Ajetas have no religion; they do not adore any star. It seems,
+however, that they have transmitted to, or received from, the
+Tinguianes, the practice of adoring, during one day, a rock or a trunk
+of any tree on which they find any resemblance whatever of an animal;
+they then abandon it, and think no more of an idol until they meet with
+a strange form, which, for a short time, constitutes the object of
+their frivolous worship. They have a strong veneration for the dead;
+and during several years it is their practice to visit their graves,
+and there to leave a little tobacco or betel. The bow and arrows which
+once belonged to the deceased are hung up over his grave on the day of
+his interment; and every night, according to the belief of his
+surviving comrades, he rises up out of his grave, and goes to hunt in
+the forest.</p>
+
+<p>Interments take place without any ceremony. The dead body is laid at
+full length in a grave, which is covered up with earth. But whenever
+one of the Ajetas is dangerously ill, and his recovery despaired of, or
+that he has been even slightly wounded by a poisoned arrow, his friends
+place him seated in a deep hole, with the arms crossed over his breast,
+and thus inter him while living.</p>
+
+<p>I thought of speaking to my interpreter on religion, and asked her
+if she did not believe in a Supreme Being&mdash;an all-powerful
+Divinity, on whom all nature&mdash;even we ourselves&mdash;depend in
+all things; and who had created the firmament, and who was looking on
+at our acts. She looked at me with a <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb271" href="#pb271">271</a>]</span>smile, and said: &ldquo;When I was
+young, amongst your brothers, I remember that they spoke to me of a
+master, who, as they said, had Heaven for his dwelling-place; but all
+that was lies; for see&rdquo;&mdash;(she here took up a small stone and
+threw it into the air, saying, in a very serious tone)&mdash;&ldquo;how
+can a king, as you say, remain in the sky any more than that
+stone?&rdquo; What answer could I give to such reasoning? I left
+religion aside, to put to her other questions.</p>
+
+<p>I have already stated that the Ajetas did not often wait for the
+death of a person to put him into the ground. As soon as the last
+honours are rendered to a deceased, it is requisite, conformably to
+their usages, to take revenge for his death. The hunters of the tribe
+to which he belonged set out, with their lances and their arrows, to
+kill the first living creature which should appear before their
+eyes&mdash;be it man, stag, wild boar, or buffalo. From the moment they
+start in search of a victim, they take care, in every part of the
+forest through which they pass, to break the young shoots of the
+arbustus shrub, by pointing its tops in the direction which they are
+following. This is done to give a caution to their friends, and other
+passers-by, to avoid those places in which they are searching for a
+victim, for if one of themselves fell into their hands, he would,
+without fail, be taken as the expiatory victim.</p>
+
+<p>They are faithful in marriage, and have but one wife. When a young
+man has made his choice, his friends or his parents make a demand for
+the young girl; a refusal is never given. A day is chosen; and on the
+morning of that day the young girl is sent into the forest, where she
+hides herself or not, just as she pleases, and according as she wishes
+to be married to the young man who has asked her. An hour after <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb272" href="#pb272">272</a>]</span>her
+departure, the young man is sent to find out his bride. If he has the
+good luck to find her, and to bring her back to her parents before
+sunset, the marriage is concluded, and she becomes his wife without
+fail; but if, on the contrary, he returns to the camp without her, he
+is not allowed to renew his addresses.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Ajetas old age is highly respected. It is always one of
+the oldest men who governs the assembled body. All the savages of this
+race live, as I have stated, in large families of from sixty to eighty
+persons. They ramble about through the forests, without having any
+fixed spot for their abode; and they change their encampment according
+to the greater or less quantity of game which they find in various
+places.</p>
+
+<p>While thus living in a state of nature altogether primitive, these
+savages have no instrument of music, and their language imitating, as I
+have stated, the cries of monkeys, has very few sounds, which are
+extremely difficult for a stranger to pronounce, how much soever may be
+his eagerness to study them. They are excellent hunters, and make a
+wonderful use of the bow. The young negroes, however little, of each
+sex, while their parents are out hunting, amuse themselves on the banks
+of the rivulets with their small bows. If by chance they see any fish
+in the translucent stream they let fly an arrow at it, and it is seldom
+that they miss their aim.</p>
+
+<p>All the weapons of the Ajetas are poisoned; a simple arrow could not
+cause a wound so severe as to stop a strong animal, such as a deer, in
+its course; but if the dart has been smeared with the poison known to
+them, the smallest puncture of it produces in the wounded animal an
+inextinguishable thirst, and death ensues upon satisfying it. The
+hunters then cut <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb273" href=
+"#pb273">273</a>]</span>out the flesh around the wound, and use the
+remainder as food, without any danger; but if they neglect this
+precaution, the meat becomes so exceedingly bitter that even the Ajetas
+themselves cannot eat it.</p>
+
+<p>Never having given credit to the famous <i>boab</i> of Java, I made
+experiments at Sumatra on the sort of poison of which the Malays make
+use to poison their weapons. I discovered that it was simply a strong
+solution of arsenic in citron juice, with which they coated their arms
+several times. I tried to find the poison used by the Ajetas. They led
+me to the foot of a large tree, and tore off a piece of its bark, and
+told me that that was the poison they used. I chewed some of it before
+them; it was insupportably bitter, but otherwise not injurious in its
+natural state. But the Ajetas make a preparation of it, the secret of
+which they refused to impart to me. When their poison is made up as a
+paste, they give to their arms a thin coating of it, about an eighth of
+an inch in thickness.</p>
+
+<p>The Ajetas in their movements are active and supple to an incredible
+degree; they climb up the highest trees like monkeys, by seizing the
+trunk with both hands, and using the soles of their feet. They run like
+a deer in the pursuit of the wild animals: this is their favourite
+occupation. It is a very curious sight to see these savages set out on
+a hunting excursion; men, women, and children move together, very much
+like a troop of ourang-outangs when going on a plundering party. They
+have always with them one or two little dogs, of a very special breed,
+which they employ in tracking out their prey whenever it is
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>I enjoyed quite at my ease the hospitality exercised towards me by
+these primitive men. I saw amongst them, and with my own eyes, all that
+I was desirous of knowing. The <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb274"
+href="#pb274">274</a>]</span>painful life which I had led since my
+departure from home, without any shelter but the trees, and eating
+nothing but what the savages provided, began to tire me exceedingly: I
+resolved to return to Jala-Jala. Having previously noticed several
+graves at a short distance from our bivouac, an idea struck me of
+carrying away a skeleton of one of the savages, which would, in my
+judgment, be a curiosity to present to the <span lang="fr">Jardin des
+Plantes</span> or to the Museum of Anatomy at Paris. The undertaking
+was one of great danger, on account of the veneration of the Ajetas for
+their dead. They might surprise us while violating their graves, and
+then no quarter was to be expected. I was, however, so much accustomed
+to overcome whatever opposed my will, that the danger did not deter me
+from acting upon my resolution. I communicated my intentions to my
+Indians, who did not oppose my project.</p>
+
+<p>Some few days afterwards we packed up our baggage, and took farewell
+of our hosts. We shaped our course towards the Indian cemetery. In the
+first graves which we opened we found the bones decayed in part, and I
+could only procure two skulls, which were not worth the danger to which
+they exposed us. However, we continued our researches, and towards the
+close of the day discovered the remains of a woman, who, from the
+position of the body in the grave, must have been buried before her
+death. The bones were still covered with skin; but the body was dry,
+and almost like a mummy. This was a fit subject. We had taken the body
+out of the grave, and were beginning to pack it up piece by piece into
+a sack, when we heard small shrill cries at a distance. The Ajetas were
+coming upon us, and there was no time to be lost. We seized our prize
+and started off as quick as possible. We had not got a hundred yards,
+when we heard the arrows <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb275" href=
+"#pb275">275</a>]</span>whistling about our ears. The Ajetas, perched
+on the tops of the trees, waited for us and attacked us, without our
+having any means of defence. Fortunately night came to our aid; their
+arrows, usually so sure, were badly directed, and did not touch us.
+While escaping we fired a gun to frighten them, and were soon able to
+leave them far behind, without having received any other injury than
+the alarm, and a sufficient notice of the danger to be encountered in
+disturbing the repose of their dead. On emerging from the wood, some
+drops of blood caused me to remark a slight scratch on the forefinger
+of my right hand; I attributed this to the hurry of my flight, and did
+not trouble myself much about it, as was my practice with trifles, but
+continued my march towards the sea-shore.</p>
+
+<p>We still retained the skeleton, which we laid on the sandy beach, as
+well as our haversacks and guns, and sat down to rest after the fatigue
+of the journey. My companions then began to make reflections on our
+position, and my lieutenant, inspired by his affection for me, and his
+sense of the danger we were exposed to, addressed me in the following
+strain:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, master! what have we done, and what is to become of us?
+To-morrow morning the enraged Ajetas will come to attack us for the
+execrable booty which we have carried off from them at the risk of our
+lives. If they would attack in the open ground, with our guns we might
+defend ourselves; but what can one do against those animals, perched
+here and there like monkeys in the top branches of the trees of their
+forest? Those places are for them so many fortresses, from which they
+will to-morrow shower down upon us those darts, which, alas! never fail
+to do mischief. Luckily it was night when they attacked us just now,
+for otherwise we at this hour <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb276"
+href="#pb276">276</a>]</span>should have a lance through each of our
+bodies, and then they would have cut off our heads to serve as trophies
+for a superb f&ecirc;te. Your head, master, would first have been laid
+on the ground, and the brutes would have danced round it, and, as our
+leader, you would have been a target of honour for them to practise
+upon.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And now, master, all that which would have occurred to us if
+the night had not favoured our escape is but deferred, for, alas! we
+cannot remain continually on this beach, although it is the only spot
+where we can protect ourselves against these black rascals. We must go
+to our homes, and this we cannot do without passing through the woods
+inhabited by these abominable creatures, who made us eat raw meat, and
+seasoned only with cinders. Well, master, before you undertook this
+excursion, you ought to have recollected all that happened to us among
+the Tinguians and the Igorrots.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I listened calmly to this touching lamentation of my lieutenant, who
+was perfectly right in all he said; but when he finished I sought to
+rouse his courage, and replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! my brave Alila! are you afraid? I thought the
+Tic-balan, and the evil spirits could alone affect your courage. Do you
+want to make me think that men like yourself, without any arms but bad
+arrows, are enough to make you quake? Come, enough of this cowardice;
+to-morrow we shall have daylight, and we shall see what is to be done.
+In the meantime let us search for shell-fish, for I am very hungry,
+notwithstanding the alarm into which you are trying to throw
+me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This little sermon gave courage to Alila, who immediately set about
+making a fire, and then, by the aid of lighted bamboos, he and his
+comrade went to the rocks to find out the shell-fish. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb277" href="#pb277">277</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>Alila was nevertheless quite right, and I myself could not disguise
+the fact, that good luck alone could extricate us from the critical
+position in which we were placed by my fault, in having thought of my
+country, and in wishing to ornament the Museum of Paris with a skeleton
+of an Ajetas.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2637src" href=
+"#xd0e2637">2</a></p>
+
+<p>From disposition and habit I was not a man to alarm myself with any
+danger which was not immediate; yet I avow that the last words I had
+said to Alila:&mdash;&ldquo;To-morrow we shall have daylight, and we
+shall see what is to be done:&rdquo;&mdash;came back to my mind, and
+for a short time occupied my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians brought back a large quantity of shell-fish, sufficient
+for our supper, and Alila ran up quite breathless, saying:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, I have made a discovery! A hundred steps from this I
+have found a canoe, which the sea has cast upon the beach; it is large
+enough to hold us three. We can make use of it to get to Binangonan,
+and there we shall be safe from the poisoned arrows of these dogs the
+Ajetas.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This discovery was either that Providence had come to our aid, or it
+was a complication of dangers greater than those reserved to us on land
+on awaking in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>I went instantly to the spot where Alila had made his important
+discovery, and having disencumbered the canoe from the sand with which
+it was partly covered, I soon became certain that, with some bamboos,
+and by stopping a few cracks, it would be staunch enough to take us
+over the Pacific ocean, away from the Ajetas.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said I to Alila, &ldquo;you see I was right, and
+you must admit the hand of Providence is here. Is it not evident <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb278" href="#pb278">278</a>]</span>that this
+fine boat, built, perhaps, several thousand leagues from this, has
+arrived express from the Polynesian islands to carry us away from the
+claws of the savages.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;True, master, true; it is our luck. To-morrow they will
+finely be taken in on not finding us here; but let us set to work, for
+we have much to do before this fine boat, as you call it, will be in a
+fit state for going through the water.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We immediately made a large fire on the shore, and went into the
+woods to cut down bamboos and rattans; then we set to work to stop the
+holes, which decreased fast enough under our handy-work upon the
+abandoned canoe.</p>
+
+<p>Persons who have never travelled amongst the savages cannot imagine
+how, without having been instructed in the arts, and without nails, one
+could stop up the fissures in such a boat, and put it in a state fit
+for sea. Yet the means were very simple; our poignards, bamboos, and
+rattans supplied everything; by scraping a bamboo we obtained from it
+something like tow, which we put into the chinks, so that the water
+could not enter. If it was necessary to stop any breach a few inches in
+width, we took from the bamboo a little plank, somewhat larger than the
+opening we wished to close, and then with the point of the poignard we
+pierced it all round with little holes, to match those which were made
+in the same manner in the boat itself. Afterwards, with long strings of
+the rattan, which we split up and made fine, we sewed the little plank
+to the boat, just as one would a piece of cloth on a coat; we covered
+the sewing with the elemi gum, and were sure the water could not pass
+through. The rattan served instead of hemp, and supplied all our
+necessities on the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>We worked with ardour at this our new and only means of safety. Once
+caulked, we placed in it two large bamboos as <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb279" href="#pb279">279</a>]</span>beams, for without those beams
+we could not have sailed for ten minutes without being upset. Another
+bamboo served as our mast; the large sack of matting that contained our
+skeleton was transformed into a sail. At last, before the night was far
+advanced, every preparation was finished. The wind was favourable, and
+we hastened to try our boat, and to struggle with new difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>We placed in the canoe our arms and the skeleton, the cause of our
+new troubles; we then pushed the boat over the sand and got it afloat.
+It took us a good half-hour to get clear of the breakers. We were every
+moment in danger of being swamped by the large waves, which rolled on,
+dashing against the rocks that bound the shore. At last, after we had
+overcome a thousand difficulties and dangers, we reached the open sea,
+and the regular wave&mdash;a real movable mountain&mdash;lifted up,
+without any sudden shock, our frail boat almost to the skies, and then
+in the same quiet manner let it sink into an abyss, from which it was
+again raised to the top of a liquid mountain. These large waves, which
+follow each other usually from interval to interval very regularly,
+cause no danger to a good pilot, who takes the precaution of turning
+the prow of his boat so as to meet them. But woe to him if he forgets
+himself, and makes a false man&oelig;uvre, he is then sure to be upset
+and wrecked. Being used to the management of canoes, and, more
+confident in my own vigilance when at sea than in that of my Indians, I
+took the helm. The wind was favourable; we set up our little sail, and
+went very fast, although every moment I was obliged to turn the prow to
+the heavy waves. We were already a sufficient distance from the shore
+not to fear, if the wind changed, that we should be driven in among the
+breakers. Everything led <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb280" href=
+"#pb280">280</a>]</span>us to expect a safe voyage, when unfortunately
+my poor Indians were taken ill. They had never sailed before except on
+the lakes of fresh water, and were now attacked with sea-sickness. This
+was vexatious to me, for I knew from experience that a person so
+attacked for the first time is altogether incapable of rendering any
+service, and even of protecting himself against the smallest danger
+that threatens him. I had no one to aid me in managing the boat, and
+was obliged to rely on my own exertions. I told him who held the sheet
+of the sail to hand it to me, and I twisted it round my foot, for both
+my hands were engaged in holding the paddle which was our helm. My
+Indians, like two inanimate bodies, lay at the bottom of the boat.</p>
+
+<p>When I reflect on my position,&mdash;on the ocean, in a frail boat;
+having only for helps two individuals who could not move, two skulls,
+and a skeleton of an Ajetas,&mdash;I cannot help thinking that the
+reader may imagine that I have concocted a story for his amusement.
+However, I relate facts exactly as they occurred, and I leave all at
+liberty to believe as they please.</p>
+
+<p>I was, as it were, alone in my frail boat, struggling continually
+with the large waves, which obliged me every moment to deviate from the
+course. I longed for daylight, for I hoped to be able to discern the
+beach of Binangonan de Lampon, as a place of refuge, where I should
+find the frank hospitality and the valuable assistance of my old
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>At last the long-wished-for sun arose above the horizon, and I saw
+that we were about three leagues from the coast. I had gone far too
+much out to sea, and had passed Binangonan a long way. It was not
+possible to steer back, the wind would not allow it; so I decided on
+pursuing the same course, and on <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb281"
+href="#pb281">281</a>]</span>doing my best to reach, before night,
+Maoban, a large Tagaloc village, situate on the coast of Luzon, and
+which is separated by a small ridge of mountains from the lake of Bay.
+The first rays of the sun and a little calm restored my Indians to a
+state of being able to render me some service. We passed the day
+without eating or drinking, and we had the regret of seeing that we had
+not attained our purpose. Our position was most distressing: a storm
+might rise, the wind might blow with force, and our only resource then
+would be to throw ourselves into the breakers, and to reach the shore
+as well as we could. But luckily nothing of the kind took place; and
+about midnight we knew, from meeting a small island, that we were in
+front of the village of Maoban. I steered to it, and in a short time we
+arrived in a calm quiet bay, near a sandy shore. The fatigue and want
+of food had thoroughly exhausted my strength. I had no sooner landed
+than I threw myself on the ground, and fell into a deep sleep, which
+lasted until day. When I awoke I found the sun&rsquo;s rays were
+shining full upon me: it was near seven o&rsquo;clock. On any other
+occasion I should have been ashamed of my laziness, but could I feel
+dissatisfied with myself for sleeping soundly after thirty-six
+hours&rsquo; fasting, and spent in such extraordinary exertions<span
+class="corr" id="xd0e2679" title="Source: .">?</span> During my sleep
+one of my Indians went into the village in search of provisions, and I
+found excellent rice and salt fish near me. We made a delicious and
+splendid breakfast. My Indians, on behalf of the inhabitants, asked me
+to go to the village, and spend the day, but I was too eager to reach
+home. I knew by walking quickly we could get through the mountains, and
+arrive at night on the banks of the lake, within a few hours&rsquo;
+journey from my house. I determined to start without any delay. We took
+our things out of the boat; the little sail retook its former shape,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb282" href="#pb282">282</a>]</span>as a
+sack, to hold the skulls and the skeleton, the cause of all the
+disasters to which we had been exposed, and, with reunited strength,
+and abundant provisions for the day, we began to mount the high hills
+which separate the gulf of Maoban from the lake of Bay. The journey was
+laborious and painful. At seven o&rsquo;clock we embarked on the lake,
+and towards midnight we reached Jala-Jala, where I very speedily forgot
+all the toil and trouble of my long and dangerous journey, while
+pressing my son in my arms and covering him with paternal kisses.</p>
+
+<p>My excellent friend Vidie, to whom I sold my house and
+establishment, gave me letters which he had received from Manilla, and
+from them I learned that my presence was desired there on affairs of
+importance. I resolved to start on the following day. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb283" href="#pb283">283</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p283"><img border="0" src="images/p283.jpg"
+alt="View of Manilla from the Environs." width="488" height="380">
+<p class="figureHead">View of Manilla from the Environs.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2522src" id="xd0e2522">1</a></span> Bernard the Hermit is a crab,
+which lodges in the abandoned shell of the mollusc&aelig;, and comes at
+night in search of food, which it finds on the sea beach.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2637src" id="xd0e2637">2</a></span> The skeleton is now in the
+<span lang="fr">Mus&eacute;e Anatomique</span> of Paris.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch13" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter XIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>I Determine not again to Separate from my Son&mdash;I take him to
+Manilla&mdash;The Effects of the Wound I received among the
+Ajetas&mdash;My Recovery&mdash;Kindness of the Spanish and other
+Inhabitants of Manilla&mdash;Illness of my Son&mdash;I return with him
+to Jala-Jala&mdash;Sorrowful Remembrances&mdash;The Death of my poor
+Boy&mdash;His Interment&mdash;My frantic Grief and Despair&mdash;I
+Determine to Quit the Philippines&mdash;I am Called to Manilla by
+Madame Dolor&egrave;s Seneris&mdash;My Final Departure from
+Jala-Jala&mdash;I Arrive at Manilla, where I resume Practice as a
+Surgeon&mdash;I Embark for France&mdash;Discontent&mdash;My Travels
+through Europe&mdash;I Marry again&mdash;Death of my Mother and my
+Second Wife&mdash;Conclusion.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Having now concluded my last trip into the interior
+of the Philippines, I was desirous of not separating myself again from
+my son, the only being that remained to me of all those whom I had
+loved so tenderly. I took him with me to Manilla; but I did not
+altogether bid farewell to Jala-Jala, yet I had almost the intention of
+never going back to it.</p>
+
+<p>The journey was as agreeable as my melancholy recollections <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb284" href="#pb284">284</a>]</span>would
+permit. I experienced such pleasure in holding my boy in my arms, and
+in receiving his gentle caresses, that I occasionally forgot every
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>I arrived at Manilla, and took up my quarters in the environs, at
+the abode of Baptiste Vidie, brother of the friend whom I had left at
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>After my escape from the Ajetas, I had noticed a small wound on the
+forefinger of my right hand, which I attributed to having been
+accidentally scratched by a branch or a thorn, while we were
+endeavouring to make our escape with such precipitation from the arrows
+which the savages let fly at us. The first night I spent at Manilla, I
+felt in the place where the wound was such extreme pain that I fell
+down twice totally senseless. The agony increased every instant, and
+became so violent that I could no longer doubt that it was caused by
+the poison of an arrow, shot at me by the Ajetas. I sent for one of my
+<i>confr&eacute;res</i>, and after a most careful examination, he made
+a large incision, which did not, however, afford me any relief: the
+hand, on the contrary, festered up. By little and little the
+inflammation extended itself up my arm, and I was soon in an alarming
+state.</p>
+
+<p>In short, after suffering during a whole month, and after the most
+cruel incertitude, it seemed that the poison had passed into my breast.
+I could not sleep for an instant; and, in spite of me, dead and painful
+cries came forth from my breast, which was on fire. My eyes were
+veiled&mdash;I could not see; a burning sweat covered my face; my blood
+was on fire, and did not circulate in my veins; my life seemed about to
+become extinct. The medical men declared that I could not pass through
+the night. According to the usages of the country, I was told that I
+ought to regulate my affairs for death. I <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb285" href="#pb285">285</a>]</span>asked that the consul-general of
+France, my excellent friend Adolphe Barrot, should be sent for.</p>
+
+<p>Adolphe I knew to be a man of true heart and affection, and to him I
+recommended my poor boy. He promised to take care of him as if he were
+his own son, to take him to France, and to give him over to my
+family.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly a good Dominican friar came, and with him I had several long
+conferences, and after he had dispensed to me the consolations of his
+ministry, he gave me extreme unction. Everything was done according to
+the customary form, and nothing was wanting but my death.</p>
+
+<p>However, amidst all these preparations, I alone was not so eager;
+and, although in excessive anguish, I preserved my presence of mind,
+and declared I should not die. Was it courage? Was it great confidence
+in my strength and robust health, which made me believe in my recovery?
+Was it a presentiment, or was it an inward voice which told me:
+&ldquo;The doctors are wrong, and how great will be their surprise
+tomorrow on finding me better?&rdquo; In short, I did not wish to die;
+for, according to my system, my will ought to stop the order of nature,
+and to make me survive all imaginable pain.</p>
+
+<p>The following day I was better: the doctors found my pulse regular,
+and without any intermitting symptom. Some days afterwards the poison
+passed out to my skin: my whole body was covered with a miliary
+eruption, and thenceforth I was safe. My recovery was very gradual, and
+for more than a year I felt acute pains in my breast.</p>
+
+<p>During the course of my illness I received the kindest attention
+from my fellow-countrymen, and in general from all the Spanish
+inhabitants of Manilla; and here I ought to state, to the praise of the
+latter class, that during twenty years spent <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb286" href="#pb286">286</a>]</span>in the Philippines, I always
+found amongst those with whom I had dealings, a great nobleness of soul
+and a devotedness free from egotism. I shall never forget the
+kindnesses I received from this noble race, for which I entertain
+feelings of the warmest gratitude. To me, every Spaniard is a brother;
+and to him I shall always be happy to prove that his countrymen have
+not conferred obligations on an ungrateful character. I hope the reader
+will pardon me for having quitted my subject for a short time to fulfil
+the duty of gratitude; but are they not my recollections which I am
+detailing?<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2727src" href="#xd0e2727">1</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb287" href="#pb287">287</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The wish to undertake, together with my boy, the voyage which would
+restore me to my country; the hope of seeing my kind good mother, my
+sisters, and all the friends whom I had left behind, reconciled me
+somewhat to existence, and made me experience a little happiness. I was
+awaiting with impatience the time for embarking; but, alas! my mission
+was not yet terminated in the Philippines, and a new catastrophe,
+quickly opened afresh all my sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>I was scarcely recovered, when my dear boy&mdash;my sole delight the
+last beloved being that remained to me on this earth, so fruitful in
+joys, and still so destructive of them&mdash;my poor Henry fell
+suddenly ill, and his disease made the most rapid progress. My friends
+immediately foreboded that a great misfortune would befall me. I alone
+did not know the state in which my child really was. I loved him with
+such an ardent passion, that I believed it impossible that Providence
+would deprive me of him. My medical attendant, or rather my friend,
+Genu, advised me to take him to Jala-Jala, where his native air and the
+country, as he said, would without doubt promote his recovery. I liked
+the advice, for so many persons had recovered their health at Jala-Jala
+that I hoped for my child a similar good result. I set out with him and
+his governess; the voyage was one of sadness, for I saw my poor boy
+continually suffering, without being able to afford him any relief.</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival Vidie came to receive us, and in a few moments I
+occupied, with my Henry, the room which brought to my remembrance two
+very sorrowful losses&mdash;the death of my little daughter and that of
+my beloved Anna. It was, moreover, in that very room my Henry was
+born,&mdash;a cruel association of the happiest moments of my existence
+with that when I was <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb288" href=
+"#pb288">288</a>]</span>bewailing the state of my beloved boy.
+Nevertheless, I did not altogether despair, for I had hopes in my art
+and experience. I seated myself by his bedside, and did not leave him
+for a moment. I slept close to him, and I passed every day in
+administering the medicine and all the comforts in my power, but
+without any good result, or any relief for his sufferings. I lost all
+hope, and on the ninth day after our arrival the dear boy expired in my
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>It is not possible for me to give an account of my feelings on this
+last trial. My heart was broken, my head on fire! I became mad, and
+never did despair take such a hold on me. I listened to nothing but my
+sorrow; and force became necessary to tear from my arms the mortal
+remains of my child.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day he was laid close to his mother, and another
+tomb was erected in the church of Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did my friend Vidie endeavour to afford me consolation, or
+to change the current of my affliction. Several times he tried to
+remove me from the fatal room, which I now looked upon as a scene of
+misfortunes, but he could not succeed. I hoped at the time&mdash;and I
+also thought that I too had a right&mdash;to die there, where my wife
+and my son had breathed their last sighs. My tears refused to flow, and
+even words failed me to express the full extent of my grief. An ardent
+fever, which devoured me, was far too slow for the eagerness of my
+wishes. In a moment of bewilderment, I was near committing the greatest
+act of cowardice which man can perpetrate against his Creator. I
+double-locked the door; I seized the poignard which I had so often used
+to protect my life, and pointed it against myself. I was already
+choosing the spot in which I should strike, in order by one blow to
+terminate my miserable existence. My arm, strengthened <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb289" href="#pb289">289</a>]</span>by delirium, was
+about to smite my breast, when one sudden thought came to prevent me
+from consummating the crime which has no pardon&mdash;although the
+crime of despair. My mother, my poor mother, whom I had so much loved,
+my good mother presented herself to my mind, and said to me:
+&ldquo;Thou wouldst abandon me&mdash;I shall see thee no more!&rdquo; I
+recollected then the words of Anna: &ldquo;Go, and see thy mother
+again!&rdquo; This thought changed my resolution completely. I threw
+the poniard aside with horror, and fell on my bed quite exhausted. My
+eyes, which during many days had been dry and burning, were once again
+overflowing with tears, which removed the heavy weight from my
+lacerated heart.</p>
+
+<p>The force of mind of which I stood so much in need was awakened
+again within me: I no longer thought of death, but of fulfilling my
+rigorous destiny. Calmed and relieved already by the abundant flow of
+tears, I gave myself up wholly to the idea of embracing my mother and
+my sisters. Then I wished to add the following pages to my journal. My
+head was not thoroughly right. I shall translate what I then wrote in
+Spanish, which was my adopted and familiar language, in preference even
+to French, which I had scarcely spoken during twenty years:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How have I strength to take this pen? My poor boy!&mdash;my
+son!&mdash;my beloved Henry!&mdash;is no more: his soul has flown to
+his Creator! Oh, God! pardon this complaint in my distress. What have I
+done to be thus cruelly afflicted? My boy!&mdash;my dear son!&mdash;my
+only hope!&mdash;my last happiness!&mdash;I shall never again see thee!
+Formerly I was happy; I had my good Anna and my dear child; but cruel
+fate soon tore my companion from me. My trouble was indeed great, and
+my affliction was profound; but thou wast still with me, Oh, my child!
+and all my affections were concentrated in thee. &ldquo;With thy <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb290" href="#pb290">290</a>]</span>caresses
+thou didst dry my tears; thy smile was like that of thy mother, and thy
+beautiful features reminded me of her, and in thee I found her again.
+But to-day, alas! I have lost you both. What a void! Oh, God! what a
+solitude! Oh! I ought to die in this room which is the depository of
+all my misfortunes. Here I bewailed my poor brother; here I closed the
+eyes of my daughter; here, also, Anna, when dying, bade me, bathed in
+tears, her last adieus; and here, at last, thou, my son, they tore thee
+from my arms, to lay thee near the ashes of thy mother.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So many afflictions and so many troubles for one man! Oh, God
+of goodness and mercy, will you not restore to me my poor child? Alas!
+I scarcely feel that I am mistaken: but He will pity my
+bewilderment&mdash;he who has been beloved and who has seen carried
+off, one by one, all the elements of his happiness. As for me, an
+isolated being, and henceforward useless on this earth, it matters
+little where I shall sink under the weight of my afflictions. If it was
+not from the hope of seeing my mother and sisters, I should terminate
+my wretched existence, my grave should be with you&mdash;you
+all!&mdash;whom I loved so much. I should remain near you, and during
+the rest of my miserable existence I should every day visit your tombs!
+But no; a sacred duty obliges me to leave you, and to separate for ever
+from you. Cruel! Oh, cruel indeed will be the hour when I shall depart
+from you. And thou, my beloved, my good, excellent wife, my Anna, thy
+last words shall be accomplished. I will set out, but regret and grief
+accompany me during the voyage; my heart and my memory will remain at
+Jala-Jala. Oh! land bedewed with my sweat, with my blood, and with my
+tears! when fate brought me to thy shores thou wast covered with dismal
+forests which this day <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb291" href=
+"#pb291">291</a>]</span>have given place to rich harvests: among thy
+inhabitants order, abundance, and prosperity have taken the place of
+debauchery and misery. My efforts were crowned with full success; all
+was prosperity around me. Alas! I was too happy! But while misfortune
+strikes me down and overwhelms me, it will have stricken me alone, my
+work will outlive me. You will be happy, Oh, my friends! and if I
+myself have been so in contributing to your welfare, let a thought
+sometimes awaken your feelings towards him to whom you often gave the
+name of &rsquo;Father;&rsquo; and if you preserve gratitude towards
+him, Oh, take a religious care of the tombs, trebly dear to him, which
+he now intrusts to you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My readers will pardon this melancholy and long lamentation; they
+will understand it if they examine with care my position. Separated
+from my country by five thousand five hundred leagues, the stroke of
+fate which laid all my cherished hopes in the dust was the more acutely
+felt as it was unexpected. I had no relatives in the Philippines; in
+France alone I might yet find some affections; and, at the moment of
+quitting Jala-Jala for ever, the idea of parting with my
+Indians&mdash;attached, devoted, as they were to me&mdash;was an
+additional grief to the many which overpowered me. Thus I could not
+resolve to acquaint them beforehand of this separation. I remained in
+my room, without quitting it even at meal times. My friend Vidie did
+everything possible to prepare me for these adieus, and to console me.
+He pressed me to start speedily for Manilla, and to make arrangements
+for my departure; but an irresistible force retained me at Jala-Jala. I
+was weak; my heart was so crushed by sorrows that I had no courage to
+adopt any resolutions. I put it off from day to day, and from day to
+day I was more undecided. An unexpected occasion <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb292" href="#pb292">292</a>]</span>was necessary in order to
+conquer my apathy; it was requisite also to triumph over me by
+sentiments of gratitude&mdash;sentiments which I could never
+resist.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion, the motive which decided my departure was
+furnished by Providence. I had a friend in Manilla, a lady of angelic
+goodness, gentleness, and devotedness. United from the period of my
+arrival in the most intimate manner with all her family, I had known
+her as a child, and afterwards married to a highly honourable man, of
+whom when she was subsequently bereaved, I afforded her all the
+consolations which the sincerest friendship could offer. She was a
+witness of the happiness which I enjoyed with my dear Anna, and,
+hearing that I was unhappy, she did not hesitate to undertake a long
+journey, and in her turn to come and take a part in my troubles. The
+excellent Dolor&egrave;s Seneris arrived one morning at Jala-Jala; she
+threw herself into my arms, and for some moments tears alone were the
+interpreters of our thoughts. When we recovered from our first
+emotions, she told me that she had come to take me away, and she
+herself made the preparations for my departure. I was too grateful for
+this proof of the friendship of the good Dolor&egrave;s not to
+acquiesce in her wishes, and it was decided that on the following day I
+should quit Jala-Jala for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The report was soon spread among my Indians. They all came to bid me
+farewell: they wept, and they said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, master, do not deprive us of all hope of seeing you
+again. Go, and receive consolation from your mother, and then return to
+your children.&rdquo; That day was filled with most distressing
+feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The day following was Sunday. I went to say adieu to the remains of
+those whom I had loved even in their tombs. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb293" href="#pb293">293</a>]</span>I heard for the last time the
+divine service in the modest little church which I had erected, and in
+which for a long time, surrounded by my dearest friends, I was happy to
+assemble, on the same day of the week, the small congregation of
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>After the service I proceeded to the beach, where the boat was
+waiting, which was to take me to Manilla. There&mdash;surrounded by my
+Indians, the good parish priest, Padre Miguel, and my friend
+Vidie&mdash;I bade adieu to them all for the last time. Dolor&egrave;s
+and I got into the boat, which was scarcely pushed off from the shore
+when every arm was stretched out towards me, and every one
+exclaimed:&mdash;&ldquo;May your voyage be happy, master! And oh!
+return soon!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>One of the oldest Indians made a sign for silence, and then in a
+loud voice uttered these solemn words:&mdash;&ldquo;Brothers, let us
+weep and pray, for the sun is obscured to us; the star which is going
+has shed light on our best days, and now for the future, being deprived
+of that light, we cannot tell how long will last the night in which we
+are plunged by the misfortune of his departure.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This exhortation of the old Indian were the last words that reached
+us: the boat moved away, as I, for the last time, fixed my eyes on the
+beloved land which I was never again to behold.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Manilla late: it was one of those enchanting nights,
+which I have described in the happy period of my voyages.
+Dolor&egrave;s insisted that I should not lodge in any house but hers.
+Before she set out her careful friendship had provided for everything.
+I was surrounded by all those little attentions of which woman alone
+has the secret, and which she knows how to confer with such grace on
+him who is the object for whom they are designed. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb294" href="#pb294">294</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>My windows looked on the pretty river Pasig. I there passed whole
+days in looking at the graceful Indian canoes gliding over the water,
+and receiving the visits of my friends, who came with eagerness to
+endeavour to divert my thoughts, and to afford sources of pleasing
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>When I was alone I sought to dispel my melancholy by thinking of my
+voyage; on the happiness I should experience on seeing again my poor
+mother and sisters, a brother-in-law whom I did not know, and nieces
+born during my absence.</p>
+
+<p>The obligation of returning the visits I received, and the
+re-establishment of my health, allowed me at length to enter into
+affairs connected with my departure.</p>
+
+<p>My friend, Adolphe Barrot, consul-general of France, was every day
+in expectation of intelligence from his government, with orders for his
+return home. He proposed to me to wait for him, so that we might make
+the voyage together. I accepted the proposal with pleasure, and we
+decided amongst ourselves that, for our return, we should take the
+route of India, of the Red Sea, and of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>While I stayed at Manilla I did not wish to be idle. The Spaniards
+reminded me that at a former epoch I had carried on the art of
+medicine, and with great success. I soon had patients from all quarters
+of the island, and I resumed my old profession, and gave advice. But
+what difference between <i>this</i> time and that of my <i>
+d&eacute;b&ucirc;t</i>. Then I was young, full of strength and of hope;
+then I indulged in the illusions usual to youth; a long future of
+happiness presented itself to my imagination. Now, overwhelmed by the
+weight of troubles and of the laborious works I had executed, there was
+only one wish to excite me, and that was, to see France again; and yet
+my recollections took me continually back to Jala-Jala. Poor little
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb295" href=
+"#pb295">295</a>]</span>corner of the globe, which I civilised! where
+my best years were spent in a life of labour, of emotions, of
+happiness, and of bitterness! Poor Indians! who loved me so much! I was
+never to see you again! We were soon to be separated by the immensity
+of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Reflections and recollections beyond number thus occupied my mind.
+But, alas! it is vain to struggle against one&rsquo;s destiny; and
+Providence, in its impenetrable views, was reserving me for rude trials
+and fresh misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Having again become a doctor at Manilla, where I had such difficulty
+at my commencement, I visited patients from morning until night. To
+Dolor&egrave;s and to her sister Trinidad I was indebted for the most
+touching and most delicate attentions, calculated to heal the wounds
+which were still bleeding in the bottom of my heart. I frequently saw
+the two sisters of my poor wife, Joaquina and Mariquita, as well as my
+young niece, the daughter of excellent Josephine, for whom I had
+entertained so warm a friendship, and who so soon followed my darling
+Anna to the grave. By little and little I was forming new ties of
+affection, which I was soon to break, and never afterwards to renew. I
+could not forget Jala-Jala, and my recollections never quitted that
+place where were deposited the remains of those whom of all the world I
+had most loved. My eager wishes induced me to hope that my work of
+colonisation should continue, and that my friend Vidie should find some
+compensation for the rough task he had undertaken. At this period, even
+while I remained in Manilla, a great misfortune was nearly the cause of
+throwing Jala-Jala back into its former state of barbarism. The
+bandits, who always respected the place while I was in possession of
+it, came one night to attack it, and made themselves masters of the
+house in which <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb296" href=
+"#pb296">296</a>]</span>Vidie had shut himself up, and defended until
+he was forced to escape out of a window, and to run and hide in the
+woods, leaving his daughter, then very young, to the care of an Indian
+nurse. The bandits pillaged and shattered everything in the house;
+wounded his daughter by a sabre-cut, of which to this day she bears the
+marks; and then went off with the plunder they had made. But Jala-Jala
+had become too important a point to be neglected; and the Spanish
+government sent troops to it, to protect Vidie, and to maintain
+order.</p>
+
+<p>At last, Adolphe Barrot received from the French government the
+long-awaited instructions to return home; all my preparations were made
+for setting out. It was in 1839; twenty years had passed over since I
+left my country, which I was now about to return to with satisfaction.
+For a long time I had received no news from my mother, and the pleasure
+which I anticipated from seeing her was troubled by the dread of having
+new sorrows to experience on my arrival. My mother was then very old;
+her life had been passed in long tribulations, and in complete
+sacrifice of self. The numerous moral troubles which she had gone
+through must have affected her state of health. Besides, I had been so
+unfortunate: fate seemed to have so roughly treated all my affections,
+that I could not refrain from thinking that I should never again see
+her for whom I abandoned my much-loved country. The day for sailing
+came; yet it was not without a heartfelt grief that I tore myself away
+from my friends, and bade adieu to the Philippines.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+<p>Here ought to terminate the account which I proposed: yet I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to my return to my native land.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb297" href="#pb297">297</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>On board various vessels I passed the coasts of India, the Persian
+Gulf, and the Red Sea.</p>
+
+<p>After having often admired the grand works of Nature, I felt a
+strong desire to see the gigantic works executed by the hand of
+man.</p>
+
+<p>I went to Thebes, and there visited in detail its palaces, its
+tombs, and its monolithes. I descended the Nile, stopping at every
+place which contained any monuments worthy of my curiosity. I ascended
+one of the Pyramids. I passed several days in Cairo, and set out for
+Alexandria, where I embarked anew, to pass over the small space of sea
+which separated me from Europe.</p>
+
+<p>I have sometimes wished to compare the grandest of human productions
+with the works of the Creator; the comparison is by no means favourable
+to the former, for all those useless ornaments are nothing but lasting
+proofs of pride, and of the fanaticism of a few men, who were obeyed by
+a people in slavery. I also saw all that remained of the traces of
+destruction committed by two of the greatest conquerors of the world:
+the first was but a haughty despot, causing cohorts of slaves to act as
+he pleased, and carrying the sword and destruction amongst peaceful
+people, to profane their tombs, to follow up useless
+conquests,&mdash;history afterwards shows him dying of an orgie; and
+the other, alas! was enchained to a rock.</p>
+
+<p>From the summit of one of the Pyramids, in religious abstraction, I
+had contemplated the majestic Nile, which glides serpent-like through a
+vast plain, bordered by the Desert and arid mountains. Looking, then,
+below me, I could with difficulty descry some of my travelling
+companions, who were gazing at the Sphinx, and who appeared like little
+spots on <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb298" href=
+"#pb298">298</a>]</span>the sand. And I then exclaimed: &ldquo;It is
+not these useless monuments that we ought to admire, but rather this
+magnificent river, which, in obedience to the laws of all-powerful
+wisdom, overflows every year, at a fixed period, its limits, and
+spreads itself, like a vast sea, to water and to vivify these immense
+plains, which are afterwards covered with rich harvests. If this
+immutable and beneficent order of Nature did not endure, all these
+fertile districts would be but a desert waste, where no living creature
+could exist.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>These reflections took their origin, without doubt, from my having
+spent almost all my life amidst those grand creations of Nature, from
+which man continually derives sentiments that elevate him to the
+Supreme Being. I had studied that Nature&mdash;in all her details, her
+beneficence, and her magnificence&mdash;too attentively to allow the
+productions of man&rsquo;s genius to make upon me the impression which
+I thought might be expected, when I first formed the wish to see the
+monuments of Egypt; and, while sailing for Europe, I already
+anticipated the feeling that a short sojourn in the midst of
+civilisation would cause me to regret my ancient freedom, my mountains,
+and my solitudes in the Philippine Islands.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Malta I was for eighteen days locked up in Fort
+Manuel, and then passed the quarantine. I there received news of my
+family. My mother and sisters wrote to me that they were in the
+enjoyment of excellent health, and were awaiting with impatience my
+coming to them. After the quarantine was over, I stopped nearly a week
+in the city, while waiting for a steamer that was going to France. I
+embraced the opportunity of seeing every curiosity in the island. I
+then resumed my voyage to my native land, and the following week I
+recognised the arid rocks of Provence <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb299" href="#pb299">299</a>]</span>and France, from which I had been
+absent for twenty years.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days I reached Nantes, where for some time I enjoyed, in
+every respect, all the happiness which one feels when those beloved
+beings from whom one had been long severed, and who formed the last
+living ties of affection for an unhappy being who had been severely
+tried by a capricious destiny. But the want of excitement in which I
+lived soon became irksome; my life had been too active, so that the
+sudden transition could not fail to prove injurious to my health, and
+the idea of submitting during the remainder of my existence to a life
+sterile and monotonous became intolerable. Not knowing how to employ
+myself, I resolved to travel through Europe, and to study the civilised
+world, which was then so strange to me. I travelled through France,
+England, Belgium, Spain, and Italy, and returned to my family, without
+being able to discover anything that could induce me to forget my
+Indians, Jala-Jala, and my solitary excursions in the virgin forests.
+The society of men reared in extreme civilisation could not efface from
+my memory my past modest life. Notwithstanding all my efforts, I
+retained in my heart a fund of sadness, which it was not possible to
+conceal. My kind-hearted mother, who with deep regret observed my
+repugnance to establish myself in any part of the country, and who
+entertained fears, perhaps well-founded ones, that I should yet
+endeavour to go back to the Philippines, used every means to prevent
+me. She spoke to me of marriage, and in all her letters repeated that
+she should not be happy until I agreed to enter into the ties of a new
+union: she said my name would otherwise become extinct, and, as her
+last consolation, she asked me to allow her to choose a companion for
+me. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb300" href=
+"#pb300">300</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The wish to satisfy her, and also the remembrance of Anna&rsquo;s
+last words: &ldquo;Return to thy country, and marry one of thy
+countrywomen,&rdquo; decided my resolution.</p>
+
+<p>I soon made choice of one, who would have fully rendered a man happy
+who had not too frequently before him the remembrance of a previous
+union. Nevertheless, I was as happy as I could be. My new wife
+possessed every quality necessary for my happiness. By her I became
+father of two children, and I began to bless the determination which my
+mother had contributed so much to make me adopt; but, alas! happiness
+was never for me lasting; the cup of bitterness was not yet exhausted,
+and I had still to shed many tears.</p>
+
+<p>In the cemetery of Vertoux, a modest tomb for thee, poor mother! is
+erected, between that of a husband and a son; and soon after another
+grave was opened at Neuilly. In profound affliction I had the following
+lines engraved on the latter:</p>
+
+<div class="lgouter " lang="fr">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;Veille, du haut des cieux, sur ta triste
+famille;</p>
+
+<p class="line">Conserve-moi ton fils et revis dans ta fille.&rdquo;<a
+class="noteref" id="xd0e2846src" href="#xd0e2846">2</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2727src" id="xd0e2727">1</a></span> Gratitude here requires that
+I should name some of those to whom I am specially indebted for marks
+of affection and kindness. It would be indeed ungrateful on my part to
+forget them, and I beg them to accept this proof of my
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Governors of the Philippines to whom I owe
+these remembrances are:&mdash;Generals Martin&egrave;s, Ricafort,
+Torres Enrile, Camba, and Salazar; in the various administrations of
+the colony, the Judges (Oidorrs) Don Inigo Asaola, Otin-i Doazo, Don
+Matias Mier, Don Jacobo Varela, administrator-general of the liquors;
+Don Jos&eacute; de la Fuente, commissary of the engineers, who rendered
+me innumerable kindnesses; Colonel Don Thomas de Murieta, corregidor of
+Tondoc; the colonel of engineers, Don Mariano Goicochea; the
+Colonel-Commandant Lante Romana; the Governor of the province, Don
+Jos&eacute; Atienza; the brothers Ramos, sons of the judge; all the
+family Calderon; that of Seneris; Don Balthazar Mier, Don Jos&eacute;
+Ascaraga; and lastly my friend, Don Domingo Roxas, whose son, Don
+Mariano Roxas, after having received a solid and brilliant education at
+Manilla, came to travel in Europe. He has acquired the most extensive
+information in the sciences and arts, and when he shall have returned
+to the Philippine Islands, he will most worthily replace his dignified
+father, whom a premature death has snatched away from the industry, the
+agriculture, and the advancement of his country. If gratitude has
+induced me to mention here the Spaniards from whom I experienced many
+acts of kindness, the same feeling compels me to allude to an English
+gentleman to whom I was indebted for one of those important services
+which are never to be forgotten. I allude to Mr. Thomas Dent, with whom
+I have frequently conversed upon our hunting parties at Jala-Jala, in
+which he was occasionally one of the principal actors.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2846src" id="xd0e2846">2</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="q" lang="en">
+<div class="body">
+<div class="div1">
+<div class="lgouter ">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;From Heaven&rsquo;s height look down and see</p>
+
+<p class="line">The sorrows of thy family;</p>
+
+<p class="line">Preserve for me thy only boy,</p>
+
+<p class="line">And in thy daughter give me joy.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="back">
+<div class="div1" id="toc">
+<h2 class="normal">Table of Contents</h2>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#pre">Preface.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">xiii</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch1">Chapter I.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">17</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">A Family Sketch&mdash;My Youthful Days&mdash;I
+Study for the Medical Profession&mdash;Obtain a Naval Surgeon&rsquo;s
+Diploma&mdash;Early Voyages&mdash;Sail for Manilla in the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>&mdash;Adventurous Habits&mdash;Cholera and Massacre at
+Manilla and Cavite&mdash;Captain Drouant&rsquo;s Rescue&mdash;Personal
+Dangers and Timely Escapes&mdash;How Business may make Friends of
+one&rsquo;s Enemies&mdash;An Unprincipled Captain&mdash;Tranquility
+restored at Manila&mdash;Pleasures of the Chase&mdash;The <i>
+Cultivateur</i> sails without me&mdash;First Embarrassments.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch2">Chapter II.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">32</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Description of Manilla&mdash;The two
+Towns&mdash;Gaiety of Binondoc&mdash;Dances&mdash;Gaming&mdash;Beauty
+of the Women&mdash;Their Fascinating Costume&mdash;Male
+Costume&mdash;The Military Town&mdash;Personal Adventures&mdash;My
+First Patient&mdash;His Generous Confidence&mdash;Commencement of my
+Practice&mdash;The Artificial Eye&mdash;Brilliant Success&mdash;The
+Charming Widow&mdash;Auspicious Introduction&mdash;My
+Marriage&mdash;Treachery and Fate of Iturbide&mdash;Our Loss of
+Fortune&mdash;Return to France postponed.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch3">Chapter III.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">47</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Continued Prosperity in Practice&mdash;Attempted
+Political Revolution&mdash;Desperate Street
+Engagement&mdash;Subjugation of the Insurgents&mdash;The Emperor of a
+Day&mdash;Dreadful Executions&mdash;Illness and Insanity of my
+Wife&mdash;Her Recovery and Relapse&mdash;Removal to the
+Country&mdash;Beneficial Results&mdash;Dangerous
+Neighbours&mdash;Repentant Banditti&mdash;Fortunate Escape&mdash;The
+Anonymous Friend&mdash;A Confiding Wife&mdash;Her Final Recovery, and
+our Domestic Happiness Restored.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch4">Chapter IV.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">62</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Hunting the Stag&mdash;Indian Mode of Chasing
+the Wild Buffalo: its Ferocity&mdash;Dangerous Sport&mdash;Capture of a
+Buffalo&mdash;Narrow Escape of an Indian Hunter&mdash;Return to
+Manilla&mdash;Injustice of the Governor&mdash;My Resignation of
+Office&mdash;I Purchase Property at Jala-Jala&mdash;Retire from Manilla
+to Take Possession of my Domains&mdash;Chinese Legend&mdash;Festival of
+St Nicholas&mdash;Quinaboutasan&mdash;Description of
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Interview with a Bandit Chief&mdash;Formation of a
+Guard&mdash;Preparations for Building&mdash;Visit to Manilla, and
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Completion of my House&mdash;Reception of my
+Wife by the Natives&mdash;The Government of the
+Philippines&mdash;Character of the Tagaloc Indians&mdash;Unmerited
+Chastisement&mdash;A Curate Appointed&mdash;Our Labours at
+Civilisation&mdash;My Hall of Justice&mdash;Buffalo Hunting
+Expedition.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch5">Chapter V.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">95</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Description of my House at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Storms, Gales, and Earthquakes&mdash;Reforming the
+Banditti&mdash;Card-playing&mdash;Tagal Cock-fighting&mdash;Skirmishes
+with Robbers&mdash;Courage of my Wife&mdash;Our Domestic
+Happiness&mdash;Visits from Europeans&mdash;Their Astonishment at our
+Civilisation&mdash;Visit to a Sick Friend at Manilla&mdash;Tour through
+the Provinces of the Ilocos and Pangasinan Indians&mdash;My Reception
+by the Tinguians&mdash;Their Appearance and Habits&mdash;Manners and
+Customs&mdash;Indian F&ecirc;te at Laganguilan y Madalag&mdash;Horrible
+Ceremonies to Celebrate a Victory&mdash;Songs and Dances&mdash;Our
+Night-watch&mdash;We Explore our Cabin&mdash;Discovery of a Secret
+Well&mdash;Tomb of the Tinguian Indians.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch6">Chapter VI.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">117</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Visit to Manabo&mdash;Conversation with my
+Guide&mdash;Religion of the Tinguians&mdash;Their Marriage
+Ceremony&mdash;Funereal Rites&mdash;Mode of Warfare&mdash;I take leave
+of the Tinguians&mdash;Journey to the Igorrots&mdash;Description of
+them&mdash;Their Dwellings&mdash;A Fortunate Escape&mdash;Alila and the
+Bandits&mdash;Recollections of Home&mdash;A Majestic
+Fig-tree&mdash;Superstition of Alila&mdash;Interview with an
+Igorrot&mdash;The Human Hand&mdash;Nocturnal
+Adventure&mdash;Consternation of Alila&mdash;Probable Origin of the
+Tinguians and Igorrots.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch7">Chapter VII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">139</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">I return to Jala-Jala&mdash;An Excursion on the
+Lake&mdash;Relempago&rsquo;s Narrative&mdash;Re-organisation of my
+Government&mdash;A Letter from my Brother Henry&mdash;His
+Arrival&mdash;He joins me in the Management of my
+Plantations&mdash;Cajoui, the Bandit: Anten-Anten&mdash;Indian
+Superstition&mdash;A Combat with the Bandit&mdash;His Death&mdash;A
+Piratical Descent&mdash;My Lieutenant is Wounded&mdash;I extract the
+Ball, and cure him.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch8">Chapter VIII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">162</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Death of my Brother Robert&mdash;Our Party at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Illness and Last Moments of my Friend
+Bermigan&mdash;Recovery and Departure for France or
+Lafond&mdash;Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity&mdash;Tremendous Gale
+of Wind&mdash;Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake&mdash;Safe Return to
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destruction of my House and the Village by a
+Typhoon&mdash;Rendezvous with a Bandit&mdash;Ineffectual Attempts to
+Reform Him&mdash;His Death&mdash;Journey to Tapuzi&mdash;Its
+Inaccessibility&mdash;Government of the Tapuzians&mdash;Morality and
+Religious Character of their Chief&mdash;Their Curiosity at Beholding a
+White Man&mdash;Former Wickedness and Divine Punishment&mdash;We bid
+Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return to Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch9">Chapter IX.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">181</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Suppression of War between two Indian
+Towns&mdash;Flourishing Condition of Jala-Jala&mdash;Hospitality to
+Strangers&mdash;Field Sports&mdash;Bat and Lizard Shooting&mdash;Visit
+to, and Description of, the Isle of Socolme&mdash;Adventure with a
+Cayman&mdash;Cormorants&mdash;We Visit Los Banos&mdash;Monkey
+Shooting&mdash;Expedition to, and Description of, the Grotto of
+Sun-Mateo&mdash;Magnificent aspect of the Interior.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch10">Chapter X.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">204</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Dumont d&rsquo;Urville&mdash;Rear-Admiral
+Laplace: Desertion of Sailors from his Ship&mdash;I recover them for
+him&mdash;Origin of the Inhabitants of the Philippine
+Islands&mdash;Their General Disposition&mdash;Hospitality and Respect
+for Old Age&mdash;Tagal Marriage Ceremony&mdash;Indian Legal
+Eloquence&mdash;Explanation of the Matrimonial Speeches&mdash;The
+Caymans, or Alligators&mdash;Instances of their
+Ferocity&mdash;Imprudence and Death of my Shepherd&mdash;Method of
+entrapping the Monster which had devoured him&mdash;We Attack and
+eventually Capture it&mdash;Its Dimensions&mdash;We Dissect and Examine
+the Contents of its Stomach&mdash;Boa-Constrictors&mdash;Their large
+size&mdash;Attack of a Boa-Constrictor on a Wild Boar&mdash;We Kill and
+Skin it&mdash;Unsuccessful Attempt to capture a Boa-Constrictor
+alive&mdash;A Man Devoured&mdash;Dangerous Venomous Reptiles.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch11">Chapter XI.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">228</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">The Prosperity and Happiness of my Life at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destructiveness of the Locusts&mdash;Agriculture in the
+Philippines&mdash;My Herds of Oxen, Buffaloes, and Horses&mdash;My Wife
+presents me with a Daughter, who Dies&mdash;The Admiration of the
+Indian Women for my Wife&mdash;Birth of my Son&mdash;Continued
+Prosperity&mdash;Death of my brother Henry&mdash;My Friendship with
+Malvilain&mdash;His Marriage with my eldest Sister&mdash;His Premature
+Death&mdash;I take my Wife to Manilla&mdash;Melancholy Adieus&mdash;We
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Death of my Wife&mdash;My friend
+Vidie&mdash;I determine to Return to France.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch12">Chapter XII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">245</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;The Bamboo Cane&mdash;The Cocoa-Nut Tree&mdash;The
+Banana&mdash;Majestic Forests of Gigantic Trees&mdash;The
+Leeches&mdash;A Tropical Storm in a Forest&mdash;An Indian
+Bridge&mdash;&ldquo;Bernard the Hermit&rdquo;&mdash;We arrive at
+Binangon-de-Lampon&mdash;The Ajetas&mdash;Veneration of the Ajetas for
+their Dead&mdash;Poison used by the Ajetas&mdash;I carry away a
+Skeleton&mdash;We Embark on the Pacific in an old Canoe, reach Maoban,
+and ultimately arrive at Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch13">Chapter XIII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">283</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">I Determine not again to Separate from my
+Son&mdash;I take him to Manilla&mdash;The Effects of the Wound I
+received among the Ajetas&mdash;My Recovery&mdash;Kindness of the
+Spanish and other Inhabitants of Manilla&mdash;Illness of my
+Son&mdash;I return with him to Jala-Jala&mdash;Sorrowful
+Remembrances&mdash;The Death of my poor Boy&mdash;His
+Interment&mdash;My frantic Grief and Despair&mdash;I Determine to Quit
+the Philippines&mdash;I am Called to Manilla by Madame Dolor&egrave;s
+Seneris&mdash;My Final Departure from Jala-Jala&mdash;I Arrive at
+Manilla, where I resume Practice as a Surgeon&mdash;I Embark for
+France&mdash;Discontent&mdash;My Travels through Europe&mdash;I Marry
+again&mdash;Death of my Mother and my Second Wife&mdash;Conclusion.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="div1">
+<h2 class="normal">List of Illustrations</h2>
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#p215">A Native Woman seized by a Cayman.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p000">Portrait of the Author.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p017">Nantes.</a><span class="tocPagenum">17</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p022">La Gironiere saves the life of Captain
+Drouant.</a><span class="tocPagenum">22</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p032">Mouth of the Bay of Manilla.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">32</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p036">Spanish Metis, or Half-Breeds.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">36</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p037">Chinese Metis, or Half-Breeds.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">37</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p047">Spanish Metis of the superior class.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">47</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p050">Bridge of Manilla.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">49</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p062">Stag Hunting in the Marigondon Mountains.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">62</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p070">Passage boat on the River Pasig.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">70</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p082">Tagal Indians pounding rice.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">82</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p086">Father Miguel.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">87</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p092">La Gironiere&rsquo;s First Shot at a
+Buffalo.</a><span class="tocPagenum">90</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p093">Horns of the Buffalo.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">92</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p095">My House at Jala-Jala.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">95</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p098">Herd of Wild Buffaloes.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">98</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p101">Tagal cock-fighting.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">102</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p103">Tagal Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">103</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p106">Ilocos Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">106</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p112">The Brain Feast of the Tinguian Indians.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">112</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p117">Guinan Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">117</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p123">Weapons of the Tinguian Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">123</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p138">Inhabitants of Boulacan.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">138</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p139">Manilla Fishing Raft.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">139</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p162">The House of La Planche.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">162</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p178">Church of Pandacan, in the environs of
+Manilla.</a><span class="tocPagenum">178</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p181">Hunting party at Jala-Jala.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">181</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p185">Cascade near Jala-Jala.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">184</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p186">La Gironiere in his hunting dress.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">186</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p195">View at San-Mateo.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">195</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p204">Dumont d&rsquo;Urville.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">204</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p208">A Tagal Indian Dwelling.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">208</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p209">Young Tagal Indian and his Betrothed.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">209</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p219">Attacking the Cayman.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">220</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p222">A Wild Boar attacked by a Boa Constrictor.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">222</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p224">Attacking the Boa-Constrictor.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">225</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p228">Rice stacking in the Philippines.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">228</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p230">The Locust.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">231</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p239">View on the River Pasig.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">239</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p245">Ajetas Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">245</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p250">The Cocoa-Nut.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">250</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p251">The Banana.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">251</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p254">La Gironiere and his Indians traversing a Native
+Forest.</a><span class="tocPagenum">254</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p256">Fruit of the Palm Tree.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">256</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p265">Inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">265</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p283">View of Manilla from the Environs.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">283</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="transcribernote">
+<h2>Colophon</h2>
+
+<h3>Availability</h3>
+
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a class="exlink" title="External link"
+href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>.</p>
+
+<p>This eBook is produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at <a class="exlink" title="External
+link" href="https://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>.</p>
+
+<p>This ebook was prepared from <a class="exlink" title="External link"
+href="http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AHZ9187.0001.001">scans</a> prepared
+by the University of Michigan Library as part of their <i>The United
+States and its Territories</i> collection. The illustrations have been
+taken from <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://www.archive.org/details/inthephilippines00lagirich">scans</a>
+of another edition of this work at the Internet Archive.</p>
+
+<p>The same <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://books.google.com/books?id=3tw2AAAAMAAJ">scans</a> are indexed
+by Google Books, but only accessible as snippet view.</p>
+
+<p>Earlier editions of this work are available under the title <i>
+Twenty Years in the Philippines</i> (<a class="exlink" title="External
+link" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=y5_IidErxocC">First copy
+at Google Books</a>, <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://books.google.com/books?id=WF8qAAAAYAAJ">second copy at Google
+Books</a>, <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://www.archive.org/details/twentyyearsinph01girogoog">first copy
+at The Internet Archive</a>, <a class="exlink" title="External link"
+href="http://www.archive.org/details/inthephilippines00lagirich">second
+copy at The Internet Archive</a>). This earlier edition includes a
+short appendix on the Philippines and its agriculture, and a number of
+attestations not reproduced here.</p>
+
+<p>The French original of this work is available under the title <i
+lang="fr"><a class="pglink" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook"
+href="https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21804">Aventures d'un Gentilhomme
+Breton aux iles Philippines</a></i> from Project Gutenberg.</p>
+
+<h3>Encoding</h3>
+
+<h3>Revision History</h3>
+
+<ol class="lsoff">
+<li>2008-04-27 Started.</li>
+</ol>
+
+<h3>External References</h3>
+
+<p>This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These
+links may not work for you.</p>
+
+<h3>Corrections</h3>
+
+<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p>
+
+<table width="75%" summary="Overview of corrections applied to the
+text.">
+<tr>
+<th>Page</th>
+<th>Source</th>
+<th>Correction</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e217">18</a></td>
+<td width="40%">situate</td>
+<td width="40%">situated</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e227">18</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">,</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e361">26</a></td>
+<td width="40%">landing-pace</td>
+<td width="40%">landing-place</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e567">48</a></td>
+<td width="40%">suspicious</td>
+<td width="40%">suspicions</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e618">59</a></td>
+<td width="40%">cicumstances</td>
+<td width="40%">circumstances</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e629">60</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Tumbago</td>
+<td width="40%">Tumbaga</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e683">67</a></td>
+<td width="40%">twiste</td>
+<td width="40%">twisted</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e842">89</a></td>
+<td width="40%">unsophiscated</td>
+<td width="40%">unsophisticated</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e881">93</a></td>
+<td width="40%">ecstacy</td>
+<td width="40%">ecstasy</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e975">105</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Jos&egrave;</td>
+<td width="40%">Jos&eacute;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1070">115</a></td>
+<td width="40%">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td>
+<td width="40%">&rdquo;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1112">121</a></td>
+<td width="40%">eat</td>
+<td width="40%">ate</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1432">143</a></td>
+<td width="40%">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td>
+<td width="40%">&rdquo;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1816">180</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Jala-Jula</td>
+<td width="40%">Jala-Jala</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1873">186</a></td>
+<td width="40%">to to</td>
+<td width="40%">to</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2103">211</a></td>
+<td width="40%">possesed</td>
+<td width="40%">possessed</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2143">216</a></td>
+<td width="40%">of of</td>
+<td width="40%">of</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2151">217</a></td>
+<td width="40%">indians</td>
+<td width="40%">Indians</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2176">221</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Chrstians</td>
+<td width="40%">Christians</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2232">226</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">,</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2255">229</a></td>
+<td width="40%">corps</td>
+<td width="40%">crops</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2393">248</a></td>
+<td width="40%">occured</td>
+<td width="40%">occurred</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2402">249</a></td>
+<td width="40%">abcesses</td>
+<td width="40%">abscesses</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2444">252</a></td>
+<td width="40%">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td>
+<td width="40%">:</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2447">252</a></td>
+<td width="40%">a-yard</td>
+<td width="40%">a yard</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2563">268</a></td>
+<td width="40%">fromeight</td>
+<td width="40%">from eight</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2568">268</a></td>
+<td width="40%">decrepid</td>
+<td width="40%">decrepit</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2679">281</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">?</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE PHILIPPINES ***</div>
+<div style='text-align:left'>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by 
+Paul P. de La Gironière
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Adventures in the Philippine Islands
+
+Author: Paul P. de La Gironière
+
+Release Date: October 27, 2009 [EBook #30347]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE PHILIPPINES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Adventures
+                                 in the
+                          Philippine Islands.
+
+
+                     Translated from the French of
+
+                        Paul P. de la Gironiere,
+
+            Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour.
+
+
+                  Revised and extended by the author,
+                      Expressly for this edition.
+
+            London: Charles H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+On hearing a recital of some adventures which had occurred to me
+during my long voyages, many of my friends have frequently begged of
+me to publish a narrative of them, which might perhaps be interesting.
+
+"Nothing can be more easy for you," they said, "as you have always
+kept a journal since your departure from France."
+
+I hesitated, however, to follow their advice, or to yield to their
+wishes, when I was one day surprised to see my name in one of the
+feuilletons in the "Constitutionnel."
+
+M. Alexandre Dumas was publishing, under the title of "The
+Thousand-and-One Phantoms," a romance, one of the principal personages
+of which, in a voyage to the Philippine Islands, must have known me
+when I was residing at Jala-Jala, in the colony that I founded there.
+
+It must be evident that the lively romancist has ranked me in the
+category of his Thousand-and-One Phantoms; but, to prove to the public
+that I am really in existence, I have resolved to take up the pen,
+under an impression, that facts of the most scrupulous veracity,
+and which can be attested by some hundreds of persons, might possess
+some interest, and be read without ennui, by those especially who
+are desirous of learning the customs of the savage tribes amongst
+whom I have resided.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+    A Family Sketch--My Youthful Days--I Study for the Medical
+    Profession--Obtain a Naval Surgeon's Diploma--Early Voyages--Sail
+    for Manilla in the Cultivateur--Adventurous Habits--Cholera and
+    Massacre at Manilla and Cavite--Captain Drouant's Rescue--Personal
+    Dangers and Timely Escapes--How Business may make Friends of
+    one's Enemies--An Unprincipled Captain--Tranquility restored at
+    Manila--Pleasures of the Chase--The Cultivateur sails without
+    me--First Embarrassments.
+
+
+My father was born at Nantes, and held the rank of captain in the
+regiment of Auvergne. The Revolution caused him the loss of his
+commission and his fortune, and left him, as sole remaining resource,
+a little property called La Planche, belonging to my mother, and
+situated about two leagues from Nantes, in the parish of Vertoux.
+
+At the commencement of the Empire he wished to enter the service again;
+but at that period his name was an obstacle, and he failed in every
+attempt to obtain even the rank of lieutenant. With scarcely the means
+of existence, he retired to La Planche with his family. There he lived
+for some years, suffering the grief and the many annoyances caused
+by the sudden change from opulence to want, and by the impossibility
+of supplying all the requirements of his numerous family. A short
+illness terminated his distressed existence, and his mortal remains
+were deposited in the cemetery of Vertoux. My mother, a pattern
+of courage and devotedness, remained a widow, with six children,
+two girls and four boys; she continued to reside in the country,
+imparting to us the first elements of instruction.
+
+The free life of the fields, and the athletic exercises to which
+my elder brothers and I accustomed ourselves, tended to make me
+hardy, and rendered me capable of enduring every kind of fatigue
+and privation. This country life, with its liberty, and I may well
+say its happiness, passed too quickly away; and the period soon came
+when my education compelled me to pursue my daily studies in a school
+at Nantes. I had four leagues to walk, but I trudged the distance
+light-heartedly, and at night, when I returned home, I ever found
+awaiting me the kind solicitude of our dear mother, and the attentive
+cares of two sisters whom I tenderly loved.
+
+It was decided that I should enter the medical profession. I studied
+several years at the Hôtel-Dieu of Nantes, and I passed my examination
+for naval surgeon at an age when many a young man is shut up within
+the four walls of a college, still prosecuting his studies.
+
+It would be difficult to form any idea of my joy when I saw myself in
+possession of my surgeon's diploma. Thenceforward I regarded myself
+as an important being, about to take my place among reasonable and
+industrious men; and what perhaps rendered me still more joyous was,
+that I could earn my own livelihood, and contribute to the comfort
+of my mother and my sisters.
+
+I was also seized with a strong desire to travel abroad, and make
+myself acquainted with foreign countries.
+
+Twenty-four hours after my nomination as surgeon I went and offered
+my services to a ship-owner who was about freighting a vessel to the
+East Indies. We were not long in arranging terms, and, at forty francs
+per month, I engaged myself for the voyage.
+
+Within twelve months afterwards I returned home. Who can depict the
+sweet emotions which, as a young man, I felt on again beholding my
+native land? I stayed a month on shore, surrounded by the affectionate
+attentions of my mother and sisters. Despite their assiduities I was
+seized with ennui. I made a second and a third voyage; then, after
+having rounded the Cape of Good Hope half-a-dozen times, I undertook
+one which separated me from my country during twenty years.
+
+On the 9th October, 1819, I embarked on board the Cultivateur,
+an old half-rotten three-masted vessel, commanded by an equally old
+captain, who, long ashore, had given up navigating for many years. An
+old captain with an old ship! Such were the conditions in which I
+undertook this voyage. I ought, however, to add, that I obtained an
+increase of pay.
+
+We touched at Bourbon; we ran along the entire coast of Sumatra,
+a part of Java, the isles of Sonde, and that of Banca; and at last,
+towards the end of May, eight months after our departure from Nantes,
+we arrived in the magnificent bay of Manilla.
+
+The Cultivateur anchored near the little town of Cavite. I obtained
+leave to reside on shore, and took lodgings in Cavite, which is
+situate about five or six leagues from Manilla.
+
+To make up for my long inactivity on board ship, I eagerly engaged in
+my favourite exercises, exploring the country in all directions with my
+gun upon my shoulder. Taking for a guide the first Indian whom I met,
+I made long excursions, less occupied in shooting than in admiring the
+magnificent scenery. I knew a little Spanish, and soon acquired a few
+Tagaloc words. Whether it was for excitement's sake, or from a vague
+desire of braving danger, I know not, but I was particularly fond of
+wandering in remote places, said to be frequented by robbers. With
+these I occasionally fell in, but the sight of my gun kept them in
+check. I may say, with truth, that at that period of my life I had so
+little sense of danger, that I was always ready to put myself forward
+when there was an enemy to fight or a peril to be encountered.
+
+I had only resided a short time at Cavite when that terrible scourge,
+the cholera, broke out at Manilla, in September, 1820, and quickly
+ravaged the whole island. Within a few days of its first appearance
+the epidemic spread rapidly; the Indians succumbed by thousands; at
+all hours of the day and of the night the streets were crowded with
+the dead-carts. Next to the fright occasioned by the epidemic, quickly
+succeeded rage and despair. The Indians said, one to another, that the
+strangers poisoned the rivers and the fountains, in order to destroy
+the native population and possess themselves of the Philippines.
+
+On the 9th October, 1820, the anniversary of my departure from France,
+a dreadful massacre commenced at Manilla and at Cavite. Poor Dibard,
+the captain of the Cultivateur, was one of the first victims. Almost
+all the French who resided at Manilla were slain, and their houses
+pillaged and destroyed. The carnage only ceased when there were no
+longer any victims. One eye-witness escaped this butchery, namely,
+M. Gautrin, a captain of the merchant service, who, at the moment I
+am writing, happens to be residing in Paris. He saved his life by his
+courage and his muscular strength. After seeing one of his friends
+mercilessly cut to pieces, he precipitated himself into the midst
+of the assassins, with no other means of defence than his fists. He
+succeeded in fighting his way through the crowd, but shortly afterwards
+fell exhausted, having received three sabre-cuts upon his head, and a
+lance-thrust in his body. Fortunately, some soldiers happened to pass
+by at the time, who picked him up and carried him to a guard-house,
+where his wounds were quickly attended to.
+
+I myself was dodged about Cavite, but I contrived to escape, and
+to reach a pirogue, into which I jumped, and took refuge on board
+the Cultivateur. I had scarcely been there ten minutes when I was
+requested to attend the mate of an American vessel, who had just
+been stabbed on board his ship by some custom-house guards. When I
+had finished dressing the wound, several officers, belonging to the
+different French vessels lying in the bay, acquainted me that one
+of their brethren, Captain Drouant, of Marseilles, was still ashore,
+and that there might yet be time to save him. There was not a moment
+to lose; night was approaching, and it was necessary to profit by the
+last half-hour of daylight. I set off in a cutter, and, on nearing
+the land, I directed my men to keep the boat afloat, in order to
+prevent a surprise on the part of the Indians, but yet to hug the
+shore sufficiently close to land promptly, in case the captain or
+myself signaled them. I then quickly set about searching for Drouant.
+
+On reaching a small square, called Puerta Baga, I observed a group
+of three or four hundred Indians. I had a presentiment that it was
+in that direction I ought to prosecute my search. I approached, and
+beheld the unfortunate Drouant, pale as a corpse. A furious Indian was
+on the point of plunging his kreese into his breast. I threw myself
+between the captain and the poignard, violently pushing on either
+side the murderer and his victim, so as to separate them. "Run!" I
+cried in French; "a boat awaits you." So great was the stupefaction
+of the Indians that the captain escaped unpursued.
+
+It was now time for me to get out of the dangerous situation in which
+I was involved. Four hundred Indians surrounded me; the only way of
+dealing with them was by audacity. I said in Tagaloc to the Indian who
+had attempted to stab the captain: "You are a scoundrel." The Indian
+sprang towards me; he raised his arm: I struck him on the head with a
+cane which I held in my hand; he waited in astonishment for a moment,
+and then returned towards his companions to excite them. Daggers
+were drawn on every side; the crowd formed a circle around me, which
+gradually concentrated. Mysterious influence of the white man over his
+coloured brother! Of all these four hundred Indians, not one dared
+attack me the first; they all wished to strike together. Suddenly a
+native soldier, armed with a musket, broke through the crowd; he struck
+down my adversary, took away his dagger, and holding his musket by the
+bayonet end, he swung it round and round his head, thus enlarging the
+circle at first, and then dispersing a portion of my enemies. "Fly,
+sir!" said my liberator; "now that I am here, no one will touch a
+hair of your head." In fact the crowd divided, and left me a free
+passage. I was saved, without knowing by whom, or for what reason,
+until the native soldier called after me: "You attended my wife who
+was sick, and you never asked payment of me. I now settle my debt."
+
+As Captain Drouant had doubtless gone off in the cutter, it was
+impossible for me to return on board the Cultivateur. I directed
+my steps towards my lodgings, creeping along the walls, and taking
+advantage of the obscurity, when, on turning the corner of a street,
+I fell into the midst of a band of dockyard workmen, armed with axes,
+and about to proceed to the attack of the French vessels then in
+harbour. Here again I owed my preservation to an acquaintance, to whom
+I had rendered some service in the practice of my profession. A Métis,
+or half-breed, who had quickly pushed me into the entry of a house,
+and covered me with his body, said: "Stir not, Doctor Pablo!" [1] When
+the crowd had dispersed, my protector advised me to conceal myself,
+and, above all, not to go on board; he then started off to rejoin
+his comrades. But all was not yet over. I had scarcely entered my
+lodgings when I heard a knocking at the door.
+
+"Doctor Pablo," said a voice, which was not unknown to me.
+
+I opened, and I saw, as pale as death, a Chinese, who kept a tea-store
+on the ground-floor of the same house.
+
+"What's the matter, Yang-Po?"
+
+"Save yourself, Doctor!"
+
+"And wherefore?"
+
+"Because the Indians will attack you this very night; they have
+decided upon it!"
+
+"Is it not your apprehension on account of your shop, Yang-Po?"
+
+"Oh, no! do not treat this matter lightly. If you remain here you
+are doomed; you have struck an Indian, and his friends cry aloud
+for vengeance."
+
+The fears of Yang-Po were, I saw, too well-founded; but what could
+I do? To shut my door and await was the safest plan.
+
+"Thank you," said I to the Chinese; "thank you for your kind advice,
+but I shall remain here."
+
+"Remain here, Signor Doctor! Can you think of so doing?"
+
+"Now, Yang-Po, a service: go and say to these Indians that I have,
+at their service, a brace of pistols and a double-barreled gun,
+which I know how to use."
+
+The Chinese departed sighing deeply, from a notion that the attack
+upon the Doctor might end in the pillage of his wares. I barricaded
+my door with the furniture of the room; I then loaded my weapons,
+and put out the lights.
+
+It was now eight o'clock in the evening. The least noise made me think
+that the moment had arrived when Providence alone could save me. I was
+so fatigued that, despite the anxiety natural to my position, I had
+frequently to struggle against an inclination to sleep. Towards eleven
+o'clock some one knocked at my door. I seized my pistols, and listened
+attentively. At a second summons, I approached the door on tip-toe.
+
+"Who's there?" I demanded.
+
+A voice replied to me: "We come to save you. Lose not an instant. Get
+out on the roof, and climb over to the other side, where we will
+await you, in the street of the Campanario." Then two or three persons
+descended the stairs rapidly. I had recognised the voice of a Métis,
+whose good feelings on my behalf were beyond doubt. There was now
+no time to be lost, for at the moment I got out of a window which
+served to light the staircase, and led on to the roof, the Indians had
+arrived in front of the house, and in a few minutes were breaking and
+plundering the little I possessed. I quickly traversed the roof, and
+descended into the street of the Campanario, where my new preservers
+awaited me. They conducted me to their dwelling: there, a profound
+sleep caused me quickly to forget the dangers I had passed through.
+
+The following day my friends prepared a small pirogue to convey me
+on board the Cultivateur, where, apparently, I should be in greater
+security than on shore. I was about to embark when one of my preservers
+handed me a letter which he had just received. It was addressed to me,
+and bore the signatures of all the captains whose vessels were lying in
+the harbour, and it informed me that, seeing themselves exposed every
+moment to an attack by the Indians, they were decided to raise anchor
+and seek a wider offing; but that two among them, Drouant and Perroux,
+had been compelled to leave on shore a portion of their possessions,
+and all their sails and fresh water. They entreated me to lend them
+my assistance, and had arranged that a skiff should be placed at my
+command. I communicated this letter to my friends, and declared that
+I would not return on board without endeavouring to satisfy the wishes
+of my countrymen; it was a question of saving the lives of the crews of
+two vessels, and hesitation was impossible. They used every effort to
+shake my resolution. "If you show yourself in any part of the town,"
+said they, "you are lost; even supposing the Indians were not to kill
+you, they would not fail to steal every object intrusted to them." I
+remained immovable, and pointed out to them that it was a question of
+honour and humanity. "Go alone, then!" exclaimed that Métis who had
+contributed the most to my escape; "not one of us will follow you;
+we would not have it said that we assisted in your destruction."
+
+I thanked my friends, and, after shaking hands with them, passed on
+through the streets of Cavite, my pistols in my belt, and my thoughts
+occupied as to the best means of extricating myself from my perilous
+position. However, I already knew sufficient of the Indian character
+to be aware that boldness would conciliate, rather than enrage them. I
+went towards the same landing-place where once before I had escaped
+a great danger. The shore was covered with Indians, watching the
+ships at anchor. As I advanced, all turned their looks upon me; but,
+as I had foreseen, the countenances of these men, whose feelings had
+become calmed during the night that had intervened, expressed more
+astonishment than anger.
+
+"Will you earn money?" I cried. "To those who work with me I will
+give a dollar at the end of the day."
+
+A moment's silence followed this proposition; then one of them said:
+"You do not fear us!"
+
+"Judge if I am alarmed," I replied, showing him my pistols; "with
+these I could take two lives for one--the advantage is on my side."
+
+My words had a magical effect, and my questioner replied:
+
+"Put up your weapons; you have a brave heart, and deserve to be safe
+amongst us. Speak! what do you require? We will follow you." I saw
+these men, who but yesterday would have killed me, now willing to bear
+me in triumph. I then explained to them that I wished to take some
+articles which had been left on shore to my comrades, and to those who
+assisted me in this object I would give the promised recompense. I told
+the one who had addressed me to select two hundred men, nearly double
+the number necessary; during the time he made up his party I signaled
+a skiff to approach the shore, and wrote a few words in pencil, in
+order that the boats from the French vessels might be in readiness
+to receive the stores as soon as they were brought to the water's
+edge. I then marched at the head of my Indian troop of two hundred
+men, and by their aid the sails, provisions, biscuits, and wines,
+were soon on board the boats. That which most embarrassed me was the
+transport of a large sum of money belonging to Captain Drouant. If the
+Indians had conceived the least suspicion of this wealth, they would no
+longer have kept faith with me. I therefore determined to fill my own
+pockets with the gold, and to traverse the distance between the house
+and the boats as many times as was necessary to embark it. There,
+concealed by the sailors, I deposited piece after piece as quietly
+as possible. In carrying the sails belonging to Captain Perroux, a
+circumstance occurred which might have been fatal to me. A few days
+before the massacre, a French sailor, who was working as sail maker,
+had died of the cholera. His alarmed companions wrapped the body in a
+sail, and then hurried on board their ships. My Indians now discovered
+the corpse, which was already in a state of putrefaction. Terrified
+at first, their terror soon changed to fury; for an instant I feared
+they would fall upon me.
+
+"Your friends," they cried, "have left this body here purposely, that
+it might poison the air and increase the violence of the epidemic."
+
+"What! you are afraid of a poor devil dead of the cholera!" I said to
+them, affecting to be as tranquil as possible; "never fear, I will
+soon rid you of him;" and, despite the aversion I felt, I covered
+the body with a small sail, and carried it down to the beach. There
+I made a rude grave, in which I placed it; and two pieces of wood,
+in the shape of a cross, for some days indicated the spot where lay
+the unhappy one, who probably had no prayers save mine.
+
+It had been a busy and agitating day, but towards the evening I
+finished my task, and everything was embarked. I paid the Indians,
+and in addition gave them a barrel of spirits.
+
+I did not fear their intoxication, being the only Frenchman there,
+and when it was dark I got into a boat, and towed a dozen casks of
+fresh water at her stern. Since the previous day I had not eaten;
+I felt worn out by fatigue and want of food, and threw myself down to
+rest upon the seats of the boat. Ere long a mortal chilliness passed
+through my veins, and I became insensible. In this state I remained
+more than an hour. At last I reached the Cultivateur, and was taken
+on board, and, by the aid of friction, brandy, and other remedies,
+was restored to consciousness. Food and rest quickly renovated my
+powers of mind and body, and the next day I was calm as usual among
+my comrades. I thought of my personal position; the events of the two
+last days made the review extremely simple. I had lost everything. A
+small venture of merchandise, in which I invested the savings of
+my previous voyages, had been intrusted to the captain for sale at
+Manilla. These goods were destroyed, together with all I possessed,
+at Cavite. There remained to me but the clothes I had on--a few old
+things I could wear only on board ship--and thirty-two dollars. I
+was but a little richer than Bias. Unfortunately I recollected
+that an English captain--whose ship I had seen in the roads--owed me
+something like a hundred dollars. In my present circumstances this sum
+appeared a fortune. The captain in question, from fear of the Indians,
+had dropped down as far as Maribélé, at the entrance of the bay, ten
+leagues from Cavite. To obtain payment it was necessary I should go on
+board his vessel. I borrowed a boat, and the services of four sailors,
+from Captain Perroux, and departed. I reached the ship at dusk. The
+unprincipled captain, who knew himself to be in deep water and safe
+from pursuit, replied that he did not understand what I was saying
+to him. I insisted upon being paid, and he laughed in my face. I was
+treated as a cheat. He threatened to have me thrown into the sea;
+in short, after a useless discussion, and at the moment when the
+captain called five or six of his sailors to execute his threat,
+I retreated to my boat. The night was dark, and as a violent and
+contrary wind had sprung up, it was impossible to regain the ship,
+so we passed the night floating upon the waves, ignorant as to the
+direction we were going. In the morning I discovered our efforts had
+been thrown away; Cavite was far behind us. The wind becoming calmer,
+we again commenced rowing, and two hours after noon reached the ship.
+
+Meanwhile tranquillity was restored at Cavite and Manilla. The
+Spanish authorities took measures to prevent a recurrence of the
+frightful scenes I have detailed, and the priests of Cavite launched a
+public excommunication against all those who had attempted my life. I
+attributed this solicitude to the character of my profession, being in
+fact the only Æsculapius in the place. When I left the town the sick
+were obliged to content themselves with the hazardous presumptions of
+Indian sorcerers. One morning, I had almost decided upon returning to
+land, when an Indian, in a smartly decorated pirogue, came alongside
+the Cultivateur. I had met this man in some of my shooting excursions,
+and he now proposed that I should go with him to his house, situated
+ten leagues from Cavite, near the mountains of Marigondon. The prospect
+of some good sport soon decided me to accept this offer. Taking with
+me my thirty-two dollars and double-barreled gun--in fact, my whole
+fortune--I intrusted myself to this friend, whose acquaintance I had
+just made. His little habitation was delightfully situated, in the
+cool shadow of the palm and yang-yang--immense trees, whose flowers
+spread around a delicious perfume. Two charming Indian girls were the
+Eves of this paradise. My good friend kept the promises he had made
+me on leaving the vessel; I was treated both by himself and family
+with every attention and kindness.
+
+Hunting was my principal amusement, and, above all, the chase of
+the stag, which involves violent exercise. I was still ignorant of
+wild-buffalo hunting, of which, however, I shall have to speak later
+in my narrative; and I often requested my host to give me a taste of
+this sport, but he always refused, saying it was too dangerous. For
+three weeks I lived with the Indian family without receiving any news
+from Manilla, when one morning, a letter came from the first mate--who,
+on the death of the unfortunate Dibard, had taken the command of the
+Cultivateur--telling me he was about to sail, and that I must go
+on board at once if I wished to leave a country which had been so
+fatal to all of us. This summons was already several days old, and
+despite the reluctance I felt to quit the Indian's pleasant retreat,
+it was necessary that I should prepare to start. I presented my
+gun to my kind host, but had nothing to give his daughters, for to
+have offered them money would have been an insult. The next day I
+arrived at Manilla, still thinking of the cool shade of the palm and
+the perfumed flowers of the yang-yang. My first impulse was to go to
+the quay; but, alas! the Cultivateur had sailed, and I had the misery
+of beholding her already far away in the horizon, moving sluggishly
+before a gentle breeze towards the mouth of the bay. I asked some
+Indian boatmen to take me to the ship; they replied that it might be
+practicable if the wind did not freshen, but demanded twelve dollars
+to make the attempt. I had but twenty-five remaining. I considered
+for a few moments, should I not reach the vessel, what would become
+of me in a remote colony, where I knew no one, and my stock of money
+reduced to thirteen dollars, and with no articles of dress than those I
+had on--a white jacket, trousers, and striped shirt. A sudden thought
+crossed my mind: what if I were to remain at Manilla, and practise my
+profession? Young and inexperienced, I ventured to think myself the
+cleverest physician in the Philippine Islands. Who has not felt this
+self-confidence so natural to youth? I turned my back upon the ship,
+and walked briskly into Manilla.
+
+Before continuing this recital, let me describe the capital of the
+Philippines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+    Description of Manilla--The two Towns--Gaiety of
+    Binondoc--Dances--Gaming--Beauty of the Women--Their Fascinating
+    Costume--Male Costume--The Military Town--Personal Adventures--My
+    First Patient--His Generous Confidence--Commencement of my
+    Practice--The Artificial Eye--Brilliant Success--The Charming
+    Widow--Auspicious Introduction--My Marriage--Treachery and Fate
+    of Iturbide--Our Loss of Fortune--Return to France postponed.
+
+
+Manilla and its suburbs contain a population of about one hundred and
+fifty thousand souls, of which Spaniards and Creoles hardly constitute
+the tenth part; the remainder is composed of Tagalocs, or Indians,
+Métis, and Chinese. The city is divided into two sections--the military
+and the mercantile--the latter of which is the suburb. The former,
+surrounded by lofty walls, is bounded by the sea on one side, and
+upon another by an extensive plain, where the troops are exercised,
+and where of an evening the indolent Creoles, lazily extended
+in their carriages, repair to exhibit their elegant dresses and
+to inhale the sea-breezes. This public promenade--where intrepid
+horsemen and horsewomen, and European vehicles, cross each other in
+every direction--may be styled the Champs-Elysées, or the Hyde Park,
+of the Indian Archipelago. On a third side, the military town is
+separated from the trading town by the river Pasig, upon which are
+seen all the day boats laden with merchandize, and charming gondolas
+conveying idlers to different parts of the suburbs, or to visit the
+ships in the bay.
+
+The military town communicates by the bridge of Binondoc with the
+mercantile town, inhabited principally by the Spaniards engaged in
+public affairs; its aspect is dull and monotonous; all the streets,
+perfectly straight, are bordered by wide granite footpaths. In general,
+the highways are macadamised, and kept in good condition. Such is
+the effeminacy of the people, they could not endure the noise of
+carriages upon pavement. The houses--large and spacious, palaces in
+appearance--are built in a particular manner, calculated to withstand
+the earthquakes and hurricanes so frequent in this part of the
+world. They have all one story, with a ground-floor; the upper part,
+generally occupied by the family, is surrounded by a wide gallery,
+opened or shut by means of large sliding panels, the panes of which
+are thin mother-of-pearl. The mother-of-pearl permits the passage
+of light to the apartments, and excludes the heat of the sun. In the
+military town are all the monasteries and convents, the archbishopric,
+the courts of justice, the custom-house, the hospital, the governor's
+palace, and the citadel, which overlooks both towns. There are three
+principal entrances to Manilla--Puerta Santa Lucia, Puerto Réal,
+and Puerta Parian.
+
+At one o'clock the drawbridges are raised, and the gates pitilessly
+closed, when the tardy resident must seek his night's lodging in
+the suburb, or mercantile town, called Binondoc. This portion of
+Manilla wears a much gayer and more lively aspect than the military
+section. There is less regularity in the streets, and the buildings
+are not so fine as those in what may be called Manilla proper; but in
+Binondoc all is movement, all is life. Numerous canals, crowded with
+pirogues, gondolas, and boats of various kinds, intersect the suburb,
+where reside the rich merchants--Spanish, English, Indian, Chinese,
+and Métis. The newest and most elegant houses are built upon the banks
+of the river Pasig. Simple in exterior, they contain the most costly
+inventions of English and Indian luxury. Precious vases from China,
+Japan ware, gold, silver, and rich silks, dazzle the eyes on entering
+these unpretending habitations. Each house has a landing-place from
+the river, and little bamboo palaces, serving as bathing-houses, to
+which the residents resort several times daily, to relieve the fatigue
+caused by the intense heat of the climate. The cigar manufactory,
+which affords employment continually to from fifteen to twenty
+thousand workmen and other assistants, is situated in Binondoc; also
+the Chinese custom-house, and all the large working establishments
+of Manilla. During the day, the Spanish ladies, richly dressed in
+the transparent muslins of India and China, lounge about from store
+to store, and sorely test the patience of the Chinese salesman, who
+unfolds uncomplainingly, and without showing the least ill-humour,
+thousands of pieces of goods before his customers, which are frequently
+examined simply for amusement, and not half a yard purchased. The
+balls and entertainments, given by the half-breeds of Binondoc to their
+friends, are celebrated throughout the Philippines. The quadrilles of
+Europe are succeeded by the dances of India, and while the young people
+execute the fandango, the bolero, the cachucha, or the lascivious
+movements of the bayadères, the enterprising half-breed, the indolent
+Spaniard, and the sedate Chinese, retire to the gaming saloons, to
+try their fortune at cards and dice. The passion for play is carried
+to such an extent, that the traders lose or gain in one night sums
+of 50,000 piasters (£10,000 sterling). The half-breeds, Indians, and
+Chinese, have also a great passion for cock-fighting; these combats
+take place in a large arena. I have seen £1,500 betted upon a cock
+which had cost £150; in a few minutes this costly champion fell,
+struck dead by his antagonist. In fine, if Binondoc be exclusively
+the city of pleasure, luxury, and activity, it is also that of
+amorous intrigues and gallant adventures. In the evening, Spaniards,
+English, and French, go to the promenades to ogle the beautiful
+and facile half-breed women, whose transparent robes reveal their
+splendid figures. That which distinguishes the female half-breeds
+(Spanish-Tagals, or Chinese-Tagals) is a singularly intelligent
+and expressive physiognomy. Their hair, drawn back from the face,
+and sustained by long golden pins, is of marvellous luxuriance. They
+wear upon the head a kerchief, transparent like a veil, made of the
+pine fibre, finer than our finest cambric; the neck is ornamented
+by a string of large coral beads, fastened by a gold medallion. A
+transparent chemisette, of the same stuff as the head-dress, descends
+as far as the waist, covering, but not concealing, a bosom that has
+never been imprisoned in stays. Below, and two or three inches from
+the edge of the chemisette, is attached a variously coloured petticoat
+of very bright hues. Over this garment, a large and costly silk sash
+closely encircles the figure, and shows its outline from the waist
+to the knee. The small and white feet, always naked, are thrust into
+embroidered slippers, which cover but the extremities. Nothing can
+be more charming, coquettish, and fascinating, than this costume,
+which excites in the highest degree the admiration of strangers. The
+half-breed and Chinese Tagals know so well the effect it produces on
+the Europeans, that nothing would induce them to alter it.
+
+While on the subject of dress, that of the men is also worthy of
+remark. The Indian and the half-breed wear upon the head a large
+straw hat, black or white, or a sort of Chinese covering, called a
+salacote; upon the shoulders, the pine fibre kerchief embroidered;
+and round the neck, a rosary of coral beads; their shirts are also
+made from the fibres of the pine, or of vegetable silk; trousers of
+coloured silk, with embroidery near the bottom, and a girdle of red
+China crape, complete their costume. The feet, without stockings,
+are covered with European shoes.
+
+The military town, so quiet during the day, assumes a more lively
+appearance towards the evening, when the inhabitants ride out in
+their very magnificent carriages, which are invariably conducted
+by postilions; they then mix with the walking population of
+Binondoc. Afterwards visits, balls, and the more intimate réunions
+take place. At the latter they talk, smoke the cigars of Manilla,
+and chew the betel, [2] drink glasses of iced eau sucrée, and eat
+innumerable sweetmeats; towards midnight those guests retire who do
+not stay supper with the family, which is always served luxuriously,
+and generally prolonged until two o'clock in the morning. Such is the
+life spent by the wealthy classes under these skies so favoured by
+Heaven. But there exists, as in Europe, and even to a greater extent,
+the most abject misery, of which I shall speak hereafter, throwing
+a shade over this brilliant picture.
+
+I shall now return to my personal adventures. While I spoke with
+the Indians upon the shore, I had noticed a young European standing
+not many paces from me; I again met him on the road I took towards
+Manilla, and I thought I would address him. This young man was a
+surgeon, about returning to Europe. I partly told him the plans I
+wished to form, and asked him for some information respecting the city
+where I purposed locating myself. He readily satisfied my inquiries,
+and encouraged me in the resolution to exercise my profession in
+the Philippine Islands. He had himself, he said, conceived the same
+project, but family affairs obliged him to return to his country. I
+did not conceal the misfortune of my position, and observed that it
+would be almost impossible to pay visits in the costume, worse than
+plain, which I then wore.
+
+"That is of no consequence," he replied; "I have all you would
+require: a coat almost new, and six capital lancets. I will sell you
+these things for their cost price in France; they will be a great
+bargain." The affair was soon concluded. He took me to his hotel,
+and I shortly left it encased in a garment sufficiently good, but
+much too large and too long for me. Nevertheless, it was some time
+since I had seen myself so well clad, and I could not help admiring
+my new acquisition.
+
+I had hidden my poor little white jacket in my hat, and I strode
+along the causeway of Manilla more proud than Artaban himself. I was
+the owner of a coat and six lancets; but there remained, for all my
+fortune, the sum of one dollar only; this consideration slightly
+tempered the joy that I felt in gazing on my brilliant costume. I
+thought of where I could pass the night, and subsist on the morrow
+and the following days, if the sick were not ready for me.
+
+Reflecting thus I slowly wandered from Binondoc to the military town,
+and from the military town back to Binondoc,--when, suddenly, a bright
+idea shot across my brain. At Cavite I had heard spoken of a Spanish
+captain, by name Don Juan Porras, whom an accident had rendered almost
+blind. I resolved to seek him, and offer my services; it remained but
+to find his residence. I addressed a hundred persons, but each replied
+that he did not know, and passed on his way. An Indian who kept a
+small shop, and to whom I spoke, relieved my trouble: "If the senor
+is a captain," he said, "your excellency would obtain his address at
+the first barrack on your road." I thanked him, and eagerly followed
+his counsel. At the infantry barracks, where I presented myself, the
+officer on duty sent a soldier to guide me to the captain's dwelling:
+it was time, the night had already fallen. Don Juan Porras was an
+Andalusian, a good man, and of an extremely cheerful disposition. I
+found him with his head wrapped in a Madras handkerchief, busied in
+completely covering his eyes with two enormous poultices.
+
+"Senor Captain," I said, "I am a physician, and a skilful oculist. I
+have come hither to take care of you, and I am fully convinced that
+I shall cure you."
+
+"Basta" (enough is said), was his answer; "all the physicians in
+Manilla are asses."
+
+This more than sceptical reply did not discourage me. I resolved
+to turn it to account. "My opinion is precisely the same as yours,"
+I promptly answered; "and it is because I am strongly convinced of
+the ignorance of the native doctors, that I have made up my mind to
+come and practise in the Philippines."
+
+"Of what nation are you, sir?"
+
+"I am a Frenchman."
+
+"A French physician!" cried Don Juan; "Ah! that is quite another
+matter. I ask your pardon for having spoken so irreverently of men of
+your profession. A French physician! I put myself entirely into your
+hands. Take my eyes, Senor Medico, and do what you will with them!"
+
+The conversation was taking a favourable turn: I hastened to broach
+the principal question:
+
+"Your eyes are very bad, Senor Captain," said I; "to accomplish a
+speedy cure, it is absolutely necessary that I should never quit you
+for a moment."
+
+"Would you consent to come and pass some time with me, doctor?"
+
+Here was the principal consideration settled.
+
+"I consent," replied I, "but on one condition; namely, that I shall
+pay you for my board and lodging."
+
+"That shall not part us--you are free to do so," said the worthy man;
+"and so the matter is settled. I have a nice room, and a good bed,
+all ready; there is nothing to do but to send for your baggage. I
+will call my servant."
+
+The terrible word, "baggage," sounded in my ears like a knell. I cast
+a melancholy look at the crown of my hat--my only portmanteau--within
+which were deposited all my clothes--consisting of my little white
+jacket; and I feared Don Juan would take me for some runaway sailor
+trying to dupe him. There was no retreat; so I mustered my courage,
+and briefly related my sad position, adding that I could not pay
+for my board and lodging until the end of the month--if I was so
+fortunate as to find patients. Don Juan Porras listened to me very
+quietly. When my tale was told he burst into a loud laugh, which made
+me shiver from head to foot.
+
+"Well," cried he, "I am well pleased it should be so; you are poor;
+you will have more time to devote to my malady, and a greater interest
+in curing me. What think you of the syllogism?"
+
+"It is excellent, Senor Captain, and before long you will find, I hope,
+that I am not the man to compromise so distinguished a logician as
+yourself. To-morrow morning I will examine your eyes, and I will not
+leave you till I have radically cured them."
+
+We talked for some time longer in this joyous strain, after which
+I retired to my chamber, where the most delightful dreams visited
+my pillow.
+
+The next day I rose early, put on my doctoral coat, and entered the
+chamber of my host. I examined his eyes; they were in a dreadful
+state. The sight of one was not only destroyed, but threatened the
+life of the sufferer. A cancer had formed, and the enormous size it
+had attained rendered the result of an operation doubtful. The left
+eye contained many fibres, but there was hope of saving it. I frankly
+acquainted Don Juan with my fears and hopes, and insisted upon the
+entire removal of the right eye. The Captain, at first astonished,
+decided courageously upon submitting to the operation, which I
+accomplished on the following day with complete success. Shortly
+afterwards the inflammatory symptoms disappeared, and I could assure
+my host of a safe recovery. I then bestowed all my attention upon
+the left eye. I desired the more ardently to restore to Don Juan his
+vision, from the good effect I was convinced his case would produce
+at Manilla. For me it would be fortune and reputation. Besides, I had
+already acquired, in the few days, some slight patronage, and was in a
+position to pay for my board and lodging at the end of the month. After
+six weeks' careful treatment Don Juan was perfectly cured, and could
+use his eye as well as he did previous to his accident. Nevertheless,
+to my great regret, the Captain still continued to immure himself;
+his re-appearance in society, which he had forsaken for more than
+a year, would have produced an immense sensation, and I should have
+been considered the first doctor in the Philippines. One day I touched
+upon this delicate topic.
+
+"Senor Captain," said I, "what are you thinking about, to remain
+thus shut up between four walls, and why do you not resume your old
+habits? You must go and visit your friends, your acquaintances."
+
+"Doctor," interrupted Don Juan, "how can I show myself in public with
+an eye the less? When I pass along the street all the women would say:
+'There goes Don Juan the One-eyed!' No, no; before I leave the house
+you must get me an artificial eye from Paris."
+
+"You don't mean that? It would be eighteen months before the eye
+arrived."
+
+"Then here goes for eighteen months' seclusion," said Don Juan.
+
+I persisted for upwards of an hour, but the Captain would not listen
+to reason. He carried his coquetry so far that, although I had
+covered the empty orbit with black silk, he had his shutters closed
+whenever visitors came; so that, as they always found him in the dark,
+none would credit his cure. I was very anxious to thwart Don Juan's
+obstinacy, as may well be imagined; I had not the time to waste, during
+eighteen months, in dancing attendance at fortune's door; therefore
+I determined to make this eye myself, without which the coquetish
+captain would not be seen. I took some pieces of glass, a tube, and
+set to work. After many fruitless attempts, I at last succeeded in
+obtaining the perfect form of an eye; but this was not all--it must
+be coloured to resemble nature. I sent for a poor carriage-painter,
+who managed to imitate tolerably well the left eye of Don Juan. It
+was necessary to preserve this painting from contact with the tears,
+which would soon have destroyed it. To accomplish this I had made by
+a jeweller a silver globe, smaller than the glass eye, inside which
+I united it by means of sealing-wax. I carefully polished the edges
+upon a stone, and after eight days' labour I obtained a satisfactory
+result. The eye which I had succeeded in producing was really not so
+bad after all. I was anxious to place it within the vacant orbit. It
+somewhat inconvenienced the Senor Don Juan, but I persuaded him that
+he would soon become accustomed to it. Placing across his nose a
+pair of spectacles, he examined himself in the looking-glass, and
+was so satisfied with his appearance that he decided on commencing
+his visits the following day.
+
+As I had anticipated, the re-appearance in the world of Captain Juan
+Porras made a great sensation, and soon the consequence was, that
+Senor Don Pablo, the eminent French physician--most especially the
+clever oculist--was much spoken of. From all quarters patients came to
+me. Notwithstanding my youth and inexperience, my first success gave
+me such confidence that I performed several operations upon persons
+afflicted with cataracts, which succeeded most fortunately. I no longer
+sufficed to my large connection, and in a few days, from the greatest
+distress, I attained perfect opulence: I had a carriage-and-four in my
+stables. I could not, however, notwithstanding this change of fortune,
+resign myself to leave Don Juan's house, out of gratitude for the
+hospitality he so generously offered me. In my leisure hours he kept
+me company, and amused me with the recital of his battle stories and
+personal adventures. I had already spent nearly six months with him,
+when a circumstance, which forms an epoch in my life, changed my
+existence, and compelled me to quit the lively captain. One of my
+American friends often called my attention in our walks towards a
+young lady in mourning, who passed for one of the prettiest senoras
+of the town. Each time we met her my American friend never failed
+to praise the beauty of the Marquesa de Las Salinas. She was about
+eighteen or nineteen years of age; her features were both regular
+and placid; she had beautiful black hair, and large expressive eyes;
+she was the widow of a colonel in the guards, who married her when
+almost a child. The sight of this young lady produced so lively an
+impression upon me, that I explored all the saloons at Binondoc,
+to endeavour to meet her elsewhere than in my walks. Fruitless
+attempts! The young widow saw nobody. I almost despaired of finding
+an opportunity of speaking to her, when one morning an Indian came
+to request me to visit his master. I got into the carriage and set
+off, without informing myself of the name of the sick person. The
+carriage stopped before the door of one of the finest houses in the
+Faubourg of Santa-Crux. Having examined the patient, and conversed a
+few minutes with him, I went to the table to write a prescription;
+suddenly I heard the rustling of a silk dress; I turned round--the
+pen fell from my hand. Before me stood the very lady I had so long
+sought after--appearing to me as in a dream! My amazement was so
+great that I muttered a few unintelligible words, and bowed with such
+awkwardness that she smiled. She simply addressed me to inquire the
+state of her nephew's health, and withdrew almost immediately. As
+to myself, instead of making my ordinary calls, I returned home;
+questioned Don Juan minutely about Madame de Las Salinas: he entirely
+satisfied my curiosity. He was acquainted with all the family of this
+youthful widow, and they were highly respected in the colony. The
+next morning, and following days, I returned to this charming widow,
+who graciously condescended to receive me with favour. These details
+being so completely personal, I pass them over. Six months after
+my first interview with Madame de Las Salinas, I asked her hand,
+and obtained it. I had therefore found, at more than five thousand
+leagues from my country, both happiness and wealth. I agreed that
+we should go to France as soon as my wife's property, the greater
+part of which lay in Mexico, should be realised. In the meantime my
+house was the rendezvous of foreigners, particularly of the French,
+who were already rather numerous at Manilla. At this period the
+Spanish government named me Surgeon-Major of the 1st Light Regiment,
+and of the first battalion of the militia of Panjanga. Having been so
+successful in so short a time, I never once doubted but that fortune
+would continue to bestow her smiling favours upon me. I had already
+prepared everything for my return to France; for we hourly expected
+the arrival of the galleons that plied from Acapulco to Manilla,
+which were to bring my wife's fortune. Her fortune was no less than
+700,000 francs (£28,000 sterling).
+
+One evening, as we were taking tea, we were informed that the vessels
+from Acapulco had been telegraphed, and that the next morning they
+would be in; our piasters were to be on board; I leave you to guess
+if our wishes were not gratified. But, alas! how our hopes were
+frustrated: the vessels did not bring us a single piaster. This is
+what occurred: five or six millions were sent by land from Mexico
+to San Blas, the place of embarkation, and the Mexican government
+had the van escorted by a regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel
+Iturbide. On the journey he took possession of the van, and fled with
+his regiment into the independent states. It is well known that later
+Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, then dethroned, and at last
+shot, after an expedition that offers more than one analogy with that
+of Murat. The very day of the arrival of the vessels we learnt that
+our fortune was entirely lost, without even hopes of regaining the
+smallest part. My wife and self supported this event with tolerable
+philosophy. It was not the loss of our piasters that distressed us
+the most, but the necessity we were in to abandon, or at least to
+postpone, our journey to France.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+    Continued Prosperity in Practice--Attempted Political
+    Revolution--Desperate Street Engagement--Subjugation of the
+    Insurgents--The Emperor of a Day--Dreadful Executions--Illness
+    and Insanity of my Wife--Her Recovery and Relapse--Removal to
+    the Country--Beneficial Results--Dangerous Neighbours--Repentant
+    Banditti--Fortunate Escape--The Anonymous Friend--A Confiding
+    Wife--Her Final Recovery, and our Domestic Happiness Restored.
+
+
+Despite the misfortune I have alluded to, I kept up my house in
+the same style as before. My connection, and the different posts I
+occupied, permitted me to lead the life of a grandee belonging to
+the Spanish colonies; and probably I should have made my fortune in a
+few years, if I had continued in the medical profession, but the wish
+for unlimited liberty caused me to abandon all these advantages for a
+life of peril and anxiety. At the same time do not let us anticipate
+too suddenly, and let the reader patiently peruse a few more pages
+about Manilla, and various events wherein I figured, either as actor
+or witness, before taking leave of a sybarite citizen's life.
+
+I was, as I said before, surgeon-major of the 1st Light Regiment of
+the line, and on intimate terms with the staff, and more particularly
+with Captain Novalès, a Creole by birth, possessing a courageous and
+venturesome disposition. He was suspected of endeavouring to excite
+his regiment to rebel in behalf of the Independence. An inquiry was
+consequently instituted, which ended without proof of the captain's
+culpability; nevertheless, as the governor still maintained his
+suspicions, he gave orders for him to be sent to one of the southern
+provinces, under the inspection of an alcaide. Novalès came to see
+me the morning of his departure, and complained bitterly of the
+injustice of the governor towards him, and added that those who had
+no confidence in his honour would repent, and that he would soon
+be back. I endeavoured to pacify him: we shook hands, and in the
+evening he went on board the vessel commissioned to take him to his
+destination. The night after Novalès departure, I was startled out of
+my sleep by the report of fire-arms. I immediately dressed myself in
+my uniform, and hastened to the barracks of my regiment. The streets
+were deserted; sentinels were stationed at about fifty paces apart. I
+understood that an extraordinary event had occurred in some part of
+the town. When I reached the barracks I was no little astonished to
+find the gates wide open, the sentry's box vacant, and not a soldier
+within. I went into the infirmary, set apart for the special service
+of the cholera patients, and there a serjeant told me that the bad
+weather had compelled the vessel that was taking Novalès into exile to
+return into the port; that about one o'clock in the morning, Novalès,
+accompanied by Lieutenant Ruiz, came to the barracks, and having
+made himself certain of the votes of the Creole non-commissioned
+officers, put the regiment under arms, took possession of the gates,
+and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Philippines.
+
+This extraordinary intelligence caused me some anxiety. My regiment
+had openly revolted; if I joined it, and were defeated, I should
+be considered a traitor, and, as such, shot; if, on the contrary,
+I fought against it, and the rebels proved victorious, I knew
+Novalès sufficiently well to be convinced that he would not spare
+me. Nevertheless I could not hesitate: duty bound me to the Spanish
+government, by which I had been so well treated. I left the barracks,
+rambling where chance might lead me. I shortly found myself at the
+head-quarters of the artillery; an officer behind the gate stood
+observing me. I went up to him, and asked him whether he was for
+Spain. Upon his answering me in the affirmative, I begged him to
+open the gate, declaring that I wished to join his party, and would
+willingly offer my services as surgeon to them. I went in, and took
+the commander's orders, which soon showed me how matters stood. During
+the night Ruiz went, in the name of Novalès, to General Folgueras,
+the commander during the absence of Governor Martinès, who was
+detained at his country house, a short distance from Manilla. He
+took the guard unawares, and seized the keys of the town, after
+having stabbed Folgueras; from thence he went to the prisons, set
+the prisoners at liberty, and put in their places the principal men
+of the public offices belonging to the colony. The 1st Regiment was
+on Government Place, ready to engage in battle; twice it attempted
+to fall unexpectedly upon the artillery and citadel, but was driven
+back. Many expected assistance from without, and orders from General
+Martinès to attack the rebels. Very soon we heard a discharge of
+artillery: it was General Martinès, who, at the head of the Queen's
+Regiment, broke open Saint Lucy's Gate, and advanced into the besieged
+town. The body of the artillery joined the governor-general, and we
+marched towards Government Place. The insurgents placed two cannons
+at the corner of each street. Scarcely had we approached the palace,
+than we were exposed to a violent discharge of loaded muskets. The
+head chaplain of the regiment was the first victim. We were then
+engaged in a street, by the side of the fortifications, and from
+which it was impossible to attack the enemy with advantage. General
+Martinès changed the position of the attack, and in this condition we
+came back by the street of Saint Isabelle. The troops in two lines
+followed both sides of the street, and left the road free; in the
+meantime the Panpangas regiment, crossing the bridge, reached us
+by one of the opposite streets: the rebels were then exposed to the
+opposite attacks. They nevertheless defended themselves furiously,
+and their sharpshooters did us some harm. Novalès was everywhere,
+encouraging his soldiers by words, exploits, and example, while
+Lieutenant Ruiz was busy pointing one of the cannons, that swept the
+middle of the street we were coming up. At length, after three hours'
+contest, the rebels succumbed. The troops fell upon everything they
+found, and Novalès was taken prisoner to the governor's. As to Ruiz,
+although he had received a blow on his arm from a ball, he was
+fortunate enough to jump over the fortifications, and succeeded,
+for the time, in escaping; three days afterwards he was taken. The
+conflict was scarcely over, than a court-martial was held. Novalès
+was tried the first. At midnight he was outlawed; at two o'clock in
+the morning proclaimed Emperor; and at five in the evening shot. Such
+changes in fortune are not uncommon in Spanish colonies.
+
+The court-martial, without adjourning, tried, until the middle of the
+following day, all the prisoners arrested with arms. The tenth part
+of the regiment was sent to the hulks, and all the non-commissioned
+officers were condemned to death. I received orders to be at Government
+Place by four o'clock, on which spot the executions were to take place;
+two companies of each battalion of the garrison, and all the staff,
+were to be present.
+
+Towards five the doors of the town-hall opened, and between a double
+file of soldiers advanced seventeen non-commissioned officers, each one
+assisted by two monks of the order of Misericordia. Mournful silence
+prevailed, interrupted every now and then by the doleful beating of
+the drums, and the prayers of the agonising, chanted by the monks. The
+procession moved slowly on, and after some time reached the palace;
+the seventeen non-commissioned officers were ordered to kneel, their
+faces turned towards the wall. After a lengthened beating of the drums
+the monks left their victims, and at a second beating a discharge
+of muskets resounded: the seventeen young men fell prostrate on the
+ground. One, however, was not dead; he had fallen with the others,
+and seemed apparently motionless. A few minutes after the monks
+threw their black veils upon the victims: they now belonged to Divine
+justice. I witnessed all that had just happened. I stood a few steps
+from him who feigned death so well, and my heart beat with force
+enough to burst through my chest. Would that it had been in my power
+to lead one of the monks towards this unfortunate young man who must
+have experienced such mortal anguish; but, alas! after having been so
+miraculously spared, at the moment the black veil was about to cover
+him, an officer informed the commander that a guilty man had escaped
+being punished; the monks were arrested in their pious ministry, and
+two soldiers received orders to approach and fire upon the poor fellow.
+
+I was indignant at this. I advanced towards the informer and reproached
+him for his cruelty; he wished to reply; I treated him as a coward,
+and turned my back to him. Express orders from my colonel compelled
+me to leave my house, to assist at this frightful execution; still,
+deep anxiety ought to have prevented me from so doing, as I will
+explain. On the eve when the battle was over, and the insurgents
+routed, the distress of my dear Anna came across my mind. It was now
+one o'clock in the afternoon, and she had received no tidings from
+me since three in the morning; might she not think me dead, or in the
+midst of the rebellion? Ah! if duty could make me forget for a moment
+she whom I loved more than life, now all danger was over her charming
+image returned to my mind. Dearest Anna! I beheld her pale, agitated;
+asking herself at each report of the cannon whether it rendered her
+a widow; when my mind became so agitated that I ran home to calm her
+fears. Having reached my house I went quickly up stairs, my heart
+beating violently; I paused for a moment at her door, then summoning
+a little courage I entered. Anna was kneeling down praying; hearing my
+footsteps she raised her head, and threw herself into my arms without
+uttering a word. At first I attributed this silence to emotion, but,
+alas! upon examining her lovely face, I saw her eyes looked wild,
+her features contracted: I started back. I discovered in her all the
+symptoms of congestion of the brain. I dreaded lest my wife had lost
+her senses, and this fear alarmed me greatly. How fortunate it was
+that it lay in my power to relieve her. I had her placed in bed, and
+ministered myself to her wants. She was tolerably composed; the few
+words she uttered were inconsistent; she seemed to think that somebody
+was going to poison or kill her. All her confidence was placed in
+me. During three days the remedies I prescribed and administered
+were useless; the poor creature derived no benefit from them. I
+therefore determined to consult the doctors in Manilla, although I
+had no great opinion of their skill. They advised some insignificant
+drugs, and declared to me that there were no hopes, adding, as a
+philosophical mode of consolation, that death was preferable to the
+loss of reason. I did not agree on this point with these gentlemen:
+I would have preferred insanity to death, for I hoped that her madness
+would die away by degrees, and eventually disappear altogether. How
+many mad people are cured, what numbers daily recover, yet death is
+the last word of humanity; and, as a young poet has truly said, is
+"the stone of the tomb."
+
+Between the world and God a curtain falls! I determined to wage a
+war against death, and to save my Anna by having recourse to the most
+indisputable resources of science. I looked now upon my brotherhood
+with more contempt than ever, and, confident in my love and zealous
+will, I began my struggle with a destiny, tinged indeed with gloomy
+clouds. I shut myself up in the sick-chamber, and never left my wife. I
+had great difficulty in getting her to take the medicaments I trusted
+she would derive so much benefit from; I was obliged to call to my
+assistance all the influence I had over her, in order to persuade
+her that the draughts I presented to her were not poisoned. She did
+not sleep, but appeared very drowsy; these symptoms denoted very
+clearly great disorder of the brain. For nine days she remained in
+this dreadful state; during which time I scarcely knew whether she
+was dead or alive; at every moment I besought the Almighty to work a
+miracle in her behalf. One morning the poor creature closed her eyes. I
+cannot describe my feelings of anguish. Would she ever awake again? I
+leant over her; I heard her breathing gently, without apparent effort;
+I felt her pulse, it beat calmer and more regular; she was evidently
+better. I stood by her in deep anxiety. She still remained in a calm
+sleep, and at the end of half-an-hour I felt convinced that this
+satisfactory crisis would restore my invalid to life and reason. I
+sat down by her bed-side, and stayed there eighteen hours, watching
+her slightest movements. At length, after such cruel suspense, my
+patient awoke, as if out of a dream.
+
+"Have you been long watching?" she said, giving me her hand: "Have I,
+then, been very ill? What care you have taken of me! Luckily you may
+rest now, for I feel I am recovered."
+
+I think I have during my life been a sharer of the strongest emotions
+of joy or of sadness man can feel; but never had I experienced
+such real, heartfelt joy as when I heard Anna's words. It is easy
+to imagine the state of my mind in recollecting the bitter grief
+I was in for ten days; then can be understood the mental anguish I
+felt. Having witnessed such strange scenes for a considerable time,
+it would not have been surprising had I lost my senses. I was an
+actor in a furious battle; I had seen the wounded falling around me,
+and heard the death-rattle. After the frightful execution, I went home,
+and there still deeper grief awaited me. I had watched by the bed-side
+of a beloved wife, knowing not whether I should lose her for ever,
+or see her spared to me deprived of reason; when all at once, as if by
+a miracle, this dear companion of my life, restored to health, threw
+herself into my arms. I wept with her; my burning eyes, aching for
+want of rest, found at last some tears, but they were tears of joy and
+gladness. Soon we became more composed; we related to each other all
+that we had suffered. Oh! the sympathy of loving hearts! Our sorrows
+bad been the same, we had shared the same fears, she for me and I for
+her. Anna's rapid recovery, after her renovating slumber, enabled her
+to get up; she dressed herself as usual, and the people who saw her
+could not believe she had passed ten days struggling between death
+and insanity--two gulphs, from which love and faith had preserved us.
+
+I was happy; my deep sadness was speedily changed to gladness,
+even visible on my features. Alas! this joy was transitory, like
+all happiness; man here below is a continual prey to misfortune! My
+wife, at the end of a month, relapsed into her former sickly state;
+the same symptoms showed themselves again, with similar prospects,
+during the same space of time. I remained again nine days at her
+bed-side, and on the tenth a refreshing sleep brought her to her
+senses. But this time, guided by experience, that pitiless mistress,
+who gives us lessons we should ever remember, I did not rejoice
+as I had done the month before. I feared lest this sudden cure
+might only be a temporary recovery, and that every month my poor
+invalid would relapse, until her brain becoming weaker and weaker,
+she would be deranged for life. This sad idea wounded my heart, and
+caused me such grief that I could not even dissimulate it before her
+who inspired it. I exhausted all the resources of medicine; all these
+expedients proved unavailable. I thought that perhaps, if I removed my
+poor invalid from the spot where the events had occurred that caused
+her disorder, her cure might be more easily effected; that perhaps
+bathing and country walks in the fine weather would contribute to
+hasten her recovery; therefore I invited one of her relations to
+accompany us, and we set out for Tierra-Alta, a delightful spot,
+a real oasis, where all things were assembled that could endear
+one to life. The first days of our settling there were full of joy,
+hope, and happiness. Anna got better and better every day, and her
+health very much improved. We walked in beautiful gardens, under the
+shade of orange-trees; they were so thick that even during the most
+intense heat we were cool under their shade. A lovely river of blue
+and limpid water ran through our orchard; I had some Indian baths
+erected there. We went out in a pretty, light, open carriage, drawn
+by four good horses, through beautiful avenues, lined on each side
+with the pliant bamboo, and sown with all the various flowers of the
+tropics. I leave you to judge, by this short account, that nothing
+that can be wished for in the country was wanting in Tierra-Alta. For
+an invalid it was a Paradise; but those are right who say there is
+no perfect happiness here below. I had a wife I adored, and who loved
+me with all the sincerity of a pure young heart. We lived in an Eden,
+away from the world, from the noise and bustle of a city, and far, too,
+from the jealous and envious. We breathed a fragrant air; the pure and
+limpid waters that bathed our feet reflecting, by turns a sunny sky,
+and one spangled with twinkling stars. Anna's health was improving:
+it pleased me to see her so happy. What, then, was there to trouble
+us in our lovely retreat? A troop of banditti! These robbers were
+distributed around the suburbs of Tierra-Alta, and spread desolation
+over the country and neighbourhood by the robberies and murders
+they committed. There was a regiment in search of them; this they
+little cared about. They were numerous, clever, and audacious; and,
+notwithstanding the vigilance of the government, the band continued
+their highway robberies and assassinations. In the house where I then
+resided, and which I afterwards left, Aguilar, the commander of the
+cavalry, who had replaced me as occupant, was fallen upon unexpectedly,
+and stabbed. Several years after this period, the government was
+obliged to come to some terms with these bandits, and one day twenty
+men, all armed with carbines and swords, entered Manilla. Their
+chieftain led them; they walked with their heads upright, their
+carriage was proud and manly; in this order they went to the governor,
+who made them a speech, ordered them to lay down their arms, and sent
+them to the archbishop that he might exhort them. The archbishop in a
+religious discourse implored of them to repent of their crimes, and
+become honest citizens, and to return to their villages. These men,
+who had bathed their hands in the blood of their fellow-creatures,
+and who had sought in crime--or rather, in every crime--the gold they
+coveted, listened attentively to God's minister, changed completely
+their conduct, and became, in the end, good and quiet husbandmen.
+
+Now let us return to my residence at Tierra-Alta, at the period when
+the bandits were not converted, and might have disturbed my peaceful
+abode and security. Nevertheless, whether it was carelessness, or the
+confidence I had in my Indian, with whom I spent some time after the
+ravages occasioned with the cholera, and with whose influence I was
+acquainted, I did not fear the bandits at all. This Indian lived a
+few leagues off from Tierra-Alta; he came often to see me, and said
+to me on different occasions: "Fear nothing from the robbers, Senor
+Doctor Pablo; they know we are friends, and that alone would suffice
+to prevent them attacking you, for they would dread to displease me,
+and to make me their enemy." These words put an end to my fears,
+and I soon had an opportunity of seeing that the Indian had taken me
+under his protection.
+
+If any of my readers for whom I write these souvenirs feel the same
+desire as I experienced to visit the cascades of Tierra-Alta, let
+them go to a place called Yang-Yang; it was near this spot where
+my Indian protector resided. At this part the river, obstructed in
+its course by the narrowness of its channel, falls from only one
+waterspout, about thirty or forty feet high, into an immense basin,
+out of which the water calmly flows onwards, to form, lower down, three
+other waterfalls, not so lofty, but extending over the breadth of the
+river, thereby making three sheets of water, clear and transparent as
+crystal. What beautiful sights are offered to the eyes of man by the
+all-powerful hands of the Creator! And how often have I remarked that
+the works of nature are far superior to those that men tire themselves
+to erect and invent!
+
+As we went one morning to the cascades we were about to alight
+at Yang-Yang, when all at once our carriage was surrounded with
+brigands, flying from the soldiers of the line. The chief--for we
+supposed him to be so at first--said to his companions, not paying the
+slightest attention to us, nor even addressing us: "We must kill the
+horses!" By this I saw he feared lest their enemies should make use of
+our horses to pursue them. With a presence of mind which fortunately
+never abandons me in difficult or perilous circumstances, I said to
+him: "Do not fear; my horses shall not be used by your enemies to
+pursue you: rely upon my word." The chief put his hand to his cap,
+and thus addressed his comrades: "If such be the case, the Spanish
+soldiers will do us no harm to-day, neither let us do any. Follow
+me!" They marched off, and I instantly drove rapidly away in quite
+an opposite direction from the soldiers. The bandits looked after
+me; my good faith in keeping my word was successful. I not only
+lived a few months in safety at Tierra-Alta, but many years after,
+when, I resided in Jala-Jala, and, in my quality of commander of the
+territorial horse-guards of the province of Lagune, was naturally a
+declared enemy of the bandits, I received the following note:
+
+
+    "Sir,--Beware of Pedro Tumbaga; we are invited by him to go to
+    your house and to take you by surprise; we remember the morning we
+    spoke to you at the cascades, and the sincerity of your word. You
+    are an honourable man. If we find ourselves face to face with
+    you, and it be necessary, we will fight, but faithfully, and
+    never after having laid a snare. Keep, therefore, on your guard;
+    beware of Pedro Tumbaga; he is cowardly enough to hide himself
+    in order to shoot you."
+
+
+Everybody must acknowledge I had to do with most polite robbers.
+
+I answered them thus:
+
+
+    "You are brave fellows. I thank you for your advice, but I do
+    not fear Pedro Tumbaga. I cannot conceive how it is you keep
+    among you a man capable of hiding himself to kill his enemy;
+    if I had a soldier like him, I would soon let him have justice,
+    and without consulting the law."
+
+
+A fortnight after my answer, Tumbaga was no more; a bandit's bullet
+disembarrassed me of him.
+
+I will now return to the recital I have just interrupted. When I had
+left the bandits at Yang-Yang, I pulled up my horses and bethought
+me of Anna. I was anxious to know what impression had been produced
+on her mind from this unpleasant encounter. Fortunately my fears were
+unfounded; my wife had not been at all alarmed, and when I asked her
+if she was frightened, she replied: "Frightened, indeed! am I not with
+you?" Subsequently I had good proofs that she told me the truth, for
+in many perilous circumstances she always presented the same presence
+of mind. When I thought there was no longer any danger we retraced our
+steps and went home, satisfied with the conduct of the bandits towards
+us, for their manner of acting clearly showed us that they intended us
+no harm. I mentally thanked my Indian friend, for to him I attributed
+the peace our turbulent neighbours allowed us to enjoy. The fatal time
+was drawing near when my wife would again be suffering from another
+attack of that frightful malady brought on by Novalès revolt. I had
+hoped that the country air, the baths, and amusements of every kind
+would cure my poor invalid; my hopes were deceived, and, as in the
+preceding month, I had the grief once more to assist at a period of
+physical and mental suffering. I despaired: I knew not what course
+to pursue. I decided, however, upon remaining at Tierra-Alta. My
+dear companion was happy there on the days her health was better,
+and on the other days I never left her, endeavouring by every means
+that art and imagination could invent to fight against this fatal
+malady. At length my care, attempts, and efforts were successful, and
+at the periods the symptoms usually returned I had the happiness not
+to observe them, and believed in the certainty of a final cure. I then
+felt the joy one experiences after having for a long time been on the
+point of losing a very dear friend, who suddenly recovers. I now gave
+myself up without fear to the various pleasures Tierra-Alta offers.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    Hunting the Stag--Indian Mode of Chasing the Wild Buffalo: its
+    Ferocity--Dangerous Sport--Capture of a Buffalo--Narrow Escape of
+    an Indian Hunter--Return to Manilla--Injustice of the Governor--My
+    Resignation of Office--I Purchase Property at Jala-Jala--Retire
+    from Manilla to Take Possession of my Domains--Chinese
+    Legend--Festival of St Nicholas--Quinaboutasan--Description
+    of Jala-Jala--Interview with a Bandit Chief--Formation of a
+    Guard--Preparations for Building--Visit to Manilla, and Return
+    to Jala-Jala--Completion of my House--Reception of my Wife by
+    the Natives--The Government of the Philippines--Character of the
+    Tagaloc Indians--Unmerited Chastisement--A Curate Appointed--Our
+    Labours at Civilisation--My Hall of Justice--Buffalo Hunting
+    Expedition.
+
+
+Naturally fond of hunting, I often went to the home of my Indian
+friend in the Marigondon mountains. Together we chased the stag,
+and killed the various kinds of birds which abound in these regions
+to such an extent that one may always choose between fifteen or
+twenty different species of pigeons, wild ducks, and fowl, and it
+frequently happened that I brought down five or six at a shot. The
+manner of killing wild fowl (a sort of pheasant) much amused me. We
+rode across the large plains, strewed with young wood, on good and
+beautiful horses, broken in for the purpose; the dogs raised the game,
+and, armed with whips, we endeavoured to knock the birds down at a
+single blow, which is not so difficult as might be imagined. When a
+number of the frightened flocks left the shelter of the wood we put
+our steeds to the gallop, and it became a veritable steeple-chase,
+such as amateur jockeys would much delight in. I also hunted the stag
+with the lance, on horseback; this sport is likewise very amusing,
+but, unfortunately, often attended with accidents. This is how they
+occur:--The horses employed are so well trained to the sport, that
+as soon as they perceive the stag it is no longer necessary, neither
+is it possible, to guide them; they pursue the animal at the top of
+their speed, and leap over every obstruction before them. The horseman
+carries a lance seven or eight feet long, which he holds in readiness
+to cast as soon as he thinks himself within reach of the stag. If he
+misses his aim the lance sticks in the ground, and it then requires
+great skill to avoid coming in contact with the opposite end, which
+often wounds either the hunter or the horse. I speak not of the falls
+to which one is liable from going at a furious gallop along unknown
+and uneven roads. I had already enjoyed this sport during my first
+sojourn at the Indian's, but, well as I acquitted myself, I was never
+able to gain his permission that I should assist at a chase far more
+dangerous, and which I might almost call a combat--that of the wild
+buffalo. To all my questions my host had replied: "In this sport there
+is much to fear: I would not expose you to the risk." He avoided, also,
+taking me near that part of the plain touching upon the mountains of
+Marigondon, where these animals could generally be found. However,
+after repeated solicitation, I managed to obtain what I so ardently
+desired; the Indian only wished to know whether I was a good horseman,
+if I possessed dexterity; and when he had satisfied himself on these
+two points, we started one fine morning, accompanied by nine huntsmen
+and a small pack of dogs. In this part of the Philippines the buffalo
+is hunted on horseback, and taken with the lasso, the Indians not being
+much accustomed to the use of guns. In other parts fire-arms are used,
+as I shall have occasion to recount in another part of my narrative;
+but, in whichever case, there is little difference in the danger,
+for the one requires good riding and great skill, the other much
+presence of mind and a good gun.
+
+The wild buffalo is quite different from the domesticated animal;
+it is a terrible creature, pursuing the hunter as soon as it gets
+sight of him, and, should he transfix him with its terrible horns, he
+would promptly expiate his rashness. My faithful Indian was much more
+anxious about my safety than his own. He objected to my taking a gun;
+he had little confidence in my skill with the lasso, and preferred
+that I should merely sit on horseback, unarmed and unencumbered
+in my movements; accordingly I set out, with a dagger for my sole
+weapon. We divided our party by threes, and rode gently about the
+plains, taking care to keep at a distance from the edge of the wood,
+lest we should be surprised by the animal we were seeking.
+
+After riding for about an hour, we at last heard the baying of
+the dogs, and understood that the enemy was forced from its forest
+retreat. We watched with the deepest attention the spot where we
+expected him to break forth. He required a great deal of coaxing
+before he would show; at last there was a sudden crashing noise
+in the wood; branches were broken, young trees overthrown, and a
+superb buffalo showed himself, at about one hundred and fifty paces'
+distance. He was of a beautiful black, and his horns were of very large
+dimensions. He carried his head high, and snuffed the air as though
+scenting his enemies. Suddenly starting off at a speed incredible in
+so bulky an animal, he made for one of our groups, composed of three
+Indians, who immediately put their horses to a gallop, and distributed
+themselves in the form of a triangle. The buffalo selected one of them,
+and impetuously charged him. As he did so, another of the Indians,
+whom he passed in his furious career, wheeled his horse and threw the
+lasso he held ready in his hand; but he was not expert, and missed
+his aim. Thereupon the buffalo changed his course, and pursued the
+imprudent man who had thus attacked him, and who now rode right in
+our direction. A second detachment of three hunters went to meet the
+brute; one of them passed near him at a gallop, and threw his lasso,
+but was as unsuccessful as his comrade. Three other hunters made the
+attempt; not one of them succeeded. I, as a mere spectator, looked
+on with admiration at this combat--at those evolutions, flights, and
+pursuits, executed with such order and courage, and with a precision
+that was truly extraordinary.
+
+I had often witnessed bull-fights, and often had I shuddered at seeing
+the toreadors adopt a similar method in order to turn the furious
+animal from the pursuit of the picador. But what comparison could
+possibly be established between a combat in an enclosed arena and
+this one in the open plain--between the most terrible of bulls and
+a wild buffalo? Fiery and hot-blooded Spaniards, proud Castilians,
+eager for perilous spectacles, go, hunt the buffalo in the plains
+of the Marigondon! After much flight and pursuit, hard riding, and
+imminent peril, a dexterous hunter encircled the animal's horns with
+his lasso. The buffalo slackened his speed, and shook and tossed
+his head, stopping now and then to try to get rid of the obstacle
+which impeded his career. Another Indian, not less skilful than his
+predecessor, threw his lasso with a like rapidity and success. The
+furious beast now ploughed the earth with his horns, making the
+soil fly around him, as if anxious to display his strength, and to
+show what havoc he would have made with any of us who had allowed
+themselves to be surprised by him. With much care and precaution the
+Indians conveyed their prize into a neighbouring thicket. The hunters
+uttered a shout of joy; for my part I could not repress a cry of
+admiration. The animal was vanquished; it needed but a few precautions
+to master him completely. I was much surprised to see the Indians
+excite him with voice and gesture until he resumed the offensive,
+and bounded from the ground with fury. What would have been our fate
+had he succeeded in shaking off or breaking the lassos! Fortunately,
+there was no danger of this. An Indian dismounted, and, with great
+agility, attached to the trunk of a solid tree the two lassos that
+retained the savage beast; then he gave the signal that his office
+was accomplished, and retired. Two hunters approached, threw their
+lassos over the animal, and fixed the ends to the ground with stakes;
+and now our prey was thoroughly subdued, and reduced to immobility,
+so that we could approach him with impunity. With blows of their
+cutlasses the Indians hacked off his horns, which would so well have
+revenged him had he been free to use them; then, with a pointed bamboo,
+they pierced the membranes that separate the nostrils, and passed
+through them a cane twisted in the form of a ring. In this state
+of martyrdom they fastened him securely behind two tame buffaloes,
+and led him to the next village.
+
+Here the animal was killed, and the hunters divided the carcass, the
+flesh of which is equal in flavour to beef. I had been fortunate in my
+first essay, for such encounters with these shaggy sovereigns of the
+plain do not always end so easily. A few days afterwards we renewed
+the sport, which, alas! terminated with an accident of too frequent
+occurrence. An Indian was surprised by a buffalo, at the moment the
+animal issued from the wood. With one blow from his horns the horse
+was impaled and cast to the earth, while his Indian rider fell near
+to him. The inequality of the ground offered some chance of the man
+escaping the notice of his redoubtable foe, until the latter, by a
+sudden movement of his head, turned the horse over upon his rider,
+and inflicted several blows with his horns, either of which would have
+proved fatal, but from the force becoming diminished in traversing
+the carcass of the horse. Fortunately some of the other sportsmen
+succeeded in turning the animal, and compelled him to abandon his
+victim. It was indeed time, for we found the poor Indian half dead,
+and terribly gored by the horns of the buffalo. We succeeded in
+stopping the blood which flowed copiously from his wounds, and
+carried him to the village upon a hastily constructed litter. It was
+only by considerable care and attention that his care was eventually
+effected, and my friend the Indian strongly opposed my assisting at
+such dangerous sport for the future.
+
+Anna's health was now completely re-established. I no longer dreaded
+the return of her fearful malady. During the space of several
+months I had enjoyed all the pleasures that Tierra-Alta afforded,
+and my affairs now requiring my presence at Manilla we set out for
+that city. Immediately after my arrival I was compelled, much to my
+regret, to resume my ordinary occupation; that is, to visit the sick
+from morning to night, and from night to morning. My profession did
+not well accord with my natural character, for I was not sufficiently
+philosophic to witness, without pain, the sufferings I was incapable
+of alleviating, and, above all, to watch the death-beds of fathers,
+of mothers, and of dearly loved children. In a word, I did not act
+professionally, for I never sent in my bills; my patients paid me
+when and how they could. To their honour, I am bound to say that I
+rarely had to complain of forgetfulness. Besides, my appointments
+permitted me to live sumptuously, to have eight horses in my stables,
+and to keep open house to my friends and the strangers who visited
+Manilla. Soon, however, what my friends designated a coup-de-tête
+caused me to lose all these advantages.
+
+Every month I summoned a council of revision in the regiment to
+which I belonged. One day I brought forward a young soldier for
+rejection; all went well; but a native surgeon, long jealous of my
+reputation, was nominated by the governor to make inquiry and check my
+declaration. He naturally inserted in his report that I was deceived;
+that the malady of which I spoke was imaginary; and he succeeded in
+all this so well that the governor, enraged, condemned me in a penalty
+of six piasters. The following month I again brought forward the same
+soldier, as being incapable of performing his duties; a commission
+of eight surgeons was nominated; their decision was unanimous in my
+favour, and the soldier was accordingly discharged. This reparation
+not quite satisfying me, I presented an appeal to the governor, who
+would not receive it, upon the strange pretext that the decision of
+the medical committee could not annul his. I confess that I did not
+understand this argument. This method of reasoning, if reasoning it
+was, appeared to me specious in the extreme. Why allow the innocent
+to suffer, and the ignorant practitioner, who had contradicted my
+opinions and deceived himself, to escape? This injustice revolted
+me. I am a Breton, and I have lived with Indians--two natures which
+love only right and justice. I was so much annoyed by the governor's
+conduct towards me that I went to him, not to make another reclamation,
+but to tender my resignation of the important offices which I held. He
+received me with a specious smile, and told me that after a little
+reflection I should change my mind. The poor governor, however, was
+deceived, for, on leaving his palace, I went direct to the minister
+of finance and purchased the property of Jala-Jala. My course was
+marked out, my resolution unshakable. Although my resignation was
+not yet duly accepted, I began to act as though I was completely
+free. I had at the beginning informed Anna of the matter, and had
+asked her if she would reside at Jala-Jala. "With you I should be
+happy anywhere." Such was her answer. I was free, then, to act as I
+pleased, and could go wherever my destiny might lead me. I forthwith
+decided upon visiting the land that I had purchased.
+
+For the execution of this project it was necessary to find a faithful
+Indian upon whom I could rely. From among my domestics I chose the
+coachman, a brave and discreet man, who was devoted to me. I took some
+arms, ammunition, and provisions. At Lapindan, a small village near the
+town of Santa Anna, I freighted a small boat worked by three Indians:
+and one morning, without making my project known to my friends, and
+without inquiring whether the governor had replaced me, I set out to
+take possession of my domains, respiring the vivifying and pure air of
+liberty. I ascended in my pirogue--which skimmed along the surface of
+the waters like a sea-gull--the pretty river Pasig, which issues from
+the lake of Bay, and traverses, on its way to the sea, the suburbs of
+Manilla. The banks of this river are planted with thickets of bamboo,
+and studded with pretty Indian habitations; above the large town of
+Pasig it receives the waters of the river St. Mateo, at the spot where
+that river unites itself with that of the Pasig. Upon the left bank
+are still seen the ruins of the chapel and parsonage of St. Nicholas,
+built by the Chinese, as the legend I am about to relate informs us.
+
+At an unknown epoch, a Chinese who was once sailing in a canoe, either
+upon the river Pasig, or that of St. Mateo, suddenly perceived an
+alligator making for his frail bark, which it immediately capsized. On
+his finding himself thus plunged in the water, the unfortunate Chinese
+whose only prospect was that of making a meal for the ferocious animal,
+invoked the aid of St. Nicholas. You, perhaps, would not have done
+so, nor I either; and we should have been wrong, for the idea was a
+good one. The good St. Nicholas listened to the cries of the unhappy
+castaway, appeared to his wondering eyes, and with a stroke of a
+wand, like some benevolent fairy, changed the threatening crocodile
+into a rock, and the Chinese was saved. But do not imagine that the
+legend ends here; the Chinese are not an ungrateful people--China
+is the land of porcelain, of tea, and of gratitude. The Chinese who
+had thus escaped from the cruel fate that awaited him, felt desirous
+of consecrating the memory of the miracle; and, in concert with his
+brethren of Manilla, he built a pretty chapel and parsonage in honour
+of the good St. Nicholas. This chapel was for a long time officiated
+in by a bonze; and every year, at the festival of the saint, the rich
+Chinese of Manilla assembled there in thousands, to give a series of
+fêtes which lasted for fifteen days. But it happened that an archbishop
+of Manilla, looking upon this worship offered up by Chinese gratitude
+as nothing but paganism, caused both the chapel and parsonage to be
+unroofed. These harsh measures had no other result than to admit the
+rain into the buildings; but the worship due to St. Nicholas still
+continued, and remains to this day. Perhaps this arises from the
+attempt to suppress it!
+
+At present, at the period when this festival takes place--that is,
+about the 6th of November every year--a delightful view presents
+itself. During the night large vessels may be seen, upon which are
+built palaces actually several stories high, terminating in pyramids,
+and lit up from the base to the summit. All these lights are reflected
+in the placid waters of the river, and seem to augment the number of
+the stars, whose tremulous images dance on the surface of the waters:
+it is an extemporised Venice! In these palaces they give themselves
+up to play, to smoking opium, and to the pleasures of music. The
+pévété, a species of Chinese incense, is burning everywhere and at
+all times in honour of St. Nicholas, who is invoked every morning
+by throwing into the river small square pieces of paper of various
+colours. St. Nicholas, however, does not make his appearance; but
+the fête continues for a fortnight, at the termination of which the
+faithful retire till the year following.
+
+And now that the reader is acquainted with the legend of the crocodile,
+of the Chinese, and of the good St. Nicholas, I will resume my voyage.
+
+I sailed on peaceably upon the Pasig, proceeding to the conquest of my
+new dominions, and indulging in golden dreams. I gazed on the light
+smoke of my cigarette, without reflecting that my dreams, my castles
+in the air, must evaporate like it! I soon found myself in the lake
+of Bay. The lake occupies an extent of thirty leagues, and I greatly
+admired this fine sheet of water, bounded in the distance by mountains
+of fantastic forms. At length I arrived at Quinaboutasan--this is a
+Tagal word, which signifies "that which is perforated." Quinaboutasan
+is situated on a strait, which separates the island of Talem from
+the continent. We stopped for an hour in the only Indian hut there
+was in the place, to cook some rice and take our repast. This hut
+was inhabited by a very old fisherman and his wife. They were still,
+however, able to supply their wants by fishing. At a later period I
+shall have occasion to speak of old Relempago, or the "Thunderer,"
+and to recount his history. When I was in the centre of the sheet of
+water which separates Talem from Jala-Jala, I came in sight of the new
+domain which I had so easily acquired, and I could form some opinion of
+my acquisition at a glance. Jala-Jala is a long peninsula, extending
+from north to south, in the middle of the lake of Bay. This peninsula
+is divided longitudinally for the space of three leagues by a chain of
+mountains, which diminish gradually in height till they become mere
+hillocks. These mountains, are easy of access, and generally covered
+on one side with forests, and on the other with fine pasturage,
+abounding with waving and flexible grass, three or four feet high,
+which, agitated by the breeze, resembles the waves of the sea when in
+motion. It is impossible to find more splendid vegetation, which is
+watered by pure and limpid springs that gush from the mountain heights,
+and roll in a meandering course to join the waters of the lake. These
+pasture grounds constitute Jala-Jala the greatest game preserve
+in the island: wild boars, deer, buffaloes, fowls, quail, snipe,
+pigeons of fifteen or twenty different varieties, parrots--in short
+all sorts of birds abound in them. The lake is equally well supplied
+with aquatic birds, and particularly wild ducks. Notwithstanding its
+extent, the island produces neither noxious nor carnivorous animals;
+the only things to be apprehended are the civet cat, which only preys
+upon birds, and the monkeys, which issue in troops from the forests
+to ravage the fields of maize and sugar-cane. The lake, which abounds
+with excellent fish, is less favoured in this respect than the land,
+for it contains numerous crocodiles and alligators, of such immense
+size that in a few moments one of them can tear a horse to pieces,
+and swallow it in its monstrous stomach. The accidents they occasion
+are frequent and terrible, and I have seen many Indians become their
+victims, as I shall subsequently relate. I ought, doubtless, to have
+begun by speaking of the human beings who inhabited the forests of
+Jala-Jala, but I am a sportsman, and must therefore be excused for
+beginning with the game.
+
+At the time I purchased it Jala-Jala was inhabited by some Malay
+Indians, who lived in the woods, and cultivated a few spots of
+ground. During the night they carried on the trade of piracy, and
+gave shelter to all the banditti of the neighbouring provinces. At
+Manilla this country had been described to me in the most gloomy
+colours. According to the citizens of that place it would not be long
+before I fell a victim to these robbers. My adventurous disposition,
+however, only made all these predictions, instead of frightening me,
+increase my desire to visit these men, who lived in an almost savage
+state. As soon as I had purchased Jala-Jala, I had laid down a line of
+conduct for myself, the object of which was to attach to me such of
+the inhabitants as were the most to be dreaded. I resolved to become
+the friend of these banditti, and for this purpose I knew that I must
+go amongst them, not like a sordid and exacting landlord but like a
+father. For the execution of my enterprise, everything depended on the
+first impression that I should make on these Indians, who had become
+my vassals. When I had landed, I directed my steps along the borders
+of the lake, towards a little hamlet composed of a few cabins. I was
+accompanied by my faithful coachman; we were both armed with a good
+double-barreled gun, a brace of pistols, and a sabre. I had taken the
+precaution of ascertaining from some fishermen the name of the Indian
+to whom I should especially address myself. This man, who was the most
+respected amongst his countrymen, was called in the Tagal language,
+"Mabutiu-Tajo," which may be translated the "bravest of the brave"
+he was a thorough-paced robber, a real piratical chief; a fellow that
+would not hesitate to commit five or six murders in one expedition;
+but he was brave, and with a primitive people bravery is a quality
+before which they bow with respect. My conference with Mabutiu-Tajo
+was not long. A few words were enough to win me his favour, and to
+make him my faithful servant during the whole time I remained at
+Jala-Jala. This is the manner in which I spoke to him: "You are a
+great villain," I said; "I am the lord of Jala-Jala. I insist on your
+changing your conduct; if you refuse, I shall punish you for all your
+misdeeds. I have occasion for a guard: will you pledge me your honour
+to become an honest man, and I will make you my lieutenant?"
+
+After these few words, Alila (this was the name of the robber)
+continued silent for a few moments, while his countenance displayed the
+marks of profound reflection. I awaited his answer with considerable
+anxiety and doubt as to what it would be.
+
+"Master," he at length replied, with enthusiasm, presenting me his
+hand, and bending one knee to the ground: "I shall be faithful to
+you till death!"
+
+His answer made me happy, but I did not let him see my satisfaction.
+
+"Well and good," I replied; "to show you that I confide in you,
+take this weapon, and use it only against the enemy."
+
+I gave him a Tagal sabre, which bore the following Spanish inscription,
+in large letters: "No me sacas sin rason, ni me envainas sin
+honor." "Never draw me unjustly, and never sheath me with dishonour."
+
+I translated this legend into the Tagaloc language: Alila thought it
+sublime, and vowed never to deviate from it.
+
+"When I go to Manilla," I added, "I shall procure you a handsome
+uniform, with epaulettes; but you must lose no time in assembling
+the soldiers you will have to command, and who are to form my
+guard. Conduct me to the house of one of your comrades whom you
+think most capable of obeying you as serjeant." We went some distance
+from his cabin to the hut of one of his friends, who almost always
+accompanied him in his piratical excursions. A few words like those
+I had spoken to my future lieutenant produced a similar influence
+on his comrade, and induced him to accept the rank I offered him. We
+occupied the day in recruiting amongst the various huts, and in the
+evening we had a guard of ten effective men, infantry and cavalry,
+a number I did not wish to exceed.
+
+Of these I took the command as captain; and thus, as will be seen,
+I went promptly to work. The following day I assembled the population
+of the peninsula, and, surrounded by my extempore guard, I chose a
+situation where I wished to found a village, and a site on which
+I wished my own habitation to be built. I ordered the heads of
+families to construct their huts on an allotment which I indicated,
+and I directed my lieutenant to employ as many hands as possible, to
+quarry stones, to cut down timber for the wood-work, and to prepare
+everything in short for my house. Having issued my orders, I departed
+for Manilla, promising to return soon. When I reached home, I found
+them in a state of inquietude, for, as nothing had been heard of me,
+it was thought I had fallen a prey to the crocodiles, or a victim to
+the pirates. The recital of my journey, and the description I gave of
+Jala-Jala, far from disgusting my wife with the idea I had conceived
+of inhabiting that country, made her, on the contrary, impatient to
+visit our estate, and to establish herself there. It was, however, a
+farewell she was taking of the capital--of its fêtes, its assemblies,
+and its pleasures.
+
+I paid a visit to the governor. My resignation had been considered as
+null and void: he had preserved all my places for me. I was touched
+by this goodness. I sincerely thanked him, but told him that I was
+really in earnest, that my resolution was irrevocably fixed, and that
+he might otherwise dispose of my employments. I added, that I only
+asked him for one favour, that of commanding all the local gendarmerie
+of the province of La Lagune, with the privilege of having a personal
+guard, which I would form myself. This favour was instantly granted,
+and a few days after I received my commission. It was not ambition
+that suggested to me the idea of asking for this important post,
+but sound reason. My object was to establish an authority for myself
+at Jala-Jala, and to have in my own hands the power of punishing my
+Indians, without recurring to the justice of the alcaid, who lived
+ten leagues away from my dominions.
+
+Wishing to be comfortably settled in my new residence, I drew
+out a plan of my house. It consisted of a first-floor, with five
+bed-chambers, a large hall, a spacious drawing-room, a terrace, and
+bathing rooms. I agreed with a master-mason and a master carpenter
+for the construction of it; and having obtained arms and uniforms
+for my guard, I set out again. On arriving I was received with joy
+by my Indians. My lieutenant had punctually executed my orders. A
+great quantity of material was prepared, and several Indian huts were
+already built.
+
+This activity gave me pleasure, as it evinced a desire for my
+gratification. I immediately set my labourers to work, ordering them
+to clear away the surrounding wood, and I soon had the pleasure of
+laying the foundation of my residence; I then went to Manilla. The
+works lasted for eight months, during which time I passed backwards and
+forwards continually from Manilla to Jala-Jala, and from Jala-Jala to
+Manilla. I had some trouble, but I was well repaid for it when I saw
+a village rise from the earth. My Indians constructed their huts on
+the places I had indicated; they had reserved a site for a church,
+and, until this should be built, mass was to be celebrated in the
+vestibule of my mansion. At length, after many journeys to and fro,
+which gave great uneasiness to my wife, I was enabled to inform her
+that the castle of Jala-Jala was ready to receive its mistress. This
+was a pleasing piece of intelligence, for we were soon to be no
+longer separated.
+
+I quickly sold my horses, my carriages, and useless furniture, and
+freighted a vessel to convey to Jala-Jala all that I required. Then,
+having taken leave of my friends, I quitted Manilla, with the
+intention of not returning to it but through absolute necessity. Our
+journey was prosperous, and on our arrival, we found my Indians
+on the shore, hailing with cries of joy the welcome advent of the
+"Queen of Jala-Jala," for it was thus they called my wife.
+
+We devoted the first days after our arrival to installing ourselves
+in our new residence, which it was necessary to furnish, and make both
+useful and agreeable; this we accordingly effected. And now that years
+have elapsed, and I am far removed from that period of independence
+and perfect liberty, I reflect on the strangeness of my destiny. My
+wife and I were the only white and civilised persons in the midst of a
+bronzed and almost savage population, and yet I felt no apprehension. I
+relied on my arms, on my self-possession, and on the fidelity of my
+guards. Anna was only aware of a part of the dangers we incurred,
+and her confidence in me was so great, that when by my side she knew
+not what it was to fear. When I was well established in my house, I
+undertook a difficult and dangerous task, that of establishing order
+amongst my Indians, and organizing my little town according to the
+custom of the Philippine islands. The Spanish laws, with reference to
+the Indians, are altogether patriarchal. Every township is erected,
+so to speak, into a little republic. Every year a chief is elected,
+dependant for affairs of importance on the governor of the province,
+which latter, in his turn, depends on the governor of the Philippine
+islands. I confess that I have always considered the mode of government
+peculiar to the Philippines as the most convenient and best adapted
+for civilization. The Spaniards, at the period of their conquest,
+found it in full operation in the isle of Luzon.
+
+I shall here enter into some details. Every Indian population is
+divided into two classes, the noble and the popular. The first is
+composed of all Indians who are, or have been cabessas de barangay,
+that is to say, collectors of taxes, which situation is honorary. The
+taxes established by the Spaniards are personal. Every Indian of more
+than twenty-one years of age pays, in four instalments, the annual sum
+of three francs; which tax is the same to the rich and the poor. At a
+certain period of the year, twelve of the cabessas de barangay become
+electors, and assembling together with some of the old inhabitants of
+the township, they elect, by ballot, three of their number, whose names
+are forwarded to the governor of the Philippines. The latter chooses
+from amongst these names whichever he pleases, and confides to him
+for one year the functions of gobernadorcillo, or deputy-governor. To
+distinguish him from the other Indians, the deputy-governor bears
+a gold-headed cane, with which he has a right to strike such of his
+fellow-citizens as may have committed slight faults. His functions
+partake at the same time of those of mayor, justice of the peace,
+and examining magistrate. He watches over good order and public
+tranquillity; he decides, without appeal, suits and differences of
+no higher importance than sixteen piasters (£3 6s. 8d.). He also
+institutes criminal suits of high importance, but there his power
+ceases. The documents connected with these suits are sent by him to
+the governor of the province, who, in his turn, transmits them to
+the royal court of Manilla. The court gives judgment, and the alcaid
+carries it into execution. When the election for deputy-governor takes
+place, the assembled electors choose all the officials who are to act
+under him. These are alguazils, whose number is proportioned to the
+population; two witnesses, or assistants, who are charged with the
+confirmation of the acts of the deputy-governor--for without their
+presence and sanction his acts would be considered null and void;
+a jouès de palma, or palm judge, with the functions of rural guard;
+a vaccinator, bound to be always furnished with vaccine matter, for
+newborn children; and a schoolmaster, charged with public instruction;
+finally, a sort of gendarmerie, to watch banditti and the state of
+the roads within the precincts of the commune and the neighbouring
+lands. Men, grown up, and without employment, form a civic guard, who
+watch over the safety of the village. This guard indicates the hours
+of the night, by blows struck upon a large piece of hollow wood. There
+is in each town a parochial house, which is called Casa Réal, where
+the deputy-governor resides. He is bound to afford hospitality to all
+travellers who pass through the town, which hospitality is like that
+of the Scotch mountaineers--it is given, but never sold. During two
+or three days, the traveller has a right to lodging, in which he is
+supplied with a mat, a pillow, salt, vinegar, wood, cooking vessels,
+and--paying for the same--all descriptions of food necessary for
+his subsistence. If, on his departure, he should even require horses
+and guides to continue his journey, they are procured for him. With
+respect to the prices of provisions, in order to prevent the abuses
+so frequent amongst us, a large placard is fixed up in every Casa
+Réal, containing a tariff of the market prices of meat, poultry,
+fish, fruit, &c. In no case whatever can the deputy-governor exact
+any remuneration for the trouble he is at.
+
+Such were the measures that I wished to adopt, and which, it is true,
+possessed advantages and disadvantages. The greatest inconvenience
+attending them was undoubtedly that of placing myself in a state
+of dependence upon the deputy-governor, whose functions gave him a
+certain right, for I was his administrator. It is true that my rank,
+as commandant of all the gendarmerie of the province, shielded me from
+any injustice that might be contemplated against me. I knew very well
+that, beyond military service, I could inflict no punishment on my men
+without the intervention of the deputy-governor; but I had sufficiently
+studied the Indian character to know that I could only rule it by the
+most perfect justice and a well-understood severity. But whatever were
+the difficulties I foresaw, without any apprehension of the troubles
+and dangers of every description that I should have to surmount,
+I proceeded straightforward towards the object I had traced out for
+myself. The road was sterile and encumbered with rocks; but I entered
+upon it with courage, and I succeeded in obtaining over the Indians
+such an influence, that they ultimately obeyed my voice as they would
+that of a parent. The character of the Tagaloc is extremely difficult
+to define. Lavater and Gall would have been very much embarrassed by
+it; for both physiognomy and craniology would be, perhaps, equally
+at a loss amongst the Philippines.
+
+The natural disposition of the Tagal Indian is a mixture of vices
+and virtues, of good and bad qualities. A worthy priest has said,
+when speaking of them: "They are great children and must be treated
+as if they were little ones."
+
+It is really curious to trace, and still more so to read, the moral
+portrait of a native of the Philippine islands. The Indian keeps his
+word, and yet--will it be believed?--he is a liar. Anger he holds in
+horror, he compares it to madness; and even prefers drunkenness, which,
+however, he despises. He will not hesitate to use the dagger to avenge
+himself for injustice; but what he can least submit to is an insult,
+even when merited. When he has committed a fault, he may be punished
+with a flogging; this he receives without a murmur, but he cannot brook
+an insult. He is brave, generous, and a fatalist. The profession of a
+robber, which he willingly exercises, is agreeable to him, on account
+of the life of liberty and adventure it affords, and not because it may
+lead to riches. Generally speaking, the Tagalocs are good fathers and
+good husbands, both these qualities being inherent. Horribly jealous
+of their wives, but not in the least of the honour of their daughters;
+and it matters little if the women they marry have committed errors
+previous to their union. They never ask for a dowry, they themselves
+provide it, and make presents to the parents of their brides. They
+dislike cowards, but willingly attach themselves to the man who is
+brave enough to face danger. Play is their ruling passion, and they
+delight in the combats of animals, especially in cock-fighting. This
+is a brief compendium of the character of the people I was about
+to govern. My first care was to become master of myself. I made a
+firm resolution never to allow a gesture of impatience to escape me,
+in their presence, even in the most critical moments, and to preserve
+at all times unshaken calmness and sang-froid. I soon learned that it
+was dangerous to listen to the communications that were made to me,
+which might lead me to the commission of injustice, as had already
+happened under the following circumstances.
+
+Two Indians came one day to lodge a complaint against one of their
+comrades, living at some leagues' distance from Jala-Jala. These
+informers accused him of having stolen cattle. After I had heard all
+they had to say, I set off with my guard to seize upon the accused, and
+brought him to my residence. There I endeavoured to make him confess
+his crime, but he denied it, and said he was innocent. It was in vain
+I promised him if he would tell the truth to grant him his pardon, for
+he persisted even in the presence of his accusers. Persuaded, however,
+that he was telling me falsehoods, and disgusted with his obstinacy
+in denying a fact which had been sworn to me, with every appearance
+of sincerity, I ordered him to be tied upon a bench, and receive a
+dozen strokes of a whip. My orders were executed; but the culprit
+denied the charge, as he had done before. This dogged perseverance
+irritated me, and I caused another correction to be administered to him
+the same as the first. The unfortunate man bore his punishment with
+unshaken courage: but in the midst of his sufferings he exclaimed,
+in penetrating accents: "Oh! sir, I swear to you that I am innocent;
+but, as you will not believe me, take me into your house. I will be a
+faithful servant, and you will soon have proofs that I am the victim of
+an infamous calumny." These words affected me. I reflected that this
+unfortunate man was, perhaps, not guilty after all. I began to fear I
+had been deceived, and had unknowingly committed an act of injustice. I
+felt that private enmity might have led these two witnesses to make
+a false declaration, and thus induce me to punish an innocent man. I
+ordered him to be untied. "The proof you demand," I said to him, "is
+easily tried. If you are an honest man, I shall be a father to you;
+but if you deceive me, do not expect any pity from me. From this moment
+you shall be one of my guard; my lieutenant will provide you with
+arms." He thanked me earnestly, and his countenance lit up with sudden
+joy. He was installed in my guard. Oh! human justice! how fragile,
+and how often unintelligible art thou! Some time after this event,
+I learnt that Bazilio de la Cruz--this was the name of the man--was
+innocent. The two wretches who had denounced him had fled, to avoid
+the chastisement they merited. Bazilio kept his promise, and during my
+residence at Jala-Jala he served me faithfully and without malice or
+ill-will. This fact made a lively impression on me; and I vowed that
+for the future I would inflict no punishment without being sure of
+the truth of the charge alleged. I have religiously kept this vow--at
+least I think so; for I have never since ordered a single application
+of the whip until after the culprit had confessed his crime.
+
+I have before said that I had expressed a wish to have a church
+built in my village, not only from a religious feeling, but as a
+means of civilisation: I was particularly desirous of having a curate
+at Jala-Jala. With this view I requested Monseigneur Hilarion, the
+archbishop, whose physician I had been, and with whom I was on terms of
+friendship, to send me a clergyman of my acquaintance, and who was at
+that time unemployed. I had, however, much difficulty in obtaining this
+nomination. "Father Miguel de San-Francisco," the archbishop replied,
+"is a violent man, and very headstrong: you will never be able to live
+with him." I persisted, however; and as perseverance always produces
+some result, I at length succeeded in having him appointed curate
+at Jala-Jala. Father Miguel was of Japanese and Malay descent. He
+was young, strong, brave, and very capable of assisting me in the
+difficult circumstances that might occur; as, for example, if it were
+necessary to defend ourselves against banditti. Indeed I must say that,
+in spite of the anticipations, and I may add the prejudices, of my
+honourable friend the archbishop, I kept him with me during the whole
+time of my abode at Jala-Jala, and never had the slightest difference
+with him. I can only reproach him with one thing to be regretted,
+which is that he did not preach sufficiently to his flock. He gave
+them only one sermon annually, and then his discourse was always the
+same, and divided into two parts: the first was in Spanish, for our
+edification, and the second in Tagaloc, for the Indians. Ah! how many
+men have I since met with who might well imitate the worthy curate
+of Jala-Jala! To the observations I sometimes made he would reply:
+"Let me follow my own course, and fear nothing. So many words are not
+necessary to make a good Christian." Perhaps he was right. Since my
+departure from the place the good priest is dead, bearing with him
+to the tomb the regret of all his parishioners.
+
+As may be seen, I was at the beginning of my labour of
+civilisation. Anna assisted me with all her heart, and with all her
+intelligence, and no fatigue disheartened her. She taught the young
+girls to love that virtue which she practised so well herself. She
+furnished them with clothes, for at this period the young girls from
+ten to twelve years of age were still as naked as savages. Father
+Miguel de San Francisco was charged with the mission more especially
+belonging to his sacred character. The more readily to disseminate
+through the colony that instruction which is the beneficent parent of
+civilisation, the young people were divided into squads of four at a
+time, and went by turns to pass a fortnight at the parsonage. There
+they learned a little Spanish, and were moulded to the customs of
+a world which had been hitherto unknown to them. I superintended
+everything in general. I occupied myself in works of agriculture,
+and giving proper instruction to the shepherds who kept the flocks I
+had purchased to make use of my pasturage. I was also the mediator of
+all the differences which arose amongst my colonists. They preferred
+rather to apply to me than to the deputy-governor; and I succeeded
+at last in obtaining over them the influence I desired. One portion
+of my time, and this was not the least busy, was occupied in driving
+the banditti from my residence and its vicinity. Sometimes I set
+off for this purpose before daybreak and did not return until night;
+and then I always found my wife good, affectionate, and devoted to
+me: her reception repaid me for the labours of the day. Oh, felicity
+almost perfect! I have never forgotten you! Happy period! which has
+left indelible traces in my memory, you are always present to my
+thoughts! I have grown old, but my heart has ever continued young in
+recollecting you.
+
+In our long chit-chat of an evening we recounted to each other the
+labours of the day, and everything that occurred to us. This was
+the season of sweet mutual confidence. Hours too soon vanished,
+alas! Fugitive moments, you will never return! It was also the time
+when I gave audience; real bed of justice, imitated from St. Louis,
+and thrown open to my subjects. The door of my mansion admitted all
+the Indians who had anything to communicate to me. Seated with my
+wife at a great round table, I listened, as I took my tea, to all the
+requests that were made to me, all the claims that were laid before
+me. It was during these audiences that I issued my sentences. My guards
+brought the culprits before me, and, without departing from my ordinary
+calmness, I admonished them for the faults they had committed; but I
+always recollected the error I bad committed in my sentence against
+poor Bazilio, and I was, therefore, very circumspect. I first listened
+to the witnesses; but I never condemned until I heard the culprit say:
+
+"What would you have, sir? It was my destiny. I could not prevent
+myself from doing what I did."
+
+"Every fault merits chastisement," I would reply; "but choose between
+the deputy-governor and me--by which do you wish to be chastised?"
+
+The reply was always the same.
+
+"Kill me, if you will, master; but do not give me up to my own
+countrymen."
+
+I awarded the punishment, and it was inflicted by my guards. When this
+was over, I presented the Indian with a cigar, as a token of pardon,
+I uttered a few kind words to him to induce him not to commit any fresh
+faults, and he went away without hearing any malice to his judge. I
+had, perhaps, been severe, but I had been just; that was enough. The
+order and discipline I had established were a great support for me
+in the minds of the Indians; they gave me a positive influence over
+them. My calmness, my firmness, and my justice--those three great
+qualities without which no government is possible--easily satisfied
+these natures, still untrained and unsophisticated. But one thing,
+however, disquieted them. Was I brave? This is what they were ignorant
+of, and frequently asked of one another. They spurned the idea of being
+commanded by a man who might not be intrepid in the face of danger. I
+had indeed made several expeditions against banditti, but they had
+produced no result, and would not serve as proofs of my bravery
+in the eyes of the Indians. I very well knew that they would form
+their definite opinion upon me from my conduct in the first perilous
+extremity we should encounter together. I was therefore determined
+to undertake anything, that I might show myself at least equal to
+the best and bravest of all my Indians: everything was comprised in
+that. I felt the imperious necessity of showing myself not only equal
+but superior in the struggle, by preserving my self-possession.
+
+An opportunity at length offered.
+
+The Indians look upon buffalo hunting as the most dangerous of all
+their wild sports, and my guards often said they would rather stand
+naked at twenty paces from the muzzle of a carbine than at the same
+distance from a wild buffalo. The difference they said is this, that
+the ball of a carbine may only wound, but the horn of a buffalo is
+sure to kill. I took advantage of the terror they had of this animal,
+and one day declared, with the utmost possible coolness, my intention
+to hunt one. They then made use of all their eloquence to turn me from
+my project; they gave me a very picturesque, but a very discouraging
+description of the dangers and difficulties I should have to encounter,
+especially as I was not accustomed to that sort of warfare,--and such
+a combat is, in fact, a struggle for life or death. But I would listen
+to nothing. I had spoken the word: I would not discuss the point,
+and I looked upon all their counsels as null and void. My decision
+was right; for these kind counsels, these frightful pictures of the
+dangers I was about to incur, had no other object than to entrap
+me; they had concerted amongst themselves to judge of my courage by
+my acceptance or refusal of the combat. My only answer was to give
+orders for the hunt. I took great care that my wife should not be
+informed of our excursion, and I set off, accompanied by half a score
+Indians, nearly all of whom were armed with muskets. Buffalo hunting
+is different in the mountains from what it is in the plains. On the
+plain one only requires a good horse, with address and agility in
+throwing the lasso; but in the mountains it requires something more:
+and, above all, the most extraordinary coolness and self-possession
+are essentially necessary.
+
+This is the way in which it is done: the hunter takes a gun on which
+he can depend, and places himself in such a position that the buffalo
+must see him on issuing from the wood. The moment the animal sees
+him, he rushes on him with the utmost velocity, breaking, rending,
+and trampling under foot every obstacle to the fury of his charge;
+he rushes on as if about to crush the enemy, then stops within some
+paces for a few seconds, and presents his sharp and threatening
+horns. This is the moment that the hunter should fire, and lodge his
+ball in the forehead of the foe. If unfortunately his gun misses fire,
+or if his coolness fails him, if his hand trembles, or his aim is bad,
+he is lost--Providence alone can save him! This was, perhaps, the
+fate that awaited me; but I was resolved to tempt this cruel proof,
+and I went forward with intrepidity--perhaps to death. We at length
+arrived on the skirts of an extensive wood, in which we felt assured
+there were buffaloes, and here we halted. I was sure of my gun,
+and I conceived I was equally so of my self-possession; I therefore
+determined that the hunt should be conducted as if I had been a simple
+Indian. I placed myself at the spot where it was fully expected that
+the animal would come out, and I forbade anyone to remain near me. I
+ordered everyone to his proper place, and I then stood alone on the
+open ground, about two hundred paces from the borders of the forest,
+to await an enemy that would show me no mercy if I missed him. It is,
+I confess, a solemn moment, when one stands between life and death by
+the more or less certainty of a gun, or the greater or less steadiness
+of the arm that holds it. I was, however, perfectly tranquil. When
+all were at their posts two hunters entered the forest, having
+first thrown off some of their clothing, the more readily to climb
+up trees in case of danger: they had no other arms than a cutlass,
+and were accompanied by the dogs. A dead silence continued for
+upwards of half-an-hour; everyone listening for the slightest noise,
+but nothing was heard. The buffalo continues a long time frequently
+without betraying his lair; but at the end of the half-hour we heard
+the repeated barking of the dogs, and the shouts of the hunters:
+the animal was aroused from his cover. He defended himself for some
+time against the dogs, till at length, becoming furious, he sprang
+forward with a bound towards the skirts of the forest. In a few minutes
+after, I heard the crashing of the branches and the young trees that
+the buffalo rent asunder in the terrible velocity of his course. His
+advance could only be compared to the galloping of several horses--to
+the rushing noise of some frightful monster--or, I might almost say,
+of some furious and diabolical being. Down he came like an avalanche;
+and at this moment, I confess, I experienced such lively emotions that
+my heart beat with extraordinary rapidity. Was it not death--aye,
+and frightful death--that was perhaps approaching me? Suddenly the
+buffalo made his appearance. He stopped for an instant; gazed, as if
+frightened, around him; sniffed up the air of the plain which extended
+in the distance; then, with distended nostrils, head bent, and horns
+projected, he rushed towards me, terrible and furious. The moment was
+come. If I had longed for an opportunity of showing off my courage
+and sang-froid to the Indians, these two precious qualities were now
+put to a severe test. There I was, face to face with the peril I had
+courted; the dilemma was one of the most decided and unavoidable that
+could possibly be: conqueror or conquered, there must be a victim--the
+buffalo or me, and we were both equally disposed to defend ourselves.
+
+It would be difficult for me to state exactly what was passing in my
+mind, during the brief period which the buffalo took in clearing the
+distance that lay between us. My heart, so vividly agitated while the
+ferocious animal was rushing through the forest, now beat no longer. My
+eyes were fixed upon him, my gaze was rivetted on his forehead in such
+a manner that I could see nothing else. My mind was concentrated on
+one object alone, in which I was so absorbed, that I could actually
+hear nothing, though the dogs were still barking at a short distance,
+as they followed their prey. At length, the buffalo lowered his head,
+presented his sharp-pointed horns, stopped for a moment, then, with
+a sudden plunge, he rushed upon me, and I fired. My ball pierced his
+skull, and I was half saved. The animal fell within a pace of me, like
+a mass of rock, so loud, and so heavy. I planted my foot between his
+two horns, and was preparing to fire my second barrel, when a long and
+hollow bellowing indicated that my victory was complete--the monster
+had breathed his last sigh. My Indians then came up. Their joy was
+succeeded by admiration; they were in ecstasy; I was everything they
+could wish for. All their doubts had vanished with the smoke of my
+rifle, when, with steady aim, I had shot the buffalo. I was brave;
+I had won their confidence; I had stood the test. My victim was cut
+up in pieces, and borne in triumph to the village. As the victor,
+I took his horns; they were six feet long. I have since deposited
+them in the museum of Nantes. The Indians, those imaginative beings,
+called me thenceforward, "Malamit Oulou," Tagal words, which signify
+"cool head."
+
+I must confess, without vanity, that the proof to which my Indians had
+subjected me was sufficiently serious to give them a decided opinion
+of my courage, and to satisfy them that a Frenchman was as brave as
+themselves. The habit I subsequently acquired of hunting convinced
+me that but little danger is really incurred when the weapon is a
+good one, and the self-possession does not fail. Once every month I
+indulged in this exercise, which imparts such lively sensations; and
+I recognised the facility with which one may lodge a ball in a plain
+surface, a few inches in diameter, and at a few paces distance. But
+it is no less true that our first huntings were very dangerous. Once
+only I permitted a Spaniard named Ocampo to accompany us. I had taken
+the precaution to station two Indians at his side; but when I quitted
+them to take up my own post, he imprudently sent them away, and soon
+after, the buffalo started from the wood, and rushed upon him. He
+fired both his barrels, and missed the animal; we heard the reports
+and ran towards him, but it was too late! Ocampo was no longer in
+existence. The buffalo had gored him through and through, and his body
+was ploughed up with frightful wounds. But no such accident ever took
+place again; for when strangers came to witness our buffalo hunts,
+I made them get up in a tree, or on the crest of a mountain, where
+they might remain as spectators of the combat, without taking any
+part in it, or being exposed to any danger.
+
+And now that I have described buffalo hunting in the mountains,
+I must return to my colonising labours.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+    Description of my House at Jala-Jala--Storms, Gales, and
+    Earthquakes--Reforming the Banditti--Card-playing--Tagal
+    Cock-fighting--Skirmishes with Robbers--Courage of my Wife--Our
+    Domestic Happiness--Visits from Europeans--Their Astonishment at
+    our Civilisation--Visit to a Sick Friend at Manilla--Tour through
+    the Provinces of the Ilocos and Pangasinan Indians--My Reception
+    by the Tinguians--Their Appearance and Habits--Manners and
+    Customs--Indian Fête at Laganguilan y Madalag--Horrible Ceremonies
+    to Celebrate a Victory--Songs and Dances--Our Night-watch--We
+    Explore our Cabin--Discovery of a Secret Well--Tomb of the
+    Tinguian Indians.
+
+
+As I have previously said, my house possessed every comfort that
+could possibly be desired. It was built of hewn stone, so that in
+case of an attack it could serve as a small fortress. The front
+overlooked the lake, which bathed with its clear and limpid waters
+the verdant shore within a hundred steps from my dwelling; the back
+part looked upon woods and hills, where the vegetation was rich and
+plentiful. From our windows we could gaze upon those grand majestic
+scenes which a beautiful tropical sky so frequently affords. At
+times, on a dark night, the summits of the hills suddenly shone
+with a weak faint light, which increased by degrees; then the bright
+moon gradually appeared, and illuminated the tops of the mountains,
+as large beacon-fires would have done; then again, calm, peaceful,
+and serene, she reflected her soft poetic light over the bosom of
+the lake, as tranquil and unruffled as herself. It was indeed an
+imposing sight. Towards evening, Nature at times showed herself
+in all her commanding splendour, infusing a secret terror into the
+very soul. Everything bore evidence of the sacred influence of the
+Divine Creator. At a short distance from our house we could perceive
+a mountain, the base of which was in the lake and the summit in the
+clouds. This mountain served as a lightning conductor to Jala-Jala:
+it attracted the thunder. Frequently heavy black clouds, charged with
+electricity, gathered over this elevated point, looking like other
+mountains trying to overturn it; then a storm began, the thunder roared
+tremendously, the rain fell in torrents; every minute frightful claps
+were heard, and the total darkness was scarcely broken by the lightning
+that flashed in long streams of fire, dashing from the top and sides
+of the mountain enormous blocks of rock, that were hurled into the
+lake with a fearful crash. It was an admirable exemplification of the
+power of the Almighty! Soon the calm was restored, the rain ceased,
+the clouds disappeared, the fragrant air bore on its yet damp wings
+the perfume of the flowers and aromatic plants, and Nature resumed
+her ordinary stillness. Hereafter I shall have occasion to speak
+of other events that happened at certain periods, and were still
+more alarming, for they lasted twelve hours. These were gales of
+wind, called in the Chinese seas Tay-Foung. At several periods of
+the year, particularly at the moment of the change of the monsoon,
+[3] we beheld still more terrifying phenomena than our storms--I
+allude to the earthquakes. These fearful convulsions of nature
+present a very different aspect in the country from what they do in
+cities. If in towns the earth begins to quake, everywhere we hear a
+terrible noise; the edifices give way, and are ready to fall down;
+the inhabitants rush out of their houses, run along the streets, which
+they encumber, and try to escape. The screams of frightened children
+and women bathed in tears are blended with those of the distracted
+men; all are on their knees, with clasped hands, their looks raised to
+Heaven, imploring its mercy with sobbing voices. Everything totters,
+is agitated; all dread death, and terror becomes general. In the
+country it is totally different, and a hundred times more imposing and
+terrific. For instance, in Jala-Jala, at the approach of one of these
+phenomena, a profound, even mournful stillness pervades nature. The
+wind no longer blows; not a breeze nor even a gentle zephyr is
+perceptible. The sun, though cloudless, darkens, and spreads around
+a sepulchral light. The atmosphere is burdened with heavy and sultry
+vapours. The earth is in labour. The frightened animals quietly seek
+shelter from the catastrophe they foresee. The ground shakes; soon it
+trembles under their feet. The trees move, the mountains quake upon
+their foundations, and their summits appear ready to tumble down. The
+waters of the lake quit their bed, and inundate the country. Still
+louder roaring than that produced by the thunder is heard: the earth
+quivers; everywhere its motion is simultaneously felt. But after this
+the convulsion ceases, everything revives. The mountains are again firm
+upon their foundations, and become motionless; the waters of the lake
+return by degrees to their proper reservoir; the heavens are purified
+and resume their brilliant light, and the soft breeze fans the air;
+the wild buffaloes again scour the plain, and other animals quit the
+dens in which they had concealed themselves; the earth has resumed
+her stillness, and nature recovered her accustomed imposing calm.
+
+I have not sought to enter upon those minute descriptions, too tedious
+generally for the reader; I only wished to give an idea of the various
+panoramas that were unfolded to our eyes whilst at Jala-Jala.
+
+I now return to the details of my ordinary life.
+
+As I had killed a wild buffalo when hunting, I had given sufficient
+proofs of my skill, and my Indians were devoted to me, because they
+had confidence in me. Nothing more now pre-occupied me, and I spent
+my time in superintending some necessary alterations. Shortly the
+woods and forests adjoining my domain were cut down, and replaced by
+extensive fields of indigo and rice. I stocked the hills with horned
+cattle, and a fine troop of horses with delicate limbs and haughty
+mien; I also succeeded in dispersing the banditti from Jala-Jala. I
+must say a great many of them abandoned their wandering sinful lives;
+I received them on my land, and made good husbandmen of them. How
+was it that I had collected such a number of recruits? In a strange
+manner, I will admit, and worthy of relating, as it will show how
+an Indian allows himself to be influenced and guided, when he has
+confidence in a man whom he looks upon as his superior. I frequently
+walked in the forests alone, with my gun under my arm. Suddenly a
+bandit would spring out, as if by enchantment, from behind a tree,
+armed from top to toe, and advance towards me.
+
+"Master," said he to me, putting one knee to the ground, "I will be
+an honest man; take me under your protection!"
+
+I asked him his name; if he had been marked out by the high court of
+justice, I would answer him severely:
+
+"Withdraw, and never present yourself again before me; I cannot
+forgive you, and if I meet you again, I must do my duty."
+
+If he was unknown to me, I would kindly say to him:
+
+"Follow me."
+
+I would take him home, and then tell him to lay down his arms; and
+after having preached to him, and exhorted him to persist in his
+resolution, I would point out to him the spot in the village where
+he might build his cabin, and, in order to encourage him, I would
+advance him some money to support himself until he became transformed
+from a bandit into an agriculturist. I congratulated myself each
+day on having left an open door to repentance, since by my cares I
+restored to an honest and laborious life, people who had gone astray
+and been perverted. I endeavoured also to persuade the Indians to
+abandon their vicious wild customs, without being too severe towards
+them; to obtain much from them I knew it was necessary to give way a
+little. The Indians are passionately fond of cards and cock-fighting,
+as I have said before; therefore, in order not to debar them entirely
+from these pleasures, I allowed them to play at cards three times a
+year--the day of the village festival, upon my wife's birthday, and
+upon my own. Woe to the one who was caught playing out of the times
+prescribed above; he was severely punished. As to the cock-fights,
+I allowed them on Sundays and holidays, after Divine service. For
+this purpose I had public arenas built. In these arenas, in presence
+of two judges, whose decrees were without appeal, the spectators
+laid heavy wagers. There is nothing more curious than to witness a
+cock-fight. The two proud animals, purposely chosen and trained for
+the day of the contest, come upon the battle-field armed with long,
+sharp, steel spurs. They bear themselves erect; their deportment
+is bold and warlike; they raise their heads, and beat their sides
+with their wings, the feathers of which spread in the form of
+the proud peacock's fan. They pace the arena haughtily, raising
+their armed legs cautiously, and darting angry looks at each other,
+like two old warriors in armour ready to fight before the eyes of an
+assembled court. Their impatience is violent, their courage impetuous;
+shortly the two adversaries fall upon and attack each other with equal
+fury; the sharp weapons they wear inflict dreadful wounds, but these
+intrepid combatants appear not to feel the cruel effects. Blood flows;
+the champions only appear the more animated. The one that is getting
+weak raises his courage at the idea of victory; if he draw back, it is
+only to recruit his strength, to rush with more ardour than ever upon
+the enemy he wishes to subdue. At length when their fate is decided,
+when one of the heroes, covered with blood and wounds, falls a victim,
+or runs away, he is declared vanquished, and the battle is ended.
+
+The Indians assist with a sort of ferocious joy at this
+amusement. Their attention is so captivated by it that they do not
+utter a word, but follow with particular care the most minute details
+of the conflict. Almost all of them train up a cock, and treat him
+for several years with comical tenderness, when one reflects that
+this animal, taken as much care of as a child, is destined by its
+master to perish the first day it fights. I also found that it was
+necessary to provide some amusement compatible with the tastes,
+manners, and habits of my former bandits, who had led for so long
+a space of time such a wandering vagabond life. For this purpose I
+allowed hunting on all parts of my estate, conditionally, however,
+that I should take beforehand, as tithe, a quarter of any stag or wild
+boar they should kill. I do not think that ever a sportsman--one of
+those men reclaimed from the paths of vice to those of virtue--failed
+in this engagement, or endeavoured to steal any game. I have often
+received seven or eight haunches of venison in a day, and those who
+brought them were delighted to be able to offer them to me.
+
+The church I had laid the foundation of was progressing rapidly;
+the population of the township was daily increasing: and everything
+succeeded according to my wishes. I had still occasional difficulties
+with the hardened robbers who surrounded me; but I pursued them
+without intermission, for it was to my interest to remove them from the
+neighbourhood of my residence. Frequently they annoyed me by the alarms
+that they gave us. These resolute, determined men arrived in gangs to
+besiege our house. My guards surrounded me, and we occasionally fought
+skirmishes, which always terminated in our favour. Providence has
+unfathomable secrets. I was never struck by a ball from a bandit. I
+bear the scars of seventeen wounds; but these wounds were made with
+naked blades. It could be said of me, as in I know not which Scotch
+ballad: "Did not the Devil's soldiers pass through the balls, instead
+of the balls passing through them." Yet I have often been fired at;
+sometimes the barrel of a gun has been pointed at my chest, and that
+at a few paces from me. My clothes have been torn by the bullet,
+but my body has always escaped harm.
+
+One morning I was cautioned to put myself on my guard, because some
+banditti had met together at a few leagues from my house, and intended
+attacking it. Hearing this, I armed my people, and set out to meet
+the band that was coming to assail me, so as to anticipate their
+attack. At the place that had been indicated to me I found nobody,
+and passed the day in exploring the neighbourhood, in hopes of meeting
+the bandits, but my search was useless. Suddenly the thought struck me
+that a secret enemy had imposed upon me, and that, at the moment I was
+going to face imaginary danger, perhaps my house I had left would be
+suddenly attacked. I trembled--I shivered all over. I gallopped off,
+and reached home in the middle of the night. My fears were but too
+well-founded. I had fallen into a snare. I found my servants armed,
+watching, with my wife at their head. "What are you doing here?" I
+exclaimed, going up to her. "I am keeping watch," she replied, with
+great presence of mind; "I was told that the advice given to you
+was false; that you would not find the robbers where you expected,
+and that, during your absence, they would come here." This act of
+heroism proved to me what courage and energy God had given to a woman
+apparently so delicate. The banditti did not attack us: was there
+not some guardian angel watching over my dwelling?
+
+We were more than a year at Jala-Jala without seeing a European. One
+would have thought that we had withdrawn ourselves entirely from the
+civilised world, and that we were going to live for ever with the
+Indians. Our mountains had so bad a reputation, that nobody dared
+expose themselves to the thousand dangers they feared to encounter in
+the locality. We were therefore alone, yet still very happy. It was,
+perhaps, the most pleasant time I spent in my life. I was living with a
+beloved and loving wife; the good work I had undertaken was performed
+under my eyes; the comfort and happiness, the natural results of
+such good work, spread themselves among my vassals, who daily became
+more and more devoted to me. How could I have regretted quitting
+the pleasures and entertainments of a town, where those diversions
+and pleasures are bought by lies, hypocrisy, and deceit--those three
+vices of civilised society? However, the terror spread around by the
+banditti was not great enough to keep away the Europeans entirely;
+and one morning some people, [4] mad enough to dare to visit a mad
+man--such was the name given to me at Manilla, when I left to go and
+live in the country--came to see me, armed to their very teeth. The
+surprise of these venturesome visitors is impossible to be described,
+when they found us at Jala-Jala, calm, and in perfect safety. Their
+astonishment increased when they went entirely through our colony; and
+on their return to town they gave such an account of our retreat, and
+of the entertainments they found there, that shortly after we received
+more visits, and I had not only to give hospitality to friends, but
+likewise to strangers. If, now and then, our affairs compelled us to
+go to Manilla, we very soon came back to our mountains and forests,
+for there only Anna and myself were happy. Very great reasons alone
+could induce us to leave our pleasant abode; however, a slight event
+occurred that obliged us to quit it for a short time. I was informed
+that one of my friends, who had acted as witness to my marriage,
+was seriously ill. [5] What the greatest pleasure, the most heartfelt
+joy, the most splendid banquet, could not obtain from me, friendship
+exacted. At this sad intelligence I determined at once upon going to
+Manilla, to give my advice to the sick man, whose family had solicited
+my aid; and as my absence might be prolonged, I packed up my things,
+and we left, our hearts sadder than ever at having to quit Jala-Jala
+on so melancholy an errand. Upon my arrival there, I was told that
+my friend had been taken from Manilla to Boulacan, a province to the
+north of that town, where it was hoped the country air would hasten
+his recovery. I left Anna at her sister's, and went off to join Don
+Simon, whom I found convalescent; my presence was almost useless,
+and the journey I had made resulted in shaking affectionately my
+former comrade by the hand, whom I would not leave until convinced
+that he was entirely recovered.
+
+In order to utilise my time, I decided upon making a tour to the north
+into the provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan. I had my reasons for so
+doing: I wished, if possible, to make an excursion to the Tinguians
+and Igorrots, wild populations, who were much talked of, but little
+known. I wished to study them myself. I took the precaution not to
+confide this idea to anybody, for then, indeed, people would not
+have known what name to give my folly. I made my preparations, and
+set out with my faithful lieutenant, Alila, who never left me, and
+who was justly styled Mabouti-Tao. We were mounted upon good horses,
+that carried us along like gazelles to Vigan, the chief town of the
+province of South Ilocos, where we left the animals. From there we
+took a guide, who conducted us on foot to the east, close to a small
+river called Abra (opening). This river is the only issue by which
+we could penetrate to the Tinguians. It winds around high mountains
+of basalt; its sides are steep; its bed is encumbered with immense
+blocks of rock, fallen from the sides of the mountains, which render
+it impossible to walk along its banks. To reach the Tinguians, it
+is necessary to have recourse to a slight skiff, that can easily
+pass through the current and the most shallow parts. My guide and
+my lieutenant soon contrived to make a small raft of bamboos; when
+it was finished we embarked, Alila and myself, our guide refusing
+to accompany us. After much trouble and fatigue, casting ourselves
+often into the water to draw our raft along, we at length got clear
+of the first range of mountains, and perceived, in a small plain,
+the first Tinguian village. When we reached there we got out, and
+went towards the huts we had distinguished in the distance. I allow
+it was acting rather foolishly to go and thus expose ourselves,
+in the midst of a colony of ferocious and cruel men whose language
+we did not know; but I relied upon my usual good fortune. I will add
+that I had taken divers objects with me to give as presents, trusting
+to meet some inhabitant speaking the Tagaloc language. I walked on,
+then, without troubling myself about what would become of us. In a
+few minutes we reached the nearest cabins, and the inhabitants gave
+us at first an unwelcome reception. Frightened at seeing us approach,
+they advanced towards us, armed with hatchets and spears; we waited
+for them without recoiling in the least. I spoke to them by signs,
+and showed them some necklaces of glass beads, to make them understand
+we were friendly disposed. They deliberated among themselves, and when
+they had held their consultation, they beckoned us to follow them. We
+obeyed. They led us to their chief, who was an old man. My generosity
+was greater towards him than it had been to his subjects. He appeared
+so delighted with my presents, that he immediately put us at our ease,
+by making us understand that we had nothing to fear, and that he took
+us under his special protection.
+
+This pleasing reception encouraged us.
+
+I then set about examining with attention the men, women, and children
+who surrounded us, and who seemed as much astonished as ourselves. My
+amazement was very great when I beheld tall men, slightly bronzed,
+with straight hair, regular features, aquiline noses, and really
+handsome, elegant women. Was I really among savages? I should rather
+have thought I was among the inhabitants of the south of France,
+had it not been for the costume and language. The only clothing the
+men wore was a sash, and a sort of a turban, made out of the bark of
+the fig tree. They were armed, as they always are, with a long spear,
+a small hatchet, and a shield. The women also wore a sash, and a small
+narrow apron that came down to their knees. Their heads were ornamented
+with pearls, coral beads, and pieces of gold, twisted among their hair;
+the upper parts of their hands were painted blue; their wrists adorned
+with interwoven bracelets, spangled with glass beads--these bracelets
+reached the elbow, and formed a kind of half-plaited sleeve. On this
+subject I learnt a remarkable fact. These interwoven bracelets squeeze
+the arm very much; they are put on when the women are quite young,
+and they prevent the development of the flesh to the advantage of the
+wrist and hand, which swell and become dreadfully big; this is a mark
+of beauty with the Tinguians, as a small foot is with the Chinese,
+and a small waist with the European ladies. I was quite astonished
+to find myself in the midst of this population, where there was no
+reason whatsoever to be alarmed. One thing only annoyed me; it was
+the odour that these people spread around them, which could be smelt
+even at a distance. However, the men and women are cleanly, for they
+are in the habit of bathing twice daily. I attributed the disagreeable
+smell to their sash and turban, which they never leave off, but allow
+to fall into rags. I remarked that the reception given me by the
+chief gained us the good-will of all the inhabitants, and I accepted,
+without hesitation, the hospitality proffered us. This was the only
+means of studying well the manners and customs of my new hosts.
+
+The territory occupied by the Tinguians is situated about 17 degrees
+north latitude, and 27 degrees west longitude; it is divided into
+seventeen villages. Each family possesses two habitations, one for
+the day and the other for the night. The abode for the day is a
+small cabin, made of bamboos and straw, in the same style as most
+Indian huts; the one for the night is smaller, and perched upon great
+posts, or on the top of a tree, about sixty or eighty feet above the
+ground. This height surprised me, but I understood this precaution
+when I knew that thus, under shelter at night, the Tinguians are saved
+from the nocturnal attacks of the Guinanès, their mortal enemies,
+and defend themselves with the stones which they throw from the tops
+of the trees. [6] In the middle of each village there is a large shed,
+in which are held the assemblies, festivities, and public ceremonies. I
+had been already two days in the village of Palan (this was the name
+of the place where I stopped at), when the chiefs received a message
+from the small town of Laganguilan y Madalag, that lies far off to the
+east. By this message the chiefs were informed that the inhabitants of
+this district had fought a battle, and that they had been victorious.
+
+The inhabitants of Palan hearing this news screamed with joy; it
+was quite a tumult when they heard that a fête would be given in
+commemoration of the success at Laganguilan y Madalag. All wished
+to be present--men, women, children; all desired to go to it. But
+the chiefs chose a certain number of warriors, some women, and a
+great many young girls: they made their preparations and set out. It
+was too favourable an opportunity for me not to avail myself of it,
+and I earnestly begged my hosts to allow me to accompany them. They
+consented, and the same night we set out on our journey, being in all
+thirty in number. The men wore their arms, which are composed of a
+hatchet, that they call aligua, a sharp-pointed spear of bamboo, and a
+shield; the women were muffled up in their finest ornaments. I remarked
+that these garments were cotton materials, of showy colours. We walked
+one behind another, according to the custom of the savages. We went
+through many villages, the inhabitants of which were also going to
+the fête; we crossed over mountains, forests, torrents, and at last,
+at break of day, we reached Laganguilan y Madalag. This small town was
+the scene of much rejoicing. On all sides the sound of the gong and
+tom-tom were heard. The first of these instruments is of a Chinese
+shape; the second is in the form of a sharp cone, covered over at
+the bottom with a deer's skin.
+
+Towards eleven o'clock, the chiefs of the town, followed by all the
+population, directed their steps towards the large shed. There everyone
+took his place on the ground, each party, headed by its chiefs,
+occupying a place marked out for it beforehand. In the middle of a
+circle formed by the chiefs of the warriors were large vessels, full
+of basi, a beverage made with the fermented juice of the sugar-cane;
+and four hideous heads of Guinans entirely disfigured--these were
+the trophies of the victory. When all the assistants had taken their
+places, a champion of Laganguilan y Madalag took one of the heads
+and presented it to the chiefs of the town, who showed it to all the
+assistants, making a long speech comprehending many praises for the
+conquerors. This discourse being over, the warrior took up the head,
+divided it with strokes of his hatchet, and took out the brains. During
+this operation, so unpleasant to witness, another champion got a second
+head, and handed it to the chiefs, the same speech was delivered,
+then he broke the skull to pieces in like manner, and took out the
+brains. The same was done with the four bleeding skulls of the subdued
+enemies. When the brains were taken out, the young girls pounded them
+with their hands into the vases containing the liquor of the fermented
+sugar-cane; they stirred the mixture round, and then the vases were
+taken to the chiefs, who dipped in their small osier goblets, through
+the fissures of which the liquid part ran out, and the solid part that
+remained at the bottom they drank with ecstatic sensuality. I felt
+quite sick at this scene, so entirely new to me. After the chieftains'
+turn came the turn of the champions. The vases were presented to them,
+and each one sipped with delight this frightful drink, to the noise
+of wild songs. There was really something infernal in this sacrifice
+to victory.
+
+We sat in a circle and these vases were carried round. I well
+understood that we were about undergoing a disgusting test. Alas! I
+had not long to wait for it. The warriors planted themselves before
+me, and presented me with the basi and the frightful cup. All eyes
+were fixed upon me. The invitation was so direct, to refuse it would
+perhaps be exposing myself to death! It is impossible to describe
+the interior conflict that passed within me. I would rather have
+preferred the carbine of a bandit five paces from my chest; or await,
+as I had already done, the impetuous attack of the wild buffalo. What a
+perplexity! I shall never forget that awful moment. It struck me with
+terror and disgust; however, I contained myself, nothing betraying my
+emotion. I imitated the savages, and, dipping the osier goblet into the
+drink, I approached it to my lips, and passed it to the unfortunate
+Alila, who could not avoid this infernal beverage. The sacrifice was
+complete; the libations were over, but not the songs. The basi is a
+very spirituous and inebriating liquor, and the assistants, who had
+partaken rather too freely of this horrible drink, sang louder to the
+noise of the tom-tom and the gong, while the champions divided the
+human skulls into small pieces destined to be sent as presents to all
+their friends. The distribution was made during the sitting, after
+which, the chiefs declared the ceremony over. They then danced. The
+savages divided themselves into two lines, and howling, as if they
+were furious madmen or terribly provoked, they jumped about, laying
+their right hand upon the shoulder of their partners, and changing
+places with them. These dances continued all day; at last night came
+on, each inhabitant retired with his family and some few guests to
+his aerial abode, and soon afterwards tranquillity was restored.
+
+We cannot help feeling astonished, when we are in Europe--in a
+good bed, under a warm eider-down coverlet, the head luxuriously
+reclining upon good pillows--when we reflect on the singular homes
+of the savages in the woods. How often have I represented to myself
+these families--roosting eighty feet above ground, upon the tops of
+trees. However, I know that they sleep as quietly in those retreats,
+open to every wind, as I in my well-closed and quiet room. Are they
+not like the birds who repose at their sides upon the branches? Have
+they not Nature for a mother, that admirable guardian of all she has
+made, and do they not also close their eyelids under the tutelary
+looks of the Supreme Father of the universe?
+
+My faithful Alila retired with me into one of the low-storied
+cabins to pass the night, as we had been in the habit of doing
+while staying with the Tinguians. For our better security we were
+accustomed to watch one another alternately; we never both slept at
+the same time. Without being timid, ought we not to be prudent? This
+night it was my turn to go to sleep the first. I went to bed, but the
+impressions of the day had been too strong: I felt no inclination to
+sleep. I therefore offered to relieve my lieutenant of his watch; the
+poor fellow was like myself--the heads of the Guinans kept dancing
+before his eyes. He beheld them pale, bloody, hideous; then torn,
+pounded, broken to pieces; then the shocking beverage of the brains,
+that he also so courageously swallowed, came back to his mind,
+and he suffered sufficiently to make him repent our visit. "Master,"
+said he to me, looking very much grieved, "why did we come among these
+devils? Ah! it would have been much better had we remained in our good
+country of Jala-Jala." He was not perhaps in the wrong, but my desire
+to see extraordinary things gave me a courage and a will he did not
+partake of. I answered him thus: "Man must know all, and see all it is
+possible to see. As we cannot sleep, and that we are masters here, let
+us make a night visit; perhaps we shall find things that are unknown
+to us. Light the fire and follow me, Alila." The poor lieutenant
+obeyed without answering a word. He rubbed two pieces of bamboo one
+against the other, and I heard him muttering between his teeth:
+
+"What cursed idea has the master now? What shall we see in
+this miserable cabin--with the exception of the Tic-balan, [7]
+or Assuan? [8] We shall find nothing else." During the Indian's
+reflections the fire burnt up. I lit, without saying a word, a cotton
+wick, plastered over with elemi gum, that I always carried with me in
+my travels, and I began exploring. I went all through the inside of
+the habitation without finding anything, not even the Tic-balan, or
+Assuan, as my lieutenant imagined. I was beginning to think my search
+fruitless, when the idea struck me to go down to the ground-floor of
+the cabin, for all the cabins are raised about eight or ten feet above
+ground, and the under part of the floor, closed with bamboos, is used
+as a store: I descended. Anyone who could have seen me--a white man,
+a European, the child of another hemisphere--wander by night, with a
+taper in my hand, about the hut of a Tinguian Indian, would have been
+really surprised at my audacity, and I may almost say, my obstinacy,
+in seeking out danger while pursuing the wonderful and unknown. But
+I went on, without reflecting on the strangeness of my conduct: as
+the Indians say: "I was following my destiny." When I had reached the
+ground, I perceived in the middle of a square, inclosed with bamboos,
+a sort of trap, and I stopped quite pleased. Alila looked at me with
+astonishment. I lifted up the trap, and saw a rather deep well;
+I looked into it with my light, but could not discover the bottom
+of it. Upon the sides only, at a depth of about six or seven yards,
+I thought I distinguished some openings that I took for entrances
+into sub terraneous galleries. What had I now discovered? Was I,
+like Gil Blas, about to penetrate into the midst of an assemblage of
+banditti, living in the internal parts of the earth; or should I find,
+as in the tales of the "Arabian Nights," some beautiful young girls,
+prisoners of some wicked magician? Indeed, my curiosity increased
+in proportion to my discoveries. "There is something strange here,"
+said I to my lieutenant; "light a second match, I will go down to the
+bottom of the well." Hearing this order, my faithful Alila shrunk back
+in dismay, and ventured to say to me, in a frightfully dismal tone:
+
+"Why, master, you are not content to see what is upon the earth,
+you must also see what is inside of it!"
+
+This simple observation made me smile. He continued: "You wish to
+leave me alone here; and if the souls of the Guinans whose brains I
+have just drank come to fetch me, what will become of me? You will
+not be here to defend me!"
+
+My lieutenant would not have been frightened at twenty banditti, he
+would have struggled against every one of them until death; but his
+legs trembled, his voice faltered, he was terrified at the idea of
+remaining alone in this cabin, exposed to the view of the spirit of
+a Guinan, which would come and ask him to restore his brains! Whilst
+he addressed me these complaints, I had leant my back against one
+side of the well, my knees were applied against the other, and down
+I went. I had already descended about four yards, when I felt some
+rubbish falling upon me. I raised my head, and saw Alila coming down
+too. The poor fellow would not remain alone. "Well done," said I to
+him, "you are becoming curious too; you will be rewarded, believe
+me, for we shall see fine sights." And I continued my under-ground
+research. After proceeding six or seven yards I reached the opening
+I had remarked from above, and stopped. I placed my light before me,
+and espied a corner, where sat the dried black corpse of a Tinguian in
+the same state as a mummy. I said nothing; I waited for my lieutenant,
+anxious as I was to enjoy his surprise. When he was aside of me: "Look,
+look," I exclaimed; "what is that?" He was stupified. "Master," said he
+at last, "I entreat of you to leave this place; let us get out of this
+cursed hole! Take me to fight against the Tinguians of the village--I
+am quite willing to do that--but do not remain among the dead! What
+should we do with our arms, if they suddenly appeared to ask us why
+we are here?" "Be quiet," I answered him; "we shall go no farther." I
+felt satisfied that this well was a tomb, and that lower down I should
+see some more Tinguians in a state of preservation. I respected the
+abode of the dead, and came up, to Alila'a great satisfaction. We
+put everything in its place, and returned to the upper story of the
+cabin. I soon fell asleep, but my lieutenant could not: the thoughts
+of the mummy and horrible beverage kept him awake.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+    Visit to Manabo--Conversation with my Guide--Religion of the
+    Tinguians--Their Marriage Ceremony--Funereal Rites--Mode
+    of Warfare--I take leave of the Tinguians--Journey to the
+    Igorrots--Description of them--Their Dwellings--A Fortunate
+    Escape--Alila and the Bandits--Recollections of Home--A Majestic
+    Fig-tree--Superstition of Alila--Interview with an Igorrot--The
+    Human Hand--Nocturnal Adventure--Consternation of Alila--Probable
+    Origin of the Tinguians and Igorrots.
+
+
+The following morning, before dawn, our hosts began to descend
+from their high regions, and we left our temporary abode, to
+make preparations for our departure. I had resided long enough at
+Laganguilan y Madalag; I was desirous of visiting Manabo, a large
+village, situated at a short distance from Laganguilan. I availed
+myself of the presence of the inhabitants of Manabo, who had come
+to assist at the Brain Feast--this was the appellation I had given
+to this savage fête--and I set out with them. Among the troop there
+was one who had spent some time among the Tagalocs; he spoke their
+language a little, and I knew it tolerably well. I profited by this
+fortunate occurrence, and during the whole of the way I conversed with
+this savage, and questioned him upon the habits, customs, and manners
+of his fellow-countrymen. One point particularly pre-occupied me. I
+was unacquainted with the religion of these people, so very curious to
+study. Until then I had seen no temple; nothing that bore resemblance
+to an idol; I knew not what God they worshipped. My guide, chatty for
+an Indian, gave me quickly every information necessary. He told me
+that the Tinguians have no veneration for the stars; they neither
+adore the sun, nor moon, nor the constellations; they believe in
+the existence of a soul, and pretend that after death it quits the
+body, and remains in the family. As to the god that they adore, it
+varies and changes form according to chance and circumstances. And
+here is the reason: When a Tinguian chief has found in the country
+a rock, or a trunk of a tree, of a strange shape--I mean to say,
+representing tolerably well either a dog, cow, or buffalo--he informs
+the inhabitants of the village of his discovery, and the rock, or
+trunk of a tree, is immediately considered as a divinity--that is to
+say, as something superior to man. Then all the Indians repair to the
+appointed spot, carrying with them provisions and live hogs. When
+they have reached their destination they raise a straw roof above
+the new idol, to cover it, and make a sacrifice by roasting hogs;
+then, at the sound of instruments, they eat, drink, and dance until
+they have no provisions left. When all is eaten and drank, they set
+fire to the thatched roof, and the idol is forgotten until the chief,
+having discovered another one, commands a new ceremony.
+
+With regard to the morals of the Tinguians, my guide informed me that
+the Tinguian has generally one legitimate wife, and many mistresses;
+but the legitimate wife alone inhabits the conjugal house, and the
+mistresses have each of them a separate cabin. The marriage is a
+contract between the two families of the married couple. The day
+of the ceremony, the man and wife bring their dowry in goods and
+chattels; the marriage portion is composed of china vases, glass,
+coral beads, and sometimes a little gold powder. It is of no profit to
+the married couple, for they distribute it to their relations. This
+custom, my guide observed to me, has been established to prevent a
+divorce, which could only take place in entirely restituting all
+the objects that were contributed at the marriage by the party
+asking for divorce--a rather skilful expedient for savages, and
+worthy of being the invention of civilised people. The relatives
+thus become much interested in preventing the separation, as they
+would be obliged to restitute the presents received; and, if one of
+the couple persisted in requesting it, they would prevent him or her
+by making away with one of the objects furnished, such as a coral
+necklace, or a china vase. Without this wise measure, it is to be
+supposed that a husband, with mistresses, would very often endeavour
+to obtain a divorce. My fellow-traveller enlightened me upon all the
+points that I wished to investigate. The government, said he to me,
+after resting himself for a few minutes, is very patriarchal. It is
+the oldest man who commands.--As at Lacedæmonia, thought I, for there
+old age was honoured.--The laws are perpetuated by tradition, as the
+Tinguians have no idea of writing. In some instances they apply the
+punishment of death. When the fatal sentence has been pronounced,
+the Tinguian who has merited it must escape, if he wishes to avoid
+it, and go and live in the forests; for, the old men having spoken,
+all the inhabitants are bound to perform their orders. Society is
+divided into two classes, as with the Tagalocs, the chiefs and the
+commonalty. Whoever possesses and can exhibit to the public a certain
+number of china vases is considered a chief. These jars constitute
+all the wealth of the Tinguians. We were still conversing about the
+natives of the country when we reached Manabo. My guide had scarcely
+ceased talking all the way from Laganguilan.
+
+My attention was now attracted by some flames that were issuing from
+under a cabin, where a large fire was burning. Around it many people
+were sitting, howling like wolves.
+
+"Ah! ah!" said my guide, seemingly very pleased; "here is a funeral. I
+did not tell you anything about these ceremonies; but you will judge
+for yourself of what they are. It will be time enough to-morrow. You
+must be tired. I will take you to my day-cabin, and you may repose
+yourself without any danger of the Guinans, for a funeral compels a
+great many people to be on the watch all night."
+
+I accepted the offer made to me, and we took possession of the Tinguian
+cabin. It was my turn to take the first watch, and my poor Alila,
+a little more at his ease, fell into a sound sleep. I followed his
+example, after my watch, and we did not wake up until it was broad
+daylight.
+
+We had scarcely finished our morning repast, composed of
+kidney-potatoes, palms, and dried venison, when my guide of the
+preceding day came to conduct me to the spot where the funeral of
+the deceased was about to take place. I followed him, and placing
+ourselves a few steps from the cortége, we assisted at a strange
+sight. The deceased sat in the middle of his cabin upon a stool;
+underneath him, and at his side, fires were burning in enormous
+chafing-dishes; at a short distance about thirty assistants were
+seated in a circle. Ten or twelve women formed another circle; they
+were seated nearer to the corpse, close by which the widow was also
+placed, and who was distinguished by a white veil, that covered her
+from head to foot. The women brought some cotton, with which they
+wiped off the moisture that the fire caused to exude from the corpse,
+which was roasting by degrees. From time to time one of the Tinguians
+spoke, and pronounced, in a slow, harmonious tone of voice, a speech,
+which he concluded by a sort of laugh, that was imitated by all the
+assistants; after which they stood up, ate some pieces of dried meat,
+and drank some basi; they then repeated the last words of the orator,
+and danced.
+
+I endured--such is the word--this sight for an hour; but I did not
+feel courage enough to remain in the cabin any longer. The odour that
+exhaled from the corpse was unbearable. I went out, and breathed the
+fresh air; my guide followed me, and I begged him to tell me what
+had occurred from the beginning of the illness of the deceased.
+
+"Willingly," he answered me.
+
+Delighted to breathe freely, I listened with interest to the following
+recital:
+
+"When Dalayapo," said the narrator, "fell sick, they took him to the
+grand square, to apply severe remedies to him; that is to say, all the
+men of the village came in arms, and, to the sound of the gong and
+the tom-tom, they danced around the sick man from the rising to the
+setting of the sun. But this grand remedy had no effect--his illness
+was incurable. At the setting of the sun they placed our friend in
+his house, and no more heed was paid to him: his death was certain,
+as he would not dance with his fellow-countrymen."
+
+I smiled at the remedy and the reasoning, but I did not interrupt
+the narrator.
+
+"For two days Dalayapo was in a state of suffering; then, at the end
+of these two days, he breathed no more; and, when that was perceived,
+they immediately put him on the bench where we saw him just now. Then
+the provisions that he possessed were gathered together to feed the
+assistants, who paid him all due honours. Each one made a speech
+in his praise: his nearest relations began the first, and his body
+was surrounded with fire to dry it up. When the provisions are
+consumed, the strangers will leave the cabin, and only the widow and
+a few relations will wait until the body is thoroughly dried. In a
+fortnight's time he will be placed in a large hole that is dug under
+his house. He will be put in a niche, or aperture, in the wall, where
+already his deceased relatives' remains are deposited, and then all
+is over."
+
+This hole, thought I, must be similar to the one I went into the
+other night at Laganguilan.
+
+The explanation that I had just received completely satisfied me, and
+I did not request to be present again at the ceremony. I resolved,
+since I was very comfortably seated, under the shade of a balété,
+upon availing myself of the obliging disposition of my guide, to ask
+him to inform me, suddenly changing the conversation all the while,
+how his tribe managed to wage war on the Guinans, their mortal enemies.
+
+"The Guinans," said he to me, without drawing in any way on my
+patience, "wear the same arms as we do. They are neither stronger,
+nor more skilful, nor more vigorous. We have two modes of fighting
+them. Sometimes we give them a grand battle at mid-day, and then we
+meet them face to face, under a burning sun; at other times, during
+some dark night, we creep in silence to their dwelling-places, and
+if we be able to surprise any of them we cut off their heads, which
+we take away with us, and then we get up a feast, such as you have
+already witnessed."
+
+That word "feast" recalled to my mind the sanguinary orgie, or
+carousing, I had been present at, and particularly the share I
+had taken in it, so that I felt I was blushing and growing pale by
+turns. The Indian took no heed of it, and went on thus:
+
+"In the grand battles all the men belonging to a village are compelled
+to take up arms, and to march against the foe. It is generally in
+the midst of a wood that the two armies meet. As soon as they come in
+sight of each other they set up crying and howling on both sides. Each
+man then rushes upon his enemy, and upon this shock depends the
+fate of the victory; for one of the armies is always panic-struck,
+and scampers away; then it is that the other pursues it, and kills
+as many as possible, taking care to preserve the heads, which they
+bring home with them." [9]
+
+"Why it is a hide-and-seek fight, the consequences of which are,
+however, very cruel," I said. My Indian was of the same opinion,
+and rejoined:
+
+"In general the conquerors are ever those who are cleverest in
+concealing themselves, in order to surprise their enemies, and who
+then dash on them bawling and howling."
+
+Here my guide stopped short, the fight having no longer any interest
+for him; and then, perceiving I questioned him no longer, he left me
+to myself, when I returned to my habitation and Alila, who was sick
+enough of Manabo. For my own part I had seen enough of the Tinguians,
+and besides I thought I had observed that they seemed not too well
+pleased with the long stay I had made among them. I passed over in my
+mind the brain feast, so I resolved upon leaving. I therefore went to
+take leave of the elders. Unfortunately I had nothing to offer them,
+but I promised them many presents, when I should get back among the
+Christians--and then I left them.
+
+The satisfaction of my faithful lieutenant was at its height when
+we started for home. Not being disposed to go back by the same way
+I had come, I determined upon keeping more to the east, crossing
+over the mountains, and upon taking the sun as my guide. This road
+seemed preferable to me, inasmuch as I was about to traverse a country
+inhabited by a few Igorrots, that other species of the savage tribe I
+was not acquainted with. The mountains we crossed over were crowned
+with magnificent forests. Now and then we perceived lovely fertile
+valleys below our feet, and the grass was so high and thick-set, that
+it was with great difficulty we could pass through it. During our
+journey, my lieutenant kept a sharp look-out, wishing to kill some
+game for our support. As for myself, I was indeed far from thinking
+of the pleasure of shooting, so great was my contemplation of the
+admirable panoramic views that we met with every moment; and I was
+too much enraptured with the virgin and fruitful soil that spread
+itself so incommensurately around us to think even of eating. But my
+faithful Alila was less an enthusiast than I was myself: however,
+in return, he was more prudent. At the close of the day on which
+we started he killed a stag; so we halted on the brink of a stream,
+cut off some palm-tree strips, in guise of rice and bread, and set
+about eating the roasted liver of the animal. Our repast was truly
+a copious one. Ah! how often since that time, when seated before a
+richly served table--having before me delicious and recherché viands,
+and that in dining-rooms where the atmosphere was balmy and perfumed by
+the aroma arising from the highly flavoured dishes--how often, I say,
+have I regretted the supper I partook of with Alila in the forest,
+after a day's ramble on the mountains! Nay, what mortal could forget
+such hours--such places?
+
+Our repast over, we made our bed of some branches we lopped off
+from the trees, and which we joined together on the very moist soil
+in the interior of the vast forest, and there we slept soundly till
+the morrow, without fear, and particularly without having any sombre
+or disagreeable dreams. At the dawn of day we were on foot again,
+all Nature seeming to wake up with ourselves. Oh! how fine and calm
+did she appear to us! The vapours that arose from her breast covered
+her all over with a veil, like a young virgin at her waking; and then
+this veil by degrees would break up into pieces, which pieces, gently
+balanced on the morning breeze, would disappear, and be lost on the
+tops of the trees or the summits of the rocks. On we walked for a long
+time, till at last, towards the middle of the day, we came to a small
+plain inhabited by the Igorrots. We found, in all, three cabins, or
+huts, so that the population was far from being large. At the door
+of one of these cabins I saw a man, of about sixty years of age,
+and a few women. As we had arrived from behind the huts we took the
+savages by surprise, so that they had no time to fly at our approach:
+we were in the midst of them.
+
+I assumed the line of conduct I had pursued on arriving at Palan,
+but as I had no more coral beads or coloured glass, I presented them
+with a part of our stag, making them understand at the same time that
+we came with the most friendly intentions. From that moment there
+was established between us a very curious sort of mimic conversation,
+during which I was able to examine at my ease the new race of beings I
+saw around me. I perceived that the costume of the Igorrots was pretty
+nearly the same as that of the Tinguians, the ornaments excepted,
+but their features and physiognomy were quite different. The men were
+smaller, their breasts being exceedingly broad, their heads immensely
+big, their limbs developed, their strength herculean; their shape was
+not so handsome as that of the savages I had just left; their colour
+of a dark bronze, very dark indeed; their noses are less aquiline,
+their eyes yellow and fully open--a la Chinoise. The women's shape
+was also very protuberant, their complexion dark, their hair long,
+and combed up--a la Chinoise. Unfortunately it was impossible for
+me, with all my mimicry, to obtain the information I wished for, so
+I was obliged to content myself with visiting the cabin, which was
+a real hut, having but the ground-floor. The surrounding parts were
+closed in by very thick piles, covered with a roof in the form of a
+bee-hive. There was but one issue, through which it was impossible to
+have either egress or ingress, except in crawling on all-fours. In
+spite of this difficulty I would see the interior of this Indian
+dwelling; so, having made a sign to my lieutenant to keep watch, I
+penetrated into the hut. The Igorrots seemed quite surprised at my
+so doing, but they made no opposition to it. I found myself within
+an obnoxious hole, or hovel, through a small opening in the summit
+of which the daylight peeped in and the smoke crept out. The floor
+was thickly covered with dust, and it was upon such a soft couch that
+the whole family laid down to rest. In one of the corners I perceived
+some bamboo lances, a few cocoa-nuts divided into two parts, so as to
+serve as cups, a heap of good-sized round pebbles, that were used in
+case of attack, and a few pieces of wood, of very common workmanship,
+that served as pillows.
+
+I soon got out of such a den, from which I was driven by the nauseous
+smell it contained in its every part, but I had been able to see
+everything in it. I then inquired, by signs, of the Igorrot, the way
+I should go, in order to join the Christians. He fully understood
+me, showed me the road with his finger, and we then proceeded on
+our journey. As I journeyed on, I remarked here and there fields
+of patates and sugar-cane, which of course must have been the only
+husbandry of those miserable savages. After about an hour's journey
+we were near running into a very great danger. On entering into a
+vast plain we saw an Igorrot, flying away as quickly as possible. He
+had remarked us, and I attributed his flight to fear, when suddenly I
+heard the sound of the tom-tom and gong, and saw, at the same time,
+twenty men armed with lances, rapidly advancing towards us. I felt
+that a fight was about to ensue, so I told my lieutenant to fire at
+the group, so as to injure none of them.
+
+Alila fired: his bullet passed over the heads of the savages, who were
+so astonished at the detonation that they suddenly halted, and examined
+us attentively. I prudently took advantage of their surprise, and an
+immense forest presenting itself on our right, we entered it, leaving
+the village on our left, but the savages did not follow us into it.
+
+During the whole of this scene my lieutenant did not utter a word. I
+had already remarked that when in presence of danger he became dumb,
+but when he had lost sight of the Igorrots his speech and loquacity
+returned to him.
+
+"Master," said he to me, in a very dissatisfied tone, "how I do regret
+not having fired directly into the middle of those miscreants!"
+
+"And why so?" asked I.
+
+"Because I am certain I should have killed one of them at least."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, master, our journey would not have terminated without our
+sending at least one soul of a savage to the devil."
+
+"Ah! Alila," said I; "so you have become wicked and naughty, have you?"
+
+"No, no, no, master," replied he; "but I cannot conceive why you
+are so kind and compassionate to that infernal race. You, who pursue
+and persecute the Tulisans, [10] who are a hundred times better than
+these wretches are, and who are Christians besides."
+
+"What!" cried I; "brigands, robbers, and assassins better than poor
+primitive beings, who have no one to guide and conduct them to the
+path of virtue!"
+
+"Oh, master!" replied my lieutenant, and most sententiously this time;
+"Oh! the brigands, as it pleases you to call them, are in nowise
+what you think them. The Tulisan is not an assassin. When he takes
+away life it is only when he is compelled, in defence of his own,
+and if he do kill, why it is always de bon coeur."
+
+"Oh! oh!" said I; "and the robberies--how do you explain them?"
+
+"If he rob, why it is only to get possession of a little of the
+superfluity of the rich, and that he divides among the poor--that's
+all. Now, master, do you know what use the Tulisan makes of his
+plunder?"
+
+"No, indeed, master Alila," answered I, smilingly.
+
+"Well, he keeps nothing of it for himself," said my lieutenant, with
+great pride; "in the first place he gives a part of it to the priest,
+to have masses said for him."
+
+"Indeed! it is mighty edifying--go on."
+
+"And then he gives another part of it to his mistress, or bonne amie,
+because he loves her, and likes to see her finely dressed out; and as
+for the remainder, why, faith! he spends it among his friends. You
+may therefore see, master, that the Tulisan possesses himself of
+the superfluity of one person to satisfy several other persons with
+it. [11] Oh! but he is far, very far indeed, from being so wicked as
+those savages, who kill you without saying a word to you, and then eat
+up your brains--fie!" And here Alila heaved a deep sigh, for the brain
+feast was ever present to his mind. His conversation so interested me,
+his system was so curious, and he himself so frank in drawing it out,
+that I almost forgot the Igorrots in listening to him.
+
+We pursued our road through the wood, keeping as much as possible
+to the south, in order to get near the province of Batangas, where
+I was to meet my poor patient, who no doubt was very uneasy about
+my long absence. When I started I said not a word about my project,
+and had I done so it is most likely I should have been thought as no
+longer belonging to this world. The recollection of my wife, whom I
+had left at Manilla, and who was far from supposing me to be among
+the Igorrots, inspired me with the most anxious desire of returning
+home to my family as quick as possible. Absorbed in my thoughts,
+and carried away by my reflections, I walked silently along, without
+even casting a glance upon the luxuriant vegetation all around us. I
+must indeed have been very much pre-occupied, for a virgin forest
+between the tropics, and particularly in the Philippine islands, is in
+nowise to be compared with our European forests. I was aroused from
+my pensiveness, and recalled to the remembrance of my whereabouts,
+by the noise of a torrent, and I gratefully admired nature in her
+gigantic productions. I looked up, and before me I perceived an
+immense balété, an extraordinary fig-tree, that thrives in the sombre
+and mysterious forests of the Philippines, and I stopped to admire
+it. This immense tree springs from a seed similar to the seed of the
+ordinary fig-tree; its wood is white and spongy, and in a few years it
+grows to an extraordinary size. Nature, who has had foresight in all
+things, and who allows the young lamb to leave its wool on the bushes
+for the timid bird to pick it up and build its nest with--Nature,
+I say, has shown herself in all her genius in the fig-tree of the
+Philippine islands, which grows so rapidly and so immensely. The
+branches of this tree generally spring from the base of the trunk;
+they extend themselves horizontally, and, after forming an elbow or
+curve, rise up perpendicularly; but, as I said before, the tree is
+spongy, and easily broken, and the branch, while forming the curve,
+would inevitably be broken, did not a ligament, which the Indians
+call a drop of water--goutte d'eau--fall from the tree and take root
+in the earth; there it swells, and grows in proportion with the size
+of the branch, and acts to it as a living prop. Besides which, around
+the trunk, and at a considerable distance from the ground, are natural
+supports, which rise up in points or spirals to about the middle of the
+trunk. Has not the Grand Architect of the world foreseen everything?
+
+The appearance presented by the balété is very frequently indescribably
+picturesque; and this is so true that, within a space of some hundred
+paces in diameter--which these gigantic fig-trees usually occupy--one
+may see by turns grottoes, halls, chambers, that are often furnished
+with natural seats, formed out of and by the roots themselves. No! no
+vegetation is more diversified, nor more extraordinary! This tree
+sometimes grows out of a rock, where there is not an inch of earth;
+its long roots run along the rock, encompass it, and then plunge into
+the neighbouring brook. It is indeed a masterpiece of nature--a chef
+d'oeuvre--which, however, is very ordinary in the virgin forests of
+the Philippine islands.
+
+"Here," said I to my lieutenant, "is a good spot for us to spend the
+night on."
+
+He recoiled some paces.
+
+"What!" said he; "do you wish to stop here, master?"
+
+"Certainly," replied I.
+
+"Oh! but you don't see that we are in still more danger here than in
+the midst of the Igorrots!"
+
+"And why, then, are we in danger?" asked I.
+
+"Why? why? Do you not know that the Tic-balan dwells in the large
+balétés. If we stop here you may be very sure that I shan't sleep a
+moment, and that we shall be tormented the whole night."
+
+I smiled, which my lieutenant perceiving:
+
+"Oh! master," said he, most dolefully, "what should we do with an
+evil spirit that fears neither bullet nor dagger?"
+
+The terror of the poor Tagal was really too great for me to resist
+him, so I yielded, and we took up our quarters for the night at a
+place much less to my own taste, but much more to Alila's. The night
+passed away like many others--I mean, perfectly well, and we woke up
+to resume our journey through the forest.
+
+We had been walking about two hours, when, on leaving the wood,
+and entering on a plain, we met an Igorrot, mounted upon a buffalo,
+face to face. The encounter was somewhat curious. I levelled my gun at
+the savage: my lieutenant took hold of the animal by the long leather
+strap, and I made a sign to the Igorrot not to stir: then--always
+in my mimic language--I asked if he were alone. I understood from
+him that he was accompanied by no fellow-traveller, and that he was
+going northwards, in the opposite direction to our own. But Alila,
+who decidedly had a grudge against the savages, was most anxious to
+lodge a ball in this fellow's head. However, I strenuously opposed
+such a project, and ordered him to let go the bridle.
+
+"But, master," said he, "allow me at least to see what these jars
+contain."
+
+Around the neck of the Igorrot's buffalo were strung three or four
+jars, covered with leaves of the banana tree.
+
+My lieutenant, without even waiting for my answer, applied his nose
+to them, and discovered, to his infinite satisfaction, that they
+contained a deer or stag ragout, which sent forth a certain perfume;
+so, still without consulting me, he undid the smallest of the jars,
+struck the buffalo a blow with the but-end of his gun, and, letting
+go the animal at the same time, exclaimed:
+
+"Go, you rascal--go!"
+
+The Igorrot, finding himself free, fled as quick as the beast could
+carry him, and we re-entered the woods, taking care to avoid the
+openings, for fear of being surprised by too large a number of savages.
+
+Towards four o'clock we halted to take our repast. This wished-for
+moment was impatiently expected by my lieutenant, as the savage's jar
+sent forth a very savoury smell. At last the desired moment arrived:
+we sat down on the grass. I stuck my poignard into the jar, which
+Alila had brought up to the fire, and I withdrew--an entire human
+hand! [12] My poor lieutenant was as stupified as I was myself, so
+we remained a few minutes without saying a word. At last I gave a
+vigorous kick to the jar, and smashed it in pieces, so that the human
+flesh it contained was scattered over the ground, while still I held
+the fatal hand on the point of my dagger.
+
+That hand horrified me; yet I examined it most carefully, and it
+appeared to me to have been the hand of a child of an Ajetas, a species
+of savages that inhabit the mountains of Nueva-Exica and Maribèles,
+of which race I shall have an opportunity of speaking during the
+course of this work. I took some strips of palm-tree, roasted in the
+burning embers; Alila did the same, and we set out, not in the best
+of humours, in search of another resting-place for the night.
+
+Two hours after sun-rise we issued from the forest and entered upon
+the plain. From time to time--that is, from distance to distance--we
+met with rice-fields, cultivated after the Tagal manner, and then
+did my lieutenant exclaim most joyously to me:
+
+"Master, we are now in Christian ground."
+
+He was right; the road was becoming more easy. We followed on a narrow
+pathway, and towards evening arrived in front of an Indian cabin,
+at the door of which a young girl was sitting, while abundant tears
+trickled down her sorrowful countenance. I drew near her, and inquired
+into the cause of her grief. On hearing my question she rose up, and
+without replying to my queries, conducted us into the interior of the
+habitation, where we beheld the inanimate body of an old woman, whom
+we learned was the mother of the young girl; the brother of the latter
+had gone to the village in quest of the relations of the deceased,
+to aid them in transporting the corpse to its final destination.
+
+This scene affected me very much. I did my best to console the
+poor young girl, and solicited hospitality for the night, which was
+instantly granted. To be in company with a dead body nowise affrighted
+me; but I bethought of Alila, so superstitious and so fearful with
+regard to ghosts and evil spirits.
+
+"Well," said I to him; "are you not afraid to spend the night near
+a corpse?"
+
+"No, master," replied he, courageously; "this dead person is a
+Christian soul, which, far from wishing us evil, will watch over us."
+
+I was really astonished at the answer of the Tagaloc, at his calmness
+and security: the rogue had his own motives for thus speaking to
+me. The Indian huts in the plains, are never composed of more than
+one room; the one we were in was scarcely large enough to hold us
+all four; however, we one and all managed as well as we could. The
+deceased occupied the back part; a small lamp, placed by her head,
+threw out a feeble light, and beside her lay the young Indian girl. I
+had established my quarters at a short distance from the bed of death,
+and my lieutenant was nearest the door, left open purposely to dispel
+the heat and foul air.
+
+Towards two o'clock in the morning I was waked up by a shrill voice,
+and I felt at the same time that some one was passing over me, and
+uttering cries that soon were heard outside the cabin. I immediately
+stretched out my hand towards the place where Alila had lain down,
+but that place was empty; the lamp was out, and the darkness complete.
+
+This made me very uneasy. I called to the young girl, who answered
+me that she had heard, like me, cries and noise, but she was ignorant
+of the cause. I snatched up my gun and sallied forth, calling out to
+my lieutenant; but to no purpose. No one answered; the stillness of
+death reigned all around. I then set out, walking over the fields at
+hazard, calling out now and then Alila's name. I had not, perhaps,
+gone a hundred paces when I heard the following words, pronounced
+most timidly, proceeding from a tree by which I was passing:
+
+"I am here, master."
+
+It was Alila himself. I drew nigh, and saw my lieutenant ensconced
+behind the trunk of the tree, and trembling like one of its leaves.
+
+"What then has happened to you?" I inquired; "and what are you
+doing there?"
+
+"Oh! master," said he to me; "pray forgive me! Bad thoughts got the
+better of me; it was the young Indian girl inspired me with them,
+and the demon blew them into my inner man. I--I--I--drew nigh, during
+the night, to the young girl's resting-place, and when I saw you fast
+asleep--I put out the lamp."
+
+"Well, and then--" said I, most impatiently and angrily.
+
+"And then--I wished to take a kiss from the young girl; but, at the
+very moment I drew nigh, the old dead woman took her daughter's place,
+so I only met with a cold and icy face, and at the same moment two
+long arms stretched out to seize upon me. Oh! it was then I gave such
+a cry--and I fled! fled! fled! but the old woman pursued me--yes,
+the corpse tracked me behind; and she has only just now disappeared,
+on hearing the sound of your voice. I then hid behind this tree,
+where you now see me, in a piteous plight."
+
+The fright of the Tagal and his mistake made me almost laugh out;
+but I severely reprimanded him for the bad intention he had of
+abusing the hospitality that had been so graciously afforded us:
+he repented, and begged of me to excuse him. He was, I should think,
+sufficiently punished by his fright. I wished to take him back to the
+cabin with me; but for no consideration would he return. I therefore
+left my gun in his charge, and went back to the house of mourning,
+where I found the poor young girl just as frightened as he was. I
+soon made her acquainted with the adventure; so thanking her for
+her kind hospitality, and morning coming on, I returned to Alila,
+who was most impatiently expecting me.
+
+The hope of seeing soon again our relations, our homes, our friends,
+gave us new courage, and before sunset we arrived at an Indian village,
+without anything remarkable having taken place: this was to be our
+last stage. [13]
+
+After this long and interesting journey I arrived at Quingua,
+a village in the province of Boulacan, where I had left my friend
+in convalescence.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+    I return to Jala-Jala--An Excursion on the Lake--Relempago's
+    Narrative--Re-organisation of my Government--A Letter from
+    my Brother Henry--His Arrival--He joins me in the Management
+    of my Plantations--Cajoui, the Bandit: Anten-Anten--Indian
+    Superstition--A Combat with the Bandit--His Death--A Piratical
+    Descent--My Lieutenant is Wounded--I extract the Ball, and
+    cure him.
+
+
+My prolonged absence from home caused great uneasiness. Very
+fortunately my wife remained at Manilla, and was totally ignorant of
+the journey I had recently undertaken.
+
+My patient had not exactly followed the prescribed regimen, so that
+his distemper had increased, and he was impatiently expecting to
+return and die, he said, in his house: his wishes were complied
+with. A few days after my arrival we set out and arrived the next
+day at Manilla, where my poor friend rendered his last sigh in the
+middle of his family. This event damped, of course, the pleasure I
+should have enjoyed in beholding my wife once more.
+
+A few days after the demise of our friend we embarked, and set sail
+for Jala-Jala.
+
+We glided most agreeably upon the lake until we left the strait
+of Quinanbutasan, but, once there, we met with so violent an east
+wind, and the water of the lake was so ruffled, that we were obliged
+to re-enter the strait, and cast anchor near the cabin of the old
+fisherman, Relempago, whom I have already noticed.
+
+Our sailors landed to prepare their supper; as for ourselves, we
+remained in our boat, where we stretched ourselves at our ease, the
+old fisherman, as he sat doubled up in the Indian fashion, amusing
+us in the best way he could by the narration of brigand stories.
+
+I interrupted him all on a sudden, saying to him:
+
+"Relempago, I should prefer hearing the history of your own personal
+adventures; do, therefore, relate your misfortunes to us."
+
+The old fisherman heaved a sigh, and then, unwilling to disoblige me,
+began his story in the poetical terms so familiar to the Tagal tongue,
+and which it is almost impossible to reproduce by a translation:
+
+"Lagune is not my native place," said he; "I was born in the
+island of Zébou, and was at the age of twenty what is called a
+fine young man; but, pray believe me, I was by no means proud of my
+physical advantages, and I preferred being the first fisherman of my
+village. Nevertheless, my comrades were jealous of me, and all that
+because the young girls would look at me with a certain complaisant
+air, and seemed to find me to their liking."
+
+I could not but smile at this frank avowal of the old man, which he
+perceiving, continued:
+
+"I tell you these things, sir," replied he, "because at my age
+one can speak of them without fearing to appear ridiculous--it is
+so long ago. And besides, allow me to inform you that I relate to
+you such things, not from vanity--Oh, no! but merely to furnish you
+with an exact recital. Besides, the sly and roguish looks that young
+girls threw at me, as I passed through the village, flattered me in
+no manner. I was in love with Theresa, sir; yes, I was passionately
+in love with her, and my love was returned, for fondly did she love
+me; a look from any other but from her was totally indifferent to
+me. Ah! Theresa was the prettiest lass in the village! but, poor
+soul! she has done like myself--she has greatly altered; for years
+are an enormous weight, which bends and breaks you down in spite of
+yourself, and against which there is no way of struggling.
+
+"When, seated as I am at present, I bethink me of the fine by-gone days
+of my youth--of the strength, the courage, that we used to find in our
+mutual affection--Oh! I shed tears of regret and sensibility. Where
+are now those fine--those happy days? Gone, gone, gone! they have
+fled before the piercing and terrible winds that forerun the storms
+and the hurricanes. Like the day, life has its dawn; like the day,
+also, it has its decline!"
+
+Here the poor old fisherman made a pause, and I was loth to interrupt
+him in his meditation. There then ensued a profound silence, that
+lasted several minutes. Suddenly Relempago seemed to start from a
+dream, and passing his hand over his forehead, looked at us for some
+time, as if to excuse himself for those few moments of mental absence,
+and then he continued as follows:
+
+"We had been brought up together," said he, "and had been affianced as
+soon as we had grown up. Theresa would have died rather than belong to
+any other, and, as I shall hereafter prove it, I would have accepted
+any condition, even the most unfavourable one, rather than abandon the
+friend of my heart. Alas! it is almost always with our tears that we
+trace our painful way through life. Theresa's relations were opposed
+to our union; they even put forward vain and frivolous pretexts;
+and whatever efforts I made to bring them to decide upon bestowing
+her affianced hand on me, I never could succeed. And yet they well
+knew that, like the palm trees, we could not live without each other,
+and were we to be separated, it would be condemning us to die. But our
+tears, our prayers, our griefs, were only heard by senseless people,
+and we were labouring under the most poignant grief, while no one would
+understand or sympathise with our sorrow. I was beginning to lose all
+courage, when one morning there came into my mind the pious thought
+of offering to the Infant Jesus, in the church of Zébou, the first
+pearl I should fish up. I therefore repaired earlier than usual to
+the sea-shore, implored the Almighty to grant me his protection, and
+to have me married to my beloved Theresa. The sun was just beginning
+to dart his burning rays upon the earth, and was gilding the surface
+of the waters. Nature was awaking from her transitory sleep, and
+every living being or object was singing in its language a hymn to
+the Creator.
+
+"With a beating heart I began diving to the bottom of the sea, in
+search of the pearl which I so ardently wished for, but my searches
+and struggles were completely fruitless at first. Had anyone been
+near me at that moment he would have easily read my disappointment
+in my face. Nevertheless, my courage failed me not. I began again,
+but with no better success. 'Oh, Lord!' cried I, 'thou hearest not
+then my prayers, my supplications! Thou wilt not then accept for thy
+beloved son the offering that I destine for him.' [14] For the sixth
+time I plunged, and brought up from the bottom of the sea two enormous
+oysters. Oh! how my heart leaped with joy! I opened one of them, and
+found it contained a pearl so large that never in my life had I seen
+one like it. My joy was so great that I set to dancing in my pirogue,
+as if I had lost my reason. The Lord, then, did vouchsafe to protect
+me, since He enabled me to accomplish my vow. With a joyful heart I
+retraced my steps to my dwelling, and, not wishing to fail in my word,
+I took my magnificent pearl to the curate of Zébou.
+
+"The reverend father," continued the old fisherman, "was delighted with
+my present. That pearl was worth 5,000 piasters (or 25,000 francs,
+i.e., £1,000 English money), and you must have admired it--you, as
+well as all other persons who attend the church--for the Infant Jesus
+always holds it in his hand. The curate thanked and congratulated me
+on my very good idea.
+
+"'Go home in peace, brother,' said he to me; 'go home in peace. Heaven
+will not forget thy meritorious action--yea, the disinterestedness of
+thy good work, and sooner or later thy desires will he hearkened to.'"
+
+"I left the holy man with my heart joyful indeed, and I hastened to
+inform Theresa of the pastor's consoling words: we rejoiced like two
+children together. Ah! true indeed it is to say that youth has been
+endowed by the Almighty with every privilege, particularly with that
+of hope. At the age of twenty if the heart think that it may live
+in hope, away with all cares immediately; and, as the morning breeze
+sips up the drops of moisture that have been left by the storm in the
+chalice of flowers, so does hope dry up the tears that moisten the eyes
+of the young, and drive away the sighs that inflate and oppress the
+breast. So sure were we that our tribulations would ere long be over,
+that we no longer thought of our by gone sorrow! In the spring-time
+of life grief leaves do more trace after it than the nimble foot of
+the wily Indian on the strand, when the sea-wind has blown over it.
+
+"The inhabitants of the village, seeing us so joyful, so purely happy,
+were envious of our lot, and Theresa's relations could no longer
+find any pretext for opposing our being united. We were now in full
+sight of connubial bliss; our boat of life was gently rocked by a
+very mild wind; we were singing the return-home hymn, not supposing,
+alas! that we were going to be dashed against a breaker! Our young
+Indians foresee not in the morning the storm that is to assail them
+in the evening. The buffalo cannot avoid the lasso, and most often,
+in order to avoid it, he anticipates the danger. I roved about, I may
+say heedlessly thoughtless of the precipice before my feet. Misfortune
+marked me for her own when I least expected it.
+
+"One evening, on my return from fishing, at the moment when I was
+repairing to Theresa's, there to repose myself after my fatigues of
+the day, I saw one of my neighbours advancing towards me. That man
+had always shown me the greatest affection, so that on seeing him
+thus advance, my limbs began to tremble, and the pulsations of my
+heart gradually ceased. His face was pale, and entirely altered. His
+haggard eyes threw forth flashes of terror, and his voice was trembling
+and agitated.
+
+"'Los Moros [15] have made a descent upon the coast,' said he to me.
+
+"'Good Heavens!' exclaimed I, covering my face with my hands.
+
+"'They surprised some persons of the village, and carried them off
+prisoners.'
+
+"'And Theresa?' exclaimed I.
+
+"'Carried off with the others,' he replied.
+
+"I heard no more of this revelation, and for some minutes--like the
+warrior pierced to the heart by a poisoned arrow--was completely
+deprived of all consciousness.
+
+"When I came back to myself tears flooded my face, and brought me some
+relief: but suddenly I resumed my courage, and felt that no time was
+to be lost. I ran to the shore where I had left my pirogue, which
+I unfastened, and, as quickly as oars could pull me, I pursued the
+Malays, not in the hope of wresting Theresa from them, but resolved
+upon partaking of her captivity and misfortune. We better endure the
+sufferings we have to undergo when we are two together than when we
+are alone. He who had brought me the fatal tidings saw me start, and
+thought I had lost my senses; the fact is, my countenance bore all the
+traces of mental alienation. Methought I was inspired by the grand
+master-spirit; my pirogue bounded along the troubled waters of the
+ocean as if it possessed wings. One would have said that I had twenty
+rowers at my disposal, and I cleft the waves with the same rapidity
+as the halcyon's flight, when wafted away by the hurricane. After
+a short time's laborious and painful rowing I at last came in view
+of the corsairs who were carrying away my treasure. At the sight my
+strength was renewed again, and I was soon up with them. When I was
+side by side with them I informed them, in words the most feeling,
+and which sprang from my poor lacerated heart, that Theresa was my
+wife, and that I would prefer being a slave with her to abandoning
+her. The pirates listened to my voice, stifled by my tears, and took
+me on board, not from commiseration, but from cruelty. In fact, I was
+a slave more added to their numbers: why should they have repulsed
+me? A few days after that fatal evening we arrived at Jolo. There the
+division of the slaves was made, and the master into whose hands we
+fell took us away with him. Was it, then, to undergo a like destiny
+that I had dived so early in the morning for a pearl for the Infant
+Jesus of Zébou? Yes, was it for this that I had made a vow to bring
+him the first pearl I should find? Notwithstanding my profound sorrow
+I murmured not, neither did I regret my offering. The Lord was the
+master! His will should be done."
+
+Here Relempago paused, and looked towards Heaven with a smile of
+angelic resignation, and we then remarked upon his face the furrows
+traced by the deep sorrows of his life. The wind was still blowing
+with violence, and our boat was dancing on the waves; our sailors had
+finished their repast, and, in order to listen to the fisherman's
+tale of woe, had taken up their place by his side. Their features
+wore an expression of the most innocent attention; so, having made
+a sign to the narrator, he resumed his story as follows:--
+
+"Our captivity lasted two years, during which time we had to endure
+very great sufferings. Very often would my master take me away with
+him to a lake in the interior of the island, and these absences
+lasted for whole months together, during which time I was perforce
+separated from my Theresa, my dear wife; for, not having been able
+to get united by a clergyman, we had joined ourselves, under the
+all-benevolent and protecting eye of the Almighty! On my return,
+I used to find my poor companion still the same good, faithful,
+devoted, and affectionate friend, whose courage sustained my own.
+
+"One circumstance decided me upon taking an audacious
+resolution. Theresa was in an interesting situation! Oh! what would
+not my joy have been had I been at Zébou, in the midst of our family
+and of our friends! What happiness should I not have felt at the idea
+of being a father! Alas! in slavery, that very same thought froze my
+blood with terror, and I firmly resolved upon snatching both mother
+and child from the tortures of captivity. In one of our excursions
+I had been wounded in the leg, and this wound came greatly to my
+aid. One day my master set out for the borders of the grand lake, and,
+knowing I had a bad leg, left me at Jolo. I availed myself of this
+opportunity to put into execution a project that I had formed for a
+long time, that of flying with Theresa. The task was a daring one,
+but the desire of freedom doubles one's strength and increases one's
+courage, so I did not hesitate for a moment. When night had lowered,
+my dear Theresa took a road I had pointed out to her; I went by another
+one, and we both arrived at the sea-shore at a short distance from
+each other. There we jumped into a pirogue, and threw ourselves upon
+the protection of Divine mercy!
+
+"We rowed vigorously the whole night, and never in my life shall
+I forget that mysterious flight. The wind blew rather violently,
+the night was dark, and the stars insensibly lost their vivid
+brightness. Every moment we thought we heard behind us the noise of our
+pursuers, and our hearts beat so loud and so violently that they could
+be heard in the midst of the silence that reigned around all nature.
+
+"Day at last appeared: we descried by degrees, in the mist of the
+morning, the rocks that lined the shore, and we could see far enough
+in the distance that no one was pursuing us. Then were our hearts
+filled with cheering hope, and we continued rowing towards the north,
+in order to land on some Christian isle.
+
+"I had taken with me some cocoa-nuts, but they were a very small
+resource, and we had been at sea three whole days without eating
+anything, when, exhausted by fatigue and want, we fell upon our knees
+and invoked the pity, compassion, and succour of the Infant Jesus of
+Zébou. Our prayer over, we felt our strength completely exhausted;
+the oars fell from our hands, and we lay down in the bottom of the
+pirogue, decided upon dying in each other's arms.
+
+"Our weakness gradually increased, and finally we swooned away,
+the pirogue all the while dashing heedlessly on with the waves.
+
+"When we recovered from our fainting fit--I know not how long it
+lasted--we found ourselves surrounded by Christians, who, having
+perceived us in our light skiff, had come to our aid, conveyed us
+to their hospitable dwelling, and took the most pious care of us. We
+had not long been disembarked when Theresa was taken with the pains
+of labour, and was confined of a very diminutive, sickly child. I
+went down on my knees before the innocent little creature that had
+so miraculously escaped from slavery, and prayed for it--it was a boy!"
+
+Here the poor old fisherman heaved a heavy sigh, while tears were
+fast falling upon his shrunken hands.
+
+We one and all respected this painful recollection of the poor old man.
+
+"Our convalescence was very long indeed," said Relempago; "at last our
+health was sufficiently restored to permit of us leaving the isle of
+Negros, where the Infant Jesus had so miraculously caused us to land,
+and we came to settle here, on the side of this large lake, which,
+being situated in the interior of the isle of Luçon, afforded me the
+means of pursuing my avocation of fisherman without in any way fearing
+the Malays, who might very easily have captured us again at Zébou.
+
+"My first care--yes, the dearest act of my life--on arriving, was to
+have our marriage celebrated in the church of Moron. I had promised it
+to God, and I would not fail in the promise I had made Him who reads
+all hearts. After that I built the little cottage you see hard-by,
+and my existence glided on most peacefully. The fishing trade went
+on prosperously. I was still a young man, active and intelligent,
+and sold my fish very easily to the vessels passing through the
+strait. My son had by this time become a fine young man."
+
+"Of course he resembled his father," said I, recollecting the beginning
+of the old man's tale, but my remark could not excite a smile upon
+his countenance.
+
+"Oh! the lad was a good fisherman," continued he, "and happily did we
+all three live together, till a dreadful misfortune befell us. The
+Infant Jesus had no doubt forsaken us, or perhaps the Almighty was
+displeased with us; but I am far from murmuring. He has visited us
+most severely, since He has overwhelmed us with grief of such a strong
+nature, that it must accompany us to our last resting-place!"
+
+And here the poor old man's tears trickled down his weather-beaten
+cheeks once more, in abundance, in bitterness, and in sorrow.
+
+Ah! how right was the Italian poet, when he said:--
+
+
+            "Nought lasteth here below but tears!"
+
+
+The voice of Relempago was stifled by his sobbing; however, he made
+one more effort, and continued thus:
+
+"One night--a fine moonlight night--we set our nets in a certain part
+of the strait, and as we felt some difficulty in drawing them up,
+the lad plunged into the water to ascertain what obstacle we had to
+contend with, and to set all to rights. I was in my pirogue, leaning
+over the side, waiting for his return, when all of a sudden I thought
+I saw, through the silvery beams of the lamp of night, a large spot
+of blood spreading itself over the surface of the water. Fear took
+possession of me, and I quickly hauled up my nets. My hapless child
+had seized upon and become entangled in them--but, alas! when he came
+to the surface he was a corpse!"
+
+"What! your son?" cried I.
+
+"My poor dear José-Maria," said he, "had his head bitten off by a
+cayman that had got entangled in our nets. Ever since that night--that
+fatal night!--Theresa and I offer up our prayers to the Omnipotent,
+imploring Him to take us to himself; for, alas! nothing now has
+any charms for us here below. The first of us that will depart for
+that bourn from whence no traveller returns will be interred by the
+survivor beside our beloved child--there, under that little hillock
+yonder, which is surmounted by a wooden cross, in front of my humble
+cottage; and the last of us two to leave this valley of tears will no
+doubt meet with some charitable Christian hand, to place our mortal
+remains beside the bodies of those we loved so tenderly during our
+hapless pilgrimage here below."
+
+Here Relempago ceased his painful history, and, that he might give a
+free course to his grief and tears, he rose up, and bowed us his adieu,
+which we returned to him with hearts oppressed with sympathetic sorrow.
+
+The wind had ceased blowing, and the attentive sailors were awaiting
+our orders, so that in a few moments afterwards we were sailing
+towards Jala-Jala, where we landed before sunset.
+
+On the morrow of my arrival I entered on the business of my little
+government, to which my absence had been far from useful or favourable,
+so that I was obliged to suppress many abuses that had crept into it
+while I had been away. Some slight corrections, joined to an active
+and incessant surveillance, or inspection, soon established once more
+the most perfect order and discipline; so that, from that moment, I
+was at liberty to devote all my time and attention to the cultivation
+of my lands.
+
+We were now at the beginning of the winter--the rainy and windy
+season. No stranger had dared crossing the lake, to come and visit us,
+so that, alone with my dear wife, our days glided most happily and
+tranquilly away, for we knew not what ennui was or meant: our mutual
+affection was so great that our own presence was sufficient company
+for each other.
+
+This delightful solitude was soon interrupted by a fortunate and
+unforeseen event. A letter from Manilla--a very rare circumstance at
+Jala-Jala--reached me, informing me that my eldest brother, Henry,
+had just arrived there; that he had put up at my brother-in-law's;
+and that he was expecting me with all imaginable impatience. I was
+not aware that he had left France to come and see me, so that such
+news, and his sudden, as well as unexpected, arrival, surprised and
+overjoyed me.
+
+I was once more to see one of my dearest relations--a brother whom I
+had always tenderly loved. Ah! he who has never quitted his home, his
+family, and his early attachments, will with difficulty understand the
+emotions I experienced on receiving this agreeable letter. When the
+first transports of my joy were somewhat allayed, I resolved to set
+out at once for Manilla. Preparations for my departure were speedily
+made. I chose my lightest canoe, and my two strongest Indians, and a
+few minutes after, having embraced my beloved Anna, I was scudding
+over the waters of the lake, slowly--too slowly for my impatience,
+as I wished to be able to give wings to my fragile skiff, and to
+traverse the distance that separated me from my brother as rapidly as
+my thoughts: no journey ever appeared to me so long, and nevertheless
+my two robust rowers exerted all their strength to favour my wishes. At
+length I arrived, and immediately hastened to my brother-in-law's,
+and there I threw myself into Henry's arms. Our emotions were such
+that for some time we could not speak; the abundant tears we shed
+alone showed the joy of our hearts. When the first transport was
+over, I asked him questions beyond number. Not one member of my
+family was forgotten; the smallest details concerning these beloved
+beings were to me of the greatest interest. We passed the remainder
+of the day and the following night in incessant and interesting
+conversation. The next day we started for Jala-Jala. Henry was eager
+to become acquainted with his sister-in-law, and I to make the dear
+companion of my life a sharer in my happiness. Excellent Anna! my joy
+was joy for you--my happiness was your delight! You received Henry
+as a brother, and this sisterly attachment was always, on your part,
+as sincere as your affection for me had ever been.
+
+After a few days spent in the most agreeable conversation about
+France, and about all those beloved friends who remained there,
+feelings of sadness that I could with difficulty repress became
+intermingled with my joy. I thought of our numerous family, so far
+distant, and so scattered over the globe. My youngest brother was,
+to my great regret, dead at Madagascar. My second brother, Robert,
+resided at Porto-Rico; and my two brothers-in-law, both captains of
+vessels, engaged in long voyages, were gone to the Indies. My poor
+mother and my poor sisters were alone, without protectors, without
+support: what sad moments of fear and anxiety you must have spent in
+your solitude! Ah! how I should have rejoiced to have you near me; but,
+alas! a whole world separated us, and the hope of seeing you again
+one day could alone scatter the clouds that darkened occasionally
+the happy days adorned by the presence of my brother.
+
+After some time of rest, Henry asked to join me in my labours. I then
+made him acquainted with my mode of cultivation, and he took upon
+himself the management of the plantations and of their products. I
+reserved to myself the regulation of my Indians, the charge of the
+flocks, and that of putting down the bandits.
+
+I had frequent quarrels, and even incessant conflicts, with these
+turbulent Indians; but I never boasted of these petty engagements, in
+which I was often obliged to take a most active part. On the contrary,
+I recommended strict silence to my attendants, for I did not wish to
+cause anxiety to my excellent Anna, nor to give my brother the desire
+of accompanying me. I did not like to expose him to the dangers I
+ran myself, as I had not equal hopes of safety for him. I relied
+upon my star, and really, to a certain degree, all modesty aside,
+I think that the bandits' balls respected me. When I was engaged in
+contests in the plain, or in some of the skirmishes, the danger was
+not great; but it was quite a different thing when it was necessary
+to fight hand to hand, which happened more than once; and I cannot
+forbear the pleasure of relating one of those circumstances that made
+me say just now the bandits' balls respected me.
+
+One day I was alone with my lieutenant, having both of us only our
+daggers, and we were coming back to our habitation, and passing through
+a thick forest, situated at the end of the lake. Alila said to me:
+"Master, this neighbourhood is much frequented by Cajoui." Cajoui
+was known as the chief of a most daring gang of brigands. Among
+his numerous atrocities he had amused himself, on that very day, by
+drowning twenty of his fellow-countrymen. I then determined to free
+the country of the odious assassin, and the advice of my lieutenant
+induced me to take a narrow path, that led us to a hut concealed in
+the midst of the woods. I told Alila to remain below, and to watch,
+while I went to endeavour to reconnoitre the persons who inhabited
+it. I went up by the small ladder that leads to the interior of the
+Tagalese huts; a young Indian woman was there, quite alone, and very
+busy plaiting a mat. I asked her for some fire to light my cigar, and
+returned to my lieutenant. Having accidentally cast my eyes upon the
+exterior of the hut, it appeared much larger than it did inside. I
+ran up again quickly, and looked all round the place in which the
+young girl was, and observed at the extremity of it a small door,
+covered over by a mat. I gave it a strong push, and at the moment,
+Cajoui, who, with his carbine on cock, was waiting for me behind the
+door, fired straight at me. The fire and the smoke blinded me, and
+by a most inconceivable chance the ball slightly grazed my clothes
+without wounding me. Alila, knowing I had no fire-arms, hearing the
+report, thought I was killed. He ran up to the top of the steps, and
+found me enveloped in a cloud of smoke, with my dagger in my hand,
+trying to find my enemy, who seeing me still standing erect, after he
+had shot at me, thought, no doubt, I had about me some anten-anten--a
+certain diabolic incantation that, according to the Indian belief,
+makes a man invulnerable to all sorts of fire-arms. The bandit was
+frightened, jumped out of a window, and ran away as fast as he could
+across the forest.
+
+Alila could not believe what had happened to me; he felt all over
+my body, in order to convince himself that the ball had not passed
+through me. When he was quite sure that I had not received a wound,
+he said to me:
+
+"Master, if you had not had the anten-anten about you you would have
+been killed."
+
+My Indians always believed I was possessed of this secret, as well
+as of many others. For instance, when they often saw me go for
+twenty-four, even for thirty-six hours, without eating or drinking,
+they became persuaded that I could live in that manner for an
+indefinite period; and one day, a good Tagalese padre, in whose
+house I chanced to be, almost went upon his knees while begging me
+to communicate to him the power I possessed, as he said, to live
+without food.
+
+The Tagals have retained all their old superstitions. However, thanks
+to the Spaniards, they are all Christians; but they understand that
+religion nearly in the way that children do. They believe that to
+attend on Sundays and festival days at the Divine offices, and to go
+to confession and to communion once a year, is sufficient for the
+remission of all their sins. A little anecdote that occurred to me
+will show how far they understand evangelical charity.
+
+One day two young Indians stole some poultry from one of their
+neighbours, and they came to sell them to my major-domo for about
+sixpence. I had them called before me, to administer a lecture, and
+to punish them. With the utmost simplicity they made me this answer:
+
+"It is true, master, we have done wrong, but we could not do otherwise;
+we are to go to communion to-morrow, and we had not money enough to
+get a cup of chocolate."
+
+It is a custom with them to take a cup of chocolate after communion,
+and it was considered by them a greater sin to miss taking that than
+to commit the trifling theft of which they were guilty.
+
+Two evil-doing demons play an important part among them, and in which
+all believed before the conquest of the Philippine islands. One
+of those malevolent demons is the Tic-balan which I have already
+mentioned, who dwells in the forests, in the interior of the large
+fig-trees. This demon can do every possible harm to anyone who dares
+not to respect him, or who does not carry certain herbs about his
+person; every time an Indian passes under one of these fig-trees
+he makes a movement towards it with his hand, saying: "Tavit-po,"
+Tagal words, signifying: "Lord! with your permission!" The lord of
+the place is the Tic-balan.
+
+The other demon is called Azuan. She presides especially over
+parturitions in an evil manner, and an Indian is often seen, when his
+wife is in labour, perched upon the roof of his hut, with a sabre in
+his hand, thrusting the point into the air, and striking on all sides
+with the edge, to drive away, as he says, the Azuan. Sometimes he
+continues this manoeuvring for hours, until the labour is over. One
+of their beliefs--and one that Europeans might envy--is, that when
+a child that has not reached the age of reason dies, it is happy for
+all the family, since it is an angel that has gone to heaven, to be
+the protector of all its relations. The day of the interment is a
+grand fête-day; relations and friends are invited; they drink, they
+dance, and they sing all night in the hut where the child died. But I
+perceive that the superstitions of the Indians are drawing me from my
+subject. I shall have occasion, further on, to describe the manners
+and customs of these singular people.
+
+I now resume my statement, at the moment when my lieutenant tried to
+assure me that I had some anten-anten, and that consequently I could
+not be wounded by a shot fired at me.
+
+He then addressed the young girl, who had remained in the corner,
+more dead than alive.
+
+"Ah! cursed creature!" said he to her; "you are Cajoui's mistress:
+now your turn is come!"
+
+At this moment he advanced towards her with his dagger in his hand. I
+ran between him and the poor girl, for I knew he was capable of
+killing anyone, particularly after I had been attacked in a manner
+that had placed me in danger.
+
+"Wretch!" said I to him, "what are you going to do?"
+
+"No great things, master; only to cut off the hair and ears of this
+vile woman, and then send her to tell Cajoui that we shall soon
+catch him!"
+
+It cost me much trouble to prevent him from executing his plan. I was
+obliged to use all my authority, and to allow him to burn the cabin,
+after the terrified young girl, thanks to my protection, had fled
+into the forest.
+
+My lieutenant was right in sending word to Cajoui that we should catch
+him. Some months after, and several leagues from the place where we had
+set fire to his cabin, one day, when three men of my guard accompanied
+me, we discovered, in the thickest part of the wood, a small hut. My
+Indians rushed forward in quick time to surround it; but almost all
+round it there was found a morass, covered over with sedges and bushes,
+when all three sunk in the mud, up to their middle. As I did not run
+as fast as they did I perceived the danger, and went round the marsh,
+so as to reach the cabin by the only accessible way. Suddenly I found
+myself face to face with Cajoui, and near enough almost to touch him. I
+had my dagger in my hand; he also had his--the struggle began. For
+a few seconds we aimed many strokes at each other, which each of us
+tried to avoid as well as he could. I think, however, that fortune was
+turning against me; the point of Cajoui's poignard had already entered
+rather deeply into my right arm, when with my left hand I took from
+my belt a large-sized pistol. I discharged it full at his breast:
+the ball and the wadding went through his body. For a few seconds
+Cajoui endeavoured still to defend himself; I struck him with all my
+force, and he fell at my feet; I then wrested from him his dagger,
+which I still retain. My people came out of the mud-hole and joined
+me. Compassion soon replaced the animosity we bore against Cajoui. We
+made a sort of litter; I bandaged his wound, and we carried him more
+than six leagues in this manner to my habitation, where he received
+all the care his state required. Every moment I expected him to die;
+every quarter of an hour my people came to tell me how he was; and
+they kept saying to me:
+
+"Master, he cannot die, because he has the anten-anten upon him; and
+it is very lucky that you have some of it too, and that you fired at
+him, for our arms would have been of no avail against him."
+
+I laughed at their simplicity, and expected from one minute to
+another to hear that the wounded man had breathed his last, when my
+lieutenant brought me, quite joyously, a small manuscript, about two
+inches square, saying to me:
+
+"Here, master, is the anten-anten I found upon Cajoui's body."
+
+At the same time one of my men announced his death.
+
+"Ah!" said Alila, "if I had not taken the anten-anten from him he
+would be still alive."
+
+I searched the small book through and through; prayers and
+invocations that had not much sense were therein written in the
+Tagalese language. A good friar who was present took it out of my
+hands. I imagined that he had the same curiosity as I had, but by
+no means; he rose up and went into the kitchen, and in a short time
+after came out and told me that he had made an auto-da-fé of it. My
+poor lieutenant almost cried with vexation, for he considered the
+little book to be his property, and thought that in possession of it
+he would be invulnerable. I should also have wished to have kept it,
+as a curious specimen of Indian superstition. The next day I had much
+trouble to persuade my stout friend, Father Miguel, to bury Cajoui in
+the cemetery. He maintained that a man who died with the anten-anten
+upon him ought not to receive Christian burial. To make him accede to
+my wishes it was necessary to tell him that the anten-anten had been
+taken from Cajoui before his death, and that he had time to repent.
+
+A few days after Cajoui's death it was my faithful Alila's turn to
+encounter danger, not less imminent than that to which I had been
+exposed, at the time of my combat with the bandit chief. But Alila
+was brave, and, although he had no anten-anten, fire-arms did not
+frighten him.
+
+Large vessels--real Noah's arks--freighted by various merchants,
+sailed every week from the town of Pasig for that of Santa-Cruz, where
+every Thursday a large market was held. Eight daring and determined
+brigands went on board one of these vessels: they hid their arms among
+the bales of goods. The ship was scarcely out at sea when they seized
+them, and a horrible scene of slaughter ensued. All who endeavoured
+to resist them were butchered, even the pilot was thrown overboard;
+at length, finding no more resistance, they plundered the passengers
+of the money they had upon them, took every article of value they
+could find, and, loaded with their booty, they steered the vessel to
+a deserted spot on the shore, where they landed.
+
+I had been informed of this nefarious enterprise, and went with haste
+to the spot where they landed. Unfortunately I arrived too late, for
+they had already escaped to the mountains, after they had divided the
+spoil. Notwithstanding the slight hope I entertained of overtaking
+them, I set off in pursuit, and after a long march I met an Indian,
+who informed me that one of the bandits, not so good a walker as the
+others, was not far off, and that if I and my guards ran quickly we
+might overtake him. Alila was the best runner--he was as fleet as
+a deer; so I told him: "Set out, Alila, and bring me that runaway,
+either dead or alive."
+
+My brave lieutenant, to be less encumbered in the race, left his
+gun with us, took a long spear, and went off. Shortly after we had
+lost sight of him we heard the report of firearms; we knew it must
+be the brigand firing upon Alila, and we all thought that he was
+killed or wounded. We hastened forward, in the hopes of arriving in
+time to render him assistance; but we soon saw him coming leisurely
+towards us; his face and clothes were covered with blood, the spear
+in his right hand, and in his left the hideous head of the bandit,
+which he carried by the hair--as Judith had formerly done with that
+of Holophernes. But my poor Alila was wounded, and my first care was
+to examine if the wound was serious. When I was satisfied it was not
+dangerous, I asked him for the details of his combat.
+
+"Master," said he to me, "shortly after I left you I perceived the
+bandit; he saw me also, and ran off as quickly as he could, but I ran
+faster than he, and was soon close to him. When he lost all hopes
+of escaping he turned upon me and presented his pistol; I was not
+alarmed, and advanced towards him at all risk. The pistol was fired,
+and I felt myself wounded in the face; this wound did not stop me. I
+darted at him and pierced his body with my spear; but, as he was too
+heavy for me to bring to you, I cut off his head, and here it is."
+
+When I had congratulated Alila upon his success, I examined his wound,
+and found that a fragment of a ball, cut into four pieces, had hit
+him upon the cheek, and was flattened on the bone. I extracted it,
+and a speedy cure followed.
+
+Now, as I have almost terminated, and shall not return to, my numerous
+adventures with the bandits, I resume the continuation of my ordinary
+life at Jala-Jala.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    Death of my Brother Robert--Our Party at Jala-Jala--Illness and
+    Last Moments of my Friend Bermigan--Recovery and Departure for
+    France or Lafond--Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity--Tremendous
+    Gale of Wind--Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake--Safe Return
+    to Jala-Jala--Destruction of my House and the Village by a
+    Typhoon--Rendezvous with a Bandit--Ineffectual Attempts to Reform
+    Him--His Death--Journey to Tapuzi--Its Inaccessibility--Government
+    of the Tapuzians--Morality and Religious Character of their
+    Chief--Their Curiosity at Beholding a White Man--Former Wickedness
+    and Divine Punishment--We bid Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return
+    to Jala-Jala.
+
+
+At this period a sad event plunged my house into mourning. Letters from
+my family announced to me that my brother Robert had returned from
+Porto-Rico, but that soon after a serious illness had carried him to
+the grave. He died in the arms of my mother and sisters, in the small
+house of La Planche, where, as I said before, we had all been brought
+up. My excellent Anna, wept with us, and exerted every means that
+interesting affection could suggest to alleviate the grief my brother
+Henry and myself experienced from this melancholy bereavement. A few
+months afterwards a new source of sorrow fell to our lot. Our little
+social party at Jala-Jala consisted of my sister-in-law; of Delaunay,
+a young man from St. Malo, who had come from Bourbon to establish at
+Manilla some manufactories for baking sugar; of Bermigan, a young
+Spaniard; and my friend, Captain Gabriel Lafond, like myself, from
+Nantes. He had come to the Philippine islands on board the Fils de
+France, had passed some years in South America, and had occupied
+several places of distinction in the navy, as captain-commandant,
+until at last, after many adventures and vicissitudes, he came with
+a small fortune to Manilla, where he bought a vessel, and set sail
+for the Pacific Ocean, to fish for the balaté or sea-worm. He had
+scarcely readied the island of Tongatabou when the vessel struck upon
+the rocks that surround this island; he saved himself by swimming
+to the shore, having lost everything. From thence he went to the
+Marianne islands, where grief and bad food caused him to fall ill;
+he returned to Manilla, labouring under dysentry. I had him brought
+to my house, and whilst there attended to him with all the care
+a fellow-countryman and a good friend, endowed with sterling and
+amiable qualities, deserved. Our evenings were spent in amusing and
+instructive conversation. As we had all travelled a great deal, each
+had something to relate. During the day the invalids kept company
+with the ladies, while my brother and myself followed our respective
+avocations. But soon, alas! a shocking event disturbed the calm that
+reigned at Jala-Jala. Bermigan fell so dangerously ill, that a few days
+sufficed to convince me there was no hope of saving him. I shall never
+forget the fatal night: we were all assembled in the drawing-room,
+grief and consternation were in every heart and pourtrayed in every
+countenance; in an adjoining room a few short steps from us, we heard
+the death-rattle of poor Bermigan, who had only a few minutes to
+live. My excellent friend, Lafond, whom sickness had reduced almost
+to the last stage, broke silence, and said: "Well! poor Bermigan goes
+to-day, and in a few days, perhaps to-morrow, it will be my turn. Just
+see! my dear Don Pablo; I may almost say that I no longer exist. Look
+at my feet--my body! I am a mere skeleton; I can scarcely take any
+food. Ah! it is better to be dead than live like this!"
+
+I was so persuaded that his forebodings would not be delayed in being
+realized, that I scarcely dared to utter the smallest consolation or
+any hopes. Who could then have told me that he and I alone were to
+survive all those who surrounded us, full of life and health? But,
+alas! let us not here anticipate future events.
+
+Poor Bermigan breathed his last. Our house at Jala-Jala was no longer
+untouched by the hand of Death--a human being had expired therein;
+and on the following day, in sadness and silence, we all proceeded
+to the cemetery, to inter the body of our friend, and to render him
+the last proofs of our respect. The body was laid at the foot of a
+large cross, which is placed in the centre of the grave-yard. For
+many days sadness and silence prevailed in our home at Jala-Jala.
+
+Some time afterwards I had the gratification to see the efforts
+I employed for my friend Lafond were successful. By means of the
+strong remedies I administered his health was speedily restored, his
+appetite returned, and he was soon able to set sail for France. He
+is now residing in Paris, married to a woman possessed of every
+quality necessary to make a man happy, and is the father of three
+children. Holding an honourable position, and enjoying public esteem,
+he has never forgotten the six months he spent at Jala-Jala, for
+ingratitude never sullied his noble, loving, and devoted heart. A
+sincere attachment still subsists between us, and I am happy thus to
+assure him that he is, and ever will be, to me a valued friend. [16]
+
+As I have now mentioned several persons who resided for some time at
+Jala-Jala, I must not forget one of my colonists, Joachim Balthazard,
+a native of Marseilles, as eccentric a man as I have ever known. When
+Joachim was young, he set sail from Marseilles. When he arrived at
+Bourbon, his name not being on the crew's list, he was arrested,
+and put on board the Astrolabe, which was then making a voyage
+round the world. He deserted at the Marianne islands, and came to
+the Philippines in the greatest distress, and addressed himself to
+some good friars, in order, as he said, to effect his conversion
+and his salvation. He lived among them, and at their expense, for
+nearly two years; afterwards he opened a coffee-house at Manilla,
+and spent in pleasure and debauchery a large sum of money that a
+fellow-countryman and I had advanced him. He afterwards built upon
+my grounds a large straw edifice, that had more the appearance of
+a huge magazine than of a house. There he kept a kind of seraglio,
+adopted all the children which his numerous wives gave him, and, with
+his own family, made his house not unlike a mutual school. Whenever
+he was weary of either of his wives he called one of his workmen,
+saying to him in the most serious manner:
+
+"There is a wife that I give you; be a good husband, treat her well:
+and you, woman, this is your husband, be faithful to him. Go, may
+God bless you! Be off, and let me never see you again."
+
+He was generally without a farthing, or all of a sudden rich with heavy
+sums, that were spent in a few days. He borrowed from everybody, and
+never paid them back; he lived like a real Indian, and was as cowardly
+as a half-drowned chicken. His light-coloured hair, sallow complexion,
+and beardless face, gave him the nick-name among the Indians of
+Onela-Dogou, Tagalese words, that signify "one who has no blood."
+
+As I was one day crossing over the lake in a small canoe with him and
+two Indians, we were assailed by one of those extraordinary gales of
+wind, which in the Chinese seas are called Tay-Foung (typhoon). These
+gales of wind, though extremely rare, are tremendous. The sky is
+covered with the heaviest clouds; the rain pours in torrents; the
+day-light disappears, almost as much as in the densest fog; and the
+wind blows with such fury that it throws down everything it reaches
+in its course. [17]
+
+We were in our canoe; the wind had scarcely begun to blow with all
+its violence than Balthazard commenced to invoke all the saints in
+Paradise. Almost in despair, he cried out aloud:
+
+"Oh, God! have mercy upon me, a wretched sinner! Grant me the grace
+that I may have an opportunity of confessing my sins, and of receiving
+absolution!"
+
+All these lamentations and appeals served only to frighten my two
+Indians, and most undoubtedly our position was critical enough for us
+to endeavour to retain our presence of mind, so as to attend to the
+management of our little boat, which from one moment to another was in
+danger of being swamped. However, I was certain that, being provided
+with two large beams of bamboos, it could keep its position in the
+current between two waters and not capsize, if we had the precaution
+and strength to scud before the wind, and not turn the side to a wave,
+for in such case we should all have been drowned. What I foresaw,
+happened. A wave burst upon us; for a few minutes we were plunged
+in the deep, but when the wave passed over we came above water. Our
+canoe was swamped between the currents, but we did not abandon it;
+we put our legs under the seats, and held them fast; the half of
+our body was above water. But every time that a wave came towards
+us it passed over our heads, and then went off, giving us time to
+breathe until another wave came and dashed over us. Every three or
+four minutes the same manoeuvring took place. My Indians and I used
+all our strength and skill to scud on before the wind. Balthazard
+had ceased his lamentations; we all kept silence; from time to time
+I only uttered these words:
+
+"Take courage, boys, we shall reach the shore."
+
+Our position then became much worse, for night set in. The rain
+continued to pour in torrents, the wind increased in fury. From time to
+time we received some light from globes of fire, like what the sailors
+call "Saint Elmo's fire." While these rays of light continued I looked
+as far around me as I could, and only perceived an immense body of
+water in furious agitation. For nearly two hours we were tossed about
+by the waves that drove us towards the beach, and, at a moment when
+we least expected it, we found ourselves driven into the midst of an
+extensive grove of lofty bamboos. I then knew that we were over the
+land, and that the lake had inundated the country for several miles
+around. We were up to our breasts in water, and it was not in our power
+to pass through the inundation. The darkness was too great to allow
+us to go in any direction; our canoe was no longer of any use to us,
+as it was entangled among the bamboos. We climbed up the trees as well
+as we could, even to the height where the bamboos end in sharp points;
+our bodies were much torn by the sharp thorns growing on the small
+branches; the rain continued to pour without intermission; the wind
+still blowed, and each gust caused the bamboos to bend, the flexible
+branches of which tore our bodies and faces. I have suffered a great
+deal in the course of my life, but no night ever appeared to me so
+long and cruel as this! Joachim Balthazard then recovered his speech,
+and, in a trembling, broken voice, said to me:
+
+"Ah! Don Pablo, do write I beg of you, to my mother, and tell her
+the tragical end of her son!"
+
+I could not help answering him: "You cowardly rascal! Do you think,
+then, that I am more at my ease than you are? Hold your tongue,
+otherwise I shall make you turn diver, so that I may never hear you
+again." Poor Joachim then knew what to do, and did not utter a word;
+only from time to time he made us aware of his trouble by his deep
+moans.
+
+The wind, which was blowing from the north-west, towards four o'clock
+in the morning suddenly changed to the east, and shortly afterwards
+gave over. It was almost daylight: we were saved. We could at last
+see one another; all four of us looked in a wretched condition; our
+clothes being torn to pieces. Our bodies were lacerated, and covered
+with deep scratches. The cold had penetrated into the very marrow
+of our bones, and the long bath we had taken had wrinkled the skin;
+we looked just like drowned people taken out of the water, where
+they had been for some hours. Nevertheless, crippled as we were, we
+slipped down from the bamboos, and were soon bathing in the waters
+of the lake. The effect was healthful and agreeable: it seemed like
+a warm bath at 30 degrees of heat.
+
+We were quite restored by this mild temperature. We got our canoe out
+of the grove, where fortunately it had been caught so fast that neither
+the waves nor the currents could drive it any farther. We again set it
+afloat, and soon succeeded in reaching an Indian hut, where we dried
+ourselves, and recruited our strength. Calm was now re-established;
+the sun shone in all its splendour, but everywhere traces of the
+typhoon were visible. In the course of the day we reached Jala-Jala,
+where our arrival caused great joy. They knew at home that I was on
+the lake, and everything led them to presume that I had perished. My
+good and dear Anna threw herself into my arms in tears; she had been
+in such anxiety for my safety, that for some moments the tears that
+flowed down her cheeks alone expressed her joy at again seeing me.
+
+Balthazard returned to his seraglio. As long as he was under my
+protection the Indians respected him, but after my departure from
+Jala-Jala he was assassinated; and all those who knew him agreed that
+he had deserved his fate for more than one cause.
+
+As I have mentioned this typhoon, I am going to anticipate a little,
+in describing, as briefly as possible, a still more frightful one than
+that which I experienced in my slight canoe and in the bamboo grove.
+
+I had just completed some pretty baths upon the lake opposite my
+house. I was quite satisfied and proud of procuring this new pleasure
+for my wife. On the very day that the Indians had added the last
+ornaments to them, towards evening a western wind began to blow
+furiously; by degrees the waters of the lake became agitated, and
+shortly we no longer doubted but that we were going to have a typhoon.
+
+My brother and I stayed some time examining, through the panes of
+glass, whether the baths would resist the strength of the wind,
+but in a heavy squall my poor edifice disappeared like a castle
+made of cards. We withdrew from the window, and luckily too, for a
+heavier squall than that which had destroyed the baths burst in the
+windows that faced to the west. The wind drove through the house,
+and opened a way for itself, by throwing down all the wall over the
+entrance-door. The lake was so agitated that the waves went over my
+house, and inundated all the apartments. We were not able to remain
+there any longer. By assisting each other, my wife, my brother, a young
+Frenchman who was then staying at Jala-Jala, and myself, succeeded in
+reaching a room on the ground-floor; the light came from a very small
+window; there, in almost total darkness, we spent the greater part of
+the night, my brother and I leaning our shoulders against the window,
+opposing with all our strength that of the wind, which threatened to
+force it in. In this small room there were several jars of brandy: my
+excellent Anna poured some into the hollow of her hand, and gave it us
+to drink, to support our strength and to warm us. At break of day the
+wind ceased, and calm re-appeared. All the furniture and decorations
+of my house were broken and shattered to pieces; all the rooms were
+inundated, and the store-rooms were full of sand, carried there by the
+waters of the lake. Soon my house became an asylum for my colonists,
+who had all spent a wretched night, and were without shelter.
+
+The sun soon shone splendidly; the sky was cloudless; but my sadness
+was extreme when, from a window, I examined the disasters produced
+by the typhoon. There was no village! Every hut was levelled to the
+ground. The church was thrown down--my store-houses, my sugar factory,
+were entirely destroyed; there was then nothing more than heaps of
+ruins. My fine cane-fields were altogether destroyed, and the country,
+which previously had appeared so beautiful, seemed as if it had passed
+through a long wintry season. There was no longer any verdure to be
+seen; the trees were entirely leafless, with their boughs broken, and
+portions of the wood were entirely torn down; and all this devastation
+had taken place within a few hours. During that and the following day
+the lake threw up, upon the shore, the bodies of several unfortunate
+Indians who had perished. The first care of Padre Miguel was to
+bury the dead, and for a long time afterwards there were to be seen,
+in the grave-yard of Jala-Jala, crosses, with the inscription: "An
+unknown who died during the typhoon." My Indians began immediately to
+rebuild their huts, and I, as far as possible, to repair my disasters.
+
+The fertile nature of the Philippine islands speedily effaced the
+aspect of mourning which it had assumed. In less than eight days
+the trees were completely covered with new leaves, and exhibited
+themselves as in a brilliant summer, after the frightful winter had
+passed over. The typhoon had embraced a diameter of about two leagues,
+and, like a violent hurricane, had upset and shattered everything it
+met during its course.
+
+But enough of disasters: I return to the epoch when the death of poor
+Bermigan caused affliction to us all.
+
+All was prosperity in my dwelling: my Indians were happy; the
+population of Jala-Jala increased every day; I was beloved and
+respected. I had rendered great service to the Spanish government
+by the incessant warfare I carried on against the bandits; and I may
+say that even amongst them I enjoyed a high reputation. They looked
+upon me, indeed, as their enemy, but in the light of a brave enemy,
+incapable of committing any act of baseness against them, and who
+carried on an honourable warfare; and the Indian character was so
+well known to me, that I did not fear they would play me any low
+tricks, or would treacherously attack me. Such was my conviction,
+that around my house I was never accompanied by day or by night. I
+traversed without fear all the forests and mountains, and I often even
+treated with these honourable bandits, as one power does with another,
+by not disdaining the invitations sometimes sent to me to come to a
+certain place, where, without fear of surprise, they could consult me,
+or even invoke my assistance. This sort of rendezvous was always held
+in the night, and in very lonely places. On their side, as well as
+on mine, a promise given of not doing any injury to each other was
+religiously observed. In these nocturnal conversations, held without
+witnesses, I often brought back to a life of peace mistaken men, whom
+the turbulence of youth had thrown into a series of crimes, which
+the laws would have visited with most severe punishment. Sometimes,
+however, I failed in my attempts, and especially when I had to do
+with proud and untameable characters, such as are to be found among
+men who never have had any other guide but natural instinct. One day,
+among others, I received a letter from a half-breed, a great criminal,
+who infested the neighbouring province of Laguna; he told me that
+he wished to see me, and begged me to come alone in the middle of
+the night to a wild spot, where he would also come alone: I did not
+hesitate to go to the place appointed. I found him there as he had
+promised me. He told me that he wished to change his mode of life,
+and to dwell on my estate. He added, that he had never committed any
+crime against the Spaniards, but only against the Indians and the
+half-breeds. It would have been impossible for me to have received
+him without compromising myself. I proposed to place him in the house
+of a friar, where he might remain concealed for several years, until
+his crimes were forgotten, and then he could enter into society. After
+a moment's reflection, he replied:
+
+"No, that would be to lose my liberty. To live as a slave! I would
+prefer to die."
+
+I then proposed to him to go to Tapuzi, a place where the bandits, when
+hotly pursued, were enabled to conceal themselves with impunity.--(I
+shall very soon have occasion to speak of this village.)--The
+half-breed, with an insignificant gesture, replied:
+
+"No; the person I wish to take with me would not come there. You can
+do nothing for me, adieu!"
+
+He then pressed my hand, and we separated. Some days afterwards, a hut
+in which he was seen, near Manilla, was surrounded by the troops of
+the line. The bandit then caused the owners of the hut to quit it,
+and when he saw them out of danger he took his carabine and began
+firing upon the soldiers, who on their side returned the attack on
+the hut. When it was riddled with balls, and the bandit had ceased
+to defend himself, a soldier approached the hut and set fire to it,
+so great was the fear they entertained of then finding him alive.
+
+These nocturnal interviews having led me to mention Tapuzi, I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to this remarkable retreat,
+where men, when proscribed by the law, live together in a sort of
+accord and union of a most extraordinary kind.
+
+Tapuzi, [18] which in the Tagal language, signifies "end of the world,"
+is a little village, situate in the interior of the mountains, nearly
+twenty-five leagues from Jala-Jala. It was formed there by bandits
+and men who had escaped from the galleys, who live in liberty, govern
+themselves, and are altogether, on account of the inaccessible position
+which they occupy, safe from any pursuit which could be ordered against
+them by the Spanish government. I had often heard this singular village
+mentioned, but I had never met anyone who had visited it, or could give
+me any positive details relative to it. One day, therefore, I resolved
+to go thither myself. I stated my intention to my lieutenant, who said:
+
+"Master, I shall find there, no doubt, some of my old comrades,
+and then we shall have nothing to fear."
+
+Three of us set out together, under the pretext of quite a different
+journey. For two days we walked in the midst of mountains, by paths
+almost impracticable. The third day we reached a torrent, the bed of
+which was blocked up by enormous stones. This ravine was the only road
+by which we could get to Tapuzi; it was the natural and impregnable
+rampart which defended the village against the attack of the Spanish
+troops. My lieutenant had just told me:
+
+"Look, master, above your head. None but the inhabitants of Tapuzi
+know the paths which lead to the top of the mountains. All along the
+length of the ravine they have placed enormous stones, that they have
+only to push to throw them down upon those who should come to attack
+them; a whole army could not penetrate among them, if they wished to
+give any opposition."
+
+I clearly saw that we were not in a very agreeable position, and
+against which, if the Tapuzians should consider us as enemies, we could
+oppose no defence. But we were involved in it, and there was no means
+of retreating, it was absolutely necessary to go to Tapuzi. We had
+been already more than an hour in this ravine when an immense block
+of stone fell down perpendicularly, and broke into pieces only twenty
+yards before us: it was a warning. We stopped, laid down our arms,
+and sat down. Perhaps just such another block as what had fallen was
+hanging over our heads, ready to crush us to pieces. We heard a scream
+near us. I told my lieutenant to proceed alone towards the direction
+it came from. In a few minutes he returned, accompanied by two Indians,
+who, confident in my pacific intentions towards them, came to fetch us,
+to take us to the village. We proceeded cheerfully on the remainder
+of the road until we reached the spot where ended the sort of funnel
+we were walking in. Upon this height there was to be seen a plain,
+some miles in circumference, surrounded by high mountains. The part
+that we were in was stopped up by enormous blocks of rocks, lying
+one on the top of the other. From behind stretched forth an abrupt
+threatening mountain, without any signs of vegetation--not unlike
+an ancient European fortress, that some magical power had raised in
+the midst of the high mountains that commanded it. With one glance I
+beheld the whole of the site we were crossing, and at the same time
+reflected upon the great varieties nature presents to our view. We
+soon reached the long wished-for object of our journey--the village of
+Tapuzi. It lies at the extreme end of a plain, composed of about sixty
+thatched huts, similar to those of the Indians. The inhabitants were
+all at their windows, to witness our arrival. Our guides conducted
+us to their chief, or Matanda-sanayon, a fine old man, from the look
+of his face about eighty years of age. He bowed affably to us, and
+addressed himself to me.
+
+"How are you come here--as a friend, or is it curiosity--or do the
+cruel laws of the Spaniards perhaps compel you to seek refuge among
+us? If such is the case, you are welcome; you will find us brothers."
+
+"No," I said to him; "we do not come to stay among you. I am your
+neighbour, and lord of Jala-Jala. I am come to see you, to offer you
+my friendship, and to ask yours."
+
+At the name Jala-Jala the old man looked quite astonished; he then
+said to me:
+
+"It is a long time since I heard you spoken of as an agent of the
+government for pursuing unfortunate men, but I have heard also that
+you fulfilled your mission with much kindness, and that often you
+were their protector, so be welcome."
+
+After this first recognition they presented us some milk and some
+kidney potatoes, and during our repast the old man conversed freely
+with me.
+
+"Several years ago," said he to me, "at a period I cannot recollect,
+some men came to live in Tapuzi. The peace and safety they enjoyed
+made others imitate their example, who sought like themselves to avoid
+the punishment of some faults they had committed. We soon saw fathers
+of families, with their wives and children flock hither; this was
+the foundation of the small government that you see. Now here almost
+all is in common; some fields of kidney potatoes or Indian corn, and
+hunting, suffice for us; he who possesses anything gives to him who has
+nothing. Almost all our clothing is knitted and woven by our wives;
+the abaca, or vegetable silk, from the forest supplies us the thread
+that is necessary; we do not know what money is, we do not require
+any. Here there is no ambition; each one is certain of not suffering
+from hunger. From time to time strangers come to visit us. If they
+are willing to submit to our laws, they remain with us; they have a
+fortnight of probation to go through before they decide. Our laws
+are lenient and indulgent. We have not forgotten the religion of
+our forefathers, and God no doubt will forgive me my first faults,
+on account of my efforts for so many years to promote his worship,
+and the well-being of my equals."
+
+"But," said I to him, "who is your chief, who are your judges and
+priests?"
+
+"It is I," said he, "who fulfil all those functions. Formerly they
+lived like savages here. I was young, robust, and devoted to all my
+brothers. Their chief had just expired: I was chosen to replace him. I
+then took care to do nothing but what was just, and conducive to the
+happiness of those who confided in me. Until then they had devoted
+but little attention to religion: I wished to put my people in mind
+that they were born Christians. I appointed one hour every Sunday
+for us to pray together, and I have invested myself with all the
+attributes of a minister of the Gospel. I celebrate the marriages, I
+pour water upon the foreheads of the infants, and I offer consolations
+to the dying. In my youth, I was a chorister; I remembered the church
+ceremonies; and if I do not actually possess the necessary attributes
+for the functions I have given myself, I practise them with faith and
+love. This is the reason I trust that my good intentions will obtain
+my forgiveness from Him who is the Sovereign Lord of all."
+
+During the whole time of the old man's conversation I was in continual
+admiration. I was among people who had the reputation of living in
+the greatest licentiousness as thieves and robbers. Their character
+was altogether misunderstood. It was a real, great phalanstery,
+composed of brothers, almost all worthy of the name. Above all I
+admired this fine old man, who with moral principles and simple laws,
+had governed them for so many years. On the other hand, what an example
+that was of free men not being able to live without choosing a chief,
+and bringing one another back to the practice of virtuous actions!
+
+I explained to the old man all my thoughts. I bestowed upon him a
+thousand praises for his conduct, and assured him that the Archbishop
+of Manilla would approve all the religious acts he performed with so
+noble an object. I even offered to intercede with the archbishop in
+his behalf, that he might send a pastor to assist him. But he replied:
+
+"No, thank you, sir; never speak about us. We should certainly
+be glad to have a minister of the Gospel here, but soon, under his
+influence, we should be subjected to the Spanish government. It would
+be requisite for us to have money to pay our contributions. Ambition
+would soon creep in amongst us, and from the freedom which we now
+enjoy, we should gradually sink into a state of slavery, and should
+no longer be happy. Once more I entreat of you, do not speak of us:
+give me your word that you will not."
+
+This argument appeared so just to me that I acquiesced to his
+request. I again gave him all the praise he deserved, and promised
+never to disturb the peace of the inhabitants of his village under
+any pretext whatever.
+
+In the evening we received visits from all the inhabitants,
+particularly from the women and children, who all had an immoderate
+curiosity to see a white man. None of the Tapuzian women had ever been
+out of their village, and had scarcely ever lost sight of their huts;
+it was not, therefore, astonishing that they were so curious.
+
+The next day I went round the plain, and visited the fields of
+kidney potatoes and Indian corn, the principal nourishment of the
+inhabitants. The old chief and some elderly people accompanied
+me. When we reached the spot where, upon the eve, I had already
+remarked enormous blocks of rock, the old man paused and told me:
+
+"Look yonder, Castilla. [19] At a time when the Tapuzians were without
+religion, and lived as wild beasts, God punished them. Look at all
+the part of that mountain quite stripped of vegetation: one night,
+during a tremendous earthquake, that mountain split in two--one part
+swallowed up the half of the village that then stood on the place
+where those enormous rocks are. A few hundred steps further on all
+would have been destroyed; there would no longer have existed a single
+person in Tapuzi: but a part of the population was not injured, and
+came and settled themselves where the village now is. Since then we
+pray to the Almighty, and live in a manner so as not to deserve so
+severe a chastisement as that experienced by the wretched victims of
+that awful night."
+
+The conversation and society of this old man--I might say the King
+of Tapuzi--was most interesting to me. But I had already been four
+days absent from Jala-Jala. I ordered my lieutenant to prepare for
+our departure. We bid most affectionate adieus to our hosts, and set
+off. In two days I returned home, quite pleased with my journey and
+the good inhabitants of Tapuzi.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+    Suppression of War between two Indian Towns--Flourishing Condition
+    of Jala-Jala--Hospitality to Strangers--Field Sports--Bat
+    and Lizard Shooting--Visit to, and Description of, the Isle
+    of Socolme--Adventure with a Cayman--Cormorants--We Visit Los
+    Banos--Monkey Shooting--Expedition to, and Description of, the
+    Grotto of Sun-Mateo--Magnificent aspect of the Interior.
+
+
+I found Anna in great trouble, not only on account of my absence,
+but because, on the previous evening, information had been received
+that the inhabitants of the two largest towns in the province had,
+as it was stated, declared war against each other; the most courageous
+amongst them, to the number of three or four hundred on each side, had
+started for the island of Talem. There both parties, in the presence
+of each other, were upon the point of engaging in a battle; already,
+while skirmishing, several had been mortally wounded.
+
+This news frightened Anna she knew that I was not a man who would
+await quietly at home the issue of the battle; she already fancied
+she saw me, with my ten guards, engaged in the thick of the fight,
+and perhaps a victim of my devotedness. I comforted her as I had
+always done, promising to be prudent, and not forget her; but there
+was not a moment to lose; it was necessary, at all risks, to try to
+put an end to a conflict that might no doubt cause the death of many
+men. How could I do so with my ten guards? Dare I pretend to impose my
+will as law on this vast multitude? Clearly not. To attempt to do it
+by force would be to sacrifice all: what was to be done? Arm all my
+Indians--but I had not boats enough to carry them to Talem: in this
+difficulty I decided upon setting out alone with my lieutenant. We
+took our arms, and set sail in a canoe, that we steered ourselves; we
+had scarcely come near the beach within hail of the shore, when some
+armed Indians called out to us to stand off, otherwise they would fire
+upon us. Without paying attention to this threat, my lieutenant and I,
+some minutes later, jumped boldly on shore, and after a few steps we
+found ourselves in the midst of the combatants.
+
+I went immediately up to the chiefs and addressed them, "Wretched
+men," I said to them, "what are you going to do? It is upon you who
+command that the severity of the law will fall. It is still time:
+try to deserve your pardon. Order your men to give me up their arms;
+lay down your own, or else in a few minutes I will place myself at
+the head of your enemies to fight against you. Obey, if not you will
+be treated as rebels."
+
+They listened attentively to me; they were half conquered. However,
+one of them made me this reply:
+
+"And if you take away our arms who will satisfy us that our enemies
+will not come to attack us?"
+
+"I will," I told them; "I give you my word; and if they do not obey
+me as you are going to do, I will return to you, I will give you back
+your arms, and will fight at your head."
+
+These words, said with a tone of authority and command, produced the
+effect I expected. The chiefs, without uttering a word, laid their
+arms at my feet. Their example was followed by all the combatants,
+and, in a moment, a heap of carabines, guns, spears, and cutlasses
+were laid down before me. I appointed ten among these individuals
+who had just obeyed me, gave them each a gun, and told them:
+
+"I confide to you the care of these arms. If anyone attempts to take
+possession of them, fire upon the assailants."
+
+I pretended to take down their names, and went off to the opposite
+camp, where I found all the combatants on foot, ready to march and
+fight against their enemies. I stopped them, saying:
+
+"The battle is over--your enemies are disarmed. You, too, must give
+me up your arms, or else immediately embark in your canoes, and go
+home. If you do not obey me, I will give back their arms instantly to
+your opponents, and I will put myself at their head to fight against
+you. Perform what I command you; I promise you all shall be forgotten."
+
+There was no room for hesitation. The Indians knew that I did not
+allow much time for reflection, and that my threats and chastisements
+followed each other closely. Shortly after, they all embarked in
+their canoes. I remained on the beach alone, with my lieutenant,
+until I had almost lost sight of this small fleet. I then returned
+to the other camp, where I was impatiently expected. I announced to
+the Indians they had no longer any enemies, and that consequently
+they could go back quietly to their village.
+
+But a few days elapsed, as may be seen, without my having new dangers
+to encounter. I was accustomed to them: I relied upon my star, and
+triumphed from all my imprudences. My Indians were blindly submissive
+to me. I was so certain of their fidelity, that I no longer took
+against them the precautions which I considered necessary during the
+first year of my residence at Jala-Jala.
+
+My Anna took part every day more and more in my labours, anxieties,
+and even in some of my dangers. Would it have been possible not to
+have loved her with deeper affection, than that which one feels for a
+companion leading a peaceful and insignificant life? With what gladness
+she received me after the shortest absence! Joy and satisfaction
+shone on her face, her caresses were as a balsam that healed all my
+lassitude, and even the reproaches she addressed me so gently, for the
+uneasiness I had caused her, fell upon my heart us drops of beatitude.
+
+Jala-Jala was most flourishing; immense fields of rice, sugar-cane,
+and coffee, had taken the place of woods and forests unproductive
+in themselves. Rich pasture-grounds were covered with numerous
+flocks; and a fine Indian village stood in the centre of the
+labouring-ground. Here, there was everywhere to be seen plenty,
+activity; and joy smiled on the countenances of all the inhabitants. My
+own dwelling had become the rendezvous, or resorting-place, of all
+the travellers arriving at Manilla, and a refuge of convalescence
+of many patients, who would come and breath the good and mild air of
+Jala-Jala, as well as enjoy its pleasures and amusements. Under that
+roof there was no distinction, no difference; all were equals in our
+eyes, whether French, Spanish, English, American. No matter to what
+nation belonged those who landed at Jala-Jala, they were received like
+brothers, and with all that cordial hospitality to be found formerly
+in our colonies. My visitors enjoyed full and active liberty on my
+little estate; but he who was not desirous of eating alone was obliged
+to remember the time of meals: during the other hours of the day one
+and all followed their own inclinations. For instance, naturalists
+went in pursuit of insects and birds, and made an ample harvest of
+every species of plants. Persons ailing met with the assiduous care
+of a physician, as well as with the kind attention and enjoyed the
+company of a most amiable and well-informed mistress of the house,
+who had the natural talent of enchanting all those who spent but a
+short time in her society. They who liked walking might look about for
+the fine views, and choose their resting-place either in the woods,
+the mountains, near the cascades or the brooks, or on the beautiful
+borders of the lake.
+
+But to sportsmen Jala-Jala was really a "promised land;" there they
+always found a good pack of hounds, Indians to guide them, good
+stout horses to carry them across the various mountains and plains,
+where the stag and wild boar were to be met with most plentifully;
+and were they desirous of less fatiguing exercise, they only had to
+jump into some of our light canoes, and skim over the blue waters,
+shooting on their way at the hosts of aquatic birds flying around
+them in all directions,--they could even land on the various small
+islands situated between Jala-Jala and the isle of Talem. There
+they could find a sort of sport utterly unknown in Europe--that is,
+immense bats, a species of vampire, designated by naturalists by the
+name of roussettes. During six months in the year, at the period of the
+eastern monsoon, every tree on these little isles is covered, from the
+topmost down to the lowest branch, with those huge bats, that supply
+the place of the foliage which they have entirely destroyed. Muffled
+up in their vast wings they sleep during the whole day, and in the
+nighttime they start off in large bodies roaming about in search
+of their prey. But as soon as the western monsoon has succeeded the
+eastern, they disappear, and repair always to the same place,--the
+eastern coast of Luzon, where they take shelter; after the monsoon
+changed, they return to their former quarters.
+
+As soon as our guests would alight upon one of these islands, they
+opened their fire, and continued it till--frightened by so many
+explosions and the screams of the wounded, clinging to and hanging
+from the branches--the bats would fly away in a body--en masse. For
+some time they would whirl and turn round and round like a dense
+cloud over their abandoned home, imitating, in a most perfect way,
+those furies we see in certain engravings representing the infernal
+regions, and then, flying off a short distance, would perch upon the
+trees in a neighbouring isle. If the sportsmen were not over-fatigued
+by the slaughter they might then follow them, and set-to again; but
+they generally found they had made victims enough, and diversified
+their pleasure by picking up the slain from under the trees. The bat
+shooting over, our sportsmen would then proceed to a new sport--
+
+
+                  "To fresh fields and pastures new;"
+
+
+that is, in pursuit of and shooting at the iguanas, a large species of
+lizard, measuring from five to six feet long, which infest the rocks
+on the borders of the lake. Tired of firing without being obliged to
+show any skill, our chasseurs would re-embark in their pirogues and
+row in search of new amusement,--this was, to shoot at the eagles that
+came hovering over their heads. Here skill was requisite, as well
+as a prompt, sure glance of the eye, as it is only with ball that
+these enormous birds of prey can be reached. Our fowlers would then
+return home, with their boats full of game; and everyone, of course,
+had his own feats of prowess to relate.
+
+The flesh of the iguana and the bat is savoury and delicate; but as
+for its taste, that entirely depends upon the imagination, as may
+here be seen.
+
+After returning from one of these grand shooting excursions to the
+minor islands, a young American informed me that his friends and he
+himself were most desirous of tasting the iguana and the bat; so,
+supposing them all to be of the same mind, I ordered my maître-d'hôtel
+to prepare for dinner a curry of iguana and a ragout of bats. The
+first dish served round at dinner was the curry, of which they one
+and all partook with very good appetite; upon which I ventured to say:
+"You see the flesh of the iguana is most delicate." At these words all
+my guests turned pale, and they all, by a sudden motion, pushed their
+plates from before them, not even being able to swallow what their
+mouths contained. I was therefore obliged to order the removal of
+the entrées of iguana and bats before we could proceed with the repast.
+
+When it was in my power, I would accompany my guests in their
+excursions, and then the chase was abundant and full of interest,
+because I ever took care to guide them towards places abounding
+in game and very picturesque. Sometimes I would take them to
+the isle of Socolme, a still more curious place indeed than
+the bat islands. Socolme is a circular lake--being one league in
+circumference--in the midst of the great lake of Bay, from which it
+is separated by a cordon or ribbon of land; or, to express myself
+better, by a mountain which rises to an elevation of from twelve to
+fifteen hundred feet; the centre of the mountain at the summit is
+occupied by the lake of Socolme, and is evidently the crater of an
+extinct volcano. Both sides are completely covered with large trees
+of luxuriant growth. It is on the border of the small lake--where
+the Indians never go, through fear of the caymans--that almost all
+the aquatic birds of the grand lake resort to lay their eggs. Every
+tree, white with the guano which they deposit there, is covered with
+birds'-nests, full of eggs and birds of every size and age.
+
+One day, in company of my brother and Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, [20] an
+Englishman, who was as fearless an explorer as ourselves, I started
+from the plantation, with the intention of having some light canoes
+carried across the high ground which separates the Socolme lake from
+the lake of Bay, and of using them on the lake; and, after overcoming
+many difficulties, we, by the assistance of our Indians, carried out
+this project.
+
+We were the first tourists that ever ventured to expose our lives
+on this Socolme lake. The Indians who had come with us refused most
+decidedly to enter the boats, and exerted all their eloquence to
+prevent us from going on the water. They spoke to us thus:--
+
+"You are going, for no good purpose, to expose yourselves to very
+great dangers, against which you have no means of defence, for
+before you have gone far you will see thousands of caymans rising
+out of the deep water; they will come to attack you, and what can
+you oppose to those ferocious and invulnerable monsters? Your guns
+and bullets cannot wound them. And as for escape by rowing quickly,
+that is not possible. In their own element they swim much faster
+than your canoes, and when they come up to you they will turn your
+boats up-side-down with far more ease than you can drive it along;
+and then the frightful scene will begin, from which you cannot escape."
+
+There was much good sense in what they said, and there can be no doubt
+that it was most imprudent of us to embark in a little frail canoe,
+and to make a trip over a lake inhabited by such numbers of caymans,
+and especially since it was to be feared that the lake did not supply
+fish enough to satisfy their voracity; and of course when enraged by
+hunger they were more to be dreaded.
+
+But we were never deterred by dangers or difficulties; so, taking
+no account of the prognostics of my prudent Indians, we, while they
+were delivering their long speeches, had lashed together two canoes
+for greater security.
+
+We had not proceeded many yards from the bank, when we all experienced
+feelings of alarm, attributable, no doubt, to the expectation of
+danger being immediate, as well as to the aspect of the place which
+presented itself to our view.
+
+We were down in the deepest part of a gulf, surrounded by lofty
+and precipitous mountains, which were externally covered with very
+thick vegetation. They, on all sides, presented a barrier, through
+which it was impossible to pass. The shadows which they cast over
+the water, at the extreme point of the lake, produced the effect of
+half darkness, which, in conjunction with the silence prevailing in
+that dismal solitude, gave it an aspect so dreary and saddening,
+as to produce in us most painful feelings; each of us as it were,
+struck with terror, kept his thoughts to himself, and no one spoke.
+
+Our canoes went on, moving farther and farther from the brink from
+which we had embarked; and it glided easily over the glassy sheet of
+water, which is never agitated by even the roughest gales, and does not
+receive the rays of the sun except when that luminary is at the zenith.
+
+The silence in which we were absorbed was suddenly broken by the
+appearance of a cayman, which raised its hideous head, and opened
+its enormous jaws, as if about to swallow the canoes, as it darted
+after us.
+
+The moment was come; the grand drama announced by the Indians was
+about to be realised, or all our fears would be dissipated without any
+delay. There was not one instant to be spared, and we had no choice
+but to try and escape as fast as we could, for the enemy was gaining
+on us, and it would be madness to await his attack. I was steering,
+and I exerted myself to the utmost to get away from the danger and
+to escape to the shore. But the amphibious beast was approaching so
+fast that he could almost seize us, when Lindsay, running all risks,
+fired his gun direct at the brute.
+
+The effect produced by the detonation was prodigious, for, as it were
+by enchantment, it dispelled all our apprehensions. The awful silence
+was broken in the most striking manner; the cayman was frightened, and
+sank abruptly to the bottom of the lake; hundreds of echoes resounded
+from all sides, like the discharges of a rifle corps, and these were
+repeated to the tops of the mountains, while clouds of cormorants,
+starting from all the trees around, uttered their screaming and
+piercing cries, in which they were joined by the Indians, who shouted
+with joy on seeing from the bank the flight of the hostile beast,
+of which they are always so much afraid.
+
+All then became tranquil, and we proceeded at our leisure. From time
+to time a cayman made his appearance; but the explosions caused by
+our firing soon drove the monsters down into the deepest parts of
+the lake, more frightened than hurt, for even when we struck them
+our balls rebounded from their scales without piercing them.
+
+We went close to the large trees, the branches of which were spreading
+over the water; they were thickly covered with nests, filled with eggs,
+and so great a quantity of young birds, that we not only captured as
+many as we wished, but could have filled several boats with them.
+
+The cormorants, alarmed by the explosions we made, whirled over us
+continually, like an immense cloud, during the time we troubled their
+gloomy abode, and seemed to "disturb their solitary reign;" but they
+did not wish to go far from their nests, in which their young broods
+were crying out for parental care.
+
+After we had rowed round the lake, we came to the spot from which we
+started, having ended our expedition happily without any accident,
+and even without having incurred all the dangers that our Indians,
+who were awaiting our return in order to take our boats once more
+across the mountain, had wished to make us believe.
+
+Resolved not to finish the excursion without producing some beneficial
+results for the sake of scientific knowledge, we measured the
+circumference of the lake, which we found to be about two miles and
+a-half. We were able to take soundings in the deepest parts towards
+the middle, where we found the depth about three hundred feet; while at
+some few fathoms from the banks we found it was invariably one hundred
+and eighty feet. And here the remark may be made, that in no part of
+the great Lake of Bay has the depth been found to exceed seventy-five
+feet; from which it may be concluded, as we have previously stated,
+that the lake of Socolme is formed within the crater of an extinct
+volcano, its waters having percolated or filtered through from the
+outer lake of Bay.
+
+From Socolme I took my guests to Los Banos, at the foot of a mountain,
+several thousand feet high, from which several springs of boiling
+water flow into the lake, and, mixing with its waters, produce every
+temperature to be desired in a natural bath. There also, on the hill,
+we were sure to meet with good and plentiful sport. Wild pigeons and
+beautiful doves, perched upon majestic trees, "mistrustful of their
+doom," allowed our sportsmen to approach very near, and they never
+returned from "the baths" without having "bagged" plenty of them.
+
+Upon our appointed days of relaxation from labour, we would go into the
+neighbouring woods, and wage war on the monkeys, our harvest's greatest
+enemies. As soon as a little dog, purposely brought up to this mode
+of warfare, warned us by his barkings that marauders were in sight,
+we repaired to the spot, and then the firing was opened. Fright seized
+hold on the mischievous tribe, every member of which hid itself in its
+tree, and became as invisible as it possibly could. But the little
+dog would not leave his post, while we would turn round the tree,
+and never failed discovering the hidden inmate. We then commence
+the attack, not ceasing until pug was laid prostrate. After having
+made several victims, I sent them to be hung up on forks around the
+sugar-cane fields, as scarecrows to those that had escaped; I, however,
+always sent the largest one to Father Miguel, our excellent curate,
+who was very fond of a monkey ragout.
+
+Sometimes I would take my guests to a distance of several days' march,
+to show them admirable views, cascades, grottoes, or those wonders
+of vegetation produced by the fertile nature of the Philippines.
+
+One day, Mr. Lindsay, the most intrepid traveller I had ever known,
+and who had recently accompanied me to the lake of Socolme, proposed
+to me to go with him to the grotto of San-Mateo, a place that several
+travellers and myself had visited more than once, but always in
+so incomplete a manner, that we had only been able to explore
+a small portion of it. I was too well pleased with the proposal
+not to accept it with eagerness; but this time I resolved that I
+would not return from this expedition, as I had from former ones,
+without having made every possible effort to explore its dimensions
+and recesses. Lindsay, Dr. Genu, and my brother, participated in
+my resolution of verifying whether or not there was any semblance
+of truth in what the Indians related concerning that grotto; or if,
+as I had so often experienced it myself, their poetic minds did not
+create what had never existed. Their old Indian traditions attributed
+to that cavern an immense extent. There, they would say, are to be
+seen fairy palaces, with which nothing could be compared, and which
+were the residences of fantastical beings. Determined, then, on seeing
+with our own eyes all these wonders, we set out for San-Mateo, taking
+with us an Indian, having with him a crowbar and a couple of pickaxes,
+to dig us out a way, should we have the chance of prolonging our
+subterraneous walk beyond the limits which we all already knew. We
+also took with us a good provision of flambeaus, so necessary to
+put our project into execution. We arrived early at San-Mateo, and
+spent the remaining part of the day in visiting admirable views and
+situations in the neighbourhood. We also went down into the bed of
+a torrent that takes its source in the mountains, and passes through
+the north side of this district; there we saw several Indians, male
+and female, all busy in washing the sand in search of gold-dust. Their
+daily produce at this work varies from one to ten francs; this depends
+on the more or less fortunate vein that perchance they fall on. This
+trade, together with the tilling of land--to be equalled by no other
+in fertility--and hewing timber for building, which is to be found
+most plentifully on the neighbouring mountains, is all the wealth of
+the inhabitants, who, in most part, live in abundance and prosperity.
+
+At the next day's dawn we were on our way to the grotto, which is
+about two hours' walk from the village. The road, which is bordered
+by nature's most beautiful productions in vegetation, traverses the
+finest rice plantations, and is of most easy access; however, about
+half-way, it suddenly becomes dangerous and even difficult. Here we
+leave the cultivated fields, and follow along the banks of the river,
+which flows in the midst of not very high mountains, and has so many
+bends, twistings, and meanderings, that, in order to cross it, it is
+necessary at almost every moment to have recourse to swimming, and
+then to take the narrow paths leading from its margin. Nothing, until
+at a very short distance from the grotto, interrupts the monotony of
+these rural sites and situations. The traveller plods his way through
+a gorge, or ravine, where upon all sides the view is bounded by rocks,
+and a long line of verdant vegetation, composed of the shrubs that
+cover the hills. But through a vast winding, or rather turning, made
+by the river, the eye is suddenly dazzled by the splendid panorama
+that seems to develop itself and move on with fairy magnificence. Let
+the reader imagine that he is standing at the base of two immense
+mountains, resembling two pyramids in their form, both equally alike
+and similar in height. The space that intervenes between them allows
+the eye to plunge into the distance, and to discover there a tableau,
+a picture, or view, which is impossible to be described. Between
+the two monster mountains the river has found an issue, and there
+the traveller beholds it at his feet, precipitating itself like an
+impetuous torrent in the midst of white marble rocks. The water, both
+limpid and glossy, seems to play with every object that impedes its
+course; at one moment it will form a noisy cascade, and then suddenly
+disappear at the foot of an enormous rock, and soon after appear again,
+bubbling and foaming, just as if some supernatural strength had worked
+it from the bowels of the earth. Farther on, and in forming itself into
+a continuous number of minor cascades, this same river flows, with a
+vast silvery surface, over a bed of marble, as white and as brilliant
+as alabaster, and falls upon others of still equal whiteness. Finally,
+after having passed over all difficulties, all dangers, it flows with
+much more modesty over a humble bed, where may be seen the reflection
+of the admirable vegetation its banks are embellished with.
+
+The famous grotto is situated in the mountain on the right side of
+the river, which the traveller crosses over by jumping from one block
+of marble to another; and then, after having ascended a steep height
+of about two hundred yards, he finds himself at the entrance to the
+grotto, whither I shall conduct the reader step by step.
+
+The entrance, the form of which is almost regular, represents pretty
+well the portico of a church, with a full arch, adorned with verdant
+festoons, composed of creeping plants and bind-weeds. When the visitor
+has once passed under the portico he enters into a large and spacious
+hall, studded with stalactites of a very yellowish colour, and there
+a dense crowd of bats, frightened by the light of the torches, fly
+out with great noise and precipitation. For about a hundred paces,
+in advancing towards the interior, the vault continues to be very
+lofty, and the gallery is spacious; but suddenly the former declines
+immensely, and the latter becomes so narrow that it scarce admits
+of a passage for one man, who is obliged to crawl on his hands and
+knees to pass through, and continue in this painful position for
+about a hundred yards. And now the gallery becomes wide again, and
+the vault rises several feet high. But here, again, a new difficulty
+soon presents itself, and which must be overcome; a sort of wall,
+three or four yards high, must be climbed over, and immediately behind
+which lies a most dangerous subterraneous place, where two enormous
+precipices, with open mouths on a level with the ground, seem ready
+to swallow up the imprudent traveller, who, although he have his
+torch lighted, would not walk, step by step, and with the greatest
+precaution, through this gloomy labyrinth. A few stones thrown into
+these gulfs attest, by the hollow noise produced by their falling
+to the bottom, that they are several hundred feet deep. Then the
+gallery, which is still wide and spacious, runs on without presenting
+anything remarkable till the visitor arrives on the spot where the
+last researches stopped at. Here it seems to terminate by a sort of
+rotunda, surrounded by stalactites of divers forms, and which, in one
+part, represents a real dome supported by columns. This dome looks
+over a small lake, out of which a murmuring stream flows continually
+into the precipices already described. It was here that we began our
+serious investigations, desirous of ascertaining if it were possible
+to prolong this subterraneous peregrination. We dived several times
+into the lake without discovering anything favourable to our desires;
+we then directed our steps to the right, examining all the while, by
+the light of our torches, the smallest gaps to be seen in the sides
+of the gallery, when at last, after many unsuccessful attempts, we
+discovered a hole through which a man's arm could scarcely pass. By
+introducing a torch into it, how great was our surprise to see within
+it an immense space, studded with rock-crystal. I need not add that
+such a discovery inspired us with the greatest desire of more closely
+examining that which we had but an imperfect view of. We therefore
+set our Indian to work with his pick-axe, to widen the hole and make
+a passage for us; his labour went on slowly, he struck his blows
+gently and cautiously, so as to avoid a falling-in of the rock, which
+would not only have marred our hopes, but would, besides, have caused
+a great disaster. The vault of rocks suspended over our heads might
+bury us all alive, and, as will be seen by the sequel, the precautions
+we had taken were not fruitless. At the very moment when our hopes
+were about to be realised,--the aperture being now wide enough
+to admit of us passing through it--suddenly, and above our heads,
+we heard a hollow prolonged rustling noise that froze us to death;
+the vault had been shaken, and we dreaded its falling upon us. For a
+moment, which seemed to us, however, very long, we were all terrified;
+the Indian himself was standing as motionless as a statue, with his
+hands upon the handle of his pick-axe, just in the same position as
+he was when he gave his last blow. After a moment's solemn silence,
+when our fright had a little subsided, we began to examine the nature
+of the danger we had just escaped. Above our heads a long and wide
+split ran along the vault to a distance of several yards, and, at
+the place where it stopped, an enormous rock, detached from the dome,
+had been most providentially impeded in its fall downwards by one of
+the columns, which, acting as a sort of buttress, kept it suspended
+over the opening we had just made. Having, after mature examination,
+ascertained that the column and the rock were pretty solid, like rash
+men, accustomed to daunt all danger and surmount any sort of obstacle
+and difficulty, we resolved upon gliding one by one into the dangerous
+yawning. Dr. Genu, who till then had kept a profound silence, on
+hearing of our resolution was suddenly seized with such a panic fear
+that he recovered his voice, imploring and begging of us to take him
+out of the cavern; and, as if he had been suddenly seized with a sort
+of vertigo, he told us, with interrupted accents, that he could not
+breathe--that he felt himself as if he were smothering--that his heart
+was beating so violently, were he to stay any longer amidst the dangers
+we were running he was certain of dying from the effects of a rupture
+of the heart. He offered all he possessed on earth to him who would
+save his life, and with clasped hands he supplicated our Indians not
+to forsake him, but to guide him out of the place. We therefore took
+compassion upon his state of mind, and allowed the Indian to guide
+him out; but as soon as the latter returned, and having ascertained
+during his absence that neither the rocky fragment nor the column had
+stirred, but which had been the momentary cause of our alarm, we put
+our project into execution, and like serpents, one after the other,
+we crawled into the dangerous opening, which was scarcely large enough
+for our passing through. We soon ceased thinking of our past dangers,
+nor did our present imprudence much pre-occupy our minds, all our
+attention being entirely absorbed by what presented itself to our
+ravished eyes. Here we were in the midst of a saloon wearing a most
+fairy aspect, and, by the light of our torches, the vault, the floor,
+and the wall were shining and dazzling, as if they had been covered
+over with the most admirably transparent rock-crystal. Even in some
+places did the hand of man seem to have presided over the ornamenting
+of this enchanted palace. Numberless stalactites and stalagmites, as
+pellucid as the limpid stream that has just been seized by the frost,
+assumed here and there the most fantastic forms and shapes--they
+represented brilliant draperies, rows of columns, lustres, and
+chandeliers. At one end, close to the wall, was to be seen an altar,
+with steps leading up to it, and which seemed to be in expectation
+of the priest to celebrate divine service. It would be impossible
+for my pen to describe everything that transported us with joy, and
+drew forth our admiration; we really imagined ourselves to be in one
+of the Arabian Nights' palaces, and the Indians themselves were far
+from guessing the one-half of the wonders we had just discovered.
+
+Having left this dazzling palace, we continued our underground ramble,
+penetrating more and more into the bowels of the earth, following
+step by step a winding labyrinth, but which for a whole half-league
+offered nothing remarkable to our view, except now and then the
+sight of the very great dangers our undauntable curiosity urged us
+on to. In certain parts the vault no longer presented the aspect
+of being as solid as stone, earth alone seemed to be its component
+parts; and here and there, recent proofs of falling-in showed us that
+still more considerable ones might take place, and cut off from us
+all means of retreat. Nevertheless we pushed on still, far beyond
+our present adventurous discovery, and at last arrived at a new,
+magnificent, and extensive space, all bespangled, like the first,
+with brilliant stalactites, and in no way inferior to the former in
+the gorgeous beauty of its details. Here again we gave ourselves up
+to the most minute examination of the many wonders surrounding us,
+and which shone like prisms by the light of our torches. We gathered
+from off the ground several small stalagmites, as large and as round
+as hazel-nuts, and so like that fruit, when preserved, that some days
+later, at a ball at Manilla, we presented some of them to the ladies,
+whose first movement was to put them to their mouth; but soon finding
+out their mistake, they entreated to be allowed to keep them, to
+have them, as they said, converted into ear-ring drops. Having fully
+enjoyed the beautiful and brilliant spectacle presented to our eyes,
+we now began to feel the effects of hunger and fatigue. We had been
+walking in this subterraneous domain to the extent of more than three
+miles, had taken no rest or refreshment since morning, and the day
+was already far advanced.
+
+I have often experienced that our moral strength decreases in
+proportion as our physical strength does; and of course we must have
+been in that state when sinister suppositions took possession of
+our imaginations. One of our party communicated to us a reflection
+he had just made--which was, that a falling-in might have taken
+place between us and the issue from the grotto; or, what appeared
+still more probable, that the enormous rock, that was suspended and
+buttressed up by the column, might have fallen down, and thus bar
+up all passage through the hole we had so rashly made. Had such a
+misfortune happened to us, what a horrible situation we should have
+been in! We could hope for no help from without, even from our friend
+Genu, who, as we had witnessed, had been so upset by fear; so that,
+rather than suffer the anguish and die the death of the wretch buried
+alive in a sepulchre, our poignards must have been our last resource.
+
+All these reflections, which we analysed and commented upon, one by
+one, made us resolve upon returning, and leaving to others, more
+imprudent than ourselves, if any there be, the care of exploring
+the space we had still to travel over. We soon got over the ground
+that separated us from the place we had most to dread. Providence
+had favoured and protected us--the large fragment of rock, that
+object of all our fears, was still propped up. One after the other
+did we squeeze ourselves through the narrow opening, avoiding as
+much as possible the least friction, till at last we had all passed
+through. Joyous indeed were we on seeing ourselves out of danger after
+so perilous an enterprise, and we were already beginning to direct
+our steps towards the outlet of the cavern, when suddenly a hollow,
+prolonged noise, and below our feet a rapid trembling excited once
+more all our fears. But those fears were soon calmed by our Indian,
+who came running towards us at full speed, brandishing in his hand
+his pick-axe. The imprudent fellow, unwilling to sacrifice it, had
+waited till we were some paces distant, and then pulling it to him
+most forcibly, while all the while he took good care to keep quickly
+moving away, when thanks to Providence, or to his own nimbleness,
+he was not crushed to atoms by the fragment of the rock, which,
+being no longer buttressed up by the column that had been shaken,
+had fallen to the ground, completely stopping up the issue through
+which we had passed one after the other: so that no doubt no one,
+after us, will be able to penetrate into the beautiful part of that
+grotto which we had just passed through so fortunately. After this
+last episode we no longer hesitated in returning, and it was with great
+delight that we beheld once more the great luminary of the world, and
+found our friend Genu sitting upon a block of marble, reflecting on
+our long absence, and, at the same time, on our unqualifiable temerity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+    Dumont d'Urville--Rear-Admiral Laplace: Desertion of
+    Sailors from his Ship--I recover them for him--Origin of
+    the Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands--Their General
+    Disposition--Hospitality and Respect for Old Age--Tagal
+    Marriage Ceremony--Indian Legal Eloquence--Explanation of the
+    Matrimonial Speeches--The Caymans, or Alligators--Instances of
+    their Ferocity--Imprudence and Death of my Shepherd--Method
+    of entrapping the Monster which had devoured him--We Attack
+    and eventually Capture it--Its Dimensions--We Dissect and
+    Examine the Contents of its Stomach--Boa-Constrictors--Their
+    large size--Attack of a Boa-Constrictor on a Wild Boar--We Kill
+    and Skin it--Unsuccessful Attempt to capture a Boa-Constrictor
+    alive--A Man Devoured--Dangerous Venomous Reptiles.
+
+
+I shall perhaps be accused of exaggeration for what I say of the
+enjoyments and emotions of my existence at Jala-Jala: nevertheless
+I adhere to the strict truth, and it would be very easy for me to
+cite the names of many persons in support of the truth of all my
+narrative. Moreover, the various travellers who have spent some time at
+my habitation have published, in their works, the tableau or recital of
+my existence in the midst of my dear Indians, who were all so devoted
+to me. Among other works, I shall cite "The Voyage Round the World,"
+by the unfortunate Dumont d'Urville; and that of Rear-Admiral Laplace,
+in each of which works will be found a special article dedicated to
+Jala-Jala. [21]
+
+Since I have named M. Laplace, I shall here relate a little anecdote
+of which he was the hero, and which will show to what a degree my
+influence was generally considered and looked up to in the province
+of Lagune.
+
+Several sailors, belonging to the crew of the frigate commanded
+by M. Laplace, had deserted at Manilla, and, notwithstanding all
+the searches that the Spanish government had caused to be made,
+it was found impossible to discover the hiding-place of five of
+them. M. Laplace coming to pay a few weeks' visit to my little domain,
+the governor said to him: "If you wish to find out your men you have
+only to apply to M. Gironiere--no one will discover them if he do not;
+convey to him my orders to set out immediately in pursuit of them."
+
+On arriving at my habitation M. Laplace communicated to me this order,
+but I was too independent to think of executing it: my business and
+occupation had nothing to do with deserters. A few days afterwards a
+captain, accompanied by about a hundred soldiers, under his orders,
+arrived at Jala-Jala, to inform M. Laplace that he had scoured
+the province without being able to obtain the least news of the
+deserters, whom he had been looking after for the last fortnight; at
+which news M. Laplace was very much grieved, and coming to me, said:
+"M. de la Gironiere, I perceive I shall be obliged to sail without the
+hands that have deserted, if you yourself will not look after them. I
+therefore beg and beseech of you to sacrifice a little of your time,
+and render me that important service."
+
+This entreaty was no order: it was a prayer, a supplication, that
+was addressed to me, consequently I took but little time to reply
+as follows: "Commander, in one hour hence I shall be on my way,
+and before forty-eight hours are expired you shall have your men here."
+
+"Oh! take care," replied he; "mind, you have to do with more than
+rough fellows: do not therefore expose your life, and should they
+perchance make any resistance, give them no quarter, but fire on them."
+
+A few minutes afterwards, accompanied by my faithful lieutenant and
+one soldier, I crossed over the lake, and went in the direction
+where I thought that the French sailors had taken refuge. I was
+soon on their track; and on the second day afterwards I fulfilled
+the promise I had made Commander Laplace, and delivered up to him
+his five deserters against whom I had been obliged to employ neither
+violence nor fire-arms.
+
+I have already had the occasion of speaking about the Tagalocs, and
+describing their disposition. However, I have not yet entered into
+the necessary details to make well known a population so submissive
+to the Spaniards, and whose primitive origin never can be anything
+but hypothesis--yea, a true problem.
+
+It is probable, and almost incontestible, that the Philippine Islands
+were primitively peopled by aborigines, a small race of negroes still
+inhabiting the interior of the forests in pretty large numbers, called
+Ajetas by the Tagalocs, and Négritos by the Spaniards. Doubtless
+at a very distant period the Malays invaded the shores, and drove
+the indigenous population into the interior beyond the mountains;
+afterwards, whether by accidents on sea, or desirous of availing
+themselves of the richness of the soil, they were joined by the
+Chinese, the Japanese, the inhabitants of the archipelago of the
+South Seas, the Javanese, and even the Indians. It must not, then,
+be wondered at, that from the mixture proceeding from the union of
+these various people, all of unequal physiognomy, there have risen
+the different nuances, distinctions and types; upon which, however,
+is generally depicted Malay physiognomy and cruelty.
+
+The Tagal is well made, rather tall than otherwise. His hair is long,
+his beard thin, his colour brass-like, yet sometimes inclining to
+European whiteness; his eye expanded and vivacious, somewhat á la
+Chinoise; nose large; and, true to the Malay race, his cheek bones are
+high and prominent. He is passionately fond of dancing and music; is,
+when in love, very loving; cruel towards his enemies; never forgives an
+act of injustice, and ever avenges it with his poignard, which--like
+the kris with the Malays--is his favourite weapon. Whenever he has
+pledged his word in serious business, it is sacred; he gives himself
+passionately to games of hazard; he is a good husband, a good father;
+jealous of his wife's honour, but careless of his daughter's; who,
+despite any little faux-pas, meets with no difficulty in getting
+a husband.
+
+The Tagal is of very sober habits: all he requires is water, a
+little rice, and salt-fish. In his estimation an aged man is an
+object of great veneration; and where there exists a family of them
+in all periods of life, the youngest is naturally most subservient
+to the eldest.
+
+The Tagal, like the Arab, is hospitably inclined, without any sentiment
+of egotism, and certainly without any other idea than that of relieving
+suffering humanity: so that when a stranger appears before an Indian
+hut at meal-time, were the poor Indian only to have what was strictly
+necessary for his family, it is his greatest pleasure to invite and
+press the stranger to take a place at his humble board, and partake
+of his family cheer. When an old man, whose days are dwindling to
+the shortest span, can work no longer, he is sure to find a refuge,
+an asylum, a home, at a neighbour's, where he is looked upon as one
+of the family. There he may remain till he is called to "that bourne
+from whence no traveller returns."
+
+Amongst the Tagals the marriage ceremony is somewhat peculiar. It
+is preceded by two other ceremonies, the first of which is called
+Tain manoc, Tagal words, signifying or meaning "the cock looking
+after his hen." Therefore, when once a young man has informed his
+father and mother that he has a predeliction for a young Indian girl,
+his parents pay a visit to the young girl's parents upon some fine
+evening, and after some very ordinary chat the mamma of the young man
+offers a piaster to the mamma of the young lady. Should the future
+mother-in-law accept, the young lover is admitted, and then his future
+mother-in-law is sure to go and spend the very same piaster in betel
+and cocoa-wine. During the greater portion of the night the whole
+company assembled upon the occasion chews betel, drinks cocoa-wine,
+and discusses upon all other subjects but marriage. The young men
+never make their appearance till the piaster has been accepted,
+because in that case they look upon it as being the first and most
+essential step towards their marriage.
+
+On the next day the young man pays a visit to the mother, father,
+and other relatives of his affianced bride. There he is received as
+one of the family; he sleeps there, he lodges there, takes a part in
+all the labours, and most particularly in those labours depending
+upon the young maid's superintendence. He now undertakes a service
+or task that lasts, more or less, two, three, or four years, during
+which time he must look well to himself; for if anything be found
+out against him he is discarded, and never more can pretend to the
+hand of her he would espouse.
+
+The Spaniards did their best to suppress this custom, on account of the
+inconveniencies it entailed. Very often the father of a young girl,
+in order to keep in his service a man who cost him nothing, keeps on
+this state of servitude indefinitely, and sometimes dismisses him who
+has served him for two or three years, and takes another under the same
+title of prétendant, or lover. But it also frequently happens that
+if the two lovers grow impatient for the celebration of the marriage
+ceremony--for "hope deferred maketh the heart sick,"--some day or
+other the girl takes the young man by the hair, and presenting him
+to the curate of the village, tells him she has just run away with
+her lover, therefore they must be married. The wedding ceremony then
+takes place without the consent of the parents. But were the young
+man to carry off the young girl, he would be severely punished,
+and she restored to her family.
+
+If all things have passed off in good order, if the lover has undergone
+two or three years of voluntary slavery, and if his future relations
+be quite satisfied with his conduct and temper, then comes the day
+of the second ceremony, called Tajin-bojol, "the young man desirous
+of tying the union knot."
+
+This second ceremony is a grand festival-day. The relations and
+friends of both families are all assembled at the bride's house,
+and divided into two camps, each of which discusses the interests of
+the young couple; but each family has an advocate, who alone has the
+right to speak in favour of his client. The relations have no right
+to speak; they only make, in a low tone of voice, to their advocate,
+the observations they think fit.
+
+The Indian woman never brings a marriage portion with her. When she
+takes a husband unto herself she possesses nothing; the young man alone
+brings the portion, and this is why the young girl's advocate speaks
+first, and asks for it, in order to settle the basis of the treaty.
+
+I will here set before my readers the speeches of two advocates in a
+ceremony of this kind, at which I had the curiosity to be present. In
+order not to wound the susceptibility of the parties, the advocates
+never speak but in allegorical terms, and at the ceremony which
+I honoured with my presence the advocate of the young Indian girl
+thus began:--
+
+"A young man and a young girl were joined together in the holy
+bands of wedlock; they possessed nothing--nay, they had not even a
+shelter. For several years the young woman was very badly off. At last
+her misfortunes came to an end, and one day she found herself in a
+fine large cottage that was her own. She became the mother of a pretty
+little babe, a girl, and on the day of her confinement there appeared
+unto her an angel, who said to her:--'Bear in mind thy marriage,
+and the time of penury thou didst go through. The child that has
+just been born unto thee will I take under my protection. When she
+will have grown up and be a fine lass, give her but to him who will
+build her up a temple, where there will be ten columns, each composed
+of ten stones. If thou dost not execute these my orders thy daughter
+will be as miserable as thou hast been thyself.'"
+
+After this short speech, the adverse advocate replied:--"Once upon a
+time there lived a queen, whose kingdom lay on the sea-side. Amongst
+the laws of her realm there was one which she followed with the
+greatest rigour. Every ship arriving in her states' harbour could,
+according to that law, cast anchor but at one hundred fathoms deep,
+and he who violated the said law was put to death without pity or
+remorse. Now it came to pass one day that a brave captain of a ship was
+surprised by a dreadful tempest, and after many fruitless endeavours
+to save his vessel, he was obliged to put into the queen's harbour,
+and cast anchor there, although his cable was only eighty fathoms
+long, for he preferred death on the scaffold to the loss of his ship
+and crew. The enraged queen commanded him to her audit chamber. He
+obeyed, and throwing himself at her feet, told her that necessity
+alone had compelled him to infringe upon the laws, and that, having
+but eighty fathoms long, he could not possibly cast out a hundred,
+so he besought her most graciously to pardon him."
+
+And here ended his speech, but the other advocate took it up, and
+thus went on:--
+
+"The queen, moved to pity by the prayer of the suppliant captain,
+and his inability to cast his anchor one hundred fathoms deep,
+instantly pardoned him, and well did she devise."
+
+On hearing these last words joy shone upon every countenance,
+and the musicians began playing on the guitar. The bride and
+bridegroom, who had been waiting in an adjoining chamber, now made
+their appearance. The young man took from off his neck his rosary, or
+string of beads, put it round the young girl's neck, and took back hers
+in lieu of the one he had given her. The night was spent in dancing
+and merriment, and the marriage ceremony--just as Christian-like as
+our own--was arranged to take place in a week.
+
+I shall now, just as I heard it myself, give the explanation of the
+advocates' speeches, which I did not entirely understand. The bride's
+mother had married without a wedding portion on her husband's side,
+so she had gone through very adverse and pinching circumstances. The
+temple that the angel had told her to demand for her daughter was, a
+house; and the ten columns, composed of ten stones each, signified that
+with the house a sum of one hundred piasters would be requisite--that
+is, twenty pounds sterling.
+
+The speech of the young man's advocate explained that he would give
+the house, as he said nothing about it; but, being worth only eighty
+piasters, he threw himself at the feet of the parents of his betrothed,
+that the twenty piasters which he was minus, might offer no obstacle
+to his marriage. The pardon accorded by the queen signified the grace
+shown to the young man, who was accepted with his eighty piasters only.
+
+The servitude which precedes matrimony, and of which I have spoken,
+was practised long before the conquest of these isles by the
+Spaniards. This would seem to prove the origin I attribute to the
+Tagalocs, whom I believe to be descended from the Malays, and these
+latter, being all Mussulmans, would naturally have preserved some of
+the ancient patriarchal customs.
+
+Believing that I have sufficiently described the Indians and their
+habits, I will now introduce to my readers two species of monsters
+that I have often bad occasion to observe, mid even to combat--the
+one a denizen of forests, the boa constrictor; the other of lakes
+and rivers, the cayman or alligator. At the period at which I first
+occupied my habitation, and began to colonise the village of Jala-Jala,
+caymans abounded on that side of the lake. From my windows I daily
+saw them sporting in the water, and waylaying and snapping at the
+dogs that ventured too near the brink. One day, a female servant of my
+wife's, having been so imprudent as to bathe at the edge of the lake,
+was surprised by one of them, a monster of enormous size. One of my
+guards came up at the moment she was being carried off; he fired his
+musket at the brute, and hit it under the fore-leg, or arm-pit, which
+is the only vulnerable part. But the wound was insufficient to check
+the cayman's progress, and it disappeared with its prey. Nevertheless,
+this little bullet hole was the cause of its death; and here it is
+to be observed, that the slightest wound received by the cayman is
+incurable. The shrimps which abound in the lake get into the orifice,
+gradually their number increases, until at last they penetrate deep
+into the solid flesh, and into the very interior of the body. This
+is what happened to the one which devoured my wife's maid. A month
+after the frightful occurrence the cayman was found dead upon the
+bank, five or six leagues from my house. Some Indians brought back
+to me the unfortunate woman's earrings, which they had found in the
+monster's stomach.
+
+Upon another occasion, a Chinese was riding onwards in advance
+of me. We reached a river, and I let him go on alone, in order to
+ascertain whether the river was very deep or not. Suddenly, three or
+four caymans which lay in waiting under the water, threw themselves
+upon him; horse and rider disappeared, and for some minutes afterwards
+the water was tinged with blood.
+
+I was curious to obtain a near view of one of these voracious animals,
+and, at the time when they frequented the vicinity of my house, I made
+several attempts to accomplish my wishes. One night I baited a huge
+hook, secured by a chain and strong cord, with an entire sheep. Next
+morning, sheep and chain had disappeared. I lay in wait for the
+creatures with my gun, but the bullets rebounded, half flattened
+upon their scales, without doing the slightest injury. One evening
+that a large dog of mine had died, belonging to a race peculiar to
+the Philippines, and exceeding in size any of the canine species of
+Europe, I had his carcass dragged to the shore of the lake, and hid
+myself in a little thicket, with my gun ready cocked, in the event
+of any cayman presenting itself to carry off the bait. Presently
+I fell asleep; when I awoke, the dog had disappeared, the cayman,
+luckily for me, not mistaking his prey.
+
+In the course of a few years' time, these monsters had disappeared
+from the environs of Jala-Jala; but one morning, when out with my
+shepherds, at some leagues' distance from my house, we came to a river,
+which could only be crossed by swimming. One of my people said to me:
+
+"Master, the water is deep here, and we are in the courses where the
+caymans abound; an accident soon happens, let us try further up the
+river, and pass over in a shallower spot."
+
+We were about to follow this advice, when another man, more rash
+than his comrades, said: "I'm not afraid of caymans!" and spurred
+his horse into the stream. He had scarcely got half-way across, when
+we perceived a monstrous cayman rise and advance to meet him. We
+uttered a warning shout, the Indian himself perceived the danger,
+threw himself from his horse, and swam for the bank with all his
+strength. He had already reached it, but imprudently stopped behind
+the trunk of a tree that had been felled by the force of the current,
+and where he had the water up to his knees. Believing himself secure,
+he drew his cutlass, and watched the movements of the cayman, which,
+meanwhile, had reached the horse just as, the Indian quitted the
+animal. Rearing his enormous head out of the water, the monster threw
+himself upon the steed and seized him by the saddle. The horse made
+a violent effort, the girths broke, and thus enabled him to reach
+the shore. Soon, however, finding that his prey had escaped, the
+cayman dropped the saddle, and made towards the Indian. We perceived
+this movement, and quickly cried out: "Run, run, or the cayman will
+have you!" The Indian, however, would not stir, but calmly waited,
+cutlass in hand. The monster advanced towards him; the Indian struck
+him a blow on the head, which took no more effect than a flip of the
+fingers would have on the horns of a bull. The cayman made a spring,
+seized him by one of his thighs, and for more than a minute we beheld
+my poor shepherd--his body erect above the surface of the water,
+his hands joined, his eyes turned to heaven, in the attitude of a man
+imploring Divine mercy--dragged back again into the lake. The drama
+was over: the cayman's stomach was his tomb. During these agonizing
+moments, we all remained silent, but no sooner had my poor shepherd
+disappeared than we all swore to avenge him.
+
+I caused to be made three nets of strong cords, each of which nets
+was large enough to form a complete barrier across the river. I also
+had a hut built, and put an Indian to live in it, whose duty was to
+keep constant watch, and to let me know as soon as the cayman returned
+to the river. He watched in vain, for upwards of two months, but at
+the end of that time he came and told me that the monster had seized
+a horse, and had dragged it into the river to devour at leisure. I
+immediately repaired to the spot, accompanied by my guards, and by my
+priest, who positively would see a cayman hunt, and by an American
+friend of mine, Mr. Russell, [22] who was then staying with me. I
+had the nets spread at intervals, so that the cayman could not escape
+back into the lake. This operation was not effected without some acts
+of imprudence; thus, for instance, when the nets were arranged, an
+Indian dived to make sure that they were at the bottom, and that our
+enemy could not escape by passing below them. But it might very well
+have happened that the cayman was in the interval between the nets,
+and so have gobbled up my Indian. Fortunately everything passed off
+as we wished. When all was ready, I launched three pirogues, strongly
+fastened together, side by side, with some Indians in the centre,
+armed with lances, and with long bamboos, with which they could touch
+the bottom. At last, all measures having been taken to attain my end,
+without risk of accident, my Indians began to explore the river with
+their long bamboos.
+
+An animal so formidable in size as the one we were in search of,
+could not hide himself very easily, and soon we beheld him on the
+surface of the river, lashing the water with his long tail, snapping
+and clattering with his jaws, and endeavouring to get at those
+who disturbed him in his retreat. A universal shout of joy greeted
+his appearance; the Indians in the pirogues hurled their lances at
+him, whilst we, upon either shore of the lake, fired a volley. The
+bullets rebounded from the monster's scales, which they were unable
+to penetrate; the keener lances made their way between the scales,
+and entered into the cayman's body some eight or ten inches. Thereupon
+he disappeared, swimming with incredible rapidity, and reached the
+first net. The resistance it opposed turned him back; he re-ascended
+the river, and again appeared on the top of the water. This violent
+movement, broke the staves of the lances which the Indians had stuck
+into him, and the iron alone remained in the wounds. Each time that
+he appeared the firing recommenced, and fresh lances were plunged
+into his enormous body. Perceiving, however, how ineffectual firearms
+were to pierce his cuirass of invulnerable scales, I excited him by
+my shouts and gestures, and when he came to the edge of the water,
+opening his enormous jaws all ready to devour me, I approached the
+muzzle of my gun to within a few inches, and fired both barrels, in
+the hope that the bullets would find something softer than scales in
+the interior of that formidable cavern, and that they would penetrate
+to his brain. All was futile. The jaws closed with a terrible noise,
+seizing only the fire and smoke that issued from my gun, and the balls
+flattened against his bones without injuring them. The animal, which
+had now become furious, made inconceivable efforts to seize one of
+his enemies; his strength seemed to increase, rather than to diminish,
+whilst our resources were nearly exhausted. Almost all our lances were
+sticking in his body, and our ammunition drew to an end. The fight
+had lasted more than six hours, without any result that could make us
+hope for its speedy termination, when an Indian struck the cayman,
+whilst at the bottom of the water, with a lance of unusual strength
+and size. Another Indian, at his comrade's request, struck two vigorous
+blows with a mace upon the but-end of the lance; the iron entered deep
+into the animal's body, and immediately, with a movement as swift as
+lightning, he darted towards the nets and disappeared. The lance pole,
+detached from the iron head, returned to the surface of the water;
+for some minutes we waited in vain for the monster's re-appearance;
+we thought that his last effort had enabled him to reach the lake, and
+that our chase would result fruitlessly. We hauled in the first net, a
+large hole in which convinced us that our supposition was correct. The
+second net was in the same condition as the first. Disheartened by
+our failure, we were hauling in the third, when we felt a strong
+resistance. Several of the Indians began to drag it towards the bank,
+and presently, to our great joy, we saw the cayman upon the surface
+of the water. He was expiring. We threw over him several lassos of
+strong cords, and when he was well secured, we drew him to land. It
+was no easy matter to haul him up on the bank; the strength of forty
+Indians hardly sufficed. When at last we had got him completely out
+of the water, and had him before our eyes, we stood stupified with
+astonishment, for it was a very different thing to see his body thus
+and to see him swimming, when he was fighting against us. Mr. Russell,
+a very competent person, was charged with his measurements. From the
+extremity of his nostrils to the tip of his tail, he was found to
+be twenty-seven feet long, and his circumference was eleven feet,
+measured under the arm pits. His belly was much more voluminous,
+but we thought it unnecessary to measure him there, judging that the
+horse upon which he had breakfasted must considerably have increased
+his bulk.
+
+This process at an end, we took counsel as to what we should do
+with the dead cayman. Every one gave his opinion. My wish was to
+convey it bodily to my residence, but that was impossible; it would
+have required a vessel of five or six tons burthen, and we could not
+procure such a craft. One man wanted the skin, the Indians begged for
+the flesh, to dry it, and use it as a specific against asthma. They
+affirm, that any asthmatic person who nourishes himself for a certain
+time with this flesh, is infallibly cured. Somebody else desired to
+have the fat, as an antidote to rheumatic pains; and, finally, my
+worthy priest demanded that the stomach should be opened, in order to
+ascertain how many Christians the monster had devoured. Every time,
+he said, that a cayman eats a Christian he swallows a large pebble;
+thus, the number of pebbles we should find in him would positively
+indicate the number of the faithful to whom his enormous stomach had
+afforded sepulture. To satisfy everybody, I sent for an axe wherewith,
+to cut off the head, which I reserved for myself, abandoning the rest
+of the carcass to all who had taken part in the capture. It was no
+easy matter to decapitate the monster. The axe buried itself in the
+flesh to half-way up the handle without reaching the bones; at last,
+after many efforts, we succeeded in getting the head off. Then we
+opened the stomach, and took out of it, by fragments, the horse which
+had been devoured by the monster that morning. The cayman does not
+masticate, he snaps off a huge lump with his teeth, and swallows it
+entire. Thus we found the whole of the horse, divided only into seven
+or eight pieces. Then we came to about a hundred and fifty pounds'
+weight of pebbles, varying from the size of a fist to that of a
+walnut. When my priest saw this great quantity of stones:
+
+"It is a mere tale," he could not help saying; "it is impossible that
+this animal could have devoured so great a number of Christians."
+
+It was eight o'clock at night when we had finished the cutting up. I
+left the body to our assistants, and had the head placed in a boat to
+convey it to my house. I very much desired to preserve this monstrous
+trophy as nearly as possible in the state in which it then was, but
+that would have required a great quantity of arsenical soap, and I
+was out of that chemical. So I made up my mind to dissect it, and
+preserve the skeleton. I weighed it before detaching the ligaments;
+its weight was four hundred and fifty pounds; its length, from the
+nose to the first vertebræ, five feet six inches.
+
+I found all my bullets, which had become flattened against the bones
+of the jaws and palate as they would have done against a plate of
+iron. The lance thrust which had slain the cayman was a chance--a sort
+of miracle. When the Indian struck with his mace upon the but-end
+of the pole, the iron pierced through the nape, into the vertebral
+column, and penetrated the spinal marrow, the only vulnerable part.
+
+When this formidable head was well prepared, and the bones dried and
+whitened, I had the pleasure of presenting it to my friend Russell,
+who has since deposited it in the museum at Boston, United States.
+
+The other monster, of which I have promised a description, is the
+boa-constrictor. The species is common in the Philippines, but it is
+rare to meet with a specimen of very large dimensions. It is possible,
+nay probable, that centuries of time are necessary for this reptile to
+attain its largest size; and to such an age, the various accidents to
+which animals are exposed, rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas
+are consequently to be met with only in the gloomiest, most remote,
+and most solitary forests.
+
+I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our
+European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my
+house, and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my
+bed. Several times, when passing through the woods with my Indians,
+I heard the piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot
+whence they proceeded, we almost invariably found a wild boar, about
+whose body a boa had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting
+him up into the tree round which it had coiled itself.
+
+When the wild boar had reached a certain height, the snake pressed
+him against a tree with a force that crushed his bones and stifled
+him. Then the boa let its prey fall, descended the tree, and prepared
+to swallow it. This last operation was much too lengthy for us to
+await its end. To simplify matters, I sent a ball into the boa's
+head. My Indians took the flesh to dry it for food, and the skin to
+make dagger sheaths of. It is unnecessary to say that the wild boar
+was not forgotten, although it was a prey that had cost us but little
+trouble to secure. One day an Indian surprised one of these reptiles
+asleep, after it had swallowed an enormous deer. Its size was so great,
+that a buffalo waggon would have been necessary to transport it to the
+village. The Indian cut it in pieces, and contented himself with as
+much as he could carry off. Having been informed of this, I sent after
+the remains, and my people brought me a piece about eight feet long,
+and so large in circumference that the skin, when dried, enveloped the
+tallest man like a cloak. I presented it to my friend Hamilton Lindsay.
+
+I had not yet seen any of these largest sized serpents alive, when,
+one afternoon, crossing the mountains with two of my shepherds, our
+attention was drawn to the constant barking of my dogs, which seemed
+to be assailing some animal that stood upon its defence. We at first
+thought that it was a buffalo that they had roused from its lair, and
+approached the spot with due caution. My dogs were dispersed along the
+brink of a deep ravine, in which was an enormous boa constrictor. The
+monster raised his head to a height of five or six feet, directing it
+from one edge to the other of the ravine, and menacing his assailants
+with his forked tongue; but the dogs, more active than he was, easily
+avoided his attacks. My first impulse was to shoot him; but then it
+occurred to me to take him alive, and to send him to France. Assuredly
+he would have been the most monstrous boa that had ever been seen
+there. To carry my design into execution we manufactured nooses of
+cane, strong enough to resist the efforts of the most powerful wild
+buffalo. With great precaution we succeeded in passing one of our
+nooses round the boa's neck; then we tied him tightly to a tree,
+in such a manner as to keep his head at its usual height--about six
+feet from the ground. This done, we crossed to the other side of the
+ravine, and threw another noose over him, which we secured like the
+first. When he felt himself thus fixed at both ends, he coiled and
+writhed, and grappled several little trees which grew within his reach
+along the edge of the ravine. Unluckily for him everything yielded
+to his efforts: he tore up the young trees by the roots, broke off
+the branches, and dislodged enormous stones, round which he sought in
+vain to obtain the hold or point of resistance he needed. The nooses
+were strong, and withstood his almost furious efforts.
+
+To convey an animal like this, several buffaloes and a whole system
+of cordage were necessary. Night approached; confident in our nooses,
+we left the place, proposing to return next morning and complete
+the capture; but we reckoned without our host. In the night the
+boa changed his tactics, got his body round some huge blocks of
+basalt, and finally succeeded in breaking his bonds and getting
+clear off. When I had assured myself that our prey had escaped us,
+and that all search for the reptile in the neighbourhood would be
+futile, my disappointment was very great, for I much doubted if a like
+opportunity would ever present itself. It is only on rare occasions
+that accidents are caused by these enormous reptiles. I once knew of
+a man becoming their victim. It happened thus:--
+
+This man having committed some offence, ran away, and sought refuge
+in a cavern. His father, who alone knew the place of his concealment,
+visited him occasionally to supply him with food. One day he found,
+in place of his son, an enormous boa sleeping. He killed it, and
+found his son in its stomach. The poor wretch had been surprised
+in the night, crushed to death, and swallowed. The curate of the
+village, who had gone in quest of the body to give it burial, and
+who saw the remains of the boa, described them to me as being of
+an almost incredible size. Unfortunately this circumstance happened
+at a considerable distance from my habitation, and I was only made
+acquainted with the particulars when it was too late to verify them
+myself: but still there is nothing surprising that a boa which can
+swallow a deer should as easily swallow a man. Several other feats of
+a similar nature were related to me by the Indians. They told me of
+their comrades, who, roaming about the woods, had been seized by boas,
+crushed against trees, and afterwards devoured; but I was always on my
+guard against Indian tales, and I am only able to verify positively the
+instance, I have just cited, which was related to me by the curate of
+the village, as well as by many other witnesses. Still there would be
+nothing surprising that a similar accident should occur more than once.
+
+The boa is one of the serpents the least to be feared among those
+infesting the Philippines. Of an exceedingly venomous description is
+one which the Indians call dajon-palay, (rice leaf). Burning with
+a red-hot ember is the only antidote to its bite; if that be not
+promptly resorted to, horrible sufferings are followed by certain
+death. The alin-morani is another kind, eight or ten feet long, and,
+if anything, more dangerous still than the "rice leaf," inasmuch as
+its bite is deeper, and more difficult to cauterise. I was never
+bitten by any of these reptiles, despite the slight precaution I
+observed in wandering about the woods, by night as well as by day.
+
+Twice only I endangered myself: the first time was by treading upon
+a dajon-palay; I was warned by a movement under my foot. I pressed
+hard with that leg, and saw the snake's little head stretching out
+to bite me on the ankle; fortunately my foot was on him at so short a
+distance from his head that he could not get at me. I drew my dagger,
+and cut off his head. On another occasion, I noticed two eagles
+rising and falling like arrows amongst the bushes, always at the
+same place. Curious to see what kind of animal they were attacking,
+I approached the place; but no sooner had I done so, than an enormous
+alin-morani, furious with the wounds the eagles had inflicted on him,
+advanced to meet me. I retreated; he coiled himself up, gave a spring,
+and almost caught me on the face. By an instantaneous movement,
+I made a spring backwards, and avoided him; but I took care not to
+turn my back and run, for then I should have been lost. The serpent
+returned to the charge, bounding towards me; I again avoided him, and
+was trying, but in vain, to reach him with my dagger, when an Indian,
+who perceived me from a distance, ran up, armed with a stout switch,
+and rid me of him.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+    The Prosperity and Happiness of my Life at
+    Jala-Jala--Destructiveness of the Locusts--Agriculture in the
+    Philippines--My Herds of Oxen, Buffaloes, and Horses--My Wife
+    presents me with a Daughter, who Dies--The Admiration of the Indian
+    Women for my Wife--Birth of my Son--Continued Prosperity--Death
+    of my brother Henry--My Friendship with Malvilain--His Marriage
+    with my eldest Sister--His Premature Death--I take my Wife to
+    Manilla--Melancholy Adieus--We Return to Jala-Jala--Death of my
+    Wife--My friend Vidie--I determine to Return to France.
+
+
+Never was life more actively spent, or more crowded with emotions,
+than the time I passed at Jala-Jala, but it suited my tastes and
+my character, and I enjoyed as perfect happiness as one can look
+for when far away from one's home and country. My Anna was to
+me an angel of goodness; my Indians were happy, peace and plenty
+smiled upon their families; my fields were covered with abundant
+crops, and my pasturages with numerous herds. It was not, however,
+without great difficulty and much toil that I accomplished my aim;
+how often did I find all my courage and all my philosophy necessary
+to face, without despair, reverses which it was impossible for me
+to avoid? How often did I behold hurricanes and inundations destroy
+the fine harvest that I had protected with so much labour against
+the buffaloes, the wild boars, the monkeys, and even against an
+insect more destructive still than all the other pests which I have
+just mentioned--the locust, one of the plagues of Egypt, apparently
+transported into this province, and which almost regularly, every seven
+years, leave the isles of the south in clouds, and fall upon Luzon,
+bringing desolation, and often famine. It is indeed necessary to have
+witnessed this desolation to be able to form any idea of it. When the
+locusts arrive, a fire-coloured cloud is perceived in the horizon,
+formed of countless myriads of these destructive insects. They fly
+rapidly, often covering, in a closely packed body, a space of two or
+three leagues in diameter, and occupy from five to six consecutive
+hours in passing over head. If they perceive a fine green field they
+pounce down upon it, and in a few minutes all verdure has disappeared,
+the ground is stripped completely bare; they then continue their flight
+elsewhere, bearing on their wings destruction and famine. At evening
+it is in the forests, upon the trees, that they take shelter. They
+hang in such dense masses upon the ends of the boughs that they break
+down even the stoutest limbs from the trees. During the night, from
+the spot where they are reposing, there issues a continual croaking,
+and so loud a noise, that one scarcely believes it to be produced by
+so small an insect. The following morning they leave at day-break, and
+the trees upon which they have reposed are left stripped and broken,
+as though the lightning had swept the forest in every direction; they
+pursue their course elsewhere to commit fresh ravages. At certain
+periods they remain on vast plains or on fertile mountains; where,
+elongating the extremity of their bodies in the form of a gimblet,
+they pierce the earth to the depth of an inch and upwards to deposit
+their eggs. The operation of laying being completed, they leave
+the ground pierced like a sieve, and disappear, for their existence
+has now reached its termination. Three weeks afterwards, however,
+the eggs open, and myriads of young locusts swarm the earth. On
+the spot where they are born, whatever will serve them for food is
+quickly consumed. As soon as they have acquired sufficient strength
+they abandon their birth-place, destroy all kinds of vegetation that
+comes in their way, and direct their course to the cultivated fields,
+which they desolate until the period when their wings appear. They
+then take flight in order to devastate more distant plantations.
+
+As may be seen, agriculture in the Philippines presents many
+difficulties, but it also yields results that may be looked for in
+vain in any other country. During the years which are exempt from
+the calamities I have described the earth is covered with riches;
+every kind of colonial produce is raised in extraordinary abundance,
+frequently in the proportion of eighty to one, and on many plantations
+two crops of the same species are harvested in one year. The rich and
+extensive pasturages offer great facilities for raising a large number
+of cattle, which absolutely cost nothing but the trifling wages paid
+by the proprietor to a few shepherds.
+
+Upon my property I possessed three herds--one of three thousand
+head of oxen, another of eight hundred buffaloes, and the other of
+six hundred horses. At that period of the year when the rice was
+harvested, the shepherds explored the mountains, and drove these
+animals to a vast plain at a short distance from my dwelling. This
+plain was covered by these three species of domesticated animals,
+and presented, especially to the proprietor, an admirable sight. At
+night they were herded in large cattle-folds, near the village, and on
+the following day a selection was made of the oxen that were fit for
+slaughter, of the horses that were old enough for breaking-in, of the
+buffaloes that were strong enough to be employed in working. The herds
+were then re-driven to the plain, there to remain until night. This
+operation lasted during a fortnight, after which time the animals
+were set at liberty until the same period of the following year. When
+at liberty the herd divided itself into bands, and thus roamed about
+the mountains and the valleys they had previously quitted, the only
+trouble caused to the shepherds being an occasional ramble about the
+spots where the animals tranquilly grazed.
+
+Around me all was prosperity. My Indians were also happy,
+and entertained towards me a respect and obedience bordering on
+idolatry. My brother gave me every assistance in my labours, and when
+near my beloved Anna I forgot all the toils and the contrarieties I
+had experienced. About this time a new source of hope sprung up, which
+augmented the happiness I enjoyed with her, and made her dearer to me
+than ever. During several months the health of my wife had changed: she
+then found all the symptoms of pregnancy. We had been married twelve
+years, and she had never yet shown any signs of maternity. I was so
+persuaded that we should never have children that the derangement
+of her health was causing me serious uneasiness, when one morning
+as I was going to my work she said to me: "I don't feel well to-day,
+and I wish you to remain with me." Two hours afterwards, to my great
+surprise, she gave premature birth to a little girl, whose arrival no
+one expected. The infant was born before the due time, and lived only
+one hour, just sufficient to receive baptism, which I administered to
+her. This was the second human being that had expired in the house
+of Jala-Jala; but she was also the first that had there first drawn
+the breath of life. The regret which we all experienced from the loss
+was softened by the certainty that my dear Anna might again become a
+mother, under more favourable circumstances. Her health was speedily
+re-established, and she was again gay and beautiful as ever: indeed
+she appeared so handsome, that often Indian women came from a long
+distance for the sole purpose of looking at her. They would remain for
+half-an-hour gazing at her, and afterwards returned to their villages,
+where they gave birth to creatures little resembling the model which
+they had taken such pains to observe, with a confidence approaching
+to simplicity.
+
+Eventually Anna exhibited new signs of maternity; her pregnancy went
+through the usual course, and her health was not much affected. In due
+time she presented me with a little boy, weakly and delicate, but full
+of life. Our joy was at the highest, for we possessed that which we
+had so long wished for, and that which alone was in my opinion wanting.
+
+My Indians were delighted with the birth, and for several days there
+was a round of rejoicings at Jala-Jala; and my Anna, although confined
+to bed, was obliged to receive visits, at first from all the women
+and maidens of the village, and afterwards from all the Indians who
+were fathers of families. Each brought some little present for the
+newly born, and the cleverest man of them was commissioned to express
+a compliment in the name of all; which comprised their best wishes
+for the happiness of the mother and child, and full assurances of
+the satisfaction they felt in thinking that they would one day be
+ruled over by the son of the master from whom they had experienced so
+much kindness, and who had conferred upon them such benefits. Their
+gratitude was sincere.
+
+The news of the accouchement of my wife brought a very numerous
+party of friends and relations to my house, where they waited for
+the baptism, which took place in my drawing-room. Anna, then almost
+thoroughly well, was present on the occasion: my son was named Henry,
+after his uncle. At this time I was happy; Oh, so truly happy! for my
+wishes were nearly gratified. There was but one not so--and that was
+to see again my aged mother and my sisters; but I hoped that the time
+was not far distant when I should realise the project of revisiting
+my native country. My farming speculation was most prosperous: my
+receipts were every year on the increase; my fields were covered with
+the richest crops of sugar-canes, to the cultivation of which, and of
+rice, I had joined that of coffee. My brother had taken upon himself
+the management of a very large plantation, which promised the most
+brilliant results; and appeared likely to secure the premium which
+the Spanish government had promised to give to the proprietor of a
+plantation of eighty thousand feet of coffee in product. But, alas! the
+period of my happiness had passed away, and what pain and what grief
+was I not doomed to suffer before I again saw my native country.
+
+My brother--my poor Henry--committed some imprudences, and was
+suddenly attacked with an intermittent fever, which in a few days
+carried him off.
+
+My Anna and I shed abundance of tears, for we both loved Henry with
+the warmest affection. For several years we had lived together; he
+participated in all our labours, our troubles, and our pleasures. He
+was the only relative I had in the Philippines. He had left France,
+where he had filled an honourable position, with the sole object
+of coming to see me, and of aiding me in the great task which I
+had undertaken. His amiable qualities and his excellent heart had
+endeared him to us: his loss was irreparable, and the thought that I
+had no longer a brother added poignancy to my bitter grief. Prudent,
+the youngest, had died at Madagascar; Robert, the next to me, died
+at La Planche, near Nantes, in the little dwelling where we spent
+our childhood; and my poor Henry at Jala-Jala. I erected a simple
+tomb for him near the door of the church, and for several months
+Jala-Jala was a place of grief and mourning.
+
+We had scarcely begun, not indeed to console ourselves, but rather
+to bear with resignation the loss we had experienced, when a new
+dispensation of fate came to strike me to the earth.
+
+On my arrival in the Philippines, and while I resided at Cavite,
+I formed a close connection with Malvilain, a native of St. Malo,
+and mate of a ship from that port. During several years which he
+spent at Cavite our friendship was most intimate. A day seldom passed
+that we did not see each other, and two days never, for we were much
+attached. Our two ships were at anchor in the port, not far one from
+the other. One day as I was walking on deck, waiting for a boat to
+take me on board Malvilain's ship, I saw his crew at work in regulating
+one of the masts, when a rope suddenly snapped, and the mast fell with
+a frightful crash on the deck, in the midst of the men, amongst whom
+Malvilain was standing. From the deck of my own ship I beheld all that
+passed on that of my friend, who I thought was killed or wounded. My
+feelings were worked to the highest pitch of anguish and alarm; I
+could not control myself; I jumped into the water and swam to his
+ship, where I had the pleasure of finding him uninjured, although
+considerably stunned by the danger from which he had escaped. Wet
+as I was from my sea-bath I caught him in my arms, and pressed him
+to my heart; and then hastened to afford relief to some of the crew,
+who had not been so fortunate to escape without injury as he had been.
+
+Another time I was the cause of serious alarm to Malvilain. One day,
+a mass of black and thick clouds was gathered close over the point
+of Cavite, and a frightful--that is, a tropical--storm burst. The
+claps of thunder followed each other from minute to minute, and
+before each clap the lightning, in long serpent-like lines of fire,
+darted from the clouds, and drove on to the point of Cavite, where
+it tore up the ground of the little plain situate at the extremity,
+and near which the ships were moored. Notwithstanding the storm I was
+going to see Malvilain, and was almost in the act of placing my foot on
+the deck of his vessel, when the lightning fell into the sea so near
+to me that I lost my breath. Instantly I felt an acute pain in the
+back, as if a burning torch had been laid between my shoulders. The
+pain was so violent, that the moment I recovered myself I uttered a
+sharp scream. Malvilain, who was within a few paces of me, felt very
+sensibly the electric shock which had struck me, and, on hearing my
+cry, imagined that I was dangerously hurt. He rushed towards me and
+held me in his arms until I was able to give every assurance of my
+recovery. The electric fluid had grazed me, but without causing any
+positive injury.
+
+I have related these two slight anecdotes to show the intimacy that
+subsisted between us, and how I afterwards suffered in my dearest
+affections.
+
+My existence has to this day, when I write these lines, been filled
+with such extraordinary facts, that I have been naturally led to
+believe that the destiny of man is regulated by an order of things
+which must infallibly be accomplished. This idea has had great
+influence over me, and taught me to endure all the evils which have
+afflicted me. Was it, then, my destiny which bound me to Malvilain,
+and bound him to me in the same manner? I have no doubt of it.
+
+Some days before the terrible scourge of the cholera broke out in
+the Philippines, Malvilain's ship set sail for France. With hearts
+oppressed with grief we separated, after promising each that we should
+meet again; but, alas! fate had ordained it otherwise. Malvilain
+returned home, went to Nantes to take the command of a ship, and there
+became acquainted with my eldest sister, and married her. This news,
+which reached me while I resided in Manilla, gave me the greatest
+satisfaction, for if I had had to choose a husband for my dear sister
+Emilie, this marriage was the only one to satisfy the wishes I had
+formed for the happiness of both.
+
+After his marriage Malvilain continued to sail from the port of
+Nantes. His noble disposition and his accurate knowledge of his
+duties caused him to be highly esteemed by the leading merchants. His
+affairs were in a state sufficiently good as not to require him to
+expose himself longer to the dangers of the sea, and he was on his
+last voyage, when, at the Mauritius, he was attacked by an illness,
+which carried him off, leaving my sister inconsolable, and with three
+very young girls to lament him.
+
+This fresh and irreparable loss, the news of which had then reached
+me, added to my grief for the sad death of my poor brother. Every
+calamity seemed to oppress me. After some years of happiness I saw,
+by little and little, disappear from this world, the persons on whom I
+had concentrated my dearest affections; but, alas! I had not even then
+reached the term of my sorrows, for other and most bitter sufferings
+were still to be passed through.
+
+I saw with pleasure my boy was enjoying the best health, and that he
+was daily increasing in strength; and yet I was far from being happy,
+and to the melancholy caused by the losses I had experienced was
+added another most fearful alarm. My beloved Anna had never thoroughly
+recovered after her accouchement, and day by day her health was growing
+weaker. She did not seem aware of her state. Her happiness at being
+a mother was so great that she did not think of her own condition.
+
+I had gathered in my sugar-cane crop, which was most abundant,
+and my plantations were finished, when, wishing to procure some
+amusement for my wife, I proposed to go and spend some time at the
+house of her sister Josephine, for whom she entertained the warmest
+affection. She, with great pleasure, agreed to do so. We set out with
+our dear little Henry and his nurse, and took up our quarters at the
+house of my brother-in-law, Don Julian Calderon, then residing in a
+pretty country-house on the banks of the river Pasig, half a league
+from Manilla.
+
+Of the three sisters of my wife, Josephine was the one for whom I had
+the most affection: I loved her as I did my own sister. The day of our
+arrival was one of rejoicing. All our friends at Manilla came to see
+us, and Anna was so pleased in seeing our little Henry admired that
+her health seemed to have improved considerably; but this apparent
+amelioration lasted but a few days, and soon, to my grief, I saw that
+she was growing worse than ever. I sent for the only medical man in
+Manilla in whom I had confidence, my friend Genu. He came frequently
+to see her, and after six weeks of constant attention, he advised
+me to take her back to my residence near the lake, where persons
+attacked with the same malady as my dear Anna had often recovered. As
+she herself wished to return, I appointed a day for our departure. A
+commodious boat, with good rowers, was ready for us on the Pasig, at
+the end of my brother-in-law's garden; and a numerous assemblage of our
+friends accompanied us to the water's edge. The moment of separation
+was one of most melancholy feelings to us all. The countenance of each
+seemed to ask: "Shall we meet again?" My sister-in-law Josephine, in a
+flood of tears, threw herself into Anna's arms. I had great difficulty
+in separating them; but we were obliged to set out. I took my wife
+into the boat, and then those two sisters, who had always maintained
+towards each other the most tender love, addressed with their voices
+their last adieus, while promising not to be long separated, and that
+they would see each other very soon.
+
+Those painful adieus and the sufferings of my wife caused the trip,
+which we had often previously made with the greatest gaiety, to be
+melancholy and silent. On our arrival, I did not look on Jala-Jala with
+the usual feelings of satisfaction. I had my poor patient placed in
+bed, and did not quit her room, hoping by my continual care to afford
+her some relief in her sufferings. But, alas! from day to day the
+malady made fearful progress. I was in despair. I wrote to Josephine,
+and sent a boat to Manilla for her to come and take care of her sister,
+who was most anxious to see her. The boat returned without her; but a
+letter from kind-hearted Josephine informed me that she was herself
+dangerously ill, and confined to her room, and could not even leave
+her bed; that she was very sorry for it, but I might assure Anna that
+they would soon be re-united, never again to be separated.
+
+Fifty days--longer to me than a century--had scarcely elapsed since our
+return to Jala-Jala than all my hopes vanished. Death was approaching
+with rapid strides, and the fatal moment was at hand when I was to be
+separated from her whom I loved with such intensity. She preserved her
+senses to the last, and saw my profound melancholy, and my features
+altered by grief; and finding her last hour was near, she called me
+to her, and said: "Adieu, my beloved Paul, adieu. Console thyself--we
+shall meet again in Heaven! Preserve thyself for the sake of our dear
+boy. When I shall be no more, return home to thy own country, to see
+thy aged mother. Never marry again, except in France, if thy mother
+requires thee to do so. Do not marry in the Philippines, for thou wilt
+never find a companion here to love thee as I have loved." These words
+were the last which this good and gentle angel spoke. The most sacred
+ties, the tenderest and purest union, were then severed--my Anna was
+no more! I held her lifeless body clasped in my arms, as if I hoped by
+my caresses to recall her to life; but, alas! her destiny was decided!
+
+It required absolute force to tear me from the precious remains which
+I pressed against my heart, and to draw me into a neighbouring room,
+where my son was. While I pressed him convulsively to my breast,
+I wished to weep; but my eyes were tearless, and I was insensible to
+the caresses even of my poor child.
+
+The strongest constitution cannot resist the fatigue of fifty days
+of constant watching and uneasiness; and the state of annihilation in
+which I was, both physically and morally, after despair had taken the
+place of the glimmering hope which sustained us to the last moment,
+was such that I fell into a state of insensibility, which ended
+in a profound sleep. I awoke on the following day with my son in my
+arms. But how frightful was my state on awaking. All that was horrible
+in my position presented itself to my imagination. Alas! she was no
+more; my adorable companion, that beloved angel and consolatrix,
+who had, on my account, abandoned all--parents, friends, and the
+pleasures of a capital--to shut herself up with me in a deserted
+wilderness, where she was exposed to a thousand dangers, and had but
+me to support her. She was no more; and fatal destiny had torn her
+from me, to sink me for ever in desolation and grief.
+
+The funeral took place on the following day, and was attended by
+every inhabitant of Jala-Jala. Her body was deposited near the altar
+in the humble church which I had caused to be erected, and before
+which altar she had so often poured forth prayers for my happiness.
+
+For a long time mourning and consternation reigned in Jala-Jala. All
+my Indians showed the deepest sympathy for the loss which they had
+suffered. Anna was, during her life, beloved even to idolatry, and
+after her death she was most sincerely lamented.
+
+For several days I continued in a thorough depression, unable to attend
+to anything, except to the cares which my son, then my only remaining
+consolation, required. Three weeks elapsed before I quitted the room in
+which my poor wife had expired. I then received a note from Josephine,
+in which she stated that her illness had grown worse. The note ended
+with these words: "Come, my dear Paul; come to me: we shall weep
+together. I feel that your presence will afford some consolation."
+
+I did not hesitate to comply with the request of dear Josephine, for
+whom I entertained an affection as if for my own sister. My presence
+might prove a solace to her, and I myself felt that it would prove
+to me a great consolation to see a person who had so sincerely loved
+my Anna. The hope of being useful to her re-animated my courage a
+little. I left my house under the care of Prosper Vidie, an excellent
+friend, who during the last days of my wife's life had not quitted me,
+and departed, accompanied by my son.
+
+After the first emotion which Josephine and I felt on meeting, and when
+we both had shed abundant tears, I examined her state. It required a
+strong effort on my part to conceal from her my anxiety, on finding
+her labouring under a most serious malady, and which gave me grounds
+for fearing that a fresh misfortune was not far distant. Alas! my
+forebodings were correct; for eight days afterwards poor Josephine
+expired in my arms, after the most poignant sufferings. What abundant
+sources of woe in so short a space of time! It required a constitution
+strong as mine was to bear up against such a number of sorrows,
+and not to fail under the burthen.
+
+When I had paid the last duties to my sister-in-law I went back to
+Jala-Jala. To me everything was burthensome. I was obliged to betake
+myself to my forests and to my mountains, in order to recover a little
+calmness. Some months passed over before I could attend to my affairs;
+but the last wishes of my poor wife required to be fulfilled, and I
+was to quit the Philippines and return to my country. I commenced
+preparations for the purpose. I made over my establishment to my
+friend Vidie, who was, as I considered, the person best adapted for
+carrying out my plans, and for treating my poor Indians well. He
+requested me to stop a little time with him, and to show him the
+secrets of my little government. I consented, and the more willingly,
+as those few months would serve to render my son stronger, and better
+able to support the fatigues of a long voyage. I therefore remained at
+Jala-Jala; but life had become painful to me, and without an object,
+so that it was positively a trouble. There was nothing to distract
+me--nothing to remove the most painful thoughts from me. The pretty
+spots of Jala-Jala, over which I had often looked with the greatest
+pleasure, had become altogether indifferent to me. I sought out
+the most melancholy and silent places. I often went to the banks
+of a rivulet, concealed in the midst of high mountains, and shaded
+by lofty trees. This spot was perhaps known to no other person; and
+probably no human being had ever previously been seated in it. There
+I gave free vent to my bitter recollections--my wife, my brothers,
+my sister-in-law, engrossed my imagination. When the thought of my
+son drove away these sombre reveries, I returned slowly to my house,
+where I found the poor child, who, by his caresses, seemed to try to
+find some way to cause a change in my grief; but they seemed only to
+recall the time when Anna always came to welcome me home, and when,
+clasping me in her arms, she caused me to forget all the toil and
+trouble I met with when absent from her. Alas! that blissful time
+had flown away, and was never to return; and in losing my companion
+I lost every happiness.
+
+My friend Vidie tried every means in his power to rouse me. He spoke to
+me often of France, of my mother, and of the consolation I should feel
+on presenting my son to her. The love of my country, and the thought
+of finding there those affections of which I stood so much in need,
+was a soft balm, which lulled for a while the sufferings that were
+constantly vibrating in the bottom of my heart.
+
+My Indians were deeply afflicted on learning the resolution I had
+taken of quitting them. They showed their trouble by saying to me,
+every time they addressed me! "Oh, master: what will become of us
+when we shall not see you again?" I quieted them as well as I could,
+by assuring them that Vidie would exert himself for their welfare;
+that when my son should be grown up, I would come back with him and
+then never leave them. They answered me with their prayers: "May God
+grant it, master! But what a long time we shall have to pass without
+seeing you! However, we shall not forget you."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+    My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at Jala-Jala--The Bamboo
+    Cane--The Cocoa-Nut Tree--The Banana--Majestic Forests of Gigantic
+    Trees--The Leeches--A Tropical Storm in a Forest--An Indian
+    Bridge--"Bernard the Hermit"--We arrive at Binangon-de-Lampon--The
+    Ajetas--Veneration of the Ajetas for their Dead--Poison used by
+    the Ajetas--I carry away a Skeleton--We Embark on the Pacific in
+    an old Canoe, reach Maoban, and ultimately arrive at Jala-Jala.
+
+
+At this epoch of my recollections, in the midst of my melancholy and
+of my troubles, I formed an intimate and enduring friendship with
+a compatriot, a good and excellent man, for whom I always preserve
+the attachment first formed in a foreign country, several thousand
+leagues from home. I now speak of Adolphe Barrot, who was sent as
+consul-general to Manilla. He came with several friends to spend
+some days at Jala-Jala. Being unwilling that he should suffer any
+unpleasantness from the state of my feelings, I endeavoured to render
+his stay at Jala-Jala as agreeable as in my power. I arranged several
+hunting and shooting parties, and excursions through the mountains
+and on the lake. For his sake I resumed my old mode of life, such as
+I had been used to before I was overwhelmed by misfortune.
+
+The days which I thus spent in company with Adolphe Barrot aroused
+within me my former taste for exercise, and my ruling passion for
+adventure. My friend Vidie--always with the intention of exciting me
+to action--pressed me very much to go and visit a certain class of
+the natives which I had often expressed a wish to examine. My affairs
+being almost regulated; my son being placed under his care, and that
+of his nurse, and of a housekeeper in whom I had every confidence;
+I was induced, by this feeling of security, and by the instances of my
+friend, to proceed to visit the district of the Ajetas, or Black-men,
+who were a wild race, altogether in a state of nature. They were the
+aborigines of the Philippines, and had for a long time been masters
+of Luzon. At a time not very far distant, when the Spaniards conquered
+the country, the Ajetas levied a kind of black-mail from the Tagalese
+villages situated on the banks of the lake of Bay. At a fixed period
+they quitted their forests, entered the villages, and forced the
+inhabitants to give them a certain quantity of rice and maize; and
+if the Tagalese refused or were unable to pay these contributions,
+they cut off a number of heads, which they carried away as trophies
+for their barbarian festivities. After the conquest of the Philippines
+by the Spaniards, the latter took upon themselves the defence of the
+Tagalese, and the Ajetas, terrified by their fire-arms, remained in
+the forests, and did not re-appear among the Indians.
+
+The same race is found in various parts of the Malay country; and the
+people of New Zealand--the Paponins--resemble them very much in form
+and colour.
+
+My intention was to pass some days amongst those wild savages, and
+our preparations were speedily made. I chose two of my best Indians to
+accompany me. It is not requisite to state that my lieutenant was one
+of the party, for he was always with me in all my perilous expeditions.
+
+We took each of us a small haversack, containing rice for three or
+four days, some dried venison, a good provision of powder, ball,
+and shot for game, some coloured handkerchiefs, and a considerable
+quantity of cigars for our own use, and to insure a welcome
+amongst the Ajetas. Each of us carried a good double-barreled gun
+and his poignard. Our clothes were those which we wore in all our
+expeditions,--on our heads the common salacote, a shirt of raw silk,
+the pantaloon turned up to above the knee; the feet and legs remained
+uncovered. With these simple preparations we set out on a trip of
+some weeks, during which, and from the second day of our starting,
+we could expect no shelter but the trees of the forest, and no food
+but the game we shot, and the edible parts of the palm tree.
+
+I took special care not to forget the vade mecum which I always
+took with me, whenever I made these excursions for any number of
+days--I mean paper and a pencil, with which I made notes, to aid my
+recollections, and enable me afterwards to write down in a journal
+the remarks I made during my travels. Every preparation being made,
+we one morning started from Jala-Jala. We traversed the peninsula
+formed by my settlement, and embarked on the other side in a small
+canoe, which took us to the bottom of the lake to the north-east of
+my habitation. We passed the night in the large village of Siniloan,
+and at an early hour the following day resumed our march. This first
+day's journey was one of toil and suffering: we were then beginning
+the rainy season, and the heavy storms had swelled the rivers. We
+marched for some time along the banks of a torrent, which rushed
+down from the mountains, and which we were obliged to swim through
+fifteen times during the day. In the evening we came to the foot of
+the mountains where begin the forests of gigantic trees, which cover
+almost all the centre of the island of Luzon. There we made our first
+halt, lighted our fires, and prepared our beds and our supper. I think
+that I have already described our beds, which use and fatigue always
+rendered agreeable to us, when no accident occurred to disturb our
+repose. But I have said nothing of the simple composition of our meals,
+nor of our manner of preparing them. Our rice and palms required to
+be cooked, an operation which might seem rather embarrassing, for we
+had with us no large kitchen articles: we sometimes wanted a fire-box
+and tinder. But the bamboo supplied all these. The bamboo is one of
+the three tropical plants which Nature, in her beneficence and care,
+seems to have given to man to supply most of his wants. And here I
+cannot forbear dedicating a few lines to the description of those
+three products of the tropics, viz: the bamboo, the cocoa-nut tree,
+and the banana-plant.
+
+The bamboo belongs to the gramineous family; it grows in thick groves,
+in the woods, on the river banks, and wherever it finds a humid
+soil. In the Philippines there are counted twenty-five or thirty kinds,
+different in form and thickness. There are some of the diameter of the
+human body, and hollow in the interior: this kind serves especially
+for the construction of huts, and for making vessels to transport
+and to keep water. The filaments are used for making baskets, hats,
+and all kinds of basket-work, cords, and cables of great solidity.
+
+Another bamboo, of smaller dimensions, and hollow within, which
+is covered with varnish, almost as hard as steel, is employed in
+building Indian houses. Cut to a point it is extremely sharp, and is
+used for many purposes. The Indians make lances of it, and arrows,
+and fleams for bleeding horses, and lancets for opening abscesses,
+and for taking thorns or other things out of the flesh.
+
+A third kind, much more solid, and as thick as one's arm, and not
+hollow within, is used in such parts of the buildings as require sold
+timber, and especially in the roofing.
+
+A fourth kind, much smaller, and also without being hollow, serves to
+make the fences that surround enclosed fields when tilled. The other
+kinds are not so much employed, but still they are found to be useful.
+
+To preserve the plants, and to render them very productive, the shoots
+are cut at ten feet from the ground. These shoots look like the tubes
+of an organ, and are surrounded with branches and thorns. At the
+beginning of the rainy season there grows from each of those groves a
+quantity of thick bamboos, resembling large asparagus, which shoot up
+as it were by enchantment. In the space of a month they become from
+fifty to sixty feet long, and after a short time they acquire all the
+solidity necessary for the various works to which they are destined.
+
+The cocoa-nut tree belongs to the palm family: it requires to grow
+seven years before it bears fruit; but after this period, and for
+a whole century, it yields continually the same product--that is,
+every month about twenty large nuts. This produce never fails, and
+on the same tree may be seen continually flowers and fruits of all
+sizes. The cocoa-nut affords, as everyone knows, nutritious food,
+and when pressed yields a quantity of oil. The shell of the nut
+serves to make vases, and the filamentary parts are spun into ropes
+and cables for ships, and even into coarse clothing. The leaves are
+used to make baskets and brooms, and for thatching the huts.
+
+A liquor is also taken from the cocoa-nut tree, called cocoa-wine;
+it is a most stupifying drink, of which the Indians make great use
+at their festivities. To produce the cocoa-wine, large groves of
+the cocoa-trees are laid out, from which merely the sap or juice
+is expected, but nothing in the shape of fruit. These trees have
+long bamboos laid at their tops from one to another, on which the
+Indians pass over every morning, bearing large vessels, in which they
+collect the liquid. It is a laborious and dangerous employment,--a
+real promenade in the air, at the height of from sixty to eighty
+feet from the ground. It is from the bud which ought to produce the
+flower that the liquid is drawn of which the spirit is afterwards
+made. As soon as the bud is about to burst, the Indian employed in
+collecting the liquid ties it very tight, a few inches from its point,
+and then cuts across the point beyond the tying. From this cutting,
+or from the pores which are left uncovered, a saccharine liquid
+flows, which is sweetish and agreeable to the palate before it has
+fermented. After it has passed the fermentation it is carried to the
+still, and submitted to the process of distillation, it then becomes
+the alcoholic liquor known in the country as cocoa-wine.
+
+Besides these uses, the cocoa-nut shell, when burned, gives the fine
+black colour which the Indians make use of to dye their straw hats.
+
+The banana is an herbaceous plant, without any woody matter: the
+trunk of each is formed of leaves placed one above the other. This
+trunk rises from twelve to fifteen feet from the ground, and then
+spreads out into long broad leaves, not less than five or six feet
+each. From the middle of these leaves the flower rises, and also the
+spike (régime). By this word is to be understood a hundred of large
+bananas growing from the same stalk, forming together a long branch,
+that turns towards the sun.
+
+Before the fruit has reached its full ripeness, the spike is cut, and
+becomes fit for use. The part of the plant which is in the earth is
+a kind of large root, from which proceed successively thirty shoots,
+and each shoot ought not to have more than one spike, or bunch; it
+is then cut fronting the sun, and as all the shoots rising from the
+same trunk are of different ages, there are fruits to be found in all
+the stages of growth; so that every month or fortnight, and at all
+seasons, a spike or two may be gathered from the same plant. There
+is also a species of banana the fruit of which is not good to eat,
+but from which raw silk is formed, called abaca, which is used to make
+clothes, and all kinds of cordage. This filament is found in the trunk
+of the plant, which, as I have said, consists of leaves placed one
+over another, which, after being separated into long strips, and left
+for some hours in the sun, is then placed on an iron blade, not sharp,
+and then dragged with force over it. The parenchyme of the plant is
+taken off by the iron blade, and the filaments then separate. Nothing
+is now wanting but to expose them for some time to the sun's rays;
+after which they are brought to market.
+
+I observe that I have left my journey aside to describe three tropical
+plants, which afford a sufficiency for all the wants of man. Those
+plants are well-known; yet there may be some persons ignorant of
+the utility, and of the various services which they render to the
+inhabitants of the tropics. My readers will from them be naturally
+led to reflect how the inhabitants of the torrid zone are favoured
+by nature, in comparison with those of our frigid climate.
+
+We were at the foot of the mountains, preparing to pass the night. Our
+labour was always divided: one got the beds ready, another the fire,
+a third the cookery. He who had to prepare the fire collects a quantity
+of dry wood and of brambles. Under this heap of firewood he puts about
+twelve pounds of elemi gum, which is common in the Philippines, where
+it is found in quantities at the foot of the large trees from which
+it flows naturally. He then takes a piece of bamboo, half a yard long,
+which he splits to its length, tears with poignard so as to make very
+thin shavings, which he rubs together while rolling them between his
+hands, and then puts them into the hollow part of the other piece,
+and lays it down on the ground, and then with the sharp side of the
+piece from which he had taken the shavings, he rubs strongly the
+piece lying on the ground, as if he wished to saw it across. In a
+short time the bamboo containing the shavings is cut through and on
+fire. The flame rising from the shavings, when blown lightly upon,
+quickly sets the elemi gum in a blaze, and in an instant there is a
+fire sufficient to roast an ox.
+
+He who had to manage the cooking cut two or three pieces of the large
+bamboo, and put in each whatever he wished to cook--usually rice or
+some part of the palm tree--he added some water, stopped the ends of
+the bamboo with leaves, and laid it in the middle of the fire. This
+bamboo was speedily burned on the outside, but the interior was
+moistened by the water, and the food within was as well boiled as
+in any earthen vessels. For plates we had the large palm leaves. Our
+meals, as may be observed, were Spartan enough, even during the days
+while our provision of rice and dried venison lasted. But when game
+was found, and that a stag or a buffalo fell to our lot, we fed like
+epicures. We drank pure water whenever a spring or a rivulet tempted
+us, but if we were at a loss we cut long pieces of the liana, called
+"the traveller's drink," from which flowed a clear and limpid draught,
+preferable perhaps to any which we might have procured from a better
+source.
+
+It was evident I was not travelling like a nabob; and it would have
+been impossible to take more baggage. How could any one, with large
+provisions and a pompous retinue move in the midst of mountains
+covered with forests literally along untouched by human feet, and
+forced, in order to get through them, at every instant to swim across
+torrents, and having no other guide than the sun, or the blowing of
+the breeze. There was no choice but to travel in the Indian style,
+as I did, or to remain at home.
+
+The first night we spent in the open air passed quietly; our strength
+was restored, and we were recruited for the journey. At an early hour
+we were up, and, after a frugal breakfast, we resumed our march. For
+more than two hours we climbed up a mountain covered with heavy timber,
+the ascent was rough and fatiguing, at last we reached the top,
+quite exhausted, where there was a vast flat, which it would take us
+some days to traverse. It was there, on this flat, that I beheld the
+most majestic, the finest virgin forest that existed in the world. It
+consists of gigantic trees, grown up as straight as a rush, and to
+a prodigious height. Their tops, where alone their branches grow,
+are laced into one another, so as to form a vault impenetrable to
+the rays of the sun. Under this vault, and among those fine trees,
+prolific nature has given birth to a crowd of climbing plants of
+a most remarkable description. The rattan and the flexible liana
+mount up to the topmost branches, and re-descending to the earth,
+take fresh root, receive new sustenance, and then remount anew, and
+at various distances they join themselves to the friendly trunks
+of their supporting columns, and thus they form very often most
+beautiful decorations. Varieties of the pandanus are to be seen,
+of which the leaves, in bunches, start from the ground, forming
+beautiful sheaves. Enormous ferns were to be met with, real trees
+in shape, and up which we clambered often, to cut the top branches,
+for their delicious perfume and which serve as food nearly the same as
+the palms. But, in the midst of this extraordinary vegetation nature
+is gloomy and silent; not a sound is to be heard, unless perhaps
+the wind that shakes the tops of the trees, or from time to time the
+distant noise of a torrent, which, falling precipitately, cascades
+from the heights of the mountains to their base. The ground is moist,
+as it never receives the sun's rays: the little lakes and the rivers,
+that never flow unless when swollen by the storms, present to the eye
+water black and stagnant, on which the reflection of the fine clear
+blue sky is never to be seen.
+
+The sole inhabitants of these melancholy though majestic solitudes
+are deer, buffaloes and wild boars, which being hidden in their lairs
+and dens in the daytime, come out at night in search of food. Birds
+are seldom seen, and the monkeys so common in the Philippines, shun
+the solitude of these immense forests. One kind of insect is met
+with in great abundance, and it plagues the traveller to the utmost;
+they are the small leeches, which are found on all the mountains of
+the Philippines that are covered with forests. They lie close to the
+ground in the grass, or on the leaves of the trees, and dart like
+grasshoppers on their prey, to which they fasten. Travellers are
+therefore always provided with little knives, cut from the bamboo,
+to loosen the hold of the insects, after which they rub the wound
+with a little chewed tobacco. But soon another leech, attracted by
+the flowing blood, takes the place of the one which was removed, and
+constant care is necessary to avoid being victimised by those little
+insects, of which the voracity far exceeds that of our common leeches.
+
+Our way lay through these singular creations of nature, and I was
+engaged in looking at and examining the curiosities around me, while my
+Indians were seeking some kind of game--deer, buffalo, or wild boar--to
+replace our stock of rice and venison, which was exhausted. We were at
+length reduced to the palms as our only resource; but the palms, though
+pleasing to the palate, are not sufficiently nutritive to recruit the
+strength of poor travellers, when, suffering under extreme fatigue,
+and after a laborious march, they find no lodging but the moist ground,
+and no shelter but the vault of the sky.
+
+We directed our course as near as possible towards the eastern coast,
+which is bathed by the Pacific ocean. We knew that it was in that
+direction the Ajetas commenced their settlement. We wished also to pass
+through the large Tagalese village, Binangonan de Lampon, which is to
+be found, isolated and hidden, at the foot of the eastern mountains,
+in the midst of the savages. We had already spent several nights in
+the forest, and without experiencing any great inconvenience. The
+fires which we lighted every evening warmed us, and saved us from
+the myriads of terrible leeches, which otherwise would certainly
+have devoured us. We imagined that we were within one day's march of
+the sea-shore, where we expected to take some time for rest, when,
+of a sudden, a burst of thunder at a distance gave us reason to
+apprehend a storm. Nevertheless, we continued our journey; but in
+a short time the growling of the thunder approached so near as to
+leave no doubt that the hurricane would burst over us. We stopped,
+lighted our fires, cooked our evening's repast, and placed some of
+the palm leaves on poles by the side of a slope to save us from the
+heavy rain. We had not finished all our preparations when the storm
+broke. If we had not had the glimmering glare of our firebrands we
+should have been in profound obscurity, although it was not yet
+night. We all three, with pieces of palm branches in our hands,
+crouched under the slight shelter which we had improvised, and there
+awaited the full force of the storm. The thunder-claps were redoubled;
+the rain began with violence to batter the trees, and then to assail
+us like a torrent. Our fires were speedily extinguished; we found
+ourselves in the deepest darkness, interrupted only by the lightning,
+which from time to time rushed, serpent-like, through the trees of
+the forest, scattering a dazzling light, to leave us the moment after
+in profound obscurity. Around us the din was horrible; the thunder
+was continuous, the echoes of the mountains repeating from distance
+to distance its sound, sometimes deadened, and sometimes with awful
+grandeur. The wind, which blew with violence, shattered the uppermost
+parts of the trees, breaking off large branches, which fell with a
+crash to the ground. Some trunks were uprooted, and, while falling,
+tore down the boughs of the neighbouring trees. The rain was incessant,
+and in the intervals between the thunder we could hear the awful roar
+of the waters of a torrent which rushed madly past the base of the
+mound where we had taken refuge. Amidst all this frightful commotion,
+mournful and dismal sounds were heard, like the howls of a large
+dog which had lost its master: they were the cries of the deer in
+their distress, seeking for a place of shelter. Nature seemed to
+be in convulsions, and to have declared war in every element. The
+loose thatch under which we had taken refuge was soon penetrated,
+and we were completely deluged. We soon quitted this miserable hole,
+preferring to move our stiffened and almost deadened limbs, covered
+with the fearful little leeches, which terrible infliction deprived
+us of the strength so necessary in our awful position.
+
+I avow that at this moment I sincerely repented my fatal curiosity,
+for which I paid so dearly. I could compare this frightful night only
+to the one I had passed in the bamboos, when I was wrecked on the
+lake. In appearance there was not such pressing danger, for we could
+not be swallowed up by the waves; but there were large trees, under
+which we were obliged to stop, and one of which might be uprooted
+and fall upon us; a bough torn off by the wind might crush us; and
+the lightning, equally terrific in its reports and its effects,
+might strike us at any moment. One thing was especially painful,
+and that was the cold, and the difficulty of moving our frozen and
+almost paralysed limbs. We awaited with impatience the cessation of
+the storm; but it was not until after three hours of mortal agony that
+the thunder gradually ceased. The wind fell; the rain subsided; and
+for some time we heard nothing but the large drops which dripped from
+the trees, and the dread sound of the torrents. Calm was restored;
+the sky became pure and starry: but we were deprived of that view
+which gives hope to the traveller, for the forest presented only a
+dome of green, impenetrable to the sight.
+
+Exhausted as we were by our exposure to the elements and our
+exertions, we were so overpowered by nature's great renovator sleep,
+that, notwithstanding our clothes were saturated with the rain,
+we were able to pass the remainder of the night in tranquillity. At
+break of day the forest, which a few hours previously had been the
+scene of the terrors which I have described, was again tranquil
+and silent. When we quitted our lair we were frightful to look at;
+we were covered with leeches, and the marks of blood on our faces
+rendered us hideous. On looking at my two poor Indians I could not
+avoid laughing aloud; they also looked at me, but their respect
+for me prevented their laughing. I was no doubt equally punished,
+and my white skin must have served to show well the ravages of those
+creatures. We were, indeed, knocked up; we could scarcely move, so
+weak had we become. However, act we must, and promptly,--to light a
+fire quickly, in order to warm us; to cook some of the palm stalks;
+to cross, by swimming, a torrent which, with a terrible noise, was
+rushing on below us; and to reach, during the day, the shores of the
+Pacific ocean. If we delayed to start it might not be possible to pass
+through the torrents,--we had left several behind us,--we might find
+ourselves in the impossibility of going either backward or forward,
+and perhaps be obliged to remain several days waiting for the waters
+to subside before we could proceed. Besides, other storms might arise,
+frequent as they are at this season, and we should have to remain for
+several weeks in a desert spot without resources, and where the first
+night passed under such a bad roof was no recommendation, There was no
+time to be lost. From a large heap of palm leaves, where we had placed
+and covered up our haversacks in order to preserve them from the wet,
+we drew them out safe; our precautions had fortunately been successful,
+they were quite dry. We made a large fire, thanks to the elemi gum,
+which burns with such ease. Our feelings were delightful when the
+heat entered our frames, dried our dripping garments, re-animated our
+courage, and gave us some strength. But, to enjoy that satisfaction
+fully, one should have acquired it at the same cost as I had. I very
+much doubt that any European would like to participate in the scenes
+of that night simply for the enjoyments of the following day.
+
+Our scanty cookery was soon ready, and expeditiously dispatched,
+and we moved off in quick time.
+
+My Indians were uneasy, as they feared they would not be able to
+pass through the torrent which was heard at a distance, consequently
+they marched quicker than I did. On reaching the bank I found them
+in a consternation. "Oh, master!" said my faithful Alila, "it is not
+possible to pass; so we must spend some days here." I cast my eyes
+on the torrent, which was rolling between steep rocks, in a yellow,
+muddy stream: it had all the appearance of a cascade, and was carrying
+down the trunks of trees and branches broken off during the storm. My
+Indians had already come to a decision, and were arranging a spot for
+a fit bivouac; but I did not wish to give up all hopes of success so
+speedily, and set about examining with care the means of overcoming
+the difficulty.
+
+The torrent was not more than a hundred yards in breadth, and a
+good swimmer could with ease get over in a few minutes. But it was
+necessary, on the opposite side, to arrive at a spot which was not too
+steep, and where one could find safe footing, and out of the torrent;
+otherwise the risk would be run of being drawn down, no one could
+tell whither.
+
+From the bank on which we were it was easy to jump into the water,
+but on the other side, for a hundred yards down the stream, there was
+but one spot where the rocks were interrupted. A small stream joined
+there the one we wished to cross. After I had carefully calculated by
+sight the length of the passage, I considered myself strong enough to
+attempt it. I was a better swimmer than my Indians; and I was certain
+if I was once on the other side, that they would follow. I told them
+that I was going to cross over the torrent.
+
+But one reflection caused me to hesitate. How could I preserve our
+haversacks, and save our precious provision of powder? How keep
+our guns from injury? It would not be possible to think of carrying
+those articles on my back through a torrent so rapid, and in which,
+beyond doubt, I should be under water more than once before I gained
+the other side.
+
+The Indians, being fertile in expedients, speedily extricated me
+from this difficulty: they cut several rattans, and joined the ends
+together, so as to form a considerable length. One of them climbed a
+tree which leant over the torrent, and there fastened one end of the
+rattan length, while I took the other end to carry it over to the other
+bank. All our arrangements being effected I plunged into the water,
+and without much difficulty gained the opposite side, having the end
+of the rattan with me, which I fastened to a tree on the steep bank I
+had gained, allowing a slight inclination of the line towards me, yet
+raised sufficiently over the water to allow the articles which we were
+anxious to pass over to slide along without touching the water. Our
+newly constructed bridge was wonderfully successful. The articles
+came across quite safe and dry; and my Indians, by its aid, quickly
+joined me. We congratulated each other on our fortunate passage,
+and the more so, as we expected before sunset to reach the Pacific
+ocean. Of the woods we had had enough: and we now looked for the sun,
+which for several days had been obscured by clouds; the leeches caused
+us considerable suffering, and weakened us very much, and our miserable
+diet was not sufficient to recruit our exhausted frames. Moreover we
+did not doubt that, on reaching the sea, we should be amply recompensed
+for all the privations we had endured. In fine, with renewed hopes we
+found our courage revive, and soon forgot the fatal night of the storm.
+
+I walked nearly as quick as my Indians, who, like me, hastened to
+get clear of the insupportable humidity in which we had existed for
+several days.
+
+Two hours after we had passed the torrent a dull and distant sound
+struck our ears. At first we supposed it to be a fresh storm; but
+soon we knew, from its regularity, that it was nothing less than the
+murmur of the Pacific ocean, and the sound of the waves which come
+from afar to break themselves on the eastern shore of Luzon. This
+certainty caused me a most pleasing emotion. In a few hours I should
+again see the blue sky, warm myself in the generous rays of the sun,
+and find a boundless horizon. I should also get rid of the fearful
+leeches, and should soon salute Nature, animated in creation, in
+exchange for the solitudes from which we had just emerged.
+
+We were now on the declivity of the mountains, the descent of which
+was gentle and our march easy. The sound of the waves increased by
+degrees. Near three o'clock in the afternoon we perceived through the
+trees that the sun was clear; and an instant afterwards we beheld the
+sea, and a magnificent beach, covered with fine glittering sand. The
+first movement of all three was to strip off our clothes and to
+plunge into the waves; and while we thus enjoyed a salutary bath, we
+amused ourselves in collecting off the rocks a quantity of shell-fish,
+which enabled us to make the most hearty meal we had eaten since we
+started from home.
+
+Having thus satisfied our hunger, our thoughts were directed to taking
+rest, of which we stood in great need; but it was no longer on knotty
+and rough pieces of timber, that we were going to repose,--it was on
+the soft sand, which the shore offered to us, warmed as it was by the
+last rays of the setting sun. It was almost night when we stretched
+ourselves on this bed, which to us was preferable to one of down. Our
+sacks served as pillows; we laid our guns, which were properly primed,
+close by our sides, and after a few minutes were buried in a profound
+sleep. I know not how long I had enjoyed this invigorating balm when
+I was awakened by the painful feeling of something crawling over
+me. I felt the prickings of sharp claws, which fastened in my skin,
+and occasionally caused me great pain. Similar sensations had awakened
+my two Indians. We collected the embers which were still ignited, and
+were able to see the new kind of enemies which assailed us. They were
+the crabs called "Bernard the Hermit," [23] and in such quantities that
+the ground was crawling with them, of all sizes and of all ages. We
+swept the sand on which we laid down, hoping to drive them away,
+and to have some sleep; but the troublesome--or rather, the famishing
+hermits--returned to the charge, and left us neither peace or quiet. We
+were busy in resisting their attacks, when suddenly, on the edge of
+the forest, we perceived a light, which came towards us. We seized
+our guns, and awaited its approach in profound silence and without
+any movement. We then saw a man and woman coming out of the wood,
+each having a torch in their hands. We knew them to be Ajetas, who
+were coming, no doubt, to catch fish on the beach. When they reached
+within a few steps from us, they stood for an instant motionless and
+gazed at us with fixed attention. We three were seated, watching them,
+and trying to guess their intentions. One of them put his hand to his
+shoulder, as if to take his bow; and I instantly cocked my gun. The
+noise caused by the movement of the gun-lock was sufficient to frighten
+them: they threw down their light, and scampered off like two wild
+beasts, in the highest alarm, to hide themselves in the forest.
+
+Their appearance was enough to prove that we were in a place frequented
+by the Ajetas. The two savages whom we had seen were perhaps gone to
+inform their friends, who might come in great numbers and let fly
+at us their poisoned arrows. This dread, and the incessant attacks
+of Bernard the Hermit, caused us to spend the remainder of the night
+near a large fire.
+
+As soon as day broke we made an excellent breakfast, thanks to the
+abundance of shell-fish, of which we could take whatever quantity we
+liked, and then set out again. Our way lay sometimes along the shore,
+and at other times through the woods. The journey was very fatiguing,
+but without any incident worthy of notice. It was after night-fall
+when we arrived at the village of Binangonan de Lampon. This village,
+inhabited by Tagalocs, is thrown, like an oasis of men, somewhat
+civilised, in the midst of forests and savage people, and who had no
+direct communication with the other districts which are governed by
+the Spaniards.
+
+My name was known to the inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon,
+consequently we were received with open arms, and all the heads of
+the village disputed with each other for the honour of having me as
+a guest. I gave the preference to him who had first invited me, and
+in his dwelling I experienced the kindest hospitality. I had scarcely
+entered when the mistress of the house herself wished to wash my feet,
+and to show me all those attentions which proved to me the pleasure
+they felt that I had given them this preference.
+
+During supper, while I was enjoying the good food which was before me,
+the small house in which I was seated became filled with young girls,
+who gazed at me with a curiosity which was really comic. When I had
+finished my meal the conversation with my host began to weary me,
+and I stretched myself on a mat, which on that occasion I regarded
+as an excellent substitute for a feather-bed.
+
+I spent three days with the kind Tagalocs, who received and treated me
+like a prince. On the fourth day I bade them adieu, and we shaped our
+course to the northward, in the midst of mountains covered with thick
+forests, and which, like those that we had quitted, showed no path
+for the traveller, except some tracks or openings through which wild
+animals passed. We proceeded with great caution, for we found ourselves
+in the district peopled by Ajetas. At night we concealed our fire, and
+each of us in turn kept watch, for what we dreaded most was a surprise.
+
+One morning, while marching in silence, we heard before us a number
+of shrill voices, resembling rather the cries of birds than human
+sounds. We kept strict watch, and shaded ourselves as much as possible
+by the aid of the trees and of the brushwood. Suddenly we perceived
+before us, at a very little distance, forty savages of both sexes,
+and of all ages; they absolutely seemed to be mere brutes; they were
+on the bank of a river, and close to a large fire. We advanced some
+steps presenting the but-end of our guns. The moment they saw us
+they set up a shrill cry, and were about to take to flight; but I
+made signs, and showed the packet of cigars which we wished to give
+them. Fortunately I had learned at Binangonan the way by which I was
+to approach them. As soon as they understood us they ranged themselves
+in a line, like men about to be reviewed; that was the signal that we
+might come near them. We approached with the cigars in our hands, and
+at one end of the line I began to distribute my presents. It was highly
+important to make friends of them, and, according to their custom,
+to give to each an equal share. My distribution being finished, our
+alliance was cemented, and peace concluded: the savages and we had
+nothing to dread from each other. They all began smoking. A stag
+had been suspended to a tree; their chief cut three large pieces
+from it with a bamboo knife, which he threw into the glowing fire,
+and a moment afterwards drew it out again and handed it round, a piece
+being given to each of us. The outside of this steak was burned, and a
+little spotted with cinders, but the inside was raw and full of blood;
+however it was necessary not to show any repugnance, and to make a
+cannibal feast, otherwise my hosts would have been affronted, and I
+was anxious to live with them for some days on a good understanding. I
+therefore eat my portion of the stag, which, after all, was not bad:
+my Indians did as I had done. Good relations were thus established
+between us, and treachery was not then to be expected.
+
+I now found myself in the midst of a tribe of men whom I had come from
+Jala-Jala to see, and I set about examining them at my ease, and for
+as long as I wished. We fixed our bivouac some steps from theirs, as
+if we wished to form part of the family of our new friends. I could
+not address them but by signs, and I had the greatest difficulty in
+making them understand me, but on the day after my arrival I had an
+interpreter. A woman came to me with a child, to which she wished
+to give a name; she had been reared amongst the Tagalocs; she had
+spoken that language, of which she remembered a little, and could
+give, although with much difficulty, all the information I desired
+which was to me of interest.
+
+The creatures with whom I had thus formed a connection for a few days,
+and as I saw them, seemed rather to be a large family of monkeys than
+human beings. Their voices very much resembled the shrill cries of
+those animals, and in their gestures they were exactly like them. The
+only difference I could see was that they knew how to handle a bow
+and a lance, and to make a fire. To describe them properly I shall
+give a sketch of their forms and physiognomies.
+
+The Ajeta, or little negro, is as black as ebony, like the Africans;
+his greatest height is four feet and a-half; his hair is woolly,
+and as he takes no trouble about cutting it, and knows not how to
+arrange it, it forms around his head a sort of crown, which gives him
+an odd aspect, and, at a distance makes him appear as if surrounded
+with a kind of halo; his eye is yellowish, but lively and brilliant,
+like that of an eagle. The necessity of living by the chase, and of
+pursuing his prey, produces the effect on this organ of giving to
+it the most extraordinary vivacity. The features of the Ajetas have
+something of the African black, but the lips are not so prominent;
+while young their forms are pretty; but their lives being spent in the
+woods, sleeping always in the open air without shelter, eating much
+one day and often having nothing--long fastings, followed by repasts
+swallowed with the voracity of wild beasts--gave them a protruding
+stomach, and made their extremities lank and shrivelled. They never
+wear any clothing, unless a belt of the rind of a tree, from eight to
+ten inches in breadth, which they tie round their waist; their arms
+are composed of a bamboo lance, a bow of the palm tree, and poisoned
+arrows. Their food consists of roots, of fruits, and of the products
+of the chase; the flesh they eat nearly raw; and they live in tribes
+composed of from fifty to sixty individuals. During the day, the old
+men, the infirm, and the children, remain near a large fire, while
+the others are engaged in hunting; when they have a sufficiency of
+food to last for some days, they remain round their fire, and sleep
+pell-mell among the cinders.
+
+It is extremely curious to see collected together fifty or sixty of
+these brutes of every age, and each more or less deformed; the old
+women especially are hideous, their decrepit limbs, their big bellies
+and their extraordinary heads of hair, give them all the looks of
+furies, or of old witches.
+
+I had scarcely arrived than women with very young children came in
+crowds to me. In order to satisfy them I caressed their babes: but
+that was not what they wanted, and, notwithstanding their gestures
+and their words, I could not make out their wishes. On the following
+day, the woman whom I have already mentioned as having lived for
+some time among the Tagalocs, arrived from a neighbouring tribe,
+accompanied by ten other women, each of whom had an infant in her
+arms. She explained what I was not able to comprehend on the previous
+day, and said: "We have amongst us very few words for conversation:
+all our children take at their birth the name of the place where they
+are born. There is great confusion, then, and we have brought them
+to you that you may give them names."
+
+As soon as I understood this explanation, I wished to celebrate
+the ceremony with all the pomp that the circumstances and the
+place allowed. I went to a small rivulet, and there, as I knew the
+formula for applying the baptismal water, I took my two Indians as
+sponsors, and during several days baptised about fifty of these poor
+children. Each mother who brought her infant was accompanied by two
+persons of her own family. I pronounced the sacramental words, and
+poured water on the head of the child, and then announced aloud the
+name I had given to the child. Therefore, as they have no means of
+perpetuating their recollections, from the time that I pronounced
+the name,--Francis, for instance,--the mother and her accompanying
+witnesses repeated it very often, until they learned to say it
+correctly, and commit it to memory. Then they went away, and were
+constantly repeating the name, which they were anxious to retain.
+
+The first day the ceremony was rather long; but the second day the
+number lessened, and I was allowed to pursue my examination of the
+character of my hosts. I had retained the woman who spoke Tagaloc,
+and in the long conversations which I held with her, she initiated
+me thoroughly in all their customs and usages.
+
+The Ajetas have no religion; they do not adore any star. It
+seems, however, that they have transmitted to, or received from,
+the Tinguianes, the practice of adoring, during one day, a rock or
+a trunk of any tree on which they find any resemblance whatever of
+an animal; they then abandon it, and think no more of an idol until
+they meet with a strange form, which, for a short time, constitutes
+the object of their frivolous worship. They have a strong veneration
+for the dead; and during several years it is their practice to visit
+their graves, and there to leave a little tobacco or betel. The bow
+and arrows which once belonged to the deceased are hung up over his
+grave on the day of his interment; and every night, according to
+the belief of his surviving comrades, he rises up out of his grave,
+and goes to hunt in the forest.
+
+Interments take place without any ceremony. The dead body is laid at
+full length in a grave, which is covered up with earth. But whenever
+one of the Ajetas is dangerously ill, and his recovery despaired of,
+or that he has been even slightly wounded by a poisoned arrow, his
+friends place him seated in a deep hole, with the arms crossed over
+his breast, and thus inter him while living.
+
+I thought of speaking to my interpreter on religion, and asked her
+if she did not believe in a Supreme Being--an all-powerful Divinity,
+on whom all nature--even we ourselves--depend in all things; and who
+had created the firmament, and who was looking on at our acts. She
+looked at me with a smile, and said: "When I was young, amongst
+your brothers, I remember that they spoke to me of a master, who, as
+they said, had Heaven for his dwelling-place; but all that was lies;
+for see"--(she here took up a small stone and threw it into the air,
+saying, in a very serious tone)--"how can a king, as you say, remain
+in the sky any more than that stone?" What answer could I give to
+such reasoning? I left religion aside, to put to her other questions.
+
+I have already stated that the Ajetas did not often wait for the death
+of a person to put him into the ground. As soon as the last honours are
+rendered to a deceased, it is requisite, conformably to their usages,
+to take revenge for his death. The hunters of the tribe to which he
+belonged set out, with their lances and their arrows, to kill the first
+living creature which should appear before their eyes--be it man,
+stag, wild boar, or buffalo. From the moment they start in search
+of a victim, they take care, in every part of the forest through
+which they pass, to break the young shoots of the arbustus shrub,
+by pointing its tops in the direction which they are following. This
+is done to give a caution to their friends, and other passers-by,
+to avoid those places in which they are searching for a victim, for
+if one of themselves fell into their hands, he would, without fail,
+be taken as the expiatory victim.
+
+They are faithful in marriage, and have but one wife. When a young
+man has made his choice, his friends or his parents make a demand for
+the young girl; a refusal is never given. A day is chosen; and on the
+morning of that day the young girl is sent into the forest, where she
+hides herself or not, just as she pleases, and according as she wishes
+to be married to the young man who has asked her. An hour after her
+departure, the young man is sent to find out his bride. If he has the
+good luck to find her, and to bring her back to her parents before
+sunset, the marriage is concluded, and she becomes his wife without
+fail; but if, on the contrary, he returns to the camp without her,
+he is not allowed to renew his addresses.
+
+Among the Ajetas old age is highly respected. It is always one of
+the oldest men who governs the assembled body. All the savages of
+this race live, as I have stated, in large families of from sixty to
+eighty persons. They ramble about through the forests, without having
+any fixed spot for their abode; and they change their encampment
+according to the greater or less quantity of game which they find in
+various places.
+
+While thus living in a state of nature altogether primitive, these
+savages have no instrument of music, and their language imitating,
+as I have stated, the cries of monkeys, has very few sounds, which
+are extremely difficult for a stranger to pronounce, how much soever
+may be his eagerness to study them. They are excellent hunters, and
+make a wonderful use of the bow. The young negroes, however little,
+of each sex, while their parents are out hunting, amuse themselves on
+the banks of the rivulets with their small bows. If by chance they
+see any fish in the translucent stream they let fly an arrow at it,
+and it is seldom that they miss their aim.
+
+All the weapons of the Ajetas are poisoned; a simple arrow could not
+cause a wound so severe as to stop a strong animal, such as a deer,
+in its course; but if the dart has been smeared with the poison known
+to them, the smallest puncture of it produces in the wounded animal
+an inextinguishable thirst, and death ensues upon satisfying it. The
+hunters then cut out the flesh around the wound, and use the remainder
+as food, without any danger; but if they neglect this precaution,
+the meat becomes so exceedingly bitter that even the Ajetas themselves
+cannot eat it.
+
+Never having given credit to the famous boab of Java, I made
+experiments at Sumatra on the sort of poison of which the Malays make
+use to poison their weapons. I discovered that it was simply a strong
+solution of arsenic in citron juice, with which they coated their arms
+several times. I tried to find the poison used by the Ajetas. They
+led me to the foot of a large tree, and tore off a piece of its bark,
+and told me that that was the poison they used. I chewed some of it
+before them; it was insupportably bitter, but otherwise not injurious
+in its natural state. But the Ajetas make a preparation of it, the
+secret of which they refused to impart to me. When their poison is
+made up as a paste, they give to their arms a thin coating of it,
+about an eighth of an inch in thickness.
+
+The Ajetas in their movements are active and supple to an incredible
+degree; they climb up the highest trees like monkeys, by seizing the
+trunk with both hands, and using the soles of their feet. They run
+like a deer in the pursuit of the wild animals: this is their favourite
+occupation. It is a very curious sight to see these savages set out on
+a hunting excursion; men, women, and children move together, very much
+like a troop of ourang-outangs when going on a plundering party. They
+have always with them one or two little dogs, of a very special breed,
+which they employ in tracking out their prey whenever it is wounded.
+
+I enjoyed quite at my ease the hospitality exercised towards me by
+these primitive men. I saw amongst them, and with my own eyes, all
+that I was desirous of knowing. The painful life which I had led
+since my departure from home, without any shelter but the trees,
+and eating nothing but what the savages provided, began to tire me
+exceedingly: I resolved to return to Jala-Jala. Having previously
+noticed several graves at a short distance from our bivouac, an idea
+struck me of carrying away a skeleton of one of the savages, which
+would, in my judgment, be a curiosity to present to the Jardin des
+Plantes or to the Museum of Anatomy at Paris. The undertaking was one
+of great danger, on account of the veneration of the Ajetas for their
+dead. They might surprise us while violating their graves, and then
+no quarter was to be expected. I was, however, so much accustomed to
+overcome whatever opposed my will, that the danger did not deter me
+from acting upon my resolution. I communicated my intentions to my
+Indians, who did not oppose my project.
+
+Some few days afterwards we packed up our baggage, and took farewell
+of our hosts. We shaped our course towards the Indian cemetery. In
+the first graves which we opened we found the bones decayed in part,
+and I could only procure two skulls, which were not worth the danger
+to which they exposed us. However, we continued our researches, and
+towards the close of the day discovered the remains of a woman, who,
+from the position of the body in the grave, must have been buried
+before her death. The bones were still covered with skin; but the
+body was dry, and almost like a mummy. This was a fit subject. We
+had taken the body out of the grave, and were beginning to pack it
+up piece by piece into a sack, when we heard small shrill cries at a
+distance. The Ajetas were coming upon us, and there was no time to be
+lost. We seized our prize and started off as quick as possible. We had
+not got a hundred yards, when we heard the arrows whistling about our
+ears. The Ajetas, perched on the tops of the trees, waited for us and
+attacked us, without our having any means of defence. Fortunately night
+came to our aid; their arrows, usually so sure, were badly directed,
+and did not touch us. While escaping we fired a gun to frighten them,
+and were soon able to leave them far behind, without having received
+any other injury than the alarm, and a sufficient notice of the danger
+to be encountered in disturbing the repose of their dead. On emerging
+from the wood, some drops of blood caused me to remark a slight
+scratch on the forefinger of my right hand; I attributed this to the
+hurry of my flight, and did not trouble myself much about it, as was
+my practice with trifles, but continued my march towards the sea-shore.
+
+We still retained the skeleton, which we laid on the sandy beach,
+as well as our haversacks and guns, and sat down to rest after the
+fatigue of the journey. My companions then began to make reflections
+on our position, and my lieutenant, inspired by his affection for me,
+and his sense of the danger we were exposed to, addressed me in the
+following strain:
+
+"Oh, master! what have we done, and what is to become of us? To-morrow
+morning the enraged Ajetas will come to attack us for the execrable
+booty which we have carried off from them at the risk of our lives. If
+they would attack in the open ground, with our guns we might defend
+ourselves; but what can one do against those animals, perched here
+and there like monkeys in the top branches of the trees of their
+forest? Those places are for them so many fortresses, from which they
+will to-morrow shower down upon us those darts, which, alas! never fail
+to do mischief. Luckily it was night when they attacked us just now,
+for otherwise we at this hour should have a lance through each of our
+bodies, and then they would have cut off our heads to serve as trophies
+for a superb fête. Your head, master, would first have been laid on the
+ground, and the brutes would have danced round it, and, as our leader,
+you would have been a target of honour for them to practise upon.
+
+"And now, master, all that which would have occurred to us if the
+night had not favoured our escape is but deferred, for, alas! we cannot
+remain continually on this beach, although it is the only spot where
+we can protect ourselves against these black rascals. We must go to
+our homes, and this we cannot do without passing through the woods
+inhabited by these abominable creatures, who made us eat raw meat,
+and seasoned only with cinders. Well, master, before you undertook
+this excursion, you ought to have recollected all that happened to
+us among the Tinguians and the Igorrots."
+
+I listened calmly to this touching lamentation of my lieutenant, who
+was perfectly right in all he said; but when he finished I sought to
+rouse his courage, and replied:
+
+"What! my brave Alila! are you afraid? I thought the Tic-balan, and
+the evil spirits could alone affect your courage. Do you want to make
+me think that men like yourself, without any arms but bad arrows, are
+enough to make you quake? Come, enough of this cowardice; to-morrow
+we shall have daylight, and we shall see what is to be done. In
+the meantime let us search for shell-fish, for I am very hungry,
+notwithstanding the alarm into which you are trying to throw me."
+
+This little sermon gave courage to Alila, who immediately set about
+making a fire, and then, by the aid of lighted bamboos, he and his
+comrade went to the rocks to find out the shell-fish.
+
+Alila was nevertheless quite right, and I myself could not disguise
+the fact, that good luck alone could extricate us from the critical
+position in which we were placed by my fault, in having thought of
+my country, and in wishing to ornament the Museum of Paris with a
+skeleton of an Ajetas. [24]
+
+From disposition and habit I was not a man to alarm myself with any
+danger which was not immediate; yet I avow that the last words I
+had said to Alila:--"To-morrow we shall have daylight, and we shall
+see what is to be done:"--came back to my mind, and for a short time
+occupied my thoughts.
+
+My Indians brought back a large quantity of shell-fish, sufficient
+for our supper, and Alila ran up quite breathless, saying:
+
+"Master, I have made a discovery! A hundred steps from this I have
+found a canoe, which the sea has cast upon the beach; it is large
+enough to hold us three. We can make use of it to get to Binangonan,
+and there we shall be safe from the poisoned arrows of these dogs
+the Ajetas."
+
+This discovery was either that Providence had come to our aid, or it
+was a complication of dangers greater than those reserved to us on
+land on awaking in the morning.
+
+I went instantly to the spot where Alila had made his important
+discovery, and having disencumbered the canoe from the sand with which
+it was partly covered, I soon became certain that, with some bamboos,
+and by stopping a few cracks, it would be staunch enough to take us
+over the Pacific ocean, away from the Ajetas.
+
+"Well," said I to Alila, "you see I was right, and you must admit the
+hand of Providence is here. Is it not evident that this fine boat,
+built, perhaps, several thousand leagues from this, has arrived
+express from the Polynesian islands to carry us away from the claws
+of the savages."
+
+"True, master, true; it is our luck. To-morrow they will finely be
+taken in on not finding us here; but let us set to work, for we have
+much to do before this fine boat, as you call it, will be in a fit
+state for going through the water."
+
+We immediately made a large fire on the shore, and went into the
+woods to cut down bamboos and rattans; then we set to work to stop
+the holes, which decreased fast enough under our handy-work upon the
+abandoned canoe.
+
+Persons who have never travelled amongst the savages cannot imagine
+how, without having been instructed in the arts, and without nails,
+one could stop up the fissures in such a boat, and put it in a state
+fit for sea. Yet the means were very simple; our poignards, bamboos,
+and rattans supplied everything; by scraping a bamboo we obtained from
+it something like tow, which we put into the chinks, so that the water
+could not enter. If it was necessary to stop any breach a few inches
+in width, we took from the bamboo a little plank, somewhat larger
+than the opening we wished to close, and then with the point of the
+poignard we pierced it all round with little holes, to match those
+which were made in the same manner in the boat itself. Afterwards,
+with long strings of the rattan, which we split up and made fine,
+we sewed the little plank to the boat, just as one would a piece of
+cloth on a coat; we covered the sewing with the elemi gum, and were
+sure the water could not pass through. The rattan served instead of
+hemp, and supplied all our necessities on the occasion.
+
+We worked with ardour at this our new and only means of safety. Once
+caulked, we placed in it two large bamboos as beams, for without
+those beams we could not have sailed for ten minutes without being
+upset. Another bamboo served as our mast; the large sack of matting
+that contained our skeleton was transformed into a sail. At last,
+before the night was far advanced, every preparation was finished. The
+wind was favourable, and we hastened to try our boat, and to struggle
+with new difficulties.
+
+We placed in the canoe our arms and the skeleton, the cause of our new
+troubles; we then pushed the boat over the sand and got it afloat. It
+took us a good half-hour to get clear of the breakers. We were every
+moment in danger of being swamped by the large waves, which rolled
+on, dashing against the rocks that bound the shore. At last, after
+we had overcome a thousand difficulties and dangers, we reached the
+open sea, and the regular wave--a real movable mountain--lifted up,
+without any sudden shock, our frail boat almost to the skies, and
+then in the same quiet manner let it sink into an abyss, from which
+it was again raised to the top of a liquid mountain. These large
+waves, which follow each other usually from interval to interval very
+regularly, cause no danger to a good pilot, who takes the precaution
+of turning the prow of his boat so as to meet them. But woe to him
+if he forgets himself, and makes a false manoeuvre, he is then sure
+to be upset and wrecked. Being used to the management of canoes,
+and, more confident in my own vigilance when at sea than in that
+of my Indians, I took the helm. The wind was favourable; we set
+up our little sail, and went very fast, although every moment I
+was obliged to turn the prow to the heavy waves. We were already a
+sufficient distance from the shore not to fear, if the wind changed,
+that we should be driven in among the breakers. Everything led us to
+expect a safe voyage, when unfortunately my poor Indians were taken
+ill. They had never sailed before except on the lakes of fresh water,
+and were now attacked with sea-sickness. This was vexatious to me,
+for I knew from experience that a person so attacked for the first
+time is altogether incapable of rendering any service, and even of
+protecting himself against the smallest danger that threatens him. I
+had no one to aid me in managing the boat, and was obliged to rely
+on my own exertions. I told him who held the sheet of the sail to
+hand it to me, and I twisted it round my foot, for both my hands
+were engaged in holding the paddle which was our helm. My Indians,
+like two inanimate bodies, lay at the bottom of the boat.
+
+When I reflect on my position,--on the ocean, in a frail boat; having
+only for helps two individuals who could not move, two skulls, and a
+skeleton of an Ajetas,--I cannot help thinking that the reader may
+imagine that I have concocted a story for his amusement. However,
+I relate facts exactly as they occurred, and I leave all at liberty
+to believe as they please.
+
+I was, as it were, alone in my frail boat, struggling continually
+with the large waves, which obliged me every moment to deviate from
+the course. I longed for daylight, for I hoped to be able to discern
+the beach of Binangonan de Lampon, as a place of refuge, where I
+should find the frank hospitality and the valuable assistance of my
+old friends.
+
+At last the long-wished-for sun arose above the horizon, and I saw
+that we were about three leagues from the coast. I had gone far too
+much out to sea, and had passed Binangonan a long way. It was not
+possible to steer back, the wind would not allow it; so I decided on
+pursuing the same course, and on doing my best to reach, before night,
+Maoban, a large Tagaloc village, situate on the coast of Luzon, and
+which is separated by a small ridge of mountains from the lake of
+Bay. The first rays of the sun and a little calm restored my Indians
+to a state of being able to render me some service. We passed the
+day without eating or drinking, and we had the regret of seeing that
+we had not attained our purpose. Our position was most distressing:
+a storm might rise, the wind might blow with force, and our only
+resource then would be to throw ourselves into the breakers, and to
+reach the shore as well as we could. But luckily nothing of the kind
+took place; and about midnight we knew, from meeting a small island,
+that we were in front of the village of Maoban. I steered to it, and
+in a short time we arrived in a calm quiet bay, near a sandy shore. The
+fatigue and want of food had thoroughly exhausted my strength. I had no
+sooner landed than I threw myself on the ground, and fell into a deep
+sleep, which lasted until day. When I awoke I found the sun's rays
+were shining full upon me: it was near seven o'clock. On any other
+occasion I should have been ashamed of my laziness, but could I feel
+dissatisfied with myself for sleeping soundly after thirty-six hours'
+fasting, and spent in such extraordinary exertions? During my sleep
+one of my Indians went into the village in search of provisions, and
+I found excellent rice and salt fish near me. We made a delicious and
+splendid breakfast. My Indians, on behalf of the inhabitants, asked me
+to go to the village, and spend the day, but I was too eager to reach
+home. I knew by walking quickly we could get through the mountains,
+and arrive at night on the banks of the lake, within a few hours'
+journey from my house. I determined to start without any delay. We took
+our things out of the boat; the little sail retook its former shape,
+as a sack, to hold the skulls and the skeleton, the cause of all the
+disasters to which we had been exposed, and, with reunited strength,
+and abundant provisions for the day, we began to mount the high hills
+which separate the gulf of Maoban from the lake of Bay. The journey
+was laborious and painful. At seven o'clock we embarked on the lake,
+and towards midnight we reached Jala-Jala, where I very speedily
+forgot all the toil and trouble of my long and dangerous journey,
+while pressing my son in my arms and covering him with paternal kisses.
+
+My excellent friend Vidie, to whom I sold my house and establishment,
+gave me letters which he had received from Manilla, and from them I
+learned that my presence was desired there on affairs of importance. I
+resolved to start on the following day.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+    I Determine not again to Separate from my Son--I take
+    him to Manilla--The Effects of the Wound I received among
+    the Ajetas--My Recovery--Kindness of the Spanish and other
+    Inhabitants of Manilla--Illness of my Son--I return with him to
+    Jala-Jala--Sorrowful Remembrances--The Death of my poor Boy--His
+    Interment--My frantic Grief and Despair--I Determine to Quit the
+    Philippines--I am Called to Manilla by Madame Dolorès Seneris--My
+    Final Departure from Jala-Jala--I Arrive at Manilla, where I
+    resume Practice as a Surgeon--I Embark for France--Discontent--My
+    Travels through Europe--I Marry again--Death of my Mother and my
+    Second Wife--Conclusion.
+
+
+Having now concluded my last trip into the interior of the Philippines,
+I was desirous of not separating myself again from my son, the only
+being that remained to me of all those whom I had loved so tenderly. I
+took him with me to Manilla; but I did not altogether bid farewell
+to Jala-Jala, yet I had almost the intention of never going back to it.
+
+The journey was as agreeable as my melancholy recollections would
+permit. I experienced such pleasure in holding my boy in my arms,
+and in receiving his gentle caresses, that I occasionally forgot
+every sorrow.
+
+I arrived at Manilla, and took up my quarters in the environs, at
+the abode of Baptiste Vidie, brother of the friend whom I had left
+at Jala-Jala.
+
+After my escape from the Ajetas, I had noticed a small wound on
+the forefinger of my right hand, which I attributed to having
+been accidentally scratched by a branch or a thorn, while we were
+endeavouring to make our escape with such precipitation from the arrows
+which the savages let fly at us. The first night I spent at Manilla,
+I felt in the place where the wound was such extreme pain that I fell
+down twice totally senseless. The agony increased every instant, and
+became so violent that I could no longer doubt that it was caused by
+the poison of an arrow, shot at me by the Ajetas. I sent for one of
+my confréres, and after a most careful examination, he made a large
+incision, which did not, however, afford me any relief: the hand,
+on the contrary, festered up. By little and little the inflammation
+extended itself up my arm, and I was soon in an alarming state.
+
+In short, after suffering during a whole month, and after the most
+cruel incertitude, it seemed that the poison had passed into my
+breast. I could not sleep for an instant; and, in spite of me, dead
+and painful cries came forth from my breast, which was on fire. My
+eyes were veiled--I could not see; a burning sweat covered my face;
+my blood was on fire, and did not circulate in my veins; my life
+seemed about to become extinct. The medical men declared that I could
+not pass through the night. According to the usages of the country,
+I was told that I ought to regulate my affairs for death. I asked
+that the consul-general of France, my excellent friend Adolphe Barrot,
+should be sent for.
+
+Adolphe I knew to be a man of true heart and affection, and to him I
+recommended my poor boy. He promised to take care of him as if he were
+his own son, to take him to France, and to give him over to my family.
+
+Lastly a good Dominican friar came, and with him I had several long
+conferences, and after he had dispensed to me the consolations of his
+ministry, he gave me extreme unction. Everything was done according
+to the customary form, and nothing was wanting but my death.
+
+However, amidst all these preparations, I alone was not so eager;
+and, although in excessive anguish, I preserved my presence of
+mind, and declared I should not die. Was it courage? Was it great
+confidence in my strength and robust health, which made me believe in
+my recovery? Was it a presentiment, or was it an inward voice which
+told me: "The doctors are wrong, and how great will be their surprise
+tomorrow on finding me better?" In short, I did not wish to die; for,
+according to my system, my will ought to stop the order of nature,
+and to make me survive all imaginable pain.
+
+The following day I was better: the doctors found my pulse regular,
+and without any intermitting symptom. Some days afterwards the poison
+passed out to my skin: my whole body was covered with a miliary
+eruption, and thenceforth I was safe. My recovery was very gradual,
+and for more than a year I felt acute pains in my breast.
+
+During the course of my illness I received the kindest attention from
+my fellow-countrymen, and in general from all the Spanish inhabitants
+of Manilla; and here I ought to state, to the praise of the latter
+class, that during twenty years spent in the Philippines, I always
+found amongst those with whom I had dealings, a great nobleness of
+soul and a devotedness free from egotism. I shall never forget the
+kindnesses I received from this noble race, for which I entertain
+feelings of the warmest gratitude. To me, every Spaniard is a brother;
+and to him I shall always be happy to prove that his countrymen have
+not conferred obligations on an ungrateful character. I hope the
+reader will pardon me for having quitted my subject for a short time
+to fulfil the duty of gratitude; but are they not my recollections
+which I am detailing? [25]
+
+The wish to undertake, together with my boy, the voyage which would
+restore me to my country; the hope of seeing my kind good mother,
+my sisters, and all the friends whom I had left behind, reconciled me
+somewhat to existence, and made me experience a little happiness. I was
+awaiting with impatience the time for embarking; but, alas! my mission
+was not yet terminated in the Philippines, and a new catastrophe,
+quickly opened afresh all my sorrows.
+
+I was scarcely recovered, when my dear boy--my sole delight the last
+beloved being that remained to me on this earth, so fruitful in joys,
+and still so destructive of them--my poor Henry fell suddenly ill,
+and his disease made the most rapid progress. My friends immediately
+foreboded that a great misfortune would befall me. I alone did not know
+the state in which my child really was. I loved him with such an ardent
+passion, that I believed it impossible that Providence would deprive
+me of him. My medical attendant, or rather my friend, Genu, advised
+me to take him to Jala-Jala, where his native air and the country,
+as he said, would without doubt promote his recovery. I liked the
+advice, for so many persons had recovered their health at Jala-Jala
+that I hoped for my child a similar good result. I set out with him
+and his governess; the voyage was one of sadness, for I saw my poor
+boy continually suffering, without being able to afford him any relief.
+
+On our arrival Vidie came to receive us, and in a few moments I
+occupied, with my Henry, the room which brought to my remembrance two
+very sorrowful losses--the death of my little daughter and that of my
+beloved Anna. It was, moreover, in that very room my Henry was born,--a
+cruel association of the happiest moments of my existence with that
+when I was bewailing the state of my beloved boy. Nevertheless, I did
+not altogether despair, for I had hopes in my art and experience. I
+seated myself by his bedside, and did not leave him for a moment. I
+slept close to him, and I passed every day in administering the
+medicine and all the comforts in my power, but without any good result,
+or any relief for his sufferings. I lost all hope, and on the ninth
+day after our arrival the dear boy expired in my arms.
+
+It is not possible for me to give an account of my feelings on this
+last trial. My heart was broken, my head on fire! I became mad, and
+never did despair take such a hold on me. I listened to nothing but
+my sorrow; and force became necessary to tear from my arms the mortal
+remains of my child.
+
+On the following day he was laid close to his mother, and another
+tomb was erected in the church of Jala-Jala.
+
+In vain did my friend Vidie endeavour to afford me consolation, or
+to change the current of my affliction. Several times he tried to
+remove me from the fatal room, which I now looked upon as a scene
+of misfortunes, but he could not succeed. I hoped at the time--and
+I also thought that I too had a right--to die there, where my wife
+and my son had breathed their last sighs. My tears refused to flow,
+and even words failed me to express the full extent of my grief. An
+ardent fever, which devoured me, was far too slow for the eagerness
+of my wishes. In a moment of bewilderment, I was near committing
+the greatest act of cowardice which man can perpetrate against his
+Creator. I double-locked the door; I seized the poignard which I had
+so often used to protect my life, and pointed it against myself. I
+was already choosing the spot in which I should strike, in order by
+one blow to terminate my miserable existence. My arm, strengthened by
+delirium, was about to smite my breast, when one sudden thought came to
+prevent me from consummating the crime which has no pardon--although
+the crime of despair. My mother, my poor mother, whom I had so much
+loved, my good mother presented herself to my mind, and said to me:
+"Thou wouldst abandon me--I shall see thee no more!" I recollected
+then the words of Anna: "Go, and see thy mother again!" This thought
+changed my resolution completely. I threw the poniard aside with
+horror, and fell on my bed quite exhausted. My eyes, which during many
+days had been dry and burning, were once again overflowing with tears,
+which removed the heavy weight from my lacerated heart.
+
+The force of mind of which I stood so much in need was awakened again
+within me: I no longer thought of death, but of fulfilling my rigorous
+destiny. Calmed and relieved already by the abundant flow of tears,
+I gave myself up wholly to the idea of embracing my mother and my
+sisters. Then I wished to add the following pages to my journal. My
+head was not thoroughly right. I shall translate what I then wrote
+in Spanish, which was my adopted and familiar language, in preference
+even to French, which I had scarcely spoken during twenty years:--
+
+"How have I strength to take this pen? My poor boy!--my son!--my
+beloved Henry!--is no more: his soul has flown to his Creator! Oh,
+God! pardon this complaint in my distress. What have I done to be
+thus cruelly afflicted? My boy!--my dear son!--my only hope!--my last
+happiness!--I shall never again see thee! Formerly I was happy; I had
+my good Anna and my dear child; but cruel fate soon tore my companion
+from me. My trouble was indeed great, and my affliction was profound;
+but thou wast still with me, Oh, my child! and all my affections were
+concentrated in thee. "With thy caresses thou didst dry my tears; thy
+smile was like that of thy mother, and thy beautiful features reminded
+me of her, and in thee I found her again. But to-day, alas! I have
+lost you both. What a void! Oh, God! what a solitude! Oh! I ought to
+die in this room which is the depository of all my misfortunes. Here I
+bewailed my poor brother; here I closed the eyes of my daughter; here,
+also, Anna, when dying, bade me, bathed in tears, her last adieus;
+and here, at last, thou, my son, they tore thee from my arms, to lay
+thee near the ashes of thy mother.
+
+"So many afflictions and so many troubles for one man! Oh, God of
+goodness and mercy, will you not restore to me my poor child? Alas! I
+scarcely feel that I am mistaken: but He will pity my bewilderment--he
+who has been beloved and who has seen carried off, one by one, all
+the elements of his happiness. As for me, an isolated being, and
+henceforward useless on this earth, it matters little where I shall
+sink under the weight of my afflictions. If it was not from the hope of
+seeing my mother and sisters, I should terminate my wretched existence,
+my grave should be with you--you all!--whom I loved so much. I should
+remain near you, and during the rest of my miserable existence I should
+every day visit your tombs! But no; a sacred duty obliges me to leave
+you, and to separate for ever from you. Cruel! Oh, cruel indeed will
+be the hour when I shall depart from you. And thou, my beloved, my
+good, excellent wife, my Anna, thy last words shall be accomplished. I
+will set out, but regret and grief accompany me during the voyage; my
+heart and my memory will remain at Jala-Jala. Oh! land bedewed with
+my sweat, with my blood, and with my tears! when fate brought me to
+thy shores thou wast covered with dismal forests which this day have
+given place to rich harvests: among thy inhabitants order, abundance,
+and prosperity have taken the place of debauchery and misery. My
+efforts were crowned with full success; all was prosperity around
+me. Alas! I was too happy! But while misfortune strikes me down and
+overwhelms me, it will have stricken me alone, my work will outlive
+me. You will be happy, Oh, my friends! and if I myself have been so
+in contributing to your welfare, let a thought sometimes awaken your
+feelings towards him to whom you often gave the name of 'Father;'
+and if you preserve gratitude towards him, Oh, take a religious care
+of the tombs, trebly dear to him, which he now intrusts to you."
+
+My readers will pardon this melancholy and long lamentation; they
+will understand it if they examine with care my position. Separated
+from my country by five thousand five hundred leagues, the stroke
+of fate which laid all my cherished hopes in the dust was the
+more acutely felt as it was unexpected. I had no relatives in the
+Philippines; in France alone I might yet find some affections; and,
+at the moment of quitting Jala-Jala for ever, the idea of parting with
+my Indians--attached, devoted, as they were to me--was an additional
+grief to the many which overpowered me. Thus I could not resolve to
+acquaint them beforehand of this separation. I remained in my room,
+without quitting it even at meal times. My friend Vidie did everything
+possible to prepare me for these adieus, and to console me. He pressed
+me to start speedily for Manilla, and to make arrangements for my
+departure; but an irresistible force retained me at Jala-Jala. I
+was weak; my heart was so crushed by sorrows that I had no courage
+to adopt any resolutions. I put it off from day to day, and from day
+to day I was more undecided. An unexpected occasion was necessary in
+order to conquer my apathy; it was requisite also to triumph over me
+by sentiments of gratitude--sentiments which I could never resist.
+
+On this occasion, the motive which decided my departure was furnished
+by Providence. I had a friend in Manilla, a lady of angelic goodness,
+gentleness, and devotedness. United from the period of my arrival in
+the most intimate manner with all her family, I had known her as a
+child, and afterwards married to a highly honourable man, of whom when
+she was subsequently bereaved, I afforded her all the consolations
+which the sincerest friendship could offer. She was a witness of the
+happiness which I enjoyed with my dear Anna, and, hearing that I was
+unhappy, she did not hesitate to undertake a long journey, and in her
+turn to come and take a part in my troubles. The excellent Dolorès
+Seneris arrived one morning at Jala-Jala; she threw herself into my
+arms, and for some moments tears alone were the interpreters of our
+thoughts. When we recovered from our first emotions, she told me that
+she had come to take me away, and she herself made the preparations
+for my departure. I was too grateful for this proof of the friendship
+of the good Dolorès not to acquiesce in her wishes, and it was decided
+that on the following day I should quit Jala-Jala for ever.
+
+The report was soon spread among my Indians. They all came to bid me
+farewell: they wept, and they said to me:
+
+"Oh, master, do not deprive us of all hope of seeing you again. Go,
+and receive consolation from your mother, and then return to your
+children." That day was filled with most distressing feelings.
+
+The day following was Sunday. I went to say adieu to the remains of
+those whom I had loved even in their tombs. I heard for the last time
+the divine service in the modest little church which I had erected,
+and in which for a long time, surrounded by my dearest friends, I was
+happy to assemble, on the same day of the week, the small congregation
+of Jala-Jala.
+
+After the service I proceeded to the beach, where the boat was waiting,
+which was to take me to Manilla. There--surrounded by my Indians, the
+good parish priest, Padre Miguel, and my friend Vidie--I bade adieu
+to them all for the last time. Dolorès and I got into the boat, which
+was scarcely pushed off from the shore when every arm was stretched
+out towards me, and every one exclaimed:--"May your voyage be happy,
+master! And oh! return soon!"
+
+One of the oldest Indians made a sign for silence, and then in a loud
+voice uttered these solemn words:--"Brothers, let us weep and pray,
+for the sun is obscured to us; the star which is going has shed light
+on our best days, and now for the future, being deprived of that light,
+we cannot tell how long will last the night in which we are plunged
+by the misfortune of his departure."
+
+This exhortation of the old Indian were the last words that reached
+us: the boat moved away, as I, for the last time, fixed my eyes on
+the beloved land which I was never again to behold.
+
+We reached Manilla late: it was one of those enchanting nights, which
+I have described in the happy period of my voyages. Dolorès insisted
+that I should not lodge in any house but hers. Before she set out
+her careful friendship had provided for everything. I was surrounded
+by all those little attentions of which woman alone has the secret,
+and which she knows how to confer with such grace on him who is the
+object for whom they are designed.
+
+My windows looked on the pretty river Pasig. I there passed whole
+days in looking at the graceful Indian canoes gliding over the water,
+and receiving the visits of my friends, who came with eagerness to
+endeavour to divert my thoughts, and to afford sources of pleasing
+conversation.
+
+When I was alone I sought to dispel my melancholy by thinking of my
+voyage; on the happiness I should experience on seeing again my poor
+mother and sisters, a brother-in-law whom I did not know, and nieces
+born during my absence.
+
+The obligation of returning the visits I received, and the
+re-establishment of my health, allowed me at length to enter into
+affairs connected with my departure.
+
+My friend, Adolphe Barrot, consul-general of France, was every day in
+expectation of intelligence from his government, with orders for his
+return home. He proposed to me to wait for him, so that we might make
+the voyage together. I accepted the proposal with pleasure, and we
+decided amongst ourselves that, for our return, we should take the
+route of India, of the Red Sea, and of Egypt.
+
+While I stayed at Manilla I did not wish to be idle. The Spaniards
+reminded me that at a former epoch I had carried on the art of
+medicine, and with great success. I soon had patients from all quarters
+of the island, and I resumed my old profession, and gave advice. But
+what difference between this time and that of my débût. Then I was
+young, full of strength and of hope; then I indulged in the illusions
+usual to youth; a long future of happiness presented itself to my
+imagination. Now, overwhelmed by the weight of troubles and of the
+laborious works I had executed, there was only one wish to excite
+me, and that was, to see France again; and yet my recollections took
+me continually back to Jala-Jala. Poor little corner of the globe,
+which I civilised! where my best years were spent in a life of labour,
+of emotions, of happiness, and of bitterness! Poor Indians! who loved
+me so much! I was never to see you again! We were soon to be separated
+by the immensity of the ocean.
+
+Reflections and recollections beyond number thus occupied my mind. But,
+alas! it is vain to struggle against one's destiny; and Providence,
+in its impenetrable views, was reserving me for rude trials and
+fresh misfortunes.
+
+Having again become a doctor at Manilla, where I had such difficulty
+at my commencement, I visited patients from morning until night. To
+Dolorès and to her sister Trinidad I was indebted for the most touching
+and most delicate attentions, calculated to heal the wounds which were
+still bleeding in the bottom of my heart. I frequently saw the two
+sisters of my poor wife, Joaquina and Mariquita, as well as my young
+niece, the daughter of excellent Josephine, for whom I had entertained
+so warm a friendship, and who so soon followed my darling Anna to
+the grave. By little and little I was forming new ties of affection,
+which I was soon to break, and never afterwards to renew. I could
+not forget Jala-Jala, and my recollections never quitted that place
+where were deposited the remains of those whom of all the world I
+had most loved. My eager wishes induced me to hope that my work of
+colonisation should continue, and that my friend Vidie should find some
+compensation for the rough task he had undertaken. At this period, even
+while I remained in Manilla, a great misfortune was nearly the cause
+of throwing Jala-Jala back into its former state of barbarism. The
+bandits, who always respected the place while I was in possession of
+it, came one night to attack it, and made themselves masters of the
+house in which Vidie had shut himself up, and defended until he was
+forced to escape out of a window, and to run and hide in the woods,
+leaving his daughter, then very young, to the care of an Indian
+nurse. The bandits pillaged and shattered everything in the house;
+wounded his daughter by a sabre-cut, of which to this day she bears the
+marks; and then went off with the plunder they had made. But Jala-Jala
+had become too important a point to be neglected; and the Spanish
+government sent troops to it, to protect Vidie, and to maintain order.
+
+At last, Adolphe Barrot received from the French government the
+long-awaited instructions to return home; all my preparations were
+made for setting out. It was in 1839; twenty years had passed over
+since I left my country, which I was now about to return to with
+satisfaction. For a long time I had received no news from my mother,
+and the pleasure which I anticipated from seeing her was troubled by
+the dread of having new sorrows to experience on my arrival. My mother
+was then very old; her life had been passed in long tribulations,
+and in complete sacrifice of self. The numerous moral troubles which
+she had gone through must have affected her state of health. Besides,
+I had been so unfortunate: fate seemed to have so roughly treated all
+my affections, that I could not refrain from thinking that I should
+never again see her for whom I abandoned my much-loved country. The
+day for sailing came; yet it was not without a heartfelt grief that
+I tore myself away from my friends, and bade adieu to the Philippines.
+
+
+
+Here ought to terminate the account which I proposed: yet I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to my return to my native land.
+
+On board various vessels I passed the coasts of India, the Persian
+Gulf, and the Red Sea.
+
+After having often admired the grand works of Nature, I felt a strong
+desire to see the gigantic works executed by the hand of man.
+
+I went to Thebes, and there visited in detail its palaces, its tombs,
+and its monolithes. I descended the Nile, stopping at every place
+which contained any monuments worthy of my curiosity. I ascended
+one of the Pyramids. I passed several days in Cairo, and set out for
+Alexandria, where I embarked anew, to pass over the small space of
+sea which separated me from Europe.
+
+I have sometimes wished to compare the grandest of human productions
+with the works of the Creator; the comparison is by no means
+favourable to the former, for all those useless ornaments are nothing
+but lasting proofs of pride, and of the fanaticism of a few men, who
+were obeyed by a people in slavery. I also saw all that remained of
+the traces of destruction committed by two of the greatest conquerors
+of the world: the first was but a haughty despot, causing cohorts of
+slaves to act as he pleased, and carrying the sword and destruction
+amongst peaceful people, to profane their tombs, to follow up useless
+conquests,--history afterwards shows him dying of an orgie; and the
+other, alas! was enchained to a rock.
+
+From the summit of one of the Pyramids, in religious abstraction, I
+had contemplated the majestic Nile, which glides serpent-like through
+a vast plain, bordered by the Desert and arid mountains. Looking,
+then, below me, I could with difficulty descry some of my travelling
+companions, who were gazing at the Sphinx, and who appeared like little
+spots on the sand. And I then exclaimed: "It is not these useless
+monuments that we ought to admire, but rather this magnificent river,
+which, in obedience to the laws of all-powerful wisdom, overflows
+every year, at a fixed period, its limits, and spreads itself, like
+a vast sea, to water and to vivify these immense plains, which are
+afterwards covered with rich harvests. If this immutable and beneficent
+order of Nature did not endure, all these fertile districts would be
+but a desert waste, where no living creature could exist."
+
+These reflections took their origin, without doubt, from my having
+spent almost all my life amidst those grand creations of Nature,
+from which man continually derives sentiments that elevate him to
+the Supreme Being. I had studied that Nature--in all her details,
+her beneficence, and her magnificence--too attentively to allow
+the productions of man's genius to make upon me the impression
+which I thought might be expected, when I first formed the wish
+to see the monuments of Egypt; and, while sailing for Europe, I
+already anticipated the feeling that a short sojourn in the midst of
+civilisation would cause me to regret my ancient freedom, my mountains,
+and my solitudes in the Philippine Islands.
+
+On arriving at Malta I was for eighteen days locked up in Fort Manuel,
+and then passed the quarantine. I there received news of my family. My
+mother and sisters wrote to me that they were in the enjoyment of
+excellent health, and were awaiting with impatience my coming to
+them. After the quarantine was over, I stopped nearly a week in
+the city, while waiting for a steamer that was going to France. I
+embraced the opportunity of seeing every curiosity in the island. I
+then resumed my voyage to my native land, and the following week I
+recognised the arid rocks of Provence and France, from which I had
+been absent for twenty years.
+
+In a few days I reached Nantes, where for some time I enjoyed, in every
+respect, all the happiness which one feels when those beloved beings
+from whom one had been long severed, and who formed the last living
+ties of affection for an unhappy being who had been severely tried
+by a capricious destiny. But the want of excitement in which I lived
+soon became irksome; my life had been too active, so that the sudden
+transition could not fail to prove injurious to my health, and the idea
+of submitting during the remainder of my existence to a life sterile
+and monotonous became intolerable. Not knowing how to employ myself,
+I resolved to travel through Europe, and to study the civilised world,
+which was then so strange to me. I travelled through France, England,
+Belgium, Spain, and Italy, and returned to my family, without being
+able to discover anything that could induce me to forget my Indians,
+Jala-Jala, and my solitary excursions in the virgin forests. The
+society of men reared in extreme civilisation could not efface from my
+memory my past modest life. Notwithstanding all my efforts, I retained
+in my heart a fund of sadness, which it was not possible to conceal. My
+kind-hearted mother, who with deep regret observed my repugnance
+to establish myself in any part of the country, and who entertained
+fears, perhaps well-founded ones, that I should yet endeavour to go
+back to the Philippines, used every means to prevent me. She spoke
+to me of marriage, and in all her letters repeated that she should
+not be happy until I agreed to enter into the ties of a new union:
+she said my name would otherwise become extinct, and, as her last
+consolation, she asked me to allow her to choose a companion for me.
+
+The wish to satisfy her, and also the remembrance of Anna's last words:
+"Return to thy country, and marry one of thy countrywomen," decided
+my resolution.
+
+I soon made choice of one, who would have fully rendered a man happy
+who had not too frequently before him the remembrance of a previous
+union. Nevertheless, I was as happy as I could be. My new wife
+possessed every quality necessary for my happiness. By her I became
+father of two children, and I began to bless the determination which my
+mother had contributed so much to make me adopt; but, alas! happiness
+was never for me lasting; the cup of bitterness was not yet exhausted,
+and I had still to shed many tears.
+
+In the cemetery of Vertoux, a modest tomb for thee, poor mother! is
+erected, between that of a husband and a son; and soon after another
+grave was opened at Neuilly. In profound affliction I had the following
+lines engraved on the latter:
+
+
+        "Veille, du haut des cieux, sur ta triste famille;
+        Conserve-moi ton fils et revis dans ta fille." [26]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+[1] Pablo signifies Paul, my Christian name. I was always called thus
+at Manilla and at Cavite.
+
+[2] The betel is a species of pepper plant, the leaves of which
+are wrapped round areca nuts and the chunam--the latter is a kind
+of burnt-lime made of shells, and the areca nut is the fruit of
+a species of palm. The Indians, Chinese, half-breeds, and a great
+number of Creoles, continually chew this mixture, which is reputed
+to sweeten the breath and assist digestion.
+
+[3] During six months the winds blow continually from the north-east,
+and during the other six months from the north-west: these two periods
+are termed north-east monsoon and north-west monsoon.
+
+[4] At their head was Don José Fuentès, my constant friend.
+
+[5] Don Simon Fernandez, Oidor at the Court Royal.
+
+[6] The most bitter enemies of the Tinguians are a race of cruel,
+blood-thirsty savages, who inhabit the interior of the mountains. They
+have also to fear the Igorrots, who live nearer, but who are less
+savage.
+
+[7] Evil Spirit.
+
+[8] A malicious divinity of the Tagalocs.
+
+[9] It is on account of this cruel custom of beheading their victims
+that the Spaniards have given to these savages the name of "corta
+cabesas," "decapitators."
+
+[10] Banditti.
+
+[11] "The nakedness of the poor might be clothed out of the trimmings
+of the vain."--Dr. Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield."--Tr.
+
+[12] The Igorrots, however, according to the reports of the Indians,
+are not anthropophagi; perhaps the one in question had received these
+ragouts from some other savages--the Guinans, for instance.
+
+[13] It would be difficult to establish from what nations the divers
+species of men who inhabit the interior of Luzon originally came. The
+Tinguians, from their fine shape, their colour, their eyes, their
+almost aquiline nose, the value they set upon china vases, their music,
+and finally from their habits, would appear to be the descendants
+of the Japanese. It is most likely that at a very distant period
+some junks from the Japan coasts, hurried along by strong northern
+winds, may have been wrecked upon the Luzon shores, and that their
+crews, seeing no possibility of returning to their native country,
+as well as to avoid the Malayan population that was in possession
+of the beaches,--it is possible, I say, that the shipwrecked persons
+withdrew into the interior of the mountains, the difficulty of access
+to which protected them from all invasion.
+
+The Japanese sailors, who are merely coasters, sail about with their
+wives, as I had an opportunity of witnessing on board many junks,
+whither I went through mere curiosity. Those same junks, beaten by
+the tempest, had steered for shelter to the eastern coast of Luzon,
+where they anchored for four months, waiting for the return of the
+monsoon; and had they not met with a protecting government, their crews
+would have been compelled to fly into the mountains, as I suppose the
+Tinguians had been obliged to do. The latter having some women with
+them, must have procured others from among the neighbouring population,
+and as they inhabit the finest and healthiest country in the world,
+their number must have considerably increased. They are now spread
+over sixteen villages: Palan, Jalamey, Mabuantoc, Dalayap, Lanquiden,
+Baac, Padanquitan y Pangal, Campasan y Danglas, Lagayan, Ganagan,
+Malaylay, Bucay, Gaddani, Laganguilan y Madalag, Manab, Palog y Amay.
+
+The Igorrots, whom I had less opportunities of studying, seem to
+be the descendants of the remains of the grand naval army of the
+Chinese Lima-On, who, after attacking Manilla, on the 30th November,
+1574, had taken refuge in the province of Pangasinan, in the gulf of
+Lingayan, where he was a second time defeated, and his fleet completely
+destroyed. A part of the crew escaped into the mountains of Pangasinan,
+where the Spaniards could not pursue them.
+
+The Igorrot has long hair, eyes à la Chinoise, a flat nose, thick
+lips, high cheek bones, broad shoulders, strong and nervous limbs,
+and bronze colour; he greatly resembles the Chinese of the southern
+provinces of the Celestial Empire.
+
+I could obtain no information as to extraction concerning the Guinans,
+another people of savages, ferocious and cruel, who live in the
+neighbourhood of the Tinguians.
+
+I keep back for a future period a description of the Ajetas, or
+Negritos, the aborigines of Luzon.
+
+[14] According to Indian tradition, and to Spanish tradition
+likewise, the Infant Jesus of Zébou existed before the discovery of
+the Philippines. After the conquest the Infant was found upon the
+sea-shore; the Spanish conquerors deposited it in the cathedral,
+where it performed great miracles.
+
+[15] The Malays.
+
+[16] See Appendix, I.
+
+[17] I experienced two such gales during my residence at Jala-Jala--the
+one I am now speaking of, and another to which I shall afterwards
+allude.
+
+[18] Tapuzi is situated in the mountains of Limutan. Limutan is a
+Tagalese word, signifying "altogether forgotten."
+
+[19] In the eyes of the natives of Tagal all Europeans are Spaniards.
+
+[20] While this work was in the press, Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, who has
+already published an account of his "Voyage to the Northern Ports of
+China," kindly furnished the Publishers with confirmatory proofs of
+M. de la Gironiere's narrative, see Appendix, No. II.
+
+[21] See Appendix III. and IV.
+
+[22] Of the house of Russell and Sturges, a good and true friend, the
+recollection of whom, often present to my mind, will never be effaced.
+
+[23] Bernard the Hermit is a crab, which lodges in the abandoned
+shell of the molluscæ, and comes at night in search of food, which
+it finds on the sea beach.
+
+[24] The skeleton is now in the Musée Anatomique of Paris.
+
+[25] Gratitude here requires that I should name some of those to
+whom I am specially indebted for marks of affection and kindness. It
+would be indeed ungrateful on my part to forget them, and I beg them
+to accept this proof of my recollections.
+
+The Governors of the Philippines to whom I owe these remembrances
+are:--Generals Martinès, Ricafort, Torres Enrile, Camba, and Salazar;
+in the various administrations of the colony, the Judges (Oidorrs)
+Don Inigo Asaola, Otin-i Doazo, Don Matias Mier, Don Jacobo Varela,
+administrator-general of the liquors; Don José de la Fuente, commissary
+of the engineers, who rendered me innumerable kindnesses; Colonel Don
+Thomas de Murieta, corregidor of Tondoc; the colonel of engineers, Don
+Mariano Goicochea; the Colonel-Commandant Lante Romana; the Governor of
+the province, Don José Atienza; the brothers Ramos, sons of the judge;
+all the family Calderon; that of Seneris; Don Balthazar Mier, Don
+José Ascaraga; and lastly my friend, Don Domingo Roxas, whose son, Don
+Mariano Roxas, after having received a solid and brilliant education at
+Manilla, came to travel in Europe. He has acquired the most extensive
+information in the sciences and arts, and when he shall have returned
+to the Philippine Islands, he will most worthily replace his dignified
+father, whom a premature death has snatched away from the industry,
+the agriculture, and the advancement of his country. If gratitude
+has induced me to mention here the Spaniards from whom I experienced
+many acts of kindness, the same feeling compels me to allude to an
+English gentleman to whom I was indebted for one of those important
+services which are never to be forgotten. I allude to Mr. Thomas Dent,
+with whom I have frequently conversed upon our hunting parties at
+Jala-Jala, in which he was occasionally one of the principal actors.
+
+[26]        "From Heaven's height look down and see
+            The sorrows of thy family;
+            Preserve for me thy only boy,
+            And in thy daughter give me joy."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by 
+Paul P. de La Gironière
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by 
+Paul P. de La Gironière
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Adventures in the Philippine Islands
+
+Author: Paul P. de La Gironière
+
+Release Date: October 27, 2009 [EBook #30347]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE PHILIPPINES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class="front">
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p215"><img border="0" src="images/p215.jpg"
+alt="A Native Woman seized by a Cayman." width="720" height="484">
+<p class="figureHead">A Native Woman seized by a Cayman.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="titlePage">
+<h1 class="docTitle">Adventures<br>
+ in the<br>
+ Philippine Islands.</h1>
+
+<h2 class="byline">Translated from the French of<br>
+ <span class="docAuthor">Paul P. de la Gironiere</span>,<br>
+ Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour.</h2>
+
+<h2 class="docImprint">Revised and extended by the author,<br>
+ Expressly for this edition.<br>
+ London: Charles H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p000"><img border="0" src="images/p000.jpg"
+alt="Portrait of the Author." width="397" height="381">
+<p class="figureHead">Portrait of the Author.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e157" href=
+"#xd0e157">xiii</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="pre" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="normal">Preface.</h2>
+
+<p>On hearing a recital of some adventures which had occurred to me
+during my long voyages, many of my friends have frequently begged of me
+to publish a narrative of them, which might perhaps be interesting.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing can be more easy for you,&rdquo; they said, &ldquo;as
+you have always kept a journal since your departure from
+France.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated, however, to follow their advice, or to yield to their
+wishes, when I was one day surprised to see my name in one of the <i
+lang="fr">feuilletons</i> in the &ldquo;<i lang=
+"fr">Constitutionnel</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>M. Alexandre Dumas was publishing, under the title of &ldquo;<i><a
+class="pglink" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href=
+"https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15208">The Thousand-and-One
+Phantoms</a></i>,&rdquo; a <i>romance</i>, one of the principal
+personages of which, in a voyage to the Philippine Islands, must have
+known me when I was residing at Jala-Jala, in the colony that I founded
+there. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e182" href=
+"#xd0e182">xiv</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>It must be evident that the lively romancist has ranked me in the
+category of his <i>Thousand-and-One Phantoms</i>; but, to prove to the
+public that I am really in existence, I have resolved to take up the
+pen, under an impression, that facts of the most scrupulous veracity,
+and which can be attested by some hundreds of persons, might possess
+some interest, and be read without <i>ennui</i>, by those especially
+who are desirous of learning the customs of the savage tribes amongst
+whom I have resided.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="body"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb17" href=
+"#pb17">17</a>]</span>
+<div id="ch1" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter I.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>A Family Sketch&mdash;My Youthful Days&mdash;I Study for the Medical
+Profession&mdash;Obtain a Naval Surgeon&rsquo;s Diploma&mdash;Early
+Voyages&mdash;Sail for Manilla in the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>&mdash;Adventurous Habits&mdash;Cholera and Massacre at
+Manilla and Cavite&mdash;Captain Drouant&rsquo;s Rescue&mdash;Personal
+Dangers and Timely Escapes&mdash;How Business may make Friends of
+one&rsquo;s Enemies&mdash;An Unprincipled Captain&mdash;Tranquility
+restored at Manila&mdash;Pleasures of the Chase&mdash;The <i>
+Cultivateur</i> sails without me&mdash;First Embarrassments.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p017"><img border="0" src="images/p017.jpg"
+alt="Nantes." width="489" height="543">
+<p class="figureHead">Nantes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">My father was born at Nantes, and held the rank of
+captain in the regiment of Auvergne. The Revolution caused him the loss
+of his commission and his fortune, and left him, as sole remaining
+resource, a little property called <i lang="fr">La Planche</i>, <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb18" href="#pb18">18</a>]</span>belonging to
+my mother, and <span class="corr" id="xd0e217" title="Source: situate">
+situated</span> about two leagues from Nantes, in the parish of
+Vertoux.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of the Empire he wished to enter the service
+again; but at that period his name was an obstacle, and he failed in
+every attempt to obtain even the rank of lieutenant. With scarcely the
+means of existence, he retired to <i lang="fr">La Planche</i> with his
+family. There he lived for some years, suffering the grief and the many
+annoyances caused by the sudden change from opulence to want, and by
+the impossibility of supplying all the requirements of his numerous
+family. A short illness terminated his distressed existence, and his
+mortal remains were deposited in the cemetery of Vertoux. My mother, a
+pattern of courage and devotedness, remained a widow, with six
+children, two girls and four boys; she continued to reside in the
+country, imparting to us the first elements of instruction.</p>
+
+<p>The free life of the fields, and the athletic exercises to which my
+elder brothers and I accustomed ourselves, tended to make me hardy, and
+rendered me capable of enduring every kind of fatigue and privation.
+This country life, with its liberty, and I may well say its happiness,
+passed too quickly away; and the period soon came when my education
+compelled me to pursue my daily studies in a school at Nantes. I had
+four leagues to walk, but I trudged the distance light-heartedly<span
+class="corr" id="xd0e227" title="Source: .">,</span> and at night, when
+I returned home, I ever found awaiting me the kind solicitude of our
+dear mother, and the attentive cares of two sisters whom I tenderly
+loved.</p>
+
+<p>It was decided that I should enter the medical profession. I studied
+several years at the H&ocirc;tel-Dieu of Nantes, and I passed my
+examination for naval surgeon at an age when many a young man is shut
+up within the four walls of a college, still prosecuting his studies.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb19" href="#pb19">19</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to form any idea of my joy when I saw myself
+in possession of my surgeon&rsquo;s diploma. Thenceforward I regarded
+myself as an important being, about to take my place among reasonable
+and industrious men; and what perhaps rendered me still more joyous
+was, that I could earn my own livelihood, and contribute to the comfort
+of my mother and my sisters.</p>
+
+<p>I was also seized with a strong desire to travel abroad, and make
+myself acquainted with foreign countries.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-four hours after my nomination as surgeon I went and offered
+my services to a ship-owner who was about freighting a vessel to the
+East Indies. We were not long in arranging terms, and, at forty francs
+per month, I engaged myself for the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Within twelve months afterwards I returned home. Who can depict the
+sweet emotions which, as a young man, I felt on again beholding my
+native land? I stayed a month on shore, surrounded by the affectionate
+attentions of my mother and sisters. Despite their assiduities I was
+seized with <i>ennui</i>. I made a second and a third voyage; then,
+after having rounded the Cape of Good Hope half-a-dozen times, I
+undertook one which separated me from my country during twenty
+years.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th October, 1819, I embarked on board the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>, an old half-rotten three-masted vessel, commanded by
+an equally old captain, who, long ashore, had given up navigating for
+many years. An old captain with an old ship! Such were the conditions
+in which I undertook this voyage. I ought, however, to add, that I
+obtained an increase of pay.</p>
+
+<p>We touched at Bourbon; we ran along the entire coast of Sumatra, a
+part of Java, the isles of Sonde, and that of Banca; and at last,
+towards the end of May, eight months after our <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb20" href="#pb20">20</a>]</span>departure from Nantes, we
+arrived in the magnificent bay of Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cultivateur</i> anchored near the little town of Cavite. I
+obtained leave to reside on shore, and took lodgings in Cavite, which
+is situate about five or six leagues from Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>To make up for my long inactivity on board ship, I eagerly engaged
+in my favourite exercises, exploring the country in all directions with
+my gun upon my shoulder. Taking for a guide the first Indian whom I
+met, I made long excursions, less occupied in shooting than in admiring
+the magnificent scenery. I knew a little Spanish, and soon acquired a
+few <i>Tagaloc</i> words. Whether it was for excitement&rsquo;s sake,
+or from a vague desire of braving danger, I know not, but I was
+particularly fond of wandering in remote places, said to be frequented
+by robbers. With these I occasionally fell in, but the sight of my gun
+kept them in check. I may say, with truth, that at that period of my
+life I had so little sense of danger, that I was always ready to put
+myself forward when there was an enemy to fight or a peril to be
+encountered.</p>
+
+<p>I had only resided a short time at Cavite when that terrible
+scourge, the cholera, broke out at Manilla, in September, 1820, and
+quickly ravaged the whole island. Within a few days of its first
+appearance the epidemic spread rapidly; the Indians succumbed by
+thousands; at all hours of the day and of the night the streets were
+crowded with the dead-carts. Next to the fright occasioned by the
+epidemic, quickly succeeded rage and despair. The Indians said, one to
+another, that the strangers poisoned the rivers and the fountains, in
+order to destroy the native population and possess themselves of the
+Philippines.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th October, 1820, the anniversary of my departure <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb21" href="#pb21">21</a>]</span>from France, a
+dreadful massacre commenced at Manilla and at Cavite. Poor Dibard, the
+captain of the <i>Cultivateur</i>, was one of the first victims. Almost
+all the French who resided at Manilla were slain, and their houses
+pillaged and destroyed. The carnage only ceased when there were no
+longer any victims. One eye-witness escaped this butchery, namely, M.
+Gautrin, a captain of the merchant service, who, at the moment I am
+writing, happens to be residing in Paris. He saved his life by his
+courage and his muscular strength. After seeing one of his friends
+mercilessly cut to pieces, he precipitated himself into the midst of
+the assassins, with no other means of defence than his fists. He
+succeeded in fighting his way through the crowd, but shortly afterwards
+fell exhausted, having received three sabre-cuts upon his head, and a
+lance-thrust in his body. Fortunately, some soldiers happened to pass
+by at the time, who picked him up and carried him to a guard-house,
+where his wounds were quickly attended to.</p>
+
+<p>I myself was dodged about Cavite, but I contrived to escape, and to
+reach a pirogue, into which I jumped, and took refuge on board the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>. I had scarcely been there ten minutes when I was
+requested to attend the mate of an American vessel, who had just been
+stabbed on board his ship by some custom-house guards. When I had
+finished dressing the wound, several officers, belonging to the
+different French vessels lying in the bay, acquainted me that one of
+their brethren, Captain Drouant, of Marseilles, was still ashore, and
+that there might yet be time to save him. There was not a moment to
+lose; night was approaching, and it was necessary to profit by the last
+half-hour of daylight. I set off in a cutter, and, on nearing the land,
+I directed my men to keep the boat afloat, in order to prevent a
+surprise on the part of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb22" href=
+"#pb22">22</a>]</span>Indians, but yet to hug the shore sufficiently
+close to land promptly, in case the captain or myself signaled them. I
+then quickly set about searching for Drouant.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching a small square, called <i>Puerta Baga</i>, I observed a
+group of three or four hundred Indians. I had a presentiment that it
+was in that direction I ought to prosecute my search. I approached, and
+beheld the unfortunate Drouant, pale as a corpse. A furious Indian was
+on the point of plunging his kreese into his breast. I threw myself
+between the captain and the poignard, violently pushing on either side
+the murderer and his victim, so as to separate them. &ldquo;Run!&rdquo;
+I cried in French; &ldquo;a boat awaits you.&rdquo; So great was the
+stupefaction of the Indians that the captain escaped unpursued.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p022"><img border="0" src="images/p022.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere saves the life of Captain Drouant." width="720"
+height="486">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere saves the life of Captain
+Drouant.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was now time for me to get out of the dangerous situation in
+which I was involved. Four hundred Indians surrounded me; the only way
+of dealing with them was by audacity. I said in Tagaloc to the Indian
+who had attempted to stab the captain: &ldquo;You are a
+scoundrel.&rdquo; The Indian sprang towards me; he raised his arm: I
+struck him on the head with a cane which I held in my hand; he waited
+in astonishment for a moment, and then returned towards his companions
+to excite them. Daggers were drawn on every side; the crowd formed a
+circle around me, which gradually concentrated. Mysterious influence of
+the white man over his coloured brother! Of all these four hundred
+Indians, not one dared attack me the first; they all wished to strike
+together. Suddenly a native soldier, armed with a musket, broke through
+the crowd; he struck down my adversary, took away his dagger, and
+holding his musket by the bayonet end, he swung it round and round his
+head, thus enlarging the circle at first, and then dispersing a portion
+of my enemies. &ldquo;Fly, sir!&rdquo; said my liberator; &ldquo;now
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb23" href="#pb23">23</a>]</span>that I
+am here, no one will touch a hair of your head.&rdquo; In fact the
+crowd divided, and left me a free passage. I was saved, without knowing
+by whom, or for what reason, until the native soldier called after me:
+&ldquo;You attended my wife who was sick, and you never asked payment
+of me. I now settle my debt.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As Captain Drouant had doubtless gone off in the cutter, it was
+impossible for me to return on board the <i>Cultivateur</i>. I directed
+my steps towards my lodgings, creeping along the walls, and taking
+advantage of the obscurity, when, on turning the corner of a street, I
+fell into the midst of a band of dockyard workmen, armed with axes, and
+about to proceed to the attack of the French vessels then in harbour.
+Here again I owed my preservation to an acquaintance, to whom I had
+rendered some service in the practice of my profession. A <i>
+M&eacute;tis</i>, or half-breed, who had quickly pushed me into the
+entry of a house, and covered me with his body, said: &ldquo;Stir not,
+Doctor Pablo!&rdquo;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e308src" href=
+"#xd0e308">1</a> When the crowd had dispersed, my protector advised me
+to conceal myself, and, above all, not to go on board; he then started
+off to rejoin his comrades. But all was not yet over. I had scarcely
+entered my lodgings when I heard a knocking at the door.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Doctor Pablo,&rdquo; said a voice, which was not unknown to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I opened, and I saw, as pale as death, a Chinese, who kept a
+tea-store on the ground-floor of the same house.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter, Yang-Po?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Save yourself, Doctor!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And wherefore?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Because the Indians will attack you this very night; they
+have decided upon it!&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb24" href=
+"#pb24">24</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Is it not your apprehension on account of your shop,
+Yang-Po?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, no! do not treat this matter lightly. If you remain here
+you are doomed; you have struck an Indian, and his friends cry aloud
+for vengeance.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The fears of Yang-Po were, I saw, too well-founded; but what could I
+do? To shut my door and await was the safest plan.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; said I to the Chinese; &ldquo;thank you for
+your kind advice, but I shall remain here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Remain here, Signor Doctor! Can you think of so
+doing?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now, Yang-Po, a service: go and say to these Indians that I
+have, at their service, a brace of pistols and a double-barreled gun,
+which I know how to use.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese departed sighing deeply, from a notion that the attack
+upon the Doctor might end in the pillage of his wares. I barricaded my
+door with the furniture of the room; I then loaded my weapons, and put
+out the lights.</p>
+
+<p>It was now eight o&rsquo;clock in the evening. The least noise made
+me think that the moment had arrived when Providence alone could save
+me. I was so fatigued that, despite the anxiety natural to my position,
+I had frequently to struggle against an inclination to sleep. Towards
+eleven o&rsquo;clock some one knocked at my door. I seized my pistols,
+and listened attentively. At a second summons, I approached the door on
+tip-toe.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s there?&rdquo; I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>A voice replied to me: &ldquo;We come to save you. Lose not an
+instant. Get out on the roof, and climb over to the other side, where
+we will await you, in the street of the <i>Campanario</i>.&rdquo; Then
+two or three persons descended the stairs rapidly. I had <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb25" href="#pb25">25</a>]</span>recognised the voice
+of a M&eacute;tis, whose good feelings on my behalf were beyond doubt.
+There was now no time to be lost, for at the moment I got out of a
+window which served to light the staircase, and led on to the roof, the
+Indians had arrived in front of the house, and in a few minutes were
+breaking and plundering the little I possessed. I quickly traversed the
+roof, and descended into the street of the <i>Campanario</i>, where my
+new preservers awaited me. They conducted me to their dwelling: there,
+a profound sleep caused me quickly to forget the dangers I had passed
+through.</p>
+
+<p>The following day my friends prepared a small pirogue to convey me
+on board the <i>Cultivateur</i>, where, apparently, I should be in
+greater security than on shore. I was about to embark when one of my
+preservers handed me a letter which he had just received. It was
+addressed to me, and bore the signatures of all the captains whose
+vessels were lying in the harbour, and it informed me that, seeing
+themselves exposed every moment to an attack by the Indians, they were
+decided to raise anchor and seek a wider offing; but that two among
+them, Drouant and Perroux, had been compelled to leave on shore a
+portion of their possessions, and all their sails and fresh water. They
+entreated me to lend them my assistance, and had arranged that a skiff
+should be placed at my command. I communicated this letter to my
+friends, and declared that I would not return on board without
+endeavouring to satisfy the wishes of my countrymen; it was a question
+of saving the lives of the crews of two vessels, and hesitation was
+impossible. They used every effort to shake my resolution. &ldquo;If
+you show yourself in any part of the town,&rdquo; said they, &ldquo;you
+are lost; even supposing the Indians were not to kill you, they would
+not fail to steal every object intrusted to them.&rdquo; I remained
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb26" href=
+"#pb26">26</a>]</span>immovable, and pointed out to them that it was a
+question of honour and humanity. &ldquo;Go alone, then!&rdquo;
+exclaimed that M&eacute;tis who had contributed the most to my escape;
+&ldquo;not one of us will follow you; we would not have it said that we
+assisted in your destruction.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I thanked my friends, and, after shaking hands with them, passed on
+through the streets of Cavite, my pistols in my belt, and my thoughts
+occupied as to the best means of extricating myself from my perilous
+position. However, I already knew sufficient of the Indian character to
+be aware that boldness would conciliate, rather than enrage them. I
+went towards the same <span class="corr" id="xd0e361" title="Source:
+landing-pace">landing-place</span> where once before I had escaped a
+great danger. The shore was covered with Indians, watching the ships at
+anchor. As I advanced, all turned their looks upon me; but, as I had
+foreseen, the countenances of these men, whose feelings had become
+calmed during the night that had intervened, expressed more
+astonishment than anger.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Will you earn money?&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;To those who work
+with me I will give a dollar at the end of the day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A moment&rsquo;s silence followed this proposition; then one of them
+said: &ldquo;You do not fear us!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Judge if I am alarmed,&rdquo; I replied, showing him my
+pistols; &ldquo;with these I could take two lives for one&mdash;the
+advantage is on my side.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My words had a magical effect, and my questioner replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Put up your weapons; you have a brave heart, and deserve to
+be safe amongst us. Speak! what do you require? We will follow
+you.&rdquo; I saw these men, who but yesterday would have killed me,
+now willing to bear me in triumph. I then explained to them that I
+wished to take some articles which had been left on shore to my
+comrades, and to those <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb27" href=
+"#pb27">27</a>]</span>who assisted me in this object I would give the
+promised recompense. I told the one who had addressed me to select two
+hundred men, nearly double the number necessary; during the time he
+made up his party I signaled a skiff to approach the shore, and wrote a
+few words in pencil, in order that the boats from the French vessels
+might be in readiness to receive the stores as soon as they were
+brought to the water&rsquo;s edge. I then marched at the head of my
+Indian troop of two hundred men, and by their aid the sails,
+provisions, biscuits, and wines, were soon on board the boats. That
+which most embarrassed me was the transport of a large sum of money
+belonging to Captain Drouant. If the Indians had conceived the least
+suspicion of this wealth, they would no longer have kept faith with me.
+I therefore determined to fill my own pockets with the gold, and to
+traverse the distance between the house and the boats as many times as
+was necessary to embark it. There, concealed by the sailors, I
+deposited piece after piece as quietly as possible. In carrying the
+sails belonging to Captain Perroux, a circumstance occurred which might
+have been fatal to me. A few days before the massacre, a French sailor,
+who was working as sail maker, had died of the cholera. His alarmed
+companions wrapped the body in a sail, and then hurried on board their
+ships. My Indians now discovered the corpse, which was already in a
+state of putrefaction. Terrified at first, their terror soon changed to
+fury; for an instant I feared they would fall upon me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your friends,&rdquo; they cried, &ldquo;have left this body
+here purposely, that it might poison the air and increase the violence
+of the epidemic.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! you are afraid of a poor devil dead of the
+cholera!&rdquo; I said to them, affecting to be as tranquil as
+possible; &ldquo;never <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb28" href=
+"#pb28">28</a>]</span>fear, I will soon rid you of him;&rdquo; and,
+despite the aversion I felt, I covered the body with a small sail, and
+carried it down to the beach. There I made a rude grave, in which I
+placed it; and two pieces of wood, in the shape of a cross, for some
+days indicated the spot where lay the unhappy one, who probably had no
+prayers save mine.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a busy and agitating day, but towards the evening I
+finished my task, and everything was embarked. I paid the Indians, and
+in addition gave them a barrel of spirits.</p>
+
+<p>I did not fear their intoxication, being the only Frenchman there,
+and when it was dark I got into a boat, and towed a dozen casks of
+fresh water at her stern. Since the previous day I had not eaten; I
+felt worn out by fatigue and want of food, and threw myself down to
+rest upon the seats of the boat. Ere long a mortal chilliness passed
+through my veins, and I became insensible. In this state I remained
+more than an hour. At last I reached the <i>Cultivateur</i>, and was
+taken on board, and, by the aid of friction, brandy, and other
+remedies, was restored to consciousness. Food and rest quickly
+renovated my powers of mind and body, and the next day I was calm as
+usual among my comrades. I thought of my personal position; the events
+of the two last days made the review extremely simple. I had lost
+everything. A small venture of merchandise, in which I invested the
+savings of my previous voyages, had been intrusted to the captain for
+sale at Manilla. These goods were destroyed, together with all I
+possessed, at Cavite. There remained to me but the clothes I had
+on&mdash;a few old things I could wear only on board ship&mdash;and
+thirty-two dollars. I was but a little richer than Bias. Unfortunately
+I recollected that an English captain&mdash;whose ship I had seen in
+the roads&mdash;owed me something like a hundred dollars. In <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb29" href="#pb29">29</a>]</span>my present
+circumstances this sum appeared a fortune. The captain in question,
+from fear of the Indians, had dropped down as far as
+Marib&eacute;l&eacute;, at the entrance of the bay, ten leagues from
+Cavite. To obtain payment it was necessary I should go on board his
+vessel. I borrowed a boat, and the services of four sailors, from
+Captain Perroux, and departed. I reached the ship at dusk. The
+unprincipled captain, who knew himself to be in deep water and safe
+from pursuit, replied that he did not understand what I was saying to
+him. I insisted upon being paid, and he laughed in my face. I was
+treated as a cheat. He threatened to have me thrown into the sea; in
+short, after a useless discussion, and at the moment when the captain
+called five or six of his sailors to execute his threat, I retreated to
+my boat. The night was dark, and as a violent and contrary wind had
+sprung up, it was impossible to regain the ship, so we passed the night
+floating upon the waves, ignorant as to the direction we were going. In
+the morning I discovered our efforts had been thrown away; Cavite was
+far behind us. The wind becoming calmer, we again commenced rowing, and
+two hours after noon reached the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile tranquillity was restored at Cavite and Manilla. The
+Spanish authorities took measures to prevent a recurrence of the
+frightful scenes I have detailed, and the priests of Cavite launched a
+public excommunication against all those who had attempted my life. I
+attributed this solicitude to the character of my profession, being in
+fact the only &AElig;sculapius in the place. When I left the town the
+sick were obliged to content themselves with the hazardous presumptions
+of Indian sorcerers. One morning, I had almost decided upon returning
+to land, when an Indian, in a smartly decorated pirogue, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb30" href="#pb30">30</a>]</span>came alongside the
+<i>Cultivateur</i>. I had met this man in some of my shooting
+excursions, and he now proposed that I should go with him to his house,
+situated ten leagues from Cavite, near the mountains of Marigondon. The
+prospect of some good sport soon decided me to accept this offer.
+Taking with me my thirty-two dollars and double-barreled gun&mdash;in
+fact, my whole fortune&mdash;I intrusted myself to this friend, whose
+acquaintance I had just made. His little habitation was delightfully
+situated, in the cool shadow of the palm and yang-yang&mdash;immense
+trees, whose flowers spread around a delicious perfume. Two charming
+Indian girls were the Eves of this paradise. My good friend kept the
+promises he had made me on leaving the vessel; I was treated both by
+himself and family with every attention and kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Hunting was my principal amusement, and, above all, the chase of the
+stag, which involves violent exercise. I was still ignorant of
+wild-buffalo hunting, of which, however, I shall have to speak later in
+my narrative; and I often requested my host to give me a taste of this
+sport, but he always refused, saying it was too dangerous. For three
+weeks I lived with the Indian family without receiving any news from
+Manilla, when one morning, a letter came from the first mate&mdash;who,
+on the death of the unfortunate Dibard, had taken the command of the
+<i>Cultivateur</i>&mdash;telling me he was about to sail, and that I
+must go on board at once if I wished to leave a country which had been
+so fatal to all of us. This summons was already several days old, and
+despite the reluctance I felt to quit the Indian&rsquo;s pleasant
+retreat, it was necessary that I should prepare to start. I presented
+my gun to my kind host, but had nothing to give his daughters, for to
+have offered them money would have been an insult. The next day I
+arrived at Manilla, still <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb31" href=
+"#pb31">31</a>]</span>thinking of the cool shade of the palm and the
+perfumed flowers of the yang-yang. My first impulse was to go to the
+quay; but, alas! the <i>Cultivateur</i> had sailed, and I had the
+misery of beholding her already far away in the horizon, moving
+sluggishly before a gentle breeze towards the mouth of the bay. I asked
+some Indian boatmen to take me to the ship; they replied that it might
+be practicable if the wind did not freshen, but demanded twelve dollars
+to make the attempt. I had but twenty-five remaining. I considered for
+a few moments, should I not reach the vessel, what would become of me
+in a remote colony, where I knew no one, and my stock of money reduced
+to thirteen dollars, and with no articles of dress than those I had
+on&mdash;a white jacket, trousers, and striped shirt. A sudden thought
+crossed my mind: what if I were to remain at Manilla, and practise my
+profession? Young and inexperienced, I ventured to think myself the
+cleverest physician in the Philippine Islands. Who has not felt this
+self-confidence so natural to youth? I turned my back upon the ship,
+and walked briskly into Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>Before continuing this recital, let me describe the capital of the
+Philippines. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb32" href=
+"#pb32">32</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p032"><img border="0" src="images/p032.jpg"
+alt="Mouth of the Bay of Manilla." width="489" height="477">
+<p class="figureHead">Mouth of the Bay of Manilla.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e308src" id="xd0e308">1</a></span> Pablo signifies Paul, my
+Christian name. I was always called thus at Manilla and at Cavite.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch2" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter II.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Description of Manilla&mdash;The two Towns&mdash;Gaiety of
+Binondoc&mdash;Dances&mdash;Gaming&mdash;Beauty of the
+Women&mdash;Their Fascinating Costume&mdash;Male Costume&mdash;The
+Military Town&mdash;Personal Adventures&mdash;My First
+Patient&mdash;His Generous Confidence&mdash;Commencement of my
+Practice&mdash;The Artificial Eye&mdash;Brilliant Success&mdash;The
+Charming Widow&mdash;Auspicious Introduction&mdash;My
+Marriage&mdash;Treachery and Fate of Iturbide&mdash;Our Loss of
+Fortune&mdash;Return to France postponed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Manilla and its suburbs contain a population of
+about one hundred and fifty thousand souls, of which Spaniards and
+Creoles hardly constitute the tenth part; the remainder is composed of
+Tagalocs, or Indians, M&eacute;tis, and Chinese. <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb33" href="#pb33">33</a>]</span>The city is divided into two
+sections&mdash;the military and the mercantile&mdash;the latter of
+which is the suburb. The former, surrounded by lofty walls, is bounded
+by the sea on one side, and upon another by an extensive plain, where
+the troops are exercised, and where of an evening the indolent Creoles,
+lazily extended in their carriages, repair to exhibit their elegant
+dresses and to inhale the sea-breezes. This public
+promenade&mdash;where intrepid horsemen and horsewomen, and European
+vehicles, cross each other in every direction&mdash;may be styled the
+Champs-Elys&eacute;es, or the Hyde Park, of the Indian Archipelago. On
+a third side, the military town is separated from the trading town by
+the river Pasig, upon which are seen all the day boats laden with
+merchandize, and charming gondolas conveying idlers to different parts
+of the suburbs, or to visit the ships in the bay.</p>
+
+<p>The military town communicates by the bridge of Binondoc with the
+mercantile town, inhabited principally by the Spaniards engaged in
+public affairs; its aspect is dull and monotonous; all the streets,
+perfectly straight, are bordered by wide granite footpaths. In general,
+the highways are macadamised, and kept in good condition. Such is the
+effeminacy of the people, they could not endure the noise of carriages
+upon pavement. The houses&mdash;large and spacious, palaces in
+appearance&mdash;are built in a particular manner, calculated to
+withstand the earthquakes and hurricanes so frequent in this part of
+the world. They have all one story, with a ground-floor; the upper
+part, generally occupied by the family, is surrounded by a wide
+gallery, opened or shut by means of large sliding panels, the panes of
+which are thin mother-of-pearl. The mother-of-pearl permits the passage
+of light to the apartments, and excludes the heat of the sun. In the
+military town are all the monasteries and convents, the archbishopric,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb34" href="#pb34">34</a>]</span>the
+courts of justice, the custom-house, the hospital, the governor&rsquo;s
+palace, and the citadel, which overlooks both towns. There are three
+principal entrances to Manilla&mdash;<i>Puerta Santa Lucia</i>, <i>
+Puerto R&eacute;al</i>, and <i>Puerta Parian</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At one o&rsquo;clock the drawbridges are raised, and the gates
+pitilessly closed, when the tardy resident must seek his night&rsquo;s
+lodging in the suburb, or mercantile town, called Binondoc. This
+portion of Manilla wears a much gayer and more lively aspect than the
+military section. There is less regularity in the streets, and the
+buildings are not so fine as those in what may be called Manilla
+proper; but in Binondoc all is movement, all is life. Numerous canals,
+crowded with pirogues, gondolas, and boats of various kinds, intersect
+the suburb, where reside the rich merchants&mdash;Spanish, English,
+Indian, Chinese, and M&eacute;tis. The newest and most elegant houses
+are built upon the banks of the river Pasig. Simple in exterior, they
+contain the most costly inventions of English and Indian luxury.
+Precious vases from China, Japan ware, gold, silver, and rich silks,
+dazzle the eyes on entering these unpretending habitations. Each house
+has a landing-place from the river, and little bamboo palaces, serving
+as bathing-houses, to which the residents resort several times daily,
+to relieve the fatigue caused by the intense heat of the climate. The
+cigar manufactory, which affords employment continually to from fifteen
+to twenty thousand workmen and other assistants, is situated in
+Binondoc; also the Chinese custom-house, and all the large working
+establishments of Manilla. During the day, the Spanish ladies, richly
+dressed in the transparent muslins of India and China, lounge about
+from store to store, and sorely test the patience of the Chinese
+salesman, who unfolds uncomplainingly, and without showing the least
+ill-humour, thousands of pieces <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb35"
+href="#pb35">35</a>]</span>of goods before his customers, which are
+frequently examined simply for amusement, and not half a yard
+purchased. The balls and entertainments, given by the half-breeds of
+Binondoc to their friends, are celebrated throughout the Philippines.
+The quadrilles of Europe are succeeded by the dances of India, and
+while the young people execute the fandango, the bolero, the cachucha,
+or the lascivious movements of the bayad&egrave;res, the enterprising
+half-breed, the indolent Spaniard, and the sedate Chinese, retire to
+the gaming saloons, to try their fortune at cards and dice. The passion
+for play is carried to such an extent, that the traders lose or gain in
+one night sums of 50,000 piasters (&pound;10,000 sterling). The
+half-breeds, Indians, and Chinese, have also a great passion for
+cock-fighting; these combats take place in a large arena. I have seen
+&pound;1,500 betted upon a cock which had cost &pound;150; in a few
+minutes this costly champion fell, struck dead by his antagonist. In
+fine, if Binondoc be exclusively the city of pleasure, luxury, and
+activity, it is also that of amorous intrigues and gallant adventures.
+In the evening, Spaniards, English, and French, go to the promenades to
+ogle the beautiful and facile half-breed women, whose transparent robes
+reveal their splendid figures. That which distinguishes the female
+half-breeds (Spanish-Tagals, or Chinese-Tagals) is a singularly
+intelligent and expressive physiognomy. Their hair, drawn back from the
+face, and sustained by long golden pins, is of marvellous luxuriance.
+They wear upon the head a kerchief, transparent like a veil, made of
+the pine fibre, finer than our finest cambric; the neck is ornamented
+by a string of large coral beads, fastened by a gold medallion. A
+transparent chemisette, of the same stuff as the head-dress, descends
+as far as the waist, covering, but not concealing, a <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb36" href="#pb36">36</a>]</span>bosom that has never
+been imprisoned in stays. Below, and two or three inches from the edge
+of the chemisette, is attached a variously coloured petticoat of very
+bright hues. Over this garment, a large and costly silk sash closely
+encircles the figure, and shows its outline from the waist to the knee.
+The small and white feet, always naked, are thrust into embroidered
+slippers, which cover but the extremities. Nothing can be more
+charming, coquettish, and fascinating, than this costume, which excites
+in the highest degree the admiration of strangers. The half-breed and
+Chinese Tagals know so well the effect it produces on the Europeans,
+that nothing would induce them to alter it.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p036"><img border="0" src="images/p036.jpg"
+alt="Spanish Metis, or Half-Breeds." width="376" height="405">
+<p class="figureHead">Spanish Metis, or Half-Breeds.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>While on the subject of dress, that of the men is also <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb37" href="#pb37">37</a>]</span>worthy of remark.
+The Indian and the half-breed wear upon the head a large straw hat,
+black or white, or a sort of Chinese covering, called a <i>
+salacote</i>; upon the shoulders, the pine fibre kerchief embroidered;
+and round the neck, a rosary of coral beads; their shirts are also made
+from the fibres of the pine, or of vegetable silk; trousers of coloured
+silk, with embroidery near the bottom, and a girdle of red China crape,
+complete their costume. The feet, without stockings, are covered with
+European shoes.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p037"><img border="0" src="images/p037.jpg"
+alt="Chinese Metis, or Half-Breeds." width="367" height="414">
+<p class="figureHead">Chinese Metis, or Half-Breeds.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The military town, so quiet during the day, assumes a more lively
+appearance towards the evening, when the inhabitants ride out in their
+very magnificent carriages, which are invariably conducted by
+postilions; they then mix with the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb38"
+href="#pb38">38</a>]</span>walking population of Binondoc. Afterwards
+visits, balls, and the more intimate <i>r&eacute;unions</i> take place.
+At the latter they talk, smoke the cigars of Manilla, and chew the
+betel,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e469src" href="#xd0e469">1</a> drink
+glasses of iced <i lang="fr">eau sucr&eacute;e</i>, and eat innumerable
+sweetmeats; towards midnight those guests retire who do not stay supper
+with the family, which is always served luxuriously, and generally
+prolonged until two o&rsquo;clock in the morning. Such is the life
+spent by the wealthy classes under these skies so favoured by Heaven.
+But there exists, as in Europe, and even to a greater extent, the most
+abject misery, of which I shall speak hereafter, throwing a shade over
+this brilliant picture.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now return to my personal adventures. While I spoke with the
+Indians upon the shore, I had noticed a young European standing not
+many paces from me; I again met him on the road I took towards Manilla,
+and I thought I would address him. This young man was a surgeon, about
+returning to Europe. I partly told him the plans I wished to form, and
+asked him for some information respecting the city where I purposed
+locating myself. He readily satisfied my inquiries, and encouraged me
+in the resolution to exercise my profession in the Philippine Islands.
+He had himself, he said, conceived the same project, but family affairs
+obliged him to return to his country. I did not conceal the misfortune
+of my position, and observed that it would be almost impossible to pay
+visits in the costume, worse than plain, which I then wore.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That is of no consequence,&rdquo; he replied; &ldquo;I have
+all you would require: a coat almost new, and six capital lancets. I
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb39" href="#pb39">39</a>]</span>will
+sell you these things for their cost price in France; they will be a
+great bargain.&rdquo; The affair was soon concluded. He took me to his
+hotel, and I shortly left it encased in a garment sufficiently good,
+but much too large and too long for me. Nevertheless, it was some time
+since I had seen myself so well clad, and I could not help admiring my
+new acquisition.</p>
+
+<p>I had hidden my poor little white jacket in my hat, and I strode
+along the causeway of Manilla more proud than Artaban himself. I was
+the owner of a coat and six lancets; but there remained, for all my
+fortune, the sum of one dollar only; this consideration slightly
+tempered the joy that I felt in gazing on my brilliant costume. I
+thought of where I could pass the night, and subsist on the morrow and
+the following days, if the sick were not ready for me.</p>
+
+<p>Reflecting thus I slowly wandered from Binondoc to the military
+town, and from the military town back to Binondoc,&mdash;when,
+suddenly, a bright idea shot across my brain. At Cavite I had heard
+spoken of a Spanish captain, by name Don Juan Porras, whom an accident
+had rendered almost blind. I resolved to seek him, and offer my
+services; it remained but to find his residence. I addressed a hundred
+persons, but each replied that he did not know, and passed on his way.
+An Indian who kept a small shop, and to whom I spoke, relieved my
+trouble: &ldquo;If the senor is a captain,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;your
+excellency would obtain his address at the first barrack on your
+road.&rdquo; I thanked him, and eagerly followed his counsel. At the
+infantry barracks, where I presented myself, the officer on duty sent a
+soldier to guide me to the captain&rsquo;s dwelling: it was time, the
+night had already fallen. Don Juan Porras was an Andalusian, a good
+man, and of an extremely cheerful disposition. I found him with his
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb40" href="#pb40">40</a>]</span>head
+wrapped in a Madras handkerchief, busied in completely covering his
+eyes with two enormous poultices.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Senor Captain,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I am a physician, and a
+skilful oculist. I have come hither to take care of you, and I am fully
+convinced that I shall cure you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Basta</i>&rdquo; (enough is said), was his answer;
+&ldquo;all the physicians in Manilla are asses.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This more than sceptical reply did not discourage me. I resolved to
+turn it to account. &ldquo;My opinion is precisely the same as
+yours,&rdquo; I promptly answered; &ldquo;and it is because I am
+strongly convinced of the ignorance of the native doctors, that I have
+made up my mind to come and practise in the Philippines.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of what nation are you, sir?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am a Frenchman.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A French physician!&rdquo; cried Don Juan; &ldquo;Ah! that is
+quite another matter. I ask your pardon for having spoken so
+irreverently of men of your profession. A French physician! I put
+myself entirely into your hands. Take my eyes, Senor Medico, and do
+what you will with them!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was taking a favourable turn: I hastened to broach
+the principal question:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Your eyes are very bad, Senor Captain,&rdquo; said I;
+&ldquo;to accomplish a speedy cure, it is absolutely necessary that I
+should never quit you for a moment.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Would you consent to come and pass some time with me,
+doctor?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here was the principal consideration settled.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I consent,&rdquo; replied I, &ldquo;but on one condition;
+namely, that I shall pay you for my board and lodging.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That shall not part us&mdash;you are free to do so,&rdquo;
+said the worthy man; &ldquo;and so the matter is settled. I have a nice
+room, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb41" href=
+"#pb41">41</a>]</span>and a good bed, all ready; there is nothing to do
+but to send for your baggage. I will call my servant.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The terrible word, &ldquo;baggage,&rdquo; sounded in my ears like a
+knell. I cast a melancholy look at the crown of my hat&mdash;my only
+portmanteau&mdash;within which were deposited all my
+clothes&mdash;consisting of my little white jacket; and I feared Don
+Juan would take me for some runaway sailor trying to dupe him. There
+was no retreat; so I mustered my courage, and briefly related my sad
+position, adding that I could not pay for my board and lodging until
+the end of the month&mdash;if I was so fortunate as to find patients.
+Don Juan Porras listened to me very quietly. When my tale was told he
+burst into a loud laugh, which made me shiver from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; cried he, &ldquo;I am well pleased it should be
+so; you are poor; you will have more time to devote to my malady, and a
+greater interest in curing me. What think you of the
+syllogism?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is excellent, Senor Captain, and before long you will
+find, I hope, that I am not the man to compromise so distinguished a
+logician as yourself. To-morrow morning I will examine your eyes, and I
+will not leave you till I have radically cured them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We talked for some time longer in this joyous strain, after which I
+retired to my chamber, where the most delightful dreams visited my
+pillow.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I rose early, put on my doctoral coat, and entered the
+chamber of my host. I examined his eyes; they were in a dreadful state.
+The sight of one was not only destroyed, but threatened the life of the
+sufferer. A cancer had formed, and the enormous size it had attained
+rendered the result of an operation doubtful. The left eye contained
+many fibres, but there was hope of saving it. I frankly acquainted
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb42" href="#pb42">42</a>]</span>Don Juan
+with my fears and hopes, and insisted upon the entire removal of the
+right eye. The Captain, at first astonished, decided courageously upon
+submitting to the operation, which I accomplished on the following day
+with complete success. Shortly afterwards the inflammatory symptoms
+disappeared, and I could assure my host of a safe recovery. I then
+bestowed all my attention upon the left eye. I desired the more
+ardently to restore to Don Juan his vision, from the good effect I was
+convinced his case would produce at Manilla. For me it would be fortune
+and reputation. Besides, I had already acquired, in the few days, some
+slight patronage, and was in a position to pay for my board and lodging
+at the end of the month. After six weeks&rsquo; careful treatment Don
+Juan was perfectly cured, and could use his eye as well as he did
+previous to his accident. Nevertheless, to my great regret, the Captain
+still continued to immure himself; his re-appearance in society, which
+he had forsaken for more than a year, would have produced an immense
+sensation, and I should have been considered the first doctor in the
+Philippines. One day I touched upon this delicate topic.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Senor Captain,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;what are you thinking
+about, to remain thus shut up between four walls, and why do you not
+resume your old habits? You must go and visit your friends, your
+acquaintances.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Doctor,&rdquo; interrupted Don Juan, &ldquo;how can I show
+myself in public with an eye the less? When I pass along the street all
+the women would say: &lsquo;There goes Don Juan the One-eyed!&rsquo;
+No, no; before I leave the house you must get me an artificial eye from
+Paris.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t mean that? It would be eighteen months before
+the eye arrived.&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb43" href=
+"#pb43">43</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Then here goes for eighteen months&rsquo; seclusion,&rdquo;
+said Don Juan.</p>
+
+<p>I persisted for upwards of an hour, but the Captain would not listen
+to reason. He carried his coquetry so far that, although I had covered
+the empty orbit with black silk, he had his shutters closed whenever
+visitors came; so that, as they always found him in the dark, none
+would credit his cure. I was very anxious to thwart Don Juan&rsquo;s
+obstinacy, as may well be imagined; I had not the time to waste, during
+eighteen months, in dancing attendance at fortune&rsquo;s door;
+therefore I determined to make this eye myself, without which the
+coquetish captain would not be seen. I took some pieces of glass, a
+tube, and set to work. After many fruitless attempts, I at last
+succeeded in obtaining the perfect form of an eye; but this was not
+all&mdash;it must be coloured to resemble nature. I sent for a poor
+carriage-painter, who managed to imitate tolerably well the left eye of
+Don Juan. It was necessary to preserve this painting from contact with
+the tears, which would soon have destroyed it. To accomplish this I had
+made by a jeweller a silver globe, smaller than the glass eye, inside
+which I united it by means of sealing-wax. I carefully polished the
+edges upon a stone, and after eight days&rsquo; labour I obtained a
+satisfactory result. The eye which I had succeeded in producing was
+really not so bad after all. I was anxious to place it within the
+vacant orbit. It somewhat inconvenienced the Senor Don Juan, but I
+persuaded him that he would soon become accustomed to it. Placing
+across his nose a pair of spectacles, he examined himself in the
+looking-glass, and was so satisfied with his appearance that he decided
+on commencing his visits the following day.</p>
+
+<p>As I had anticipated, the re-appearance in the world of <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb44" href="#pb44">44</a>]</span>Captain Juan Porras
+made a great sensation, and soon the consequence was, that Senor Don
+Pablo, the eminent French physician&mdash;most especially the clever
+oculist&mdash;was much spoken of. From all quarters patients came to
+me. Notwithstanding my youth and inexperience, my first success gave me
+such confidence that I performed several operations upon persons
+afflicted with cataracts, which succeeded most fortunately. I no longer
+sufficed to my large connection, and in a few days, from the greatest
+distress, I attained perfect opulence: I had a carriage-and-four in my
+stables. I could not, however, notwithstanding this change of fortune,
+resign myself to leave Don Juan&rsquo;s house, out of gratitude for the
+hospitality he so generously offered me. In my leisure hours he kept me
+company, and amused me with the recital of his battle stories and
+personal adventures. I had already spent nearly six months with him,
+when a circumstance, which forms an epoch in my life, changed my
+existence, and compelled me to quit the lively captain. One of my
+American friends often called my attention in our walks towards a young
+lady in mourning, who passed for one of the prettiest senoras of the
+town. Each time we met her my American friend never failed to praise
+the beauty of the Marquesa de Las Salinas. She was about eighteen or
+nineteen years of age; her features were both regular and placid; she
+had beautiful black hair, and large expressive eyes; she was the widow
+of a colonel in the guards, who married her when almost a child. The
+sight of this young lady produced so lively an impression upon me, that
+I explored all the saloons at Binondoc, to endeavour to meet her
+elsewhere than in my walks. Fruitless attempts! The young widow saw
+nobody. I almost despaired of finding an opportunity of speaking to
+her, when one morning an Indian <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb45"
+href="#pb45">45</a>]</span>came to request me to visit his master. I
+got into the carriage and set off, without informing myself of the name
+of the sick person. The carriage stopped before the door of one of the
+finest houses in the Faubourg of Santa-Crux. Having examined the
+patient, and conversed a few minutes with him, I went to the table to
+write a prescription; suddenly I heard the rustling of a silk dress; I
+turned round&mdash;the pen fell from my hand. Before me stood the very
+lady I had so long sought after&mdash;appearing to me as in a dream! My
+amazement was so great that I muttered a few unintelligible words, and
+bowed with such awkwardness that she smiled. She simply addressed me to
+inquire the state of her nephew&rsquo;s health, and withdrew almost
+immediately. As to myself, instead of making my ordinary calls, I
+returned home; questioned Don Juan minutely about Madame de Las
+Salinas: he entirely satisfied my curiosity. He was acquainted with all
+the family of this youthful widow, and they were highly respected in
+the colony. The next morning, and following days, I returned to this
+charming widow, who graciously condescended to receive me with favour.
+These details being so completely personal, I pass them over. Six
+months after my first interview with Madame de Las Salinas, I asked her
+hand, and obtained it. I had therefore found, at more than five
+thousand leagues from my country, both happiness and wealth. I agreed
+that we should go to France as soon as my wife&rsquo;s property, the
+greater part of which lay in Mexico, should be realised. In the
+meantime my house was the rendezvous of foreigners, particularly of the
+French, who were already rather numerous at Manilla. At this period the
+Spanish government named me Surgeon-Major of the 1st Light Regiment,
+and of the first battalion of the militia of Panjanga. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb46" href="#pb46">46</a>]</span>Having been so
+successful in so short a time, I never once doubted but that fortune
+would continue to bestow her smiling favours upon me. I had already
+prepared everything for my return to France; for we hourly expected the
+arrival of the galleons that plied from Acapulco to Manilla, which were
+to bring my wife&rsquo;s fortune. Her fortune was no less than 700,000
+francs (&pound;28,000 sterling).</p>
+
+<p>One evening, as we were taking tea, we were informed that the
+vessels from Acapulco had been telegraphed, and that the next morning
+they would be in; our piasters were to be on board; I leave you to
+guess if our wishes were not gratified. But, alas! how our hopes were
+frustrated: the vessels did not bring us a single piaster. This is what
+occurred: five or six millions were sent by land from Mexico to San
+Blas, the place of embarkation, and the Mexican government had the van
+escorted by a regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel Iturbide. On
+the journey he took possession of the van, and fled with his regiment
+into the independent states. It is well known that later Iturbide was
+proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, then dethroned, and at last shot, after
+an expedition that offers more than one analogy with that of Murat. The
+very day of the arrival of the vessels we learnt that our fortune was
+entirely lost, without even hopes of regaining the smallest part. My
+wife and self supported this event with tolerable philosophy. It was
+not the loss of our piasters that distressed us the most, but the
+necessity we were in to abandon, or at least to postpone, our journey
+to France. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb47" href=
+"#pb47">47</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p047"><img border="0" src="images/p047.jpg"
+alt="Spanish Metis of the superior class." width="436" height="465">
+<p class="figureHead">Spanish Metis of the superior class.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e469src" id="xd0e469">1</a></span> The betel is a species of
+pepper plant, the leaves of which are wrapped round areca nuts and the
+chunam&mdash;the latter is a kind of burnt-lime made of shells, and the
+areca nut is the fruit of a species of palm. The Indians, Chinese,
+half-breeds, and a great number of Creoles, continually chew this
+mixture, which is reputed to sweeten the breath and assist
+digestion.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch3" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter III.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Continued Prosperity in Practice&mdash;Attempted Political
+Revolution&mdash;Desperate Street Engagement&mdash;Subjugation of the
+Insurgents&mdash;The Emperor of a Day&mdash;Dreadful
+Executions&mdash;Illness and Insanity of my Wife&mdash;Her Recovery and
+Relapse&mdash;Removal to the Country&mdash;Beneficial
+Results&mdash;Dangerous Neighbours&mdash;Repentant
+Banditti&mdash;Fortunate Escape&mdash;The Anonymous Friend&mdash;A
+Confiding Wife&mdash;Her Final Recovery, and our Domestic Happiness
+Restored.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Despite the misfortune I have alluded to, I kept up
+my house in the same style as before. My connection, and the different
+posts I occupied, permitted me to lead the life of a grandee belonging
+to the Spanish colonies; and probably I should have made my fortune in
+a few years, if <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb48" href=
+"#pb48">48</a>]</span>I had continued in the medical profession, but
+the wish for unlimited liberty caused me to abandon all these
+advantages for a life of peril and anxiety. At the same time do not let
+us anticipate too suddenly, and let the reader patiently peruse a few
+more pages about Manilla, and various events wherein I figured, either
+as actor or witness, before taking leave of a sybarite citizen&rsquo;s
+life.</p>
+
+<p>I was, as I said before, surgeon-major of the 1st Light Regiment of
+the line, and on intimate terms with the staff, and more particularly
+with Captain Noval&egrave;s, a Creole by birth, possessing a courageous
+and venturesome disposition. He was suspected of endeavouring to excite
+his regiment to rebel in behalf of the Independence. An inquiry was
+consequently instituted, which ended without proof of the
+captain&rsquo;s culpability; nevertheless, as the governor still
+maintained his <span class="corr" id="xd0e567" title="Source:
+suspicious">suspicions</span>, he gave orders for him to be sent to one
+of the southern provinces, under the inspection of an alcaide.
+Noval&egrave;s came to see me the morning of his departure, and
+complained bitterly of the injustice of the governor towards him, and
+added that those who had no confidence in his honour would repent, and
+that he would soon be back. I endeavoured to pacify him: we shook
+hands, and in the evening he went on board the vessel commissioned to
+take him to his destination. The night after Noval&egrave;s departure,
+I was startled out of my sleep by the report of fire-arms. I
+immediately dressed myself in my uniform, and hastened to the barracks
+of my regiment. The streets were deserted; sentinels were stationed at
+about fifty paces apart. I understood that an extraordinary event had
+occurred in some part of the town. When I reached the barracks I was no
+little astonished to find the gates wide open, the sentry&rsquo;s box
+vacant, and not a soldier within. I went into the infirmary, set apart
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb49" href="#pb49">49</a>]</span>for the
+special service of the cholera patients, and there a serjeant told me
+that the bad weather had compelled the vessel that was taking
+Noval&egrave;s into exile to return into the port; that about one
+o&rsquo;clock in the morning, Noval&egrave;s, accompanied by Lieutenant
+Ruiz, came to the barracks, and having made himself certain of the
+votes of the Creole non-commissioned officers, put the regiment under
+arms, took possession of the gates, and proclaimed himself Emperor of
+the Philippines.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p050"><img border="0" src="images/p050.jpg"
+alt="Bridge of Manilla." width="481" height="323">
+<p class="figureHead">Bridge of Manilla.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This extraordinary intelligence caused me some anxiety. My regiment
+had openly revolted; if I joined it, and were defeated, I should be
+considered a traitor, and, as such, shot; if, on the contrary, I fought
+against it, and the rebels proved victorious, I knew Noval&egrave;s
+sufficiently well to be convinced that he would not spare me.
+Nevertheless I could not hesitate: duty bound me to the Spanish
+government, by which I had been so well treated. I left the barracks,
+rambling where chance might lead me. I shortly found myself at the
+head-quarters of the artillery; an officer behind the gate stood
+observing me. I went up to him, and asked him whether he was for Spain.
+Upon his answering me in the affirmative, I begged him to open the
+gate, declaring that I wished to join his party, and would willingly
+offer my services as surgeon to them. I went in, and took the
+commander&rsquo;s orders, which soon showed me how matters stood.
+During the night Ruiz went, in the name of Noval&egrave;s, to General
+Folgueras, the commander during the absence of Governor
+Martin&egrave;s, who was detained at his country house, a short
+distance from Manilla. He took the guard unawares, and seized the keys
+of the town, after having stabbed Folgueras; from thence he went to the
+prisons, set the prisoners at liberty, and put in their places the
+principal men of the public offices belonging to the colony. The 1st
+Regiment <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb50" href=
+"#pb50">50</a>]</span>was on Government Place, ready to engage in
+battle; twice it attempted to fall unexpectedly upon the artillery and
+citadel, but was driven back. Many expected assistance from without,
+and orders from General Martin&egrave;s to attack the rebels. Very soon
+we heard a discharge of artillery: it was General Martin&egrave;s, who,
+at the head of the Queen&rsquo;s Regiment, broke open Saint
+Lucy&rsquo;s Gate, and advanced into the besieged town. The body of the
+artillery joined the governor-general, and we marched towards
+Government Place. The insurgents placed two cannons at the corner of
+each street. Scarcely had we approached the palace, than we were
+exposed to a violent discharge of loaded muskets. The head chaplain of
+the regiment was the first victim. We were then engaged in a street, by
+the side of the fortifications, and from which it was impossible to
+attack the enemy with advantage. General Martin&egrave;s changed the
+position of the attack, and in this condition we came back by the
+street of Saint Isabelle. The troops in two lines followed <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb51" href="#pb51">51</a>]</span>both sides of the
+street, and left the road free; in the meantime the Panpangas regiment,
+crossing the bridge, reached us by one of the opposite streets: the
+rebels were then exposed to the opposite attacks. They nevertheless
+defended themselves furiously, and their sharpshooters did us some
+harm. Noval&egrave;s was everywhere, encouraging his soldiers by words,
+exploits, and example, while Lieutenant Ruiz was busy pointing one of
+the cannons, that swept the middle of the street we were coming up. At
+length, after three hours&rsquo; contest, the rebels succumbed. The
+troops fell upon everything they found, and Noval&egrave;s was taken
+prisoner to the governor&rsquo;s. As to Ruiz, although he had received
+a blow on his arm from a ball, he was fortunate enough to jump over the
+fortifications, and succeeded, for the time, in escaping; three days
+afterwards he was taken. The conflict was scarcely over, than a
+court-martial was held. Noval&egrave;s was tried the first. At midnight
+he was outlawed; at two o&rsquo;clock in the morning proclaimed
+Emperor; and at five in the evening shot. Such changes in fortune are
+not uncommon in Spanish colonies.</p>
+
+<p>The court-martial, without adjourning, tried, until the middle of
+the following day, all the prisoners arrested with arms. The tenth part
+of the regiment was sent to the hulks, and all the non-commissioned
+officers were condemned to death. I received orders to be at Government
+Place by four o&rsquo;clock, on which spot the executions were to take
+place; two companies of each battalion of the garrison, and all the
+staff, were to be present.</p>
+
+<p>Towards five the doors of the town-hall opened, and between a double
+file of soldiers advanced seventeen non-commissioned officers, each one
+assisted by two monks of the order of Misericordia. Mournful silence
+prevailed, interrupted <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb52" href=
+"#pb52">52</a>]</span>every now and then by the doleful beating of the
+drums, and the prayers of the agonising, chanted by the monks. The
+procession moved slowly on, and after some time reached the palace; the
+seventeen non-commissioned officers were ordered to kneel, their faces
+turned towards the wall. After a lengthened beating of the drums the
+monks left their victims, and at a second beating a discharge of
+muskets resounded: the seventeen young men fell prostrate on the
+ground. One, however, was not dead; he had fallen with the others, and
+seemed apparently motionless. A few minutes after the monks threw their
+black veils upon the victims: they now belonged to Divine justice. I
+witnessed all that had just happened. I stood a few steps from him who
+feigned death so well, and my heart beat with force enough to burst
+through my chest. Would that it had been in my power to lead one of the
+monks towards this unfortunate young man who must have experienced such
+mortal anguish; but, alas! after having been so miraculously spared, at
+the moment the black veil was about to cover him, an officer informed
+the commander that a guilty man had escaped being punished; the monks
+were arrested in their pious ministry, and two soldiers received orders
+to approach and fire upon the poor fellow.</p>
+
+<p>I was indignant at this. I advanced towards the informer and
+reproached him for his cruelty; he wished to reply; I treated him as a
+coward, and turned my back to him. Express orders from my colonel
+compelled me to leave my house, to assist at this frightful execution;
+still, deep anxiety ought to have prevented me from so doing, as I will
+explain. On the eve when the battle was over, and the insurgents
+routed, the distress of my dear Anna came across my mind. It was now
+one o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, and she had received no tidings
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb53" href="#pb53">53</a>]</span>from me
+since three in the morning; might she not think me dead, or in the
+midst of the rebellion? Ah! if duty could make me forget for a moment
+she whom I loved more than life, now all danger was over her charming
+image returned to my mind. Dearest Anna! I beheld her pale, agitated;
+asking herself at each report of the cannon whether it rendered her a
+widow; when my mind became so agitated that I ran home to calm her
+fears. Having reached my house I went quickly up stairs, my heart
+beating violently; I paused for a moment at her door, then summoning a
+little courage I entered. Anna was kneeling down praying; hearing my
+footsteps she raised her head, and threw herself into my arms without
+uttering a word. At first I attributed this silence to emotion, but,
+alas! upon examining her lovely face, I saw her eyes looked wild, her
+features contracted: I started back. I discovered in her all the
+symptoms of congestion of the brain. I dreaded lest my wife had lost
+her senses, and this fear alarmed me greatly. How fortunate it was that
+it lay in my power to relieve her. I had her placed in bed, and
+ministered myself to her wants. She was tolerably composed; the few
+words she uttered were inconsistent; she seemed to think that somebody
+was going to poison or kill her. All her confidence was placed in me.
+During three days the remedies I prescribed and administered were
+useless; the poor creature derived no benefit from them. I therefore
+determined to consult the doctors in Manilla, although I had no great
+opinion of their skill. They advised some insignificant drugs, and
+declared to me that there were no hopes, adding, as a philosophical
+mode of consolation, that death was preferable to the loss of reason. I
+did not agree on this point with these gentlemen: I would have
+preferred insanity to death, for I hoped that her madness <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb54" href="#pb54">54</a>]</span>would die away by
+degrees, and eventually disappear altogether. How many mad people are
+cured, what numbers daily recover, yet death is the last word of
+humanity; and, as a young poet has truly said, is &ldquo;the stone of
+the tomb.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Between the world and God a curtain falls! I determined to wage a
+war against death, and to save my Anna by having recourse to the most
+indisputable resources of science. I looked now upon my brotherhood
+with more contempt than ever, and, confident in my love and zealous
+will, I began my struggle with a destiny, tinged indeed with gloomy
+clouds. I shut myself up in the sick-chamber, and never left my wife. I
+had great difficulty in getting her to take the medicaments I trusted
+she would derive so much benefit from; I was obliged to call to my
+assistance all the influence I had over her, in order to persuade her
+that the draughts I presented to her were not poisoned. She did not
+sleep, but appeared very drowsy; these symptoms denoted very clearly
+great disorder of the brain. For nine days she remained in this
+dreadful state; during which time I scarcely knew whether she was dead
+or alive; at every moment I besought the Almighty to work a miracle in
+her behalf. One morning the poor creature closed her eyes. I cannot
+describe my feelings of anguish. Would she ever awake again? I leant
+over her; I heard her breathing gently, without apparent effort; I felt
+her pulse, it beat calmer and more regular; she was evidently better. I
+stood by her in deep anxiety. She still remained in a calm sleep, and
+at the end of half-an-hour I felt convinced that this satisfactory
+crisis would restore my invalid to life and reason. I sat down by her
+bed-side, and stayed there eighteen hours, watching her slightest
+movements. At length, after such cruel suspense, my patient awoke, as
+if out of a dream. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb55" href=
+"#pb55">55</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Have you been long watching?&rdquo; she said, giving me her
+hand: &ldquo;Have I, then, been very ill? What care you have taken of
+me! Luckily you may rest now, for I feel I am recovered.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I think I have during my life been a sharer of the strongest
+emotions of joy or of sadness man can feel; but never had I experienced
+such real, heartfelt joy as when I heard Anna&rsquo;s words. It is easy
+to imagine the state of my mind in recollecting the bitter grief I was
+in for ten days; then can be understood the mental anguish I felt.
+Having witnessed such strange scenes for a considerable time, it would
+not have been surprising had I lost my senses. I was an actor in a
+furious battle; I had seen the wounded falling around me, and heard the
+death-rattle. After the frightful execution, I went home, and there
+still deeper grief awaited me. I had watched by the bed-side of a
+beloved wife, knowing not whether I should lose her for ever, or see
+her spared to me deprived of reason; when all at once, as if by a
+miracle, this dear companion of my life, restored to health, threw
+herself into my arms. I wept with her; my burning eyes, aching for want
+of rest, found at last some tears, but they were tears of joy and
+gladness. Soon we became more composed; we related to each other all
+that we had suffered. Oh! the sympathy of loving hearts! Our sorrows
+bad been the same, we had shared the same fears, she for me and I for
+her. Anna&rsquo;s rapid recovery, after her renovating slumber, enabled
+her to get up; she dressed herself as usual, and the people who saw her
+could not believe she had passed ten days struggling between death and
+insanity&mdash;two gulphs, from which love and faith had preserved
+us.</p>
+
+<p>I was happy; my deep sadness was speedily changed to gladness, even
+visible on my features. Alas! this joy was transitory, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb56" href="#pb56">56</a>]</span>like all happiness;
+man here below is a continual prey to misfortune! My wife, at the end
+of a month, relapsed into her former sickly state; the same symptoms
+showed themselves again, with similar prospects, during the same space
+of time. I remained again nine days at her bed-side, and on the tenth a
+refreshing sleep brought her to her senses. But this time, guided by
+experience, that pitiless mistress, who gives us lessons we should ever
+remember, I did not rejoice as I had done the month before. I feared
+lest this sudden cure might only be a temporary recovery, and that
+every month my poor invalid would relapse, until her brain becoming
+weaker and weaker, she would be deranged for life. This sad idea
+wounded my heart, and caused me such grief that I could not even
+dissimulate it before her who inspired it. I exhausted all the
+resources of medicine; all these expedients proved unavailable. I
+thought that perhaps, if I removed my poor invalid from the spot where
+the events had occurred that caused her disorder, her cure might be
+more easily effected; that perhaps bathing and country walks in the
+fine weather would contribute to hasten her recovery; therefore I
+invited one of her relations to accompany us, and we set out for
+Tierra-Alta, a delightful spot, a real oasis, where all things were
+assembled that could endear one to life. The first days of our settling
+there were full of joy, hope, and happiness. Anna got better and better
+every day, and her health very much improved. We walked in beautiful
+gardens, under the shade of orange-trees; they were so thick that even
+during the most intense heat we were cool under their shade. A lovely
+river of blue and limpid water ran through our orchard; I had some
+Indian baths erected there. We went out in a pretty, light, open
+carriage, drawn by four good horses, through <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb57" href="#pb57">57</a>]</span>beautiful avenues, lined on each
+side with the pliant bamboo, and sown with all the various flowers of
+the tropics. I leave you to judge, by this short account, that nothing
+that can be wished for in the country was wanting in Tierra-Alta. For
+an invalid it was a Paradise; but those are right who say there is no
+perfect happiness here below. I had a wife I adored, and who loved me
+with all the sincerity of a pure young heart. We lived in an Eden, away
+from the world, from the noise and bustle of a city, and far, too, from
+the jealous and envious. We breathed a fragrant air; the pure and
+limpid waters that bathed our feet reflecting, by turns a sunny sky,
+and one spangled with twinkling stars. Anna&rsquo;s health was
+improving: it pleased me to see her so happy. What, then, was there to
+trouble us in our lovely retreat? A troop of banditti! These robbers
+were distributed around the suburbs of Tierra-Alta, and spread
+desolation over the country and neighbourhood by the robberies and
+murders they committed. There was a regiment in search of them; this
+they little cared about. They were numerous, clever, and audacious;
+and, notwithstanding the vigilance of the government, the band
+continued their highway robberies and assassinations. In the house
+where I then resided, and which I afterwards left, Aguilar, the
+commander of the cavalry, who had replaced me as occupant, was fallen
+upon unexpectedly, and stabbed. Several years after this period, the
+government was obliged to come to some terms with these bandits, and
+one day twenty men, all armed with carbines and swords, entered
+Manilla. Their chieftain led them; they walked with their heads
+upright, their carriage was proud and manly; in this order they went to
+the governor, who made them a speech, ordered them to lay down their
+arms, and sent them to the archbishop that <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb58" href="#pb58">58</a>]</span>he might exhort them. The
+archbishop in a religious discourse implored of them to repent of their
+crimes, and become honest citizens, and to return to their villages.
+These men, who had bathed their hands in the blood of their
+fellow-creatures, and who had sought in crime&mdash;or rather, in every
+crime&mdash;the gold they coveted, listened attentively to God&rsquo;s
+minister, changed completely their conduct, and became, in the end,
+good and quiet husbandmen.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us return to my residence at Tierra-Alta, at the period when
+the bandits were not converted, and might have disturbed my peaceful
+abode and security. Nevertheless, whether it was carelessness, or the
+confidence I had in my Indian, with whom I spent some time after the
+ravages occasioned with the cholera, and with whose influence I was
+acquainted, I did not fear the bandits at all. This Indian lived a few
+leagues off from Tierra-Alta; he came often to see me, and said to me
+on different occasions: &ldquo;Fear nothing from the robbers, Senor
+Doctor Pablo; they know we are friends, and that alone would suffice to
+prevent them attacking you, for they would dread to displease me, and
+to make me their enemy.&rdquo; These words put an end to my fears, and
+I soon had an opportunity of seeing that the Indian had taken me under
+his protection.</p>
+
+<p>If any of my readers for whom I write these souvenirs feel the same
+desire as I experienced to visit the cascades of Tierra-Alta, let them
+go to a place called Yang-Yang; it was near this spot where my Indian
+protector resided. At this part the river, obstructed in its course by
+the narrowness of its channel, falls from only one waterspout, about
+thirty or forty feet high, into an immense basin, out of which the
+water calmly flows onwards, to form, lower down, three other
+waterfalls, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb59" href=
+"#pb59">59</a>]</span>not so lofty, but extending over the breadth of
+the river, thereby making three sheets of water, clear and transparent
+as crystal. What beautiful sights are offered to the eyes of man by the
+all-powerful hands of the Creator! And how often have I remarked that
+the works of nature are far superior to those that men tire themselves
+to erect and invent!</p>
+
+<p>As we went one morning to the cascades we were about to alight at
+Yang-Yang, when all at once our carriage was surrounded with brigands,
+flying from the soldiers of the line. The chief&mdash;for we supposed
+him to be so at first&mdash;said to his companions, not paying the
+slightest attention to us, nor even addressing us: &ldquo;We must kill
+the horses!&rdquo; By this I saw he feared lest their enemies should
+make use of our horses to pursue them. With a presence of mind which
+fortunately never abandons me in difficult or perilous <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e618" title="Source: cicumstances">circumstances</span>,
+I said to him: &ldquo;Do not fear; my horses shall not be used by your
+enemies to pursue you: rely upon my word.&rdquo; The chief put his hand
+to his cap, and thus addressed his comrades: &ldquo;If such be the
+case, the Spanish soldiers will do us no harm to-day, neither let us do
+any. Follow me!&rdquo; They marched off, and I instantly drove rapidly
+away in quite an opposite direction from the soldiers. The bandits
+looked after me; my good faith in keeping my word was successful. I not
+only lived a few months in safety at Tierra-Alta, but many years after,
+when, I resided in Jala-Jala, and, in my quality of commander of the
+territorial horse-guards of the province of Lagune, was naturally a
+declared enemy of the bandits, I received the following note:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p>&ldquo;<span class="smallcaps">Sir</span>,&mdash;Beware of Pedro
+Tumbaga; we are invited by him to go to your house and to take you by
+surprise; we remember the morning we spoke to you at the cascades, and
+the sincerity of your word. You are an honourable man. If we find
+ourselves face to face <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb60" href=
+"#pb60">60</a>]</span>with you, and it be necessary, we will fight, but
+faithfully, and never after having laid a snare. Keep, therefore, on
+your guard; beware of Pedro <span class="corr" id="xd0e629" title=
+"Source: Tumbago">Tumbaga</span>; he is cowardly enough to hide himself
+in order to shoot you.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Everybody must acknowledge I had to do with most polite robbers.</p>
+
+<p>I answered them thus:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p>&ldquo;You are brave fellows. I thank you for your advice, but I do
+not fear Pedro Tumbaga. I cannot conceive how it is you keep among you
+a man capable of hiding himself to kill his enemy; if I had a soldier
+like him, I would soon let him have justice, and without consulting the
+law.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A fortnight after my answer, Tumbaga was no more; a bandit&rsquo;s
+bullet disembarrassed me of him.</p>
+
+<p>I will now return to the recital I have just interrupted. When I had
+left the bandits at Yang-Yang, I pulled up my horses and bethought me
+of Anna. I was anxious to know what impression had been produced on her
+mind from this unpleasant encounter. Fortunately my fears were
+unfounded; my wife had not been at all alarmed, and when I asked her if
+she was frightened, she replied: &ldquo;Frightened, indeed! am I not
+with you?&rdquo; Subsequently I had good proofs that she told me the
+truth, for in many perilous circumstances she always presented the same
+presence of mind. When I thought there was no longer any danger we
+retraced our steps and went home, satisfied with the conduct of the
+bandits towards us, for their manner of acting clearly showed us that
+they intended us no harm. I mentally thanked my Indian friend, for to
+him I attributed the peace our turbulent neighbours allowed us to
+enjoy. The fatal time was drawing near when my wife would again be
+suffering from another attack of that frightful malady <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb61" href="#pb61">61</a>]</span>brought on by
+Noval&egrave;s revolt. I had hoped that the country air, the baths, and
+amusements of every kind would cure my poor invalid; my hopes were
+deceived, and, as in the preceding month, I had the grief once more to
+assist at a period of physical and mental suffering. I despaired: I
+knew not what course to pursue. I decided, however, upon remaining at
+Tierra-Alta. My dear companion was happy there on the days her health
+was better, and on the other days I never left her, endeavouring by
+every means that art and imagination could invent to fight against this
+fatal malady. At length my care, attempts, and efforts were successful,
+and at the periods the symptoms usually returned I had the happiness
+not to observe them, and believed in the certainty of a final cure. I
+then felt the joy one experiences after having for a long time been on
+the point of losing a very dear friend, who suddenly recovers. I now
+gave myself up without fear to the various pleasures Tierra-Alta
+offers. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb62" href=
+"#pb62">62</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p062"><img border="0" src="images/p062.jpg"
+alt="Stag Hunting in the Marigondon Mountains." width="468" height=
+"374">
+<p class="figureHead">Stag Hunting in the Marigondon Mountains.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch4" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter IV.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Hunting the Stag&mdash;Indian Mode of Chasing the Wild Buffalo: its
+Ferocity&mdash;Dangerous Sport&mdash;Capture of a Buffalo&mdash;Narrow
+Escape of an Indian Hunter&mdash;Return to Manilla&mdash;Injustice of
+the Governor&mdash;My Resignation of Office&mdash;I Purchase Property
+at Jala-Jala&mdash;Retire from Manilla to Take Possession of my
+Domains&mdash;Chinese Legend&mdash;Festival of St
+Nicholas&mdash;Quinaboutasan&mdash;Description of
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Interview with a Bandit Chief&mdash;Formation of a
+Guard&mdash;Preparations for Building&mdash;Visit to Manilla, and
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Completion of my House&mdash;Reception of my
+Wife by the Natives&mdash;The Government of the
+Philippines&mdash;Character of the Tagaloc Indians&mdash;Unmerited
+Chastisement&mdash;A Curate Appointed&mdash;Our Labours at
+Civilisation&mdash;My Hall of Justice&mdash;Buffalo Hunting
+Expedition.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Naturally fond of hunting, I often went to the home
+of my Indian friend in the Marigondon mountains. Together we chased the
+stag, and killed the various kinds of birds which abound in these
+regions to such an extent that one may <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb63" href="#pb63">63</a>]</span>always choose between fifteen or
+twenty different species of pigeons, wild ducks, and fowl, and it
+frequently happened that I brought down five or six at a shot. The
+manner of killing wild fowl (a sort of pheasant) much amused me. We
+rode across the large plains, strewed with young wood, on good and
+beautiful horses, broken in for the purpose; the dogs raised the game,
+and, armed with whips, we endeavoured to knock the birds down at a
+single blow, which is not so difficult as might be imagined. When a
+number of the frightened flocks left the shelter of the wood we put our
+steeds to the gallop, and it became a veritable steeple-chase, such as
+amateur jockeys would much delight in. I also hunted the stag with the
+lance, on horseback; this sport is likewise very amusing, but,
+unfortunately, often attended with accidents. This is how they
+occur:&mdash;The horses employed are so well trained to the sport, that
+as soon as they perceive the stag it is no longer necessary, neither is
+it possible, to guide them; they pursue the animal at the top of their
+speed, and leap over every obstruction before them. The horseman
+carries a lance seven or eight feet long, which he holds in readiness
+to cast as soon as he thinks himself within reach of the stag. If he
+misses his aim the lance sticks in the ground, and it then requires
+great skill to avoid coming in contact with the opposite end, which
+often wounds either the hunter or the horse. I speak not of the falls
+to which one is liable from going at a furious gallop along unknown and
+uneven roads. I had already enjoyed this sport during my first sojourn
+at the Indian&rsquo;s, but, well as I acquitted myself, I was never
+able to gain his permission that I should assist at a chase far more
+dangerous, and which I might almost call a combat&mdash;that of the
+wild buffalo. To all my questions my host had replied: &ldquo;In this
+sport there is <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb64" href=
+"#pb64">64</a>]</span>much to fear: I would not expose you to the
+risk.&rdquo; He avoided, also, taking me near that part of the plain
+touching upon the mountains of Marigondon, where these animals could
+generally be found. However, after repeated solicitation, I managed to
+obtain what I so ardently desired; the Indian only wished to know
+whether I was a good horseman, if I possessed dexterity; and when he
+had satisfied himself on these two points, we started one fine morning,
+accompanied by nine huntsmen and a small pack of dogs. In this part of
+the Philippines the buffalo is hunted on horseback, and taken with the
+lasso, the Indians not being much accustomed to the use of guns. In
+other parts fire-arms are used, as I shall have occasion to recount in
+another part of my narrative; but, in whichever case, there is little
+difference in the danger, for the one requires good riding and great
+skill, the other much presence of mind and a good gun.</p>
+
+<p>The wild buffalo is quite different from the domesticated animal; it
+is a terrible creature, pursuing the hunter as soon as it gets sight of
+him, and, should he transfix him with its terrible horns, he would
+promptly expiate his rashness. My faithful Indian was much more anxious
+about my safety than his own. He objected to my taking a gun; he had
+little confidence in my skill with the lasso, and preferred that I
+should merely sit on horseback, unarmed and unencumbered in my
+movements; accordingly I set out, with a dagger for my sole weapon. We
+divided our party by threes, and rode gently about the plains, taking
+care to keep at a distance from the edge of the wood, lest we should be
+surprised by the animal we were seeking.</p>
+
+<p>After riding for about an hour, we at last heard the baying of the
+dogs, and understood that the enemy was forced from its <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb65" href="#pb65">65</a>]</span>forest retreat. We
+watched with the deepest attention the spot where we expected him to
+break forth. He required a great deal of coaxing before he would show;
+at last there was a sudden crashing noise in the wood; branches were
+broken, young trees overthrown, and a superb buffalo showed himself, at
+about one hundred and fifty paces&rsquo; distance. He was of a
+beautiful black, and his horns were of very large dimensions. He
+carried his head high, and snuffed the air as though scenting his
+enemies. Suddenly starting off at a speed incredible in so bulky an
+animal, he made for one of our groups, composed of three Indians, who
+immediately put their horses to a gallop, and distributed themselves in
+the form of a triangle. The buffalo selected one of them, and
+impetuously charged him. As he did so, another of the Indians, whom he
+passed in his furious career, wheeled his horse and threw the lasso he
+held ready in his hand; but he was not expert, and missed his aim.
+Thereupon the buffalo changed his course, and pursued the imprudent man
+who had thus attacked him, and who now rode right in our direction. A
+second detachment of three hunters went to meet the brute; one of them
+passed near him at a gallop, and threw his lasso, but was as
+unsuccessful as his comrade. Three other hunters made the attempt; not
+one of them succeeded. I, as a mere spectator, looked on with
+admiration at this combat&mdash;at those evolutions, flights, and
+pursuits, executed with such order and courage, and with a precision
+that was truly extraordinary.</p>
+
+<p>I had often witnessed bull-fights, and often had I shuddered at
+seeing the <i>toreadors</i> adopt a similar method in order to turn the
+furious animal from the pursuit of the <i>picador</i>. But what
+comparison could possibly be established between a combat in an
+enclosed arena and this one in the open plain&mdash;between the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb66" href="#pb66">66</a>]</span>most terrible
+of bulls and a wild buffalo? Fiery and hot-blooded Spaniards, proud
+Castilians, eager for perilous spectacles, go, hunt the buffalo in the
+plains of the Marigondon! After much flight and pursuit, hard riding,
+and imminent peril, a dexterous hunter encircled the animal&rsquo;s
+horns with his lasso. The buffalo slackened his speed, and shook and
+tossed his head, stopping now and then to try to get rid of the
+obstacle which impeded his career. Another Indian, not less skilful
+than his predecessor, threw his lasso with a like rapidity and success.
+The furious beast now ploughed the earth with his horns, making the
+soil fly around him, as if anxious to display his strength, and to show
+what havoc he would have made with any of us who had allowed themselves
+to be surprised by him. With much care and precaution the Indians
+conveyed their prize into a neighbouring thicket. The hunters uttered a
+shout of joy; for my part I could not repress a cry of admiration. The
+animal was vanquished; it needed but a few precautions to master him
+completely. I was much surprised to see the Indians excite him with
+voice and gesture until he resumed the offensive, and bounded from the
+ground with fury. What would have been our fate had he succeeded in
+shaking off or breaking the lassos! Fortunately, there was no danger of
+this. An Indian dismounted, and, with great agility, attached to the
+trunk of a solid tree the two lassos that retained the savage beast;
+then he gave the signal that his office was accomplished, and retired.
+Two hunters approached, threw their lassos over the animal, and fixed
+the ends to the ground with stakes; and now our prey was thoroughly
+subdued, and reduced to immobility, so that we could approach him with
+impunity. With blows of their cutlasses the Indians hacked off his
+horns, which would so well have revenged him had he been free to use
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb67" href="#pb67">67</a>]</span>them;
+then, with a pointed bamboo, they pierced the membranes that separate
+the nostrils, and passed through them a cane <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e683" title="Source: twiste ">twisted</span> in the form of a ring.
+In this state of martyrdom they fastened him securely behind two tame
+buffaloes, and led him to the next village.</p>
+
+<p>Here the animal was killed, and the hunters divided the carcass, the
+flesh of which is equal in flavour to beef. I had been fortunate in my
+first essay, for such encounters with these shaggy sovereigns of the
+plain do not always end so easily. A few days afterwards we renewed the
+sport, which, alas! terminated with an accident of too frequent
+occurrence. An Indian was surprised by a buffalo, at the moment the
+animal issued from the wood. With one blow from his horns the horse was
+impaled and cast to the earth, while his Indian rider fell near to him.
+The inequality of the ground offered some chance of the man escaping
+the notice of his redoubtable foe, until the latter, by a sudden
+movement of his head, turned the horse over upon his rider, and
+inflicted several blows with his horns, either of which would have
+proved fatal, but from the force becoming diminished in traversing the
+carcass of the horse. Fortunately some of the other sportsmen succeeded
+in turning the animal, and compelled him to abandon his victim. It was
+indeed time, for we found the poor Indian half dead, and terribly gored
+by the horns of the buffalo. We succeeded in stopping the blood which
+flowed copiously from his wounds, and carried him to the village upon a
+hastily constructed litter. It was only by considerable care and
+attention that his care was eventually effected, and my friend the
+Indian strongly opposed my assisting at such dangerous sport for the
+future.</p>
+
+<p>Anna&rsquo;s health was now completely re-established. I no longer
+dreaded the return of her fearful malady. During the <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb68" href="#pb68">68</a>]</span>space of several
+months I had enjoyed all the pleasures that Tierra-Alta afforded, and
+my affairs now requiring my presence at Manilla we set out for that
+city. Immediately after my arrival I was compelled, much to my regret,
+to resume my ordinary occupation; that is, to visit the sick from
+morning to night, and from night to morning. My profession did not well
+accord with my natural character, for I was not sufficiently
+philosophic to witness, without pain, the sufferings I was incapable of
+alleviating, and, above all, to watch the death-beds of fathers, of
+mothers, and of dearly loved children. In a word, I did not act
+professionally, for I never sent in my bills; my patients paid me when
+and how they could. To their honour, I am bound to say that I rarely
+had to complain of forgetfulness. Besides, my appointments permitted me
+to live sumptuously, to have eight horses in my stables, and to keep
+open house to my friends and the strangers who visited Manilla. Soon,
+however, what my friends designated a <i lang="fr">
+coup-de-t&ecirc;te</i> caused me to lose all these advantages.</p>
+
+<p>Every month I summoned a council of revision in the regiment to
+which I belonged. One day I brought forward a young soldier for
+rejection; all went well; but a native surgeon, long jealous of my
+reputation, was nominated by the governor to make inquiry and check my
+declaration. He naturally inserted in his report that I was deceived;
+that the malady of which I spoke was imaginary; and he succeeded in all
+this so well that the governor, enraged, condemned me in a penalty of
+six piasters. The following month I again brought forward the same
+soldier, as being incapable of performing his duties; a commission of
+eight surgeons was nominated; their decision was unanimous in my
+favour, and the soldier was accordingly discharged. This reparation not
+quite <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb69" href=
+"#pb69">69</a>]</span>satisfying me, I presented an appeal to the
+governor, who would not receive it, upon the strange pretext that the
+decision of the medical committee could not annul his. I confess that I
+did not understand this argument. This method of reasoning, if
+reasoning it was, appeared to me specious in the extreme. Why allow the
+innocent to suffer, and the ignorant practitioner, who had contradicted
+my opinions and deceived himself, to escape? This injustice revolted
+me. I am a Breton, and I have lived with Indians&mdash;two natures
+which love only right and justice. I was so much annoyed by the
+governor&rsquo;s conduct towards me that I went to him, not to make
+another reclamation, but to tender my resignation of the important
+offices which I held. He received me with a specious smile, and told me
+that after a little reflection I should change my mind. The poor
+governor, however, was deceived, for, on leaving his palace, I went
+direct to the minister of finance and purchased the property of
+Jala-Jala. My course was marked out, my resolution unshakable. Although
+my resignation was not yet duly accepted, I began to act as though I
+was completely free. I had at the beginning informed Anna of the
+matter, and had asked her if she would reside at Jala-Jala. &ldquo;With
+you I should be happy anywhere.&rdquo; Such was her answer. I was free,
+then, to act as I pleased, and could go wherever my destiny might lead
+me. I forthwith decided upon visiting the land that I had
+purchased.</p>
+
+<p>For the execution of this project it was necessary to find a
+faithful Indian upon whom I could rely. From among my domestics I chose
+the coachman, a brave and discreet man, who was devoted to me. I took
+some arms, ammunition, and provisions. At Lapindan, a small village
+near the town of Santa Anna, I freighted a small boat worked by three
+Indians: <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb70" href=
+"#pb70">70</a>]</span>and one morning, without making my project known
+to my friends, and without inquiring whether the governor had replaced
+me, I set out to take possession of my domains, respiring the vivifying
+and pure air of liberty. I ascended in my pirogue&mdash;which skimmed
+along the surface of the waters like a sea-gull&mdash;the pretty river
+Pasig, which issues from the lake of Bay, and traverses, on its way to
+the sea, the suburbs of Manilla. The banks of this river are planted
+with thickets of bamboo, and studded with pretty Indian habitations;
+above the large town of Pasig it receives the waters of the river St.
+Mateo, at the spot where that river unites itself with that of the
+Pasig. Upon the left bank are still seen the ruins of the chapel and
+parsonage of St. Nicholas, built by the Chinese, as the legend I am
+about to relate informs us.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p070"><img border="0" src="images/p070.jpg"
+alt="Passage boat on the River Pasig." width="503" height="362">
+<p class="figureHead">Passage boat on the River Pasig.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb71" href="#pb71">71</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>At an unknown epoch, a Chinese who was once sailing in a canoe,
+either upon the river Pasig, or that of St. Mateo, suddenly perceived
+an alligator making for his frail bark, which it immediately capsized.
+On his finding himself thus plunged in the water, the unfortunate
+Chinese whose only prospect was that of making a meal for the ferocious
+animal, invoked the aid of St. Nicholas. You, perhaps, would not have
+done so, nor I either; and we should have been wrong, for the idea was
+a good one. The good St. Nicholas listened to the cries of the unhappy
+castaway, appeared to his wondering eyes, and with a stroke of a wand,
+like some benevolent fairy, changed the threatening crocodile into a
+rock, and the Chinese was saved. But do not imagine that the legend
+ends here; the Chinese are not an ungrateful people&mdash;China is the
+land of porcelain, of tea, and of gratitude. The Chinese who had thus
+escaped from the cruel fate that awaited him, felt desirous of
+consecrating the memory of the miracle; and, in concert with his
+brethren of Manilla, he built a pretty chapel and parsonage in honour
+of the good St. Nicholas. This chapel was for a long time officiated in
+by a bonze; and every year, at the festival of the saint, the rich
+Chinese of Manilla assembled there in thousands, to give a series of
+f&ecirc;tes which lasted for fifteen days. But it happened that an
+archbishop of Manilla, looking upon this worship offered up by Chinese
+gratitude as nothing but paganism, caused both the chapel and parsonage
+to be unroofed. These harsh measures had no other result than to admit
+the rain into the buildings; but the worship due to St. Nicholas still
+continued, and remains to this day. Perhaps this arises from the
+attempt to suppress it!</p>
+
+<p>At present, at the period when this festival takes place&mdash;<span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb72" href="#pb72">72</a>]</span>that is, about
+the 6th of November every year&mdash;a delightful view presents itself.
+During the night large vessels may be seen, upon which are built
+palaces actually several stories high, terminating in pyramids, and lit
+up from the base to the summit. All these lights are reflected in the
+placid waters of the river, and seem to augment the number of the
+stars, whose tremulous images dance on the surface of the waters: it is
+an extemporised Venice! In these palaces they give themselves up to
+play, to smoking opium, and to the pleasures of music. The <i>
+p&eacute;v&eacute;t&eacute;</i>, a species of Chinese incense, is
+burning everywhere and at all times in honour of St. Nicholas, who is
+invoked every morning by throwing into the river small square pieces of
+paper of various colours. St. Nicholas, however, does not make his
+appearance; but the f&ecirc;te continues for a fortnight, at the
+termination of which the faithful retire till the year following.</p>
+
+<p>And now that the reader is acquainted with the legend of the
+crocodile, of the Chinese, and of the good St. Nicholas, I will resume
+my voyage.</p>
+
+<p>I sailed on peaceably upon the Pasig, proceeding to the conquest of
+my new dominions, and indulging in golden dreams. I gazed on the light
+smoke of my cigarette, without reflecting that my dreams, my castles in
+the air, must evaporate like it! I soon found myself in the lake of
+Bay. The lake occupies an extent of thirty leagues, and I greatly
+admired this fine sheet of water, bounded in the distance by mountains
+of fantastic forms. At length I arrived at <i>
+Quinaboutasan</i>&mdash;this is a Tagal word, which signifies
+&ldquo;that which is perforated.&rdquo; Quinaboutasan is situated on a
+strait, which separates the island of Talem from the continent. We
+stopped for an hour in the only Indian hut there was in the place, to
+cook some rice and take our repast. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb73"
+href="#pb73">73</a>]</span>This hut was inhabited by a very old
+fisherman and his wife. They were still, however, able to supply their
+wants by fishing. At a later period I shall have occasion to speak of
+old Relempago, or the &ldquo;Thunderer,&rdquo; and to recount his
+history. When I was in the centre of the sheet of water which separates
+Talem from Jala-Jala, I came in sight of the new domain which I had so
+easily acquired, and I could form some opinion of my acquisition at a
+glance. Jala-Jala is a long peninsula, extending from north to south,
+in the middle of the lake of Bay. This peninsula is divided
+longitudinally for the space of three leagues by a chain of mountains,
+which diminish gradually in height till they become mere hillocks.
+These mountains, are easy of access, and generally covered on one side
+with forests, and on the other with fine pasturage, abounding with
+waving and flexible grass, three or four feet high, which, agitated by
+the breeze, resembles the waves of the sea when in motion. It is
+impossible to find more splendid vegetation, which is watered by pure
+and limpid springs that gush from the mountain heights, and roll in a
+meandering course to join the waters of the lake. These pasture grounds
+constitute Jala-Jala the greatest game preserve in the island: wild
+boars, deer, buffaloes, fowls, quail, snipe, pigeons of fifteen or
+twenty different varieties, parrots&mdash;in short all sorts of birds
+abound in them. The lake is equally well supplied with aquatic birds,
+and particularly wild ducks. Notwithstanding its extent, the island
+produces neither noxious nor carnivorous animals; the only things to be
+apprehended are the civet cat, which only preys upon birds, and the
+monkeys, which issue in troops from the forests to ravage the fields of
+maize and sugar-cane. The lake, which abounds with excellent fish, is
+less favoured in this respect than the land, for it contains numerous
+crocodiles and alligators, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb74" href=
+"#pb74">74</a>]</span>of such immense size that in a few moments one of
+them can tear a horse to pieces, and swallow it in its monstrous
+stomach. The accidents they occasion are frequent and terrible, and I
+have seen many Indians become their victims, as I shall subsequently
+relate. I ought, doubtless, to have begun by speaking of the human
+beings who inhabited the forests of Jala-Jala, but I am a sportsman,
+and must therefore be excused for beginning with the game.</p>
+
+<p>At the time I purchased it Jala-Jala was inhabited by some Malay
+Indians, who lived in the woods, and cultivated a few spots of ground.
+During the night they carried on the trade of piracy, and gave shelter
+to all the banditti of the neighbouring provinces. At Manilla this
+country had been described to me in the most gloomy colours. According
+to the citizens of that place it would not be long before I fell a
+victim to these robbers. My adventurous disposition, however, only made
+all these predictions, instead of frightening me, increase my desire to
+visit these men, who lived in an almost savage state. As soon as I had
+purchased Jala-Jala, I had laid down a line of conduct for myself, the
+object of which was to attach to me such of the inhabitants as were the
+most to be dreaded. I resolved to become the friend of these banditti,
+and for this purpose I knew that I must go amongst them, not like a
+sordid and exacting landlord but like a father. For the execution of my
+enterprise, everything depended on the first impression that I should
+make on these Indians, who had become my vassals. When I had landed, I
+directed my steps along the borders of the lake, towards a little
+hamlet composed of a few cabins. I was accompanied by my faithful
+coachman; we were both armed with a good double-barreled gun, a brace
+of pistols, and a sabre. I had taken the precaution of ascertaining
+from some <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb75" href=
+"#pb75">75</a>]</span>fishermen the name of the Indian to whom I should
+especially address myself. This man, who was the most respected amongst
+his countrymen, was called in the Tagal language, &ldquo;<i lang=
+"tl">Mabutiu-Tajo</i>,&rdquo; which may be translated the
+&ldquo;bravest of the brave&rdquo; he was a thorough-paced robber, a
+real piratical chief; a fellow that would not hesitate to commit five
+or six murders in one expedition; but he was brave, and with a
+primitive people bravery is a quality before which they bow with
+respect. My conference with Mabutiu-Tajo was not long. A few words were
+enough to win me his favour, and to make him my faithful servant during
+the whole time I remained at Jala-Jala. This is the manner in which I
+spoke to him: &ldquo;You are a great villain,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;I
+am the lord of Jala-Jala. I insist on your changing your conduct; if
+you refuse, I shall punish you for all your misdeeds. I have occasion
+for a guard: will you pledge me your honour to become an honest man,
+and I will make you my lieutenant?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After these few words, Alila (this was the name of the robber)
+continued silent for a few moments, while his countenance displayed the
+marks of profound reflection. I awaited his answer with considerable
+anxiety and doubt as to what it would be.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; he at length replied, with enthusiasm,
+presenting me his hand, and bending one knee to the ground: &ldquo;I
+shall be faithful to you till death!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His answer made me happy, but I did not let him see my
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well and good,&rdquo; I replied; &ldquo;to show you that I
+confide in you, take this weapon, and use it only against the
+enemy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I gave him a Tagal sabre, which bore the following Spanish
+inscription, in large letters: &ldquo;<i lang="es">No me sacas sin
+rason, ni me <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb76" href=
+"#pb76">76</a>]</span>envainas sin honor</i>.&rdquo; &ldquo;Never draw
+me unjustly, and never sheath me with dishonour.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I translated this legend into the Tagaloc language: Alila thought it
+sublime, and vowed never to deviate from it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When I go to Manilla,&rdquo; I added, &ldquo;I shall procure
+you a handsome uniform, with epaulettes; but you must lose no time in
+assembling the soldiers you will have to command, and who are to form
+my guard. Conduct me to the house of one of your comrades whom you
+think most capable of obeying you as serjeant.&rdquo; We went some
+distance from his cabin to the hut of one of his friends, who almost
+always accompanied him in his piratical excursions. A few words like
+those I had spoken to my future lieutenant produced a similar influence
+on his comrade, and induced him to accept the rank I offered him. We
+occupied the day in recruiting amongst the various huts, and in the
+evening we had a guard of ten effective men, infantry and cavalry, a
+number I did not wish to exceed.</p>
+
+<p>Of these I took the command as captain; and thus, as will be seen, I
+went promptly to work. The following day I assembled the population of
+the peninsula, and, surrounded by my extempore guard, I chose a
+situation where I wished to found a village, and a site on which I
+wished my own habitation to be built. I ordered the heads of families
+to construct their huts on an allotment which I indicated, and I
+directed my lieutenant to employ as many hands as possible, to quarry
+stones, to cut down timber for the wood-work, and to prepare everything
+in short for my house. Having issued my orders, I departed for Manilla,
+promising to return soon. When I reached home, I found them in a state
+of inquietude, for, as nothing had been heard of me, it was thought I
+had fallen a prey to the crocodiles, or a victim to the pirates. The
+recital <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb77" href=
+"#pb77">77</a>]</span>of my journey, and the description I gave of
+Jala-Jala, far from disgusting my wife with the idea I had conceived of
+inhabiting that country, made her, on the contrary, impatient to visit
+our estate, and to establish herself there. It was, however, a farewell
+she was taking of the capital&mdash;of its f&ecirc;tes, its assemblies,
+and its pleasures.</p>
+
+<p>I paid a visit to the governor. My resignation had been considered
+as null and void: he had preserved all my places for me. I was touched
+by this goodness. I sincerely thanked him, but told him that I was
+really in earnest, that my resolution was irrevocably fixed, and that
+he might otherwise dispose of my employments. I added, that I only
+asked him for one favour, that of commanding all the local gendarmerie
+of the province of La Lagune, with the privilege of having a personal
+guard, which I would form myself. This favour was instantly granted,
+and a few days after I received my commission. It was not ambition that
+suggested to me the idea of asking for this important post, but sound
+reason. My object was to establish an authority for myself at
+Jala-Jala, and to have in my own hands the power of punishing my
+Indians, without recurring to the justice of the alcaid, who lived ten
+leagues away from my dominions.</p>
+
+<p>Wishing to be comfortably settled in my new residence, I drew out a
+plan of my house. It consisted of a first-floor, with five
+bed-chambers, a large hall, a spacious drawing-room, a terrace, and
+bathing rooms. I agreed with a master-mason and a master carpenter for
+the construction of it; and having obtained arms and uniforms for my
+guard, I set out again. On arriving I was received with joy by my
+Indians. My lieutenant had punctually executed my orders. A great
+quantity of material was prepared, and several Indian huts were already
+built. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb78" href=
+"#pb78">78</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>This activity gave me pleasure, as it evinced a desire for my
+gratification. I immediately set my labourers to work, ordering them to
+clear away the surrounding wood, and I soon had the pleasure of laying
+the foundation of my residence; I then went to Manilla. The works
+lasted for eight months, during which time I passed backwards and
+forwards continually from Manilla to Jala-Jala, and from Jala-Jala to
+Manilla. I had some trouble, but I was well repaid for it when I saw a
+village rise from the earth. My Indians constructed their huts on the
+places I had indicated; they had reserved a site for a church, and,
+until this should be built, mass was to be celebrated in the vestibule
+of my mansion. At length, after many journeys to and fro, which gave
+great uneasiness to my wife, I was enabled to inform her that the
+castle of Jala-Jala was ready to receive its mistress. This was a
+pleasing piece of intelligence, for we were soon to be no longer
+separated.</p>
+
+<p>I quickly sold my horses, my carriages, and useless furniture, and
+freighted a vessel to convey to Jala-Jala all that I required. Then,
+having taken leave of my friends, I quitted Manilla, with the intention
+of not returning to it but through absolute necessity. Our journey was
+prosperous, and on our arrival, we found my Indians on the shore,
+hailing with cries of joy the welcome advent of the &ldquo;<i>Queen of
+Jala-Jala</i>,&rdquo; for it was thus they called my wife.</p>
+
+<p>We devoted the first days after our arrival to installing ourselves
+in our new residence, which it was necessary to furnish, and make both
+useful and agreeable; this we accordingly effected. And now that years
+have elapsed, and I am far removed from that period of independence and
+perfect liberty, I reflect on the strangeness of my destiny. My wife
+and I were the only white and civilised persons in the midst of a <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb79" href="#pb79">79</a>]</span>bronzed and
+almost savage population, and yet I felt no apprehension. I relied on
+my arms, on my self-possession, and on the fidelity of my guards. Anna
+was only aware of a part of the dangers we incurred, and her confidence
+in me was so great, that when by my side she knew not what it was to
+fear. When I was well established in my house, I undertook a difficult
+and dangerous task, that of establishing order amongst my Indians, and
+organizing my little town according to the custom of the Philippine
+islands. The Spanish laws, with reference to the Indians, are
+altogether patriarchal. Every township is erected, so to speak, into a
+little republic. Every year a chief is elected, dependant for affairs
+of importance on the governor of the province, which latter, in his
+turn, depends on the governor of the Philippine islands. I confess that
+I have always considered the mode of government peculiar to the
+Philippines as the most convenient and best adapted for civilization.
+The Spaniards, at the period of their conquest, found it in full
+operation in the isle of Luzon.</p>
+
+<p>I shall here enter into some details. Every Indian population is
+divided into two classes, the noble and the popular. The first is
+composed of all Indians who are, or have been <i>cabessas de
+barangay</i>, that is to say, collectors of taxes, which situation is
+honorary. The taxes established by the Spaniards are personal. Every
+Indian of more than twenty-one years of age pays, in four instalments,
+the annual sum of three francs; which tax is the same to the rich and
+the poor. At a certain period of the year, twelve of the cabessas de
+barangay become electors, and assembling together with some of the old
+inhabitants of the township, they elect, by ballot, three of their
+number, whose names are forwarded to the governor of the Philippines.
+The latter chooses from amongst these names <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb80" href="#pb80">80</a>]</span>whichever he pleases, and confides
+to him for one year the functions of <i>gobernadorcillo</i>, or
+deputy-governor. To distinguish him from the other Indians, the
+deputy-governor bears a gold-headed cane, with which he has a right to
+strike such of his fellow-citizens as may have committed slight faults.
+His functions partake at the same time of those of mayor, justice of
+the peace, and examining magistrate. He watches over good order and
+public tranquillity; he decides, without appeal, suits and differences
+of no higher importance than sixteen piasters (&pound;3 6s. 8d.). He
+also institutes criminal suits of high importance, but there his power
+ceases. The documents connected with these suits are sent by him to the
+governor of the province, who, in his turn, transmits them to the royal
+court of Manilla. The court gives judgment, and the alcaid carries it
+into execution. When the election for deputy-governor takes place, the
+assembled electors choose all the officials who are to act under him.
+These are alguazils, whose number is proportioned to the population;
+two witnesses, or assistants, who are charged with the confirmation of
+the acts of the deputy-governor&mdash;for without their presence and
+sanction his acts would be considered null and void; a <i lang="fr">
+jou&egrave;s de palma</i>, or palm judge, with the functions of rural
+guard; a vaccinator, bound to be always furnished with vaccine matter,
+for newborn children; and a schoolmaster, charged with public
+instruction; finally, a sort of gendarmerie, to watch banditti and the
+state of the roads within the precincts of the commune and the
+neighbouring lands. Men, grown up, and without employment, form a civic
+guard, who watch over the safety of the village. This guard indicates
+the hours of the night, by blows struck upon a large piece of hollow
+wood. There is in each town a parochial house, which is called Casa
+R&eacute;al, where <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb81" href=
+"#pb81">81</a>]</span>the deputy-governor resides. He is bound to
+afford hospitality to all travellers who pass through the town, which
+hospitality is like that of the Scotch mountaineers&mdash;it is given,
+but never sold. During two or three days, the traveller has a right to
+lodging, in which he is supplied with a mat, a pillow, salt, vinegar,
+wood, cooking vessels, and&mdash;paying for the same&mdash;all
+descriptions of food necessary for his subsistence. If, on his
+departure, he should even require horses and guides to continue his
+journey, they are procured for him. With respect to the prices of
+provisions, in order to prevent the abuses so frequent amongst us, a
+large placard is fixed up in every Casa R&eacute;al, containing a
+tariff of the market prices of meat, poultry, fish, fruit, &amp;c. In
+no case whatever can the deputy-governor exact any remuneration for the
+trouble he is at.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the measures that I wished to adopt, and which, it is
+true, possessed advantages and disadvantages. The greatest
+inconvenience attending them was undoubtedly that of placing myself in
+a state of dependence upon the deputy-governor, whose functions gave
+him a certain right, for I was his administrator. It is true that my
+rank, as commandant of all the gendarmerie of the province, shielded me
+from any injustice that might be contemplated against me. I knew very
+well that, beyond military service, I could inflict no punishment on my
+men without the intervention of the deputy-governor; but I had
+sufficiently studied the Indian character to know that I could only
+rule it by the most perfect justice and a well-understood severity. But
+whatever were the difficulties I foresaw, without any apprehension of
+the troubles and dangers of every description that I should have to
+surmount, I proceeded straightforward towards the object I had traced
+out for myself. The road was sterile and encumbered with rocks; but I
+entered <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb82" href=
+"#pb82">82</a>]</span>upon it with courage, and I succeeded in
+obtaining over the Indians such an influence, that they ultimately
+obeyed my voice as they would that of a parent. The character of the
+Tagaloc is extremely difficult to define. Lavater and Gall would have
+been very much embarrassed by it; for both physiognomy and craniology
+would be, perhaps, equally at a loss amongst the Philippines.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p082"><img border="0" src="images/p082.jpg"
+alt="Tagal Indians pounding rice." width="375" height="424">
+<p class="figureHead">Tagal Indians pounding rice.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The natural disposition of the Tagal Indian is a mixture of vices
+and virtues, of good and bad qualities. A worthy priest has said, when
+speaking of them: &ldquo;They are great children and must be treated as
+if they were little ones.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is really curious to trace, and still more so to read, the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb83" href="#pb83">83</a>]</span>moral portrait
+of a native of the Philippine islands. The Indian keeps his word, and
+yet&mdash;will it be believed?&mdash;he is a liar. Anger he holds in
+horror, he compares it to madness; and even prefers drunkenness, which,
+however, he despises. He will not hesitate to use the dagger to avenge
+himself for injustice; but what he can least submit to is an insult,
+even when merited. When he has committed a fault, he may be punished
+with a flogging; this he receives without a murmur, but he cannot brook
+an insult. He is brave, generous, and a fatalist. The profession of a
+robber, which he willingly exercises, is agreeable to him, on account
+of the life of liberty and adventure it affords, and not because it may
+lead to riches. Generally speaking, the Tagalocs are good fathers and
+good husbands, both these qualities being inherent. Horribly jealous of
+their wives, but not in the least of the honour of their daughters; and
+it matters little if the women they marry have committed errors
+previous to their union. They never ask for a dowry, they themselves
+provide it, and make presents to the parents of their brides. They
+dislike cowards, but willingly attach themselves to the man who is
+brave enough to face danger. Play is their ruling passion, and they
+delight in the combats of animals, especially in cock-fighting. This is
+a brief compendium of the character of the people I was about to
+govern. My first care was to become master of myself. I made a firm
+resolution never to allow a gesture of impatience to escape me, in
+their presence, even in the most critical moments, and to preserve at
+all times unshaken calmness and <i lang="fr">sang-froid</i>. I soon
+learned that it was dangerous to listen to the communications that were
+made to me, which might lead me to the commission of injustice, as had
+already happened under the following circumstances. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb84" href="#pb84">84</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>Two Indians came one day to lodge a complaint against one of their
+comrades, living at some leagues&rsquo; distance from Jala-Jala. These
+informers accused him of having stolen cattle. After I had heard all
+they had to say, I set off with my guard to seize upon the accused, and
+brought him to my residence. There I endeavoured to make him confess
+his crime, but he denied it, and said he was innocent. It was in vain I
+promised him if he would tell the truth to grant him his pardon, for he
+persisted even in the presence of his accusers. Persuaded, however,
+that he was telling me falsehoods, and disgusted with his obstinacy in
+denying a fact which had been sworn to me, with every appearance of
+sincerity, I ordered him to be tied upon a bench, and receive a dozen
+strokes of a whip. My orders were executed; but the culprit denied the
+charge, as he had done before. This dogged perseverance irritated me,
+and I caused another correction to be administered to him the same as
+the first. The unfortunate man bore his punishment with unshaken
+courage: but in the midst of his sufferings he exclaimed, in
+penetrating accents: &ldquo;Oh! sir, I swear to you that I am innocent;
+but, as you will not believe me, take me into your house. I will be a
+faithful servant, and you will soon have proofs that I am the victim of
+an infamous calumny.&rdquo; These words affected me. I reflected that
+this unfortunate man was, perhaps, not guilty after all. I began to
+fear I had been deceived, and had unknowingly committed an act of
+injustice. I felt that private enmity might have led these two
+witnesses to make a false declaration, and thus induce me to punish an
+innocent man. I ordered him to be untied. &ldquo;The proof you
+demand,&rdquo; I said to him, &ldquo;is easily tried. If you are an
+honest man, I shall be a father to you; but if you deceive me, do not
+expect any pity from me. From this <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb85"
+href="#pb85">85</a>]</span>moment you shall be one of my guard; my
+lieutenant will provide you with arms.&rdquo; He thanked me earnestly,
+and his countenance lit up with sudden joy. He was installed in my
+guard. Oh! human justice! how fragile, and how often unintelligible art
+thou! Some time after this event, I learnt that Bazilio de la
+Cruz&mdash;this was the name of the man&mdash;was innocent. The two
+wretches who had denounced him had fled, to avoid the chastisement they
+merited. Bazilio kept his promise, and during my residence at Jala-Jala
+he served me faithfully and without malice or ill-will. This fact made
+a lively impression on me; and I vowed that for the future I would
+inflict no punishment without being sure of the truth of the charge
+alleged. I have religiously kept this vow&mdash;at least I think so;
+for I have never since ordered a single application of the whip until
+after the culprit had confessed his crime.</p>
+
+<p>I have before said that I had expressed a wish to have a church
+built in my village, not only from a religious feeling, but as a means
+of civilisation: I was particularly desirous of having a curate at
+Jala-Jala. With this view I requested Monseigneur Hilarion, the
+archbishop, whose physician I had been, and with whom I was on terms of
+friendship, to send me a clergyman of my acquaintance, and who was at
+that time unemployed. I had, however, much difficulty in obtaining this
+nomination. &ldquo;Father Miguel de San-Francisco,&rdquo; the
+archbishop replied, &ldquo;is a violent man, and very headstrong: you
+will never be able to live with him.&rdquo; I persisted, however; and
+as perseverance always produces some result, I at length succeeded in
+having him appointed curate at Jala-Jala. Father Miguel was of Japanese
+and Malay descent. He was young, strong, brave, and very capable of
+assisting me in the difficult circumstances that might occur; as, for
+example, if it were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb86" href=
+"#pb86">86</a>]</span>necessary to defend ourselves against banditti.
+Indeed I must say that, in spite of the anticipations, and I may add
+the prejudices, of my honourable friend the archbishop, I kept him with
+me during the whole time of my abode at Jala-Jala, and never had the
+slightest difference with him. I can only reproach him with one thing
+to be regretted, which is that he did not preach sufficiently to his
+flock. He gave them only one sermon annually, and then his discourse
+was always the same, and divided into two parts: the first was in
+Spanish, for our edification, and the second in Tagaloc, for the
+Indians. Ah! how many men have I since met with who might well imitate
+the worthy curate of Jala-Jala! To the observations I sometimes made he
+would reply: &ldquo;Let me follow my own course, and fear nothing. So
+many words are not necessary to make a good Christian.&rdquo; Perhaps
+he was right. Since my <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb87" href=
+"#pb87">87</a>]</span>departure from the place the good priest is dead,
+bearing with him to the tomb the regret of all his parishioners.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p086"><img border="0" src="images/p086.jpg"
+alt="Father Miguel." width="318" height="348">
+<p class="figureHead">Father Miguel.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As may be seen, I was at the beginning of my labour of civilisation.
+Anna assisted me with all her heart, and with all her intelligence, and
+no fatigue disheartened her. She taught the young girls to love that
+virtue which she practised so well herself. She furnished them with
+clothes, for at this period the young girls from ten to twelve years of
+age were still as naked as savages. Father Miguel de San Francisco was
+charged with the mission more especially belonging to his sacred
+character. The more readily to disseminate through the colony that
+instruction which is the beneficent parent of civilisation, the young
+people were divided into squads of four at a time, and went by turns to
+pass a fortnight at the parsonage. There they learned a little Spanish,
+and were moulded to the customs of a world which had been hitherto
+unknown to them. I superintended everything in general. I occupied
+myself in works of agriculture, and giving proper instruction to the
+shepherds who kept the flocks I had purchased to make use of my
+pasturage. I was also the mediator of all the differences which arose
+amongst my colonists. They preferred rather to apply to me than to the
+deputy-governor; and I succeeded at last in obtaining over them the
+influence I desired. One portion of my time, and this was not the least
+busy, was occupied in driving the banditti from my residence and its
+vicinity. Sometimes I set off for this purpose before daybreak and did
+not return until night; and then I always found my wife good,
+affectionate, and devoted to me: her reception repaid me for the
+labours of the day. Oh, felicity almost perfect! I have never forgotten
+you! Happy period! which has left indelible traces in my memory, you
+are always present to my <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb88" href=
+"#pb88">88</a>]</span>thoughts! I have grown old, but my heart has ever
+continued young in recollecting you.</p>
+
+<p>In our long chit-chat of an evening we recounted to each other the
+labours of the day, and everything that occurred to us. This was the
+season of sweet mutual confidence. Hours too soon vanished, alas!
+Fugitive moments, you will never return! It was also the time when I
+gave audience; real bed of justice, imitated from St. Louis, and thrown
+open to my subjects. The door of my mansion admitted all the Indians
+who had anything to communicate to me. Seated with my wife at a great
+round table, I listened, as I took my tea, to all the requests that
+were made to me, all the claims that were laid before me. It was during
+these audiences that I issued my sentences. My guards brought the
+culprits before me, and, without departing from my ordinary calmness, I
+admonished them for the faults they had committed; but I always
+recollected the error I bad committed in my sentence against poor
+Bazilio, and I was, therefore, very circumspect. I first listened to
+the witnesses; but I never condemned until I heard the culprit say:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What would you have, sir? It was my destiny. I could not
+prevent myself from doing what I did.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Every fault merits chastisement,&rdquo; I would reply;
+&ldquo;but choose between the deputy-governor and me&mdash;by which do
+you wish to be chastised?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The reply was always the same.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Kill me, if you will, master; but do not give me up to my own
+countrymen.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I awarded the punishment, and it was inflicted by my guards. When
+this was over, I presented the Indian with a cigar, as a token of
+pardon, I uttered a few kind words to him <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb89" href="#pb89">89</a>]</span>to induce him not to commit any fresh
+faults, and he went away without hearing any malice to his judge. I
+had, perhaps, been severe, but I had been just; that was enough. The
+order and discipline I had established were a great support for me in
+the minds of the Indians; they gave me a positive influence over them.
+My calmness, my firmness, and my justice&mdash;those three great
+qualities without which no government is possible&mdash;easily
+satisfied these natures, still untrained and <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e842" title="Source: unsophiscated">unsophisticated</span>. But one
+thing, however, disquieted them. Was I brave? This is what they were
+ignorant of, and frequently asked of one another. They spurned the idea
+of being commanded by a man who might not be intrepid in the face of
+danger. I had indeed made several expeditions against banditti, but
+they had produced no result, and would not serve as proofs of my
+bravery in the eyes of the Indians. I very well knew that they would
+form their definite opinion upon me from my conduct in the first
+perilous extremity we should encounter together. I was therefore
+determined to undertake anything, that I might show myself at least
+equal to the best and bravest of all my Indians: everything was
+comprised in that. I felt the imperious necessity of showing myself not
+only equal but superior in the struggle, by preserving my
+self-possession.</p>
+
+<p>An opportunity at length offered.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians look upon buffalo hunting as the most dangerous of all
+their wild sports, and my guards often said they would rather stand
+naked at twenty paces from the muzzle of a carbine than at the same
+distance from a wild buffalo. The difference they said is this, that
+the ball of a carbine may only wound, but the horn of a buffalo is sure
+to kill. I took advantage of the terror they had of this animal, and
+one day declared, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb90" href=
+"#pb90">90</a>]</span>with the utmost possible coolness, my intention
+to hunt one. They then made use of all their eloquence to turn me from
+my project; they gave me a very picturesque, but a very discouraging
+description of the dangers and difficulties I should have to encounter,
+especially as I was not accustomed to that sort of warfare,&mdash;and
+such a combat is, in fact, a struggle for life or death. But I would
+listen to nothing. I had spoken the word: I would not discuss the
+point, and I looked upon all their counsels as null and void. My
+decision was right; for these kind counsels, these frightful pictures
+of the dangers I was about to incur, had no other object than to entrap
+me; they had concerted amongst themselves to judge of my courage by my
+acceptance or refusal of the combat. My only answer was to give orders
+for the hunt. I took great care that my wife should not be informed of
+our excursion, and I set off, accompanied by half a score Indians,
+nearly all of whom were armed with muskets. Buffalo hunting is
+different in the mountains from what it is in the plains. On the plain
+one only requires a good horse, with address and agility in throwing
+the lasso; but in the mountains it requires something more: and, above
+all, the most extraordinary coolness and self-possession are
+essentially necessary.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p092"><img border="0" src="images/p092.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere&rsquo;s First Shot at a Buffalo." width="720" height=
+"488">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere&rsquo;s First Shot at a Buffalo.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This is the way in which it is done: the hunter takes a gun on which
+he can depend, and places himself in such a position that the buffalo
+must see him on issuing from the wood. The moment the animal sees him,
+he rushes on him with the utmost velocity, breaking, rending, and
+trampling under foot every obstacle to the fury of his charge; he
+rushes on as if about to crush the enemy, then stops within some paces
+for a few seconds, and presents his sharp and threatening horns. This
+is the moment that the hunter should fire, and <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb91" href="#pb91">91</a>]</span>lodge his ball in the forehead
+of the foe. If unfortunately his gun misses fire, or if his coolness
+fails him, if his hand trembles, or his aim is bad, he is
+lost&mdash;Providence alone can save him! This was, perhaps, the fate
+that awaited me; but I was resolved to tempt this cruel proof, and I
+went forward with intrepidity&mdash;perhaps to death. We at length
+arrived on the skirts of an extensive wood, in which we felt assured
+there were buffaloes, and here we halted. I was sure of my gun, and I
+conceived I was equally so of my self-possession; I therefore
+determined that the hunt should be conducted as if I had been a simple
+Indian. I placed myself at the spot where it was fully expected that
+the animal would come out, and I forbade anyone to remain near me. I
+ordered everyone to his proper place, and I then stood alone on the
+open ground, about two hundred paces from the borders of the forest, to
+await an enemy that would show me no mercy if I missed him. It is, I
+confess, a solemn moment, when one stands between life and death by the
+more or less certainty of a gun, or the greater or less steadiness of
+the arm that holds it. I was, however, perfectly tranquil. When all
+were at their posts two hunters entered the forest, having first thrown
+off some of their clothing, the more readily to climb up trees in case
+of danger: they had no other arms than a cutlass, and were accompanied
+by the dogs. A dead silence continued for upwards of half-an-hour;
+everyone listening for the slightest noise, but nothing was heard. The
+buffalo continues a long time frequently without betraying his lair;
+but at the end of the half-hour we heard the repeated barking of the
+dogs, and the shouts of the hunters: the animal was aroused from his
+cover. He defended himself for some time against the dogs, till at
+length, becoming furious, he sprang forward with a bound <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb92" href="#pb92">92</a>]</span>towards the skirts
+of the forest. In a few minutes after, I heard the crashing of the
+branches and the young trees that the buffalo rent asunder in the
+terrible velocity of his course. His advance could only be compared to
+the galloping of several horses&mdash;to the rushing noise of some
+frightful monster&mdash;or, I might almost say, of some furious and
+diabolical being. Down he came like an avalanche; and at this moment, I
+confess, I experienced such lively emotions that my heart beat with
+extraordinary rapidity. Was it not death&mdash;aye, and frightful
+death&mdash;that was perhaps approaching me? Suddenly the buffalo made
+his appearance. He stopped for an instant; gazed, as if frightened,
+around him; sniffed up the air of the plain which extended in the
+distance; then, with distended nostrils, head bent, and horns
+projected, he rushed towards me, terrible and furious. The moment was
+come. If I had longed for an opportunity of showing off my courage and
+<i lang="fr">sang-froid</i> to the Indians, these two precious
+qualities were now put to a severe test. There I was, face to face with
+the peril I had courted; the dilemma was one of the most decided and
+unavoidable that could possibly be: conqueror or conquered, there must
+be a victim&mdash;the buffalo or me, and we were both equally disposed
+to defend ourselves.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p093"><img border="0" src="images/p093.jpg"
+alt="Horns of the Buffalo." width="454" height="374">
+<p class="figureHead">Horns of the Buffalo.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It would be difficult for me to state exactly what was passing in my
+mind, during the brief period which the buffalo took in clearing the
+distance that lay between us. My heart, so vividly agitated while the
+ferocious animal was rushing through the forest, now beat no longer. My
+eyes were fixed upon him, my gaze was rivetted on his forehead in such
+a manner that I could see nothing else. My mind was concentrated on one
+object alone, in which I was so absorbed, that I could actually hear
+nothing, though the dogs were still barking <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb93" href="#pb93">93</a>]</span>at a short distance, as they
+followed their prey. At length, the buffalo lowered his head, presented
+his sharp-pointed horns, stopped for a moment, then, with a sudden
+plunge, he rushed upon me, and I fired. My ball pierced his skull, and
+I was half saved. The animal fell within a pace of me, like a mass of
+rock, so loud, and so heavy. I planted my foot between his two horns,
+and was preparing to fire my second barrel, when a long and hollow
+bellowing indicated that my victory was complete&mdash;the monster had
+breathed his last sigh. My Indians then came up. Their joy was
+succeeded by admiration; they were in <span class="corr" id="xd0e881"
+title="Source: ecstacy">ecstasy</span>; I was everything they could
+wish for. All their doubts had vanished with the smoke of my rifle,
+when, with steady aim, I had shot the buffalo. I was brave; I had won
+their confidence; I had stood the test. My victim was cut up in pieces,
+and borne in triumph to the village. As the <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb94" href="#pb94">94</a>]</span>victor, I took his horns; they
+were six feet long. I have since deposited them in the museum of
+Nantes. The Indians, those imaginative beings, called me thenceforward,
+&ldquo;<i lang="tl">Malamit Oulou</i>,&rdquo; Tagal words, which
+signify &ldquo;cool head.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I must confess, without vanity, that the proof to which my Indians
+had subjected me was sufficiently serious to give them a decided
+opinion of my courage, and to satisfy them that a Frenchman was as
+brave as themselves. The habit I subsequently acquired of hunting
+convinced me that but little danger is really incurred when the weapon
+is a good one, and the self-possession does not fail. Once every month
+I indulged in this exercise, which imparts such lively sensations; and
+I recognised the facility with which one may lodge a ball in a plain
+surface, a few inches in diameter, and at a few paces distance. But it
+is no less true that our first huntings were very dangerous. Once only
+I permitted a Spaniard named Ocampo to accompany us. I had taken the
+precaution to station two Indians at his side; but when I quitted them
+to take up my own post, he imprudently sent them away, and soon after,
+the buffalo started from the wood, and rushed upon him. He fired both
+his barrels, and missed the animal; we heard the reports and ran
+towards him, but it was too late! Ocampo was no longer in existence.
+The buffalo had gored him through and through, and his body was
+ploughed up with frightful wounds. But no such accident ever took place
+again; for when strangers came to witness our buffalo hunts, I made
+them get up in a tree, or on the crest of a mountain, where they might
+remain as spectators of the combat, without taking any part in it, or
+being exposed to any danger.</p>
+
+<p>And now that I have described buffalo hunting in the mountains, I
+must return to my colonising labours. <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb95" href="#pb95">95</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p095"><img border="0" src="images/p095.jpg"
+alt="My House at Jala-Jala." width="486" height="401">
+<p class="figureHead">My House at Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch5" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter V.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Description of my House at Jala-Jala&mdash;Storms, Gales, and
+Earthquakes&mdash;Reforming the Banditti&mdash;Card-playing&mdash;Tagal
+Cock-fighting&mdash;Skirmishes with Robbers&mdash;Courage of my
+Wife&mdash;Our Domestic Happiness&mdash;Visits from
+Europeans&mdash;Their Astonishment at our Civilisation&mdash;Visit to a
+Sick Friend at Manilla&mdash;Tour through the Provinces of the Ilocos
+and Pangasinan Indians&mdash;My Reception by the Tinguians&mdash;Their
+Appearance and Habits&mdash;Manners and Customs&mdash;Indian F&ecirc;te
+at Laganguilan y Madalag&mdash;Horrible Ceremonies to Celebrate a
+Victory&mdash;Songs and Dances&mdash;Our Night-watch&mdash;We Explore
+our Cabin&mdash;Discovery of a Secret Well&mdash;Tomb of the Tinguian
+Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">As I have previously said, my house possessed every
+comfort that could possibly be desired. It was built of hewn stone, so
+that in case of an attack it could serve as a small fortress. The front
+overlooked the lake, which bathed with its clear and limpid waters the
+verdant shore within a hundred steps from my dwelling; the back part
+looked upon woods and hills, where <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb96"
+href="#pb96">96</a>]</span>the vegetation was rich and plentiful. From
+our windows we could gaze upon those grand majestic scenes which a
+beautiful tropical sky so frequently affords. At times, on a dark
+night, the summits of the hills suddenly shone with a weak faint light,
+which increased by degrees; then the bright moon gradually appeared,
+and illuminated the tops of the mountains, as large beacon-fires would
+have done; then again, calm, peaceful, and serene, she reflected her
+soft poetic light over the bosom of the lake, as tranquil and unruffled
+as herself. It was indeed an imposing sight. Towards evening, Nature at
+times showed herself in all her commanding splendour, infusing a secret
+terror into the very soul. Everything bore evidence of the sacred
+influence of the Divine Creator. At a short distance from our house we
+could perceive a mountain, the base of which was in the lake and the
+summit in the clouds. This mountain served as a lightning conductor to
+Jala-Jala: it attracted the thunder. Frequently heavy black clouds,
+charged with electricity, gathered over this elevated point, looking
+like other mountains trying to overturn it; then a storm began, the
+thunder roared tremendously, the rain fell in torrents; every minute
+frightful claps were heard, and the total darkness was scarcely broken
+by the lightning that flashed in long streams of fire, dashing from the
+top and sides of the mountain enormous blocks of rock, that were hurled
+into the lake with a fearful crash. It was an admirable exemplification
+of the power of the Almighty! Soon the calm was restored, the rain
+ceased, the clouds disappeared, the fragrant air bore on its yet damp
+wings the perfume of the flowers and aromatic plants, and Nature
+resumed her ordinary stillness. Hereafter I shall have occasion to
+speak of other events that happened at certain periods, and were still
+more alarming, for they lasted twelve hours. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb97" href="#pb97">97</a>]</span>These were gales of wind, called
+in the Chinese seas <i>Tay-Foung</i>. At several periods of the year,
+particularly at the moment of the change of the monsoon,<a class=
+"noteref" id="xd0e914src" href="#xd0e914">1</a> we beheld still more
+terrifying phenomena than our storms&mdash;I allude to the earthquakes.
+These fearful convulsions of nature present a very different aspect in
+the country from what they do in cities. If in towns the earth begins
+to quake, everywhere we hear a terrible noise; the edifices give way,
+and are ready to fall down; the inhabitants rush out of their houses,
+run along the streets, which they encumber, and try to escape. The
+screams of frightened children and women bathed in tears are blended
+with those of the distracted men; all are on their knees, with clasped
+hands, their looks raised to Heaven, imploring its mercy with sobbing
+voices. Everything totters, is agitated; all dread death, and terror
+becomes general. In the country it is totally different, and a hundred
+times more imposing and terrific. For instance, in Jala-Jala, at the
+approach of one of these phenomena, a profound, even mournful stillness
+pervades nature. The wind no longer blows; not a breeze nor even a
+gentle zephyr is perceptible. The sun, though cloudless, darkens, and
+spreads around a sepulchral light. The atmosphere is burdened with
+heavy and sultry vapours. The earth is in labour. The frightened
+animals quietly seek shelter from the catastrophe they foresee. The
+ground shakes; soon it trembles under their feet. The trees move, the
+mountains quake upon their foundations, and their summits appear ready
+to tumble down. The waters of the lake quit their bed, and inundate the
+country. Still louder roaring than that produced by the thunder is
+heard: the earth <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb98" href=
+"#pb98">98</a>]</span>quivers; everywhere its motion is simultaneously
+felt. But after this the convulsion ceases, everything revives. The
+mountains are again firm upon their foundations, and become motionless;
+the waters of the lake return by degrees to their proper reservoir; the
+heavens are purified and resume their brilliant light, and the soft
+breeze fans the air; the wild buffaloes again scour the plain, and
+other animals quit the dens in which they had concealed themselves; the
+earth has resumed her stillness, and nature recovered her accustomed
+imposing calm.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p098"><img border="0" src="images/p098.jpg"
+alt="Herd of Wild Buffaloes." width="479" height="374">
+<p class="figureHead">Herd of Wild Buffaloes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have not sought to enter upon those minute descriptions, too
+tedious generally for the reader; I only wished to give an <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb99" href="#pb99">99</a>]</span>idea of the various
+panoramas that were unfolded to our eyes whilst at Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>I now return to the details of my ordinary life.</p>
+
+<p>As I had killed a wild buffalo when hunting, I had given sufficient
+proofs of my skill, and my Indians were devoted to me, because they had
+confidence in me. Nothing more now pre-occupied me, and I spent my time
+in superintending some necessary alterations. Shortly the woods and
+forests adjoining my domain were cut down, and replaced by extensive
+fields of indigo and rice. I stocked the hills with horned cattle, and
+a fine troop of horses with delicate limbs and haughty mien; I also
+succeeded in dispersing the banditti from Jala-Jala. I must say a great
+many of them abandoned their wandering sinful lives; I received them on
+my land, and made good husbandmen of them. How was it that I had
+collected such a number of recruits? In a strange manner, I will admit,
+and worthy of relating, as it will show how an Indian allows himself to
+be influenced and guided, when he has confidence in a man whom he looks
+upon as his superior. I frequently walked in the forests alone, with my
+gun under my arm. Suddenly a bandit would spring out, as if by
+enchantment, from behind a tree, armed from top to toe, and advance
+towards me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he to me, putting one knee to the ground,
+&ldquo;I will be an honest man; take me under your
+protection!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I asked him his name; if he had been marked out by the high court of
+justice, I would answer him severely:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Withdraw, and never present yourself again before me; I
+cannot forgive you, and if I meet you again, I must do my duty.&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb100" href="#pb100">100</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>If he was unknown to me, I would kindly say to him:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Follow me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I would take him home, and then tell him to lay down his arms; and
+after having preached to him, and exhorted him to persist in his
+resolution, I would point out to him the spot in the village where he
+might build his cabin, and, in order to encourage him, I would advance
+him some money to support himself until he became transformed from a
+bandit into an agriculturist. I congratulated myself each day on having
+left an open door to repentance, since by my cares I restored to an
+honest and laborious life, people who had gone astray and been
+perverted. I endeavoured also to persuade the Indians to abandon their
+vicious wild customs, without being too severe towards them; to obtain
+much from them I knew it was necessary to give way a little. The
+Indians are passionately fond of cards and cock-fighting, as I have
+said before; therefore, in order not to debar them entirely from these
+pleasures, I allowed them to play at cards three times a year&mdash;the
+day of the village festival, upon my wife&rsquo;s birthday, and upon my
+own. Woe to the one who was caught playing out of the times prescribed
+above; he was severely punished. As to the cock-fights, I allowed them
+on Sundays and holidays, after Divine service. For this purpose I had
+public arenas built. In these arenas, in presence of two judges, whose
+decrees were without appeal, the spectators laid heavy wagers. There is
+nothing more curious than to witness a cock-fight. The two proud
+animals, purposely chosen and trained for the day of the contest, come
+upon the battle-field armed with long, sharp, steel spurs. They bear
+themselves erect; their deportment is bold and warlike; they raise
+their heads, and beat their sides with their wings, the feathers of
+which spread in the form of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb101"
+href="#pb101">101</a>]</span>proud peacock&rsquo;s fan. They pace the
+arena haughtily, raising their armed legs cautiously, and darting angry
+looks at each other, like two old warriors in armour ready to fight
+before the eyes of an assembled court. Their impatience is violent,
+their courage impetuous; shortly the two adversaries fall upon and
+attack each other with equal fury; the sharp weapons they wear inflict
+dreadful wounds, but these intrepid combatants appear not to feel the
+cruel effects. Blood flows; the champions only appear the more
+animated. The one that is getting weak raises his courage at the idea
+of victory; if he draw back, it is only to recruit his strength, to
+rush with more <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb102" href=
+"#pb102">102</a>]</span>ardour than ever upon the enemy he wishes to
+subdue. At length when their fate is decided, when one of the heroes,
+covered with blood and wounds, falls a victim, or runs away, he is
+declared vanquished, and the battle is ended.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p101"><img border="0" src="images/p101.jpg"
+alt="Tagal cock-fighting." width="485" height="383">
+<p class="figureHead">Tagal cock-fighting.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Indians assist with a sort of ferocious joy at this amusement.
+Their attention is so captivated by it that they do not utter a word,
+but follow with particular care the most minute details of the
+conflict. Almost all of them train up a cock, and treat him for several
+years with comical tenderness, when one reflects that this animal,
+taken as much care of as a child, is destined by its master to perish
+the first day it fights. I also found that it was necessary to provide
+some amusement compatible with the tastes, manners, and habits of my
+former bandits, who had led for so long a space of time such a
+wandering vagabond life. For this purpose I allowed hunting on all
+parts of my estate, conditionally, however, that I should take
+beforehand, as tithe, a quarter of any stag or wild boar they should
+kill. I do not think that ever a sportsman&mdash;one of those men
+reclaimed from the paths of vice to those of virtue&mdash;failed in
+this engagement, or endeavoured to steal any game. I have often
+received seven or eight haunches of venison in a day, and those who
+brought them were delighted to be able to offer them to me.</p>
+
+<p>The church I had laid the foundation of was progressing rapidly; the
+population of the township was daily increasing: and everything
+succeeded according to my wishes. I had still occasional difficulties
+with the hardened robbers who surrounded me; but I pursued them without
+intermission, for it was to my interest to remove them from the
+neighbourhood of my residence. Frequently they annoyed me by the alarms
+that they gave us. These resolute, determined men arrived in gangs to
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb103" href=
+"#pb103">103</a>]</span>besiege our house. My guards surrounded me, and
+we occasionally fought skirmishes, which always terminated in our
+favour. Providence has unfathomable secrets. I was never struck by a
+ball from a bandit. I bear the scars of seventeen wounds; but these
+wounds were made with naked blades. It could be said of me, as in I
+know not which Scotch ballad: &ldquo;Did not the Devil&rsquo;s soldiers
+pass through the balls, instead of the balls passing through
+them.&rdquo; Yet I have often been fired at; sometimes the barrel of a
+gun has been pointed at my chest, and that at a few paces from me. My
+clothes have been torn by the bullet, but my body has always escaped
+harm.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p103"><img border="0" src="images/p103.jpg"
+alt="Tagal Indians." width="332" height="410">
+<p class="figureHead">Tagal Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One morning I was cautioned to put myself on my guard, because some
+banditti had met together at a few leagues from <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb104" href="#pb104">104</a>]</span>my house, and intended
+attacking it. Hearing this, I armed my people, and set out to meet the
+band that was coming to assail me, so as to anticipate their attack. At
+the place that had been indicated to me I found nobody, and passed the
+day in exploring the neighbourhood, in hopes of meeting the bandits,
+but my search was useless. Suddenly the thought struck me that a secret
+enemy had imposed upon me, and that, at the moment I was going to face
+imaginary danger, perhaps my house I had left would be suddenly
+attacked. I trembled&mdash;I shivered all over. I gallopped off, and
+reached home in the middle of the night. My fears were but too
+well-founded. I had fallen into a snare. I found my servants armed,
+watching, with my wife at their head. &ldquo;What are you doing
+here?&rdquo; I exclaimed, going up to her. &ldquo;I am keeping
+watch,&rdquo; she replied, with great presence of mind; &ldquo;I was
+told that the advice given to you was false; that you would not find
+the robbers where you expected, and that, during your absence, they
+would come here.&rdquo; This act of heroism proved to me what courage
+and energy God had given to a woman apparently so delicate. The
+banditti did not attack us: was there not some guardian angel watching
+over my dwelling?</p>
+
+<p>We were more than a year at Jala-Jala without seeing a European. One
+would have thought that we had withdrawn ourselves entirely from the
+civilised world, and that we were going to live for ever with the
+Indians. Our mountains had so bad a reputation, that nobody dared
+expose themselves to the thousand dangers they feared to encounter in
+the locality. We were therefore alone, yet still very happy. It was,
+perhaps, the most pleasant time I spent in my life. I was living with a
+beloved and loving wife; the good work I had undertaken was performed
+under my eyes; the comfort and happiness, the <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb105" href="#pb105">105</a>]</span>natural results of such good
+work, spread themselves among my vassals, who daily became more and
+more devoted to me. How could I have regretted quitting the pleasures
+and entertainments of a town, where those diversions and pleasures are
+bought by lies, hypocrisy, and deceit&mdash;those three vices of
+civilised society? However, the terror spread around by the banditti
+was not great enough to keep away the Europeans entirely; and one
+morning some people,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e973src" href=
+"#xd0e973">2</a> mad enough to dare to visit a mad man&mdash;such was
+the name given to me at Manilla, when I left to go and live in the
+country&mdash;came to see me, armed to their very teeth. The surprise
+of these venturesome visitors is impossible to be described, when they
+found us at Jala-Jala, calm, and in perfect safety. Their astonishment
+increased when they went entirely through our colony; and on their
+return to town they gave such an account of our retreat, and of the
+entertainments they found there, that shortly after we received more
+visits, and I had not only to give hospitality to friends, but likewise
+to strangers. If, now and then, our affairs compelled us to go to
+Manilla, we very soon came back to our mountains and forests, for there
+only Anna and myself were happy. Very great reasons alone could induce
+us to leave our pleasant abode; however, a slight event occurred that
+obliged us to quit it for a short time. I was informed that one of my
+friends, who had acted as witness to my marriage, was seriously ill.<a
+class="noteref" id="xd0e979src" href="#xd0e979">3</a> What the greatest
+pleasure, the most heartfelt joy, the most splendid banquet, could not
+obtain from me, friendship exacted. At this sad intelligence I
+determined at once upon going to Manilla, to give my advice to the sick
+man, whose family had solicited my aid; and as my absence might be
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb106" href=
+"#pb106">106</a>]</span>prolonged, I packed up my things, and we left,
+our hearts sadder than ever at having to quit Jala-Jala on so
+melancholy an errand. Upon my arrival there, I was told that my friend
+had been taken from Manilla to Boulacan, a province to the north of
+that town, where it was hoped the country air would hasten his
+recovery. I left Anna at her sister&rsquo;s, and went off to join Don
+Simon, whom I found convalescent; my presence was almost useless, and
+the journey I had made resulted in shaking affectionately my former
+comrade by the hand, whom I would not leave until convinced that he was
+entirely recovered.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p106"><img border="0" src="images/p106.jpg"
+alt="Ilocos Indians." width="351" height="412">
+<p class="figureHead">Ilocos Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In order to utilise my time, I decided upon making a tour to the
+north into the provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan. I had <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb107" href="#pb107">107</a>]</span>my reasons for so
+doing: I wished, if possible, to make an excursion to the Tinguians and
+Igorrots, wild populations, who were much talked of, but little known.
+I wished to study them myself. I took the precaution not to confide
+this idea to anybody, for then, indeed, people would not have known
+what name to give my folly. I made my preparations, and set out with my
+faithful lieutenant, Alila, who never left me, and who was justly
+styled <i lang="tl">Mabouti-Tao</i>. We were mounted upon good horses,
+that carried us along like gazelles to Vigan, the chief town of the
+province of South Ilocos, where we left the animals. From there we took
+a guide, who conducted us on foot to the east, close to a small river
+called Abra (opening). This river is the only issue by which we could
+penetrate to the Tinguians. It winds around high mountains of basalt;
+its sides are steep; its bed is encumbered with immense blocks of rock,
+fallen from the sides of the mountains, which render it impossible to
+walk along its banks. To reach the Tinguians, it is necessary to have
+recourse to a slight skiff, that can easily pass through the current
+and the most shallow parts. My guide and my lieutenant soon contrived
+to make a small raft of bamboos; when it was finished we embarked,
+Alila and myself, our guide refusing to accompany us. After much
+trouble and fatigue, casting ourselves often into the water to draw our
+raft along, we at length got clear of the first range of mountains, and
+perceived, in a small plain, the first Tinguian village. When we
+reached there we got out, and went towards the huts we had
+distinguished in the distance. I allow it was acting rather foolishly
+to go and thus expose ourselves, in the midst of a colony of ferocious
+and cruel men whose language we did not know; but I relied upon my
+usual good fortune. I will add that I had taken divers objects with me
+to give as presents, trusting to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb108"
+href="#pb108">108</a>]</span>meet some inhabitant speaking the Tagaloc
+language. I walked on, then, without troubling myself about what would
+become of us. In a few minutes we reached the nearest cabins, and the
+inhabitants gave us at first an unwelcome reception. Frightened at
+seeing us approach, they advanced towards us, armed with hatchets and
+spears; we waited for them without recoiling in the least. I spoke to
+them by signs, and showed them some necklaces of glass beads, to make
+them understand we were friendly disposed. They deliberated among
+themselves, and when they had held their consultation, they beckoned us
+to follow them. We obeyed. They led us to their chief, who was an old
+man. My generosity was greater towards him than it had been to his
+subjects. He appeared so delighted with my presents, that he
+immediately put us at our ease, by making us understand that we had
+nothing to fear, and that he took us under his special protection.</p>
+
+<p>This pleasing reception encouraged us.</p>
+
+<p>I then set about examining with attention the men, women, and
+children who surrounded us, and who seemed as much astonished as
+ourselves. My amazement was very great when I beheld tall men, slightly
+bronzed, with straight hair, regular features, aquiline noses, and
+really handsome, elegant women. Was I really among savages? I should
+rather have thought I was among the inhabitants of the south of France,
+had it not been for the costume and language. The only clothing the men
+wore was a sash, and a sort of a turban, made out of the bark of the
+fig tree. They were armed, as they always are, with a long spear, a
+small hatchet, and a shield. The women also wore a sash, and a small
+narrow apron that came down to their knees. Their heads were ornamented
+with pearls, coral beads, and pieces of gold, twisted among their <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb109" href="#pb109">109</a>]</span>hair; the
+upper parts of their hands were painted blue; their wrists adorned with
+interwoven bracelets, spangled with glass beads&mdash;these bracelets
+reached the elbow, and formed a kind of half-plaited sleeve. On this
+subject I learnt a remarkable fact. These interwoven bracelets squeeze
+the arm very much; they are put on when the women are quite young, and
+they prevent the development of the flesh to the advantage of the wrist
+and hand, which swell and become dreadfully big; this is a mark of
+beauty with the Tinguians, as a small foot is with the Chinese, and a
+small waist with the European ladies. I was quite astonished to find
+myself in the midst of this population, where there was no reason
+whatsoever to be alarmed. One thing only annoyed me; it was the odour
+that these people spread around them, which could be smelt even at a
+distance. However, the men and women are cleanly, for they are in the
+habit of bathing twice daily. I attributed the disagreeable smell to
+their sash and turban, which they never leave off, but allow to fall
+into rags. I remarked that the reception given me by the chief gained
+us the good-will of all the inhabitants, and I accepted, without
+hesitation, the hospitality proffered us. This was the only means of
+studying well the manners and customs of my new hosts.</p>
+
+<p>The territory occupied by the Tinguians is situated about 17 degrees
+north latitude, and 27 degrees west longitude; it is divided into
+seventeen villages. Each family possesses two habitations, one for the
+day and the other for the night. The abode for the day is a small
+cabin, made of bamboos and straw, in the same style as most Indian
+huts; the one for the night is smaller, and perched upon great posts,
+or on the top of a tree, about sixty or eighty feet above the ground.
+This height surprised me, but I understood this precaution when I knew
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb110" href="#pb110">110</a>]</span>that
+thus, under shelter at night, the Tinguians are saved from the
+nocturnal attacks of the Guinan&egrave;s, their mortal enemies, and
+defend themselves with the stones which they throw from the tops of the
+trees.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1011src" href="#xd0e1011">4</a> In the
+middle of each village there is a large shed, in which are held the
+assemblies, festivities, and public ceremonies. I had been already two
+days in the village of Palan (this was the name of the place where I
+stopped at), when the chiefs received a message from the small town of
+Laganguilan y Madalag, that lies far off to the east. By this message
+the chiefs were informed that the inhabitants of this district had
+fought a battle, and that they had been victorious.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of Palan hearing this news screamed with joy; it was
+quite a tumult when they heard that a f&ecirc;te would be given in
+commemoration of the success at Laganguilan y Madalag. All wished to be
+present&mdash;men, women, children; all desired to go to it. But the
+chiefs chose a certain number of warriors, some women, and a great many
+young girls: they made their preparations and set out. It was too
+favourable an opportunity for me not to avail myself of it, and I
+earnestly begged my hosts to allow me to accompany them. They
+consented, and the same night we set out on our journey, being in all
+thirty in number. The men wore their arms, which are composed of a
+hatchet, that they call <i lang="es">aligua</i>, a sharp-pointed spear
+of bamboo, and a shield; the women were muffled up in their finest
+ornaments. I remarked that these garments were cotton materials, of
+showy colours. We walked one behind another, according to the custom of
+the savages. We went <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb111" href=
+"#pb111">111</a>]</span>through many villages, the inhabitants of which
+were also going to the f&ecirc;te; we crossed over mountains, forests,
+torrents, and at last, at break of day, we reached Laganguilan y
+Madalag. This small town was the scene of much rejoicing. On all sides
+the sound of the gong and tom-tom were heard. The first of these
+instruments is of a Chinese shape; the second is in the form of a sharp
+cone, covered over at the bottom with a deer&rsquo;s skin.</p>
+
+<p>Towards eleven o&rsquo;clock, the chiefs of the town, followed by
+all the population, directed their steps towards the large shed. There
+everyone took his place on the ground, each party, headed by its
+chiefs, occupying a place marked out for it beforehand. In the middle
+of a circle formed by the chiefs of the warriors were large vessels,
+full of <i>basi</i>, a beverage made with the fermented juice of the
+sugar-cane; and four hideous heads of Guinans entirely
+disfigured&mdash;these were the trophies of the victory. When all the
+assistants had taken their places, a champion of Laganguilan y Madalag
+took one of the heads and presented it to the chiefs of the town, who
+showed it to all the assistants, making a long speech comprehending
+many praises for the conquerors. This discourse being over, the warrior
+took up the head, divided it with strokes of his hatchet, and took out
+the brains. During this operation, so unpleasant to witness, another
+champion got a second head, and handed it to the chiefs, the same
+speech was delivered, then he broke the skull to pieces in like manner,
+and took out the brains. The same was done with the four bleeding
+skulls of the subdued enemies. When the brains were taken out, the
+young girls pounded them with their hands into the vases containing the
+liquor of the fermented sugar-cane; they stirred the mixture round, and
+then the vases were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb112" href=
+"#pb112">112</a>]</span>taken to the chiefs, who dipped in their small
+osier goblets, through the fissures of which the liquid part ran out,
+and the solid part that remained at the bottom they drank with ecstatic
+sensuality. I felt quite sick at this scene, so entirely new to me.
+After the chieftains&rsquo; turn came the turn of the champions. The
+vases were presented to them, and each one sipped with delight this
+frightful drink, to the noise of wild songs. There was really something
+infernal in this sacrifice to victory.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p112"><img border="0" src="images/p112.jpg"
+alt="The Brain Feast of the Tinguian Indians." width="720" height=
+"495">
+<p class="figureHead">The Brain Feast of the Tinguian Indians.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We sat in a circle and these vases were carried round. I well
+understood that we were about undergoing a disgusting test. Alas! I had
+not long to wait for it. The warriors planted themselves before me, and
+presented me with the basi and the frightful cup. All eyes were fixed
+upon me. The invitation was so direct, to refuse it would perhaps be
+exposing myself to death! It is impossible to describe the interior
+conflict that passed within me. I would rather have preferred the
+carbine of a bandit five paces from my chest; or await, as I had
+already done, the impetuous attack of the wild buffalo. What a
+perplexity! I shall never forget that awful moment. It struck me with
+terror and disgust; however, I contained myself, nothing betraying my
+emotion. I imitated the savages, and, dipping the osier goblet into the
+drink, I approached it to my lips, and passed it to the unfortunate
+Alila, who could not avoid this infernal beverage. The sacrifice was
+complete; the libations were over, but not the songs. The basi is a
+very spirituous and inebriating liquor, and the assistants, who had
+partaken rather too freely of this horrible drink, sang louder to the
+noise of the tom-tom and the gong, while the champions divided the
+human skulls into small pieces destined to be sent as presents to all
+their friends. The <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb113" href=
+"#pb113">113</a>]</span>distribution was made during the sitting, after
+which, the chiefs declared the ceremony over. They then danced. The
+savages divided themselves into two lines, and howling, as if they were
+furious madmen or terribly provoked, they jumped about, laying their
+right hand upon the shoulder of their partners, and changing places
+with them. These dances continued all day; at last night came on, each
+inhabitant retired with his family and some few guests to his aerial
+abode, and soon afterwards tranquillity was restored.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot help feeling astonished, when we are in Europe&mdash;in a
+good bed, under a warm eider-down coverlet, the head luxuriously
+reclining upon good pillows&mdash;when we reflect on the singular homes
+of the savages in the woods. How often have I represented to myself
+these families&mdash;roosting eighty feet above ground, upon the tops
+of trees. However, I know that they sleep as quietly in those retreats,
+open to every wind, as I in my well-closed and quiet room. Are they not
+like the birds who repose at their sides upon the branches? Have they
+not Nature for a mother, that admirable guardian of all she has made,
+and do they not also close their eyelids under the tutelary looks of
+the Supreme Father of the universe?</p>
+
+<p>My faithful Alila retired with me into one of the low-storied cabins
+to pass the night, as we had been in the habit of doing while staying
+with the Tinguians. For our better security we were accustomed to watch
+one another alternately; we never both slept at the same time. Without
+being timid, ought we not to be prudent? This night it was my turn to
+go to sleep the first. I went to bed, but the impressions of the day
+had been too strong: I felt no inclination to sleep. I therefore
+offered to relieve my lieutenant of his watch; the poor fellow was like
+myself&mdash;the heads of the Guinans kept <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb114" href="#pb114">114</a>]</span>dancing before his eyes. He
+beheld them pale, bloody, hideous; then torn, pounded, broken to
+pieces; then the shocking beverage of the brains, that he also so
+courageously swallowed, came back to his mind, and he suffered
+sufficiently to make him repent our visit. &ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said
+he to me, looking very much grieved, &ldquo;why did we come among these
+devils? Ah! it would have been much better had we remained in our good
+country of Jala-Jala.&rdquo; He was not perhaps in the wrong, but my
+desire to see extraordinary things gave me a courage and a will he did
+not partake of. I answered him thus: &ldquo;Man must know all, and see
+all it is possible to see. As we cannot sleep, and that we are masters
+here, let us make a night visit; perhaps we shall find things that are
+unknown to us. Light the fire and follow me, Alila.&rdquo; The poor
+lieutenant obeyed without answering a word. He rubbed two pieces of
+bamboo one against the other, and I heard him muttering between his
+teeth:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What cursed idea has the master now? What shall we see in
+this miserable cabin&mdash;with the exception of the <i>
+Tic-balan</i>,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1055src" href=
+"#xd0e1055">5</a> or <i>Assuan</i>?<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1061src"
+href="#xd0e1061">6</a> We shall find nothing else.&rdquo; During the
+Indian&rsquo;s reflections the fire burnt up. I lit, without saying a
+word, a cotton wick, plastered over with elemi gum, that I always
+carried with me in my travels, and I began exploring. I went all
+through the inside of the habitation without finding anything, not even
+the Tic-balan, or Assuan, as my lieutenant imagined. I was beginning to
+think my search fruitless, when the idea struck me to go down to the
+ground-floor of the cabin, for all the cabins are raised about eight or
+ten feet above ground, and the under part of the floor, closed with
+bamboos, is used as a store: I descended. Anyone who could have <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb115" href="#pb115">115</a>]</span>seen
+me&mdash;a white man, a European, the child of another
+hemisphere&mdash;wander by night, with a taper in my hand, about the
+hut of a Tinguian Indian, would have been really surprised at my
+audacity, and I may almost say, my obstinacy, in seeking out danger
+while pursuing the wonderful and unknown. But I went on, without
+reflecting on the strangeness of my conduct: as the Indians say:
+&ldquo;I was following my destiny.&rdquo; When I had reached the
+ground, I perceived in the middle of a square, inclosed with bamboos, a
+sort of trap, and I stopped quite pleased. Alila looked at me with
+astonishment. I lifted up the trap, and saw a rather deep well; I
+looked into it with my light, but could not discover the bottom of it.
+Upon the sides only, at a depth of about six or seven yards, I thought
+I distinguished some openings that I took for entrances into sub
+terraneous galleries. What had I now discovered? Was I, like Gil Blas,
+about to penetrate into the midst of an assemblage of banditti, living
+in the internal parts of the earth; or should I find, as in the tales
+of the &ldquo;Arabian Nights,&rdquo; some beautiful young girls,
+prisoners of some wicked magician? Indeed, my curiosity increased in
+proportion to my discoveries. &ldquo;There is something strange
+here,&rdquo; said I to my lieutenant; &ldquo;light a second match, I
+will go down to the bottom of the well.&rdquo; Hearing this order, my
+faithful Alila shrunk back in dismay, and ventured to say to me, in a
+frightfully dismal tone:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, master, you are not content to see what is upon the
+earth, you must also see what is inside of it!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This simple observation made me smile. He continued: &ldquo;You wish
+to leave me alone here; and if the souls of the Guinans whose brains I
+have just drank come to fetch me, what will become of me? You will not
+be here to defend me!<span class="corr" id="xd0e1070" title="Not in
+source">&rdquo;</span></p>
+
+<p>My lieutenant would not have been frightened at twenty <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb116" href="#pb116">116</a>]</span>banditti, he
+would have struggled against every one of them until death; but his
+legs trembled, his voice faltered, he was terrified at the idea of
+remaining alone in this cabin, exposed to the view of the spirit of a
+Guinan, which would come and ask him to restore his brains! Whilst he
+addressed me these complaints, I had leant my back against one side of
+the well, my knees were applied against the other, and down I went. I
+had already descended about four yards, when I felt some rubbish
+falling upon me. I raised my head, and saw Alila coming down too. The
+poor fellow would not remain alone. &ldquo;Well done,&rdquo; said I to
+him, &ldquo;you are becoming curious too; you will be rewarded, believe
+me, for we shall see fine sights.&rdquo; And I continued my
+under-ground research. After proceeding six or seven yards I reached
+the opening I had remarked from above, and stopped. I placed my light
+before me, and espied a corner, where sat the dried black corpse of a
+Tinguian in the same state as a mummy. I said nothing; I waited for my
+lieutenant, anxious as I was to enjoy his surprise. When he was aside
+of me: &ldquo;Look, look,&rdquo; I exclaimed; &ldquo;what is
+that?&rdquo; He was stupified. &ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he at last,
+&ldquo;I entreat of you to leave this place; let us get out of this
+cursed hole! Take me to fight against the Tinguians of the
+village&mdash;I am quite willing to do that&mdash;but do not remain
+among the dead! What should we do with our arms, if they suddenly
+appeared to ask us why we are here?&rdquo; &ldquo;Be quiet,&rdquo; I
+answered him; &ldquo;we shall go no farther.&rdquo; I felt satisfied
+that this well was a tomb, and that lower down I should see some more
+Tinguians in a state of preservation. I respected the abode of the
+dead, and came up, to Alila&rsquo;a great satisfaction. We put
+everything in its place, and returned to the upper story of the cabin.
+I soon fell asleep, but my lieutenant could not: the thoughts of the
+mummy and horrible beverage kept him awake. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb117" href="#pb117">117</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p117"><img border="0" src="images/p117.jpg"
+alt="Guinan Indians." width="369" height="425">
+<p class="figureHead">Guinan Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e914src" id="xd0e914">1</a></span> During six months the winds
+blow continually from the north-east, and during the other six months
+from the north-west: these two periods are termed north-east monsoon
+and north-west monsoon.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e973src" id="xd0e973">2</a></span> At their head was Don <span
+class="corr" id="xd0e975" title="Source: Jos&egrave;">
+Jos&eacute;</span> Fuent&egrave;s, my constant friend.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e979src" id="xd0e979">3</a></span> Don Simon Fernandez, <i>
+Oidor</i> at the Court Royal.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1011src" id="xd0e1011">4</a></span> The most bitter enemies of
+the Tinguians are a race of cruel, blood-thirsty savages, who inhabit
+the interior of the mountains. They have also to fear the Igorrots, who
+live nearer, but who are less savage.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1055src" id="xd0e1055">5</a></span> Evil Spirit.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1061src" id="xd0e1061">6</a></span> A malicious divinity of the
+Tagalocs.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch6" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter VI.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Visit to Manabo&mdash;Conversation with my Guide&mdash;Religion of
+the Tinguians&mdash;Their Marriage Ceremony&mdash;Funereal
+Rites&mdash;Mode of Warfare&mdash;I take leave of the
+Tinguians&mdash;Journey to the Igorrots&mdash;Description of
+them&mdash;Their Dwellings&mdash;A Fortunate Escape&mdash;Alila and the
+Bandits&mdash;Recollections of Home&mdash;A Majestic
+Fig-tree&mdash;Superstition of Alila&mdash;Interview with an
+Igorrot&mdash;The Human Hand&mdash;Nocturnal
+Adventure&mdash;Consternation of Alila&mdash;Probable Origin of the
+Tinguians and Igorrots.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">The following morning, before dawn, our hosts began
+to descend from their high regions, and we left our temporary abode, to
+make preparations for our departure. I had resided long enough at
+Laganguilan y Madalag; I was desirous of <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb118" href="#pb118">118</a>]</span>visiting Manabo, a large village,
+situated at a short distance from Laganguilan. I availed myself of the
+presence of the inhabitants of Manabo, who had come to assist at the
+Brain Feast&mdash;this was the appellation I had given to this savage
+f&ecirc;te&mdash;and I set out with them. Among the troop there was one
+who had spent some time among the Tagalocs; he spoke their language a
+little, and I knew it tolerably well. I profited by this fortunate
+occurrence, and during the whole of the way I conversed with this
+savage, and questioned him upon the habits, customs, and manners of his
+fellow-countrymen. One point particularly pre-occupied me. I was
+unacquainted with the religion of these people, so very curious to
+study. Until then I had seen no temple; nothing that bore resemblance
+to an idol; I knew not what God they worshipped. My guide, chatty for
+an Indian, gave me quickly every information necessary. He told me that
+the Tinguians have no veneration for the stars; they neither adore the
+sun, nor moon, nor the constellations; they believe in the existence of
+a soul, and pretend that after death it quits the body, and remains in
+the family. As to the god that they adore, it varies and changes form
+according to chance and circumstances. And here is the reason: When a
+Tinguian chief has found in the country a rock, or a trunk of a tree,
+of a strange shape&mdash;I mean to say, representing tolerably well
+either a dog, cow, or buffalo&mdash;he informs the inhabitants of the
+village of his discovery, and the rock, or trunk of a tree, is
+immediately considered as a divinity&mdash;that is to say, as something
+superior to man. Then all the Indians repair to the appointed spot,
+carrying with them provisions and live hogs. When they have reached
+their destination they raise a straw roof above the new idol, to cover
+it, and make a sacrifice by roasting hogs; then, at <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb119" href="#pb119">119</a>]</span>the sound of
+instruments, they eat, drink, and dance until they have no provisions
+left. When all is eaten and drank, they set fire to the thatched roof,
+and the idol is forgotten until the chief, having discovered another
+one, commands a new ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the morals of the Tinguians, my guide informed me
+that the Tinguian has generally one legitimate wife, and many
+mistresses; but the legitimate wife alone inhabits the conjugal house,
+and the mistresses have each of them a separate cabin. The marriage is
+a contract between the two families of the married couple. The day of
+the ceremony, the man and wife bring their dowry in goods and chattels;
+the marriage portion is composed of china vases, glass, coral beads,
+and sometimes a little gold powder. It is of no profit to the married
+couple, for they distribute it to their relations. This custom, my
+guide observed to me, has been established to prevent a divorce, which
+could only take place in entirely restituting all the objects that were
+contributed at the marriage by the party asking for divorce&mdash;a
+rather skilful expedient for savages, and worthy of being the invention
+of civilised people. The relatives thus become much interested in
+preventing the separation, as they would be obliged to restitute the
+presents received; and, if one of the couple persisted in requesting
+it, they would prevent him or her by making away with one of the
+objects furnished, such as a coral necklace, or a china vase. Without
+this wise measure, it is to be supposed that a husband, with
+mistresses, would very often endeavour to obtain a divorce. My
+fellow-traveller enlightened me upon all the points that I wished to
+investigate. The government, said he to me, after resting himself for a
+few minutes, is very patriarchal. It is the oldest man who
+commands.&mdash;As <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb120" href=
+"#pb120">120</a>]</span>at Laced&aelig;monia, thought I, for there old
+age was honoured.&mdash;The laws are perpetuated by tradition, as the
+Tinguians have no idea of writing. In some instances they apply the
+punishment of death. When the fatal sentence has been pronounced, the
+Tinguian who has merited it must escape, if he wishes to avoid it, and
+go and live in the forests; for, the old men having spoken, all the
+inhabitants are bound to perform their orders. Society is divided into
+two classes, as with the Tagalocs, the chiefs and the commonalty.
+Whoever possesses and can exhibit to the public a certain number of
+china vases is considered a chief. These jars constitute all the wealth
+of the Tinguians. We were still conversing about the natives of the
+country when we reached Manabo. My guide had scarcely ceased talking
+all the way from Laganguilan.</p>
+
+<p>My attention was now attracted by some flames that were issuing from
+under a cabin, where a large fire was burning. Around it many people
+were sitting, howling like wolves.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! ah!&rdquo; said my guide, seemingly very pleased;
+&ldquo;here is a funeral. I did not tell you anything about these
+ceremonies; but you will judge for yourself of what they are. It will
+be time enough to-morrow. You must be tired. I will take you to my
+day-cabin, and you may repose yourself without any danger of the
+Guinans, for a funeral compels a great many people to be on the watch
+all night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I accepted the offer made to me, and we took possession of the
+Tinguian cabin. It was my turn to take the first watch, and my poor
+Alila, a little more at his ease, fell into a sound sleep. I followed
+his example, after my watch, and we did not wake up until it was broad
+daylight.</p>
+
+<p>We had scarcely finished our morning repast, composed of
+kidney-potatoes, palms, and dried venison, when my guide of <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb121" href="#pb121">121</a>]</span>the
+preceding day came to conduct me to the spot where the funeral of the
+deceased was about to take place. I followed him, and placing ourselves
+a few steps from the <i>cort&eacute;ge</i>, we assisted at a strange
+sight. The deceased sat in the middle of his cabin upon a stool;
+underneath him, and at his side, fires were burning in enormous
+chafing-dishes; at a short distance about thirty assistants were seated
+in a circle. Ten or twelve women formed another circle; they were
+seated nearer to the corpse, close by which the widow was also placed,
+and who was distinguished by a white veil, that covered her from head
+to foot. The women brought some cotton, with which they wiped off the
+moisture that the fire caused to exude from the corpse, which was
+roasting by degrees. From time to time one of the Tinguians spoke, and
+pronounced, in a slow, harmonious tone of voice, a speech, which he
+concluded by a sort of laugh, that was imitated by all the assistants;
+after which they stood up, <span class="corr" id="xd0e1112" title=
+"Source: eat">ate</span> some pieces of dried meat, and drank some
+basi; they then repeated the last words of the orator, and danced.</p>
+
+<p>I endured&mdash;such is the word&mdash;this sight for an hour; but I
+did not feel courage enough to remain in the cabin any longer. The
+odour that exhaled from the corpse was unbearable. I went out, and
+breathed the fresh air; my guide followed me, and I begged him to tell
+me what had occurred from the beginning of the illness of the
+deceased.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Willingly,&rdquo; he answered me.</p>
+
+<p>Delighted to breathe freely, I listened with interest to the
+following recital:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When Dalayapo,&rdquo; said the narrator, &ldquo;fell sick,
+they took him to the grand square, to apply severe remedies to him;
+that is to say, all the men of the village came in arms, and, to the
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb122" href="#pb122">122</a>]</span>sound
+of the gong and the tom-tom, they danced around the sick man from the
+rising to the setting of the sun. But this grand remedy had no
+effect&mdash;his illness was incurable. At the setting of the sun they
+placed our friend in his house, and no more heed was paid to him: his
+death was certain, as he would not dance with his
+fellow-countrymen.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I smiled at the remedy and the reasoning, but I did not interrupt
+the narrator.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;For two days Dalayapo was in a state of suffering; then, at
+the end of these two days, he breathed no more; and, when that was
+perceived, they immediately put him on the bench where we saw him just
+now. Then the provisions that he possessed were gathered together to
+feed the assistants, who paid him all due honours. Each one made a
+speech in his praise: his nearest relations began the first, and his
+body was surrounded with fire to dry it up. When the provisions are
+consumed, the strangers will leave the cabin, and only the widow and a
+few relations will wait until the body is thoroughly dried. In a
+fortnight&rsquo;s time he will be placed in a large hole that is dug
+under his house. He will be put in a niche, or aperture, in the wall,
+where already his deceased relatives&rsquo; remains are deposited, and
+then all is over.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This hole, thought I, must be similar to the one I went into the
+other night at Laganguilan.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation that I had just received completely satisfied me,
+and I did not request to be present again at the ceremony. I resolved,
+since I was very comfortably seated, under the shade of a <i>
+bal&eacute;t&eacute;</i>, upon availing myself of the obliging
+disposition of my guide, to ask him to inform me, suddenly changing the
+conversation all the while, how his tribe managed to wage war on the
+Guinans, their mortal enemies. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb123"
+href="#pb123">123</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p123"><img border="0" src="images/p123.jpg"
+alt="Weapons of the Tinguian Indians." width="296" height="301">
+<p class="figureHead">Weapons of the Tinguian Indians.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Guinans,&rdquo; said he to me, without drawing in any way
+on my patience, &ldquo;wear the same arms as we do. They are neither
+stronger, nor more skilful, nor more vigorous. We have two modes of
+fighting them. Sometimes we give them a grand battle at mid-day, and
+then we meet them face to face, under a burning sun; at other times,
+during some dark night, we creep in silence to their dwelling-places,
+and if we be able to surprise any of them we cut off their heads, which
+we take away with us, and then we get up a feast, such as you have
+already witnessed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>That word &ldquo;feast&rdquo; recalled to my mind the sanguinary
+orgie, or carousing, I had been present at, and particularly the share
+I had taken in it, so that I felt I was blushing and growing pale by
+turns. The Indian took no heed of it, and went on thus:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In the grand battles all the men belonging to a village are
+compelled to take up arms, and to march against the foe. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb124" href="#pb124">124</a>]</span>It is generally
+in the midst of a wood that the two armies meet. As soon as they come
+in sight of each other they set up crying and howling on both sides.
+Each man then rushes upon his enemy, and upon this shock depends the
+fate of the victory; for one of the armies is always panic-struck, and
+scampers away; then it is that the other pursues it, and kills as many
+as possible, taking care to preserve the heads, which they bring home
+with them.&rdquo;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1150src" href=
+"#xd0e1150">1</a></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why it is a hide-and-seek fight, the consequences of which
+are, however, very cruel,&rdquo; I said. My Indian was of the same
+opinion, and rejoined:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;In general the conquerors are ever those who are cleverest in
+concealing themselves, in order to surprise their enemies, and who then
+dash on them bawling and howling.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here my guide stopped short, the fight having no longer any interest
+for him; and then, perceiving I questioned him no longer, he left me to
+myself, when I returned to my habitation and Alila, who was sick enough
+of Manabo. For my own part I had seen enough of the Tinguians, and
+besides I thought I had observed that they seemed not too well pleased
+with the long stay I had made among them. I passed over in my mind the
+brain feast, so I resolved upon leaving. I therefore went to take leave
+of the elders. Unfortunately I had nothing to offer them, but I
+promised them many presents, when I should get back among the
+Christians&mdash;and then I left them.</p>
+
+<p>The satisfaction of my faithful lieutenant was at its height when we
+started for home. Not being disposed to go back by the same way I had
+come, I determined upon keeping more to <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb125" href="#pb125">125</a>]</span>the east, crossing over the
+mountains, and upon taking the sun as my guide. This road seemed
+preferable to me, inasmuch as I was about to traverse a country
+inhabited by a few Igorrots, that other species of the savage tribe I
+was not acquainted with. The mountains we crossed over were crowned
+with magnificent forests. Now and then we perceived lovely fertile
+valleys below our feet, and the grass was so high and thick-set, that
+it was with great difficulty we could pass through it. During our
+journey, my lieutenant kept a sharp look-out, wishing to kill some game
+for our support. As for myself, I was indeed far from thinking of the
+pleasure of shooting, so great was my contemplation of the admirable
+panoramic views that we met with every moment; and I was too much
+enraptured with the virgin and fruitful soil that spread itself so
+incommensurately around us to think even of eating. But my faithful
+Alila was less an enthusiast than I was myself: however, in return, he
+was more prudent. At the close of the day on which we started he killed
+a stag; so we halted on the brink of a stream, cut off some palm-tree
+strips, in guise of rice and bread, and set about eating the roasted
+liver of the animal. Our repast was truly a copious one. Ah! how often
+since that time, when seated before a richly served table&mdash;having
+before me delicious and <i>recherch&eacute;</i> viands, and that in
+dining-rooms where the atmosphere was balmy and perfumed by the aroma
+arising from the highly flavoured dishes&mdash;how often, I say, have I
+regretted the supper I partook of with Alila in the forest, after a
+day&rsquo;s ramble on the mountains! Nay, what mortal could forget such
+hours&mdash;such places?</p>
+
+<p>Our repast over, we made our bed of some branches we lopped off from
+the trees, and which we joined together on the very moist soil in the
+interior of the vast forest, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb126"
+href="#pb126">126</a>]</span>there we slept soundly till the morrow,
+without fear, and particularly without having any sombre or
+disagreeable dreams. At the dawn of day we were on foot again, all
+Nature seeming to wake up with ourselves. Oh! how fine and calm did she
+appear to us! The vapours that arose from her breast covered her all
+over with a veil, like a young virgin at her waking; and then this veil
+by degrees would break up into pieces, which pieces, gently balanced on
+the morning breeze, would disappear, and be lost on the tops of the
+trees or the summits of the rocks. On we walked for a long time, till
+at last, towards the middle of the day, we came to a small plain
+inhabited by the Igorrots. We found, in all, three cabins, or huts, so
+that the population was far from being large. At the door of one of
+these cabins I saw a man, of about sixty years of age, and a few women.
+As we had arrived from behind the huts we took the savages by surprise,
+so that they had no time to fly at our approach: we were in the midst
+of them.</p>
+
+<p>I assumed the line of conduct I had pursued on arriving at Palan,
+but as I had no more coral beads or coloured glass, I presented them
+with a part of our stag, making them understand at the same time that
+we came with the most friendly intentions. From that moment there was
+established between us a very curious sort of mimic conversation,
+during which I was able to examine at my ease the new race of beings I
+saw around me. I perceived that the costume of the Igorrots was pretty
+nearly the same as that of the Tinguians, the ornaments excepted, but
+their features and physiognomy were quite different. The men were
+smaller, their breasts being exceedingly broad, their heads immensely
+big, their limbs developed, their strength herculean; their shape was
+not so handsome as that of the savages I had just left; their colour
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb127" href="#pb127">127</a>]</span>of a
+dark bronze, very dark indeed; their noses are less aquiline, their
+eyes yellow and fully open&mdash;<i>a la Chinoise</i>. The
+women&rsquo;s shape was also very protuberant, their complexion dark,
+their hair long, and combed up&mdash;<i>a la Chinoise</i>.
+Unfortunately it was impossible for me, with all my mimicry, to obtain
+the information I wished for, so I was obliged to content myself with
+visiting the cabin, which was a real hut, having but the ground-floor.
+The surrounding parts were closed in by very thick piles, covered with
+a roof in the form of a bee-hive. There was but one issue, through
+which it was impossible to have either egress or ingress, except in
+crawling on all-fours. In spite of this difficulty I would see the
+interior of this Indian dwelling; so, having made a sign to my
+lieutenant to keep watch, I penetrated into the hut. The Igorrots
+seemed quite surprised at my so doing, but they made no opposition to
+it. I found myself within an obnoxious hole, or hovel, through a small
+opening in the summit of which the daylight peeped in and the smoke
+crept out. The floor was thickly covered with dust, and it was upon
+such a soft couch that the whole family laid down to rest. In one of
+the corners I perceived some bamboo lances, a few cocoa-nuts divided
+into two parts, so as to serve as cups, a heap of good-sized round
+pebbles, that were used in case of attack, and a few pieces of wood, of
+very common workmanship, that served as pillows.</p>
+
+<p>I soon got out of such a den, from which I was driven by the
+nauseous smell it contained in its every part, but I had been able to
+see everything in it. I then inquired, by signs, of the Igorrot, the
+way I should go, in order to join the Christians. He fully understood
+me, showed me the road with his finger, and we then proceeded on our
+journey. As I journeyed on, I remarked here and there fields of <i>
+patates</i> and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb128" href=
+"#pb128">128</a>]</span>sugar-cane, which of course must have been the
+only husbandry of those miserable savages. After about an hour&rsquo;s
+journey we were near running into a very great danger. On entering into
+a vast plain we saw an Igorrot, flying away as quickly as possible. He
+had remarked us, and I attributed his flight to fear, when suddenly I
+heard the sound of the tom-tom and gong, and saw, at the same time,
+twenty men armed with lances, rapidly advancing towards us. I felt that
+a fight was about to ensue, so I told my lieutenant to fire at the
+group, so as to injure none of them.</p>
+
+<p>Alila fired: his bullet passed over the heads of the savages, who
+were so astonished at the detonation that they suddenly halted, and
+examined us attentively. I prudently took advantage of their surprise,
+and an immense forest presenting itself on our right, we entered it,
+leaving the village on our left, but the savages did not follow us into
+it.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of this scene my lieutenant did not utter a word. I
+had already remarked that when in presence of danger he became dumb,
+but when he had lost sight of the Igorrots his speech and loquacity
+returned to him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he to me, in a very dissatisfied tone,
+&ldquo;how I do regret not having fired directly into the middle of
+those miscreants!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And why so?&rdquo; asked I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Because I am certain I should have killed one of them at
+least.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, master, our journey would not have terminated without
+our sending at least one soul of a savage to the devil.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! Alila,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;so you have become wicked
+and naughty, have you?&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb129"
+href="#pb129">129</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, no, no, master,&rdquo; replied he; &ldquo;but I cannot
+conceive why you are so kind and compassionate to that infernal race.
+You, who pursue and persecute the <i>Tulisans</i>,<a class="noteref"
+id="xd0e1212src" href="#xd0e1212">2</a> who are a hundred times better
+than these wretches are, and who are Christians besides.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What!&rdquo; cried I; &ldquo;brigands, robbers, and assassins
+better than poor primitive beings, who have no one to guide and conduct
+them to the path of virtue!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, master!&rdquo; replied my lieutenant, and most
+sententiously this time; &ldquo;Oh! the brigands, as it pleases you to
+call them, are in nowise what you think them. The Tulisan is not an
+assassin. When he takes away life it is only when he is compelled, in
+defence of his own, and if he do kill, why it is always <i lang="fr">de
+bon c&oelig;ur</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! oh!&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;and the robberies&mdash;how do
+you explain them?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If he rob, why it is only to get possession of a little of
+the superfluity of the rich, and that he divides among the
+poor&mdash;that&rsquo;s all. Now, master, do you know what use the
+Tulisan makes of his plunder?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, indeed, master Alila,&rdquo; answered I, smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, he keeps nothing of it for himself,&rdquo; said my
+lieutenant, with great pride; &ldquo;in the first place he gives a part
+of it to the priest, to have masses said for him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Indeed! it is mighty edifying&mdash;go on.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And then he gives another part of it to his mistress, or <i
+lang="fr">bonne amie</i>, because he loves her, and likes to see her
+finely dressed out; and as for the remainder, why, faith! he spends it
+among his friends. You may therefore see, master, that the Tulisan
+possesses himself of the superfluity of one person to <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb130" href="#pb130">130</a>]</span>satisfy several
+other persons with it.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1239src" href=
+"#xd0e1239">3</a> Oh! but he is far, very far indeed, from being so
+wicked as those savages, who kill you without saying a word to you, and
+then eat up your brains&mdash;fie!&rdquo; And here Alila heaved a deep
+sigh, for the brain feast was ever present to his mind. His
+conversation so interested me, his system was so curious, and he
+himself so frank in drawing it out, that I almost forgot the Igorrots
+in listening to him.</p>
+
+<p>We pursued our road through the wood, keeping as much as possible to
+the south, in order to get near the province of Batangas, where I was
+to meet my poor patient, who no doubt was very uneasy about my long
+absence. When I started I said not a word about my project, and had I
+done so it is most likely I should have been thought as no longer
+belonging to this world. The recollection of my wife, whom I had left
+at Manilla, and who was far from supposing me to be among the Igorrots,
+inspired me with the most anxious desire of returning home to my family
+as quick as possible. Absorbed in my thoughts, and carried away by my
+reflections, I walked silently along, without even casting a glance
+upon the luxuriant vegetation all around us. I must indeed have been
+very much pre-occupied, for a virgin forest between the tropics, and
+particularly in the Philippine islands, is in nowise to be compared
+with our European forests. I was aroused from my pensiveness, and
+recalled to the remembrance of my whereabouts, by the noise of a
+torrent, and I gratefully admired nature in her gigantic productions. I
+looked up, and before me I perceived an immense <i>
+bal&eacute;t&eacute;</i>, an extraordinary fig-tree, that thrives in
+the sombre and mysterious forests of the Philippines, and I stopped to
+admire <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb131" href=
+"#pb131">131</a>]</span>it. This immense tree springs from a seed
+similar to the seed of the ordinary fig-tree; its wood is white and
+spongy, and in a few years it grows to an extraordinary size. Nature,
+who has had foresight in all things, and who allows the young lamb to
+leave its wool on the bushes for the timid bird to pick it up and build
+its nest with&mdash;Nature, I say, has shown herself in all her genius
+in the fig-tree of the Philippine islands, which grows so rapidly and
+so immensely. The branches of this tree generally spring from the base
+of the trunk; they extend themselves horizontally, and, after forming
+an elbow or curve, rise up perpendicularly; but, as I said before, the
+tree is spongy, and easily broken, and the branch, while forming the
+curve, would inevitably be broken, did not a ligament, which the
+Indians call a drop of water&mdash;<i lang="fr">goutte
+d&rsquo;eau</i>&mdash;fall from the tree and take root in the earth;
+there it swells, and grows in proportion with the size of the branch,
+and acts to it as a living prop. Besides which, around the trunk, and
+at a considerable distance from the ground, are natural supports, which
+rise up in points or spirals to about the middle of the trunk. Has not
+the Grand Architect of the world foreseen everything?</p>
+
+<p>The appearance presented by the bal&eacute;t&eacute; is very
+frequently indescribably picturesque; and this is so true that, within
+a space of some hundred paces in diameter&mdash;which these gigantic
+fig-trees usually occupy&mdash;one may see by turns grottoes, halls,
+chambers, that are often furnished with natural seats, formed out of
+and by the roots themselves. No! no vegetation is more diversified, nor
+more extraordinary! This tree sometimes grows out of a rock, where
+there is not an inch of earth; its long roots run along the rock,
+encompass it, and then plunge into the neighbouring brook. It is indeed
+a masterpiece of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb132" href=
+"#pb132">132</a>]</span>nature&mdash;a <i lang="fr">chef
+d&rsquo;&oelig;uvre</i>&mdash;which, however, is very ordinary in the
+virgin forests of the Philippine islands.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Here,&rdquo; said I to my lieutenant, &ldquo;is a good spot
+for us to spend the night on.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He recoiled some paces.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What!&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;do you wish to stop here,
+master?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; replied I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! but you don&rsquo;t see that we are in still more danger
+here than in the midst of the Igorrots!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And why, then, are we in danger?&rdquo; asked I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why? why? Do you not know that the Tic-balan dwells in the
+large bal&eacute;t&eacute;s. If we stop here you may be very sure that
+I shan&rsquo;t sleep a moment, and that we shall be tormented the whole
+night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I smiled, which my lieutenant perceiving:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! master,&rdquo; said he, most dolefully, &ldquo;what
+should we do with an evil spirit that fears neither bullet nor
+dagger?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The terror of the poor Tagal was really too great for me to resist
+him, so I yielded, and we took up our quarters for the night at a place
+much less to my own taste, but much more to Alila&rsquo;s. The night
+passed away like many others&mdash;I mean, perfectly well, and we woke
+up to resume our journey through the forest.</p>
+
+<p>We had been walking about two hours, when, on leaving the wood, and
+entering on a plain, we met an Igorrot, mounted upon a buffalo, face to
+face. The encounter was somewhat curious. I levelled my gun at the
+savage: my lieutenant took hold of the animal by the long leather
+strap, and I made a sign to the Igorrot not to stir: then&mdash;always
+in my mimic language&mdash;I asked if he were alone. I understood from
+him that he was accompanied by no fellow-traveller, and that he <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb133" href="#pb133">133</a>]</span>was going
+northwards, in the opposite direction to our own. But Alila, who
+decidedly had a grudge against the savages, was most anxious to lodge a
+ball in this fellow&rsquo;s head. However, I strenuously opposed such a
+project, and ordered him to let go the bridle.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But, master,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;allow me at least to see
+what these jars contain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Around the neck of the Igorrot&rsquo;s buffalo were strung three or
+four jars, covered with leaves of the banana tree.</p>
+
+<p>My lieutenant, without even waiting for my answer, applied his nose
+to them, and discovered, to his infinite satisfaction, that they
+contained a deer or stag ragout, which sent forth a certain perfume;
+so, still without consulting me, he undid the smallest of the jars,
+struck the buffalo a blow with the but-end of his gun, and, letting go
+the animal at the same time, exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Go, you rascal&mdash;go!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Igorrot, finding himself free, fled as quick as the beast could
+carry him, and we re-entered the woods, taking care to avoid the
+openings, for fear of being surprised by too large a number of
+savages.</p>
+
+<p>Towards four o&rsquo;clock we halted to take our repast. This
+wished-for moment was impatiently expected by my lieutenant, as the
+savage&rsquo;s jar sent forth a very savoury smell. At last the desired
+moment arrived: we sat down on the grass. I stuck my poignard into the
+jar, which Alila had brought up to the fire, and I withdrew&mdash;an
+entire human hand!<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1298src" href=
+"#xd0e1298">4</a> My poor lieutenant was as stupified as I was myself,
+so we remained a few minutes without saying a word. At last I gave a
+vigorous <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb134" href=
+"#pb134">134</a>]</span>kick to the jar, and smashed it in pieces, so
+that the human flesh it contained was scattered over the ground, while
+still I held the fatal hand on the point of my dagger.</p>
+
+<p>That hand horrified me; yet I examined it most carefully, and it
+appeared to me to have been the hand of a child of an Ajetas, a species
+of savages that inhabit the mountains of Nueva-Exica and
+Marib&egrave;les, of which race I shall have an opportunity of speaking
+during the course of this work. I took some strips of palm-tree,
+roasted in the burning embers; Alila did the same, and we set out, not
+in the best of humours, in search of another resting-place for the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours after sun-rise we issued from the forest and entered upon
+the plain. From time to time&mdash;that is, from distance to
+distance&mdash;we met with rice-fields, cultivated after the Tagal
+manner, and then did my lieutenant exclaim most joyously to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, we are now in Christian ground.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was right; the road was becoming more easy. We followed on a
+narrow pathway, and towards evening arrived in front of an Indian
+cabin, at the door of which a young girl was sitting, while abundant
+tears trickled down her sorrowful countenance. I drew near her, and
+inquired into the cause of her grief. On hearing my question she rose
+up, and without replying to my queries, conducted us into the interior
+of the habitation, where we beheld the inanimate body of an old woman,
+whom we learned was the mother of the young girl; the brother of the
+latter had gone to the village in quest of the relations of the
+deceased, to aid them in transporting the corpse to its final
+destination.</p>
+
+<p>This scene affected me very much. I did my best to console the poor
+young girl, and solicited hospitality for the night, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb135" href="#pb135">135</a>]</span>which was
+instantly granted. To be in company with a dead body nowise affrighted
+me; but I bethought of Alila, so superstitious and so fearful with
+regard to ghosts and evil spirits.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said I to him; &ldquo;are you not afraid to
+spend the night near a corpse?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, master,&rdquo; replied he, courageously; &ldquo;this dead
+person is a Christian soul, which, far from wishing us evil, will watch
+over us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was really astonished at the answer of the Tagaloc, at his
+calmness and security: the rogue had his own motives for thus speaking
+to me. The Indian huts in the plains, are never composed of more than
+one room; the one we were in was scarcely large enough to hold us all
+four; however, we one and all managed as well as we could. The deceased
+occupied the back part; a small lamp, placed by her head, threw out a
+feeble light, and beside her lay the young Indian girl. I had
+established my quarters at a short distance from the bed of death, and
+my lieutenant was nearest the door, left open purposely to dispel the
+heat and foul air.</p>
+
+<p>Towards two o&rsquo;clock in the morning I was waked up by a shrill
+voice, and I felt at the same time that some one was passing over me,
+and uttering cries that soon were heard outside the cabin. I
+immediately stretched out my hand towards the place where Alila had
+lain down, but that place was empty; the lamp was out, and the darkness
+complete.</p>
+
+<p>This made me very uneasy. I called to the young girl, who answered
+me that she had heard, like me, cries and noise, but she was ignorant
+of the cause. I snatched up my gun and sallied forth, calling out to my
+lieutenant; but to no purpose. No one answered; the stillness of death
+reigned all around. I then set out, walking over the fields at hazard,
+calling out <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb136" href=
+"#pb136">136</a>]</span>now and then Alila&rsquo;s name. I had not,
+perhaps, gone a hundred paces when I heard the following words,
+pronounced most timidly, proceeding from a tree by which I was
+passing:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am here, master.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was Alila himself. I drew nigh, and saw my lieutenant ensconced
+behind the trunk of the tree, and trembling like one of its leaves.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What then has happened to you?&rdquo; I inquired; &ldquo;and
+what are you doing there?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! master,&rdquo; said he to me; &ldquo;pray forgive me! Bad
+thoughts got the better of me; it was the young Indian girl inspired me
+with them, and the demon blew them into my inner man.
+I&mdash;I&mdash;I&mdash;drew nigh, during the night, to the young
+girl&rsquo;s resting-place, and when I saw you fast asleep&mdash;I put
+out the lamp.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, and then&mdash;&rdquo; said I, most impatiently and
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And then&mdash;I wished to take a kiss from the young girl;
+but, at the very moment I drew nigh, the old dead woman took her
+daughter&rsquo;s place, so I only met with a cold and icy face, and at
+the same moment two long arms stretched out to seize upon me. Oh! it
+was then I gave such a cry&mdash;and I fled! fled! fled! but the old
+woman pursued me&mdash;yes, the corpse tracked me behind; and she has
+only just now disappeared, on hearing the sound of your voice. I then
+hid behind this tree, where you now see me, in a piteous
+plight.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The fright of the Tagal and his mistake made me almost laugh out;
+but I severely reprimanded him for the bad intention he had of abusing
+the hospitality that had been so graciously afforded us: he repented,
+and begged of me to excuse him. He was, I should think, sufficiently
+punished by his fright. I wished to take him back to the cabin with me;
+but <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb137" href=
+"#pb137">137</a>]</span>for no consideration would he return. I
+therefore left my gun in his charge, and went back to the house of
+mourning, where I found the poor young girl just as frightened as he
+was. I soon made her acquainted with the adventure; so thanking her for
+her kind hospitality, and morning coming on, I returned to Alila, who
+was most impatiently expecting me.</p>
+
+<p>The hope of seeing soon again our relations, our homes, our friends,
+gave us new courage, and before sunset we arrived at an Indian village,
+without anything remarkable having taken place: this was to be our last
+stage.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1345src" href="#xd0e1345">5</a> <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb138" href="#pb138">138</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p138"><img border="0" src="images/p138.jpg"
+alt="Inhabitants of Boulacan." width="381" height="376">
+<p class="figureHead">Inhabitants of Boulacan.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After this long and interesting journey I arrived at Quingua, a
+village in the province of Boulacan, where I had left my friend in
+convalescence. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb139" href=
+"#pb139">139</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p139"><img border="0" src="images/p139.jpg"
+alt="Manilla Fishing Raft." width="475" height="431">
+<p class="figureHead">Manilla Fishing Raft.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1150src" id="xd0e1150">1</a></span> It is on account of this
+cruel custom of beheading their victims that the Spaniards have given
+to these savages the name of &ldquo;<i lang="es">corta
+cabesas</i>,&rdquo; &ldquo;decapitators.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1212src" id="xd0e1212">2</a></span> Banditti.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1239src" id="xd0e1239">3</a></span> &ldquo;The nakedness of the
+poor might be clothed out of the trimmings of the
+vain.&rdquo;&mdash;Dr. Goldsmith&rsquo;s &ldquo;Vicar of
+Wakefield.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smallcaps">Tr</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1298src" id="xd0e1298">4</a></span> The Igorrots, however,
+according to the reports of the Indians, are not anthropophagi; perhaps
+the one in question had received these ragouts from some other
+savages&mdash;the Guinans, for instance.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1345src" id="xd0e1345">5</a></span> It would be difficult to
+establish from what nations the divers species of men who inhabit the
+interior of Luzon originally came. The Tinguians, from their fine
+shape, their colour, their eyes, their almost aquiline nose, the value
+they set upon china vases, their music, and finally from their habits,
+would appear to be the descendants of the Japanese. It is most likely
+that at a very distant period some junks from the Japan coasts, hurried
+along by strong northern winds, may have been wrecked upon the Luzon
+shores, and that their crews, seeing no possibility of returning to
+their native country, as well as to avoid the Malayan population that
+was in possession of the beaches,&mdash;it is possible, I say, that the
+shipwrecked persons withdrew into the interior of the mountains, the
+difficulty of access to which protected them from all invasion.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Japanese sailors, who are merely coasters, sail
+about with their wives, as I had an opportunity of witnessing on board
+many junks, whither I went through mere curiosity. Those same junks,
+beaten by the tempest, had steered for shelter to the eastern coast of
+Luzon, where they anchored for four months, waiting for the return of
+the monsoon; and had they not met with a protecting government, their
+crews would have been compelled to fly into the mountains, as I suppose
+the Tinguians had been obliged to do. The latter having some women with
+them, must have procured others from among the neighbouring population,
+and as they inhabit the finest and healthiest country in the world,
+their number must have considerably increased. They are now spread over
+sixteen villages: Palan, Jalamey, Mabuantoc, Dalayap, Lanquiden, Baac,
+Padanquitan y Pangal, Campasan y Danglas, Lagayan, Ganagan, Malaylay,
+Bucay, Gaddani, Laganguilan y Madalag, Manab, Palog y Amay.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Igorrots, whom I had less opportunities of
+studying, seem to be the descendants of the remains of the grand naval
+army of the Chinese <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e1352" href=
+"#xd0e1352">134n</a>]</span>Lima-On, who, after attacking Manilla, on
+the 30th November, 1574, had taken refuge in the province of
+Pangasinan, in the gulf of Lingayan, where he was a second time
+defeated, and his fleet completely destroyed. A part of the crew
+escaped into the mountains of Pangasinan, where the Spaniards could not
+pursue them.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Igorrot has long hair, eyes <i lang="fr">
+&agrave; la Chinoise</i>, a flat nose, thick lips, high cheek bones,
+broad shoulders, strong and nervous limbs, and bronze colour; he
+greatly resembles the Chinese of the southern provinces of the
+Celestial Empire.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">I could obtain no information as to extraction
+concerning the Guinans, another people of savages, ferocious and cruel,
+who live in the neighbourhood of the Tinguians.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">I keep back for a future period a description of
+the Ajetas, or Negritos, the aborigines of Luzon.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch7" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter VII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>I return to Jala-Jala&mdash;An Excursion on the
+Lake&mdash;Relempago&rsquo;s Narrative&mdash;Re-organisation of my
+Government&mdash;A Letter from my Brother Henry&mdash;His
+Arrival&mdash;He joins me in the Management of my
+Plantations&mdash;Cajoui, the Bandit: Anten-Anten&mdash;Indian
+Superstition&mdash;A Combat with the Bandit&mdash;His Death&mdash;A
+Piratical Descent&mdash;My Lieutenant is Wounded&mdash;I extract the
+Ball, and cure him.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">My prolonged absence from home caused great
+uneasiness. Very fortunately my wife remained at Manilla, and was
+totally ignorant of the journey I had recently undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>My patient had not exactly followed the prescribed regimen, so that
+his distemper had increased, and he was impatiently <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb140" href="#pb140">140</a>]</span>expecting to
+return and die, he said, in his house: his wishes were complied with. A
+few days after my arrival we set out and arrived the next day at
+Manilla, where my poor friend rendered his last sigh in the middle of
+his family. This event damped, of course, the pleasure I should have
+enjoyed in beholding my wife once more.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the demise of our friend we embarked, and set sail
+for Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>We glided most agreeably upon the lake until we left the strait of
+Quinanbutasan, but, once there, we met with so violent an east wind,
+and the water of the lake was so ruffled, that we were obliged to
+re-enter the strait, and cast anchor near the cabin of the old
+fisherman, Relempago, whom I have already noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Our sailors landed to prepare their supper; as for ourselves, we
+remained in our boat, where we stretched ourselves at our ease, the old
+fisherman, as he sat doubled up in the Indian fashion, amusing us in
+the best way he could by the narration of brigand stories.</p>
+
+<p>I interrupted him all on a sudden, saying to him:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Relempago, I should prefer hearing the history of your own
+personal adventures; do, therefore, relate your misfortunes to
+us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The old fisherman heaved a sigh, and then, unwilling to disoblige
+me, began his story in the poetical terms so familiar to the Tagal
+tongue, and which it is almost impossible to reproduce by a
+translation:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Lagune is not my native place,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;I was
+born in the island of Z&eacute;bou, and was at the age of twenty what
+is called a fine young man; but, pray believe me, I was by no means
+proud of my physical advantages, and I preferred being <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb141" href="#pb141">141</a>]</span>the first
+fisherman of my village. Nevertheless, my comrades were jealous of me,
+and all that because the young girls would look at me with a certain
+complaisant air, and seemed to find me to their liking.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I could not but smile at this frank avowal of the old man, which he
+perceiving, continued:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I tell you these things, sir,&rdquo; replied he,
+&ldquo;because at my age one can speak of them without fearing to
+appear ridiculous&mdash;it is so long ago. And besides, allow me to
+inform you that I relate to you such things, not from vanity&mdash;Oh,
+no! but merely to furnish you with an exact recital. Besides, the sly
+and roguish looks that young girls threw at me, as I passed through the
+village, flattered me in no manner. I was in love with Theresa, sir;
+yes, I was passionately in love with her, and my love was returned, for
+fondly did she love me; a look from any other but from her was totally
+indifferent to me. Ah! Theresa was the prettiest lass in the village!
+but, poor soul! she has done like myself&mdash;she has greatly altered;
+for years are an enormous weight, which bends and breaks you down in
+spite of yourself, and against which there is no way of struggling.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When, seated as I am at present, I bethink me of the fine
+by-gone days of my youth&mdash;of the strength, the courage, that we
+used to find in our mutual affection&mdash;Oh! I shed tears of regret
+and sensibility. Where are now those fine&mdash;those happy days? Gone,
+gone, gone! they have fled before the piercing and terrible winds that
+forerun the storms and the hurricanes. Like the day, life has its dawn;
+like the day, also, it has its decline!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here the poor old fisherman made a pause, and I was loth to
+interrupt him in his meditation. There then ensued a profound silence,
+that lasted several minutes. Suddenly Relempago <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb142" href="#pb142">142</a>]</span>seemed to start from a
+dream, and passing his hand over his forehead, looked at us for some
+time, as if to excuse himself for those few moments of mental absence,
+and then he continued as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We had been brought up together,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and
+had been affianced as soon as we had grown up. Theresa would have died
+rather than belong to any other, and, as I shall hereafter prove it, I
+would have accepted any condition, even the most unfavourable one,
+rather than abandon the friend of my heart. Alas! it is almost always
+with our tears that we trace our painful way through life.
+Theresa&rsquo;s relations were opposed to our union; they even put
+forward vain and frivolous pretexts; and whatever efforts I made to
+bring them to decide upon bestowing her affianced hand on me, I never
+could succeed. And yet they well knew that, like the palm trees, we
+could not live without each other, and were we to be separated, it
+would be condemning us to die. But our tears, our prayers, our griefs,
+were only heard by senseless people, and we were labouring under the
+most poignant grief, while no one would understand or sympathise with
+our sorrow. I was beginning to lose all courage, when one morning there
+came into my mind the pious thought of offering to the Infant Jesus, in
+the church of Z&eacute;bou, the first pearl I should fish up. I
+therefore repaired earlier than usual to the sea-shore, implored the
+Almighty to grant me his protection, and to have me married to my
+beloved Theresa. The sun was just beginning to dart his burning rays
+upon the earth, and was gilding the surface of the waters. Nature was
+awaking from her transitory sleep, and every living being or object was
+singing in its language a hymn to the Creator.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;With a beating heart I began diving to the bottom of the
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb143" href="#pb143">143</a>]</span>sea,
+in search of the pearl which I so ardently wished for, but my searches
+and struggles were completely fruitless at first. Had anyone been near
+me at that moment he would have easily read my disappointment in my
+face. Nevertheless, my courage failed me not. I began again, but with
+no better success. &lsquo;Oh, Lord!&rsquo; cried I, &lsquo;thou hearest
+not then my prayers, my supplications! Thou wilt not then accept for
+thy beloved son the offering that I destine for him.&rsquo;<a class=
+"noteref" id="xd0e1422src" href="#xd0e1422">1</a> For the sixth time I
+plunged, and brought up from the bottom of the sea two enormous
+oysters. Oh! how my heart leaped with joy! I opened one of them, and
+found it contained a pearl so large that never in my life had I seen
+one like it. My joy was so great that I set to dancing in my pirogue,
+as if I had lost my reason. The Lord, then, did vouchsafe to protect
+me, since He enabled me to accomplish my vow. With a joyful heart I
+retraced my steps to my dwelling, and, not wishing to fail in my word,
+I took my magnificent pearl to the curate of Z&eacute;bou.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The reverend father,&rdquo; continued the old fisherman,
+&ldquo;was delighted with my present. That pearl was worth 5,000
+piasters (or 25,000 francs, <i>i.e</i>., &pound;1,000 English money),
+and you must have admired it&mdash;you, as well as all other persons
+who attend the church&mdash;for the Infant Jesus always holds it in his
+hand. The curate thanked and congratulated me on my very good idea.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Go home in peace, brother,&rsquo; said he to me;
+&lsquo;go home in peace. Heaven will not forget thy meritorious
+action&mdash;yea, the disinterestedness of thy good work, and sooner or
+later thy desires will he hearkened to.&rsquo;<span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e1432" title="Not in source">&rdquo;</span> <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb144" href="#pb144">144</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I left the holy man with my heart joyful indeed, and I
+hastened to inform Theresa of the pastor&rsquo;s consoling words: we
+rejoiced like two children together. Ah! true indeed it is to say that
+youth has been endowed by the Almighty with every privilege,
+particularly with that of hope. At the age of twenty if the heart think
+that it may live in hope, away with all cares immediately; and, as the
+morning breeze sips up the drops of moisture that have been left by the
+storm in the chalice of flowers, so does hope dry up the tears that
+moisten the eyes of the young, and drive away the sighs that inflate
+and oppress the breast. So sure were we that our tribulations would ere
+long be over, that we no longer thought of our by gone sorrow! In the
+spring-time of life grief leaves do more trace after it than the nimble
+foot of the wily Indian on the strand, when the sea-wind has blown over
+it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The inhabitants of the village, seeing us so joyful, so
+purely happy, were envious of our lot, and Theresa&rsquo;s relations
+could no longer find any pretext for opposing our being united. We were
+now in full sight of connubial bliss; our boat of life was gently
+rocked by a very mild wind; we were singing the return-home hymn, not
+supposing, alas! that we were going to be dashed against a breaker! Our
+young Indians foresee not in the morning the storm that is to assail
+them in the evening. The buffalo cannot avoid the lasso, and most
+often, in order to avoid it, he anticipates the danger. I roved about,
+I may say heedlessly thoughtless of the precipice before my feet.
+Misfortune marked me for her own when I least expected it.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One evening, on my return from fishing, at the moment when I
+was repairing to Theresa&rsquo;s, there to repose myself after my
+fatigues of the day, I saw one of my neighbours advancing towards me.
+That man had always shown me the greatest <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb145" href="#pb145">145</a>]</span>affection, so that on seeing him
+thus advance, my limbs began to tremble, and the pulsations of my heart
+gradually ceased. His face was pale, and entirely altered. His haggard
+eyes threw forth flashes of terror, and his voice was trembling and
+agitated.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;<i lang="es">Los Moros</i><a class="noteref" id=
+"xd0e1448src" href="#xd0e1448">2</a> have made a descent upon the
+coast,&rsquo; said he to me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Good Heavens!&rsquo; exclaimed I, covering my face
+with my hands.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;They surprised some persons of the village, and
+carried them off prisoners.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;And Theresa?&rsquo; exclaimed I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Carried off with the others,&rsquo; he replied.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I heard no more of this revelation, and for some
+minutes&mdash;like the warrior pierced to the heart by a poisoned
+arrow&mdash;was completely deprived of all consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When I came back to myself tears flooded my face, and brought
+me some relief: but suddenly I resumed my courage, and felt that no
+time was to be lost. I ran to the shore where I had left my pirogue,
+which I unfastened, and, as quickly as oars could pull me, I pursued
+the Malays, not in the hope of wresting Theresa from them, but resolved
+upon partaking of her captivity and misfortune. We better endure the
+sufferings we have to undergo when we are two together than when we are
+alone. He who had brought me the fatal tidings saw me start, and
+thought I had lost my senses; the fact is, my countenance bore all the
+traces of mental alienation. Methought I was inspired by the grand
+master-spirit; my pirogue bounded along the troubled waters of the
+ocean as if it possessed wings. One would have said that I had twenty
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb146" href=
+"#pb146">146</a>]</span>rowers at my disposal, and I cleft the waves
+with the same rapidity as the halcyon&rsquo;s flight, when wafted away
+by the hurricane. After a short time&rsquo;s laborious and painful
+rowing I at last came in view of the corsairs who were carrying away my
+treasure. At the sight my strength was renewed again, and I was soon up
+with them. When I was side by side with them I informed them, in words
+the most feeling, and which sprang from my poor lacerated heart, that
+Theresa was my wife, and that I would prefer being a slave with her to
+abandoning her. The pirates listened to my voice, stifled by my tears,
+and took me on board, not from commiseration, but from cruelty. In
+fact, I was a slave more added to their numbers: why should they have
+repulsed me? A few days after that fatal evening we arrived at Jolo.
+There the division of the slaves was made, and the master into whose
+hands we fell took us away with him. Was it, then, to undergo a like
+destiny that I had dived so early in the morning for a pearl for the
+Infant Jesus of Z&eacute;bou? Yes, was it for this that I had made a
+vow to bring him the first pearl I should find? Notwithstanding my
+profound sorrow I murmured not, neither did I regret my offering. The
+Lord was the master! His will should be done.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here Relempago paused, and looked towards Heaven with a smile of
+angelic resignation, and we then remarked upon his face the furrows
+traced by the deep sorrows of his life. The wind was still blowing with
+violence, and our boat was dancing on the waves; our sailors had
+finished their repast, and, in order to listen to the fisherman&rsquo;s
+tale of woe, had taken up their place by his side. Their features wore
+an expression of the most innocent attention; so, having made a sign to
+the narrator, he resumed his story as follows:&mdash; <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb147" href="#pb147">147</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Our captivity lasted two years, during which time we had to
+endure very great sufferings. Very often would my master take me away
+with him to a lake in the interior of the island, and these absences
+lasted for whole months together, during which time I was perforce
+separated from my Theresa, my dear wife; for, not having been able to
+get united by a clergyman, we had joined ourselves, under the
+all-benevolent and protecting eye of the Almighty! On my return, I used
+to find my poor companion still the same good, faithful, devoted, and
+affectionate friend, whose courage sustained my own.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One circumstance decided me upon taking an audacious
+resolution. Theresa was in an interesting situation! Oh! what would not
+my joy have been had I been at Z&eacute;bou, in the midst of our family
+and of our friends! What happiness should I not have felt at the idea
+of being a father! Alas! in slavery, that very same thought froze my
+blood with terror, and I firmly resolved upon snatching both mother and
+child from the tortures of captivity. In one of our excursions I had
+been wounded in the leg, and this wound came greatly to my aid. One day
+my master set out for the borders of the grand lake, and, knowing I had
+a bad leg, left me at Jolo. I availed myself of this opportunity to put
+into execution a project that I had formed for a long time, that of
+flying with Theresa. The task was a daring one, but the desire of
+freedom doubles one&rsquo;s strength and increases one&rsquo;s courage,
+so I did not hesitate for a moment. When night had lowered, my dear
+Theresa took a road I had pointed out to her; I went by another one,
+and we both arrived at the sea-shore at a short distance from each
+other. There we jumped into a pirogue, and threw ourselves upon the
+protection of Divine mercy! <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb148" href=
+"#pb148">148</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We rowed vigorously the whole night, and never in my life
+shall I forget that mysterious flight. The wind blew rather violently,
+the night was dark, and the stars insensibly lost their vivid
+brightness. Every moment we thought we heard behind us the noise of our
+pursuers, and our hearts beat so loud and so violently that they could
+be heard in the midst of the silence that reigned around all
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Day at last appeared: we descried by degrees, in the mist of
+the morning, the rocks that lined the shore, and we could see far
+enough in the distance that no one was pursuing us. Then were our
+hearts filled with cheering hope, and we continued rowing towards the
+north, in order to land on some Christian isle.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I had taken with me some cocoa-nuts, but they were a very
+small resource, and we had been at sea three whole days without eating
+anything, when, exhausted by fatigue and want, we fell upon our knees
+and invoked the pity, compassion, and succour of the Infant Jesus of
+Z&eacute;bou. Our prayer over, we felt our strength completely
+exhausted; the oars fell from our hands, and we lay down in the bottom
+of the pirogue, decided upon dying in each other&rsquo;s arms.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Our weakness gradually increased, and finally we swooned
+away, the pirogue all the while dashing heedlessly on with the
+waves.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When we recovered from our fainting fit&mdash;I know not how
+long it lasted&mdash;we found ourselves surrounded by Christians, who,
+having perceived us in our light skiff, had come to our aid, conveyed
+us to their hospitable dwelling, and took the most pious care of us. We
+had not long been disembarked when Theresa was taken with the pains of
+labour, and was confined of a very diminutive, sickly child. I went
+down on <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb149" href=
+"#pb149">149</a>]</span>my knees before the innocent little creature
+that had so miraculously escaped from slavery, and prayed for
+it&mdash;it was a boy!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here the poor old fisherman heaved a heavy sigh, while tears were
+fast falling upon his shrunken hands.</p>
+
+<p>We one and all respected this painful recollection of the poor old
+man.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Our convalescence was very long indeed,&rdquo; said
+Relempago; &ldquo;at last our health was sufficiently restored to
+permit of us leaving the isle of Negros, where the Infant Jesus had so
+miraculously caused us to land, and we came to settle here, on the side
+of this large lake, which, being situated in the interior of the isle
+of Lu&ccedil;on, afforded me the means of pursuing my avocation of
+fisherman without in any way fearing the Malays, who might very easily
+have captured us again at Z&eacute;bou.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My first care&mdash;yes, the dearest act of my life&mdash;on
+arriving, was to have our marriage celebrated in the church of Moron. I
+had promised it to God, and I would not fail in the promise I had made
+Him who reads all hearts. After that I built the little cottage you see
+hard-by, and my existence glided on most peacefully. The fishing trade
+went on prosperously. I was still a young man, active and intelligent,
+and sold my fish very easily to the vessels passing through the strait.
+My son had by this time become a fine young man.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of course he resembled his father,&rdquo; said I,
+recollecting the beginning of the old man&rsquo;s tale, but my remark
+could not excite a smile upon his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! the lad was a good fisherman,&rdquo; continued he,
+&ldquo;and happily did we all three live together, till a dreadful
+misfortune befell us. The Infant Jesus had no doubt forsaken <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb150" href="#pb150">150</a>]</span>us, or
+perhaps the Almighty was displeased with us; but I am far from
+murmuring. He has visited us most severely, since He has overwhelmed us
+with grief of such a strong nature, that it must accompany us to our
+last resting-place!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And here the poor old man&rsquo;s tears trickled down his
+weather-beaten cheeks once more, in abundance, in bitterness, and in
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! how right was the Italian poet, when he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="lgouter ">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;Nought lasteth here below but tears!&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The voice of Relempago was stifled by his sobbing; however, he made
+one more effort, and continued thus:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One night&mdash;a fine moonlight night&mdash;we set our nets
+in a certain part of the strait, and as we felt some difficulty in
+drawing them up, the lad plunged into the water to ascertain what
+obstacle we had to contend with, and to set all to rights. I was in my
+pirogue, leaning over the side, waiting for his return, when all of a
+sudden I thought I saw, through the silvery beams of the lamp of night,
+a large spot of blood spreading itself over the surface of the water.
+Fear took possession of me, and I quickly hauled up my nets. My hapless
+child had seized upon and become entangled in them&mdash;but, alas!
+when he came to the surface he was a corpse!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! your son?&rdquo; cried I.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;My poor dear Jos&eacute;-Maria,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;had
+his head bitten off by a cayman that had got entangled in our nets.
+Ever since that night&mdash;that fatal night!&mdash;Theresa and I offer
+up our prayers to the Omnipotent, imploring Him to take us to himself;
+for, alas! nothing now has any charms for us here below. The first of
+us that will depart for that bourn from whence no traveller returns
+will be interred by the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb151" href=
+"#pb151">151</a>]</span>survivor beside our beloved child&mdash;there,
+under that little hillock yonder, which is surmounted by a wooden
+cross, in front of my humble cottage; and the last of us two to leave
+this valley of tears will no doubt meet with some charitable Christian
+hand, to place our mortal remains beside the bodies of those we loved
+so tenderly during our hapless pilgrimage here below.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Here Relempago ceased his painful history, and, that he might give a
+free course to his grief and tears, he rose up, and bowed us his adieu,
+which we returned to him with hearts oppressed with sympathetic
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>The wind had ceased blowing, and the attentive sailors were awaiting
+our orders, so that in a few moments afterwards we were sailing towards
+Jala-Jala, where we landed before sunset.</p>
+
+<p>On the morrow of my arrival I entered on the business of my little
+government, to which my absence had been far from useful or favourable,
+so that I was obliged to suppress many abuses that had crept into it
+while I had been away. Some slight corrections, joined to an active and
+incessant surveillance, or inspection, soon established once more the
+most perfect order and discipline; so that, from that moment, I was at
+liberty to devote all my time and attention to the cultivation of my
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>We were now at the beginning of the winter&mdash;the rainy and windy
+season. No stranger had dared crossing the lake, to come and visit us,
+so that, alone with my dear wife, our days glided most happily and
+tranquilly away, for we knew not what <i>ennui</i> was or meant: our
+mutual affection was so great that our own presence was sufficient
+company for each other.</p>
+
+<p>This delightful solitude was soon interrupted by a fortunate <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb152" href="#pb152">152</a>]</span>and
+unforeseen event. A letter from Manilla&mdash;a very rare circumstance
+at Jala-Jala&mdash;reached me, informing me that my eldest brother,
+Henry, had just arrived there; that he had put up at my
+brother-in-law&rsquo;s; and that he was expecting me with all
+imaginable impatience. I was not aware that he had left France to come
+and see me, so that such news, and his sudden, as well as unexpected,
+arrival, surprised and overjoyed me.</p>
+
+<p>I was once more to see one of my dearest relations&mdash;a brother
+whom I had always tenderly loved. Ah! he who has never quitted his
+home, his family, and his early attachments, will with difficulty
+understand the emotions I experienced on receiving this agreeable
+letter. When the first transports of my joy were somewhat allayed, I
+resolved to set out at once for Manilla. Preparations for my departure
+were speedily made. I chose my lightest canoe, and my two strongest
+Indians, and a few minutes after, having embraced my beloved Anna, I
+was scudding over the waters of the lake, slowly&mdash;too slowly for
+my impatience, as I wished to be able to give wings to my fragile
+skiff, and to traverse the distance that separated me from my brother
+as rapidly as my thoughts: no journey ever appeared to me so long, and
+nevertheless my two robust rowers exerted all their strength to favour
+my wishes. At length I arrived, and immediately hastened to my
+brother-in-law&rsquo;s, and there I threw myself into Henry&rsquo;s
+arms. Our emotions were such that for some time we could not speak; the
+abundant tears we shed alone showed the joy of our hearts. When the
+first transport was over, I asked him questions beyond number. Not one
+member of my family was forgotten; the smallest details concerning
+these beloved beings were to me of the greatest interest. We passed the
+remainder of the day and the following night in incessant and
+interesting conversation. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb153" href=
+"#pb153">153</a>]</span>The next day we started for Jala-Jala. Henry
+was eager to become acquainted with his sister-in-law, and I to make
+the dear companion of my life a sharer in my happiness. Excellent Anna!
+my joy was joy for you&mdash;my happiness was your delight! You
+received Henry as a brother, and this sisterly attachment was always,
+on your part, as sincere as your affection for me had ever been.</p>
+
+<p>After a few days spent in the most agreeable conversation about
+France, and about all those beloved friends who remained there,
+feelings of sadness that I could with difficulty repress became
+intermingled with my joy. I thought of our numerous family, so far
+distant, and so scattered over the globe. My youngest brother was, to
+my great regret, dead at Madagascar. My second brother, Robert, resided
+at Porto-Rico; and my two brothers-in-law, both captains of vessels,
+engaged in long voyages, were gone to the Indies. My poor mother and my
+poor sisters were alone, without protectors, without support: what sad
+moments of fear and anxiety you must have spent in your solitude! Ah!
+how I should have rejoiced to have you near me; but, alas! a whole
+world separated us, and the hope of seeing you again one day could
+alone scatter the clouds that darkened occasionally the happy days
+adorned by the presence of my brother.</p>
+
+<p>After some time of rest, Henry asked to join me in my labours. I
+then made him acquainted with my mode of cultivation, and he took upon
+himself the management of the plantations and of their products. I
+reserved to myself the regulation of my Indians, the charge of the
+flocks, and that of putting down the bandits.</p>
+
+<p>I had frequent quarrels, and even incessant conflicts, with these
+turbulent Indians; but I never boasted of these petty <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb154" href="#pb154">154</a>]</span>engagements, in
+which I was often obliged to take a most active part. On the contrary,
+I recommended strict silence to my attendants, for I did not wish to
+cause anxiety to my excellent Anna, nor to give my brother the desire
+of accompanying me. I did not like to expose him to the dangers I ran
+myself, as I had not equal hopes of safety for him. I relied upon my
+star, and really, to a certain degree, all modesty aside, I think that
+the bandits&rsquo; balls respected me. When I was engaged in contests
+in the plain, or in some of the skirmishes, the danger was not great;
+but it was quite a different thing when it was necessary to fight hand
+to hand, which happened more than once; and I cannot forbear the
+pleasure of relating one of those circumstances that made me say just
+now <i>the bandits&rsquo; balls respected me</i>.</p>
+
+<p>One day I was alone with my lieutenant, having both of us only our
+daggers, and we were coming back to our habitation, and passing through
+a thick forest, situated at the end of the lake. Alila said to me:
+&ldquo;Master, this neighbourhood is much frequented by Cajoui.&rdquo;
+Cajoui was known as the chief of a most daring gang of brigands. Among
+his numerous atrocities he had amused himself, on that very day, by
+drowning twenty of his fellow-countrymen. I then determined to free the
+country of the odious assassin, and the advice of my lieutenant induced
+me to take a narrow path, that led us to a hut concealed in the midst
+of the woods. I told Alila to remain below, and to watch, while I went
+to endeavour to reconnoitre the persons who inhabited it. I went up by
+the small ladder that leads to the interior of the Tagalese huts; a
+young Indian woman was there, quite alone, and very busy plaiting a
+mat. I asked her for some fire to light my cigar, and returned to my
+lieutenant. Having accidentally cast my eyes upon the <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb155" href="#pb155">155</a>]</span>exterior of the
+hut, it appeared much larger than it did inside. I ran up again
+quickly, and looked all round the place in which the young girl was,
+and observed at the extremity of it a small door, covered over by a
+mat. I gave it a strong push, and at the moment, Cajoui, who, with his
+carbine on cock, was waiting for me behind the door, fired straight at
+me. The fire and the smoke blinded me, and by a most inconceivable
+chance the ball slightly grazed my clothes without wounding me. Alila,
+knowing I had no fire-arms, hearing the report, thought I was killed.
+He ran up to the top of the steps, and found me enveloped in a cloud of
+smoke, with my dagger in my hand, trying to find my enemy, who seeing
+me still standing erect, after he had shot at me, thought, no doubt, I
+had about me some <i>anten-anten</i>&mdash;a certain diabolic
+incantation that, according to the Indian belief, makes a man
+invulnerable to all sorts of fire-arms. The bandit was frightened,
+jumped out of a window, and ran away as fast as he could across the
+forest.</p>
+
+<p>Alila could not believe what had happened to me; he felt all over my
+body, in order to convince himself that the ball had not passed through
+me. When he was quite sure that I had not received a wound, he said to
+me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, if you had not had the <i>anten-anten</i> about you
+you would have been killed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My Indians always believed I was possessed of this secret, as well
+as of many others. For instance, when they often saw me go for
+twenty-four, even for thirty-six hours, without eating or drinking,
+they became persuaded that I could live in that manner for an
+indefinite period; and one day, a good Tagalese padre, in whose house I
+chanced to be, almost went upon his knees while begging me to
+communicate to him the power I possessed, as he said, to live without
+food. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb156" href=
+"#pb156">156</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Tagals have retained all their old superstitions. However,
+thanks to the Spaniards, they are all Christians; but they understand
+that religion nearly in the way that children do. They believe that to
+attend on Sundays and festival days at the Divine offices, and to go to
+confession and to communion once a year, is sufficient for the
+remission of all their sins. A little anecdote that occurred to me will
+show how far they understand evangelical charity.</p>
+
+<p>One day two young Indians stole some poultry from one of their
+neighbours, and they came to sell them to my major-domo for about
+sixpence. I had them called before me, to administer a lecture, and to
+punish them. With the utmost simplicity they made me this answer:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is true, master, we have done wrong, but we could not do
+otherwise; we are to go to communion to-morrow, and we had not money
+enough to get a cup of chocolate.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is a custom with them to take a cup of chocolate after communion,
+and it was considered by them a greater sin to miss taking that than to
+commit the trifling theft of which they were guilty.</p>
+
+<p>Two evil-doing demons play an important part among them, and in
+which all believed before the conquest of the Philippine islands. One
+of those malevolent demons is the Tic-balan which I have already
+mentioned, who dwells in the forests, in the interior of the large
+fig-trees. This demon can do every possible harm to anyone who dares
+not to respect him, or who does not carry certain herbs about his
+person; every time an Indian passes under one of these fig-trees he
+makes a movement towards it with his hand, saying: &ldquo;<i lang=
+"tl">Tavit-po</i>,&rdquo; Tagal words, signifying: &ldquo;Lord! with
+your permission!&rdquo; The lord of the place is the Tic-balan. <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb157" href="#pb157">157</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The other demon is called Azuan. She presides especially over
+parturitions in an evil manner, and an Indian is often seen, when his
+wife is in labour, perched upon the roof of his hut, with a sabre in
+his hand, thrusting the point into the air, and striking on all sides
+with the edge, to drive away, as he says, the Azuan. Sometimes he
+continues this man&oelig;uvring for hours, until the labour is over.
+One of their beliefs&mdash;and one that Europeans might envy&mdash;is,
+that when a child that has not reached the age of reason dies, it is
+happy for all the family, since it is an angel that has gone to heaven,
+to be the protector of all its relations. The day of the interment is a
+grand f&ecirc;te-day; relations and friends are invited; they drink,
+they dance, and they sing all night in the hut where the child died.
+But I perceive that the superstitions of the Indians are drawing me
+from my subject. I shall have occasion, further on, to describe the
+manners and customs of these singular people.</p>
+
+<p>I now resume my statement, at the moment when my lieutenant tried to
+assure me that I had some anten-anten, and that consequently I could
+not be wounded by a shot fired at me.</p>
+
+<p>He then addressed the young girl, who had remained in the corner,
+more dead than alive.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! cursed creature!&rdquo; said he to her; &ldquo;you are
+Cajoui&rsquo;s mistress: now your turn is come!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment he advanced towards her with his dagger in his hand.
+I ran between him and the poor girl, for I knew he was capable of
+killing anyone, particularly after I had been attacked in a manner that
+had placed me in danger.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Wretch!&rdquo; said I to him, &ldquo;what are you going to
+do?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No great things, master; only to cut off the hair and ears of
+this vile woman, and then send her to tell Cajoui that we shall soon
+catch him!&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb158" href=
+"#pb158">158</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>It cost me much trouble to prevent him from executing his plan. I
+was obliged to use all my authority, and to allow him to burn the
+cabin, after the terrified young girl, thanks to my protection, had
+fled into the forest.</p>
+
+<p>My lieutenant was right in sending word to Cajoui that we should
+catch him. Some months after, and several leagues from the place where
+we had set fire to his cabin, one day, when three men of my guard
+accompanied me, we discovered, in the thickest part of the wood, a
+small hut. My Indians rushed forward in quick time to surround it; but
+almost all round it there was found a morass, covered over with sedges
+and bushes, when all three sunk in the mud, up to their middle. As I
+did not run as fast as they did I perceived the danger, and went round
+the marsh, so as to reach the cabin by the only accessible way.
+Suddenly I found myself face to face with Cajoui, and near enough
+almost to touch him. I had my dagger in my hand; he also had
+his&mdash;the struggle began. For a few seconds we aimed many strokes
+at each other, which each of us tried to avoid as well as he could. I
+think, however, that fortune was turning against me; the point of
+Cajoui&rsquo;s poignard had already entered rather deeply into my right
+arm, when with my left hand I took from my belt a large-sized pistol. I
+discharged it full at his breast: the ball and the wadding went through
+his body. For a few seconds Cajoui endeavoured still to defend himself;
+I struck him with all my force, and he fell at my feet; I then wrested
+from him his dagger, which I still retain. My people came out of the
+mud-hole and joined me. Compassion soon replaced the animosity we bore
+against Cajoui. We made a sort of litter; I bandaged his wound, and we
+carried him more than six leagues in this manner to my habitation,
+where he received all the care his state <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb159" href="#pb159">159</a>]</span>required. Every moment I expected
+him to die; every quarter of an hour my people came to tell me how he
+was; and they kept saying to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, he cannot die, because he has the anten-anten upon
+him; and it is very lucky that you have some of it too, and that you
+fired at him, for our arms would have been of no avail against
+him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I laughed at their simplicity, and expected from one minute to
+another to hear that the wounded man had breathed his last, when my
+lieutenant brought me, quite joyously, a small manuscript, about two
+inches square, saying to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Here, master, is the anten-anten I found upon Cajoui&rsquo;s
+body.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At the same time one of my men announced his death.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Alila, &ldquo;if I had not taken the
+anten-anten from him he would be still alive.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I searched the small book through and through; prayers and
+invocations that had not much sense were therein written in the
+Tagalese language. A good friar who was present took it out of my
+hands. I imagined that he had the same curiosity as I had, but by no
+means; he rose up and went into the kitchen, and in a short time after
+came out and told me that he had made an <i>auto-da-f&eacute;</i> of
+it. My poor lieutenant almost cried with vexation, for he considered
+the little book to be his property, and thought that in possession of
+it he would be invulnerable. I should also have wished to have kept it,
+as a curious specimen of Indian superstition. The next day I had much
+trouble to persuade my stout friend, Father Miguel, to bury Cajoui in
+the cemetery. He maintained that a man who died with the anten-anten
+upon him ought not to receive Christian burial. To make him accede to
+my wishes it was necessary to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb160"
+href="#pb160">160</a>]</span>tell him that the anten-anten had been
+taken from Cajoui before his death, and that he had time to repent.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after Cajoui&rsquo;s death it was my faithful
+Alila&rsquo;s turn to encounter danger, not less imminent than that to
+which I had been exposed, at the time of my combat with the bandit
+chief. But Alila was brave, and, although he had no anten-anten,
+fire-arms did not frighten him.</p>
+
+<p>Large vessels&mdash;real Noah&rsquo;s arks&mdash;freighted by
+various merchants, sailed every week from the town of Pasig for that of
+Santa-Cruz, where every Thursday a large market was held. Eight daring
+and determined brigands went on board one of these vessels: they hid
+their arms among the bales of goods. The ship was scarcely out at sea
+when they seized them, and a horrible scene of slaughter ensued. All
+who endeavoured to resist them were butchered, even the pilot was
+thrown overboard; at length, finding no more resistance, they plundered
+the passengers of the money they had upon them, took every article of
+value they could find, and, loaded with their booty, they steered the
+vessel to a deserted spot on the shore, where they landed.</p>
+
+<p>I had been informed of this nefarious enterprise, and went with
+haste to the spot where they landed. Unfortunately I arrived too late,
+for they had already escaped to the mountains, after they had divided
+the spoil. Notwithstanding the slight hope I entertained of overtaking
+them, I set off in pursuit, and after a long march I met an Indian, who
+informed me that one of the bandits, not so good a walker as the
+others, was not far off, and that if I and my guards ran quickly we
+might overtake him. Alila was the best runner&mdash;he was as fleet as
+a deer; so I told him: &ldquo;Set out, Alila, and bring me that
+runaway, either dead or alive.&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb161" href="#pb161">161</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>My brave lieutenant, to be less encumbered in the race, left his gun
+with us, took a long spear, and went off. Shortly after we had lost
+sight of him we heard the report of firearms; we knew it must be the
+brigand firing upon Alila, and we all thought that he was killed or
+wounded. We hastened forward, in the hopes of arriving in time to
+render him assistance; but we soon saw him coming leisurely towards us;
+his face and clothes were covered with blood, the spear in his right
+hand, and in his left the hideous head of the bandit, which he carried
+by the hair&mdash;as Judith had formerly done with that of Holophernes.
+But my poor Alila was wounded, and my first care was to examine if the
+wound was serious. When I was satisfied it was not dangerous, I asked
+him for the details of his combat.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master,&rdquo; said he to me, &ldquo;shortly after I left you
+I perceived the bandit; he saw me also, and ran off as quickly as he
+could, but I ran faster than he, and was soon close to him. When he
+lost all hopes of escaping he turned upon me and presented his pistol;
+I was not alarmed, and advanced towards him at all risk. The pistol was
+fired, and I felt myself wounded in the face; this wound did not stop
+me. I darted at him and pierced his body with my spear; but, as he was
+too heavy for me to bring to you, I cut off his head, and here it
+is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When I had congratulated Alila upon his success, I examined his
+wound, and found that a fragment of a ball, cut into four pieces, had
+hit him upon the cheek, and was flattened on the bone. I extracted it,
+and a speedy cure followed.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I have almost terminated, and shall not return to, my
+numerous adventures with the bandits, I resume the continuation of my
+ordinary life at Jala-Jala. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb162" href=
+"#pb162">162</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p162"><img border="0" src="images/p162.jpg"
+alt="The House of La Planche." width="482" height="372">
+<p class="figureHead">The House of La Planche.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1422src" id="xd0e1422">1</a></span> According to Indian
+tradition, and to Spanish tradition likewise, the Infant Jesus of
+Z&eacute;bou existed before the discovery of the Philippines. After the
+conquest the Infant was found upon the sea-shore; the Spanish
+conquerors deposited it in the cathedral, where it performed great
+miracles.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1448src" id="xd0e1448">2</a></span> The Malays.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch8" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter VIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Death of my Brother Robert&mdash;Our Party at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Illness and Last Moments of my Friend
+Bermigan&mdash;Recovery and Departure for France or
+Lafond&mdash;Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity&mdash;Tremendous Gale
+of Wind&mdash;Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake&mdash;Safe Return to
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destruction of my House and the Village by a
+Typhoon&mdash;Rendezvous with a Bandit&mdash;Ineffectual Attempts to
+Reform Him&mdash;His Death&mdash;Journey to Tapuzi&mdash;Its
+Inaccessibility&mdash;Government of the Tapuzians&mdash;Morality and
+Religious Character of their Chief&mdash;Their Curiosity at Beholding a
+White Man&mdash;Former Wickedness and Divine Punishment&mdash;We bid
+Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return to Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">At this period a sad event plunged my house into
+mourning. Letters from my family announced to me that my brother Robert
+had returned from Porto-Rico, but that soon after a serious illness had
+carried him to the grave. He died in the arms of my mother and sisters,
+in the small house of La Planche, where, as I said before, we had all
+been brought up. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb163" href=
+"#pb163">163</a>]</span>My excellent Anna, wept with us, and exerted
+every means that interesting affection could suggest to alleviate the
+grief my brother Henry and myself experienced from this melancholy
+bereavement. A few months afterwards a new source of sorrow fell to our
+lot. Our little social party at Jala-Jala consisted of my
+sister-in-law; of Delaunay, a young man from St. Malo, who had come
+from Bourbon to establish at Manilla some manufactories for baking
+sugar; of Bermigan, a young Spaniard; and my friend, Captain Gabriel
+Lafond, like myself, from Nantes. He had come to the Philippine islands
+on board the <i lang="fr">Fils de France</i>, had passed some years in
+South America, and had occupied several places of distinction in the
+navy, as captain-commandant, until at last, after many adventures and
+vicissitudes, he came with a small fortune to Manilla, where he bought
+a vessel, and set sail for the Pacific Ocean, to fish for the <i>
+balat&eacute;</i> or sea-worm. He had scarcely readied the island of
+Tongatabou when the vessel struck upon the rocks that surround this
+island; he saved himself by swimming to the shore, having lost
+everything. From thence he went to the Marianne islands, where grief
+and bad food caused him to fall ill; he returned to Manilla, labouring
+under dysentry. I had him brought to my house, and whilst there
+attended to him with all the care a fellow-countryman and a good
+friend, endowed with sterling and amiable qualities, deserved. Our
+evenings were spent in amusing and instructive conversation. As we had
+all travelled a great deal, each had something to relate. During the
+day the invalids kept company with the ladies, while my brother and
+myself followed our respective avocations. But soon, alas! a shocking
+event disturbed the calm that reigned at Jala-Jala. Bermigan fell so
+dangerously ill, that a few days sufficed to convince me there was no
+hope <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb164" href=
+"#pb164">164</a>]</span>of saving him. I shall never forget the fatal
+night: we were all assembled in the drawing-room, grief and
+consternation were in every heart and pourtrayed in every countenance;
+in an adjoining room a few short steps from us, we heard the
+death-rattle of poor Bermigan, who had only a few minutes to live. My
+excellent friend, Lafond, whom sickness had reduced almost to the last
+stage, broke silence, and said: &ldquo;Well! poor Bermigan goes to-day,
+and in a few days, perhaps to-morrow, it will be my turn. Just see! my
+dear Don Pablo; I may almost say that I no longer exist. Look at my
+feet&mdash;my body! I am a mere skeleton; I can scarcely take any food.
+Ah! it is better to be dead than live like this!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I was so persuaded that his forebodings would not be delayed in
+being realized, that I scarcely dared to utter the smallest consolation
+or any hopes. Who could then have told me that he and I alone were to
+survive all those who surrounded us, full of life and health? But,
+alas! let us not here anticipate future events.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Bermigan breathed his last. Our house at Jala-Jala was no
+longer untouched by the hand of Death&mdash;a human being had expired
+therein; and on the following day, in sadness and silence, we all
+proceeded to the cemetery, to inter the body of our friend, and to
+render him the last proofs of our respect. The body was laid at the
+foot of a large cross, which is placed in the centre of the grave-yard.
+For many days sadness and silence prevailed in our home at
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>Some time afterwards I had the gratification to see the efforts I
+employed for my friend Lafond were successful. By means of the strong
+remedies I administered his health was speedily restored, his appetite
+returned, and he was soon able to set sail for France. He is now
+residing in Paris, married <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb165" href=
+"#pb165">165</a>]</span>to a woman possessed of every quality necessary
+to make a man happy, and is the father of three children. Holding an
+honourable position, and enjoying public esteem, he has never forgotten
+the six months he spent at Jala-Jala, for ingratitude never sullied his
+noble, loving, and devoted heart. A sincere attachment still subsists
+between us, and I am happy thus to assure him that he is, and ever will
+be, to me a valued friend.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1662src" href=
+"#xd0e1662">1</a></p>
+
+<p>As I have now mentioned several persons who resided for some time at
+Jala-Jala, I must not forget one of my colonists, Joachim Balthazard, a
+native of Marseilles, as eccentric a man as I have ever known. When
+Joachim was young, he set sail from Marseilles. When he arrived at
+Bourbon, his name not being on the crew&rsquo;s list, he was arrested,
+and put on board the <i>Astrolabe</i>, which was then making a voyage
+round the world. He deserted at the Marianne islands, and came to the
+Philippines in the greatest distress, and addressed himself to some
+good friars, in order, as he said, to effect his conversion and his
+salvation. He lived among them, and at their expense, for nearly two
+years; afterwards he opened a coffee-house at Manilla, and spent in
+pleasure and debauchery a large sum of money that a fellow-countryman
+and I had advanced him. He afterwards built upon my grounds a large
+straw edifice, that had more the appearance of a huge magazine than of
+a house. There he kept a kind of seraglio, adopted all the children
+which his numerous wives gave him, and, with his own family, made his
+house not unlike a mutual school. Whenever he was weary of either of
+his wives he called one of his workmen, saying to him in the most
+serious manner:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;There is a wife that I give you; be a good husband, treat her
+well: and you, woman, this is your husband, be faithful <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb166" href="#pb166">166</a>]</span>to him. Go, may
+God bless you! Be off, and let me never see you again.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He was generally without a farthing, or all of a sudden rich with
+heavy sums, that were spent in a few days. He borrowed from everybody,
+and never paid them back; he lived like a real Indian, and was as
+cowardly as a half-drowned chicken. His light-coloured hair, sallow
+complexion, and beardless face, gave him the nick-name among the
+Indians of <i>Onela-Dogou</i>, Tagalese words, that signify &ldquo;one
+who has no blood.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As I was one day crossing over the lake in a small canoe with him
+and two Indians, we were assailed by one of those extraordinary gales
+of wind, which in the Chinese seas are called <i>Tay-Foung</i>
+(typhoon). These gales of wind, though extremely rare, are tremendous.
+The sky is covered with the heaviest clouds; the rain pours in
+torrents; the day-light disappears, almost as much as in the densest
+fog; and the wind blows with such fury that it throws down everything
+it reaches in its course.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1684src" href=
+"#xd0e1684">2</a></p>
+
+<p>We were in our canoe; the wind had scarcely begun to blow with all
+its violence than Balthazard commenced to invoke all the saints in
+Paradise. Almost in despair, he cried out aloud:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, God! have mercy upon me, a wretched sinner! Grant me the
+grace that I may have an opportunity of confessing my sins, and of
+receiving absolution!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>All these lamentations and appeals served only to frighten my two
+Indians, and most undoubtedly our position was critical enough for us
+to endeavour to retain our presence of mind, so <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb167" href="#pb167">167</a>]</span>as to attend to the
+management of our little boat, which from one moment to another was in
+danger of being swamped. However, I was certain that, being provided
+with two large beams of bamboos, it could keep its position in the
+current between two waters and not capsize, if we had the precaution
+and strength to scud before the wind, and not turn the side to a wave,
+for in such case we should all have been drowned. What I foresaw,
+happened. A wave burst upon us; for a few minutes we were plunged in
+the deep, but when the wave passed over we came above water. Our canoe
+was swamped between the currents, but we did not abandon it; we put our
+legs under the seats, and held them fast; the half of our body was
+above water. But every time that a wave came towards us it passed over
+our heads, and then went off, giving us time to breathe until another
+wave came and dashed over us. Every three or four minutes the same
+man&oelig;uvring took place. My Indians and I used all our strength and
+skill to scud on before the wind. Balthazard had ceased his
+lamentations; we all kept silence; from time to time I only uttered
+these words:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Take courage, boys, we shall reach the shore.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Our position then became much worse, for night set in. The rain
+continued to pour in torrents, the wind increased in fury. From time to
+time we received some light from globes of fire, like what the sailors
+call &ldquo;Saint Elmo&rsquo;s fire.&rdquo; While these rays of light
+continued I looked as far around me as I could, and only perceived an
+immense body of water in furious agitation. For nearly two hours we
+were tossed about by the waves that drove us towards the beach, and, at
+a moment when we least expected it, we found ourselves driven into the
+midst of an extensive grove of lofty bamboos. I then knew that we were
+over the land, and that the lake had inundated the country for <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb168" href="#pb168">168</a>]</span>several
+miles around. We were up to our breasts in water, and it was not in our
+power to pass through the inundation. The darkness was too great to
+allow us to go in any direction; our canoe was no longer of any use to
+us, as it was entangled among the bamboos. We climbed up the trees as
+well as we could, even to the height where the bamboos end in sharp
+points; our bodies were much torn by the sharp thorns growing on the
+small branches; the rain continued to pour without intermission; the
+wind still blowed, and each gust caused the bamboos to bend, the
+flexible branches of which tore our bodies and faces. I have suffered a
+great deal in the course of my life, but no night ever appeared to me
+so long and cruel as this! Joachim Balthazard then recovered his
+speech, and, in a trembling, broken voice, said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Ah! Don Pablo, do write I beg of you, to my mother, and tell
+her the tragical end of her son!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I could not help answering him: &ldquo;You cowardly rascal! Do you
+think, then, that I am more at my ease than you are? Hold your tongue,
+otherwise I shall make you turn diver, so that I may never hear you
+again.&rdquo; Poor Joachim then knew what to do, and did not utter a
+word; only from time to time he made us aware of his trouble by his
+deep moans.</p>
+
+<p>The wind, which was blowing from the north-west, towards four
+o&rsquo;clock in the morning suddenly changed to the east, and shortly
+afterwards gave over. It was almost daylight: we were saved. We could
+at last see one another; all four of us looked in a wretched condition;
+our clothes being torn to pieces. Our bodies were lacerated, and
+covered with deep scratches. The cold had penetrated into the very
+marrow of our bones, and the long bath we had taken had wrinkled the
+skin; we looked just like drowned people taken out of the <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb169" href="#pb169">169</a>]</span>water, where they
+had been for some hours. Nevertheless, crippled as we were, we slipped
+down from the bamboos, and were soon bathing in the waters of the lake.
+The effect was healthful and agreeable: it seemed like a warm bath at
+30 degrees of heat.</p>
+
+<p>We were quite restored by this mild temperature. We got our canoe
+out of the grove, where fortunately it had been caught so fast that
+neither the waves nor the currents could drive it any farther. We again
+set it afloat, and soon succeeded in reaching an Indian hut, where we
+dried ourselves, and recruited our strength. Calm was now
+re-established; the sun shone in all its splendour, but everywhere
+traces of the typhoon were visible. In the course of the day we reached
+Jala-Jala, where our arrival caused great joy. They knew at home that I
+was on the lake, and everything led them to presume that I had
+perished. My good and dear Anna threw herself into my arms in tears;
+she had been in such anxiety for my safety, that for some moments the
+tears that flowed down her cheeks alone expressed her joy at again
+seeing me.</p>
+
+<p>Balthazard returned to his seraglio. As long as he was under my
+protection the Indians respected him, but after my departure from
+Jala-Jala he was assassinated; and all those who knew him agreed that
+he had deserved his fate for more than one cause.</p>
+
+<p>As I have mentioned this typhoon, I am going to anticipate a little,
+in describing, as briefly as possible, a still more frightful one than
+that which I experienced in my slight canoe and in the bamboo
+grove.</p>
+
+<p>I had just completed some pretty baths upon the lake opposite my
+house. I was quite satisfied and proud of procuring this new pleasure
+for my wife. On the very day that <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb170"
+href="#pb170">170</a>]</span>the Indians had added the last ornaments
+to them, towards evening a western wind began to blow furiously; by
+degrees the waters of the lake became agitated, and shortly we no
+longer doubted but that we were going to have a typhoon.</p>
+
+<p>My brother and I stayed some time examining, through the panes of
+glass, whether the baths would resist the strength of the wind, but in
+a heavy squall my poor edifice disappeared like a castle made of cards.
+We withdrew from the window, and luckily too, for a heavier squall than
+that which had destroyed the baths burst in the windows that faced to
+the west. The wind drove through the house, and opened a way for
+itself, by throwing down all the wall over the entrance-door. The lake
+was so agitated that the waves went over my house, and inundated all
+the apartments. We were not able to remain there any longer. By
+assisting each other, my wife, my brother, a young Frenchman who was
+then staying at Jala-Jala, and myself, succeeded in reaching a room on
+the ground-floor; the light came from a very small window; there, in
+almost total darkness, we spent the greater part of the night, my
+brother and I leaning our shoulders against the window, opposing with
+all our strength that of the wind, which threatened to force it in. In
+this small room there were several jars of brandy: my excellent Anna
+poured some into the hollow of her hand, and gave it us to drink, to
+support our strength and to warm us. At break of day the wind ceased,
+and calm re-appeared. All the furniture and decorations of my house
+were broken and shattered to pieces; all the rooms were inundated, and
+the store-rooms were full of sand, carried there by the waters of the
+lake. Soon my house became an asylum for my colonists, who had all
+spent a wretched night, and were without shelter. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb171" href="#pb171">171</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The sun soon shone splendidly; the sky was cloudless; but my sadness
+was extreme when, from a window, I examined the disasters produced by
+the typhoon. There was no village! Every hut was levelled to the
+ground. The church was thrown down&mdash;my store-houses, my sugar
+factory, were entirely destroyed; there was then nothing more than
+heaps of ruins. My fine cane-fields were altogether destroyed, and the
+country, which previously had appeared so beautiful, seemed as if it
+had passed through a long wintry season. There was no longer any
+verdure to be seen; the trees were entirely leafless, with their boughs
+broken, and portions of the wood were entirely torn down; and all this
+devastation had taken place within a few hours. During that and the
+following day the lake threw up, upon the shore, the bodies of several
+unfortunate Indians who had perished. The first care of Padre Miguel
+was to bury the dead, and for a long time afterwards there were to be
+seen, in the grave-yard of Jala-Jala, crosses, with the inscription:
+&ldquo;<i>An unknown who died during the typhoon</i>.&rdquo; My Indians
+began immediately to rebuild their huts, and I, as far as possible, to
+repair my disasters.</p>
+
+<p>The fertile nature of the Philippine islands speedily effaced the
+aspect of mourning which it had assumed. In less than eight days the
+trees were completely covered with new leaves, and exhibited themselves
+as in a brilliant summer, after the frightful winter had passed over.
+The typhoon had embraced a diameter of about two leagues, and, like a
+violent hurricane, had upset and shattered everything it met during its
+course.</p>
+
+<p>But enough of disasters: I return to the epoch when the death of
+poor Bermigan caused affliction to us all.</p>
+
+<p>All was prosperity in my dwelling: my Indians were happy; the
+population of Jala-Jala increased every day; I was beloved <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb172" href="#pb172">172</a>]</span>and respected. I
+had rendered great service to the Spanish government by the incessant
+warfare I carried on against the bandits; and I may say that even
+amongst them I enjoyed a high reputation. They looked upon me, indeed,
+as their enemy, but in the light of a brave enemy, incapable of
+committing any act of baseness against them, and who carried on an
+honourable warfare; and the Indian character was so well known to me,
+that I did not fear they would play me any low tricks, or would
+treacherously attack me. Such was my conviction, that around my house I
+was never accompanied by day or by night. I traversed without fear all
+the forests and mountains, and I often even treated with these
+honourable bandits, as one power does with another, by not disdaining
+the invitations sometimes sent to me to come to a certain place, where,
+without fear of surprise, they could consult me, or even invoke my
+assistance. This sort of rendezvous was always held in the night, and
+in very lonely places. On their side, as well as on mine, a promise
+given of not doing any injury to each other was religiously observed.
+In these nocturnal conversations, held without witnesses, I often
+brought back to a life of peace mistaken men, whom the turbulence of
+youth had thrown into a series of crimes, which the laws would have
+visited with most severe punishment. Sometimes, however, I failed in my
+attempts, and especially when I had to do with proud and untameable
+characters, such as are to be found among men who never have had any
+other guide but natural instinct. One day, among others, I received a
+letter from a half-breed, a great criminal, who infested the
+neighbouring province of Laguna; he told me that he wished to see me,
+and begged me to come alone in the middle of the night to a wild spot,
+where he would also come alone: I did not hesitate to go to the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb173" href="#pb173">173</a>]</span>place
+appointed. I found him there as he had promised me. He told me that he
+wished to change his mode of life, and to dwell on my estate. He added,
+that he had never committed any crime against the Spaniards, but only
+against the Indians and the half-breeds. It would have been impossible
+for me to have received him without compromising myself. I proposed to
+place him in the house of a friar, where he might remain concealed for
+several years, until his crimes were forgotten, and then he could enter
+into society. After a moment&rsquo;s reflection, he replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, that would be to lose my liberty. To live as a slave! I
+would prefer to die.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I then proposed to him to go to Tapuzi, a place where the bandits,
+when hotly pursued, were enabled to conceal themselves with
+impunity.&mdash;(I shall very soon have occasion to speak of this
+village.)&mdash;The half-breed, with an insignificant gesture,
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No; the person I wish to take with me would not come there.
+You can do nothing for me, adieu!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He then pressed my hand, and we separated. Some days afterwards, a
+hut in which he was seen, near Manilla, was surrounded by the troops of
+the line. The bandit then caused the owners of the hut to quit it, and
+when he saw them out of danger he took his carabine and began firing
+upon the soldiers, who on their side returned the attack on the hut.
+When it was riddled with balls, and the bandit had ceased to defend
+himself, a soldier approached the hut and set fire to it, so great was
+the fear they entertained of then finding him alive.</p>
+
+<p>These nocturnal interviews having led me to mention Tapuzi, I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to this <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb174" href="#pb174">174</a>]</span>remarkable retreat, where men,
+when proscribed by the law, live together in a sort of accord and union
+of a most extraordinary kind.</p>
+
+<p>Tapuzi,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1751src" href="#xd0e1751">3</a>
+which in the Tagal language, signifies &ldquo;end of the world,&rdquo;
+is a little village, situate in the interior of the mountains, nearly
+twenty-five leagues from Jala-Jala. It was formed there by bandits and
+men who had escaped from the galleys, who live in liberty, govern
+themselves, and are altogether, on account of the inaccessible position
+which they occupy, safe from any pursuit which could be ordered against
+them by the Spanish government. I had often heard this singular village
+mentioned, but I had never met anyone who had visited it, or could give
+me any positive details relative to it. One day, therefore, I resolved
+to go thither myself. I stated my intention to my lieutenant, who
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, I shall find there, no doubt, some of my old
+comrades, and then we shall have nothing to fear.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Three of us set out together, under the pretext of quite a different
+journey. For two days we walked in the midst of mountains, by paths
+almost impracticable. The third day we reached a torrent, the bed of
+which was blocked up by enormous stones. This ravine was the only road
+by which we could get to Tapuzi; it was the natural and impregnable
+rampart which defended the village against the attack of the Spanish
+troops. My lieutenant had just told me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look, master, above your head. None but the inhabitants of
+Tapuzi know the paths which lead to the top of the mountains. All along
+the length of the ravine they have placed enormous stones, that they
+have only to push to throw them <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb175"
+href="#pb175">175</a>]</span>down upon those who should come to attack
+them; a whole army could not penetrate among them, if they wished to
+give any opposition.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I clearly saw that we were not in a very agreeable position, and
+against which, if the Tapuzians should consider us as enemies, we could
+oppose no defence. But we were involved in it, and there was no means
+of retreating, it was absolutely necessary to go to Tapuzi. We had been
+already more than an hour in this ravine when an immense block of stone
+fell down perpendicularly, and broke into pieces only twenty yards
+before us: it was a warning. We stopped, laid down our arms, and sat
+down. Perhaps just such another block as what had fallen was hanging
+over our heads, ready to crush us to pieces. We heard a scream near us.
+I told my lieutenant to proceed alone towards the direction it came
+from. In a few minutes he returned, accompanied by two Indians, who,
+confident in my pacific intentions towards them, came to fetch us, to
+take us to the village. We proceeded cheerfully on the remainder of the
+road until we reached the spot where ended the sort of funnel we were
+walking in. Upon this height there was to be seen a plain, some miles
+in circumference, surrounded by high mountains. The part that we were
+in was stopped up by enormous blocks of rocks, lying one on the top of
+the other. From behind stretched forth an abrupt threatening mountain,
+without any signs of vegetation&mdash;not unlike an ancient European
+fortress, that some magical power had raised in the midst of the high
+mountains that commanded it. With one glance I beheld the whole of the
+site we were crossing, and at the same time reflected upon the great
+varieties nature presents to our view. We soon reached the long
+wished-for object of our journey&mdash;the village of Tapuzi. It lies
+at the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb176" href=
+"#pb176">176</a>]</span>extreme end of a plain, composed of about sixty
+thatched huts, similar to those of the Indians. The inhabitants were
+all at their windows, to witness our arrival. Our guides conducted us
+to their chief, or <i>Matanda-sanayon</i>, a fine old man, from the
+look of his face about eighty years of age. He bowed affably to us, and
+addressed himself to me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How are you come here&mdash;as a friend, or is it
+curiosity&mdash;or do the cruel laws of the Spaniards perhaps compel
+you to seek refuge among us? If such is the case, you are welcome; you
+will find us brothers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; I said to him; &ldquo;we do not come to stay among
+you. I am your neighbour, and lord of Jala-Jala. I am come to see you,
+to offer you my friendship, and to ask yours.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At the name Jala-Jala the old man looked quite astonished; he then
+said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is a long time since I heard you spoken of as an agent of
+the government for pursuing unfortunate men, but I have heard also that
+you fulfilled your mission with much kindness, and that often you were
+their protector, so be welcome.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After this first recognition they presented us some milk and some
+kidney potatoes, and during our repast the old man conversed freely
+with me.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Several years ago,&rdquo; said he to me, &ldquo;at a period I
+cannot recollect, some men came to live in Tapuzi. The peace and safety
+they enjoyed made others imitate their example, who sought like
+themselves to avoid the punishment of some faults they had committed.
+We soon saw fathers of families, with their wives and children flock
+hither; this was the foundation of the small government that you see.
+Now here almost all is in common; some fields of kidney potatoes or
+Indian corn, and hunting, suffice for us; he who possesses anything
+gives <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb177" href=
+"#pb177">177</a>]</span>to him who has nothing. Almost all our clothing
+is knitted and woven by our wives; the abaca, or vegetable silk, from
+the forest supplies us the thread that is necessary; we do not know
+what money is, we do not require any. Here there is no ambition; each
+one is certain of not suffering from hunger. From time to time
+strangers come to visit us. If they are willing to submit to our laws,
+they remain with us; they have a fortnight of probation to go through
+before they decide. Our laws are lenient and indulgent. We have not
+forgotten the religion of our forefathers, and God no doubt will
+forgive me my first faults, on account of my efforts for so many years
+to promote his worship, and the well-being of my equals.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But,&rdquo; said I to him, &ldquo;who is your chief, who are
+your judges and priests?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is I,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;who fulfil all those
+functions. Formerly they lived like savages here. I was young, robust,
+and devoted to all my brothers. Their chief had just expired: I was
+chosen to replace him. I then took care to do nothing but what was
+just, and conducive to the happiness of those who confided in me. Until
+then they had devoted but little attention to religion: I wished to put
+my people in mind that they were born Christians. I appointed one hour
+every Sunday for us to pray together, and I have invested myself with
+all the attributes of a minister of the Gospel. I celebrate the
+marriages, I pour water upon the foreheads of the infants, and I offer
+consolations to the dying. In my youth, I was a chorister; I remembered
+the church ceremonies; and if I do not actually possess the necessary
+attributes for the functions I have given myself, I practise them with
+faith and love. This is the reason I trust that my good intentions will
+obtain my forgiveness from Him who is the Sovereign Lord of all.&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb178" href="#pb178">178</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>During the whole time of the old man&rsquo;s conversation I was in
+continual admiration. I was among people who had the reputation of
+living in the greatest licentiousness as thieves and robbers. Their
+character was altogether misunderstood. It was a real, great
+phalanstery, composed of brothers, almost all worthy of the name. Above
+all I admired this fine old man, who with moral principles and simple
+laws, had governed them for so many years. On the other hand, what an
+example that was of free men not being able to live without choosing a
+chief, and bringing one another back to the practice of virtuous
+actions!</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p178"><img border="0" src="images/p178.jpg"
+alt="Church of Pandacan, in the environs of Manilla." width="476"
+height="380">
+<p class="figureHead">Church of Pandacan, in the environs of
+Manilla.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I explained to the old man all my thoughts. I bestowed upon him a
+thousand praises for his conduct, and assured him that the Archbishop
+of Manilla would approve all the religious <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb179" href="#pb179">179</a>]</span>acts he performed with so noble
+an object. I even offered to intercede with the archbishop in his
+behalf, that he might send a pastor to assist him. But he replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No, thank you, sir; never speak about us. We should certainly
+be glad to have a minister of the Gospel here, but soon, under his
+influence, we should be subjected to the Spanish government. It would
+be requisite for us to have money to pay our contributions. Ambition
+would soon creep in amongst us, and from the freedom which we now
+enjoy, we should gradually sink into a state of slavery, and should no
+longer be happy. Once more I entreat of you, do not speak of us: give
+me your word that you will not.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This argument appeared so just to me that I acquiesced to his
+request. I again gave him all the praise he deserved, and promised
+never to disturb the peace of the inhabitants of his village under any
+pretext whatever.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening we received visits from all the inhabitants,
+particularly from the women and children, who all had an immoderate
+curiosity to see a white man. None of the Tapuzian women had ever been
+out of their village, and had scarcely ever lost sight of their huts;
+it was not, therefore, astonishing that they were so curious.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I went round the plain, and visited the fields of
+kidney potatoes and Indian corn, the principal nourishment of the
+inhabitants. The old chief and some elderly people accompanied me. When
+we reached the spot where, upon the eve, I had already remarked
+enormous blocks of rock, the old man paused and told me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Look yonder, Castilla.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1809src"
+href="#xd0e1809">4</a> At a time when the Tapuzians <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb180" href="#pb180">180</a>]</span>were without
+religion, and lived as wild beasts, God punished them. Look at all the
+part of that mountain quite stripped of vegetation: one night, during a
+tremendous earthquake, that mountain split in two&mdash;one part
+swallowed up the half of the village that then stood on the place where
+those enormous rocks are. A few hundred steps further on all would have
+been destroyed; there would no longer have existed a single person in
+Tapuzi: but a part of the population was not injured, and came and
+settled themselves where the village now is. Since then we pray to the
+Almighty, and live in a manner so as not to deserve so severe a
+chastisement as that experienced by the wretched victims of that awful
+night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The conversation and society of this old man&mdash;I might say the
+King of Tapuzi&mdash;was most interesting to me. But I had already been
+four days absent from <span class="corr" id="xd0e1816" title="Source:
+Jala-Jula">Jala-Jala</span>. I ordered my lieutenant to prepare for our
+departure. We bid most affectionate adieus to our hosts, and set off.
+In two days I returned home, quite pleased with my journey and the good
+inhabitants of Tapuzi. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb181" href=
+"#pb181">181</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p181"><img border="0" src="images/p181.jpg"
+alt="Hunting party at Jala-Jala." width="445" height="532">
+<p class="figureHead">Hunting party at Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1662src" id="xd0e1662">1</a></span> See Appendix, I.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1684src" id="xd0e1684">2</a></span> I experienced two such gales
+during my residence at Jala-Jala&mdash;the one I am now speaking of,
+and another to which I shall afterwards allude.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1751src" id="xd0e1751">3</a></span> Tapuzi is situated in the
+mountains of Limutan. Limutan is a Tagalese word, signifying
+&ldquo;altogether forgotten.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1809src" id="xd0e1809">4</a></span> In the eyes of the natives of
+Tagal all Europeans are Spaniards.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch9" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter IX.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Suppression of War between two Indian Towns&mdash;Flourishing
+Condition of Jala-Jala&mdash;Hospitality to Strangers&mdash;Field
+Sports&mdash;Bat and Lizard Shooting&mdash;Visit to, and Description
+of, the Isle of Socolme&mdash;Adventure with a
+Cayman&mdash;Cormorants&mdash;We Visit Los Banos&mdash;Monkey
+Shooting&mdash;Expedition to, and Description of, the Grotto of
+Sun-Mateo&mdash;Magnificent aspect of the Interior.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">I found Anna in great trouble, not only on account
+of my absence, but because, on the previous evening, information had
+been received that the inhabitants of the two largest towns <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb182" href="#pb182">182</a>]</span>in the
+province had, as it was stated, declared war against each other; the
+most courageous amongst them, to the number of three or four hundred on
+each side, had started for the island of Talem. There both parties, in
+the presence of each other, were upon the point of engaging in a
+battle; already, while skirmishing, several had been mortally
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>This news frightened Anna she knew that I was not a man who would
+await quietly at home the issue of the battle; she already fancied she
+saw me, with my ten guards, engaged in the thick of the fight, and
+perhaps a victim of my devotedness. I comforted her as I had always
+done, promising to be prudent, and not forget her; but there was not a
+moment to lose; it was necessary, at all risks, to try to put an end to
+a conflict that might no doubt cause the death of many men. How could I
+do so with my ten guards? Dare I pretend to impose my will as law on
+this vast multitude? Clearly not. To attempt to do it by force would be
+to sacrifice all: what was to be done? Arm all my Indians&mdash;but I
+had not boats enough to carry them to Talem: in this difficulty I
+decided upon setting out alone with my lieutenant. We took our arms,
+and set sail in a canoe, that we steered ourselves; we had scarcely
+come near the beach within hail of the shore, when some armed Indians
+called out to us to stand off, otherwise they would fire upon us.
+Without paying attention to this threat, my lieutenant and I, some
+minutes later, jumped boldly on shore, and after a few steps we found
+ourselves in the midst of the combatants.</p>
+
+<p>I went immediately up to the chiefs and addressed them,
+&ldquo;Wretched men,&rdquo; I said to them, &ldquo;what are you going
+to do? It is upon you who command that the severity of the law will
+fall. It is still time: try to deserve your pardon. Order your <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb183" href="#pb183">183</a>]</span>men to give
+me up their arms; lay down your own, or else in a few minutes I will
+place myself at the head of your enemies to fight against you. Obey, if
+not you will be treated as rebels.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>They listened attentively to me; they were half conquered. However,
+one of them made me this reply:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And if you take away our arms who will satisfy us that our
+enemies will not come to attack us?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I will,&rdquo; I told them; &ldquo;I give you my word; and if
+they do not obey me as you are going to do, I will return to you, I
+will give you back your arms, and will fight at your head.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>These words, said with a tone of authority and command, produced the
+effect I expected. The chiefs, without uttering a word, laid their arms
+at my feet. Their example was followed by all the combatants, and, in a
+moment, a heap of carabines, guns, spears, and cutlasses were laid down
+before me. I appointed ten among these individuals who had just obeyed
+me, gave them each a gun, and told them:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I confide to you the care of these arms. If anyone attempts
+to take possession of them, fire upon the assailants.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I pretended to take down their names, and went off to the opposite
+camp, where I found all the combatants on foot, ready to march and
+fight against their enemies. I stopped them, saying:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The battle is over&mdash;your enemies are disarmed. You, too,
+must give me up your arms, or else immediately embark in your canoes,
+and go home. If you do not obey me, I will give back their arms
+instantly to your opponents, and I will put myself at their head to
+fight against you. Perform what I command you; I promise you all shall
+be forgotten.&rdquo; <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb184" href=
+"#pb184">184</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>There was no room for hesitation. The Indians knew that I did not
+allow much time for reflection, and that my threats and chastisements
+followed each other closely. Shortly after, they all embarked in their
+canoes. I remained on the beach alone, with my lieutenant, until I had
+almost lost sight of this small fleet. I then returned to the other
+camp, where I was impatiently expected. I announced to the Indians they
+had no longer any enemies, and that consequently they could go back
+quietly to their village.</p>
+
+<p>But a few days elapsed, as may be seen, without my having new
+dangers to encounter. I was accustomed to them: I relied upon my star,
+and triumphed from all my imprudences. My Indians were blindly
+submissive to me. I was so certain of their fidelity, that I no longer
+took against them the precautions which I considered necessary during
+the first year of my residence at Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>My Anna took part every day more and more in my labours, anxieties,
+and even in some of my dangers. Would it have been possible not to have
+loved her with deeper affection, than that which one feels for a
+companion leading a peaceful and insignificant life? With what gladness
+she received me after the shortest absence! Joy and satisfaction shone
+on her face, her caresses were as a balsam that healed all my
+lassitude, and even the reproaches she addressed me so gently, for the
+uneasiness I had caused her, fell upon my heart us drops of
+beatitude.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p185"><img border="0" src="images/p185.jpg"
+alt="Cascade near Jala-Jala." width="484" height="688">
+<p class="figureHead">Cascade near Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Jala-Jala was most flourishing; immense fields of rice, sugar-cane,
+and coffee, had taken the place of woods and forests unproductive in
+themselves. Rich pasture-grounds were covered with numerous flocks; and
+a fine Indian village stood in the centre of the labouring-ground.
+Here, there was everywhere <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb185" href=
+"#pb185">185</a>]</span>to be seen plenty, activity; and joy smiled on
+the countenances of all the inhabitants. My own dwelling had become the
+rendezvous, or resorting-place, of all the travellers arriving at
+Manilla, and a refuge of convalescence of many patients, who would come
+and breath the good and mild air of Jala-Jala, as well as enjoy its
+pleasures and amusements. Under that roof there was no distinction, no
+difference; all were equals in our eyes, <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb186" href="#pb186">186</a>]</span>whether French, Spanish, English,
+American. No matter to what nation belonged those who landed at
+Jala-Jala, they were received like brothers, and with all that cordial
+hospitality <span class="corr" id="xd0e1873" title="Source: to to">
+to</span> be found formerly in our colonies. My visitors enjoyed full
+and active liberty on my little estate; but he who was not desirous of
+eating alone was obliged to remember the time of meals: during the
+other hours of the day one and all followed their own inclinations. For
+instance, naturalists went in pursuit of insects and birds, and made an
+ample harvest of every species of plants. Persons ailing met with the
+assiduous care of a physician, as well as with the kind attention and
+enjoyed the company of a most amiable and well-informed mistress of the
+house, who had the natural talent of enchanting all those who spent but
+a short time in her society. They who liked walking might look about
+for the fine views, and choose their resting-place either in the woods,
+the mountains, near the cascades or the brooks, or on the beautiful
+borders of the lake.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p186"><img border="0" src="images/p186.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere in his hunting dress." width="513" height="720">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere in his hunting dress.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But to sportsmen Jala-Jala was really a &ldquo;promised land;&rdquo;
+there they always found a good pack of hounds, Indians to guide them,
+good stout horses to carry them across the various mountains and
+plains, where the stag and wild boar were to be met with most
+plentifully; and were they desirous of less fatiguing exercise, they
+only had to jump into some of our light canoes, and skim over the blue
+waters, shooting on their way at the hosts of aquatic birds flying
+around them in all directions,&mdash;they could even land on the
+various small islands situated between Jala-Jala and the isle of Talem.
+There they could find a sort of sport utterly unknown in
+Europe&mdash;that is, immense bats, a species of vampire, designated by
+naturalists by the name of <i>roussettes</i>. During six months in the
+year, at <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb187" href=
+"#pb187">187</a>]</span>the period of the eastern monsoon, every tree
+on these little isles is covered, from the topmost down to the lowest
+branch, with those huge bats, that supply the place of the foliage
+which they have entirely destroyed. Muffled up in their vast wings they
+sleep during the whole day, and in the nighttime they start off in
+large bodies roaming about in search of their prey. But as soon as the
+western monsoon has succeeded the eastern, they disappear, and repair
+always to the same place,&mdash;the eastern coast of Luzon, where they
+take shelter; after the monsoon changed, they return to their former
+quarters.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as our guests would alight upon one of these islands, they
+opened their fire, and continued it till&mdash;frightened by so many
+explosions and the screams of the wounded, clinging to and hanging from
+the branches&mdash;the bats would fly away in a body&mdash;<i>en
+masse</i>. For some time they would whirl and turn round and round like
+a dense cloud over their abandoned home, imitating, in a most perfect
+way, those furies we see in certain engravings representing the
+infernal regions, and then, flying off a short distance, would perch
+upon the trees in a neighbouring isle. If the sportsmen were not
+over-fatigued by the slaughter they might then follow them, and set-to
+again; but they generally found they had made victims enough, and
+diversified their pleasure by picking up the slain from under the
+trees. The bat shooting over, our sportsmen would then proceed to a new
+sport&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="lgouter ">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;To fresh fields and pastures new;&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>that is, in pursuit of and shooting at the iguanas, a large species
+of lizard, measuring from five to six feet long, which infest the rocks
+on the borders of the lake. Tired of firing <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb188" href="#pb188">188</a>]</span>without being obliged to show
+any skill, our chasseurs would re-embark in their pirogues and row in
+search of new amusement,&mdash;this was, to shoot at the eagles that
+came hovering over their heads. Here skill was requisite, as well as a
+prompt, sure glance of the eye, as it is only with ball that these
+enormous birds of prey can be reached. Our fowlers would then return
+home, with their boats full of game; and everyone, of course, had his
+own feats of prowess to relate.</p>
+
+<p>The flesh of the iguana and the bat is savoury and delicate; but as
+for its taste, that entirely depends upon the imagination, as may here
+be seen.</p>
+
+<p>After returning from one of these grand shooting excursions to the
+minor islands, a young American informed me that his friends and he
+himself were most desirous of tasting the iguana and the bat; so,
+supposing them all to be of the same mind, I ordered my <i>
+ma&icirc;tre-d&rsquo;h&ocirc;tel</i> to prepare for dinner a curry of
+iguana and a ragout of bats. The first dish served round at dinner was
+the curry, of which they one and all partook with very good appetite;
+upon which I ventured to say: &ldquo;You see the flesh of the iguana is
+most delicate.&rdquo; At these words all my guests turned pale, and
+they all, by a sudden motion, pushed their plates from before them, not
+even being able to swallow what their mouths contained. I was therefore
+obliged to order the removal of the <i>entr&eacute;es</i> of iguana and
+bats before we could proceed with the repast.</p>
+
+<p>When it was in my power, I would accompany my guests in their
+excursions, and then the chase was abundant and full of interest,
+because I ever took care to guide them towards places abounding in game
+and very picturesque. Sometimes I would take them to the isle of
+Socolme, a still more curious place indeed than the bat islands.
+Socolme is a circular lake&mdash;<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb189"
+href="#pb189">189</a>]</span>being one league in circumference&mdash;in
+the midst of the great lake of Bay, from which it is separated by a
+cordon or ribbon of land; or, to express myself better, by a mountain
+which rises to an elevation of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet; the
+centre of the mountain at the summit is occupied by the lake of
+Socolme, and is evidently the crater of an extinct volcano. Both sides
+are completely covered with large trees of luxuriant growth. It is on
+the border of the small lake&mdash;where the Indians never go, through
+fear of the caymans&mdash;that almost all the aquatic birds of the
+grand lake resort to lay their eggs. Every tree, white with the guano
+which they deposit there, is covered with birds&rsquo;-nests, full of
+eggs and birds of every size and age.</p>
+
+<p>One day, in company of my brother and Mr. Hamilton Lindsay,<a class=
+"noteref" id="xd0e1923src" href="#xd0e1923">1</a> an Englishman, who
+was as fearless an explorer as ourselves, I started from the
+plantation, with the intention of having some light canoes carried
+across the high ground which separates the Socolme lake from the lake
+of Bay, and of using them on the lake; and, after overcoming many
+difficulties, we, by the assistance of our Indians, carried out this
+project.</p>
+
+<p>We were the first tourists that ever ventured to expose our lives on
+this Socolme lake. The Indians who had come with us refused most
+decidedly to enter the boats, and exerted all their eloquence to
+prevent us from going on the water. They spoke to us thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You are going, for no good purpose, to expose yourselves to
+very great dangers, against which you have no means of defence, for
+before you have gone far you will see thousands of <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb190" href="#pb190">190</a>]</span>caymans rising
+out of the deep water; they will come to attack you, and what can you
+oppose to those ferocious and invulnerable monsters? Your guns and
+bullets cannot wound them. And as for escape by rowing quickly, that is
+not possible. In their own element they swim much faster than your
+canoes, and when they come up to you they will turn your boats
+up-side-down with far more ease than you can drive it along; and then
+the frightful scene will begin, from which you cannot
+escape.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was much good sense in what they said, and there can be no
+doubt that it was most imprudent of us to embark in a little frail
+canoe, and to make a trip over a lake inhabited by such numbers of
+caymans, and especially since it was to be feared that the lake did not
+supply fish enough to satisfy their voracity; and of course when
+enraged by hunger they were more to be dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>But we were never deterred by dangers or difficulties; so, taking no
+account of the prognostics of my prudent Indians, we, while they were
+delivering their long speeches, had lashed together two canoes for
+greater security.</p>
+
+<p>We had not proceeded many yards from the bank, when we all
+experienced feelings of alarm, attributable, no doubt, to the
+expectation of danger being immediate, as well as to the aspect of the
+place which presented itself to our view.</p>
+
+<p>We were down in the deepest part of a gulf, surrounded by lofty and
+precipitous mountains, which were externally covered with very thick
+vegetation. They, on all sides, presented a barrier, through which it
+was impossible to pass. The shadows which they cast over the water, at
+the extreme point of the lake, produced the effect of half darkness,
+which, in conjunction with the silence prevailing in that dismal
+solitude, gave it an aspect so dreary and saddening, as to produce in
+us most painful <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb191" href=
+"#pb191">191</a>]</span>feelings; each of us as it were, struck with
+terror, kept his thoughts to himself, and no one spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Our canoes went on, moving farther and farther from the brink from
+which we had embarked; and it glided easily over the glassy sheet of
+water, which is never agitated by even the roughest gales, and does not
+receive the rays of the sun except when that luminary is at the
+zenith.</p>
+
+<p>The silence in which we were absorbed was suddenly broken by the
+appearance of a cayman, which raised its hideous head, and opened its
+enormous jaws, as if about to swallow the canoes, as it darted after
+us.</p>
+
+<p>The moment was come; the grand drama announced by the Indians was
+about to be realised, or all our fears would be dissipated without any
+delay. There was not one instant to be spared, and we had no choice but
+to try and escape as fast as we could, for the enemy was gaining on us,
+and it would be madness to await his attack. I was steering, and I
+exerted myself to the utmost to get away from the danger and to escape
+to the shore. But the amphibious beast was approaching so fast that he
+could almost seize us, when Lindsay, running all risks, fired his gun
+direct at the brute.</p>
+
+<p>The effect produced by the detonation was prodigious, for, as it
+were by enchantment, it dispelled all our apprehensions. The awful
+silence was broken in the most striking manner; the cayman was
+frightened, and sank abruptly to the bottom of the lake; hundreds of
+echoes resounded from all sides, like the discharges of a rifle corps,
+and these were repeated to the tops of the mountains, while clouds of
+cormorants, starting from all the trees around, uttered their screaming
+and piercing cries, in which they were joined by the Indians, who
+shouted with joy on seeing from the bank <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb192" href="#pb192">192</a>]</span>the flight of the hostile beast,
+of which they are always so much afraid.</p>
+
+<p>All then became tranquil, and we proceeded at our leisure. From time
+to time a cayman made his appearance; but the explosions caused by our
+firing soon drove the monsters down into the deepest parts of the lake,
+more frightened than hurt, for even when we struck them our balls
+rebounded from their scales without piercing them.</p>
+
+<p>We went close to the large trees, the branches of which were
+spreading over the water; they were thickly covered with nests, filled
+with eggs, and so great a quantity of young birds, that we not only
+captured as many as we wished, but could have filled several boats with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The cormorants, alarmed by the explosions we made, whirled over us
+continually, like an immense cloud, during the time we troubled their
+gloomy abode, and seemed to &ldquo;disturb their solitary reign;&rdquo;
+but they did not wish to go far from their nests, in which their young
+broods were crying out for parental care.</p>
+
+<p>After we had rowed round the lake, we came to the spot from which we
+started, having ended our expedition happily without any accident, and
+even without having incurred all the dangers that our Indians, who were
+awaiting our return in order to take our boats once more across the
+mountain, had wished to make us believe.</p>
+
+<p>Resolved not to finish the excursion without producing some
+beneficial results for the sake of scientific knowledge, we measured
+the circumference of the lake, which we found to be about two miles and
+a-half. We were able to take soundings in the deepest parts towards the
+middle, where we found the depth about three hundred feet; while at
+some few fathoms <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb193" href=
+"#pb193">193</a>]</span>from the banks we found it was invariably one
+hundred and eighty feet. And here the remark may be made, that in no
+part of the great Lake of Bay has the depth been found to exceed
+seventy-five feet; from which it may be concluded, as we have
+previously stated, that the lake of Socolme is formed within the crater
+of an extinct volcano, its waters having percolated or filtered through
+from the outer lake of Bay.</p>
+
+<p>From Socolme I took my guests to Los Banos, at the foot of a
+mountain, several thousand feet high, from which several springs of
+boiling water flow into the lake, and, mixing with its waters, produce
+every temperature to be desired in a natural bath. There also, on the
+hill, we were sure to meet with good and plentiful sport. Wild pigeons
+and beautiful doves, perched upon majestic trees, &ldquo;mistrustful of
+their doom,&rdquo; allowed our sportsmen to approach very near, and
+they never returned from &ldquo;the baths&rdquo; without having
+&ldquo;bagged&rdquo; plenty of them.</p>
+
+<p>Upon our appointed days of relaxation from labour, we would go into
+the neighbouring woods, and wage war on the monkeys, our
+harvest&rsquo;s greatest enemies. As soon as a little dog, purposely
+brought up to this mode of warfare, warned us by his barkings that
+marauders were in sight, we repaired to the spot, and then the firing
+was opened. Fright seized hold on the mischievous tribe, every member
+of which hid itself in its tree, and became as invisible as it possibly
+could. But the little dog would not leave his post, while we would turn
+round the tree, and never failed discovering the hidden inmate. We then
+commence the attack, not ceasing until pug was laid prostrate. After
+having made several victims, I sent them to be hung up on forks around
+the sugar-cane fields, as scarecrows to those that had escaped; I,
+however, always sent the largest <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb194"
+href="#pb194">194</a>]</span>one to Father Miguel, our excellent
+curate, who was very fond of a monkey ragout.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I would take my guests to a distance of several
+days&rsquo; march, to show them admirable views, cascades, grottoes, or
+those wonders of vegetation produced by the fertile nature of the
+Philippines.</p>
+
+<p>One day, Mr. Lindsay, the most intrepid traveller I had ever known,
+and who had recently accompanied me to the lake of Socolme, proposed to
+me to go with him to the grotto of San-Mateo, a place that several
+travellers and myself had visited more than once, but always in so
+incomplete a manner, that we had only been able to explore a small
+portion of it. I was too well pleased with the proposal not to accept
+it with eagerness; but this time I resolved that I would not return
+from this expedition, as I had from former ones, without having made
+every possible effort to explore its dimensions and recesses. Lindsay,
+Dr. Genu, and my brother, participated in my resolution of verifying
+whether or not there was any semblance of truth in what the Indians
+related concerning that grotto; or if, as I had so often experienced it
+myself, their poetic minds did not create what had never existed. Their
+old Indian traditions attributed to that cavern an immense extent.
+There, they would say, are to be seen fairy palaces, with which nothing
+could be compared, and which were the residences of fantastical beings.
+Determined, then, on seeing with our own eyes all these wonders, we set
+out for San-Mateo, taking with us an Indian, having with him a crowbar
+and a couple of pickaxes, to dig us out a way, should we have the
+chance of prolonging our subterraneous walk beyond the limits which we
+all already knew. We also took with us a good provision of flambeaus,
+so necessary to put our project <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb195"
+href="#pb195">195</a>]</span>into execution. We arrived early at
+San-Mateo, and spent the remaining part of the day in visiting
+admirable views and situations in the neighbourhood. We also went down
+into the bed of a torrent that takes its source in the mountains, and
+passes through the north side of this district; there we saw several
+Indians, male and female, all busy in washing the sand in search of
+gold-dust. Their daily produce at this work varies from one to ten
+francs; this depends on the more or less fortunate vein that perchance
+they fall on. This trade, together with the tilling of land&mdash;to be
+equalled by no other in fertility&mdash;and hewing timber for building,
+which is to be found most plentifully on the neighbouring mountains, is
+all the wealth of the inhabitants, who, in most part, live in abundance
+and prosperity.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p195"><img border="0" src="images/p195.jpg"
+alt="View at San-Mateo." width="473" height="384">
+<p class="figureHead">View at San-Mateo.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb196" href=
+"#pb196">196</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>At the next day&rsquo;s dawn we were on our way to the grotto, which
+is about two hours&rsquo; walk from the village. The road, which is
+bordered by nature&rsquo;s most beautiful productions in vegetation,
+traverses the finest rice plantations, and is of most easy access;
+however, about half-way, it suddenly becomes dangerous and even
+difficult. Here we leave the cultivated fields, and follow along the
+banks of the river, which flows in the midst of not very high
+mountains, and has so many bends, twistings, and meanderings, that, in
+order to cross it, it is necessary at almost every moment to have
+recourse to swimming, and then to take the narrow paths leading from
+its margin. Nothing, until at a very short distance from the grotto,
+interrupts the monotony of these rural sites and situations. The
+traveller plods his way through a gorge, or ravine, where upon all
+sides the view is bounded by rocks, and a long line of verdant
+vegetation, composed of the shrubs that cover the hills. But through a
+vast winding, or rather turning, made by the river, the eye is suddenly
+dazzled by the splendid panorama that seems to develop itself and move
+on with fairy magnificence. Let the reader imagine that he is standing
+at the base of two immense mountains, resembling two pyramids in their
+form, both equally alike and similar in height. The space that
+intervenes between them allows the eye to plunge into the distance, and
+to discover there a tableau, a picture, or view, which is impossible to
+be described. Between the two monster mountains the river has found an
+issue, and there the traveller beholds it at his feet, precipitating
+itself like an impetuous torrent in the midst of white marble rocks.
+The water, both limpid and glossy, seems to play with every object that
+impedes its course; at one moment it will form a noisy cascade, and
+then suddenly disappear at the foot of an enormous rock, and soon <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb197" href="#pb197">197</a>]</span>after
+appear again, bubbling and foaming, just as if some supernatural
+strength had worked it from the bowels of the earth. Farther on, and in
+forming itself into a continuous number of minor cascades, this same
+river flows, with a vast silvery surface, over a bed of marble, as
+white and as brilliant as alabaster, and falls upon others of still
+equal whiteness. Finally, after having passed over all difficulties,
+all dangers, it flows with much more modesty over a humble bed, where
+may be seen the reflection of the admirable vegetation its banks are
+embellished with.</p>
+
+<p>The famous grotto is situated in the mountain on the right side of
+the river, which the traveller crosses over by jumping from one block
+of marble to another; and then, after having ascended a steep height of
+about two hundred yards, he finds himself at the entrance to the
+grotto, whither I shall conduct the reader step by step.</p>
+
+<p>The entrance, the form of which is almost regular, represents pretty
+well the portico of a church, with a full arch, adorned with verdant
+festoons, composed of creeping plants and bind-weeds. When the visitor
+has once passed under the portico he enters into a large and spacious
+hall, studded with stalactites of a very yellowish colour, and there a
+dense crowd of bats, frightened by the light of the torches, fly out
+with great noise and precipitation. For about a hundred paces, in
+advancing towards the interior, the vault continues to be very lofty,
+and the gallery is spacious; but suddenly the former declines
+immensely, and the latter becomes so narrow that it scarce admits of a
+passage for one man, who is obliged to crawl on his hands and knees to
+pass through, and continue in this painful position for about a hundred
+yards. And now the gallery becomes wide again, and the vault rises
+several feet <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb198" href=
+"#pb198">198</a>]</span>high. But here, again, a new difficulty soon
+presents itself, and which must be overcome; a sort of wall, three or
+four yards high, must be climbed over, and immediately behind which
+lies a most dangerous subterraneous place, where two enormous
+precipices, with open mouths on a level with the ground, seem ready to
+swallow up the imprudent traveller, who, although he have his torch
+lighted, would not walk, step by step, and with the greatest
+precaution, through this gloomy labyrinth. A few stones thrown into
+these gulfs attest, by the hollow noise produced by their falling to
+the bottom, that they are several hundred feet deep. Then the gallery,
+which is still wide and spacious, runs on without presenting anything
+remarkable till the visitor arrives on the spot where the last
+researches stopped at. Here it seems to terminate by a sort of rotunda,
+surrounded by stalactites of divers forms, and which, in one part,
+represents a real dome supported by columns. This dome looks over a
+small lake, out of which a murmuring stream flows continually into the
+precipices already described. It was here that we began our serious
+investigations, desirous of ascertaining if it were possible to prolong
+this subterraneous peregrination. We dived several times into the lake
+without discovering anything favourable to our desires; we then
+directed our steps to the right, examining all the while, by the light
+of our torches, the smallest gaps to be seen in the sides of the
+gallery, when at last, after many unsuccessful attempts, we discovered
+a hole through which a man&rsquo;s arm could scarcely pass. By
+introducing a torch into it, how great was our surprise to see within
+it an immense space, studded with rock-crystal. I need not add that
+such a discovery inspired us with the greatest desire of more closely
+examining that which we had but an imperfect view of. We therefore set
+our Indian to work <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb199" href=
+"#pb199">199</a>]</span>with his pick-axe, to widen the hole and make a
+passage for us; his labour went on slowly, he struck his blows gently
+and cautiously, so as to avoid a falling-in of the rock, which would
+not only have marred our hopes, but would, besides, have caused a great
+disaster. The vault of rocks suspended over our heads might bury us all
+alive, and, as will be seen by the sequel, the precautions we had taken
+were not fruitless. At the very moment when our hopes were about to be
+realised,&mdash;the aperture being now wide enough to admit of us
+passing through it&mdash;suddenly, and above our heads, we heard a
+hollow prolonged rustling noise that froze us to death; the vault had
+been shaken, and we dreaded its falling upon us. For a moment, which
+seemed to us, however, very long, we were all terrified; the Indian
+himself was standing as motionless as a statue, with his hands upon the
+handle of his pick-axe, just in the same position as he was when he
+gave his last blow. After a moment&rsquo;s solemn silence, when our
+fright had a little subsided, we began to examine the nature of the
+danger we had just escaped. Above our heads a long and wide split ran
+along the vault to a distance of several yards, and, at the place where
+it stopped, an enormous rock, detached from the dome, had been most
+providentially impeded in its fall downwards by one of the columns,
+which, acting as a sort of buttress, kept it suspended over the opening
+we had just made. Having, after mature examination, ascertained that
+the column and the rock were pretty solid, like rash men, accustomed to
+daunt all danger and surmount any sort of obstacle and difficulty, we
+resolved upon gliding one by one into the dangerous yawning. Dr. Genu,
+who till then had kept a profound silence, on hearing of our resolution
+was suddenly seized with such a panic fear that he recovered his voice,
+imploring and begging of us to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb200"
+href="#pb200">200</a>]</span>take him out of the cavern; and, as if he
+had been suddenly seized with a sort of vertigo, he told us, with
+interrupted accents, that he could not breathe&mdash;that he felt
+himself as if he were smothering&mdash;that his heart was beating so
+violently, were he to stay any longer amidst the dangers we were
+running he was certain of dying from the effects of a rupture of the
+heart. He offered all he possessed on earth to him who would save his
+life, and with clasped hands he supplicated our Indians not to forsake
+him, but to guide him out of the place. We therefore took compassion
+upon his state of mind, and allowed the Indian to guide him out; but as
+soon as the latter returned, and having ascertained during his absence
+that neither the rocky fragment nor the column had stirred, but which
+had been the momentary cause of our alarm, we put our project into
+execution, and like serpents, one after the other, we crawled into the
+dangerous opening, which was scarcely large enough for our passing
+through. We soon ceased thinking of our past dangers, nor did our
+present imprudence much pre-occupy our minds, all our attention being
+entirely absorbed by what presented itself to our ravished eyes. Here
+we were in the midst of a saloon wearing a most fairy aspect, and, by
+the light of our torches, the vault, the floor, and the wall were
+shining and dazzling, as if they had been covered over with the most
+admirably transparent rock-crystal. Even in some places did the hand of
+man seem to have presided over the ornamenting of this enchanted
+palace. Numberless stalactites and stalagmites, as pellucid as the
+limpid stream that has just been seized by the frost, assumed here and
+there the most fantastic forms and shapes&mdash;they represented
+brilliant draperies, rows of columns, lustres, and chandeliers. At one
+end, close to the wall, was to be seen an altar, with steps leading up
+to it, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb201" href=
+"#pb201">201</a>]</span>which seemed to be in expectation of the priest
+to celebrate divine service. It would be impossible for my pen to
+describe everything that transported us with joy, and drew forth our
+admiration; we really imagined ourselves to be in one of the Arabian
+Nights&rsquo; palaces, and the Indians themselves were far from
+guessing the one-half of the wonders we had just discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Having left this dazzling palace, we continued our underground
+ramble, penetrating more and more into the bowels of the earth,
+following step by step a winding labyrinth, but which for a whole
+half-league offered nothing remarkable to our view, except now and then
+the sight of the very great dangers our undauntable curiosity urged us
+on to. In certain parts the vault no longer presented the aspect of
+being as solid as stone, earth alone seemed to be its component parts;
+and here and there, recent proofs of falling-in showed us that still
+more considerable ones might take place, and cut off from us all means
+of retreat. Nevertheless we pushed on still, far beyond our present
+adventurous discovery, and at last arrived at a new, magnificent, and
+extensive space, all bespangled, like the first, with brilliant
+stalactites, and in no way inferior to the former in the gorgeous
+beauty of its details. Here again we gave ourselves up to the most
+minute examination of the many wonders surrounding us, and which shone
+like prisms by the light of our torches. We gathered from off the
+ground several small stalagmites, as large and as round as hazel-nuts,
+and so like that fruit, when preserved, that some days later, at a ball
+at Manilla, we presented some of them to the ladies, whose first
+movement was to put them to their mouth; but soon finding out their
+mistake, they entreated to be allowed to keep them, to have them, as
+they said, converted into ear-ring drops. <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb202" href="#pb202">202</a>]</span>Having fully enjoyed the beautiful
+and brilliant spectacle presented to our eyes, we now began to feel the
+effects of hunger and fatigue. We had been walking in this
+subterraneous domain to the extent of more than three miles, had taken
+no rest or refreshment since morning, and the day was already far
+advanced.</p>
+
+<p>I have often experienced that our moral strength decreases in
+proportion as our physical strength does; and of course we must have
+been in that state when sinister suppositions took possession of our
+imaginations. One of our party communicated to us a reflection he had
+just made&mdash;which was, that a falling-in might have taken place
+between us and the issue from the grotto; or, what appeared still more
+probable, that the enormous rock, that was suspended and buttressed up
+by the column, might have fallen down, and thus bar up all passage
+through the hole we had so rashly made. Had such a misfortune happened
+to us, what a horrible situation we should have been in! We could hope
+for no help from without, even from our friend Genu, who, as we had
+witnessed, had been so upset by fear; so that, rather than suffer the
+anguish and die the death of the wretch buried alive in a sepulchre,
+our poignards must have been our last resource.</p>
+
+<p>All these reflections, which we analysed and commented upon, one by
+one, made us resolve upon returning, and leaving to others, more
+imprudent than ourselves, if any there be, the care of exploring the
+space we had still to travel over. We soon got over the ground that
+separated us from the place we had most to dread. Providence had
+favoured and protected us&mdash;the large fragment of rock, that object
+of all our fears, was still propped up. One after the other did we
+squeeze ourselves through the narrow opening, avoiding as much as
+possible the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb203" href=
+"#pb203">203</a>]</span>least friction, till at last we had all passed
+through. Joyous indeed were we on seeing ourselves out of danger after
+so perilous an enterprise, and we were already beginning to direct our
+steps towards the outlet of the cavern, when suddenly a hollow,
+prolonged noise, and below our feet a rapid trembling excited once more
+all our fears. But those fears were soon calmed by our Indian, who came
+running towards us at full speed, brandishing in his hand his pick-axe.
+The imprudent fellow, unwilling to sacrifice it, had waited till we
+were some paces distant, and then pulling it to him most forcibly,
+while all the while he took good care to keep quickly moving away, when
+thanks to Providence, or to his own nimbleness, he was not crushed to
+atoms by the fragment of the rock, which, being no longer buttressed up
+by the column that had been shaken, had fallen to the ground,
+completely stopping up the issue through which we had passed one after
+the other: so that no doubt no one, after us, will be able to penetrate
+into the beautiful part of that grotto which we had just passed through
+so fortunately. After this last episode we no longer hesitated in
+returning, and it was with great delight that we beheld once more the
+great luminary of the world, and found our friend Genu sitting upon a
+block of marble, reflecting on our long absence, and, at the same time,
+on our unqualifiable temerity. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb204"
+href="#pb204">204</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p204"><img border="0" src="images/p204.jpg"
+alt="Dumont d&rsquo;Urville." width="301" height="334">
+<p class="figureHead">Dumont d&rsquo;Urville.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e1923src" id="xd0e1923">1</a></span> While this work was in the
+press, Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, who has already published an account of
+his &ldquo;Voyage to the Northern Ports of China,&rdquo; kindly
+furnished the Publishers with confirmatory proofs of M. de la
+Gironiere&rsquo;s narrative, see Appendix, No. II.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch10" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter X.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>Dumont d&rsquo;Urville&mdash;Rear-Admiral Laplace: Desertion of
+Sailors from his Ship&mdash;I recover them for him&mdash;Origin of the
+Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands&mdash;Their General
+Disposition&mdash;Hospitality and Respect for Old Age&mdash;Tagal
+Marriage Ceremony&mdash;Indian Legal Eloquence&mdash;Explanation of the
+Matrimonial Speeches&mdash;The Caymans, or Alligators&mdash;Instances
+of their Ferocity&mdash;Imprudence and Death of my
+Shepherd&mdash;Method of entrapping the Monster which had devoured
+him&mdash;We Attack and eventually Capture it&mdash;Its
+Dimensions&mdash;We Dissect and Examine the Contents of its
+Stomach&mdash;Boa-Constrictors&mdash;Their large size&mdash;Attack of a
+Boa-Constrictor on a Wild Boar&mdash;We Kill and Skin
+it&mdash;Unsuccessful Attempt to capture a Boa-Constrictor
+alive&mdash;A Man Devoured&mdash;Dangerous Venomous Reptiles.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">I shall perhaps be accused of exaggeration for what
+I say of the enjoyments and emotions of my existence at Jala-Jala:
+nevertheless I adhere to the strict truth, and it would be very easy
+for me to cite the names of many persons in support of the truth of all
+my narrative. Moreover, the various travellers who have spent some time
+at my habitation have published, in their works, the tableau or recital
+of my existence <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb205" href=
+"#pb205">205</a>]</span>in the midst of my dear Indians, who were all
+so devoted to me. Among other works, I shall cite &ldquo;The Voyage
+Round the World,&rdquo; by the unfortunate Dumont d&rsquo;Urville; and
+that of Rear-Admiral Laplace, in each of which works will be found a
+special article dedicated to Jala-Jala.<a class="noteref" id=
+"xd0e2024src" href="#xd0e2024">1</a></p>
+
+<p>Since I have named M. Laplace, I shall here relate a little anecdote
+of which he was the hero, and which will show to what a degree my
+influence was generally considered and looked up to in the province of
+Lagune.</p>
+
+<p>Several sailors, belonging to the crew of the frigate commanded by
+M. Laplace, had deserted at Manilla, and, notwithstanding all the
+searches that the Spanish government had caused to be made, it was
+found impossible to discover the hiding-place of five of them. M.
+Laplace coming to pay a few weeks&rsquo; visit to my little domain, the
+governor said to him: &ldquo;If you wish to find out your men you have
+only to apply to M. Gironiere&mdash;no one will discover them if he do
+not; convey to him my orders to set out immediately in pursuit of
+them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at my habitation M. Laplace communicated to me this
+order, but I was too independent to think of executing it: my business
+and occupation had nothing to do with deserters. A few days afterwards
+a captain, accompanied by about a hundred soldiers, under his orders,
+arrived at Jala-Jala, to inform M. Laplace that he had scoured the
+province without being able to obtain the least news of the deserters,
+whom he had been looking after for the last fortnight; at which news M.
+Laplace was very much grieved, and coming to me, said: &ldquo;M. de la
+Gironiere, I perceive I shall be obliged to sail without the hands that
+have deserted, if you yourself will not look after <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb206" href="#pb206">206</a>]</span>them. I therefore
+beg and beseech of you to sacrifice a little of your time, and render
+me that important service.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This entreaty was no order: it was a prayer, a supplication, that
+was addressed to me, consequently I took but little time to reply as
+follows: &ldquo;Commander, in one hour hence I shall be on my way, and
+before forty-eight hours are expired you shall have your men
+here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh! take care,&rdquo; replied he; &ldquo;mind, you have to do
+with more than rough fellows: do not therefore expose your life, and
+should they perchance make any resistance, give them no quarter, but
+fire on them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes afterwards, accompanied by my faithful lieutenant and
+one soldier, I crossed over the lake, and went in the direction where I
+thought that the French sailors had taken refuge. I was soon on their
+track; and on the second day afterwards I fulfilled the promise I had
+made Commander Laplace, and delivered up to him his five deserters
+against whom I had been obliged to employ neither violence nor
+fire-arms.</p>
+
+<p>I have already had the occasion of speaking about the Tagalocs, and
+describing their disposition. However, I have not yet entered into the
+necessary details to make well known a population so submissive to the
+Spaniards, and whose primitive origin never can be anything but
+hypothesis&mdash;yea, a true problem.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable, and almost incontestible, that the Philippine
+Islands were primitively peopled by aborigines, a small race of negroes
+still inhabiting the interior of the forests in pretty large numbers,
+called Ajetas by the Tagalocs, and N&eacute;gritos by the Spaniards.
+Doubtless at a very distant period the Malays invaded the shores, and
+drove the indigenous population into the interior beyond the mountains;
+afterwards, whether by accidents <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb207"
+href="#pb207">207</a>]</span>on sea, or desirous of availing themselves
+of the richness of the soil, they were joined by the Chinese, the
+Japanese, the inhabitants of the archipelago of the South Seas, the
+Javanese, and even the Indians. It must not, then, be wondered at, that
+from the mixture proceeding from the union of these various people, all
+of unequal physiognomy, there have risen the different <i>nuances</i>,
+distinctions and types; upon which, however, is generally depicted
+Malay physiognomy and cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>The Tagal is well made, rather tall than otherwise. His hair is
+long, his beard thin, his colour brass-like, yet sometimes inclining to
+European whiteness; his eye expanded and vivacious, somewhat <i>
+&aacute; la Chinoise</i>; nose large; and, true to the Malay race, his
+cheek bones are high and prominent. He is passionately fond of dancing
+and music; is, when in love, very loving; cruel towards his enemies;
+never forgives an act of injustice, and ever avenges it with his
+poignard, which&mdash;like the kris with the Malays&mdash;is his
+favourite weapon. Whenever he has pledged his word in serious business,
+it is sacred; he gives himself passionately to games of hazard; he is a
+good husband, a good father; jealous of his wife&rsquo;s honour, but
+careless of his daughter&rsquo;s; who, despite any little <i>
+faux-pas</i>, meets with no difficulty in getting a husband.</p>
+
+<p>The Tagal is of very sober habits: all he requires is water, a
+little rice, and salt-fish. In his estimation an aged man is an object
+of great veneration; and where there exists a family of them in all
+periods of life, the youngest is naturally most subservient to the
+eldest.</p>
+
+<p>The Tagal, like the Arab, is hospitably inclined, without any
+sentiment of egotism, and certainly without any other idea than that of
+relieving suffering humanity: so that when a stranger appears before an
+Indian hut at meal-time, were the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb208"
+href="#pb208">208</a>]</span>poor Indian only to have what was strictly
+necessary for his family, it is his greatest pleasure to invite and
+press the stranger to take a place at his humble board, and partake of
+his family cheer. When an old man, whose days are dwindling to the
+shortest span, can work no longer, he is sure to find a refuge, an
+asylum, a home, at a neighbour&rsquo;s, where he is looked upon as one
+of the family. There he may remain till he is called to &ldquo;that
+bourne from whence no traveller returns.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p208"><img border="0" src="images/p208.jpg"
+alt="A Tagal Indian Dwelling." width="479" height="385">
+<p class="figureHead">A Tagal Indian Dwelling.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Amongst the Tagals the marriage ceremony is somewhat peculiar. It is
+preceded by two other ceremonies, the first of which is called <i lang=
+"tl">Tain manoc</i>, Tagal words, signifying or meaning &ldquo;the cock
+looking after his hen.&rdquo; Therefore, when once a young man has
+informed his father and mother that he has a predeliction for a young
+Indian girl, his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb209" href=
+"#pb209">209</a>]</span>parents pay a visit to the young girl&rsquo;s
+parents upon some fine evening, and after some very ordinary chat the
+mamma of the young man offers a piaster to the mamma of the young lady.
+Should the future mother-in-law accept, the young lover is admitted,
+and then his future mother-in-law is sure to go and spend the very same
+piaster in betel and cocoa-wine. During the greater portion of the
+night the whole company assembled upon the occasion chews betel, drinks
+cocoa-wine, and discusses upon all other subjects but marriage. The
+young men never make their appearance till the piaster has been
+accepted, because in that case they look upon it as being the first and
+most essential step towards their marriage.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p209"><img border="0" src="images/p209.jpg"
+alt="Young Tagal Indian and his Betrothed." width="336" height="427">
+<p class="figureHead">Young Tagal Indian and his Betrothed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb210" href=
+"#pb210">210</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>On the next day the young man pays a visit to the mother, father,
+and other relatives of his affianced bride. There he is received as one
+of the family; he sleeps there, he lodges there, takes a part in all
+the labours, and most particularly in those labours depending upon the
+young maid&rsquo;s superintendence. He now undertakes a service or task
+that lasts, more or less, two, three, or four years, during which time
+he must look well to himself; for if anything be found out against him
+he is discarded, and never more can pretend to the hand of her he would
+espouse.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards did their best to suppress this custom, on account of
+the inconveniencies it entailed. Very often the father of a young girl,
+in order to keep in his service a man who cost him nothing, keeps on
+this state of servitude indefinitely, and sometimes dismisses him who
+has served him for two or three years, and takes another under the same
+title of <i lang="fr">pr&eacute;tendant</i>, or lover. But it also
+frequently happens that if the two lovers grow impatient for the
+celebration of the marriage ceremony&mdash;for &ldquo;hope deferred
+maketh the heart sick,&rdquo;&mdash;some day or other the girl takes
+the young man by the hair, and presenting him to the curate of the
+village, tells him she has just run away with her lover, therefore they
+must be married. The wedding ceremony then takes place without the
+consent of the parents. But were the young man to carry off the young
+girl, he would be severely punished, and she restored to her
+family.</p>
+
+<p>If all things have passed off in good order, if the lover has
+undergone two or three years of voluntary slavery, and if his future
+relations be quite satisfied with his conduct and temper, then comes
+the day of the second ceremony, called <i lang="tl">Tajin-bojol</i>,
+&ldquo;the young man desirous of tying the union knot.&rdquo; <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb211" href="#pb211">211</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>This second ceremony is a grand festival-day. The relations and
+friends of both families are all assembled at the bride&rsquo;s house,
+and divided into two camps, each of which discusses the interests of
+the young couple; but each family has an advocate, who alone has the
+right to speak in favour of his client. The relations have no right to
+speak; they only make, in a low tone of voice, to their advocate, the
+observations they think fit.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian woman never brings a marriage portion with her. When she
+takes a husband unto herself she possesses nothing; the young man alone
+brings the portion, and this is why the young girl&rsquo;s advocate
+speaks first, and asks for it, in order to settle the basis of the
+treaty.</p>
+
+<p>I will here set before my readers the speeches of two advocates in a
+ceremony of this kind, at which I had the curiosity to be present. In
+order not to wound the susceptibility of the parties, the advocates
+never speak but in allegorical terms, and at the ceremony which I
+honoured with my presence the advocate of the young Indian girl thus
+began:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A young man and a young girl were joined together in the holy
+bands of wedlock; they <span class="corr" id="xd0e2103" title="Source:
+possesed">possessed</span> nothing&mdash;nay, they had not even a
+shelter. For several years the young woman was very badly off. At last
+her misfortunes came to an end, and one day she found herself in a fine
+large cottage that was her own. She became the mother of a pretty
+little babe, a girl, and on the day of her confinement there appeared
+unto her an angel, who said to her:&mdash;&lsquo;Bear in mind thy
+marriage, and the time of penury thou didst go through. The child that
+has just been born unto thee will I take under my protection. When she
+will have grown up and be a fine lass, give her but to him who will
+build her up a temple, where <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb212" href=
+"#pb212">212</a>]</span>there will be ten columns, each composed of ten
+stones. If thou dost not execute these my orders thy daughter will be
+as miserable as thou hast been thyself.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After this short speech, the adverse advocate
+replied:&mdash;&ldquo;Once upon a time there lived a queen, whose
+kingdom lay on the sea-side. Amongst the laws of her realm there was
+one which she followed with the greatest rigour. Every ship arriving in
+her states&rsquo; harbour could, according to that law, cast anchor but
+at one hundred fathoms deep, and he who violated the said law was put
+to death without pity or remorse. Now it came to pass one day that a
+brave captain of a ship was surprised by a dreadful tempest, and after
+many fruitless endeavours to save his vessel, he was obliged to put
+into the queen&rsquo;s harbour, and cast anchor there, although his
+cable was only eighty fathoms long, for he preferred death on the
+scaffold to the loss of his ship and crew. The enraged queen commanded
+him to her audit chamber. He obeyed, and throwing himself at her feet,
+told her that necessity alone had compelled him to infringe upon the
+laws, and that, having but eighty fathoms long, he could not possibly
+cast out a hundred, so he besought her most graciously to pardon
+him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And here ended his speech, but the other advocate took it up, and
+thus went on:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The queen, moved to pity by the prayer of the suppliant
+captain, and his inability to cast his anchor one hundred fathoms deep,
+instantly pardoned him, and well did she devise.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>On hearing these last words joy shone upon every countenance, and
+the musicians began playing on the guitar. The bride and bridegroom,
+who had been waiting in an adjoining chamber, now made their
+appearance. The young man took from off his neck his rosary, or string
+of beads, put it round <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb213" href=
+"#pb213">213</a>]</span>the young girl&rsquo;s neck, and took back hers
+in lieu of the one he had given her. The night was spent in dancing and
+merriment, and the marriage ceremony&mdash;just as Christian-like as
+our own&mdash;was arranged to take place in a week.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now, just as I heard it myself, give the explanation of the
+advocates&rsquo; speeches, which I did not entirely understand. The
+bride&rsquo;s mother had married without a wedding portion on her
+husband&rsquo;s side, so she had gone through very adverse and pinching
+circumstances. The temple that the angel had told her to demand for her
+daughter was, a house; and the ten columns, composed of ten stones
+each, signified that with the house a sum of one hundred piasters would
+be requisite&mdash;that is, twenty pounds sterling.</p>
+
+<p>The speech of the young man&rsquo;s advocate explained that he would
+give the house, as he said nothing about it; but, being worth only
+eighty piasters, he threw himself at the feet of the parents of his
+betrothed, that the twenty piasters which he was minus, might offer no
+obstacle to his marriage. The pardon accorded by the queen signified
+the grace shown to the young man, who was accepted with his eighty
+piasters only.</p>
+
+<p>The servitude which precedes matrimony, and of which I have spoken,
+was practised long before the conquest of these isles by the Spaniards.
+This would seem to prove the origin I attribute to the Tagalocs, whom I
+believe to be descended from the Malays, and these latter, being all
+Mussulmans, would naturally have preserved some of the ancient
+patriarchal customs.</p>
+
+<p>Believing that I have sufficiently described the Indians and their
+habits, I will now introduce to my readers two species of monsters that
+I have often bad occasion to observe, mid even to combat&mdash;the one
+a denizen of forests, the boa constrictor; <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb214" href="#pb214">214</a>]</span>the other of lakes and rivers,
+the cayman or alligator. At the period at which I first occupied my
+habitation, and began to colonise the village of Jala-Jala, caymans
+abounded on that side of the lake. From my windows I daily saw them
+sporting in the water, and waylaying and snapping at the dogs that
+ventured too near the brink. One day, a female servant of my
+wife&rsquo;s, having been so imprudent as to bathe at the edge of the
+lake, was surprised by one of them, a monster of enormous size. One of
+my guards came up at the moment she was being carried off; he fired his
+musket at the brute, and hit it under the fore-leg, or arm-pit, which
+is the only vulnerable part. But the wound was insufficient to check
+the cayman&rsquo;s progress, and it disappeared with its prey.
+Nevertheless, this little bullet hole was the cause of its death; and
+here it is to be observed, that the slightest wound received by the
+cayman is incurable. The shrimps which abound in the lake get into the
+orifice, gradually their number increases, until at last they penetrate
+deep into the solid flesh, and into the very interior of the body. This
+is what happened to the one which devoured my wife&rsquo;s maid. A
+month after the frightful occurrence the cayman was found dead upon the
+bank, five or six leagues from my house. Some Indians brought back to
+me the unfortunate woman&rsquo;s earrings, which they had found in the
+monster&rsquo;s stomach.</p>
+
+<p>Upon another occasion, a Chinese was riding onwards in advance of
+me. We reached a river, and I let him go on alone, in order to
+ascertain whether the river was very deep or not. Suddenly, three or
+four caymans which lay in waiting under the water, threw themselves
+upon him; horse and rider disappeared, and for some minutes afterwards
+the water was tinged with blood. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb215"
+href="#pb215">215</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was curious to obtain a near view of one of these voracious
+animals, and, at the time when they frequented the vicinity of my
+house, I made several attempts to accomplish my wishes. One night I
+baited a huge hook, secured by a chain and strong cord, with an entire
+sheep. Next morning, sheep and chain had disappeared. I lay in wait for
+the creatures with my gun, but the bullets rebounded, half flattened
+upon their scales, without doing the slightest injury. One evening that
+a large dog of mine had died, belonging to a race peculiar to the
+Philippines, and exceeding in size any of the canine species of Europe,
+I had his carcass dragged to the shore of the lake, and hid myself in a
+little thicket, with my gun ready cocked, in the event of any cayman
+presenting itself to carry off the bait. Presently I fell asleep; when
+I awoke, the dog had disappeared, the cayman, luckily for me, not
+mistaking his prey.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of a few years&rsquo; time, these monsters had
+disappeared from the environs of Jala-Jala; but one morning, when out
+with my shepherds, at some leagues&rsquo; distance from my house, we
+came to a river, which could only be crossed by swimming. One of my
+people said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, the water is deep here, and we are in the courses
+where the caymans abound; an accident soon happens, let us try further
+up the river, and pass over in a shallower spot.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We were about to follow this advice, when another man, more rash
+than his comrades, said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid of caymans!&rdquo;
+and spurred his horse into the stream. He had scarcely got half-way
+across, when we perceived a monstrous cayman rise and advance to meet
+him. We uttered a warning shout, the Indian himself perceived the
+danger, threw himself from his horse, and swam for the bank with all
+his strength. He had already reached it, but imprudently stopped behind
+the trunk <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb216" href=
+"#pb216">216</a>]</span>of a tree that had been felled by the force of
+the current, and where he had the water up to his knees. Believing
+himself secure, he drew his cutlass, and watched the movements of the
+cayman, which, meanwhile, had reached the horse just as, the Indian
+quitted the animal. Rearing his enormous head out of the water, the
+monster threw himself upon the steed and seized him by the saddle. The
+horse made a violent effort, the girths broke, and thus enabled him to
+reach the shore. Soon, however, finding that his prey had escaped, the
+cayman dropped the saddle, and made towards the Indian. We perceived
+this movement, and quickly cried out: &ldquo;Run, run, or the cayman
+will have you!&rdquo; The Indian, however, would not stir, but calmly
+waited, cutlass in hand. The monster advanced towards him; the Indian
+struck him a blow on the head, which took no more effect than a flip of
+the fingers would have on the horns of a bull. The cayman made a
+spring, seized him by one of his thighs, and for more than a minute we
+beheld my poor shepherd&mdash;his body erect above the surface of the
+water, his hands joined, his eyes turned to heaven, in the attitude of
+a man imploring Divine mercy&mdash;dragged back again into the lake.
+The drama was over: the cayman&rsquo;s stomach was his tomb. During
+these agonizing moments, we all remained silent, but no sooner had my
+poor shepherd disappeared than we all swore to avenge him.</p>
+
+<p>I caused to be made three nets of strong cords, each <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e2143" title="Source: of of">of</span> which nets was
+large enough to form a complete barrier across the river. I also had a
+hut built, and put an Indian to live in it, whose duty was to keep
+constant watch, and to let me know as soon as the cayman returned to
+the river. He watched in vain, for upwards of two months, but at the
+end of that time he came and told me that the monster had seized <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb217" href="#pb217">217</a>]</span>a horse,
+and had dragged it into the river to devour at leisure. I immediately
+repaired to the spot, accompanied by my guards, and by my priest, who
+positively would see a cayman hunt, and by an American friend of mine,
+Mr. Russell,<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2148src" href="#xd0e2148">2</a>
+who was then staying with me. I had the nets spread at intervals, so
+that the cayman could not escape back into the lake. This operation was
+not effected without some acts of imprudence; thus, for instance, when
+the nets were arranged, an Indian dived to make sure that they were at
+the bottom, and that our enemy could not escape by passing below them.
+But it might very well have happened that the cayman was in the
+interval between the nets, and so have gobbled up my Indian.
+Fortunately everything passed off as we wished. When all was ready, I
+launched three pirogues, strongly fastened together, side by side, with
+some Indians in the centre, armed with lances, and with long bamboos,
+with which they could touch the bottom. At last, all measures having
+been taken to attain my end, without risk of accident, my <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e2151" title="Source: indians">Indians</span> began to
+explore the river with their long bamboos.</p>
+
+<p>An animal so formidable in size as the one we were in search of,
+could not hide himself very easily, and soon we beheld him on the
+surface of the river, lashing the water with his long tail, snapping
+and clattering with his jaws, and endeavouring to get at those who
+disturbed him in his retreat. A universal shout of joy greeted his
+appearance; the Indians in the pirogues hurled their lances at him,
+whilst we, upon either shore of the lake, fired a volley. The bullets
+rebounded from the monster&rsquo;s scales, which they were unable to
+penetrate; the keener lances made their way between the scales, <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb218" href="#pb218">218</a>]</span>and entered
+into the cayman&rsquo;s body some eight or ten inches. Thereupon he
+disappeared, swimming with incredible rapidity, and reached the first
+net. The resistance it opposed turned him back; he re-ascended the
+river, and again appeared on the top of the water. This violent
+movement, broke the staves of the lances which the Indians had stuck
+into him, and the iron alone remained in the wounds. Each time that he
+appeared the firing recommenced, and fresh lances were plunged into his
+enormous body. Perceiving, however, how ineffectual firearms were to
+pierce his cuirass of invulnerable scales, I excited him by my shouts
+and gestures, and when he came to the edge of the water, opening his
+enormous jaws all ready to devour me, I approached the muzzle of my gun
+to within a few inches, and fired both barrels, in the hope that the
+bullets would find something softer than scales in the interior of that
+formidable cavern, and that they would penetrate to his brain. All was
+futile. The jaws closed with a terrible noise, seizing only the fire
+and smoke that issued from my gun, and the balls flattened against his
+bones without injuring them. The animal, which had now become furious,
+made inconceivable efforts to seize one of his enemies; his strength
+seemed to increase, rather than to diminish, whilst our resources were
+nearly exhausted. Almost all our lances were sticking in his body, and
+our ammunition drew to an end. The fight had lasted more than six
+hours, without any result that could make us hope for its speedy
+termination, when an Indian struck the cayman, whilst at the bottom of
+the water, with a lance of unusual strength and size. Another Indian,
+at his comrade&rsquo;s request, struck two vigorous blows with a mace
+upon the but-end of the lance; the iron entered deep into the
+animal&rsquo;s body, and immediately, with a movement as swift as
+lightning, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb219" href=
+"#pb219">219</a>]</span>he darted towards the nets and disappeared. The
+lance pole, detached from the iron head, returned to the surface of the
+water; for some minutes we waited in vain for the monster&rsquo;s
+re-appearance; we thought that his last effort had enabled him to reach
+the lake, and that our chase would result fruitlessly. We hauled in the
+first net, a large hole in which convinced us that our supposition was
+correct. The second net was in the same condition as the first.
+Disheartened by our failure, we were hauling in the third, when we felt
+a strong resistance. Several of the Indians began to drag it towards
+the bank, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb220" href=
+"#pb220">220</a>]</span>and presently, to our great joy, we saw the
+cayman upon the surface of the water. He was expiring. We threw over
+him several lassos of strong cords, and when he was well secured, we
+drew him to land. It was no easy matter to haul him up on the bank; the
+strength of forty Indians hardly sufficed. When at last we had got him
+completely out of the water, and had him before our eyes, we stood
+stupified with astonishment, for it was a very different thing to see
+his body thus and to see him swimming, when he was fighting against us.
+Mr. Russell, a very competent person, was charged with his
+measurements. From the extremity of his nostrils to the tip of his
+tail, he was found to be twenty-seven feet long, and his circumference
+was eleven feet, measured under the arm pits. His belly was much more
+voluminous, but we thought it unnecessary to measure him there, judging
+that the horse upon which he had breakfasted must considerably have
+increased his bulk.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p219"><img border="0" src="images/p219.jpg"
+alt="Attacking the Cayman." width="483" height="456">
+<p class="figureHead">Attacking the Cayman.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This process at an end, we took counsel as to what we should do with
+the dead cayman. Every one gave his opinion. My wish was to convey it
+bodily to my residence, but that was impossible; it would have required
+a vessel of five or six tons burthen, and we could not procure such a
+craft. One man wanted the skin, the Indians begged for the flesh, to
+dry it, and use it as a specific against asthma. They affirm, that any
+asthmatic person who nourishes himself for a certain time with this
+flesh, is infallibly cured. Somebody else desired to have the fat, as
+an antidote to rheumatic pains; and, finally, my worthy priest demanded
+that the stomach should be opened, in order to ascertain how many
+Christians the monster had devoured. Every time, he said, that a cayman
+eats a Christian he swallows a large pebble; thus, the number of
+pebbles <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb221" href=
+"#pb221">221</a>]</span>we should find in him would positively indicate
+the number of the faithful to whom his enormous stomach had afforded
+sepulture. To satisfy everybody, I sent for an axe wherewith, to cut
+off the head, which I reserved for myself, abandoning the rest of the
+carcass to all who had taken part in the capture. It was no easy matter
+to decapitate the monster. The axe buried itself in the flesh to
+half-way up the handle without reaching the bones; at last, after many
+efforts, we succeeded in getting the head off. Then we opened the
+stomach, and took out of it, by fragments, the horse which had been
+devoured by the monster that morning. The cayman does not masticate, he
+snaps off a huge lump with his teeth, and swallows it entire. Thus we
+found the whole of the horse, divided only into seven or eight pieces.
+Then we came to about a hundred and fifty pounds&rsquo; weight of
+pebbles, varying from the size of a fist to that of a walnut. When my
+priest saw this great quantity of stones:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is a mere tale,&rdquo; he could not help saying; &ldquo;it
+is impossible that this animal could have devoured so great a number of
+<span class="corr" id="xd0e2176" title="Source: Chrstians">
+Christians</span>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was eight o&rsquo;clock at night when we had finished the cutting
+up. I left the body to our assistants, and had the head placed in a
+boat to convey it to my house. I very much desired to preserve this
+monstrous trophy as nearly as possible in the state in which it then
+was, but that would have required a great quantity of arsenical soap,
+and I was out of that chemical. So I made up my mind to dissect it, and
+preserve the skeleton. I weighed it before detaching the ligaments; its
+weight was four hundred and fifty pounds; its length, from the nose to
+the first vertebr&aelig;, five feet six inches.</p>
+
+<p>I found all my bullets, which had become flattened against the bones
+of the jaws and palate as they would have done <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb222" href="#pb222">222</a>]</span>against a plate of iron.
+The lance thrust which had slain the cayman was a chance&mdash;a sort
+of miracle. When the Indian struck with his mace upon the but-end of
+the pole, the iron pierced through the nape, into the vertebral column,
+and penetrated the spinal marrow, the only vulnerable part.</p>
+
+<p>When this formidable head was well prepared, and the bones dried and
+whitened, I had the pleasure of presenting it to my friend Russell, who
+has since deposited it in the museum at Boston, United States.</p>
+
+<p>The other monster, of which I have promised a description, is the
+boa-constrictor. The species is common in the Philippines, but it is
+rare to meet with a specimen of very large dimensions. It is possible,
+nay probable, that centuries of time are necessary for this reptile to
+attain its largest size; and to such an age, the various accidents to
+which animals are exposed, rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas
+are consequently to be met with only in the gloomiest, most remote, and
+most solitary forests.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p222"><img border="0" src="images/p222.jpg"
+alt="A Wild Boar attacked by a Boa Constrictor." width="486" height=
+"720">
+<p class="figureHead">A Wild Boar attacked by a Boa Constrictor.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb222" class="pageref">222</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our
+European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my house,
+and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my bed.
+Several times, when passing through the woods with my Indians, I heard
+the piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot whence they
+proceeded, we almost invariably found a wild boar, about whose body a
+boa had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting him up into the
+tree round which it had coiled itself.</p>
+
+<p>When the wild boar had reached a certain height, the snake pressed
+him against a tree with a force that crushed his bones and stifled him.
+Then the boa let its prey fall, descended the tree, and prepared to
+swallow it. This last <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb223" href=
+"#pb223">223</a>]</span>operation was much too lengthy for us to await
+its end. To simplify matters, I sent a ball into the boa&rsquo;s head.
+My Indians took the flesh to dry it for food, and the skin to make
+dagger sheaths of. It is unnecessary to say that the wild boar was not
+forgotten, although it was a prey that had cost us but little trouble
+to secure. One day an Indian surprised one of these reptiles asleep,
+after it had swallowed an enormous deer. Its size was so great, that a
+buffalo waggon would have been necessary to transport it to the
+village. The Indian cut it in pieces, and contented himself with as
+much as he could carry off. Having been informed of this, I sent after
+the remains, and my people brought me a piece about eight feet long,
+and so large in circumference that the skin, when dried, enveloped the
+tallest man like a cloak. I presented it to my friend Hamilton
+Lindsay.</p>
+
+<p>I had not yet seen any of these largest sized serpents alive, when,
+one afternoon, crossing the mountains with two of my shepherds, our
+attention was drawn to the constant barking of my dogs, which seemed to
+be assailing some animal that stood upon its defence. We at first
+thought that it was a buffalo that they had roused from its lair, and
+approached the spot with due caution. My dogs were dispersed along the
+brink of a deep ravine, in which was an enormous boa constrictor. The
+monster raised his head to a height of five or six feet, directing it
+from one edge to the other of the ravine, and menacing his assailants
+with his forked tongue; but the dogs, more active than he was, easily
+avoided his attacks. My first impulse was to shoot him; but then it
+occurred to me to take him alive, and to send him to France. Assuredly
+he would have been the most monstrous boa that had ever been seen
+there. To carry my design into execution we manufactured <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb224" href="#pb224">224</a>]</span>nooses of cane,
+strong enough to resist the efforts of the most powerful wild buffalo.
+With great precaution we succeeded in passing one of our nooses round
+the boa&rsquo;s neck; then we tied him tightly to a tree, in such a
+manner as to keep his head at its usual height&mdash;about six feet
+from the ground. This done, we crossed to the other side of the ravine,
+and threw another noose over him, which we secured like the first. When
+he felt himself thus fixed at both ends, he coiled and writhed, and
+grappled several little trees which grew within his reach along the
+edge of the ravine. Unluckily for him everything yielded to his
+efforts: he tore up the young trees by the roots, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb225" href="#pb225">225</a>]</span>broke off the
+branches, and dislodged enormous stones, round which he sought in vain
+to obtain the hold or point of resistance he needed. The nooses were
+strong, and withstood his almost furious efforts.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p224"><img border="0" src="images/p224.jpg"
+alt="Attacking the Boa-Constrictor." width="485" height="463">
+<p class="figureHead">Attacking the Boa-Constrictor.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To convey an animal like this, several buffaloes and a whole system
+of cordage were necessary. Night approached; confident in our nooses,
+we left the place, proposing to return next morning and complete the
+capture; but we reckoned without our host. In the night the boa changed
+his tactics, got his body round some huge blocks of basalt, and finally
+succeeded in breaking his bonds and getting clear off. When I had
+assured myself that our prey had escaped us, and that all search for
+the reptile in the neighbourhood would be futile, my disappointment was
+very great, for I much doubted if a like opportunity would ever present
+itself. It is only on rare occasions that accidents are caused by these
+enormous reptiles. I once knew of a man becoming their victim. It
+happened thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>This man having committed some offence, ran away, and sought refuge
+in a cavern. His father, who alone knew the place of his concealment,
+visited him occasionally to supply him with food. One day he found, in
+place of his son, an enormous boa sleeping. He killed it, and found his
+son in its stomach. The poor wretch had been surprised in the night,
+crushed to death, and swallowed. The curate of the village, who had
+gone in quest of the body to give it burial, and who saw the remains of
+the boa, described them to me as being of an almost incredible size.
+Unfortunately this circumstance happened at a considerable distance
+from my habitation, and I was only made acquainted with the particulars
+when it was too late to verify them myself: but still there is nothing
+surprising that a boa which can swallow a deer should as easily <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb226" href="#pb226">226</a>]</span>swallow a
+man. Several other feats of a similar nature were related to me by the
+Indians. They told me of their comrades, who, roaming about the woods,
+had been seized by boas, crushed against trees, and afterwards
+devoured; but I was always on my guard against Indian tales, and I am
+only able to verify positively the instance, I have just cited, which
+was related to me by the curate of the village, as well as by many
+other witnesses. Still there would be nothing surprising that a similar
+accident should occur more than once.</p>
+
+<p>The boa is one of the serpents the least to be feared among those
+infesting the Philippines. Of an exceedingly venomous description is
+one which the Indians call <i lang="tl">dajon-palay</i>, (rice leaf).
+Burning with a red-hot ember is the only antidote to its bite; if that
+be not promptly resorted to, horrible sufferings are followed by
+certain death. The <i lang="tl">alin-morani</i> is another kind<span
+class="corr" id="xd0e2232" title="Source: .">,</span> eight or ten feet
+long, and, if anything, more dangerous still than the &ldquo;rice
+leaf,&rdquo; inasmuch as its bite is deeper, and more difficult to
+cauterise. I was never bitten by any of these reptiles, despite the
+slight precaution I observed in wandering about the woods, by night as
+well as by day.</p>
+
+<p>Twice only I endangered myself: the first time was by treading upon
+a dajon-palay; I was warned by a movement under my foot. I pressed hard
+with that leg, and saw the snake&rsquo;s little head stretching out to
+bite me on the ankle; fortunately my foot was on him at so short a
+distance from his head that he could not get at me. I drew my dagger,
+and cut off his head. On another occasion, I noticed two eagles rising
+and falling like arrows amongst the bushes, always at the same place.
+Curious to see what kind of animal they were attacking, I approached
+the place; but no sooner had I done so, than an enormous alin-morani,
+furious with the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb227" href=
+"#pb227">227</a>]</span>wounds the eagles had inflicted on him,
+advanced to meet me. I retreated; he coiled himself up, gave a spring,
+and almost caught me on the face. By an instantaneous movement, I made
+a spring backwards, and avoided him; but I took care not to turn my
+back and run, for then I should have been lost. The serpent returned to
+the charge, bounding towards me; I again avoided him, and was trying,
+but in vain, to reach him with my dagger, when an Indian, who perceived
+me from a distance, ran up, armed with a stout switch, and rid me of
+him. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb228" href=
+"#pb228">228</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p228"><img border="0" src="images/p228.jpg"
+alt="Rice stacking in the Philippines." width="392" height="486">
+<p class="figureHead">Rice stacking in the Philippines.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2024src" id="xd0e2024">1</a></span> See Appendix III. and IV.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2148src" id="xd0e2148">2</a></span> Of the house of Russell and
+Sturges, a good and true friend, the recollection of whom, often
+present to my mind, will never be effaced.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch11" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter XI.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>The Prosperity and Happiness of my Life at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destructiveness of the Locusts&mdash;Agriculture in the
+Philippines&mdash;My Herds of Oxen, Buffaloes, and Horses&mdash;My Wife
+presents me with a Daughter, who Dies&mdash;The Admiration of the
+Indian Women for my Wife&mdash;Birth of my Son&mdash;Continued
+Prosperity&mdash;Death of my brother Henry&mdash;My Friendship with
+Malvilain&mdash;His Marriage with my eldest Sister&mdash;His Premature
+Death&mdash;I take my Wife to Manilla&mdash;Melancholy Adieus&mdash;We
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Death of my Wife&mdash;My friend
+Vidie&mdash;I determine to Return to France.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Never was life more actively spent, or more crowded
+with emotions, than the time I passed at Jala-Jala, but it suited my
+tastes and my character, and I enjoyed as perfect happiness <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb229" href="#pb229">229</a>]</span>as one can
+look for when far away from one&rsquo;s home and country. My Anna was
+to me an angel of goodness; my Indians were happy, peace and plenty
+smiled upon their families; my fields were covered with abundant <span
+class="corr" id="xd0e2255" title="Source: corps">crops</span>, and my
+pasturages with numerous herds. It was not, however, without great
+difficulty and much toil that I accomplished my aim; how often did I
+find all my courage and all my philosophy necessary to face, without
+despair, reverses which it was impossible for me to avoid? How often
+did I behold hurricanes and inundations destroy the fine harvest that I
+had protected with so much labour against the buffaloes, the wild
+boars, the monkeys, and even against an insect more destructive still
+than all the other pests which I have just mentioned&mdash;the locust,
+one of the plagues of Egypt, apparently transported into this province,
+and which almost regularly, every seven years, leave the isles of the
+south in clouds, and fall upon Luzon, bringing desolation, and often
+famine. It is indeed necessary to have witnessed this desolation to be
+able to form any idea of it. When the locusts arrive, a fire-coloured
+cloud is perceived in the horizon, formed of countless myriads of these
+destructive insects. They fly rapidly, often covering, in a closely
+packed body, a space of two or three leagues in diameter, and occupy
+from five to six consecutive hours in passing over head. If they
+perceive a fine green field they pounce down upon it, and in a few
+minutes all verdure has disappeared, the ground is stripped completely
+bare; they then continue their flight elsewhere, bearing on their wings
+destruction and famine. At evening it is in the forests, upon the
+trees, that they take shelter. They hang in such dense masses upon the
+ends of the boughs that they break down even the stoutest limbs from
+the trees. During the night, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb230" href=
+"#pb230">230</a>]</span>from the spot where they are reposing, there
+issues a continual croaking, and so loud a noise, that one scarcely
+believes it to be produced by so small an insect. The following morning
+they leave at day-break, and the trees upon which they have reposed are
+left stripped and broken, as though the lightning had swept the forest
+in every direction; they pursue their course elsewhere to commit fresh
+ravages. At certain periods they remain on vast plains or on fertile
+mountains; where, elongating the extremity of their bodies in the form
+of a gimblet, they pierce the earth to the depth of an inch and upwards
+to deposit their eggs. The operation of laying being completed, they
+leave the ground pierced like a sieve, and disappear, for their
+existence has now reached its termination. Three weeks afterwards,
+however, the eggs open, and myriads of young locusts swarm the earth.
+On the spot where they are born, whatever will serve them for food is
+quickly consumed. As soon as they have acquired sufficient strength
+they abandon their birth-place, destroy all kinds of vegetation that
+comes in their way, and direct their course to the cultivated fields,
+which they desolate until the period when <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb231" href="#pb231">231</a>]</span>their wings appear. They then take
+flight in order to devastate more distant plantations.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatLeft" id="p230" style="width: 285px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p230.jpg" alt="The Locust." width="285" height=
+"211">
+<p class="figureHead">The Locust.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As may be seen, agriculture in the Philippines presents many
+difficulties, but it also yields results that may be looked for in vain
+in any other country. During the years which are exempt from the
+calamities I have described the earth is covered with riches; every
+kind of colonial produce is raised in extraordinary abundance,
+frequently in the proportion of eighty to one, and on many plantations
+two crops of the same species are harvested in one year. The rich and
+extensive pasturages offer great facilities for raising a large number
+of cattle, which absolutely cost nothing but the trifling wages paid by
+the proprietor to a few shepherds.</p>
+
+<p>Upon my property I possessed three herds&mdash;one of three thousand
+head of oxen, another of eight hundred buffaloes, and the other of six
+hundred horses. At that period of the year when the rice was harvested,
+the shepherds explored the mountains, and drove these animals to a vast
+plain at a short distance from my dwelling. This plain was covered by
+these three species of domesticated animals, and presented, especially
+to the proprietor, an admirable sight. At night they were herded in
+large cattle-folds, near the village, and on the following day a
+selection was made of the oxen that were fit for slaughter, of the
+horses that were old enough for breaking-in, of the buffaloes that were
+strong enough to be employed in working. The herds were then re-driven
+to the plain, there to remain until night. This operation lasted during
+a fortnight, after which time the animals were set at liberty until the
+same period of the following year. When at liberty the herd divided
+itself into bands, and thus roamed about the mountains and the valleys
+they had previously quitted, the only trouble <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb232" href="#pb232">232</a>]</span>caused to the shepherds being
+an occasional ramble about the spots where the animals tranquilly
+grazed.</p>
+
+<p>Around me all was prosperity. My Indians were also happy, and
+entertained towards me a respect and obedience bordering on idolatry.
+My brother gave me every assistance in my labours, and when near my
+beloved Anna I forgot all the toils and the contrarieties I had
+experienced. About this time a new source of hope sprung up, which
+augmented the happiness I enjoyed with her, and made her dearer to me
+than ever. During several months the health of my wife had changed: she
+then found all the symptoms of pregnancy. We had been married twelve
+years, and she had never yet shown any signs of maternity. I was so
+persuaded that we should never have children that the derangement of
+her health was causing me serious uneasiness, when one morning as I was
+going to my work she said to me: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel well to-day,
+and I wish you to remain with me.&rdquo; Two hours afterwards, to my
+great surprise, she gave premature birth to a little girl, whose
+arrival no one expected. The infant was born before the due time, and
+lived only one hour, just sufficient to receive baptism, which I
+administered to her. This was the second human being that had expired
+in the house of Jala-Jala; but she was also the first that had there
+first drawn the breath of life. The regret which we all experienced
+from the loss was softened by the certainty that my dear Anna might
+again become a mother, under more favourable circumstances. Her health
+was speedily re-established, and she was again gay and beautiful as
+ever: indeed she appeared so handsome, that often Indian women came
+from a long distance for the sole purpose of looking at her. They would
+remain for half-an-hour gazing at her, and afterwards returned to their
+villages, where they gave birth to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb233"
+href="#pb233">233</a>]</span>creatures little resembling the model
+which they had taken such pains to observe, with a confidence
+approaching to simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually Anna exhibited new signs of maternity; her pregnancy went
+through the usual course, and her health was not much affected. In due
+time she presented me with a little boy, weakly and delicate, but full
+of life. Our joy was at the highest, for we possessed that which we had
+so long wished for, and that which alone was in my opinion wanting.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians were delighted with the birth, and for several days there
+was a round of rejoicings at Jala-Jala; and my Anna, although confined
+to bed, was obliged to receive visits, at first from all the women and
+maidens of the village, and afterwards from all the Indians who were
+fathers of families. Each brought some little present for the newly
+born, and the cleverest man of them was commissioned to express a
+compliment in the name of all; which comprised their best wishes for
+the happiness of the mother and child, and full assurances of the
+satisfaction they felt in thinking that they would one day be ruled
+over by the son of the master from whom they had experienced so much
+kindness, and who had conferred upon them such benefits. Their
+gratitude was sincere.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the accouchement of my wife brought a very numerous
+party of friends and relations to my house, where they waited for the
+baptism, which took place in my drawing-room. Anna, then almost
+thoroughly well, was present on the occasion: my son was named Henry,
+after his uncle. At this time I was happy; Oh, so truly happy! for my
+wishes were nearly gratified. There was but one not so&mdash;and that
+was to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb234" href=
+"#pb234">234</a>]</span>see again my aged mother and my sisters; but I
+hoped that the time was not far distant when I should realise the
+project of revisiting my native country. My farming speculation was
+most prosperous: my receipts were every year on the increase; my fields
+were covered with the richest crops of sugar-canes, to the cultivation
+of which, and of rice, I had joined that of coffee. My brother had
+taken upon himself the management of a very large plantation, which
+promised the most brilliant results; and appeared likely to secure the
+premium which the Spanish government had promised to give to the
+proprietor of a plantation of eighty thousand feet of coffee in
+product. But, alas! the period of my happiness had passed away, and
+what pain and what grief was I not doomed to suffer before I again saw
+my native country.</p>
+
+<p>My brother&mdash;my poor Henry&mdash;committed some imprudences, and
+was suddenly attacked with an intermittent fever, which in a few days
+carried him off.</p>
+
+<p>My Anna and I shed abundance of tears, for we both loved Henry with
+the warmest affection. For several years we had lived together; he
+participated in all our labours, our troubles, and our pleasures. He
+was the only relative I had in the Philippines. He had left France,
+where he had filled an honourable position, with the sole object of
+coming to see me, and of aiding me in the great task which I had
+undertaken. His amiable qualities and his excellent heart had endeared
+him to us: his loss was irreparable, and the thought that I had no
+longer a brother added poignancy to my bitter grief. Prudent, the
+youngest, had died at Madagascar; Robert, the next to me, died at La
+Planche, near Nantes, in the little dwelling where we spent our
+childhood; and my poor Henry at Jala-Jala. I erected a simple tomb for
+him near the door <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb235" href=
+"#pb235">235</a>]</span>of the church, and for several months Jala-Jala
+was a place of grief and mourning.</p>
+
+<p>We had scarcely begun, not indeed to console ourselves, but rather
+to bear with resignation the loss we had experienced, when a new
+dispensation of fate came to strike me to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>On my arrival in the Philippines, and while I resided at Cavite, I
+formed a close connection with Malvilain, a native of St. Malo, and
+mate of a ship from that port. During several years which he spent at
+Cavite our friendship was most intimate. A day seldom passed that we
+did not see each other, and two days never, for we were much attached.
+Our two ships were at anchor in the port, not far one from the other.
+One day as I was walking on deck, waiting for a boat to take me on
+board Malvilain&rsquo;s ship, I saw his crew at work in regulating one
+of the masts, when a rope suddenly snapped, and the mast fell with a
+frightful crash on the deck, in the midst of the men, amongst whom
+Malvilain was standing. From the deck of my own ship I beheld all that
+passed on that of my friend, who I thought was killed or wounded. My
+feelings were worked to the highest pitch of anguish and alarm; I could
+not control myself; I jumped into the water and swam to his ship, where
+I had the pleasure of finding him uninjured, although considerably
+stunned by the danger from which he had escaped. Wet as I was from my
+sea-bath I caught him in my arms, and pressed him to my heart; and then
+hastened to afford relief to some of the crew, who had not been so
+fortunate to escape without injury as he had been.</p>
+
+<p>Another time I was the cause of serious alarm to Malvilain. One day,
+a mass of black and thick clouds was gathered close over the point of
+Cavite, and a frightful&mdash;that is, a tropical&mdash;<span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb236" href="#pb236">236</a>]</span>storm burst. The
+claps of thunder followed each other from minute to minute, and before
+each clap the lightning, in long serpent-like lines of fire, darted
+from the clouds, and drove on to the point of Cavite, where it tore up
+the ground of the little plain situate at the extremity, and near which
+the ships were moored. Notwithstanding the storm I was going to see
+Malvilain, and was almost in the act of placing my foot on the deck of
+his vessel, when the lightning fell into the sea so near to me that I
+lost my breath. Instantly I felt an acute pain in the back, as if a
+burning torch had been laid between my shoulders. The pain was so
+violent, that the moment I recovered myself I uttered a sharp scream.
+Malvilain, who was within a few paces of me, felt very sensibly the
+electric shock which had struck me, and, on hearing my cry, imagined
+that I was dangerously hurt. He rushed towards me and held me in his
+arms until I was able to give every assurance of my recovery. The
+electric fluid had grazed me, but without causing any positive
+injury.</p>
+
+<p>I have related these two slight anecdotes to show the intimacy that
+subsisted between us, and how I afterwards suffered in my dearest
+affections.</p>
+
+<p>My existence has to this day, when I write these lines, been filled
+with such extraordinary facts, that I have been naturally led to
+believe that the destiny of man is regulated by an order of things
+which must infallibly be accomplished. This idea has had great
+influence over me, and taught me to endure all the evils which have
+afflicted me. Was it, then, my destiny which bound me to Malvilain, and
+bound him to me in the same manner? I have no doubt of it.</p>
+
+<p>Some days before the terrible scourge of the cholera broke out in
+the Philippines, Malvilain&rsquo;s ship set sail for France. <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb237" href="#pb237">237</a>]</span>With hearts
+oppressed with grief we separated, after promising each that we should
+meet again; but, alas! fate had ordained it otherwise. Malvilain
+returned home, went to Nantes to take the command of a ship, and there
+became acquainted with my eldest sister, and married her. This news,
+which reached me while I resided in Manilla, gave me the greatest
+satisfaction, for if I had had to choose a husband for my dear sister
+Emilie, this marriage was the only one to satisfy the wishes I had
+formed for the happiness of both.</p>
+
+<p>After his marriage Malvilain continued to sail from the port of
+Nantes. His noble disposition and his accurate knowledge of his duties
+caused him to be highly esteemed by the leading merchants. His affairs
+were in a state sufficiently good as not to require him to expose
+himself longer to the dangers of the sea, and he was on his last
+voyage, when, at the Mauritius, he was attacked by an illness, which
+carried him off, leaving my sister inconsolable, and with three very
+young girls to lament him.</p>
+
+<p>This fresh and irreparable loss, the news of which had then reached
+me, added to my grief for the sad death of my poor brother. Every
+calamity seemed to oppress me. After some years of happiness I saw, by
+little and little, disappear from this world, the persons on whom I had
+concentrated my dearest affections; but, alas! I had not even then
+reached the term of my sorrows, for other and most bitter sufferings
+were still to be passed through.</p>
+
+<p>I saw with pleasure my boy was enjoying the best health, and that he
+was daily increasing in strength; and yet I was far from being happy,
+and to the melancholy caused by the losses I had experienced was added
+another most fearful alarm. My beloved Anna had never thoroughly
+recovered <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb238" href=
+"#pb238">238</a>]</span>after her accouchement, and day by day her
+health was growing weaker. She did not seem aware of her state. Her
+happiness at being a mother was so great that she did not think of her
+own condition.</p>
+
+<p>I had gathered in my sugar-cane crop, which was most abundant, and
+my plantations were finished, when, wishing to procure some amusement
+for my wife, I proposed to go and spend some time at the house of her
+sister Josephine, for whom she entertained the warmest affection. She,
+with great pleasure, agreed to do so. We set out with our dear little
+Henry and his nurse, and took up our quarters at the house of my
+brother-in-law, Don Julian Calderon, then residing in a pretty
+country-house on the banks of the river Pasig, half a league from
+Manilla.</p>
+
+<p>Of the three sisters of my wife, Josephine was the one for whom I
+had the most affection: I loved her as I did my own sister. The day of
+our arrival was one of rejoicing. All our friends at Manilla came to
+see us, and Anna was so pleased in seeing our little Henry admired that
+her health seemed to have improved considerably; but this apparent
+amelioration lasted but a few days, and soon, to my grief, I saw that
+she was growing worse than ever. I sent for the only medical man in
+Manilla in whom I had confidence, my friend Genu. He came frequently to
+see her, and after six weeks of constant attention, he advised me to
+take her back to my residence near the lake, where persons attacked
+with the same malady as my dear Anna had often recovered. As she
+herself wished to return, I appointed a day for our departure. A
+commodious boat, with good rowers, was ready for us on the Pasig, at
+the end of my brother-in-law&rsquo;s garden; and a numerous assemblage
+of our friends accompanied us to the water&rsquo;s edge. The moment of
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb239" href=
+"#pb239">239</a>]</span>separation was one of most melancholy feelings
+to us all. The countenance of each seemed to ask: &ldquo;Shall we meet
+again?&rdquo; My sister-in-law Josephine, in a flood of tears, threw
+herself into Anna&rsquo;s arms. I had great difficulty in separating
+them; but we were obliged to set out. I took my wife into the boat, and
+then those two sisters, who had always maintained towards each other
+the most tender love, addressed with their voices their last adieus,
+while promising not to be long separated, and that they would see each
+other very soon.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p239"><img border="0" src="images/p239.jpg"
+alt="View on the River Pasig." width="468" height="376">
+<p class="figureHead">View on the River Pasig.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Those painful adieus and the sufferings of my wife caused the trip,
+which we had often previously made with the greatest gaiety, to be
+melancholy and silent. On our arrival, I did not look on Jala-Jala with
+the usual feelings of satisfaction. I had my poor patient placed in
+bed, and did not quit her room, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb240"
+href="#pb240">240</a>]</span>hoping by my continual care to afford her
+some relief in her sufferings. But, alas! from day to day the malady
+made fearful progress. I was in despair. I wrote to Josephine, and sent
+a boat to Manilla for her to come and take care of her sister, who was
+most anxious to see her. The boat returned without her; but a letter
+from kind-hearted Josephine informed me that she was herself
+dangerously ill, and confined to her room, and could not even leave her
+bed; that she was very sorry for it, but I might assure Anna that they
+would soon be re-united, never again to be separated.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty days&mdash;longer to me than a century&mdash;had scarcely
+elapsed since our return to Jala-Jala than all my hopes vanished. Death
+was approaching with rapid strides, and the fatal moment was at hand
+when I was to be separated from her whom I loved with such intensity.
+She preserved her senses to the last, and saw my profound melancholy,
+and my features altered by grief; and finding her last hour was near,
+she called me to her, and said: &ldquo;Adieu, my beloved Paul, adieu.
+Console thyself&mdash;we shall meet again in Heaven! Preserve thyself
+for the sake of our dear boy. When I shall be no more, return home to
+thy own country, to see thy aged mother. Never marry again, except in
+France, if thy mother requires thee to do so. Do not marry in the
+Philippines, for thou wilt never find a companion here to love thee as
+I have loved.&rdquo; These words were the last which this good and
+gentle angel spoke. The most sacred ties, the tenderest and purest
+union, were then severed&mdash;my Anna was no more! I held her lifeless
+body clasped in my arms, as if I hoped by my caresses to recall her to
+life; but, alas! her destiny was decided!</p>
+
+<p>It required absolute force to tear me from the precious remains
+which I pressed against my heart, and to draw me <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb241" href="#pb241">241</a>]</span>into a neighbouring room,
+where my son was. While I pressed him convulsively to my breast, I
+wished to weep; but my eyes were tearless, and I was insensible to the
+caresses even of my poor child.</p>
+
+<p>The strongest constitution cannot resist the fatigue of fifty days
+of constant watching and uneasiness; and the state of annihilation in
+which I was, both physically and morally, after despair had taken the
+place of the glimmering hope which sustained us to the last moment, was
+such that I fell into a state of insensibility, which ended in a
+profound sleep. I awoke on the following day with my son in my arms.
+But how frightful was my state on awaking. All that was horrible in my
+position presented itself to my imagination. Alas! she was no more; my
+adorable companion, that beloved angel and consolatrix, who had, on my
+account, abandoned all&mdash;parents, friends, and the pleasures of a
+capital&mdash;to shut herself up with me in a deserted wilderness,
+where she was exposed to a thousand dangers, and had but me to support
+her. She was no more; and fatal destiny had torn her from me, to sink
+me for ever in desolation and grief.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral took place on the following day, and was attended by
+every inhabitant of Jala-Jala. Her body was deposited near the altar in
+the humble church which I had caused to be erected, and before which
+altar she had so often poured forth prayers for my happiness.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time mourning and consternation reigned in Jala-Jala. All
+my Indians showed the deepest sympathy for the loss which they had
+suffered. Anna was, during her life, beloved even to idolatry, and
+after her death she was most sincerely lamented.</p>
+
+<p>For several days I continued in a thorough depression, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb242" href="#pb242">242</a>]</span>unable to attend
+to anything, except to the cares which my son, then my only remaining
+consolation, required. Three weeks elapsed before I quitted the room in
+which my poor wife had expired. I then received a note from Josephine,
+in which she stated that her illness had grown worse. The note ended
+with these words: &ldquo;Come, my dear Paul; come to me: we shall weep
+together. I feel that your presence will afford some
+consolation.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I did not hesitate to comply with the request of dear Josephine, for
+whom I entertained an affection as if for my own sister. My presence
+might prove a solace to her, and I myself felt that it would prove to
+me a great consolation to see a person who had so sincerely loved my
+Anna. The hope of being useful to her re-animated my courage a little.
+I left my house under the care of Prosper Vidie, an excellent friend,
+who during the last days of my wife&rsquo;s life had not quitted me,
+and departed, accompanied by my son.</p>
+
+<p>After the first emotion which Josephine and I felt on meeting, and
+when we both had shed abundant tears, I examined her state. It required
+a strong effort on my part to conceal from her my anxiety, on finding
+her labouring under a most serious malady, and which gave me grounds
+for fearing that a fresh misfortune was not far distant. Alas! my
+forebodings were correct; for eight days afterwards poor Josephine
+expired in my arms, after the most poignant sufferings. What abundant
+sources of woe in so short a space of time! It required a constitution
+strong as mine was to bear up against such a number of sorrows, and not
+to fail under the burthen.</p>
+
+<p>When I had paid the last duties to my sister-in-law I went back to
+Jala-Jala. To me everything was burthensome. I was obliged to betake
+myself to my forests and to my mountains, <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb243" href="#pb243">243</a>]</span>in order to recover a little
+calmness. Some months passed over before I could attend to my affairs;
+but the last wishes of my poor wife required to be fulfilled, and I was
+to quit the Philippines and return to my country. I commenced
+preparations for the purpose. I made over my establishment to my friend
+Vidie, who was, as I considered, the person best adapted for carrying
+out my plans, and for treating my poor Indians well. He requested me to
+stop a little time with him, and to show him the secrets of my little
+government. I consented, and the more willingly, as those few months
+would serve to render my son stronger, and better able to support the
+fatigues of a long voyage. I therefore remained at Jala-Jala; but life
+had become painful to me, and without an object, so that it was
+positively a trouble. There was nothing to distract me&mdash;nothing to
+remove the most painful thoughts from me. The pretty spots of
+Jala-Jala, over which I had often looked with the greatest pleasure,
+had become altogether indifferent to me. I sought out the most
+melancholy and silent places. I often went to the banks of a rivulet,
+concealed in the midst of high mountains, and shaded by lofty trees.
+This spot was perhaps known to no other person; and probably no human
+being had ever previously been seated in it. There I gave free vent to
+my bitter recollections&mdash;my wife, my brothers, my sister-in-law,
+engrossed my imagination. When the thought of my son drove away these
+sombre reveries, I returned slowly to my house, where I found the poor
+child, who, by his caresses, seemed to try to find some way to cause a
+change in my grief; but they seemed only to recall the time when Anna
+always came to welcome me home, and when, clasping me in her arms, she
+caused me to forget all the toil and trouble I met with when absent
+from her. Alas! that blissful time had <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb244" href="#pb244">244</a>]</span>flown away, and was never to
+return; and in losing my companion I lost every happiness.</p>
+
+<p>My friend Vidie tried every means in his power to rouse me. He spoke
+to me often of France, of my mother, and of the consolation I should
+feel on presenting my son to her. The love of my country, and the
+thought of finding there those affections of which I stood so much in
+need, was a soft balm, which lulled for a while the sufferings that
+were constantly vibrating in the bottom of my heart.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians were deeply afflicted on learning the resolution I had
+taken of quitting them. They showed their trouble by saying to me,
+every time they addressed me! &ldquo;Oh, master: what will become of us
+when we shall not see you again?&rdquo; I quieted them as well as I
+could, by assuring them that Vidie would exert himself for their
+welfare; that when my son should be grown up, I would come back with
+him and then never leave them. They answered me with their prayers:
+&ldquo;May God grant it, master! But what a long time we shall have to
+pass without seeing you! However, we shall not forget you.&rdquo; <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb245" href="#pb245">245</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p245"><img border="0" src="images/p245.jpg"
+alt="Ajetas Indians." width="410" height="511">
+<p class="figureHead">Ajetas Indians.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch12" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter XII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at Jala-Jala&mdash;The Bamboo
+Cane&mdash;The Cocoa-Nut Tree&mdash;The Banana&mdash;Majestic Forests
+of Gigantic Trees&mdash;The Leeches&mdash;A Tropical Storm in a
+Forest&mdash;An Indian Bridge&mdash;&ldquo;Bernard the
+Hermit&rdquo;&mdash;We arrive at Binangon-de-Lampon&mdash;The
+Ajetas&mdash;Veneration of the Ajetas for their Dead&mdash;Poison used
+by the Ajetas&mdash;I carry away a Skeleton&mdash;We Embark on the
+Pacific in an old Canoe, reach Maoban, and ultimately arrive at
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">At this epoch of my recollections, in the midst of
+my melancholy and of my troubles, I formed an intimate and enduring
+friendship with a compatriot, a good and excellent man, for whom I
+always preserve the attachment first formed <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb246" href="#pb246">246</a>]</span>in a foreign country, several
+thousand leagues from home. I now speak of Adolphe Barrot, who was sent
+as consul-general to Manilla. He came with several friends to spend
+some days at Jala-Jala. Being unwilling that he should suffer any
+unpleasantness from the state of my feelings, I endeavoured to render
+his stay at Jala-Jala as agreeable as in my power. I arranged several
+hunting and shooting parties, and excursions through the mountains and
+on the lake. For his sake I resumed my old mode of life, such as I had
+been used to before I was overwhelmed by misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>The days which I thus spent in company with Adolphe Barrot aroused
+within me my former taste for exercise, and my ruling passion for
+adventure. My friend Vidie&mdash;always with the intention of exciting
+me to action&mdash;pressed me very much to go and visit a certain class
+of the natives which I had often expressed a wish to examine. My
+affairs being almost regulated; my son being placed under his care, and
+that of his nurse, and of a housekeeper in whom I had every confidence;
+I was induced, by this feeling of security, and by the instances of my
+friend, to proceed to visit the district of the Ajetas, or Black-men,
+who were a wild race, altogether in a state of nature. They were the
+aborigines of the Philippines, and had for a long time been masters of
+Luzon. At a time not very far distant, when the Spaniards conquered the
+country, the Ajetas levied a kind of black-mail from the Tagalese
+villages situated on the banks of the lake of Bay. At a fixed period
+they quitted their forests, entered the villages, and forced the
+inhabitants to give them a certain quantity of rice and maize; and if
+the Tagalese refused or were unable to pay these contributions, they
+cut off a number of heads, which they carried away as trophies for
+their barbarian festivities. After the conquest <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb247" href="#pb247">247</a>]</span>of the Philippines by the
+Spaniards, the latter took upon themselves the defence of the Tagalese,
+and the Ajetas, terrified by their fire-arms, remained in the forests,
+and did not re-appear among the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>The same race is found in various parts of the Malay country; and
+the people of New Zealand&mdash;the Paponins&mdash;resemble them very
+much in form and colour.</p>
+
+<p>My intention was to pass some days amongst those wild savages, and
+our preparations were speedily made. I chose two of my best Indians to
+accompany me. It is not requisite to state that my lieutenant was one
+of the party, for he was always with me in all my perilous
+expeditions.</p>
+
+<p>We took each of us a small haversack, containing rice for three or
+four days, some dried venison, a good provision of powder, ball, and
+shot for game, some coloured handkerchiefs, and a considerable quantity
+of cigars for our own use, and to insure a welcome amongst the Ajetas.
+Each of us carried a good double-barreled gun and his poignard. Our
+clothes were those which we wore in all our expeditions,&mdash;on our
+heads the common salacote, a shirt of raw silk, the pantaloon turned up
+to above the knee; the feet and legs remained uncovered. With these
+simple preparations we set out on a trip of some weeks, during which,
+and from the second day of our starting, we could expect no shelter but
+the trees of the forest, and no food but the game we shot, and the
+edible parts of the palm tree.</p>
+
+<p>I took special care not to forget the <i>vade mecum</i> which I
+always took with me, whenever I made these excursions for any number of
+days&mdash;I mean paper and a pencil, with which I made notes, to aid
+my recollections, and enable me afterwards to write down in a journal
+the remarks I made during my travels. Every preparation being made, we
+one morning <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb248" href=
+"#pb248">248</a>]</span>started from Jala-Jala. We traversed the
+peninsula formed by my settlement, and embarked on the other side in a
+small canoe, which took us to the bottom of the lake to the north-east
+of my habitation. We passed the night in the large village of Siniloan,
+and at an early hour the following day resumed our march. This first
+day&rsquo;s journey was one of toil and suffering: we were then
+beginning the rainy season, and the heavy storms had swelled the
+rivers. We marched for some time along the banks of a torrent, which
+rushed down from the mountains, and which we were obliged to swim
+through fifteen times during the day. In the evening we came to the
+foot of the mountains where begin the forests of gigantic trees, which
+cover almost all the centre of the island of Luzon. There we made our
+first halt, lighted our fires, and prepared our beds and our supper. I
+think that I have already described our beds, which use and fatigue
+always rendered agreeable to us, when no accident <span class="corr"
+id="xd0e2393" title="Source: occured">occurred</span> to disturb our
+repose. But I have said nothing of the simple composition of our meals,
+nor of our manner of preparing them. Our rice and palms required to be
+cooked, an operation which might seem rather embarrassing, for we had
+with us no large kitchen articles: we sometimes wanted a fire-box and
+tinder. But the bamboo supplied all these. The bamboo is one of the
+three tropical plants which Nature, in her beneficence and care, seems
+to have given to man to supply most of his wants. And here I cannot
+forbear dedicating a few lines to the description of those three
+products of the tropics, viz: the bamboo, the cocoa-nut tree, and the
+banana-plant.</p>
+
+<p>The bamboo belongs to the gramineous family; it grows in thick
+groves, in the woods, on the river banks, and wherever it finds a humid
+soil. In the Philippines there are counted <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb249" href="#pb249">249</a>]</span>twenty-five or thirty kinds,
+different in form and thickness. There are some of the diameter of the
+human body, and hollow in the interior: this kind serves especially for
+the construction of huts, and for making vessels to transport and to
+keep water. The filaments are used for making baskets, hats, and all
+kinds of basket-work, cords, and cables of great solidity.</p>
+
+<p>Another bamboo, of smaller dimensions, and hollow within, which is
+covered with varnish, almost as hard as steel, is employed in building
+Indian houses. Cut to a point it is extremely sharp, and is used for
+many purposes. The Indians make lances of it, and arrows, and fleams
+for bleeding horses, and lancets for opening <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e2402" title="Source: abcesses">abscesses</span>, and for taking
+thorns or other things out of the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>A third kind, much more solid, and as thick as one&rsquo;s arm, and
+not hollow within, is used in such parts of the buildings as require
+sold timber, and especially in the roofing.</p>
+
+<p>A fourth kind, much smaller, and also without being hollow, serves
+to make the fences that surround enclosed fields when tilled. The other
+kinds are not so much employed, but still they are found to be
+useful.</p>
+
+<p>To preserve the plants, and to render them very productive, the
+shoots are cut at ten feet from the ground. These shoots look like the
+tubes of an organ, and are surrounded with branches and thorns. At the
+beginning of the rainy season there grows from each of those groves a
+quantity of thick bamboos, resembling large asparagus, which shoot up
+as it were by enchantment. In the space of a month they become from
+fifty to sixty feet long, and after a short time they acquire all the
+solidity necessary for the various works to which they are
+destined.</p>
+
+<p>The cocoa-nut tree belongs to the palm family: it requires to <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb250" href="#pb250">250</a>]</span>grow seven
+years before it bears fruit; but after this period, and for a whole
+century, it yields continually the same product&mdash;that is, every
+month about twenty large nuts. This produce never fails, and on the
+same tree may be seen continually flowers and fruits of all sizes. The
+cocoa-nut affords, as everyone knows, nutritious food, and when pressed
+yields a quantity of oil. The shell of the nut serves to make vases,
+and the filamentary parts are spun into ropes and cables for ships, and
+even into coarse clothing. The leaves are used to make baskets and
+brooms, and for thatching the huts.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatLeft" id="p250" style="width: 235px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p250.jpg" alt="The Cocoa-Nut." width="235"
+height="283">
+<p class="figureHead">The Cocoa-Nut.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A liquor is also taken from the cocoa-nut tree, called cocoa-wine;
+it is a most stupifying drink, of which the Indians make great use at
+their festivities. To produce the cocoa-wine, large groves of the
+cocoa-trees are laid out, from which merely the sap or juice is
+expected, but nothing in the shape of fruit. These trees have long
+bamboos laid at their tops from one to another, on which the Indians
+pass over every morning, bearing large vessels, in which they collect
+the liquid. It is a laborious and dangerous employment,&mdash;a real
+promenade in the air, at the height of from sixty to eighty feet from
+the ground. It is from the bud which ought to produce the flower that
+the liquid is drawn of which the spirit is afterwards made. As soon as
+the bud is about to burst, the Indian employed in collecting the liquid
+ties it very tight, a few inches from its point, and then cuts across
+the point beyond the tying. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb251" href=
+"#pb251">251</a>]</span>From this cutting, or from the pores which are
+left uncovered, a saccharine liquid flows, which is sweetish and
+agreeable to the palate before it has fermented. After it has passed
+the fermentation it is carried to the still, and submitted to the
+process of distillation, it then becomes the alcoholic liquor known in
+the country as cocoa-wine.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these uses, the cocoa-nut shell, when burned, gives the fine
+black colour which the Indians make use of to dye their straw hats.</p>
+
+<p>The banana is an herbaceous plant, without any woody matter: the
+trunk of each is formed of leaves placed one above the other. This
+trunk rises from twelve to fifteen feet from the ground, and then
+spreads out into long broad leaves, not less than five or six feet
+each. From the middle of these leaves the flower rises, and also the
+spike (<i>r&eacute;gime</i>). By this word is to be understood a
+hundred of large bananas growing from the same stalk, forming together
+a long branch, that turns towards the sun.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatRight" id="p251" style="width: 190px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p251.jpg" alt="The Banana." width="190" height=
+"272">
+<p class="figureHead">The Banana.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before the fruit has reached its full ripeness, the spike is cut,
+and becomes fit for use. The part of the plant which is in the earth is
+a kind of large root, from which proceed successively thirty shoots,
+and each shoot ought not to have more than one spike, or bunch; it is
+then cut fronting the sun, and as all the shoots rising from the same
+trunk are of different ages, there are fruits to be found in all the
+stages of growth; so that every month or fortnight, <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb252" href="#pb252">252</a>]</span>and at all
+seasons, a spike or two may be gathered from the same plant. There is
+also a species of banana the fruit of which is not good to eat, but
+from which raw silk is formed, called abaca, which is used to make
+clothes, and all kinds of cordage. This filament is found in the trunk
+of the plant, which, as I have said, consists of leaves placed one over
+another, which, after being separated into long strips, and left for
+some hours in the sun, is then placed on an iron blade, not sharp, and
+then dragged with force over it. The parenchyme of the plant is taken
+off by the iron blade, and the filaments then separate. Nothing is now
+wanting but to expose them for some time to the sun&rsquo;s rays; after
+which they are brought to market.</p>
+
+<p>I observe that I have left my journey aside to describe three
+tropical plants, which afford a sufficiency for all the wants of man.
+Those plants are well-known; yet there may be some persons ignorant of
+the utility, and of the various services which they render to the
+inhabitants of the tropics. My readers will from them be naturally led
+to reflect how the inhabitants of the torrid zone are favoured by
+nature, in comparison with those of our frigid climate.</p>
+
+<p>We were at the foot of the mountains, preparing to pass the night.
+Our labour was always divided<span class="corr" id="xd0e2444" title=
+"Not in source">:</span> one got the beds ready, another the fire, a
+third the cookery. He who had to prepare the fire collects a quantity
+of dry wood and of brambles. Under this heap of firewood he puts about
+twelve pounds of elemi gum, which is common in the Philippines, where
+it is found in quantities at the foot of the large trees from which it
+flows naturally. He then takes a piece of bamboo, half <span class=
+"corr" id="xd0e2447" title="Source: a-yard">a yard</span> long, which
+he splits to its length, tears with poignard so as to make very thin
+shavings, which he rubs together while rolling <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb253" href="#pb253">253</a>]</span>them between his hands, and
+then puts them into the hollow part of the other piece, and lays it
+down on the ground, and then with the sharp side of the piece from
+which he had taken the shavings, he rubs strongly the piece lying on
+the ground, as if he wished to saw it across. In a short time the
+bamboo containing the shavings is cut through and on fire. The flame
+rising from the shavings, when blown lightly upon, quickly sets the
+elemi gum in a blaze, and in an instant there is a fire sufficient to
+roast an ox.</p>
+
+<p>He who had to manage the cooking cut two or three pieces of the
+large bamboo, and put in each whatever he wished to cook&mdash;usually
+rice or some part of the palm tree&mdash;he added some water, stopped
+the ends of the bamboo with leaves, and laid it in the middle of the
+fire. This bamboo was speedily burned on the outside, but the interior
+was moistened by the water, and the food within was as well boiled as
+in any earthen vessels. For plates we had the large palm leaves. Our
+meals, as may be observed, were Spartan enough, even during the days
+while our provision of rice and dried venison lasted. But when game was
+found, and that a stag or a buffalo fell to our lot, we fed like
+epicures. We drank pure water whenever a spring or a rivulet tempted
+us, but if we were at a loss we cut long pieces of the liana, called
+&ldquo;the traveller&rsquo;s drink,&rdquo; from which flowed a clear
+and limpid draught, preferable perhaps to any which we might have
+procured from a better source.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident I was not travelling like a nabob; and it would have
+been impossible to take more baggage. How could any one, with large
+provisions and a pompous retinue move in the midst of mountains covered
+with forests literally along untouched by human feet, and forced, in
+order to get through <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb254" href=
+"#pb254">254</a>]</span>them, at every instant to swim across torrents,
+and having no other guide than the sun, or the blowing of the breeze.
+There was no choice but to travel in the Indian style, as I did, or to
+remain at home.</p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p254"><img border="0" src="images/p254.jpg"
+alt="La Gironiere and his Indians traversing a Native Forest." width=
+"720" height="488">
+<p class="figureHead">La Gironiere and his Indians traversing a Native
+Forest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Page</i> <a href="#pb254" class="pageref">254</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first night we spent in the open air passed quietly; our
+strength was restored, and we were recruited for the journey. At an
+early hour we were up, and, after a frugal breakfast, we resumed our
+march. For more than two hours we climbed up a mountain covered with
+heavy timber, the ascent was rough and fatiguing, at last we reached
+the top, quite exhausted, where there was a vast flat, which it would
+take us some days to traverse. It was there, on this flat, that I
+beheld the most majestic, the finest virgin forest that existed in the
+world. It consists of gigantic trees, grown up as straight as a rush,
+and to a prodigious height. Their tops, where alone their branches
+grow, are laced into one another, so as to form a vault impenetrable to
+the rays of the sun. Under this vault, and among those fine trees,
+prolific nature has given birth to a crowd of climbing plants of a most
+remarkable description. The rattan and the flexible liana mount up to
+the topmost branches, and re-descending to the earth, take fresh root,
+receive new sustenance, and then remount anew, and at various distances
+they join themselves to the friendly trunks of their supporting
+columns, and thus they form very often most beautiful decorations.
+Varieties of the pandanus are to be seen, of which the leaves, in
+bunches, start from the ground, forming beautiful sheaves. Enormous
+ferns were to be met with, real trees in shape, and up which we
+clambered often, to cut the top branches, for their delicious perfume
+and which serve as food nearly the same as the palms. But, in the midst
+of this extraordinary vegetation nature is gloomy and <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb255" href="#pb255">255</a>]</span>silent; not a
+sound is to be heard, unless perhaps the wind that shakes the tops of
+the trees, or from time to time the distant noise of a torrent, which,
+falling precipitately, cascades from the heights of the mountains to
+their base. The ground is moist, as it never receives the sun&rsquo;s
+rays: the little lakes and the rivers, that never flow unless when
+swollen by the storms, present to the eye water black and stagnant, on
+which the reflection of the fine clear blue sky is never to be
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>The sole inhabitants of these melancholy though majestic solitudes
+are deer, buffaloes and wild boars, which being hidden in their lairs
+and dens in the daytime, come out at night in search of food. Birds are
+seldom seen, and the monkeys so common in the Philippines, shun the
+solitude of these immense forests. One kind of insect is met with in
+great abundance, and it plagues the traveller to the utmost; they are
+the small leeches, which are found on all the mountains of the
+Philippines that are covered with forests. They lie close to the ground
+in the grass, or on the leaves of the trees, and dart like grasshoppers
+on their prey, to which they fasten. Travellers are therefore always
+provided with little knives, cut from the bamboo, to loosen the hold of
+the insects, after which they rub the wound with a little chewed
+tobacco. But soon another leech, attracted by the flowing blood, takes
+the place of the one which was removed, and constant care is necessary
+to avoid being victimised by those little insects, of which the
+voracity far exceeds that of our common leeches.</p>
+
+<p>Our way lay through these singular creations of nature, and I was
+engaged in looking at and examining the curiosities around me, while my
+Indians were seeking some kind of game&mdash;deer, buffalo, or wild
+boar&mdash;to replace our stock of rice and venison, which was
+exhausted. We were at length reduced <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb256" href="#pb256">256</a>]</span>to the palms as our only resource;
+but the palms, though pleasing to the palate, are not sufficiently
+nutritive to recruit the strength of poor travellers, when, suffering
+under extreme fatigue, and after a laborious march, they find no
+lodging but the moist ground, and no shelter but the vault of the
+sky.</p>
+
+<div class="figure floatRight" id="p256" style="width: 191px"><img
+border="0" src="images/p256.jpg" alt="Fruit of the Palm Tree." width=
+"191" height="272">
+<p class="figureHead">Fruit of the Palm Tree.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We directed our course as near as possible towards the eastern
+coast, which is bathed by the Pacific ocean. We knew that it was in
+that direction the Ajetas commenced their settlement. We wished also to
+pass through the large Tagalese village, Binangonan de Lampon, which is
+to be found, isolated and hidden, at the foot of the eastern mountains,
+in the midst of the savages. We had already spent several nights in the
+forest, and without experiencing any great inconvenience. The fires
+which we lighted every evening warmed us, and saved us from the myriads
+of terrible leeches, which otherwise would certainly have devoured us.
+We imagined that we were within one day&rsquo;s march of the sea-shore,
+where we expected to take some time for rest, when, of a sudden, a
+burst of thunder at a distance gave us reason to apprehend a storm.
+Nevertheless, we continued our journey; but in a short time the
+growling of the thunder approached so near as to leave no doubt that
+the hurricane would burst over us. We stopped, lighted our fires,
+cooked our evening&rsquo;s repast, and placed some of the palm leaves
+on poles by the side of a slope to save us from the heavy rain. <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb257" href="#pb257">257</a>]</span>We had not
+finished all our preparations when the storm broke. If we had not had
+the glimmering glare of our firebrands we should have been in profound
+obscurity, although it was not yet night. We all three, with pieces of
+palm branches in our hands, crouched under the slight shelter which we
+had improvised, and there awaited the full force of the storm. The
+thunder-claps were redoubled; the rain began with violence to batter
+the trees, and then to assail us like a torrent. Our fires were
+speedily extinguished; we found ourselves in the deepest darkness,
+interrupted only by the lightning, which from time to time rushed,
+serpent-like, through the trees of the forest, scattering a dazzling
+light, to leave us the moment after in profound obscurity. Around us
+the din was horrible; the thunder was continuous, the echoes of the
+mountains repeating from distance to distance its sound, sometimes
+deadened, and sometimes with awful grandeur. The wind, which blew with
+violence, shattered the uppermost parts of the trees, breaking off
+large branches, which fell with a crash to the ground. Some trunks were
+uprooted, and, while falling, tore down the boughs of the neighbouring
+trees. The rain was incessant, and in the intervals between the thunder
+we could hear the awful roar of the waters of a torrent which rushed
+madly past the base of the mound where we had taken refuge. Amidst all
+this frightful commotion, mournful and dismal sounds were heard, like
+the howls of a large dog which had lost its master: they were the cries
+of the deer in their distress, seeking for a place of shelter. Nature
+seemed to be in convulsions, and to have declared war in every element.
+The loose thatch under which we had taken refuge was soon penetrated,
+and we were completely deluged. We soon quitted this miserable hole,
+preferring to move our stiffened and almost deadened limbs, covered
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb258" href="#pb258">258</a>]</span>with
+the fearful little leeches, which terrible infliction deprived us of
+the strength so necessary in our awful position.</p>
+
+<p>I avow that at this moment I sincerely repented my fatal curiosity,
+for which I paid so dearly. I could compare this frightful night only
+to the one I had passed in the bamboos, when I was wrecked on the lake.
+In appearance there was not such pressing danger, for we could not be
+swallowed up by the waves; but there were large trees, under which we
+were obliged to stop, and one of which might be uprooted and fall upon
+us; a bough torn off by the wind might crush us; and the lightning,
+equally terrific in its reports and its effects, might strike us at any
+moment. One thing was especially painful, and that was the cold, and
+the difficulty of moving our frozen and almost paralysed limbs. We
+awaited with impatience the cessation of the storm; but it was not
+until after three hours of mortal agony that the thunder gradually
+ceased. The wind fell; the rain subsided; and for some time we heard
+nothing but the large drops which dripped from the trees, and the dread
+sound of the torrents. Calm was restored; the sky became pure and
+starry: but we were deprived of that view which gives hope to the
+traveller, for the forest presented only a dome of green, impenetrable
+to the sight.</p>
+
+<p>Exhausted as we were by our exposure to the elements and our
+exertions, we were so overpowered by nature&rsquo;s great renovator
+sleep, that, notwithstanding our clothes were saturated with the rain,
+we were able to pass the remainder of the night in tranquillity. At
+break of day the forest, which a few hours previously had been the
+scene of the terrors which I have described, was again tranquil and
+silent. When we quitted our lair we were frightful to look at; we were
+covered with leeches, and the marks of blood on our faces rendered us
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb259" href=
+"#pb259">259</a>]</span>hideous. On looking at my two poor Indians I
+could not avoid laughing aloud; they also looked at me, but their
+respect for me prevented their laughing. I was no doubt equally
+punished, and my white skin must have served to show well the ravages
+of those creatures. We were, indeed, knocked up; we could scarcely
+move, so weak had we become. However, act we must, and
+promptly,&mdash;to light a fire quickly, in order to warm us; to cook
+some of the palm stalks; to cross, by swimming, a torrent which, with a
+terrible noise, was rushing on below us; and to reach, during the day,
+the shores of the Pacific ocean. If we delayed to start it might not be
+possible to pass through the torrents,&mdash;we had left several behind
+us,&mdash;we might find ourselves in the impossibility of going either
+backward or forward, and perhaps be obliged to remain several days
+waiting for the waters to subside before we could proceed. Besides,
+other storms might arise, frequent as they are at this season, and we
+should have to remain for several weeks in a desert spot without
+resources, and where the first night passed under such a bad roof was
+no recommendation, There was no time to be lost. From a large heap of
+palm leaves, where we had placed and covered up our haversacks in order
+to preserve them from the wet, we drew them out safe; our precautions
+had fortunately been successful, they were quite dry. We made a large
+fire, thanks to the elemi gum, which burns with such ease. Our feelings
+were delightful when the heat entered our frames, dried our dripping
+garments, re-animated our courage, and gave us some strength. But, to
+enjoy that satisfaction fully, one should have acquired it at the same
+cost as I had. I very much doubt that any European would like to
+participate in the scenes of that night simply for the enjoyments of
+the following day. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb260" href=
+"#pb260">260</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>Our scanty cookery was soon ready, and expeditiously dispatched, and
+we moved off in quick time.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians were uneasy, as they feared they would not be able to
+pass through the torrent which was heard at a distance, consequently
+they marched quicker than I did. On reaching the bank I found them in a
+consternation. &ldquo;Oh, master!&rdquo; said my faithful Alila,
+&ldquo;it is not possible to pass; so we must spend some days
+here.&rdquo; I cast my eyes on the torrent, which was rolling between
+steep rocks, in a yellow, muddy stream: it had all the appearance of a
+cascade, and was carrying down the trunks of trees and branches broken
+off during the storm. My Indians had already come to a decision, and
+were arranging a spot for a fit bivouac; but I did not wish to give up
+all hopes of success so speedily, and set about examining with care the
+means of overcoming the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The torrent was not more than a hundred yards in breadth, and a good
+swimmer could with ease get over in a few minutes. But it was
+necessary, on the opposite side, to arrive at a spot which was not too
+steep, and where one could find safe footing, and out of the torrent;
+otherwise the risk would be run of being drawn down, no one could tell
+whither.</p>
+
+<p>From the bank on which we were it was easy to jump into the water,
+but on the other side, for a hundred yards down the stream, there was
+but one spot where the rocks were interrupted. A small stream joined
+there the one we wished to cross. After I had carefully calculated by
+sight the length of the passage, I considered myself strong enough to
+attempt it. I was a better swimmer than my Indians; and I was certain
+if I was once on the other side, that they would follow. I told them
+that I was going to cross over the torrent. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb261" href="#pb261">261</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>But one reflection caused me to hesitate. How could I preserve our
+haversacks, and save our precious provision of powder? How keep our
+guns from injury? It would not be possible to think of carrying those
+articles on my back through a torrent so rapid, and in which, beyond
+doubt, I should be under water more than once before I gained the other
+side.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians, being fertile in expedients, speedily extricated me
+from this difficulty: they cut several rattans, and joined the ends
+together, so as to form a considerable length. One of them climbed a
+tree which leant over the torrent, and there fastened one end of the
+rattan length, while I took the other end to carry it over to the other
+bank. All our arrangements being effected I plunged into the water, and
+without much difficulty gained the opposite side, having the end of the
+rattan with me, which I fastened to a tree on the steep bank I had
+gained, allowing a slight inclination of the line towards me, yet
+raised sufficiently over the water to allow the articles which we were
+anxious to pass over to slide along without touching the water. Our
+newly constructed bridge was wonderfully successful. The articles came
+across quite safe and dry; and my Indians, by its aid, quickly joined
+me. We congratulated each other on our fortunate passage, and the more
+so, as we expected before sunset to reach the Pacific ocean. Of the
+woods we had had enough: and we now looked for the sun, which for
+several days had been obscured by clouds; the leeches caused us
+considerable suffering, and weakened us very much, and our miserable
+diet was not sufficient to recruit our exhausted frames. Moreover we
+did not doubt that, on reaching the sea, we should be amply recompensed
+for all the privations we had endured. In fine, with renewed hopes we
+found our courage revive, and soon forgot the fatal night of the storm.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb262" href="#pb262">262</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>I walked nearly as quick as my Indians, who, like me, hastened to
+get clear of the insupportable humidity in which we had existed for
+several days.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours after we had passed the torrent a dull and distant sound
+struck our ears. At first we supposed it to be a fresh storm; but soon
+we knew, from its regularity, that it was nothing less than the murmur
+of the Pacific ocean, and the sound of the waves which come from afar
+to break themselves on the eastern shore of Luzon. This certainty
+caused me a most pleasing emotion. In a few hours I should again see
+the blue sky, warm myself in the generous rays of the sun, and find a
+boundless horizon. I should also get rid of the fearful leeches, and
+should soon salute Nature, animated in creation, in exchange for the
+solitudes from which we had just emerged.</p>
+
+<p>We were now on the declivity of the mountains, the descent of which
+was gentle and our march easy. The sound of the waves increased by
+degrees. Near three o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon we perceived through
+the trees that the sun was clear; and an instant afterwards we beheld
+the sea, and a magnificent beach, covered with fine glittering sand.
+The first movement of all three was to strip off our clothes and to
+plunge into the waves; and while we thus enjoyed a salutary bath, we
+amused ourselves in collecting off the rocks a quantity of shell-fish,
+which enabled us to make the most hearty meal we had eaten since we
+started from home.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus satisfied our hunger, our thoughts were directed to
+taking rest, of which we stood in great need; but it was no longer on
+knotty and rough pieces of timber, that we were going to
+repose,&mdash;it was on the soft sand, which the shore offered to us,
+warmed as it was by the last rays of the setting sun. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb263" href="#pb263">263</a>]</span>It was almost
+night when we stretched ourselves on this bed, which to us was
+preferable to one of down. Our sacks served as pillows; we laid our
+guns, which were properly primed, close by our sides, and after a few
+minutes were buried in a profound sleep. I know not how long I had
+enjoyed this invigorating balm when I was awakened by the painful
+feeling of something crawling over me. I felt the prickings of sharp
+claws, which fastened in my skin, and occasionally caused me great
+pain. Similar sensations had awakened my two Indians. We collected the
+embers which were still ignited, and were able to see the new kind of
+enemies which assailed us. They were the crabs called &ldquo;Bernard
+the Hermit,&rdquo;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2522src" href=
+"#xd0e2522">1</a> and in such quantities that the ground was crawling
+with them, of all sizes and of all ages. We swept the sand on which we
+laid down, hoping to drive them away, and to have some sleep; but the
+troublesome&mdash;or rather, the famishing hermits&mdash;returned to
+the charge, and left us neither peace or quiet. We were busy in
+resisting their attacks, when suddenly, on the edge of the forest, we
+perceived a light, which came towards us. We seized our guns, and
+awaited its approach in profound silence and without any movement. We
+then saw a man and woman coming out of the wood, each having a torch in
+their hands. We knew them to be Ajetas, who were coming, no doubt, to
+catch fish on the beach. When they reached within a few steps from us,
+they stood for an instant motionless and gazed at us with fixed
+attention. We three were seated, watching them, and trying to guess
+their intentions. One of them put his hand to his shoulder, as if to
+take his bow; and I instantly cocked my <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb264" href="#pb264">264</a>]</span>gun. The noise caused by the
+movement of the gun-lock was sufficient to frighten them: they threw
+down their light, and scampered off like two wild beasts, in the
+highest alarm, to hide themselves in the forest.</p>
+
+<p>Their appearance was enough to prove that we were in a place
+frequented by the Ajetas. The two savages whom we had seen were perhaps
+gone to inform their friends, who might come in great numbers and let
+fly at us their poisoned arrows. This dread, and the incessant attacks
+of Bernard the Hermit, caused us to spend the remainder of the night
+near a large fire.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as day broke we made an excellent breakfast, thanks to the
+abundance of shell-fish, of which we could take whatever quantity we
+liked, and then set out again. Our way lay sometimes along the shore,
+and at other times through the woods. The journey was very fatiguing,
+but without any incident worthy of notice. It was after night-fall when
+we arrived at the village of Binangonan de Lampon. This village,
+inhabited by Tagalocs, is thrown, like an oasis of men, somewhat
+civilised, in the midst of forests and savage people, and who had no
+direct communication with the other districts which are governed by the
+Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>My name was known to the inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon,
+consequently we were received with open arms, and all the heads of the
+village disputed with each other for the honour of having me as a
+guest. I gave the preference to him who had first invited me, and in
+his dwelling I experienced the kindest hospitality. I had scarcely
+entered when the mistress of the house herself wished to wash my feet,
+and to show me all those attentions which proved to me the pleasure
+they felt that I had given them this preference. <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb265" href="#pb265">265</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p265"><img border="0" src="images/p265.jpg"
+alt="Inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon." width="360" height="413">
+<p class="figureHead">Inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>During supper, while I was enjoying the good food which was before
+me, the small house in which I was seated became filled with young
+girls, who gazed at me with a curiosity which was really comic. When I
+had finished my meal the conversation with my host began to weary me,
+and I stretched myself on a mat, which on that occasion I regarded as
+an excellent substitute for a feather-bed.</p>
+
+<p>I spent three days with the kind Tagalocs, who received and treated
+me like a prince. On the fourth day I bade them adieu, and we shaped
+our course to the northward, in the midst of mountains covered with
+thick forests, and which, like those that we had quitted, showed no
+path for the traveller, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb266" href=
+"#pb266">266</a>]</span>except some tracks or openings through which
+wild animals passed. We proceeded with great caution, for we found
+ourselves in the district peopled by Ajetas. At night we concealed our
+fire, and each of us in turn kept watch, for what we dreaded most was a
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, while marching in silence, we heard before us a number
+of shrill voices, resembling rather the cries of birds than human
+sounds. We kept strict watch, and shaded ourselves as much as possible
+by the aid of the trees and of the brushwood. Suddenly we perceived
+before us, at a very little distance, forty savages of both sexes, and
+of all ages; they absolutely seemed to be mere brutes; they were on the
+bank of a river, and close to a large fire. We advanced some steps
+presenting the but-end of our guns. The moment they saw us they set up
+a shrill cry, and were about to take to flight; but I made signs, and
+showed the packet of cigars which we wished to give them. Fortunately I
+had learned at Binangonan the way by which I was to approach them. As
+soon as they understood us they ranged themselves in a line, like men
+about to be reviewed; that was the signal that we might come near them.
+We approached with the cigars in our hands, and at one end of the line
+I began to distribute my presents. It was highly important to make
+friends of them, and, according to their custom, to give to each an
+equal share. My distribution being finished, our alliance was cemented,
+and peace concluded: the savages and we had nothing to dread from each
+other. They all began smoking. A stag had been suspended to a tree;
+their chief cut three large pieces from it with a bamboo knife, which
+he threw into the glowing fire, and a moment afterwards drew it out
+again and handed it round, a piece being given to each of us. The
+outside <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb267" href=
+"#pb267">267</a>]</span>of this steak was burned, and a little spotted
+with cinders, but the inside was raw and full of blood; however it was
+necessary not to show any repugnance, and to make a cannibal feast,
+otherwise my hosts would have been affronted, and I was anxious to live
+with them for some days on a good understanding. I therefore eat my
+portion of the stag, which, after all, was not bad: my Indians did as I
+had done. Good relations were thus established between us, and
+treachery was not then to be expected.</p>
+
+<p>I now found myself in the midst of a tribe of men whom I had come
+from Jala-Jala to see, and I set about examining them at my ease, and
+for as long as I wished. We fixed our bivouac some steps from theirs,
+as if we wished to form part of the family of our new friends. I could
+not address them but by signs, and I had the greatest difficulty in
+making them understand me, but on the day after my arrival I had an
+interpreter. A woman came to me with a child, to which she wished to
+give a name; she had been reared amongst the Tagalocs; she had spoken
+that language, of which she remembered a little, and could give,
+although with much difficulty, all the information I desired which was
+to me of interest.</p>
+
+<p>The creatures with whom I had thus formed a connection for a few
+days, and as I saw them, seemed rather to be a large family of monkeys
+than human beings. Their voices very much resembled the shrill cries of
+those animals, and in their gestures they were exactly like them. The
+only difference I could see was that they knew how to handle a bow and
+a lance, and to make a fire. To describe them properly I shall give a
+sketch of their forms and physiognomies.</p>
+
+<p>The Ajeta, or little negro, is as black as ebony, like the <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb268" href="#pb268">268</a>]</span>Africans;
+his greatest height is four feet and a-half; his hair is woolly, and as
+he takes no trouble about cutting it, and knows not how to arrange it,
+it forms around his head a sort of crown, which gives him an odd
+aspect, and, at a distance makes him appear as if surrounded with a
+kind of halo; his eye is yellowish, but lively and brilliant, like that
+of an eagle. The necessity of living by the chase, and of pursuing his
+prey, produces the effect on this organ of giving to it the most
+extraordinary vivacity. The features of the Ajetas have something of
+the African black, but the lips are not so prominent; while young their
+forms are pretty; but their lives being spent in the woods, sleeping
+always in the open air without shelter, eating much one day and often
+having nothing&mdash;long fastings, followed by repasts swallowed with
+the voracity of wild beasts&mdash;gave them a protruding stomach, and
+made their extremities lank and shrivelled. They never wear any
+clothing, unless a belt of the rind of a tree, <span class="corr" id=
+"xd0e2563" title="Source: fromeight">from eight</span> to ten inches in
+breadth, which they tie round their waist; their arms are composed of a
+bamboo lance, a bow of the palm tree, and poisoned arrows. Their food
+consists of roots, of fruits, and of the products of the chase; the
+flesh they eat nearly raw; and they live in tribes composed of from
+fifty to sixty individuals. During the day, the old men, the infirm,
+and the children, remain near a large fire, while the others are
+engaged in hunting; when they have a sufficiency of food to last for
+some days, they remain round their fire, and sleep pell-mell among the
+cinders.</p>
+
+<p>It is extremely curious to see collected together fifty or sixty of
+these brutes of every age, and each more or less deformed; the old
+women especially are hideous, their <span class="corr" id="xd0e2568"
+title="Source: decrepid">decrepit</span> limbs, their big bellies and
+their extraordinary heads of hair, give them all the looks of furies,
+or of old witches. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb269" href=
+"#pb269">269</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>I had scarcely arrived than women with very young children came in
+crowds to me. In order to satisfy them I caressed their babes: but that
+was not what they wanted, and, notwithstanding their gestures and their
+words, I could not make out their wishes. On the following day, the
+woman whom I have already mentioned as having lived for some time among
+the Tagalocs, arrived from a neighbouring tribe, accompanied by ten
+other women, each of whom had an infant in her arms. She explained what
+I was not able to comprehend on the previous day, and said: &ldquo;We
+have amongst us very few words for conversation: all our children take
+at their birth the name of the place where they are born. There is
+great confusion, then, and we have brought them to you that you may
+give them names.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I understood this explanation, I wished to celebrate the
+ceremony with all the pomp that the circumstances and the place
+allowed. I went to a small rivulet, and there, as I knew the formula
+for applying the baptismal water, I took my two Indians as sponsors,
+and during several days baptised about fifty of these poor children.
+Each mother who brought her infant was accompanied by two persons of
+her own family. I pronounced the sacramental words, and poured water on
+the head of the child, and then announced aloud the name I had given to
+the child. Therefore, as they have no means of perpetuating their
+recollections, from the time that I pronounced the name,&mdash;Francis,
+for instance,&mdash;the mother and her accompanying witnesses repeated
+it very often, until they learned to say it correctly, and commit it to
+memory. Then they went away, and were constantly repeating the name,
+which they were anxious to retain.</p>
+
+<p>The first day the ceremony was rather long; but the second <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb270" href="#pb270">270</a>]</span>day the
+number lessened, and I was allowed to pursue my examination of the
+character of my hosts. I had retained the woman who spoke Tagaloc, and
+in the long conversations which I held with her, she initiated me
+thoroughly in all their customs and usages.</p>
+
+<p>The Ajetas have no religion; they do not adore any star. It seems,
+however, that they have transmitted to, or received from, the
+Tinguianes, the practice of adoring, during one day, a rock or a trunk
+of any tree on which they find any resemblance whatever of an animal;
+they then abandon it, and think no more of an idol until they meet with
+a strange form, which, for a short time, constitutes the object of
+their frivolous worship. They have a strong veneration for the dead;
+and during several years it is their practice to visit their graves,
+and there to leave a little tobacco or betel. The bow and arrows which
+once belonged to the deceased are hung up over his grave on the day of
+his interment; and every night, according to the belief of his
+surviving comrades, he rises up out of his grave, and goes to hunt in
+the forest.</p>
+
+<p>Interments take place without any ceremony. The dead body is laid at
+full length in a grave, which is covered up with earth. But whenever
+one of the Ajetas is dangerously ill, and his recovery despaired of, or
+that he has been even slightly wounded by a poisoned arrow, his friends
+place him seated in a deep hole, with the arms crossed over his breast,
+and thus inter him while living.</p>
+
+<p>I thought of speaking to my interpreter on religion, and asked her
+if she did not believe in a Supreme Being&mdash;an all-powerful
+Divinity, on whom all nature&mdash;even we ourselves&mdash;depend in
+all things; and who had created the firmament, and who was looking on
+at our acts. She looked at me with a <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb271" href="#pb271">271</a>]</span>smile, and said: &ldquo;When I was
+young, amongst your brothers, I remember that they spoke to me of a
+master, who, as they said, had Heaven for his dwelling-place; but all
+that was lies; for see&rdquo;&mdash;(she here took up a small stone and
+threw it into the air, saying, in a very serious tone)&mdash;&ldquo;how
+can a king, as you say, remain in the sky any more than that
+stone?&rdquo; What answer could I give to such reasoning? I left
+religion aside, to put to her other questions.</p>
+
+<p>I have already stated that the Ajetas did not often wait for the
+death of a person to put him into the ground. As soon as the last
+honours are rendered to a deceased, it is requisite, conformably to
+their usages, to take revenge for his death. The hunters of the tribe
+to which he belonged set out, with their lances and their arrows, to
+kill the first living creature which should appear before their
+eyes&mdash;be it man, stag, wild boar, or buffalo. From the moment they
+start in search of a victim, they take care, in every part of the
+forest through which they pass, to break the young shoots of the
+arbustus shrub, by pointing its tops in the direction which they are
+following. This is done to give a caution to their friends, and other
+passers-by, to avoid those places in which they are searching for a
+victim, for if one of themselves fell into their hands, he would,
+without fail, be taken as the expiatory victim.</p>
+
+<p>They are faithful in marriage, and have but one wife. When a young
+man has made his choice, his friends or his parents make a demand for
+the young girl; a refusal is never given. A day is chosen; and on the
+morning of that day the young girl is sent into the forest, where she
+hides herself or not, just as she pleases, and according as she wishes
+to be married to the young man who has asked her. An hour after <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb272" href="#pb272">272</a>]</span>her
+departure, the young man is sent to find out his bride. If he has the
+good luck to find her, and to bring her back to her parents before
+sunset, the marriage is concluded, and she becomes his wife without
+fail; but if, on the contrary, he returns to the camp without her, he
+is not allowed to renew his addresses.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Ajetas old age is highly respected. It is always one of
+the oldest men who governs the assembled body. All the savages of this
+race live, as I have stated, in large families of from sixty to eighty
+persons. They ramble about through the forests, without having any
+fixed spot for their abode; and they change their encampment according
+to the greater or less quantity of game which they find in various
+places.</p>
+
+<p>While thus living in a state of nature altogether primitive, these
+savages have no instrument of music, and their language imitating, as I
+have stated, the cries of monkeys, has very few sounds, which are
+extremely difficult for a stranger to pronounce, how much soever may be
+his eagerness to study them. They are excellent hunters, and make a
+wonderful use of the bow. The young negroes, however little, of each
+sex, while their parents are out hunting, amuse themselves on the banks
+of the rivulets with their small bows. If by chance they see any fish
+in the translucent stream they let fly an arrow at it, and it is seldom
+that they miss their aim.</p>
+
+<p>All the weapons of the Ajetas are poisoned; a simple arrow could not
+cause a wound so severe as to stop a strong animal, such as a deer, in
+its course; but if the dart has been smeared with the poison known to
+them, the smallest puncture of it produces in the wounded animal an
+inextinguishable thirst, and death ensues upon satisfying it. The
+hunters then cut <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb273" href=
+"#pb273">273</a>]</span>out the flesh around the wound, and use the
+remainder as food, without any danger; but if they neglect this
+precaution, the meat becomes so exceedingly bitter that even the Ajetas
+themselves cannot eat it.</p>
+
+<p>Never having given credit to the famous <i>boab</i> of Java, I made
+experiments at Sumatra on the sort of poison of which the Malays make
+use to poison their weapons. I discovered that it was simply a strong
+solution of arsenic in citron juice, with which they coated their arms
+several times. I tried to find the poison used by the Ajetas. They led
+me to the foot of a large tree, and tore off a piece of its bark, and
+told me that that was the poison they used. I chewed some of it before
+them; it was insupportably bitter, but otherwise not injurious in its
+natural state. But the Ajetas make a preparation of it, the secret of
+which they refused to impart to me. When their poison is made up as a
+paste, they give to their arms a thin coating of it, about an eighth of
+an inch in thickness.</p>
+
+<p>The Ajetas in their movements are active and supple to an incredible
+degree; they climb up the highest trees like monkeys, by seizing the
+trunk with both hands, and using the soles of their feet. They run like
+a deer in the pursuit of the wild animals: this is their favourite
+occupation. It is a very curious sight to see these savages set out on
+a hunting excursion; men, women, and children move together, very much
+like a troop of ourang-outangs when going on a plundering party. They
+have always with them one or two little dogs, of a very special breed,
+which they employ in tracking out their prey whenever it is
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>I enjoyed quite at my ease the hospitality exercised towards me by
+these primitive men. I saw amongst them, and with my own eyes, all that
+I was desirous of knowing. The <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb274"
+href="#pb274">274</a>]</span>painful life which I had led since my
+departure from home, without any shelter but the trees, and eating
+nothing but what the savages provided, began to tire me exceedingly: I
+resolved to return to Jala-Jala. Having previously noticed several
+graves at a short distance from our bivouac, an idea struck me of
+carrying away a skeleton of one of the savages, which would, in my
+judgment, be a curiosity to present to the <span lang="fr">Jardin des
+Plantes</span> or to the Museum of Anatomy at Paris. The undertaking
+was one of great danger, on account of the veneration of the Ajetas for
+their dead. They might surprise us while violating their graves, and
+then no quarter was to be expected. I was, however, so much accustomed
+to overcome whatever opposed my will, that the danger did not deter me
+from acting upon my resolution. I communicated my intentions to my
+Indians, who did not oppose my project.</p>
+
+<p>Some few days afterwards we packed up our baggage, and took farewell
+of our hosts. We shaped our course towards the Indian cemetery. In the
+first graves which we opened we found the bones decayed in part, and I
+could only procure two skulls, which were not worth the danger to which
+they exposed us. However, we continued our researches, and towards the
+close of the day discovered the remains of a woman, who, from the
+position of the body in the grave, must have been buried before her
+death. The bones were still covered with skin; but the body was dry,
+and almost like a mummy. This was a fit subject. We had taken the body
+out of the grave, and were beginning to pack it up piece by piece into
+a sack, when we heard small shrill cries at a distance. The Ajetas were
+coming upon us, and there was no time to be lost. We seized our prize
+and started off as quick as possible. We had not got a hundred yards,
+when we heard the arrows <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb275" href=
+"#pb275">275</a>]</span>whistling about our ears. The Ajetas, perched
+on the tops of the trees, waited for us and attacked us, without our
+having any means of defence. Fortunately night came to our aid; their
+arrows, usually so sure, were badly directed, and did not touch us.
+While escaping we fired a gun to frighten them, and were soon able to
+leave them far behind, without having received any other injury than
+the alarm, and a sufficient notice of the danger to be encountered in
+disturbing the repose of their dead. On emerging from the wood, some
+drops of blood caused me to remark a slight scratch on the forefinger
+of my right hand; I attributed this to the hurry of my flight, and did
+not trouble myself much about it, as was my practice with trifles, but
+continued my march towards the sea-shore.</p>
+
+<p>We still retained the skeleton, which we laid on the sandy beach, as
+well as our haversacks and guns, and sat down to rest after the fatigue
+of the journey. My companions then began to make reflections on our
+position, and my lieutenant, inspired by his affection for me, and his
+sense of the danger we were exposed to, addressed me in the following
+strain:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, master! what have we done, and what is to become of us?
+To-morrow morning the enraged Ajetas will come to attack us for the
+execrable booty which we have carried off from them at the risk of our
+lives. If they would attack in the open ground, with our guns we might
+defend ourselves; but what can one do against those animals, perched
+here and there like monkeys in the top branches of the trees of their
+forest? Those places are for them so many fortresses, from which they
+will to-morrow shower down upon us those darts, which, alas! never fail
+to do mischief. Luckily it was night when they attacked us just now,
+for otherwise we at this hour <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb276"
+href="#pb276">276</a>]</span>should have a lance through each of our
+bodies, and then they would have cut off our heads to serve as trophies
+for a superb f&ecirc;te. Your head, master, would first have been laid
+on the ground, and the brutes would have danced round it, and, as our
+leader, you would have been a target of honour for them to practise
+upon.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And now, master, all that which would have occurred to us if
+the night had not favoured our escape is but deferred, for, alas! we
+cannot remain continually on this beach, although it is the only spot
+where we can protect ourselves against these black rascals. We must go
+to our homes, and this we cannot do without passing through the woods
+inhabited by these abominable creatures, who made us eat raw meat, and
+seasoned only with cinders. Well, master, before you undertook this
+excursion, you ought to have recollected all that happened to us among
+the Tinguians and the Igorrots.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I listened calmly to this touching lamentation of my lieutenant, who
+was perfectly right in all he said; but when he finished I sought to
+rouse his courage, and replied:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What! my brave Alila! are you afraid? I thought the
+Tic-balan, and the evil spirits could alone affect your courage. Do you
+want to make me think that men like yourself, without any arms but bad
+arrows, are enough to make you quake? Come, enough of this cowardice;
+to-morrow we shall have daylight, and we shall see what is to be done.
+In the meantime let us search for shell-fish, for I am very hungry,
+notwithstanding the alarm into which you are trying to throw
+me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This little sermon gave courage to Alila, who immediately set about
+making a fire, and then, by the aid of lighted bamboos, he and his
+comrade went to the rocks to find out the shell-fish. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb277" href="#pb277">277</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>Alila was nevertheless quite right, and I myself could not disguise
+the fact, that good luck alone could extricate us from the critical
+position in which we were placed by my fault, in having thought of my
+country, and in wishing to ornament the Museum of Paris with a skeleton
+of an Ajetas.<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2637src" href=
+"#xd0e2637">2</a></p>
+
+<p>From disposition and habit I was not a man to alarm myself with any
+danger which was not immediate; yet I avow that the last words I had
+said to Alila:&mdash;&ldquo;To-morrow we shall have daylight, and we
+shall see what is to be done:&rdquo;&mdash;came back to my mind, and
+for a short time occupied my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>My Indians brought back a large quantity of shell-fish, sufficient
+for our supper, and Alila ran up quite breathless, saying:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Master, I have made a discovery! A hundred steps from this I
+have found a canoe, which the sea has cast upon the beach; it is large
+enough to hold us three. We can make use of it to get to Binangonan,
+and there we shall be safe from the poisoned arrows of these dogs the
+Ajetas.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This discovery was either that Providence had come to our aid, or it
+was a complication of dangers greater than those reserved to us on land
+on awaking in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>I went instantly to the spot where Alila had made his important
+discovery, and having disencumbered the canoe from the sand with which
+it was partly covered, I soon became certain that, with some bamboos,
+and by stopping a few cracks, it would be staunch enough to take us
+over the Pacific ocean, away from the Ajetas.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said I to Alila, &ldquo;you see I was right, and
+you must admit the hand of Providence is here. Is it not evident <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb278" href="#pb278">278</a>]</span>that this
+fine boat, built, perhaps, several thousand leagues from this, has
+arrived express from the Polynesian islands to carry us away from the
+claws of the savages.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;True, master, true; it is our luck. To-morrow they will
+finely be taken in on not finding us here; but let us set to work, for
+we have much to do before this fine boat, as you call it, will be in a
+fit state for going through the water.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We immediately made a large fire on the shore, and went into the
+woods to cut down bamboos and rattans; then we set to work to stop the
+holes, which decreased fast enough under our handy-work upon the
+abandoned canoe.</p>
+
+<p>Persons who have never travelled amongst the savages cannot imagine
+how, without having been instructed in the arts, and without nails, one
+could stop up the fissures in such a boat, and put it in a state fit
+for sea. Yet the means were very simple; our poignards, bamboos, and
+rattans supplied everything; by scraping a bamboo we obtained from it
+something like tow, which we put into the chinks, so that the water
+could not enter. If it was necessary to stop any breach a few inches in
+width, we took from the bamboo a little plank, somewhat larger than the
+opening we wished to close, and then with the point of the poignard we
+pierced it all round with little holes, to match those which were made
+in the same manner in the boat itself. Afterwards, with long strings of
+the rattan, which we split up and made fine, we sewed the little plank
+to the boat, just as one would a piece of cloth on a coat; we covered
+the sewing with the elemi gum, and were sure the water could not pass
+through. The rattan served instead of hemp, and supplied all our
+necessities on the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>We worked with ardour at this our new and only means of safety. Once
+caulked, we placed in it two large bamboos as <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb279" href="#pb279">279</a>]</span>beams, for without those beams
+we could not have sailed for ten minutes without being upset. Another
+bamboo served as our mast; the large sack of matting that contained our
+skeleton was transformed into a sail. At last, before the night was far
+advanced, every preparation was finished. The wind was favourable, and
+we hastened to try our boat, and to struggle with new difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>We placed in the canoe our arms and the skeleton, the cause of our
+new troubles; we then pushed the boat over the sand and got it afloat.
+It took us a good half-hour to get clear of the breakers. We were every
+moment in danger of being swamped by the large waves, which rolled on,
+dashing against the rocks that bound the shore. At last, after we had
+overcome a thousand difficulties and dangers, we reached the open sea,
+and the regular wave&mdash;a real movable mountain&mdash;lifted up,
+without any sudden shock, our frail boat almost to the skies, and then
+in the same quiet manner let it sink into an abyss, from which it was
+again raised to the top of a liquid mountain. These large waves, which
+follow each other usually from interval to interval very regularly,
+cause no danger to a good pilot, who takes the precaution of turning
+the prow of his boat so as to meet them. But woe to him if he forgets
+himself, and makes a false man&oelig;uvre, he is then sure to be upset
+and wrecked. Being used to the management of canoes, and, more
+confident in my own vigilance when at sea than in that of my Indians, I
+took the helm. The wind was favourable; we set up our little sail, and
+went very fast, although every moment I was obliged to turn the prow to
+the heavy waves. We were already a sufficient distance from the shore
+not to fear, if the wind changed, that we should be driven in among the
+breakers. Everything led <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb280" href=
+"#pb280">280</a>]</span>us to expect a safe voyage, when unfortunately
+my poor Indians were taken ill. They had never sailed before except on
+the lakes of fresh water, and were now attacked with sea-sickness. This
+was vexatious to me, for I knew from experience that a person so
+attacked for the first time is altogether incapable of rendering any
+service, and even of protecting himself against the smallest danger
+that threatens him. I had no one to aid me in managing the boat, and
+was obliged to rely on my own exertions. I told him who held the sheet
+of the sail to hand it to me, and I twisted it round my foot, for both
+my hands were engaged in holding the paddle which was our helm. My
+Indians, like two inanimate bodies, lay at the bottom of the boat.</p>
+
+<p>When I reflect on my position,&mdash;on the ocean, in a frail boat;
+having only for helps two individuals who could not move, two skulls,
+and a skeleton of an Ajetas,&mdash;I cannot help thinking that the
+reader may imagine that I have concocted a story for his amusement.
+However, I relate facts exactly as they occurred, and I leave all at
+liberty to believe as they please.</p>
+
+<p>I was, as it were, alone in my frail boat, struggling continually
+with the large waves, which obliged me every moment to deviate from the
+course. I longed for daylight, for I hoped to be able to discern the
+beach of Binangonan de Lampon, as a place of refuge, where I should
+find the frank hospitality and the valuable assistance of my old
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>At last the long-wished-for sun arose above the horizon, and I saw
+that we were about three leagues from the coast. I had gone far too
+much out to sea, and had passed Binangonan a long way. It was not
+possible to steer back, the wind would not allow it; so I decided on
+pursuing the same course, and on <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb281"
+href="#pb281">281</a>]</span>doing my best to reach, before night,
+Maoban, a large Tagaloc village, situate on the coast of Luzon, and
+which is separated by a small ridge of mountains from the lake of Bay.
+The first rays of the sun and a little calm restored my Indians to a
+state of being able to render me some service. We passed the day
+without eating or drinking, and we had the regret of seeing that we had
+not attained our purpose. Our position was most distressing: a storm
+might rise, the wind might blow with force, and our only resource then
+would be to throw ourselves into the breakers, and to reach the shore
+as well as we could. But luckily nothing of the kind took place; and
+about midnight we knew, from meeting a small island, that we were in
+front of the village of Maoban. I steered to it, and in a short time we
+arrived in a calm quiet bay, near a sandy shore. The fatigue and want
+of food had thoroughly exhausted my strength. I had no sooner landed
+than I threw myself on the ground, and fell into a deep sleep, which
+lasted until day. When I awoke I found the sun&rsquo;s rays were
+shining full upon me: it was near seven o&rsquo;clock. On any other
+occasion I should have been ashamed of my laziness, but could I feel
+dissatisfied with myself for sleeping soundly after thirty-six
+hours&rsquo; fasting, and spent in such extraordinary exertions<span
+class="corr" id="xd0e2679" title="Source: .">?</span> During my sleep
+one of my Indians went into the village in search of provisions, and I
+found excellent rice and salt fish near me. We made a delicious and
+splendid breakfast. My Indians, on behalf of the inhabitants, asked me
+to go to the village, and spend the day, but I was too eager to reach
+home. I knew by walking quickly we could get through the mountains, and
+arrive at night on the banks of the lake, within a few hours&rsquo;
+journey from my house. I determined to start without any delay. We took
+our things out of the boat; the little sail retook its former shape,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb282" href="#pb282">282</a>]</span>as a
+sack, to hold the skulls and the skeleton, the cause of all the
+disasters to which we had been exposed, and, with reunited strength,
+and abundant provisions for the day, we began to mount the high hills
+which separate the gulf of Maoban from the lake of Bay. The journey was
+laborious and painful. At seven o&rsquo;clock we embarked on the lake,
+and towards midnight we reached Jala-Jala, where I very speedily forgot
+all the toil and trouble of my long and dangerous journey, while
+pressing my son in my arms and covering him with paternal kisses.</p>
+
+<p>My excellent friend Vidie, to whom I sold my house and
+establishment, gave me letters which he had received from Manilla, and
+from them I learned that my presence was desired there on affairs of
+importance. I resolved to start on the following day. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb283" href="#pb283">283</a>]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figure" id="p283"><img border="0" src="images/p283.jpg"
+alt="View of Manilla from the Environs." width="488" height="380">
+<p class="figureHead">View of Manilla from the Environs.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2522src" id="xd0e2522">1</a></span> Bernard the Hermit is a crab,
+which lodges in the abandoned shell of the mollusc&aelig;, and comes at
+night in search of food, which it finds on the sea beach.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2637src" id="xd0e2637">2</a></span> The skeleton is now in the
+<span lang="fr">Mus&eacute;e Anatomique</span> of Paris.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div id="ch13" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> [<a href=
+"#toc">Contents</a>]</span>
+
+<h2 class="label">Chapter XIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="argument">
+<p>I Determine not again to Separate from my Son&mdash;I take him to
+Manilla&mdash;The Effects of the Wound I received among the
+Ajetas&mdash;My Recovery&mdash;Kindness of the Spanish and other
+Inhabitants of Manilla&mdash;Illness of my Son&mdash;I return with him
+to Jala-Jala&mdash;Sorrowful Remembrances&mdash;The Death of my poor
+Boy&mdash;His Interment&mdash;My frantic Grief and Despair&mdash;I
+Determine to Quit the Philippines&mdash;I am Called to Manilla by
+Madame Dolor&egrave;s Seneris&mdash;My Final Departure from
+Jala-Jala&mdash;I Arrive at Manilla, where I resume Practice as a
+Surgeon&mdash;I Embark for France&mdash;Discontent&mdash;My Travels
+through Europe&mdash;I Marry again&mdash;Death of my Mother and my
+Second Wife&mdash;Conclusion.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="dropcap">Having now concluded my last trip into the interior
+of the Philippines, I was desirous of not separating myself again from
+my son, the only being that remained to me of all those whom I had
+loved so tenderly. I took him with me to Manilla; but I did not
+altogether bid farewell to Jala-Jala, yet I had almost the intention of
+never going back to it.</p>
+
+<p>The journey was as agreeable as my melancholy recollections <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb284" href="#pb284">284</a>]</span>would
+permit. I experienced such pleasure in holding my boy in my arms, and
+in receiving his gentle caresses, that I occasionally forgot every
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>I arrived at Manilla, and took up my quarters in the environs, at
+the abode of Baptiste Vidie, brother of the friend whom I had left at
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>After my escape from the Ajetas, I had noticed a small wound on the
+forefinger of my right hand, which I attributed to having been
+accidentally scratched by a branch or a thorn, while we were
+endeavouring to make our escape with such precipitation from the arrows
+which the savages let fly at us. The first night I spent at Manilla, I
+felt in the place where the wound was such extreme pain that I fell
+down twice totally senseless. The agony increased every instant, and
+became so violent that I could no longer doubt that it was caused by
+the poison of an arrow, shot at me by the Ajetas. I sent for one of my
+<i>confr&eacute;res</i>, and after a most careful examination, he made
+a large incision, which did not, however, afford me any relief: the
+hand, on the contrary, festered up. By little and little the
+inflammation extended itself up my arm, and I was soon in an alarming
+state.</p>
+
+<p>In short, after suffering during a whole month, and after the most
+cruel incertitude, it seemed that the poison had passed into my breast.
+I could not sleep for an instant; and, in spite of me, dead and painful
+cries came forth from my breast, which was on fire. My eyes were
+veiled&mdash;I could not see; a burning sweat covered my face; my blood
+was on fire, and did not circulate in my veins; my life seemed about to
+become extinct. The medical men declared that I could not pass through
+the night. According to the usages of the country, I was told that I
+ought to regulate my affairs for death. I <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb285" href="#pb285">285</a>]</span>asked that the consul-general of
+France, my excellent friend Adolphe Barrot, should be sent for.</p>
+
+<p>Adolphe I knew to be a man of true heart and affection, and to him I
+recommended my poor boy. He promised to take care of him as if he were
+his own son, to take him to France, and to give him over to my
+family.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly a good Dominican friar came, and with him I had several long
+conferences, and after he had dispensed to me the consolations of his
+ministry, he gave me extreme unction. Everything was done according to
+the customary form, and nothing was wanting but my death.</p>
+
+<p>However, amidst all these preparations, I alone was not so eager;
+and, although in excessive anguish, I preserved my presence of mind,
+and declared I should not die. Was it courage? Was it great confidence
+in my strength and robust health, which made me believe in my recovery?
+Was it a presentiment, or was it an inward voice which told me:
+&ldquo;The doctors are wrong, and how great will be their surprise
+tomorrow on finding me better?&rdquo; In short, I did not wish to die;
+for, according to my system, my will ought to stop the order of nature,
+and to make me survive all imaginable pain.</p>
+
+<p>The following day I was better: the doctors found my pulse regular,
+and without any intermitting symptom. Some days afterwards the poison
+passed out to my skin: my whole body was covered with a miliary
+eruption, and thenceforth I was safe. My recovery was very gradual, and
+for more than a year I felt acute pains in my breast.</p>
+
+<p>During the course of my illness I received the kindest attention
+from my fellow-countrymen, and in general from all the Spanish
+inhabitants of Manilla; and here I ought to state, to the praise of the
+latter class, that during twenty years spent <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb286" href="#pb286">286</a>]</span>in the Philippines, I always
+found amongst those with whom I had dealings, a great nobleness of soul
+and a devotedness free from egotism. I shall never forget the
+kindnesses I received from this noble race, for which I entertain
+feelings of the warmest gratitude. To me, every Spaniard is a brother;
+and to him I shall always be happy to prove that his countrymen have
+not conferred obligations on an ungrateful character. I hope the reader
+will pardon me for having quitted my subject for a short time to fulfil
+the duty of gratitude; but are they not my recollections which I am
+detailing?<a class="noteref" id="xd0e2727src" href="#xd0e2727">1</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb287" href="#pb287">287</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The wish to undertake, together with my boy, the voyage which would
+restore me to my country; the hope of seeing my kind good mother, my
+sisters, and all the friends whom I had left behind, reconciled me
+somewhat to existence, and made me experience a little happiness. I was
+awaiting with impatience the time for embarking; but, alas! my mission
+was not yet terminated in the Philippines, and a new catastrophe,
+quickly opened afresh all my sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>I was scarcely recovered, when my dear boy&mdash;my sole delight the
+last beloved being that remained to me on this earth, so fruitful in
+joys, and still so destructive of them&mdash;my poor Henry fell
+suddenly ill, and his disease made the most rapid progress. My friends
+immediately foreboded that a great misfortune would befall me. I alone
+did not know the state in which my child really was. I loved him with
+such an ardent passion, that I believed it impossible that Providence
+would deprive me of him. My medical attendant, or rather my friend,
+Genu, advised me to take him to Jala-Jala, where his native air and the
+country, as he said, would without doubt promote his recovery. I liked
+the advice, for so many persons had recovered their health at Jala-Jala
+that I hoped for my child a similar good result. I set out with him and
+his governess; the voyage was one of sadness, for I saw my poor boy
+continually suffering, without being able to afford him any relief.</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival Vidie came to receive us, and in a few moments I
+occupied, with my Henry, the room which brought to my remembrance two
+very sorrowful losses&mdash;the death of my little daughter and that of
+my beloved Anna. It was, moreover, in that very room my Henry was
+born,&mdash;a cruel association of the happiest moments of my existence
+with that when I was <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb288" href=
+"#pb288">288</a>]</span>bewailing the state of my beloved boy.
+Nevertheless, I did not altogether despair, for I had hopes in my art
+and experience. I seated myself by his bedside, and did not leave him
+for a moment. I slept close to him, and I passed every day in
+administering the medicine and all the comforts in my power, but
+without any good result, or any relief for his sufferings. I lost all
+hope, and on the ninth day after our arrival the dear boy expired in my
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>It is not possible for me to give an account of my feelings on this
+last trial. My heart was broken, my head on fire! I became mad, and
+never did despair take such a hold on me. I listened to nothing but my
+sorrow; and force became necessary to tear from my arms the mortal
+remains of my child.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day he was laid close to his mother, and another
+tomb was erected in the church of Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did my friend Vidie endeavour to afford me consolation, or
+to change the current of my affliction. Several times he tried to
+remove me from the fatal room, which I now looked upon as a scene of
+misfortunes, but he could not succeed. I hoped at the time&mdash;and I
+also thought that I too had a right&mdash;to die there, where my wife
+and my son had breathed their last sighs. My tears refused to flow, and
+even words failed me to express the full extent of my grief. An ardent
+fever, which devoured me, was far too slow for the eagerness of my
+wishes. In a moment of bewilderment, I was near committing the greatest
+act of cowardice which man can perpetrate against his Creator. I
+double-locked the door; I seized the poignard which I had so often used
+to protect my life, and pointed it against myself. I was already
+choosing the spot in which I should strike, in order by one blow to
+terminate my miserable existence. My arm, strengthened <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb289" href="#pb289">289</a>]</span>by delirium, was
+about to smite my breast, when one sudden thought came to prevent me
+from consummating the crime which has no pardon&mdash;although the
+crime of despair. My mother, my poor mother, whom I had so much loved,
+my good mother presented herself to my mind, and said to me:
+&ldquo;Thou wouldst abandon me&mdash;I shall see thee no more!&rdquo; I
+recollected then the words of Anna: &ldquo;Go, and see thy mother
+again!&rdquo; This thought changed my resolution completely. I threw
+the poniard aside with horror, and fell on my bed quite exhausted. My
+eyes, which during many days had been dry and burning, were once again
+overflowing with tears, which removed the heavy weight from my
+lacerated heart.</p>
+
+<p>The force of mind of which I stood so much in need was awakened
+again within me: I no longer thought of death, but of fulfilling my
+rigorous destiny. Calmed and relieved already by the abundant flow of
+tears, I gave myself up wholly to the idea of embracing my mother and
+my sisters. Then I wished to add the following pages to my journal. My
+head was not thoroughly right. I shall translate what I then wrote in
+Spanish, which was my adopted and familiar language, in preference even
+to French, which I had scarcely spoken during twenty years:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How have I strength to take this pen? My poor boy!&mdash;my
+son!&mdash;my beloved Henry!&mdash;is no more: his soul has flown to
+his Creator! Oh, God! pardon this complaint in my distress. What have I
+done to be thus cruelly afflicted? My boy!&mdash;my dear son!&mdash;my
+only hope!&mdash;my last happiness!&mdash;I shall never again see thee!
+Formerly I was happy; I had my good Anna and my dear child; but cruel
+fate soon tore my companion from me. My trouble was indeed great, and
+my affliction was profound; but thou wast still with me, Oh, my child!
+and all my affections were concentrated in thee. &ldquo;With thy <span
+class="pagenum">[<a id="pb290" href="#pb290">290</a>]</span>caresses
+thou didst dry my tears; thy smile was like that of thy mother, and thy
+beautiful features reminded me of her, and in thee I found her again.
+But to-day, alas! I have lost you both. What a void! Oh, God! what a
+solitude! Oh! I ought to die in this room which is the depository of
+all my misfortunes. Here I bewailed my poor brother; here I closed the
+eyes of my daughter; here, also, Anna, when dying, bade me, bathed in
+tears, her last adieus; and here, at last, thou, my son, they tore thee
+from my arms, to lay thee near the ashes of thy mother.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;So many afflictions and so many troubles for one man! Oh, God
+of goodness and mercy, will you not restore to me my poor child? Alas!
+I scarcely feel that I am mistaken: but He will pity my
+bewilderment&mdash;he who has been beloved and who has seen carried
+off, one by one, all the elements of his happiness. As for me, an
+isolated being, and henceforward useless on this earth, it matters
+little where I shall sink under the weight of my afflictions. If it was
+not from the hope of seeing my mother and sisters, I should terminate
+my wretched existence, my grave should be with you&mdash;you
+all!&mdash;whom I loved so much. I should remain near you, and during
+the rest of my miserable existence I should every day visit your tombs!
+But no; a sacred duty obliges me to leave you, and to separate for ever
+from you. Cruel! Oh, cruel indeed will be the hour when I shall depart
+from you. And thou, my beloved, my good, excellent wife, my Anna, thy
+last words shall be accomplished. I will set out, but regret and grief
+accompany me during the voyage; my heart and my memory will remain at
+Jala-Jala. Oh! land bedewed with my sweat, with my blood, and with my
+tears! when fate brought me to thy shores thou wast covered with dismal
+forests which this day <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb291" href=
+"#pb291">291</a>]</span>have given place to rich harvests: among thy
+inhabitants order, abundance, and prosperity have taken the place of
+debauchery and misery. My efforts were crowned with full success; all
+was prosperity around me. Alas! I was too happy! But while misfortune
+strikes me down and overwhelms me, it will have stricken me alone, my
+work will outlive me. You will be happy, Oh, my friends! and if I
+myself have been so in contributing to your welfare, let a thought
+sometimes awaken your feelings towards him to whom you often gave the
+name of &rsquo;Father;&rsquo; and if you preserve gratitude towards
+him, Oh, take a religious care of the tombs, trebly dear to him, which
+he now intrusts to you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My readers will pardon this melancholy and long lamentation; they
+will understand it if they examine with care my position. Separated
+from my country by five thousand five hundred leagues, the stroke of
+fate which laid all my cherished hopes in the dust was the more acutely
+felt as it was unexpected. I had no relatives in the Philippines; in
+France alone I might yet find some affections; and, at the moment of
+quitting Jala-Jala for ever, the idea of parting with my
+Indians&mdash;attached, devoted, as they were to me&mdash;was an
+additional grief to the many which overpowered me. Thus I could not
+resolve to acquaint them beforehand of this separation. I remained in
+my room, without quitting it even at meal times. My friend Vidie did
+everything possible to prepare me for these adieus, and to console me.
+He pressed me to start speedily for Manilla, and to make arrangements
+for my departure; but an irresistible force retained me at Jala-Jala. I
+was weak; my heart was so crushed by sorrows that I had no courage to
+adopt any resolutions. I put it off from day to day, and from day to
+day I was more undecided. An unexpected occasion <span class="pagenum">
+[<a id="pb292" href="#pb292">292</a>]</span>was necessary in order to
+conquer my apathy; it was requisite also to triumph over me by
+sentiments of gratitude&mdash;sentiments which I could never
+resist.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion, the motive which decided my departure was
+furnished by Providence. I had a friend in Manilla, a lady of angelic
+goodness, gentleness, and devotedness. United from the period of my
+arrival in the most intimate manner with all her family, I had known
+her as a child, and afterwards married to a highly honourable man, of
+whom when she was subsequently bereaved, I afforded her all the
+consolations which the sincerest friendship could offer. She was a
+witness of the happiness which I enjoyed with my dear Anna, and,
+hearing that I was unhappy, she did not hesitate to undertake a long
+journey, and in her turn to come and take a part in my troubles. The
+excellent Dolor&egrave;s Seneris arrived one morning at Jala-Jala; she
+threw herself into my arms, and for some moments tears alone were the
+interpreters of our thoughts. When we recovered from our first
+emotions, she told me that she had come to take me away, and she
+herself made the preparations for my departure. I was too grateful for
+this proof of the friendship of the good Dolor&egrave;s not to
+acquiesce in her wishes, and it was decided that on the following day I
+should quit Jala-Jala for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The report was soon spread among my Indians. They all came to bid me
+farewell: they wept, and they said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, master, do not deprive us of all hope of seeing you
+again. Go, and receive consolation from your mother, and then return to
+your children.&rdquo; That day was filled with most distressing
+feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The day following was Sunday. I went to say adieu to the remains of
+those whom I had loved even in their tombs. <span class="pagenum">[<a
+id="pb293" href="#pb293">293</a>]</span>I heard for the last time the
+divine service in the modest little church which I had erected, and in
+which for a long time, surrounded by my dearest friends, I was happy to
+assemble, on the same day of the week, the small congregation of
+Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p>After the service I proceeded to the beach, where the boat was
+waiting, which was to take me to Manilla. There&mdash;surrounded by my
+Indians, the good parish priest, Padre Miguel, and my friend
+Vidie&mdash;I bade adieu to them all for the last time. Dolor&egrave;s
+and I got into the boat, which was scarcely pushed off from the shore
+when every arm was stretched out towards me, and every one
+exclaimed:&mdash;&ldquo;May your voyage be happy, master! And oh!
+return soon!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>One of the oldest Indians made a sign for silence, and then in a
+loud voice uttered these solemn words:&mdash;&ldquo;Brothers, let us
+weep and pray, for the sun is obscured to us; the star which is going
+has shed light on our best days, and now for the future, being deprived
+of that light, we cannot tell how long will last the night in which we
+are plunged by the misfortune of his departure.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This exhortation of the old Indian were the last words that reached
+us: the boat moved away, as I, for the last time, fixed my eyes on the
+beloved land which I was never again to behold.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Manilla late: it was one of those enchanting nights,
+which I have described in the happy period of my voyages.
+Dolor&egrave;s insisted that I should not lodge in any house but hers.
+Before she set out her careful friendship had provided for everything.
+I was surrounded by all those little attentions of which woman alone
+has the secret, and which she knows how to confer with such grace on
+him who is the object for whom they are designed. <span class=
+"pagenum">[<a id="pb294" href="#pb294">294</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>My windows looked on the pretty river Pasig. I there passed whole
+days in looking at the graceful Indian canoes gliding over the water,
+and receiving the visits of my friends, who came with eagerness to
+endeavour to divert my thoughts, and to afford sources of pleasing
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>When I was alone I sought to dispel my melancholy by thinking of my
+voyage; on the happiness I should experience on seeing again my poor
+mother and sisters, a brother-in-law whom I did not know, and nieces
+born during my absence.</p>
+
+<p>The obligation of returning the visits I received, and the
+re-establishment of my health, allowed me at length to enter into
+affairs connected with my departure.</p>
+
+<p>My friend, Adolphe Barrot, consul-general of France, was every day
+in expectation of intelligence from his government, with orders for his
+return home. He proposed to me to wait for him, so that we might make
+the voyage together. I accepted the proposal with pleasure, and we
+decided amongst ourselves that, for our return, we should take the
+route of India, of the Red Sea, and of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>While I stayed at Manilla I did not wish to be idle. The Spaniards
+reminded me that at a former epoch I had carried on the art of
+medicine, and with great success. I soon had patients from all quarters
+of the island, and I resumed my old profession, and gave advice. But
+what difference between <i>this</i> time and that of my <i>
+d&eacute;b&ucirc;t</i>. Then I was young, full of strength and of hope;
+then I indulged in the illusions usual to youth; a long future of
+happiness presented itself to my imagination. Now, overwhelmed by the
+weight of troubles and of the laborious works I had executed, there was
+only one wish to excite me, and that was, to see France again; and yet
+my recollections took me continually back to Jala-Jala. Poor little
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb295" href=
+"#pb295">295</a>]</span>corner of the globe, which I civilised! where
+my best years were spent in a life of labour, of emotions, of
+happiness, and of bitterness! Poor Indians! who loved me so much! I was
+never to see you again! We were soon to be separated by the immensity
+of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Reflections and recollections beyond number thus occupied my mind.
+But, alas! it is vain to struggle against one&rsquo;s destiny; and
+Providence, in its impenetrable views, was reserving me for rude trials
+and fresh misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Having again become a doctor at Manilla, where I had such difficulty
+at my commencement, I visited patients from morning until night. To
+Dolor&egrave;s and to her sister Trinidad I was indebted for the most
+touching and most delicate attentions, calculated to heal the wounds
+which were still bleeding in the bottom of my heart. I frequently saw
+the two sisters of my poor wife, Joaquina and Mariquita, as well as my
+young niece, the daughter of excellent Josephine, for whom I had
+entertained so warm a friendship, and who so soon followed my darling
+Anna to the grave. By little and little I was forming new ties of
+affection, which I was soon to break, and never afterwards to renew. I
+could not forget Jala-Jala, and my recollections never quitted that
+place where were deposited the remains of those whom of all the world I
+had most loved. My eager wishes induced me to hope that my work of
+colonisation should continue, and that my friend Vidie should find some
+compensation for the rough task he had undertaken. At this period, even
+while I remained in Manilla, a great misfortune was nearly the cause of
+throwing Jala-Jala back into its former state of barbarism. The
+bandits, who always respected the place while I was in possession of
+it, came one night to attack it, and made themselves masters of the
+house in which <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb296" href=
+"#pb296">296</a>]</span>Vidie had shut himself up, and defended until
+he was forced to escape out of a window, and to run and hide in the
+woods, leaving his daughter, then very young, to the care of an Indian
+nurse. The bandits pillaged and shattered everything in the house;
+wounded his daughter by a sabre-cut, of which to this day she bears the
+marks; and then went off with the plunder they had made. But Jala-Jala
+had become too important a point to be neglected; and the Spanish
+government sent troops to it, to protect Vidie, and to maintain
+order.</p>
+
+<p>At last, Adolphe Barrot received from the French government the
+long-awaited instructions to return home; all my preparations were made
+for setting out. It was in 1839; twenty years had passed over since I
+left my country, which I was now about to return to with satisfaction.
+For a long time I had received no news from my mother, and the pleasure
+which I anticipated from seeing her was troubled by the dread of having
+new sorrows to experience on my arrival. My mother was then very old;
+her life had been passed in long tribulations, and in complete
+sacrifice of self. The numerous moral troubles which she had gone
+through must have affected her state of health. Besides, I had been so
+unfortunate: fate seemed to have so roughly treated all my affections,
+that I could not refrain from thinking that I should never again see
+her for whom I abandoned my much-loved country. The day for sailing
+came; yet it was not without a heartfelt grief that I tore myself away
+from my friends, and bade adieu to the Philippines.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+<p>Here ought to terminate the account which I proposed: yet I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to my return to my native land.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb297" href="#pb297">297</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>On board various vessels I passed the coasts of India, the Persian
+Gulf, and the Red Sea.</p>
+
+<p>After having often admired the grand works of Nature, I felt a
+strong desire to see the gigantic works executed by the hand of
+man.</p>
+
+<p>I went to Thebes, and there visited in detail its palaces, its
+tombs, and its monolithes. I descended the Nile, stopping at every
+place which contained any monuments worthy of my curiosity. I ascended
+one of the Pyramids. I passed several days in Cairo, and set out for
+Alexandria, where I embarked anew, to pass over the small space of sea
+which separated me from Europe.</p>
+
+<p>I have sometimes wished to compare the grandest of human productions
+with the works of the Creator; the comparison is by no means favourable
+to the former, for all those useless ornaments are nothing but lasting
+proofs of pride, and of the fanaticism of a few men, who were obeyed by
+a people in slavery. I also saw all that remained of the traces of
+destruction committed by two of the greatest conquerors of the world:
+the first was but a haughty despot, causing cohorts of slaves to act as
+he pleased, and carrying the sword and destruction amongst peaceful
+people, to profane their tombs, to follow up useless
+conquests,&mdash;history afterwards shows him dying of an orgie; and
+the other, alas! was enchained to a rock.</p>
+
+<p>From the summit of one of the Pyramids, in religious abstraction, I
+had contemplated the majestic Nile, which glides serpent-like through a
+vast plain, bordered by the Desert and arid mountains. Looking, then,
+below me, I could with difficulty descry some of my travelling
+companions, who were gazing at the Sphinx, and who appeared like little
+spots on <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb298" href=
+"#pb298">298</a>]</span>the sand. And I then exclaimed: &ldquo;It is
+not these useless monuments that we ought to admire, but rather this
+magnificent river, which, in obedience to the laws of all-powerful
+wisdom, overflows every year, at a fixed period, its limits, and
+spreads itself, like a vast sea, to water and to vivify these immense
+plains, which are afterwards covered with rich harvests. If this
+immutable and beneficent order of Nature did not endure, all these
+fertile districts would be but a desert waste, where no living creature
+could exist.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>These reflections took their origin, without doubt, from my having
+spent almost all my life amidst those grand creations of Nature, from
+which man continually derives sentiments that elevate him to the
+Supreme Being. I had studied that Nature&mdash;in all her details, her
+beneficence, and her magnificence&mdash;too attentively to allow the
+productions of man&rsquo;s genius to make upon me the impression which
+I thought might be expected, when I first formed the wish to see the
+monuments of Egypt; and, while sailing for Europe, I already
+anticipated the feeling that a short sojourn in the midst of
+civilisation would cause me to regret my ancient freedom, my mountains,
+and my solitudes in the Philippine Islands.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Malta I was for eighteen days locked up in Fort
+Manuel, and then passed the quarantine. I there received news of my
+family. My mother and sisters wrote to me that they were in the
+enjoyment of excellent health, and were awaiting with impatience my
+coming to them. After the quarantine was over, I stopped nearly a week
+in the city, while waiting for a steamer that was going to France. I
+embraced the opportunity of seeing every curiosity in the island. I
+then resumed my voyage to my native land, and the following week I
+recognised the arid rocks of Provence <span class="pagenum">[<a id=
+"pb299" href="#pb299">299</a>]</span>and France, from which I had been
+absent for twenty years.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days I reached Nantes, where for some time I enjoyed, in
+every respect, all the happiness which one feels when those beloved
+beings from whom one had been long severed, and who formed the last
+living ties of affection for an unhappy being who had been severely
+tried by a capricious destiny. But the want of excitement in which I
+lived soon became irksome; my life had been too active, so that the
+sudden transition could not fail to prove injurious to my health, and
+the idea of submitting during the remainder of my existence to a life
+sterile and monotonous became intolerable. Not knowing how to employ
+myself, I resolved to travel through Europe, and to study the civilised
+world, which was then so strange to me. I travelled through France,
+England, Belgium, Spain, and Italy, and returned to my family, without
+being able to discover anything that could induce me to forget my
+Indians, Jala-Jala, and my solitary excursions in the virgin forests.
+The society of men reared in extreme civilisation could not efface from
+my memory my past modest life. Notwithstanding all my efforts, I
+retained in my heart a fund of sadness, which it was not possible to
+conceal. My kind-hearted mother, who with deep regret observed my
+repugnance to establish myself in any part of the country, and who
+entertained fears, perhaps well-founded ones, that I should yet
+endeavour to go back to the Philippines, used every means to prevent
+me. She spoke to me of marriage, and in all her letters repeated that
+she should not be happy until I agreed to enter into the ties of a new
+union: she said my name would otherwise become extinct, and, as her
+last consolation, she asked me to allow her to choose a companion for
+me. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb300" href=
+"#pb300">300</a>]</span></p>
+
+<p>The wish to satisfy her, and also the remembrance of Anna&rsquo;s
+last words: &ldquo;Return to thy country, and marry one of thy
+countrywomen,&rdquo; decided my resolution.</p>
+
+<p>I soon made choice of one, who would have fully rendered a man happy
+who had not too frequently before him the remembrance of a previous
+union. Nevertheless, I was as happy as I could be. My new wife
+possessed every quality necessary for my happiness. By her I became
+father of two children, and I began to bless the determination which my
+mother had contributed so much to make me adopt; but, alas! happiness
+was never for me lasting; the cup of bitterness was not yet exhausted,
+and I had still to shed many tears.</p>
+
+<p>In the cemetery of Vertoux, a modest tomb for thee, poor mother! is
+erected, between that of a husband and a son; and soon after another
+grave was opened at Neuilly. In profound affliction I had the following
+lines engraved on the latter:</p>
+
+<div class="lgouter " lang="fr">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;Veille, du haut des cieux, sur ta triste
+famille;</p>
+
+<p class="line">Conserve-moi ton fils et revis dans ta fille.&rdquo;<a
+class="noteref" id="xd0e2846src" href="#xd0e2846">2</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2727src" id="xd0e2727">1</a></span> Gratitude here requires that
+I should name some of those to whom I am specially indebted for marks
+of affection and kindness. It would be indeed ungrateful on my part to
+forget them, and I beg them to accept this proof of my
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">The Governors of the Philippines to whom I owe
+these remembrances are:&mdash;Generals Martin&egrave;s, Ricafort,
+Torres Enrile, Camba, and Salazar; in the various administrations of
+the colony, the Judges (Oidorrs) Don Inigo Asaola, Otin-i Doazo, Don
+Matias Mier, Don Jacobo Varela, administrator-general of the liquors;
+Don Jos&eacute; de la Fuente, commissary of the engineers, who rendered
+me innumerable kindnesses; Colonel Don Thomas de Murieta, corregidor of
+Tondoc; the colonel of engineers, Don Mariano Goicochea; the
+Colonel-Commandant Lante Romana; the Governor of the province, Don
+Jos&eacute; Atienza; the brothers Ramos, sons of the judge; all the
+family Calderon; that of Seneris; Don Balthazar Mier, Don Jos&eacute;
+Ascaraga; and lastly my friend, Don Domingo Roxas, whose son, Don
+Mariano Roxas, after having received a solid and brilliant education at
+Manilla, came to travel in Europe. He has acquired the most extensive
+information in the sciences and arts, and when he shall have returned
+to the Philippine Islands, he will most worthily replace his dignified
+father, whom a premature death has snatched away from the industry, the
+agriculture, and the advancement of his country. If gratitude has
+induced me to mention here the Spaniards from whom I experienced many
+acts of kindness, the same feeling compels me to allude to an English
+gentleman to whom I was indebted for one of those important services
+which are never to be forgotten. I allude to Mr. Thomas Dent, with whom
+I have frequently conversed upon our hunting parties at Jala-Jala, in
+which he was occasionally one of the principal actors.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href=
+"#xd0e2846src" id="xd0e2846">2</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="q" lang="en-uk">
+<div class="body">
+<div class="div1">
+<div class="lgouter ">
+<p class="line">&ldquo;From Heaven&rsquo;s height look down and see</p>
+
+<p class="line">The sorrows of thy family;</p>
+
+<p class="line">Preserve for me thy only boy,</p>
+
+<p class="line">And in thy daughter give me joy.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="back">
+<div class="div1" id="toc">
+<h2 class="normal">Table of Contents</h2>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#pre">Preface.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">xiii</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch1">Chapter I.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">17</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">A Family Sketch&mdash;My Youthful Days&mdash;I
+Study for the Medical Profession&mdash;Obtain a Naval Surgeon&rsquo;s
+Diploma&mdash;Early Voyages&mdash;Sail for Manilla in the <i>
+Cultivateur</i>&mdash;Adventurous Habits&mdash;Cholera and Massacre at
+Manilla and Cavite&mdash;Captain Drouant&rsquo;s Rescue&mdash;Personal
+Dangers and Timely Escapes&mdash;How Business may make Friends of
+one&rsquo;s Enemies&mdash;An Unprincipled Captain&mdash;Tranquility
+restored at Manila&mdash;Pleasures of the Chase&mdash;The <i>
+Cultivateur</i> sails without me&mdash;First Embarrassments.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch2">Chapter II.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">32</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Description of Manilla&mdash;The two
+Towns&mdash;Gaiety of Binondoc&mdash;Dances&mdash;Gaming&mdash;Beauty
+of the Women&mdash;Their Fascinating Costume&mdash;Male
+Costume&mdash;The Military Town&mdash;Personal Adventures&mdash;My
+First Patient&mdash;His Generous Confidence&mdash;Commencement of my
+Practice&mdash;The Artificial Eye&mdash;Brilliant Success&mdash;The
+Charming Widow&mdash;Auspicious Introduction&mdash;My
+Marriage&mdash;Treachery and Fate of Iturbide&mdash;Our Loss of
+Fortune&mdash;Return to France postponed.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch3">Chapter III.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">47</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Continued Prosperity in Practice&mdash;Attempted
+Political Revolution&mdash;Desperate Street
+Engagement&mdash;Subjugation of the Insurgents&mdash;The Emperor of a
+Day&mdash;Dreadful Executions&mdash;Illness and Insanity of my
+Wife&mdash;Her Recovery and Relapse&mdash;Removal to the
+Country&mdash;Beneficial Results&mdash;Dangerous
+Neighbours&mdash;Repentant Banditti&mdash;Fortunate Escape&mdash;The
+Anonymous Friend&mdash;A Confiding Wife&mdash;Her Final Recovery, and
+our Domestic Happiness Restored.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch4">Chapter IV.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">62</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Hunting the Stag&mdash;Indian Mode of Chasing
+the Wild Buffalo: its Ferocity&mdash;Dangerous Sport&mdash;Capture of a
+Buffalo&mdash;Narrow Escape of an Indian Hunter&mdash;Return to
+Manilla&mdash;Injustice of the Governor&mdash;My Resignation of
+Office&mdash;I Purchase Property at Jala-Jala&mdash;Retire from Manilla
+to Take Possession of my Domains&mdash;Chinese Legend&mdash;Festival of
+St Nicholas&mdash;Quinaboutasan&mdash;Description of
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Interview with a Bandit Chief&mdash;Formation of a
+Guard&mdash;Preparations for Building&mdash;Visit to Manilla, and
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Completion of my House&mdash;Reception of my
+Wife by the Natives&mdash;The Government of the
+Philippines&mdash;Character of the Tagaloc Indians&mdash;Unmerited
+Chastisement&mdash;A Curate Appointed&mdash;Our Labours at
+Civilisation&mdash;My Hall of Justice&mdash;Buffalo Hunting
+Expedition.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch5">Chapter V.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">95</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Description of my House at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Storms, Gales, and Earthquakes&mdash;Reforming the
+Banditti&mdash;Card-playing&mdash;Tagal Cock-fighting&mdash;Skirmishes
+with Robbers&mdash;Courage of my Wife&mdash;Our Domestic
+Happiness&mdash;Visits from Europeans&mdash;Their Astonishment at our
+Civilisation&mdash;Visit to a Sick Friend at Manilla&mdash;Tour through
+the Provinces of the Ilocos and Pangasinan Indians&mdash;My Reception
+by the Tinguians&mdash;Their Appearance and Habits&mdash;Manners and
+Customs&mdash;Indian F&ecirc;te at Laganguilan y Madalag&mdash;Horrible
+Ceremonies to Celebrate a Victory&mdash;Songs and Dances&mdash;Our
+Night-watch&mdash;We Explore our Cabin&mdash;Discovery of a Secret
+Well&mdash;Tomb of the Tinguian Indians.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch6">Chapter VI.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">117</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Visit to Manabo&mdash;Conversation with my
+Guide&mdash;Religion of the Tinguians&mdash;Their Marriage
+Ceremony&mdash;Funereal Rites&mdash;Mode of Warfare&mdash;I take leave
+of the Tinguians&mdash;Journey to the Igorrots&mdash;Description of
+them&mdash;Their Dwellings&mdash;A Fortunate Escape&mdash;Alila and the
+Bandits&mdash;Recollections of Home&mdash;A Majestic
+Fig-tree&mdash;Superstition of Alila&mdash;Interview with an
+Igorrot&mdash;The Human Hand&mdash;Nocturnal
+Adventure&mdash;Consternation of Alila&mdash;Probable Origin of the
+Tinguians and Igorrots.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch7">Chapter VII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">139</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">I return to Jala-Jala&mdash;An Excursion on the
+Lake&mdash;Relempago&rsquo;s Narrative&mdash;Re-organisation of my
+Government&mdash;A Letter from my Brother Henry&mdash;His
+Arrival&mdash;He joins me in the Management of my
+Plantations&mdash;Cajoui, the Bandit: Anten-Anten&mdash;Indian
+Superstition&mdash;A Combat with the Bandit&mdash;His Death&mdash;A
+Piratical Descent&mdash;My Lieutenant is Wounded&mdash;I extract the
+Ball, and cure him.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch8">Chapter VIII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">162</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Death of my Brother Robert&mdash;Our Party at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Illness and Last Moments of my Friend
+Bermigan&mdash;Recovery and Departure for France or
+Lafond&mdash;Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity&mdash;Tremendous Gale
+of Wind&mdash;Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake&mdash;Safe Return to
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destruction of my House and the Village by a
+Typhoon&mdash;Rendezvous with a Bandit&mdash;Ineffectual Attempts to
+Reform Him&mdash;His Death&mdash;Journey to Tapuzi&mdash;Its
+Inaccessibility&mdash;Government of the Tapuzians&mdash;Morality and
+Religious Character of their Chief&mdash;Their Curiosity at Beholding a
+White Man&mdash;Former Wickedness and Divine Punishment&mdash;We bid
+Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return to Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch9">Chapter IX.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">181</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Suppression of War between two Indian
+Towns&mdash;Flourishing Condition of Jala-Jala&mdash;Hospitality to
+Strangers&mdash;Field Sports&mdash;Bat and Lizard Shooting&mdash;Visit
+to, and Description of, the Isle of Socolme&mdash;Adventure with a
+Cayman&mdash;Cormorants&mdash;We Visit Los Banos&mdash;Monkey
+Shooting&mdash;Expedition to, and Description of, the Grotto of
+Sun-Mateo&mdash;Magnificent aspect of the Interior.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch10">Chapter X.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">204</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">Dumont d&rsquo;Urville&mdash;Rear-Admiral
+Laplace: Desertion of Sailors from his Ship&mdash;I recover them for
+him&mdash;Origin of the Inhabitants of the Philippine
+Islands&mdash;Their General Disposition&mdash;Hospitality and Respect
+for Old Age&mdash;Tagal Marriage Ceremony&mdash;Indian Legal
+Eloquence&mdash;Explanation of the Matrimonial Speeches&mdash;The
+Caymans, or Alligators&mdash;Instances of their
+Ferocity&mdash;Imprudence and Death of my Shepherd&mdash;Method of
+entrapping the Monster which had devoured him&mdash;We Attack and
+eventually Capture it&mdash;Its Dimensions&mdash;We Dissect and Examine
+the Contents of its Stomach&mdash;Boa-Constrictors&mdash;Their large
+size&mdash;Attack of a Boa-Constrictor on a Wild Boar&mdash;We Kill and
+Skin it&mdash;Unsuccessful Attempt to capture a Boa-Constrictor
+alive&mdash;A Man Devoured&mdash;Dangerous Venomous Reptiles.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch11">Chapter XI.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">228</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">The Prosperity and Happiness of my Life at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;Destructiveness of the Locusts&mdash;Agriculture in the
+Philippines&mdash;My Herds of Oxen, Buffaloes, and Horses&mdash;My Wife
+presents me with a Daughter, who Dies&mdash;The Admiration of the
+Indian Women for my Wife&mdash;Birth of my Son&mdash;Continued
+Prosperity&mdash;Death of my brother Henry&mdash;My Friendship with
+Malvilain&mdash;His Marriage with my eldest Sister&mdash;His Premature
+Death&mdash;I take my Wife to Manilla&mdash;Melancholy Adieus&mdash;We
+Return to Jala-Jala&mdash;Death of my Wife&mdash;My friend
+Vidie&mdash;I determine to Return to France.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch12">Chapter XII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">245</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at
+Jala-Jala&mdash;The Bamboo Cane&mdash;The Cocoa-Nut Tree&mdash;The
+Banana&mdash;Majestic Forests of Gigantic Trees&mdash;The
+Leeches&mdash;A Tropical Storm in a Forest&mdash;An Indian
+Bridge&mdash;&ldquo;Bernard the Hermit&rdquo;&mdash;We arrive at
+Binangon-de-Lampon&mdash;The Ajetas&mdash;Veneration of the Ajetas for
+their Dead&mdash;Poison used by the Ajetas&mdash;I carry away a
+Skeleton&mdash;We Embark on the Pacific in an old Canoe, reach Maoban,
+and ultimately arrive at Jala-Jala.</p>
+
+<p class="tocChapter"><a href="#ch13">Chapter XIII.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">283</span></p>
+
+<p class="tocArgument">I Determine not again to Separate from my
+Son&mdash;I take him to Manilla&mdash;The Effects of the Wound I
+received among the Ajetas&mdash;My Recovery&mdash;Kindness of the
+Spanish and other Inhabitants of Manilla&mdash;Illness of my
+Son&mdash;I return with him to Jala-Jala&mdash;Sorrowful
+Remembrances&mdash;The Death of my poor Boy&mdash;His
+Interment&mdash;My frantic Grief and Despair&mdash;I Determine to Quit
+the Philippines&mdash;I am Called to Manilla by Madame Dolor&egrave;s
+Seneris&mdash;My Final Departure from Jala-Jala&mdash;I Arrive at
+Manilla, where I resume Practice as a Surgeon&mdash;I Embark for
+France&mdash;Discontent&mdash;My Travels through Europe&mdash;I Marry
+again&mdash;Death of my Mother and my Second Wife&mdash;Conclusion.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="div1">
+<h2 class="normal">List of Illustrations</h2>
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#p215">A Native Woman seized by a Cayman.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p000">Portrait of the Author.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p017">Nantes.</a><span class="tocPagenum">17</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p022">La Gironiere saves the life of Captain
+Drouant.</a><span class="tocPagenum">22</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p032">Mouth of the Bay of Manilla.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">32</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p036">Spanish Metis, or Half-Breeds.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">36</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p037">Chinese Metis, or Half-Breeds.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">37</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p047">Spanish Metis of the superior class.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">47</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p050">Bridge of Manilla.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">49</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p062">Stag Hunting in the Marigondon Mountains.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">62</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p070">Passage boat on the River Pasig.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">70</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p082">Tagal Indians pounding rice.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">82</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p086">Father Miguel.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">87</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p092">La Gironiere&rsquo;s First Shot at a
+Buffalo.</a><span class="tocPagenum">90</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p093">Horns of the Buffalo.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">92</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p095">My House at Jala-Jala.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">95</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p098">Herd of Wild Buffaloes.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">98</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p101">Tagal cock-fighting.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">102</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p103">Tagal Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">103</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p106">Ilocos Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">106</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p112">The Brain Feast of the Tinguian Indians.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">112</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p117">Guinan Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">117</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p123">Weapons of the Tinguian Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">123</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p138">Inhabitants of Boulacan.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">138</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p139">Manilla Fishing Raft.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">139</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p162">The House of La Planche.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">162</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p178">Church of Pandacan, in the environs of
+Manilla.</a><span class="tocPagenum">178</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p181">Hunting party at Jala-Jala.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">181</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p185">Cascade near Jala-Jala.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">184</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p186">La Gironiere in his hunting dress.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">186</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p195">View at San-Mateo.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">195</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p204">Dumont d&rsquo;Urville.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">204</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p208">A Tagal Indian Dwelling.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">208</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p209">Young Tagal Indian and his Betrothed.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">209</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p219">Attacking the Cayman.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">220</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p222">A Wild Boar attacked by a Boa Constrictor.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">222</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p224">Attacking the Boa-Constrictor.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">225</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p228">Rice stacking in the Philippines.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">228</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p230">The Locust.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">231</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p239">View on the River Pasig.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">239</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p245">Ajetas Indians.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">245</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p250">The Cocoa-Nut.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">250</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p251">The Banana.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">251</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p254">La Gironiere and his Indians traversing a Native
+Forest.</a><span class="tocPagenum">254</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p256">Fruit of the Palm Tree.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">256</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p265">Inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon.</a><span
+class="tocPagenum">265</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#p283">View of Manilla from the Environs.</a><span class=
+"tocPagenum">283</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div class="transcribernote">
+<h2>Colophon</h2>
+
+<h3>Availability</h3>
+
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a class="exlink" title="External link"
+href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>.</p>
+
+<p>This eBook is produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at <a class="exlink" title="External
+link" href="https://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>.</p>
+
+<p>This ebook was prepared from <a class="exlink" title="External link"
+href="http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AHZ9187.0001.001">scans</a> prepared
+by the University of Michigan Library as part of their <i>The United
+States and its Territories</i> collection. The illustrations have been
+taken from <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://www.archive.org/details/inthephilippines00lagirich">scans</a>
+of another edition of this work at the Internet Archive.</p>
+
+<p>The same <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://books.google.com/books?id=3tw2AAAAMAAJ">scans</a> are indexed
+by Google Books, but only accessible as snippet view.</p>
+
+<p>Earlier editions of this work are available under the title <i>
+Twenty Years in the Philippines</i> (<a class="exlink" title="External
+link" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=y5_IidErxocC">First copy
+at Google Books</a>, <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://books.google.com/books?id=WF8qAAAAYAAJ">second copy at Google
+Books</a>, <a class="exlink" title="External link" href=
+"http://www.archive.org/details/twentyyearsinph01girogoog">first copy
+at The Internet Archive</a>, <a class="exlink" title="External link"
+href="http://www.archive.org/details/inthephilippines00lagirich">second
+copy at The Internet Archive</a>). This earlier edition includes a
+short appendix on the Philippines and its agriculture, and a number of
+attestations not reproduced here.</p>
+
+<p>The French original of this work is available under the title <i
+lang="fr"><a class="pglink" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook"
+href="https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21804">Aventures d'un Gentilhomme
+Breton aux iles Philippines</a></i> from Project Gutenberg.</p>
+
+<h3>Encoding</h3>
+
+<h3>Revision History</h3>
+
+<ol class="lsoff">
+<li>2008-04-27 Started.</li>
+</ol>
+
+<h3>External References</h3>
+
+<p>This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These
+links may not work for you.</p>
+
+<h3>Corrections</h3>
+
+<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p>
+
+<table width="75%" summary="Overview of corrections applied to the
+text.">
+<tr>
+<th>Page</th>
+<th>Source</th>
+<th>Correction</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e217">18</a></td>
+<td width="40%">situate</td>
+<td width="40%">situated</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e227">18</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">,</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e361">26</a></td>
+<td width="40%">landing-pace</td>
+<td width="40%">landing-place</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e567">48</a></td>
+<td width="40%">suspicious</td>
+<td width="40%">suspicions</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e618">59</a></td>
+<td width="40%">cicumstances</td>
+<td width="40%">circumstances</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e629">60</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Tumbago</td>
+<td width="40%">Tumbaga</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e683">67</a></td>
+<td width="40%">twiste</td>
+<td width="40%">twisted</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e842">89</a></td>
+<td width="40%">unsophiscated</td>
+<td width="40%">unsophisticated</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e881">93</a></td>
+<td width="40%">ecstacy</td>
+<td width="40%">ecstasy</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e975">105</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Jos&egrave;</td>
+<td width="40%">Jos&eacute;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1070">115</a></td>
+<td width="40%">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td>
+<td width="40%">&rdquo;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1112">121</a></td>
+<td width="40%">eat</td>
+<td width="40%">ate</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1432">143</a></td>
+<td width="40%">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td>
+<td width="40%">&rdquo;</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1816">180</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Jala-Jula</td>
+<td width="40%">Jala-Jala</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e1873">186</a></td>
+<td width="40%">to to</td>
+<td width="40%">to</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2103">211</a></td>
+<td width="40%">possesed</td>
+<td width="40%">possessed</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2143">216</a></td>
+<td width="40%">of of</td>
+<td width="40%">of</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2151">217</a></td>
+<td width="40%">indians</td>
+<td width="40%">Indians</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2176">221</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Chrstians</td>
+<td width="40%">Christians</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2232">226</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">,</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2255">229</a></td>
+<td width="40%">corps</td>
+<td width="40%">crops</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2393">248</a></td>
+<td width="40%">occured</td>
+<td width="40%">occurred</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2402">249</a></td>
+<td width="40%">abcesses</td>
+<td width="40%">abscesses</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2444">252</a></td>
+<td width="40%">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td>
+<td width="40%">:</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2447">252</a></td>
+<td width="40%">a-yard</td>
+<td width="40%">a yard</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2563">268</a></td>
+<td width="40%">fromeight</td>
+<td width="40%">from eight</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2568">268</a></td>
+<td width="40%">decrepid</td>
+<td width="40%">decrepit</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2679">281</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">?</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by
+Paul P. de La Gironiere
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Adventures in the Philippine Islands
+
+Author: Paul P. de La Gironiere
+
+Release Date: October 27, 2009 [EBook #30347]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES IN THE PHILIPPINES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               Adventures
+                                 in the
+                          Philippine Islands.
+
+
+                     Translated from the French of
+
+                        Paul P. de la Gironiere,
+
+            Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honour.
+
+
+                  Revised and extended by the author,
+                      Expressly for this edition.
+
+            London: Charles H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+On hearing a recital of some adventures which had occurred to me
+during my long voyages, many of my friends have frequently begged of
+me to publish a narrative of them, which might perhaps be interesting.
+
+"Nothing can be more easy for you," they said, "as you have always
+kept a journal since your departure from France."
+
+I hesitated, however, to follow their advice, or to yield to their
+wishes, when I was one day surprised to see my name in one of the
+feuilletons in the "Constitutionnel."
+
+M. Alexandre Dumas was publishing, under the title of "The
+Thousand-and-One Phantoms," a romance, one of the principal personages
+of which, in a voyage to the Philippine Islands, must have known me
+when I was residing at Jala-Jala, in the colony that I founded there.
+
+It must be evident that the lively romancist has ranked me in the
+category of his Thousand-and-One Phantoms; but, to prove to the public
+that I am really in existence, I have resolved to take up the pen,
+under an impression, that facts of the most scrupulous veracity,
+and which can be attested by some hundreds of persons, might possess
+some interest, and be read without ennui, by those especially who
+are desirous of learning the customs of the savage tribes amongst
+whom I have resided.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+    A Family Sketch--My Youthful Days--I Study for the Medical
+    Profession--Obtain a Naval Surgeon's Diploma--Early Voyages--Sail
+    for Manilla in the Cultivateur--Adventurous Habits--Cholera and
+    Massacre at Manilla and Cavite--Captain Drouant's Rescue--Personal
+    Dangers and Timely Escapes--How Business may make Friends of
+    one's Enemies--An Unprincipled Captain--Tranquility restored at
+    Manila--Pleasures of the Chase--The Cultivateur sails without
+    me--First Embarrassments.
+
+
+My father was born at Nantes, and held the rank of captain in the
+regiment of Auvergne. The Revolution caused him the loss of his
+commission and his fortune, and left him, as sole remaining resource,
+a little property called La Planche, belonging to my mother, and
+situated about two leagues from Nantes, in the parish of Vertoux.
+
+At the commencement of the Empire he wished to enter the service again;
+but at that period his name was an obstacle, and he failed in every
+attempt to obtain even the rank of lieutenant. With scarcely the means
+of existence, he retired to La Planche with his family. There he lived
+for some years, suffering the grief and the many annoyances caused
+by the sudden change from opulence to want, and by the impossibility
+of supplying all the requirements of his numerous family. A short
+illness terminated his distressed existence, and his mortal remains
+were deposited in the cemetery of Vertoux. My mother, a pattern
+of courage and devotedness, remained a widow, with six children,
+two girls and four boys; she continued to reside in the country,
+imparting to us the first elements of instruction.
+
+The free life of the fields, and the athletic exercises to which
+my elder brothers and I accustomed ourselves, tended to make me
+hardy, and rendered me capable of enduring every kind of fatigue
+and privation. This country life, with its liberty, and I may well
+say its happiness, passed too quickly away; and the period soon came
+when my education compelled me to pursue my daily studies in a school
+at Nantes. I had four leagues to walk, but I trudged the distance
+light-heartedly, and at night, when I returned home, I ever found
+awaiting me the kind solicitude of our dear mother, and the attentive
+cares of two sisters whom I tenderly loved.
+
+It was decided that I should enter the medical profession. I studied
+several years at the Hotel-Dieu of Nantes, and I passed my examination
+for naval surgeon at an age when many a young man is shut up within
+the four walls of a college, still prosecuting his studies.
+
+It would be difficult to form any idea of my joy when I saw myself in
+possession of my surgeon's diploma. Thenceforward I regarded myself
+as an important being, about to take my place among reasonable and
+industrious men; and what perhaps rendered me still more joyous was,
+that I could earn my own livelihood, and contribute to the comfort
+of my mother and my sisters.
+
+I was also seized with a strong desire to travel abroad, and make
+myself acquainted with foreign countries.
+
+Twenty-four hours after my nomination as surgeon I went and offered
+my services to a ship-owner who was about freighting a vessel to the
+East Indies. We were not long in arranging terms, and, at forty francs
+per month, I engaged myself for the voyage.
+
+Within twelve months afterwards I returned home. Who can depict the
+sweet emotions which, as a young man, I felt on again beholding my
+native land? I stayed a month on shore, surrounded by the affectionate
+attentions of my mother and sisters. Despite their assiduities I was
+seized with ennui. I made a second and a third voyage; then, after
+having rounded the Cape of Good Hope half-a-dozen times, I undertook
+one which separated me from my country during twenty years.
+
+On the 9th October, 1819, I embarked on board the Cultivateur,
+an old half-rotten three-masted vessel, commanded by an equally old
+captain, who, long ashore, had given up navigating for many years. An
+old captain with an old ship! Such were the conditions in which I
+undertook this voyage. I ought, however, to add, that I obtained an
+increase of pay.
+
+We touched at Bourbon; we ran along the entire coast of Sumatra,
+a part of Java, the isles of Sonde, and that of Banca; and at last,
+towards the end of May, eight months after our departure from Nantes,
+we arrived in the magnificent bay of Manilla.
+
+The Cultivateur anchored near the little town of Cavite. I obtained
+leave to reside on shore, and took lodgings in Cavite, which is
+situate about five or six leagues from Manilla.
+
+To make up for my long inactivity on board ship, I eagerly engaged in
+my favourite exercises, exploring the country in all directions with my
+gun upon my shoulder. Taking for a guide the first Indian whom I met,
+I made long excursions, less occupied in shooting than in admiring the
+magnificent scenery. I knew a little Spanish, and soon acquired a few
+Tagaloc words. Whether it was for excitement's sake, or from a vague
+desire of braving danger, I know not, but I was particularly fond of
+wandering in remote places, said to be frequented by robbers. With
+these I occasionally fell in, but the sight of my gun kept them in
+check. I may say, with truth, that at that period of my life I had so
+little sense of danger, that I was always ready to put myself forward
+when there was an enemy to fight or a peril to be encountered.
+
+I had only resided a short time at Cavite when that terrible scourge,
+the cholera, broke out at Manilla, in September, 1820, and quickly
+ravaged the whole island. Within a few days of its first appearance
+the epidemic spread rapidly; the Indians succumbed by thousands; at
+all hours of the day and of the night the streets were crowded with
+the dead-carts. Next to the fright occasioned by the epidemic, quickly
+succeeded rage and despair. The Indians said, one to another, that the
+strangers poisoned the rivers and the fountains, in order to destroy
+the native population and possess themselves of the Philippines.
+
+On the 9th October, 1820, the anniversary of my departure from France,
+a dreadful massacre commenced at Manilla and at Cavite. Poor Dibard,
+the captain of the Cultivateur, was one of the first victims. Almost
+all the French who resided at Manilla were slain, and their houses
+pillaged and destroyed. The carnage only ceased when there were no
+longer any victims. One eye-witness escaped this butchery, namely,
+M. Gautrin, a captain of the merchant service, who, at the moment I
+am writing, happens to be residing in Paris. He saved his life by his
+courage and his muscular strength. After seeing one of his friends
+mercilessly cut to pieces, he precipitated himself into the midst
+of the assassins, with no other means of defence than his fists. He
+succeeded in fighting his way through the crowd, but shortly afterwards
+fell exhausted, having received three sabre-cuts upon his head, and a
+lance-thrust in his body. Fortunately, some soldiers happened to pass
+by at the time, who picked him up and carried him to a guard-house,
+where his wounds were quickly attended to.
+
+I myself was dodged about Cavite, but I contrived to escape, and
+to reach a pirogue, into which I jumped, and took refuge on board
+the Cultivateur. I had scarcely been there ten minutes when I was
+requested to attend the mate of an American vessel, who had just
+been stabbed on board his ship by some custom-house guards. When I
+had finished dressing the wound, several officers, belonging to the
+different French vessels lying in the bay, acquainted me that one
+of their brethren, Captain Drouant, of Marseilles, was still ashore,
+and that there might yet be time to save him. There was not a moment
+to lose; night was approaching, and it was necessary to profit by the
+last half-hour of daylight. I set off in a cutter, and, on nearing
+the land, I directed my men to keep the boat afloat, in order to
+prevent a surprise on the part of the Indians, but yet to hug the
+shore sufficiently close to land promptly, in case the captain or
+myself signaled them. I then quickly set about searching for Drouant.
+
+On reaching a small square, called Puerta Baga, I observed a group
+of three or four hundred Indians. I had a presentiment that it was
+in that direction I ought to prosecute my search. I approached, and
+beheld the unfortunate Drouant, pale as a corpse. A furious Indian was
+on the point of plunging his kreese into his breast. I threw myself
+between the captain and the poignard, violently pushing on either
+side the murderer and his victim, so as to separate them. "Run!" I
+cried in French; "a boat awaits you." So great was the stupefaction
+of the Indians that the captain escaped unpursued.
+
+It was now time for me to get out of the dangerous situation in which
+I was involved. Four hundred Indians surrounded me; the only way of
+dealing with them was by audacity. I said in Tagaloc to the Indian who
+had attempted to stab the captain: "You are a scoundrel." The Indian
+sprang towards me; he raised his arm: I struck him on the head with a
+cane which I held in my hand; he waited in astonishment for a moment,
+and then returned towards his companions to excite them. Daggers
+were drawn on every side; the crowd formed a circle around me, which
+gradually concentrated. Mysterious influence of the white man over his
+coloured brother! Of all these four hundred Indians, not one dared
+attack me the first; they all wished to strike together. Suddenly a
+native soldier, armed with a musket, broke through the crowd; he struck
+down my adversary, took away his dagger, and holding his musket by the
+bayonet end, he swung it round and round his head, thus enlarging the
+circle at first, and then dispersing a portion of my enemies. "Fly,
+sir!" said my liberator; "now that I am here, no one will touch a
+hair of your head." In fact the crowd divided, and left me a free
+passage. I was saved, without knowing by whom, or for what reason,
+until the native soldier called after me: "You attended my wife who
+was sick, and you never asked payment of me. I now settle my debt."
+
+As Captain Drouant had doubtless gone off in the cutter, it was
+impossible for me to return on board the Cultivateur. I directed
+my steps towards my lodgings, creeping along the walls, and taking
+advantage of the obscurity, when, on turning the corner of a street,
+I fell into the midst of a band of dockyard workmen, armed with axes,
+and about to proceed to the attack of the French vessels then in
+harbour. Here again I owed my preservation to an acquaintance, to whom
+I had rendered some service in the practice of my profession. A Metis,
+or half-breed, who had quickly pushed me into the entry of a house,
+and covered me with his body, said: "Stir not, Doctor Pablo!" [1] When
+the crowd had dispersed, my protector advised me to conceal myself,
+and, above all, not to go on board; he then started off to rejoin
+his comrades. But all was not yet over. I had scarcely entered my
+lodgings when I heard a knocking at the door.
+
+"Doctor Pablo," said a voice, which was not unknown to me.
+
+I opened, and I saw, as pale as death, a Chinese, who kept a tea-store
+on the ground-floor of the same house.
+
+"What's the matter, Yang-Po?"
+
+"Save yourself, Doctor!"
+
+"And wherefore?"
+
+"Because the Indians will attack you this very night; they have
+decided upon it!"
+
+"Is it not your apprehension on account of your shop, Yang-Po?"
+
+"Oh, no! do not treat this matter lightly. If you remain here you
+are doomed; you have struck an Indian, and his friends cry aloud
+for vengeance."
+
+The fears of Yang-Po were, I saw, too well-founded; but what could
+I do? To shut my door and await was the safest plan.
+
+"Thank you," said I to the Chinese; "thank you for your kind advice,
+but I shall remain here."
+
+"Remain here, Signor Doctor! Can you think of so doing?"
+
+"Now, Yang-Po, a service: go and say to these Indians that I have,
+at their service, a brace of pistols and a double-barreled gun,
+which I know how to use."
+
+The Chinese departed sighing deeply, from a notion that the attack
+upon the Doctor might end in the pillage of his wares. I barricaded
+my door with the furniture of the room; I then loaded my weapons,
+and put out the lights.
+
+It was now eight o'clock in the evening. The least noise made me think
+that the moment had arrived when Providence alone could save me. I was
+so fatigued that, despite the anxiety natural to my position, I had
+frequently to struggle against an inclination to sleep. Towards eleven
+o'clock some one knocked at my door. I seized my pistols, and listened
+attentively. At a second summons, I approached the door on tip-toe.
+
+"Who's there?" I demanded.
+
+A voice replied to me: "We come to save you. Lose not an instant. Get
+out on the roof, and climb over to the other side, where we will
+await you, in the street of the Campanario." Then two or three persons
+descended the stairs rapidly. I had recognised the voice of a Metis,
+whose good feelings on my behalf were beyond doubt. There was now
+no time to be lost, for at the moment I got out of a window which
+served to light the staircase, and led on to the roof, the Indians had
+arrived in front of the house, and in a few minutes were breaking and
+plundering the little I possessed. I quickly traversed the roof, and
+descended into the street of the Campanario, where my new preservers
+awaited me. They conducted me to their dwelling: there, a profound
+sleep caused me quickly to forget the dangers I had passed through.
+
+The following day my friends prepared a small pirogue to convey me
+on board the Cultivateur, where, apparently, I should be in greater
+security than on shore. I was about to embark when one of my preservers
+handed me a letter which he had just received. It was addressed to me,
+and bore the signatures of all the captains whose vessels were lying in
+the harbour, and it informed me that, seeing themselves exposed every
+moment to an attack by the Indians, they were decided to raise anchor
+and seek a wider offing; but that two among them, Drouant and Perroux,
+had been compelled to leave on shore a portion of their possessions,
+and all their sails and fresh water. They entreated me to lend them
+my assistance, and had arranged that a skiff should be placed at my
+command. I communicated this letter to my friends, and declared that
+I would not return on board without endeavouring to satisfy the wishes
+of my countrymen; it was a question of saving the lives of the crews of
+two vessels, and hesitation was impossible. They used every effort to
+shake my resolution. "If you show yourself in any part of the town,"
+said they, "you are lost; even supposing the Indians were not to kill
+you, they would not fail to steal every object intrusted to them." I
+remained immovable, and pointed out to them that it was a question of
+honour and humanity. "Go alone, then!" exclaimed that Metis who had
+contributed the most to my escape; "not one of us will follow you;
+we would not have it said that we assisted in your destruction."
+
+I thanked my friends, and, after shaking hands with them, passed on
+through the streets of Cavite, my pistols in my belt, and my thoughts
+occupied as to the best means of extricating myself from my perilous
+position. However, I already knew sufficient of the Indian character
+to be aware that boldness would conciliate, rather than enrage them. I
+went towards the same landing-place where once before I had escaped
+a great danger. The shore was covered with Indians, watching the
+ships at anchor. As I advanced, all turned their looks upon me; but,
+as I had foreseen, the countenances of these men, whose feelings had
+become calmed during the night that had intervened, expressed more
+astonishment than anger.
+
+"Will you earn money?" I cried. "To those who work with me I will
+give a dollar at the end of the day."
+
+A moment's silence followed this proposition; then one of them said:
+"You do not fear us!"
+
+"Judge if I am alarmed," I replied, showing him my pistols; "with
+these I could take two lives for one--the advantage is on my side."
+
+My words had a magical effect, and my questioner replied:
+
+"Put up your weapons; you have a brave heart, and deserve to be safe
+amongst us. Speak! what do you require? We will follow you." I saw
+these men, who but yesterday would have killed me, now willing to bear
+me in triumph. I then explained to them that I wished to take some
+articles which had been left on shore to my comrades, and to those who
+assisted me in this object I would give the promised recompense. I told
+the one who had addressed me to select two hundred men, nearly double
+the number necessary; during the time he made up his party I signaled
+a skiff to approach the shore, and wrote a few words in pencil, in
+order that the boats from the French vessels might be in readiness
+to receive the stores as soon as they were brought to the water's
+edge. I then marched at the head of my Indian troop of two hundred
+men, and by their aid the sails, provisions, biscuits, and wines,
+were soon on board the boats. That which most embarrassed me was the
+transport of a large sum of money belonging to Captain Drouant. If the
+Indians had conceived the least suspicion of this wealth, they would no
+longer have kept faith with me. I therefore determined to fill my own
+pockets with the gold, and to traverse the distance between the house
+and the boats as many times as was necessary to embark it. There,
+concealed by the sailors, I deposited piece after piece as quietly
+as possible. In carrying the sails belonging to Captain Perroux, a
+circumstance occurred which might have been fatal to me. A few days
+before the massacre, a French sailor, who was working as sail maker,
+had died of the cholera. His alarmed companions wrapped the body in a
+sail, and then hurried on board their ships. My Indians now discovered
+the corpse, which was already in a state of putrefaction. Terrified
+at first, their terror soon changed to fury; for an instant I feared
+they would fall upon me.
+
+"Your friends," they cried, "have left this body here purposely, that
+it might poison the air and increase the violence of the epidemic."
+
+"What! you are afraid of a poor devil dead of the cholera!" I said to
+them, affecting to be as tranquil as possible; "never fear, I will
+soon rid you of him;" and, despite the aversion I felt, I covered
+the body with a small sail, and carried it down to the beach. There
+I made a rude grave, in which I placed it; and two pieces of wood,
+in the shape of a cross, for some days indicated the spot where lay
+the unhappy one, who probably had no prayers save mine.
+
+It had been a busy and agitating day, but towards the evening I
+finished my task, and everything was embarked. I paid the Indians,
+and in addition gave them a barrel of spirits.
+
+I did not fear their intoxication, being the only Frenchman there,
+and when it was dark I got into a boat, and towed a dozen casks of
+fresh water at her stern. Since the previous day I had not eaten;
+I felt worn out by fatigue and want of food, and threw myself down to
+rest upon the seats of the boat. Ere long a mortal chilliness passed
+through my veins, and I became insensible. In this state I remained
+more than an hour. At last I reached the Cultivateur, and was taken
+on board, and, by the aid of friction, brandy, and other remedies,
+was restored to consciousness. Food and rest quickly renovated my
+powers of mind and body, and the next day I was calm as usual among
+my comrades. I thought of my personal position; the events of the two
+last days made the review extremely simple. I had lost everything. A
+small venture of merchandise, in which I invested the savings of
+my previous voyages, had been intrusted to the captain for sale at
+Manilla. These goods were destroyed, together with all I possessed,
+at Cavite. There remained to me but the clothes I had on--a few old
+things I could wear only on board ship--and thirty-two dollars. I
+was but a little richer than Bias. Unfortunately I recollected
+that an English captain--whose ship I had seen in the roads--owed me
+something like a hundred dollars. In my present circumstances this sum
+appeared a fortune. The captain in question, from fear of the Indians,
+had dropped down as far as Maribele, at the entrance of the bay, ten
+leagues from Cavite. To obtain payment it was necessary I should go on
+board his vessel. I borrowed a boat, and the services of four sailors,
+from Captain Perroux, and departed. I reached the ship at dusk. The
+unprincipled captain, who knew himself to be in deep water and safe
+from pursuit, replied that he did not understand what I was saying
+to him. I insisted upon being paid, and he laughed in my face. I was
+treated as a cheat. He threatened to have me thrown into the sea;
+in short, after a useless discussion, and at the moment when the
+captain called five or six of his sailors to execute his threat,
+I retreated to my boat. The night was dark, and as a violent and
+contrary wind had sprung up, it was impossible to regain the ship,
+so we passed the night floating upon the waves, ignorant as to the
+direction we were going. In the morning I discovered our efforts had
+been thrown away; Cavite was far behind us. The wind becoming calmer,
+we again commenced rowing, and two hours after noon reached the ship.
+
+Meanwhile tranquillity was restored at Cavite and Manilla. The
+Spanish authorities took measures to prevent a recurrence of the
+frightful scenes I have detailed, and the priests of Cavite launched a
+public excommunication against all those who had attempted my life. I
+attributed this solicitude to the character of my profession, being in
+fact the only AEsculapius in the place. When I left the town the sick
+were obliged to content themselves with the hazardous presumptions of
+Indian sorcerers. One morning, I had almost decided upon returning to
+land, when an Indian, in a smartly decorated pirogue, came alongside
+the Cultivateur. I had met this man in some of my shooting excursions,
+and he now proposed that I should go with him to his house, situated
+ten leagues from Cavite, near the mountains of Marigondon. The prospect
+of some good sport soon decided me to accept this offer. Taking with
+me my thirty-two dollars and double-barreled gun--in fact, my whole
+fortune--I intrusted myself to this friend, whose acquaintance I had
+just made. His little habitation was delightfully situated, in the
+cool shadow of the palm and yang-yang--immense trees, whose flowers
+spread around a delicious perfume. Two charming Indian girls were the
+Eves of this paradise. My good friend kept the promises he had made
+me on leaving the vessel; I was treated both by himself and family
+with every attention and kindness.
+
+Hunting was my principal amusement, and, above all, the chase of
+the stag, which involves violent exercise. I was still ignorant of
+wild-buffalo hunting, of which, however, I shall have to speak later
+in my narrative; and I often requested my host to give me a taste of
+this sport, but he always refused, saying it was too dangerous. For
+three weeks I lived with the Indian family without receiving any news
+from Manilla, when one morning, a letter came from the first mate--who,
+on the death of the unfortunate Dibard, had taken the command of the
+Cultivateur--telling me he was about to sail, and that I must go
+on board at once if I wished to leave a country which had been so
+fatal to all of us. This summons was already several days old, and
+despite the reluctance I felt to quit the Indian's pleasant retreat,
+it was necessary that I should prepare to start. I presented my
+gun to my kind host, but had nothing to give his daughters, for to
+have offered them money would have been an insult. The next day I
+arrived at Manilla, still thinking of the cool shade of the palm and
+the perfumed flowers of the yang-yang. My first impulse was to go to
+the quay; but, alas! the Cultivateur had sailed, and I had the misery
+of beholding her already far away in the horizon, moving sluggishly
+before a gentle breeze towards the mouth of the bay. I asked some
+Indian boatmen to take me to the ship; they replied that it might be
+practicable if the wind did not freshen, but demanded twelve dollars
+to make the attempt. I had but twenty-five remaining. I considered
+for a few moments, should I not reach the vessel, what would become
+of me in a remote colony, where I knew no one, and my stock of money
+reduced to thirteen dollars, and with no articles of dress than those I
+had on--a white jacket, trousers, and striped shirt. A sudden thought
+crossed my mind: what if I were to remain at Manilla, and practise my
+profession? Young and inexperienced, I ventured to think myself the
+cleverest physician in the Philippine Islands. Who has not felt this
+self-confidence so natural to youth? I turned my back upon the ship,
+and walked briskly into Manilla.
+
+Before continuing this recital, let me describe the capital of the
+Philippines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+    Description of Manilla--The two Towns--Gaiety of
+    Binondoc--Dances--Gaming--Beauty of the Women--Their Fascinating
+    Costume--Male Costume--The Military Town--Personal Adventures--My
+    First Patient--His Generous Confidence--Commencement of my
+    Practice--The Artificial Eye--Brilliant Success--The Charming
+    Widow--Auspicious Introduction--My Marriage--Treachery and Fate
+    of Iturbide--Our Loss of Fortune--Return to France postponed.
+
+
+Manilla and its suburbs contain a population of about one hundred and
+fifty thousand souls, of which Spaniards and Creoles hardly constitute
+the tenth part; the remainder is composed of Tagalocs, or Indians,
+Metis, and Chinese. The city is divided into two sections--the military
+and the mercantile--the latter of which is the suburb. The former,
+surrounded by lofty walls, is bounded by the sea on one side, and
+upon another by an extensive plain, where the troops are exercised,
+and where of an evening the indolent Creoles, lazily extended
+in their carriages, repair to exhibit their elegant dresses and
+to inhale the sea-breezes. This public promenade--where intrepid
+horsemen and horsewomen, and European vehicles, cross each other in
+every direction--may be styled the Champs-Elysees, or the Hyde Park,
+of the Indian Archipelago. On a third side, the military town is
+separated from the trading town by the river Pasig, upon which are
+seen all the day boats laden with merchandize, and charming gondolas
+conveying idlers to different parts of the suburbs, or to visit the
+ships in the bay.
+
+The military town communicates by the bridge of Binondoc with the
+mercantile town, inhabited principally by the Spaniards engaged in
+public affairs; its aspect is dull and monotonous; all the streets,
+perfectly straight, are bordered by wide granite footpaths. In general,
+the highways are macadamised, and kept in good condition. Such is
+the effeminacy of the people, they could not endure the noise of
+carriages upon pavement. The houses--large and spacious, palaces in
+appearance--are built in a particular manner, calculated to withstand
+the earthquakes and hurricanes so frequent in this part of the
+world. They have all one story, with a ground-floor; the upper part,
+generally occupied by the family, is surrounded by a wide gallery,
+opened or shut by means of large sliding panels, the panes of which
+are thin mother-of-pearl. The mother-of-pearl permits the passage
+of light to the apartments, and excludes the heat of the sun. In the
+military town are all the monasteries and convents, the archbishopric,
+the courts of justice, the custom-house, the hospital, the governor's
+palace, and the citadel, which overlooks both towns. There are three
+principal entrances to Manilla--Puerta Santa Lucia, Puerto Real,
+and Puerta Parian.
+
+At one o'clock the drawbridges are raised, and the gates pitilessly
+closed, when the tardy resident must seek his night's lodging in
+the suburb, or mercantile town, called Binondoc. This portion of
+Manilla wears a much gayer and more lively aspect than the military
+section. There is less regularity in the streets, and the buildings
+are not so fine as those in what may be called Manilla proper; but in
+Binondoc all is movement, all is life. Numerous canals, crowded with
+pirogues, gondolas, and boats of various kinds, intersect the suburb,
+where reside the rich merchants--Spanish, English, Indian, Chinese,
+and Metis. The newest and most elegant houses are built upon the banks
+of the river Pasig. Simple in exterior, they contain the most costly
+inventions of English and Indian luxury. Precious vases from China,
+Japan ware, gold, silver, and rich silks, dazzle the eyes on entering
+these unpretending habitations. Each house has a landing-place from
+the river, and little bamboo palaces, serving as bathing-houses, to
+which the residents resort several times daily, to relieve the fatigue
+caused by the intense heat of the climate. The cigar manufactory,
+which affords employment continually to from fifteen to twenty
+thousand workmen and other assistants, is situated in Binondoc; also
+the Chinese custom-house, and all the large working establishments
+of Manilla. During the day, the Spanish ladies, richly dressed in
+the transparent muslins of India and China, lounge about from store
+to store, and sorely test the patience of the Chinese salesman, who
+unfolds uncomplainingly, and without showing the least ill-humour,
+thousands of pieces of goods before his customers, which are frequently
+examined simply for amusement, and not half a yard purchased. The
+balls and entertainments, given by the half-breeds of Binondoc to their
+friends, are celebrated throughout the Philippines. The quadrilles of
+Europe are succeeded by the dances of India, and while the young people
+execute the fandango, the bolero, the cachucha, or the lascivious
+movements of the bayaderes, the enterprising half-breed, the indolent
+Spaniard, and the sedate Chinese, retire to the gaming saloons, to
+try their fortune at cards and dice. The passion for play is carried
+to such an extent, that the traders lose or gain in one night sums
+of 50,000 piasters (L10,000 sterling). The half-breeds, Indians, and
+Chinese, have also a great passion for cock-fighting; these combats
+take place in a large arena. I have seen L1,500 betted upon a cock
+which had cost L150; in a few minutes this costly champion fell,
+struck dead by his antagonist. In fine, if Binondoc be exclusively
+the city of pleasure, luxury, and activity, it is also that of
+amorous intrigues and gallant adventures. In the evening, Spaniards,
+English, and French, go to the promenades to ogle the beautiful
+and facile half-breed women, whose transparent robes reveal their
+splendid figures. That which distinguishes the female half-breeds
+(Spanish-Tagals, or Chinese-Tagals) is a singularly intelligent
+and expressive physiognomy. Their hair, drawn back from the face,
+and sustained by long golden pins, is of marvellous luxuriance. They
+wear upon the head a kerchief, transparent like a veil, made of the
+pine fibre, finer than our finest cambric; the neck is ornamented
+by a string of large coral beads, fastened by a gold medallion. A
+transparent chemisette, of the same stuff as the head-dress, descends
+as far as the waist, covering, but not concealing, a bosom that has
+never been imprisoned in stays. Below, and two or three inches from
+the edge of the chemisette, is attached a variously coloured petticoat
+of very bright hues. Over this garment, a large and costly silk sash
+closely encircles the figure, and shows its outline from the waist
+to the knee. The small and white feet, always naked, are thrust into
+embroidered slippers, which cover but the extremities. Nothing can
+be more charming, coquettish, and fascinating, than this costume,
+which excites in the highest degree the admiration of strangers. The
+half-breed and Chinese Tagals know so well the effect it produces on
+the Europeans, that nothing would induce them to alter it.
+
+While on the subject of dress, that of the men is also worthy of
+remark. The Indian and the half-breed wear upon the head a large
+straw hat, black or white, or a sort of Chinese covering, called a
+salacote; upon the shoulders, the pine fibre kerchief embroidered;
+and round the neck, a rosary of coral beads; their shirts are also
+made from the fibres of the pine, or of vegetable silk; trousers of
+coloured silk, with embroidery near the bottom, and a girdle of red
+China crape, complete their costume. The feet, without stockings,
+are covered with European shoes.
+
+The military town, so quiet during the day, assumes a more lively
+appearance towards the evening, when the inhabitants ride out in
+their very magnificent carriages, which are invariably conducted
+by postilions; they then mix with the walking population of
+Binondoc. Afterwards visits, balls, and the more intimate reunions
+take place. At the latter they talk, smoke the cigars of Manilla,
+and chew the betel, [2] drink glasses of iced eau sucree, and eat
+innumerable sweetmeats; towards midnight those guests retire who do
+not stay supper with the family, which is always served luxuriously,
+and generally prolonged until two o'clock in the morning. Such is the
+life spent by the wealthy classes under these skies so favoured by
+Heaven. But there exists, as in Europe, and even to a greater extent,
+the most abject misery, of which I shall speak hereafter, throwing
+a shade over this brilliant picture.
+
+I shall now return to my personal adventures. While I spoke with
+the Indians upon the shore, I had noticed a young European standing
+not many paces from me; I again met him on the road I took towards
+Manilla, and I thought I would address him. This young man was a
+surgeon, about returning to Europe. I partly told him the plans I
+wished to form, and asked him for some information respecting the city
+where I purposed locating myself. He readily satisfied my inquiries,
+and encouraged me in the resolution to exercise my profession in
+the Philippine Islands. He had himself, he said, conceived the same
+project, but family affairs obliged him to return to his country. I
+did not conceal the misfortune of my position, and observed that it
+would be almost impossible to pay visits in the costume, worse than
+plain, which I then wore.
+
+"That is of no consequence," he replied; "I have all you would
+require: a coat almost new, and six capital lancets. I will sell you
+these things for their cost price in France; they will be a great
+bargain." The affair was soon concluded. He took me to his hotel,
+and I shortly left it encased in a garment sufficiently good, but
+much too large and too long for me. Nevertheless, it was some time
+since I had seen myself so well clad, and I could not help admiring
+my new acquisition.
+
+I had hidden my poor little white jacket in my hat, and I strode
+along the causeway of Manilla more proud than Artaban himself. I was
+the owner of a coat and six lancets; but there remained, for all my
+fortune, the sum of one dollar only; this consideration slightly
+tempered the joy that I felt in gazing on my brilliant costume. I
+thought of where I could pass the night, and subsist on the morrow
+and the following days, if the sick were not ready for me.
+
+Reflecting thus I slowly wandered from Binondoc to the military town,
+and from the military town back to Binondoc,--when, suddenly, a bright
+idea shot across my brain. At Cavite I had heard spoken of a Spanish
+captain, by name Don Juan Porras, whom an accident had rendered almost
+blind. I resolved to seek him, and offer my services; it remained but
+to find his residence. I addressed a hundred persons, but each replied
+that he did not know, and passed on his way. An Indian who kept a
+small shop, and to whom I spoke, relieved my trouble: "If the senor
+is a captain," he said, "your excellency would obtain his address at
+the first barrack on your road." I thanked him, and eagerly followed
+his counsel. At the infantry barracks, where I presented myself, the
+officer on duty sent a soldier to guide me to the captain's dwelling:
+it was time, the night had already fallen. Don Juan Porras was an
+Andalusian, a good man, and of an extremely cheerful disposition. I
+found him with his head wrapped in a Madras handkerchief, busied in
+completely covering his eyes with two enormous poultices.
+
+"Senor Captain," I said, "I am a physician, and a skilful oculist. I
+have come hither to take care of you, and I am fully convinced that
+I shall cure you."
+
+"Basta" (enough is said), was his answer; "all the physicians in
+Manilla are asses."
+
+This more than sceptical reply did not discourage me. I resolved
+to turn it to account. "My opinion is precisely the same as yours,"
+I promptly answered; "and it is because I am strongly convinced of
+the ignorance of the native doctors, that I have made up my mind to
+come and practise in the Philippines."
+
+"Of what nation are you, sir?"
+
+"I am a Frenchman."
+
+"A French physician!" cried Don Juan; "Ah! that is quite another
+matter. I ask your pardon for having spoken so irreverently of men of
+your profession. A French physician! I put myself entirely into your
+hands. Take my eyes, Senor Medico, and do what you will with them!"
+
+The conversation was taking a favourable turn: I hastened to broach
+the principal question:
+
+"Your eyes are very bad, Senor Captain," said I; "to accomplish a
+speedy cure, it is absolutely necessary that I should never quit you
+for a moment."
+
+"Would you consent to come and pass some time with me, doctor?"
+
+Here was the principal consideration settled.
+
+"I consent," replied I, "but on one condition; namely, that I shall
+pay you for my board and lodging."
+
+"That shall not part us--you are free to do so," said the worthy man;
+"and so the matter is settled. I have a nice room, and a good bed,
+all ready; there is nothing to do but to send for your baggage. I
+will call my servant."
+
+The terrible word, "baggage," sounded in my ears like a knell. I cast
+a melancholy look at the crown of my hat--my only portmanteau--within
+which were deposited all my clothes--consisting of my little white
+jacket; and I feared Don Juan would take me for some runaway sailor
+trying to dupe him. There was no retreat; so I mustered my courage,
+and briefly related my sad position, adding that I could not pay
+for my board and lodging until the end of the month--if I was so
+fortunate as to find patients. Don Juan Porras listened to me very
+quietly. When my tale was told he burst into a loud laugh, which made
+me shiver from head to foot.
+
+"Well," cried he, "I am well pleased it should be so; you are poor;
+you will have more time to devote to my malady, and a greater interest
+in curing me. What think you of the syllogism?"
+
+"It is excellent, Senor Captain, and before long you will find, I hope,
+that I am not the man to compromise so distinguished a logician as
+yourself. To-morrow morning I will examine your eyes, and I will not
+leave you till I have radically cured them."
+
+We talked for some time longer in this joyous strain, after which
+I retired to my chamber, where the most delightful dreams visited
+my pillow.
+
+The next day I rose early, put on my doctoral coat, and entered the
+chamber of my host. I examined his eyes; they were in a dreadful
+state. The sight of one was not only destroyed, but threatened the
+life of the sufferer. A cancer had formed, and the enormous size it
+had attained rendered the result of an operation doubtful. The left
+eye contained many fibres, but there was hope of saving it. I frankly
+acquainted Don Juan with my fears and hopes, and insisted upon the
+entire removal of the right eye. The Captain, at first astonished,
+decided courageously upon submitting to the operation, which I
+accomplished on the following day with complete success. Shortly
+afterwards the inflammatory symptoms disappeared, and I could assure
+my host of a safe recovery. I then bestowed all my attention upon
+the left eye. I desired the more ardently to restore to Don Juan his
+vision, from the good effect I was convinced his case would produce
+at Manilla. For me it would be fortune and reputation. Besides, I had
+already acquired, in the few days, some slight patronage, and was in a
+position to pay for my board and lodging at the end of the month. After
+six weeks' careful treatment Don Juan was perfectly cured, and could
+use his eye as well as he did previous to his accident. Nevertheless,
+to my great regret, the Captain still continued to immure himself;
+his re-appearance in society, which he had forsaken for more than
+a year, would have produced an immense sensation, and I should have
+been considered the first doctor in the Philippines. One day I touched
+upon this delicate topic.
+
+"Senor Captain," said I, "what are you thinking about, to remain
+thus shut up between four walls, and why do you not resume your old
+habits? You must go and visit your friends, your acquaintances."
+
+"Doctor," interrupted Don Juan, "how can I show myself in public with
+an eye the less? When I pass along the street all the women would say:
+'There goes Don Juan the One-eyed!' No, no; before I leave the house
+you must get me an artificial eye from Paris."
+
+"You don't mean that? It would be eighteen months before the eye
+arrived."
+
+"Then here goes for eighteen months' seclusion," said Don Juan.
+
+I persisted for upwards of an hour, but the Captain would not listen
+to reason. He carried his coquetry so far that, although I had
+covered the empty orbit with black silk, he had his shutters closed
+whenever visitors came; so that, as they always found him in the dark,
+none would credit his cure. I was very anxious to thwart Don Juan's
+obstinacy, as may well be imagined; I had not the time to waste, during
+eighteen months, in dancing attendance at fortune's door; therefore
+I determined to make this eye myself, without which the coquetish
+captain would not be seen. I took some pieces of glass, a tube, and
+set to work. After many fruitless attempts, I at last succeeded in
+obtaining the perfect form of an eye; but this was not all--it must
+be coloured to resemble nature. I sent for a poor carriage-painter,
+who managed to imitate tolerably well the left eye of Don Juan. It
+was necessary to preserve this painting from contact with the tears,
+which would soon have destroyed it. To accomplish this I had made by
+a jeweller a silver globe, smaller than the glass eye, inside which
+I united it by means of sealing-wax. I carefully polished the edges
+upon a stone, and after eight days' labour I obtained a satisfactory
+result. The eye which I had succeeded in producing was really not so
+bad after all. I was anxious to place it within the vacant orbit. It
+somewhat inconvenienced the Senor Don Juan, but I persuaded him that
+he would soon become accustomed to it. Placing across his nose a
+pair of spectacles, he examined himself in the looking-glass, and
+was so satisfied with his appearance that he decided on commencing
+his visits the following day.
+
+As I had anticipated, the re-appearance in the world of Captain Juan
+Porras made a great sensation, and soon the consequence was, that
+Senor Don Pablo, the eminent French physician--most especially the
+clever oculist--was much spoken of. From all quarters patients came to
+me. Notwithstanding my youth and inexperience, my first success gave
+me such confidence that I performed several operations upon persons
+afflicted with cataracts, which succeeded most fortunately. I no longer
+sufficed to my large connection, and in a few days, from the greatest
+distress, I attained perfect opulence: I had a carriage-and-four in my
+stables. I could not, however, notwithstanding this change of fortune,
+resign myself to leave Don Juan's house, out of gratitude for the
+hospitality he so generously offered me. In my leisure hours he kept
+me company, and amused me with the recital of his battle stories and
+personal adventures. I had already spent nearly six months with him,
+when a circumstance, which forms an epoch in my life, changed my
+existence, and compelled me to quit the lively captain. One of my
+American friends often called my attention in our walks towards a
+young lady in mourning, who passed for one of the prettiest senoras
+of the town. Each time we met her my American friend never failed
+to praise the beauty of the Marquesa de Las Salinas. She was about
+eighteen or nineteen years of age; her features were both regular
+and placid; she had beautiful black hair, and large expressive eyes;
+she was the widow of a colonel in the guards, who married her when
+almost a child. The sight of this young lady produced so lively an
+impression upon me, that I explored all the saloons at Binondoc,
+to endeavour to meet her elsewhere than in my walks. Fruitless
+attempts! The young widow saw nobody. I almost despaired of finding
+an opportunity of speaking to her, when one morning an Indian came
+to request me to visit his master. I got into the carriage and set
+off, without informing myself of the name of the sick person. The
+carriage stopped before the door of one of the finest houses in the
+Faubourg of Santa-Crux. Having examined the patient, and conversed a
+few minutes with him, I went to the table to write a prescription;
+suddenly I heard the rustling of a silk dress; I turned round--the
+pen fell from my hand. Before me stood the very lady I had so long
+sought after--appearing to me as in a dream! My amazement was so
+great that I muttered a few unintelligible words, and bowed with such
+awkwardness that she smiled. She simply addressed me to inquire the
+state of her nephew's health, and withdrew almost immediately. As
+to myself, instead of making my ordinary calls, I returned home;
+questioned Don Juan minutely about Madame de Las Salinas: he entirely
+satisfied my curiosity. He was acquainted with all the family of this
+youthful widow, and they were highly respected in the colony. The
+next morning, and following days, I returned to this charming widow,
+who graciously condescended to receive me with favour. These details
+being so completely personal, I pass them over. Six months after
+my first interview with Madame de Las Salinas, I asked her hand,
+and obtained it. I had therefore found, at more than five thousand
+leagues from my country, both happiness and wealth. I agreed that
+we should go to France as soon as my wife's property, the greater
+part of which lay in Mexico, should be realised. In the meantime my
+house was the rendezvous of foreigners, particularly of the French,
+who were already rather numerous at Manilla. At this period the
+Spanish government named me Surgeon-Major of the 1st Light Regiment,
+and of the first battalion of the militia of Panjanga. Having been so
+successful in so short a time, I never once doubted but that fortune
+would continue to bestow her smiling favours upon me. I had already
+prepared everything for my return to France; for we hourly expected
+the arrival of the galleons that plied from Acapulco to Manilla,
+which were to bring my wife's fortune. Her fortune was no less than
+700,000 francs (L28,000 sterling).
+
+One evening, as we were taking tea, we were informed that the vessels
+from Acapulco had been telegraphed, and that the next morning they
+would be in; our piasters were to be on board; I leave you to guess
+if our wishes were not gratified. But, alas! how our hopes were
+frustrated: the vessels did not bring us a single piaster. This is
+what occurred: five or six millions were sent by land from Mexico
+to San Blas, the place of embarkation, and the Mexican government
+had the van escorted by a regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel
+Iturbide. On the journey he took possession of the van, and fled with
+his regiment into the independent states. It is well known that later
+Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, then dethroned, and at last
+shot, after an expedition that offers more than one analogy with that
+of Murat. The very day of the arrival of the vessels we learnt that
+our fortune was entirely lost, without even hopes of regaining the
+smallest part. My wife and self supported this event with tolerable
+philosophy. It was not the loss of our piasters that distressed us
+the most, but the necessity we were in to abandon, or at least to
+postpone, our journey to France.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+    Continued Prosperity in Practice--Attempted Political
+    Revolution--Desperate Street Engagement--Subjugation of the
+    Insurgents--The Emperor of a Day--Dreadful Executions--Illness
+    and Insanity of my Wife--Her Recovery and Relapse--Removal to
+    the Country--Beneficial Results--Dangerous Neighbours--Repentant
+    Banditti--Fortunate Escape--The Anonymous Friend--A Confiding
+    Wife--Her Final Recovery, and our Domestic Happiness Restored.
+
+
+Despite the misfortune I have alluded to, I kept up my house in
+the same style as before. My connection, and the different posts I
+occupied, permitted me to lead the life of a grandee belonging to
+the Spanish colonies; and probably I should have made my fortune in a
+few years, if I had continued in the medical profession, but the wish
+for unlimited liberty caused me to abandon all these advantages for a
+life of peril and anxiety. At the same time do not let us anticipate
+too suddenly, and let the reader patiently peruse a few more pages
+about Manilla, and various events wherein I figured, either as actor
+or witness, before taking leave of a sybarite citizen's life.
+
+I was, as I said before, surgeon-major of the 1st Light Regiment of
+the line, and on intimate terms with the staff, and more particularly
+with Captain Novales, a Creole by birth, possessing a courageous and
+venturesome disposition. He was suspected of endeavouring to excite
+his regiment to rebel in behalf of the Independence. An inquiry was
+consequently instituted, which ended without proof of the captain's
+culpability; nevertheless, as the governor still maintained his
+suspicions, he gave orders for him to be sent to one of the southern
+provinces, under the inspection of an alcaide. Novales came to see
+me the morning of his departure, and complained bitterly of the
+injustice of the governor towards him, and added that those who had
+no confidence in his honour would repent, and that he would soon
+be back. I endeavoured to pacify him: we shook hands, and in the
+evening he went on board the vessel commissioned to take him to his
+destination. The night after Novales departure, I was startled out of
+my sleep by the report of fire-arms. I immediately dressed myself in
+my uniform, and hastened to the barracks of my regiment. The streets
+were deserted; sentinels were stationed at about fifty paces apart. I
+understood that an extraordinary event had occurred in some part of
+the town. When I reached the barracks I was no little astonished to
+find the gates wide open, the sentry's box vacant, and not a soldier
+within. I went into the infirmary, set apart for the special service
+of the cholera patients, and there a serjeant told me that the bad
+weather had compelled the vessel that was taking Novales into exile to
+return into the port; that about one o'clock in the morning, Novales,
+accompanied by Lieutenant Ruiz, came to the barracks, and having
+made himself certain of the votes of the Creole non-commissioned
+officers, put the regiment under arms, took possession of the gates,
+and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Philippines.
+
+This extraordinary intelligence caused me some anxiety. My regiment
+had openly revolted; if I joined it, and were defeated, I should
+be considered a traitor, and, as such, shot; if, on the contrary,
+I fought against it, and the rebels proved victorious, I knew
+Novales sufficiently well to be convinced that he would not spare
+me. Nevertheless I could not hesitate: duty bound me to the Spanish
+government, by which I had been so well treated. I left the barracks,
+rambling where chance might lead me. I shortly found myself at the
+head-quarters of the artillery; an officer behind the gate stood
+observing me. I went up to him, and asked him whether he was for
+Spain. Upon his answering me in the affirmative, I begged him to
+open the gate, declaring that I wished to join his party, and would
+willingly offer my services as surgeon to them. I went in, and took
+the commander's orders, which soon showed me how matters stood. During
+the night Ruiz went, in the name of Novales, to General Folgueras,
+the commander during the absence of Governor Martines, who was
+detained at his country house, a short distance from Manilla. He
+took the guard unawares, and seized the keys of the town, after
+having stabbed Folgueras; from thence he went to the prisons, set
+the prisoners at liberty, and put in their places the principal men
+of the public offices belonging to the colony. The 1st Regiment was
+on Government Place, ready to engage in battle; twice it attempted
+to fall unexpectedly upon the artillery and citadel, but was driven
+back. Many expected assistance from without, and orders from General
+Martines to attack the rebels. Very soon we heard a discharge of
+artillery: it was General Martines, who, at the head of the Queen's
+Regiment, broke open Saint Lucy's Gate, and advanced into the besieged
+town. The body of the artillery joined the governor-general, and we
+marched towards Government Place. The insurgents placed two cannons
+at the corner of each street. Scarcely had we approached the palace,
+than we were exposed to a violent discharge of loaded muskets. The
+head chaplain of the regiment was the first victim. We were then
+engaged in a street, by the side of the fortifications, and from
+which it was impossible to attack the enemy with advantage. General
+Martines changed the position of the attack, and in this condition we
+came back by the street of Saint Isabelle. The troops in two lines
+followed both sides of the street, and left the road free; in the
+meantime the Panpangas regiment, crossing the bridge, reached us
+by one of the opposite streets: the rebels were then exposed to the
+opposite attacks. They nevertheless defended themselves furiously,
+and their sharpshooters did us some harm. Novales was everywhere,
+encouraging his soldiers by words, exploits, and example, while
+Lieutenant Ruiz was busy pointing one of the cannons, that swept the
+middle of the street we were coming up. At length, after three hours'
+contest, the rebels succumbed. The troops fell upon everything they
+found, and Novales was taken prisoner to the governor's. As to Ruiz,
+although he had received a blow on his arm from a ball, he was
+fortunate enough to jump over the fortifications, and succeeded,
+for the time, in escaping; three days afterwards he was taken. The
+conflict was scarcely over, than a court-martial was held. Novales
+was tried the first. At midnight he was outlawed; at two o'clock in
+the morning proclaimed Emperor; and at five in the evening shot. Such
+changes in fortune are not uncommon in Spanish colonies.
+
+The court-martial, without adjourning, tried, until the middle of the
+following day, all the prisoners arrested with arms. The tenth part
+of the regiment was sent to the hulks, and all the non-commissioned
+officers were condemned to death. I received orders to be at Government
+Place by four o'clock, on which spot the executions were to take place;
+two companies of each battalion of the garrison, and all the staff,
+were to be present.
+
+Towards five the doors of the town-hall opened, and between a double
+file of soldiers advanced seventeen non-commissioned officers, each one
+assisted by two monks of the order of Misericordia. Mournful silence
+prevailed, interrupted every now and then by the doleful beating of
+the drums, and the prayers of the agonising, chanted by the monks. The
+procession moved slowly on, and after some time reached the palace;
+the seventeen non-commissioned officers were ordered to kneel, their
+faces turned towards the wall. After a lengthened beating of the drums
+the monks left their victims, and at a second beating a discharge
+of muskets resounded: the seventeen young men fell prostrate on the
+ground. One, however, was not dead; he had fallen with the others,
+and seemed apparently motionless. A few minutes after the monks
+threw their black veils upon the victims: they now belonged to Divine
+justice. I witnessed all that had just happened. I stood a few steps
+from him who feigned death so well, and my heart beat with force
+enough to burst through my chest. Would that it had been in my power
+to lead one of the monks towards this unfortunate young man who must
+have experienced such mortal anguish; but, alas! after having been so
+miraculously spared, at the moment the black veil was about to cover
+him, an officer informed the commander that a guilty man had escaped
+being punished; the monks were arrested in their pious ministry, and
+two soldiers received orders to approach and fire upon the poor fellow.
+
+I was indignant at this. I advanced towards the informer and reproached
+him for his cruelty; he wished to reply; I treated him as a coward,
+and turned my back to him. Express orders from my colonel compelled
+me to leave my house, to assist at this frightful execution; still,
+deep anxiety ought to have prevented me from so doing, as I will
+explain. On the eve when the battle was over, and the insurgents
+routed, the distress of my dear Anna came across my mind. It was now
+one o'clock in the afternoon, and she had received no tidings from
+me since three in the morning; might she not think me dead, or in the
+midst of the rebellion? Ah! if duty could make me forget for a moment
+she whom I loved more than life, now all danger was over her charming
+image returned to my mind. Dearest Anna! I beheld her pale, agitated;
+asking herself at each report of the cannon whether it rendered her
+a widow; when my mind became so agitated that I ran home to calm her
+fears. Having reached my house I went quickly up stairs, my heart
+beating violently; I paused for a moment at her door, then summoning
+a little courage I entered. Anna was kneeling down praying; hearing my
+footsteps she raised her head, and threw herself into my arms without
+uttering a word. At first I attributed this silence to emotion, but,
+alas! upon examining her lovely face, I saw her eyes looked wild,
+her features contracted: I started back. I discovered in her all the
+symptoms of congestion of the brain. I dreaded lest my wife had lost
+her senses, and this fear alarmed me greatly. How fortunate it was
+that it lay in my power to relieve her. I had her placed in bed, and
+ministered myself to her wants. She was tolerably composed; the few
+words she uttered were inconsistent; she seemed to think that somebody
+was going to poison or kill her. All her confidence was placed in
+me. During three days the remedies I prescribed and administered
+were useless; the poor creature derived no benefit from them. I
+therefore determined to consult the doctors in Manilla, although I
+had no great opinion of their skill. They advised some insignificant
+drugs, and declared to me that there were no hopes, adding, as a
+philosophical mode of consolation, that death was preferable to the
+loss of reason. I did not agree on this point with these gentlemen:
+I would have preferred insanity to death, for I hoped that her madness
+would die away by degrees, and eventually disappear altogether. How
+many mad people are cured, what numbers daily recover, yet death is
+the last word of humanity; and, as a young poet has truly said, is
+"the stone of the tomb."
+
+Between the world and God a curtain falls! I determined to wage a
+war against death, and to save my Anna by having recourse to the most
+indisputable resources of science. I looked now upon my brotherhood
+with more contempt than ever, and, confident in my love and zealous
+will, I began my struggle with a destiny, tinged indeed with gloomy
+clouds. I shut myself up in the sick-chamber, and never left my wife. I
+had great difficulty in getting her to take the medicaments I trusted
+she would derive so much benefit from; I was obliged to call to my
+assistance all the influence I had over her, in order to persuade
+her that the draughts I presented to her were not poisoned. She did
+not sleep, but appeared very drowsy; these symptoms denoted very
+clearly great disorder of the brain. For nine days she remained in
+this dreadful state; during which time I scarcely knew whether she
+was dead or alive; at every moment I besought the Almighty to work a
+miracle in her behalf. One morning the poor creature closed her eyes. I
+cannot describe my feelings of anguish. Would she ever awake again? I
+leant over her; I heard her breathing gently, without apparent effort;
+I felt her pulse, it beat calmer and more regular; she was evidently
+better. I stood by her in deep anxiety. She still remained in a calm
+sleep, and at the end of half-an-hour I felt convinced that this
+satisfactory crisis would restore my invalid to life and reason. I
+sat down by her bed-side, and stayed there eighteen hours, watching
+her slightest movements. At length, after such cruel suspense, my
+patient awoke, as if out of a dream.
+
+"Have you been long watching?" she said, giving me her hand: "Have I,
+then, been very ill? What care you have taken of me! Luckily you may
+rest now, for I feel I am recovered."
+
+I think I have during my life been a sharer of the strongest emotions
+of joy or of sadness man can feel; but never had I experienced
+such real, heartfelt joy as when I heard Anna's words. It is easy
+to imagine the state of my mind in recollecting the bitter grief
+I was in for ten days; then can be understood the mental anguish I
+felt. Having witnessed such strange scenes for a considerable time,
+it would not have been surprising had I lost my senses. I was an
+actor in a furious battle; I had seen the wounded falling around me,
+and heard the death-rattle. After the frightful execution, I went home,
+and there still deeper grief awaited me. I had watched by the bed-side
+of a beloved wife, knowing not whether I should lose her for ever,
+or see her spared to me deprived of reason; when all at once, as if by
+a miracle, this dear companion of my life, restored to health, threw
+herself into my arms. I wept with her; my burning eyes, aching for
+want of rest, found at last some tears, but they were tears of joy and
+gladness. Soon we became more composed; we related to each other all
+that we had suffered. Oh! the sympathy of loving hearts! Our sorrows
+bad been the same, we had shared the same fears, she for me and I for
+her. Anna's rapid recovery, after her renovating slumber, enabled her
+to get up; she dressed herself as usual, and the people who saw her
+could not believe she had passed ten days struggling between death
+and insanity--two gulphs, from which love and faith had preserved us.
+
+I was happy; my deep sadness was speedily changed to gladness,
+even visible on my features. Alas! this joy was transitory, like
+all happiness; man here below is a continual prey to misfortune! My
+wife, at the end of a month, relapsed into her former sickly state;
+the same symptoms showed themselves again, with similar prospects,
+during the same space of time. I remained again nine days at her
+bed-side, and on the tenth a refreshing sleep brought her to her
+senses. But this time, guided by experience, that pitiless mistress,
+who gives us lessons we should ever remember, I did not rejoice
+as I had done the month before. I feared lest this sudden cure
+might only be a temporary recovery, and that every month my poor
+invalid would relapse, until her brain becoming weaker and weaker,
+she would be deranged for life. This sad idea wounded my heart, and
+caused me such grief that I could not even dissimulate it before her
+who inspired it. I exhausted all the resources of medicine; all these
+expedients proved unavailable. I thought that perhaps, if I removed my
+poor invalid from the spot where the events had occurred that caused
+her disorder, her cure might be more easily effected; that perhaps
+bathing and country walks in the fine weather would contribute to
+hasten her recovery; therefore I invited one of her relations to
+accompany us, and we set out for Tierra-Alta, a delightful spot,
+a real oasis, where all things were assembled that could endear
+one to life. The first days of our settling there were full of joy,
+hope, and happiness. Anna got better and better every day, and her
+health very much improved. We walked in beautiful gardens, under the
+shade of orange-trees; they were so thick that even during the most
+intense heat we were cool under their shade. A lovely river of blue
+and limpid water ran through our orchard; I had some Indian baths
+erected there. We went out in a pretty, light, open carriage, drawn
+by four good horses, through beautiful avenues, lined on each side
+with the pliant bamboo, and sown with all the various flowers of the
+tropics. I leave you to judge, by this short account, that nothing
+that can be wished for in the country was wanting in Tierra-Alta. For
+an invalid it was a Paradise; but those are right who say there is
+no perfect happiness here below. I had a wife I adored, and who loved
+me with all the sincerity of a pure young heart. We lived in an Eden,
+away from the world, from the noise and bustle of a city, and far, too,
+from the jealous and envious. We breathed a fragrant air; the pure and
+limpid waters that bathed our feet reflecting, by turns a sunny sky,
+and one spangled with twinkling stars. Anna's health was improving:
+it pleased me to see her so happy. What, then, was there to trouble
+us in our lovely retreat? A troop of banditti! These robbers were
+distributed around the suburbs of Tierra-Alta, and spread desolation
+over the country and neighbourhood by the robberies and murders
+they committed. There was a regiment in search of them; this they
+little cared about. They were numerous, clever, and audacious; and,
+notwithstanding the vigilance of the government, the band continued
+their highway robberies and assassinations. In the house where I then
+resided, and which I afterwards left, Aguilar, the commander of the
+cavalry, who had replaced me as occupant, was fallen upon unexpectedly,
+and stabbed. Several years after this period, the government was
+obliged to come to some terms with these bandits, and one day twenty
+men, all armed with carbines and swords, entered Manilla. Their
+chieftain led them; they walked with their heads upright, their
+carriage was proud and manly; in this order they went to the governor,
+who made them a speech, ordered them to lay down their arms, and sent
+them to the archbishop that he might exhort them. The archbishop in a
+religious discourse implored of them to repent of their crimes, and
+become honest citizens, and to return to their villages. These men,
+who had bathed their hands in the blood of their fellow-creatures,
+and who had sought in crime--or rather, in every crime--the gold they
+coveted, listened attentively to God's minister, changed completely
+their conduct, and became, in the end, good and quiet husbandmen.
+
+Now let us return to my residence at Tierra-Alta, at the period when
+the bandits were not converted, and might have disturbed my peaceful
+abode and security. Nevertheless, whether it was carelessness, or the
+confidence I had in my Indian, with whom I spent some time after the
+ravages occasioned with the cholera, and with whose influence I was
+acquainted, I did not fear the bandits at all. This Indian lived a
+few leagues off from Tierra-Alta; he came often to see me, and said
+to me on different occasions: "Fear nothing from the robbers, Senor
+Doctor Pablo; they know we are friends, and that alone would suffice
+to prevent them attacking you, for they would dread to displease me,
+and to make me their enemy." These words put an end to my fears,
+and I soon had an opportunity of seeing that the Indian had taken me
+under his protection.
+
+If any of my readers for whom I write these souvenirs feel the same
+desire as I experienced to visit the cascades of Tierra-Alta, let
+them go to a place called Yang-Yang; it was near this spot where
+my Indian protector resided. At this part the river, obstructed in
+its course by the narrowness of its channel, falls from only one
+waterspout, about thirty or forty feet high, into an immense basin,
+out of which the water calmly flows onwards, to form, lower down, three
+other waterfalls, not so lofty, but extending over the breadth of the
+river, thereby making three sheets of water, clear and transparent as
+crystal. What beautiful sights are offered to the eyes of man by the
+all-powerful hands of the Creator! And how often have I remarked that
+the works of nature are far superior to those that men tire themselves
+to erect and invent!
+
+As we went one morning to the cascades we were about to alight
+at Yang-Yang, when all at once our carriage was surrounded with
+brigands, flying from the soldiers of the line. The chief--for we
+supposed him to be so at first--said to his companions, not paying the
+slightest attention to us, nor even addressing us: "We must kill the
+horses!" By this I saw he feared lest their enemies should make use of
+our horses to pursue them. With a presence of mind which fortunately
+never abandons me in difficult or perilous circumstances, I said to
+him: "Do not fear; my horses shall not be used by your enemies to
+pursue you: rely upon my word." The chief put his hand to his cap,
+and thus addressed his comrades: "If such be the case, the Spanish
+soldiers will do us no harm to-day, neither let us do any. Follow
+me!" They marched off, and I instantly drove rapidly away in quite
+an opposite direction from the soldiers. The bandits looked after
+me; my good faith in keeping my word was successful. I not only
+lived a few months in safety at Tierra-Alta, but many years after,
+when, I resided in Jala-Jala, and, in my quality of commander of the
+territorial horse-guards of the province of Lagune, was naturally a
+declared enemy of the bandits, I received the following note:
+
+
+    "Sir,--Beware of Pedro Tumbaga; we are invited by him to go to
+    your house and to take you by surprise; we remember the morning we
+    spoke to you at the cascades, and the sincerity of your word. You
+    are an honourable man. If we find ourselves face to face with
+    you, and it be necessary, we will fight, but faithfully, and
+    never after having laid a snare. Keep, therefore, on your guard;
+    beware of Pedro Tumbaga; he is cowardly enough to hide himself
+    in order to shoot you."
+
+
+Everybody must acknowledge I had to do with most polite robbers.
+
+I answered them thus:
+
+
+    "You are brave fellows. I thank you for your advice, but I do
+    not fear Pedro Tumbaga. I cannot conceive how it is you keep
+    among you a man capable of hiding himself to kill his enemy;
+    if I had a soldier like him, I would soon let him have justice,
+    and without consulting the law."
+
+
+A fortnight after my answer, Tumbaga was no more; a bandit's bullet
+disembarrassed me of him.
+
+I will now return to the recital I have just interrupted. When I had
+left the bandits at Yang-Yang, I pulled up my horses and bethought
+me of Anna. I was anxious to know what impression had been produced
+on her mind from this unpleasant encounter. Fortunately my fears were
+unfounded; my wife had not been at all alarmed, and when I asked her
+if she was frightened, she replied: "Frightened, indeed! am I not with
+you?" Subsequently I had good proofs that she told me the truth, for
+in many perilous circumstances she always presented the same presence
+of mind. When I thought there was no longer any danger we retraced our
+steps and went home, satisfied with the conduct of the bandits towards
+us, for their manner of acting clearly showed us that they intended us
+no harm. I mentally thanked my Indian friend, for to him I attributed
+the peace our turbulent neighbours allowed us to enjoy. The fatal time
+was drawing near when my wife would again be suffering from another
+attack of that frightful malady brought on by Novales revolt. I had
+hoped that the country air, the baths, and amusements of every kind
+would cure my poor invalid; my hopes were deceived, and, as in the
+preceding month, I had the grief once more to assist at a period of
+physical and mental suffering. I despaired: I knew not what course
+to pursue. I decided, however, upon remaining at Tierra-Alta. My
+dear companion was happy there on the days her health was better,
+and on the other days I never left her, endeavouring by every means
+that art and imagination could invent to fight against this fatal
+malady. At length my care, attempts, and efforts were successful, and
+at the periods the symptoms usually returned I had the happiness not
+to observe them, and believed in the certainty of a final cure. I then
+felt the joy one experiences after having for a long time been on the
+point of losing a very dear friend, who suddenly recovers. I now gave
+myself up without fear to the various pleasures Tierra-Alta offers.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    Hunting the Stag--Indian Mode of Chasing the Wild Buffalo: its
+    Ferocity--Dangerous Sport--Capture of a Buffalo--Narrow Escape of
+    an Indian Hunter--Return to Manilla--Injustice of the Governor--My
+    Resignation of Office--I Purchase Property at Jala-Jala--Retire
+    from Manilla to Take Possession of my Domains--Chinese
+    Legend--Festival of St Nicholas--Quinaboutasan--Description
+    of Jala-Jala--Interview with a Bandit Chief--Formation of a
+    Guard--Preparations for Building--Visit to Manilla, and Return
+    to Jala-Jala--Completion of my House--Reception of my Wife by
+    the Natives--The Government of the Philippines--Character of the
+    Tagaloc Indians--Unmerited Chastisement--A Curate Appointed--Our
+    Labours at Civilisation--My Hall of Justice--Buffalo Hunting
+    Expedition.
+
+
+Naturally fond of hunting, I often went to the home of my Indian
+friend in the Marigondon mountains. Together we chased the stag,
+and killed the various kinds of birds which abound in these regions
+to such an extent that one may always choose between fifteen or
+twenty different species of pigeons, wild ducks, and fowl, and it
+frequently happened that I brought down five or six at a shot. The
+manner of killing wild fowl (a sort of pheasant) much amused me. We
+rode across the large plains, strewed with young wood, on good and
+beautiful horses, broken in for the purpose; the dogs raised the game,
+and, armed with whips, we endeavoured to knock the birds down at a
+single blow, which is not so difficult as might be imagined. When a
+number of the frightened flocks left the shelter of the wood we put
+our steeds to the gallop, and it became a veritable steeple-chase,
+such as amateur jockeys would much delight in. I also hunted the stag
+with the lance, on horseback; this sport is likewise very amusing,
+but, unfortunately, often attended with accidents. This is how they
+occur:--The horses employed are so well trained to the sport, that
+as soon as they perceive the stag it is no longer necessary, neither
+is it possible, to guide them; they pursue the animal at the top of
+their speed, and leap over every obstruction before them. The horseman
+carries a lance seven or eight feet long, which he holds in readiness
+to cast as soon as he thinks himself within reach of the stag. If he
+misses his aim the lance sticks in the ground, and it then requires
+great skill to avoid coming in contact with the opposite end, which
+often wounds either the hunter or the horse. I speak not of the falls
+to which one is liable from going at a furious gallop along unknown
+and uneven roads. I had already enjoyed this sport during my first
+sojourn at the Indian's, but, well as I acquitted myself, I was never
+able to gain his permission that I should assist at a chase far more
+dangerous, and which I might almost call a combat--that of the wild
+buffalo. To all my questions my host had replied: "In this sport there
+is much to fear: I would not expose you to the risk." He avoided, also,
+taking me near that part of the plain touching upon the mountains of
+Marigondon, where these animals could generally be found. However,
+after repeated solicitation, I managed to obtain what I so ardently
+desired; the Indian only wished to know whether I was a good horseman,
+if I possessed dexterity; and when he had satisfied himself on these
+two points, we started one fine morning, accompanied by nine huntsmen
+and a small pack of dogs. In this part of the Philippines the buffalo
+is hunted on horseback, and taken with the lasso, the Indians not being
+much accustomed to the use of guns. In other parts fire-arms are used,
+as I shall have occasion to recount in another part of my narrative;
+but, in whichever case, there is little difference in the danger,
+for the one requires good riding and great skill, the other much
+presence of mind and a good gun.
+
+The wild buffalo is quite different from the domesticated animal;
+it is a terrible creature, pursuing the hunter as soon as it gets
+sight of him, and, should he transfix him with its terrible horns, he
+would promptly expiate his rashness. My faithful Indian was much more
+anxious about my safety than his own. He objected to my taking a gun;
+he had little confidence in my skill with the lasso, and preferred
+that I should merely sit on horseback, unarmed and unencumbered
+in my movements; accordingly I set out, with a dagger for my sole
+weapon. We divided our party by threes, and rode gently about the
+plains, taking care to keep at a distance from the edge of the wood,
+lest we should be surprised by the animal we were seeking.
+
+After riding for about an hour, we at last heard the baying of
+the dogs, and understood that the enemy was forced from its forest
+retreat. We watched with the deepest attention the spot where we
+expected him to break forth. He required a great deal of coaxing
+before he would show; at last there was a sudden crashing noise
+in the wood; branches were broken, young trees overthrown, and a
+superb buffalo showed himself, at about one hundred and fifty paces'
+distance. He was of a beautiful black, and his horns were of very large
+dimensions. He carried his head high, and snuffed the air as though
+scenting his enemies. Suddenly starting off at a speed incredible in
+so bulky an animal, he made for one of our groups, composed of three
+Indians, who immediately put their horses to a gallop, and distributed
+themselves in the form of a triangle. The buffalo selected one of them,
+and impetuously charged him. As he did so, another of the Indians,
+whom he passed in his furious career, wheeled his horse and threw the
+lasso he held ready in his hand; but he was not expert, and missed
+his aim. Thereupon the buffalo changed his course, and pursued the
+imprudent man who had thus attacked him, and who now rode right in
+our direction. A second detachment of three hunters went to meet the
+brute; one of them passed near him at a gallop, and threw his lasso,
+but was as unsuccessful as his comrade. Three other hunters made the
+attempt; not one of them succeeded. I, as a mere spectator, looked
+on with admiration at this combat--at those evolutions, flights, and
+pursuits, executed with such order and courage, and with a precision
+that was truly extraordinary.
+
+I had often witnessed bull-fights, and often had I shuddered at seeing
+the toreadors adopt a similar method in order to turn the furious
+animal from the pursuit of the picador. But what comparison could
+possibly be established between a combat in an enclosed arena and
+this one in the open plain--between the most terrible of bulls and
+a wild buffalo? Fiery and hot-blooded Spaniards, proud Castilians,
+eager for perilous spectacles, go, hunt the buffalo in the plains
+of the Marigondon! After much flight and pursuit, hard riding, and
+imminent peril, a dexterous hunter encircled the animal's horns with
+his lasso. The buffalo slackened his speed, and shook and tossed
+his head, stopping now and then to try to get rid of the obstacle
+which impeded his career. Another Indian, not less skilful than his
+predecessor, threw his lasso with a like rapidity and success. The
+furious beast now ploughed the earth with his horns, making the
+soil fly around him, as if anxious to display his strength, and to
+show what havoc he would have made with any of us who had allowed
+themselves to be surprised by him. With much care and precaution the
+Indians conveyed their prize into a neighbouring thicket. The hunters
+uttered a shout of joy; for my part I could not repress a cry of
+admiration. The animal was vanquished; it needed but a few precautions
+to master him completely. I was much surprised to see the Indians
+excite him with voice and gesture until he resumed the offensive,
+and bounded from the ground with fury. What would have been our fate
+had he succeeded in shaking off or breaking the lassos! Fortunately,
+there was no danger of this. An Indian dismounted, and, with great
+agility, attached to the trunk of a solid tree the two lassos that
+retained the savage beast; then he gave the signal that his office
+was accomplished, and retired. Two hunters approached, threw their
+lassos over the animal, and fixed the ends to the ground with stakes;
+and now our prey was thoroughly subdued, and reduced to immobility,
+so that we could approach him with impunity. With blows of their
+cutlasses the Indians hacked off his horns, which would so well have
+revenged him had he been free to use them; then, with a pointed bamboo,
+they pierced the membranes that separate the nostrils, and passed
+through them a cane twisted in the form of a ring. In this state
+of martyrdom they fastened him securely behind two tame buffaloes,
+and led him to the next village.
+
+Here the animal was killed, and the hunters divided the carcass, the
+flesh of which is equal in flavour to beef. I had been fortunate in my
+first essay, for such encounters with these shaggy sovereigns of the
+plain do not always end so easily. A few days afterwards we renewed
+the sport, which, alas! terminated with an accident of too frequent
+occurrence. An Indian was surprised by a buffalo, at the moment the
+animal issued from the wood. With one blow from his horns the horse
+was impaled and cast to the earth, while his Indian rider fell near
+to him. The inequality of the ground offered some chance of the man
+escaping the notice of his redoubtable foe, until the latter, by a
+sudden movement of his head, turned the horse over upon his rider,
+and inflicted several blows with his horns, either of which would have
+proved fatal, but from the force becoming diminished in traversing
+the carcass of the horse. Fortunately some of the other sportsmen
+succeeded in turning the animal, and compelled him to abandon his
+victim. It was indeed time, for we found the poor Indian half dead,
+and terribly gored by the horns of the buffalo. We succeeded in
+stopping the blood which flowed copiously from his wounds, and
+carried him to the village upon a hastily constructed litter. It was
+only by considerable care and attention that his care was eventually
+effected, and my friend the Indian strongly opposed my assisting at
+such dangerous sport for the future.
+
+Anna's health was now completely re-established. I no longer dreaded
+the return of her fearful malady. During the space of several
+months I had enjoyed all the pleasures that Tierra-Alta afforded,
+and my affairs now requiring my presence at Manilla we set out for
+that city. Immediately after my arrival I was compelled, much to my
+regret, to resume my ordinary occupation; that is, to visit the sick
+from morning to night, and from night to morning. My profession did
+not well accord with my natural character, for I was not sufficiently
+philosophic to witness, without pain, the sufferings I was incapable
+of alleviating, and, above all, to watch the death-beds of fathers,
+of mothers, and of dearly loved children. In a word, I did not act
+professionally, for I never sent in my bills; my patients paid me
+when and how they could. To their honour, I am bound to say that I
+rarely had to complain of forgetfulness. Besides, my appointments
+permitted me to live sumptuously, to have eight horses in my stables,
+and to keep open house to my friends and the strangers who visited
+Manilla. Soon, however, what my friends designated a coup-de-tete
+caused me to lose all these advantages.
+
+Every month I summoned a council of revision in the regiment to
+which I belonged. One day I brought forward a young soldier for
+rejection; all went well; but a native surgeon, long jealous of my
+reputation, was nominated by the governor to make inquiry and check my
+declaration. He naturally inserted in his report that I was deceived;
+that the malady of which I spoke was imaginary; and he succeeded in
+all this so well that the governor, enraged, condemned me in a penalty
+of six piasters. The following month I again brought forward the same
+soldier, as being incapable of performing his duties; a commission
+of eight surgeons was nominated; their decision was unanimous in my
+favour, and the soldier was accordingly discharged. This reparation
+not quite satisfying me, I presented an appeal to the governor, who
+would not receive it, upon the strange pretext that the decision of
+the medical committee could not annul his. I confess that I did not
+understand this argument. This method of reasoning, if reasoning it
+was, appeared to me specious in the extreme. Why allow the innocent
+to suffer, and the ignorant practitioner, who had contradicted my
+opinions and deceived himself, to escape? This injustice revolted
+me. I am a Breton, and I have lived with Indians--two natures which
+love only right and justice. I was so much annoyed by the governor's
+conduct towards me that I went to him, not to make another reclamation,
+but to tender my resignation of the important offices which I held. He
+received me with a specious smile, and told me that after a little
+reflection I should change my mind. The poor governor, however, was
+deceived, for, on leaving his palace, I went direct to the minister
+of finance and purchased the property of Jala-Jala. My course was
+marked out, my resolution unshakable. Although my resignation was
+not yet duly accepted, I began to act as though I was completely
+free. I had at the beginning informed Anna of the matter, and had
+asked her if she would reside at Jala-Jala. "With you I should be
+happy anywhere." Such was her answer. I was free, then, to act as I
+pleased, and could go wherever my destiny might lead me. I forthwith
+decided upon visiting the land that I had purchased.
+
+For the execution of this project it was necessary to find a faithful
+Indian upon whom I could rely. From among my domestics I chose the
+coachman, a brave and discreet man, who was devoted to me. I took some
+arms, ammunition, and provisions. At Lapindan, a small village near the
+town of Santa Anna, I freighted a small boat worked by three Indians:
+and one morning, without making my project known to my friends, and
+without inquiring whether the governor had replaced me, I set out to
+take possession of my domains, respiring the vivifying and pure air of
+liberty. I ascended in my pirogue--which skimmed along the surface of
+the waters like a sea-gull--the pretty river Pasig, which issues from
+the lake of Bay, and traverses, on its way to the sea, the suburbs of
+Manilla. The banks of this river are planted with thickets of bamboo,
+and studded with pretty Indian habitations; above the large town of
+Pasig it receives the waters of the river St. Mateo, at the spot where
+that river unites itself with that of the Pasig. Upon the left bank
+are still seen the ruins of the chapel and parsonage of St. Nicholas,
+built by the Chinese, as the legend I am about to relate informs us.
+
+At an unknown epoch, a Chinese who was once sailing in a canoe, either
+upon the river Pasig, or that of St. Mateo, suddenly perceived an
+alligator making for his frail bark, which it immediately capsized. On
+his finding himself thus plunged in the water, the unfortunate Chinese
+whose only prospect was that of making a meal for the ferocious animal,
+invoked the aid of St. Nicholas. You, perhaps, would not have done
+so, nor I either; and we should have been wrong, for the idea was a
+good one. The good St. Nicholas listened to the cries of the unhappy
+castaway, appeared to his wondering eyes, and with a stroke of a
+wand, like some benevolent fairy, changed the threatening crocodile
+into a rock, and the Chinese was saved. But do not imagine that the
+legend ends here; the Chinese are not an ungrateful people--China
+is the land of porcelain, of tea, and of gratitude. The Chinese who
+had thus escaped from the cruel fate that awaited him, felt desirous
+of consecrating the memory of the miracle; and, in concert with his
+brethren of Manilla, he built a pretty chapel and parsonage in honour
+of the good St. Nicholas. This chapel was for a long time officiated
+in by a bonze; and every year, at the festival of the saint, the rich
+Chinese of Manilla assembled there in thousands, to give a series of
+fetes which lasted for fifteen days. But it happened that an archbishop
+of Manilla, looking upon this worship offered up by Chinese gratitude
+as nothing but paganism, caused both the chapel and parsonage to be
+unroofed. These harsh measures had no other result than to admit the
+rain into the buildings; but the worship due to St. Nicholas still
+continued, and remains to this day. Perhaps this arises from the
+attempt to suppress it!
+
+At present, at the period when this festival takes place--that is,
+about the 6th of November every year--a delightful view presents
+itself. During the night large vessels may be seen, upon which are
+built palaces actually several stories high, terminating in pyramids,
+and lit up from the base to the summit. All these lights are reflected
+in the placid waters of the river, and seem to augment the number of
+the stars, whose tremulous images dance on the surface of the waters:
+it is an extemporised Venice! In these palaces they give themselves
+up to play, to smoking opium, and to the pleasures of music. The
+pevete, a species of Chinese incense, is burning everywhere and at
+all times in honour of St. Nicholas, who is invoked every morning
+by throwing into the river small square pieces of paper of various
+colours. St. Nicholas, however, does not make his appearance; but
+the fete continues for a fortnight, at the termination of which the
+faithful retire till the year following.
+
+And now that the reader is acquainted with the legend of the crocodile,
+of the Chinese, and of the good St. Nicholas, I will resume my voyage.
+
+I sailed on peaceably upon the Pasig, proceeding to the conquest of my
+new dominions, and indulging in golden dreams. I gazed on the light
+smoke of my cigarette, without reflecting that my dreams, my castles
+in the air, must evaporate like it! I soon found myself in the lake
+of Bay. The lake occupies an extent of thirty leagues, and I greatly
+admired this fine sheet of water, bounded in the distance by mountains
+of fantastic forms. At length I arrived at Quinaboutasan--this is a
+Tagal word, which signifies "that which is perforated." Quinaboutasan
+is situated on a strait, which separates the island of Talem from
+the continent. We stopped for an hour in the only Indian hut there
+was in the place, to cook some rice and take our repast. This hut
+was inhabited by a very old fisherman and his wife. They were still,
+however, able to supply their wants by fishing. At a later period I
+shall have occasion to speak of old Relempago, or the "Thunderer,"
+and to recount his history. When I was in the centre of the sheet of
+water which separates Talem from Jala-Jala, I came in sight of the new
+domain which I had so easily acquired, and I could form some opinion of
+my acquisition at a glance. Jala-Jala is a long peninsula, extending
+from north to south, in the middle of the lake of Bay. This peninsula
+is divided longitudinally for the space of three leagues by a chain of
+mountains, which diminish gradually in height till they become mere
+hillocks. These mountains, are easy of access, and generally covered
+on one side with forests, and on the other with fine pasturage,
+abounding with waving and flexible grass, three or four feet high,
+which, agitated by the breeze, resembles the waves of the sea when in
+motion. It is impossible to find more splendid vegetation, which is
+watered by pure and limpid springs that gush from the mountain heights,
+and roll in a meandering course to join the waters of the lake. These
+pasture grounds constitute Jala-Jala the greatest game preserve
+in the island: wild boars, deer, buffaloes, fowls, quail, snipe,
+pigeons of fifteen or twenty different varieties, parrots--in short
+all sorts of birds abound in them. The lake is equally well supplied
+with aquatic birds, and particularly wild ducks. Notwithstanding its
+extent, the island produces neither noxious nor carnivorous animals;
+the only things to be apprehended are the civet cat, which only preys
+upon birds, and the monkeys, which issue in troops from the forests
+to ravage the fields of maize and sugar-cane. The lake, which abounds
+with excellent fish, is less favoured in this respect than the land,
+for it contains numerous crocodiles and alligators, of such immense
+size that in a few moments one of them can tear a horse to pieces,
+and swallow it in its monstrous stomach. The accidents they occasion
+are frequent and terrible, and I have seen many Indians become their
+victims, as I shall subsequently relate. I ought, doubtless, to have
+begun by speaking of the human beings who inhabited the forests of
+Jala-Jala, but I am a sportsman, and must therefore be excused for
+beginning with the game.
+
+At the time I purchased it Jala-Jala was inhabited by some Malay
+Indians, who lived in the woods, and cultivated a few spots of
+ground. During the night they carried on the trade of piracy, and
+gave shelter to all the banditti of the neighbouring provinces. At
+Manilla this country had been described to me in the most gloomy
+colours. According to the citizens of that place it would not be long
+before I fell a victim to these robbers. My adventurous disposition,
+however, only made all these predictions, instead of frightening me,
+increase my desire to visit these men, who lived in an almost savage
+state. As soon as I had purchased Jala-Jala, I had laid down a line of
+conduct for myself, the object of which was to attach to me such of
+the inhabitants as were the most to be dreaded. I resolved to become
+the friend of these banditti, and for this purpose I knew that I must
+go amongst them, not like a sordid and exacting landlord but like a
+father. For the execution of my enterprise, everything depended on the
+first impression that I should make on these Indians, who had become
+my vassals. When I had landed, I directed my steps along the borders
+of the lake, towards a little hamlet composed of a few cabins. I was
+accompanied by my faithful coachman; we were both armed with a good
+double-barreled gun, a brace of pistols, and a sabre. I had taken the
+precaution of ascertaining from some fishermen the name of the Indian
+to whom I should especially address myself. This man, who was the most
+respected amongst his countrymen, was called in the Tagal language,
+"Mabutiu-Tajo," which may be translated the "bravest of the brave"
+he was a thorough-paced robber, a real piratical chief; a fellow that
+would not hesitate to commit five or six murders in one expedition;
+but he was brave, and with a primitive people bravery is a quality
+before which they bow with respect. My conference with Mabutiu-Tajo
+was not long. A few words were enough to win me his favour, and to
+make him my faithful servant during the whole time I remained at
+Jala-Jala. This is the manner in which I spoke to him: "You are a
+great villain," I said; "I am the lord of Jala-Jala. I insist on your
+changing your conduct; if you refuse, I shall punish you for all your
+misdeeds. I have occasion for a guard: will you pledge me your honour
+to become an honest man, and I will make you my lieutenant?"
+
+After these few words, Alila (this was the name of the robber)
+continued silent for a few moments, while his countenance displayed the
+marks of profound reflection. I awaited his answer with considerable
+anxiety and doubt as to what it would be.
+
+"Master," he at length replied, with enthusiasm, presenting me his
+hand, and bending one knee to the ground: "I shall be faithful to
+you till death!"
+
+His answer made me happy, but I did not let him see my satisfaction.
+
+"Well and good," I replied; "to show you that I confide in you,
+take this weapon, and use it only against the enemy."
+
+I gave him a Tagal sabre, which bore the following Spanish inscription,
+in large letters: "No me sacas sin rason, ni me envainas sin
+honor." "Never draw me unjustly, and never sheath me with dishonour."
+
+I translated this legend into the Tagaloc language: Alila thought it
+sublime, and vowed never to deviate from it.
+
+"When I go to Manilla," I added, "I shall procure you a handsome
+uniform, with epaulettes; but you must lose no time in assembling
+the soldiers you will have to command, and who are to form my
+guard. Conduct me to the house of one of your comrades whom you
+think most capable of obeying you as serjeant." We went some distance
+from his cabin to the hut of one of his friends, who almost always
+accompanied him in his piratical excursions. A few words like those
+I had spoken to my future lieutenant produced a similar influence
+on his comrade, and induced him to accept the rank I offered him. We
+occupied the day in recruiting amongst the various huts, and in the
+evening we had a guard of ten effective men, infantry and cavalry,
+a number I did not wish to exceed.
+
+Of these I took the command as captain; and thus, as will be seen,
+I went promptly to work. The following day I assembled the population
+of the peninsula, and, surrounded by my extempore guard, I chose a
+situation where I wished to found a village, and a site on which
+I wished my own habitation to be built. I ordered the heads of
+families to construct their huts on an allotment which I indicated,
+and I directed my lieutenant to employ as many hands as possible, to
+quarry stones, to cut down timber for the wood-work, and to prepare
+everything in short for my house. Having issued my orders, I departed
+for Manilla, promising to return soon. When I reached home, I found
+them in a state of inquietude, for, as nothing had been heard of me,
+it was thought I had fallen a prey to the crocodiles, or a victim to
+the pirates. The recital of my journey, and the description I gave of
+Jala-Jala, far from disgusting my wife with the idea I had conceived
+of inhabiting that country, made her, on the contrary, impatient to
+visit our estate, and to establish herself there. It was, however, a
+farewell she was taking of the capital--of its fetes, its assemblies,
+and its pleasures.
+
+I paid a visit to the governor. My resignation had been considered as
+null and void: he had preserved all my places for me. I was touched
+by this goodness. I sincerely thanked him, but told him that I was
+really in earnest, that my resolution was irrevocably fixed, and that
+he might otherwise dispose of my employments. I added, that I only
+asked him for one favour, that of commanding all the local gendarmerie
+of the province of La Lagune, with the privilege of having a personal
+guard, which I would form myself. This favour was instantly granted,
+and a few days after I received my commission. It was not ambition
+that suggested to me the idea of asking for this important post,
+but sound reason. My object was to establish an authority for myself
+at Jala-Jala, and to have in my own hands the power of punishing my
+Indians, without recurring to the justice of the alcaid, who lived
+ten leagues away from my dominions.
+
+Wishing to be comfortably settled in my new residence, I drew
+out a plan of my house. It consisted of a first-floor, with five
+bed-chambers, a large hall, a spacious drawing-room, a terrace, and
+bathing rooms. I agreed with a master-mason and a master carpenter
+for the construction of it; and having obtained arms and uniforms
+for my guard, I set out again. On arriving I was received with joy
+by my Indians. My lieutenant had punctually executed my orders. A
+great quantity of material was prepared, and several Indian huts were
+already built.
+
+This activity gave me pleasure, as it evinced a desire for my
+gratification. I immediately set my labourers to work, ordering them
+to clear away the surrounding wood, and I soon had the pleasure of
+laying the foundation of my residence; I then went to Manilla. The
+works lasted for eight months, during which time I passed backwards and
+forwards continually from Manilla to Jala-Jala, and from Jala-Jala to
+Manilla. I had some trouble, but I was well repaid for it when I saw
+a village rise from the earth. My Indians constructed their huts on
+the places I had indicated; they had reserved a site for a church,
+and, until this should be built, mass was to be celebrated in the
+vestibule of my mansion. At length, after many journeys to and fro,
+which gave great uneasiness to my wife, I was enabled to inform her
+that the castle of Jala-Jala was ready to receive its mistress. This
+was a pleasing piece of intelligence, for we were soon to be no
+longer separated.
+
+I quickly sold my horses, my carriages, and useless furniture, and
+freighted a vessel to convey to Jala-Jala all that I required. Then,
+having taken leave of my friends, I quitted Manilla, with the
+intention of not returning to it but through absolute necessity. Our
+journey was prosperous, and on our arrival, we found my Indians
+on the shore, hailing with cries of joy the welcome advent of the
+"Queen of Jala-Jala," for it was thus they called my wife.
+
+We devoted the first days after our arrival to installing ourselves
+in our new residence, which it was necessary to furnish, and make both
+useful and agreeable; this we accordingly effected. And now that years
+have elapsed, and I am far removed from that period of independence
+and perfect liberty, I reflect on the strangeness of my destiny. My
+wife and I were the only white and civilised persons in the midst of a
+bronzed and almost savage population, and yet I felt no apprehension. I
+relied on my arms, on my self-possession, and on the fidelity of my
+guards. Anna was only aware of a part of the dangers we incurred,
+and her confidence in me was so great, that when by my side she knew
+not what it was to fear. When I was well established in my house, I
+undertook a difficult and dangerous task, that of establishing order
+amongst my Indians, and organizing my little town according to the
+custom of the Philippine islands. The Spanish laws, with reference to
+the Indians, are altogether patriarchal. Every township is erected,
+so to speak, into a little republic. Every year a chief is elected,
+dependant for affairs of importance on the governor of the province,
+which latter, in his turn, depends on the governor of the Philippine
+islands. I confess that I have always considered the mode of government
+peculiar to the Philippines as the most convenient and best adapted
+for civilization. The Spaniards, at the period of their conquest,
+found it in full operation in the isle of Luzon.
+
+I shall here enter into some details. Every Indian population is
+divided into two classes, the noble and the popular. The first is
+composed of all Indians who are, or have been cabessas de barangay,
+that is to say, collectors of taxes, which situation is honorary. The
+taxes established by the Spaniards are personal. Every Indian of more
+than twenty-one years of age pays, in four instalments, the annual sum
+of three francs; which tax is the same to the rich and the poor. At a
+certain period of the year, twelve of the cabessas de barangay become
+electors, and assembling together with some of the old inhabitants of
+the township, they elect, by ballot, three of their number, whose names
+are forwarded to the governor of the Philippines. The latter chooses
+from amongst these names whichever he pleases, and confides to him
+for one year the functions of gobernadorcillo, or deputy-governor. To
+distinguish him from the other Indians, the deputy-governor bears
+a gold-headed cane, with which he has a right to strike such of his
+fellow-citizens as may have committed slight faults. His functions
+partake at the same time of those of mayor, justice of the peace,
+and examining magistrate. He watches over good order and public
+tranquillity; he decides, without appeal, suits and differences of
+no higher importance than sixteen piasters (L3 6s. 8d.). He also
+institutes criminal suits of high importance, but there his power
+ceases. The documents connected with these suits are sent by him to
+the governor of the province, who, in his turn, transmits them to
+the royal court of Manilla. The court gives judgment, and the alcaid
+carries it into execution. When the election for deputy-governor takes
+place, the assembled electors choose all the officials who are to act
+under him. These are alguazils, whose number is proportioned to the
+population; two witnesses, or assistants, who are charged with the
+confirmation of the acts of the deputy-governor--for without their
+presence and sanction his acts would be considered null and void;
+a joues de palma, or palm judge, with the functions of rural guard;
+a vaccinator, bound to be always furnished with vaccine matter, for
+newborn children; and a schoolmaster, charged with public instruction;
+finally, a sort of gendarmerie, to watch banditti and the state of
+the roads within the precincts of the commune and the neighbouring
+lands. Men, grown up, and without employment, form a civic guard, who
+watch over the safety of the village. This guard indicates the hours
+of the night, by blows struck upon a large piece of hollow wood. There
+is in each town a parochial house, which is called Casa Real, where
+the deputy-governor resides. He is bound to afford hospitality to all
+travellers who pass through the town, which hospitality is like that
+of the Scotch mountaineers--it is given, but never sold. During two
+or three days, the traveller has a right to lodging, in which he is
+supplied with a mat, a pillow, salt, vinegar, wood, cooking vessels,
+and--paying for the same--all descriptions of food necessary for
+his subsistence. If, on his departure, he should even require horses
+and guides to continue his journey, they are procured for him. With
+respect to the prices of provisions, in order to prevent the abuses
+so frequent amongst us, a large placard is fixed up in every Casa
+Real, containing a tariff of the market prices of meat, poultry,
+fish, fruit, &c. In no case whatever can the deputy-governor exact
+any remuneration for the trouble he is at.
+
+Such were the measures that I wished to adopt, and which, it is true,
+possessed advantages and disadvantages. The greatest inconvenience
+attending them was undoubtedly that of placing myself in a state
+of dependence upon the deputy-governor, whose functions gave him a
+certain right, for I was his administrator. It is true that my rank,
+as commandant of all the gendarmerie of the province, shielded me from
+any injustice that might be contemplated against me. I knew very well
+that, beyond military service, I could inflict no punishment on my men
+without the intervention of the deputy-governor; but I had sufficiently
+studied the Indian character to know that I could only rule it by the
+most perfect justice and a well-understood severity. But whatever were
+the difficulties I foresaw, without any apprehension of the troubles
+and dangers of every description that I should have to surmount,
+I proceeded straightforward towards the object I had traced out for
+myself. The road was sterile and encumbered with rocks; but I entered
+upon it with courage, and I succeeded in obtaining over the Indians
+such an influence, that they ultimately obeyed my voice as they would
+that of a parent. The character of the Tagaloc is extremely difficult
+to define. Lavater and Gall would have been very much embarrassed by
+it; for both physiognomy and craniology would be, perhaps, equally
+at a loss amongst the Philippines.
+
+The natural disposition of the Tagal Indian is a mixture of vices
+and virtues, of good and bad qualities. A worthy priest has said,
+when speaking of them: "They are great children and must be treated
+as if they were little ones."
+
+It is really curious to trace, and still more so to read, the moral
+portrait of a native of the Philippine islands. The Indian keeps his
+word, and yet--will it be believed?--he is a liar. Anger he holds in
+horror, he compares it to madness; and even prefers drunkenness, which,
+however, he despises. He will not hesitate to use the dagger to avenge
+himself for injustice; but what he can least submit to is an insult,
+even when merited. When he has committed a fault, he may be punished
+with a flogging; this he receives without a murmur, but he cannot brook
+an insult. He is brave, generous, and a fatalist. The profession of a
+robber, which he willingly exercises, is agreeable to him, on account
+of the life of liberty and adventure it affords, and not because it may
+lead to riches. Generally speaking, the Tagalocs are good fathers and
+good husbands, both these qualities being inherent. Horribly jealous
+of their wives, but not in the least of the honour of their daughters;
+and it matters little if the women they marry have committed errors
+previous to their union. They never ask for a dowry, they themselves
+provide it, and make presents to the parents of their brides. They
+dislike cowards, but willingly attach themselves to the man who is
+brave enough to face danger. Play is their ruling passion, and they
+delight in the combats of animals, especially in cock-fighting. This
+is a brief compendium of the character of the people I was about
+to govern. My first care was to become master of myself. I made a
+firm resolution never to allow a gesture of impatience to escape me,
+in their presence, even in the most critical moments, and to preserve
+at all times unshaken calmness and sang-froid. I soon learned that it
+was dangerous to listen to the communications that were made to me,
+which might lead me to the commission of injustice, as had already
+happened under the following circumstances.
+
+Two Indians came one day to lodge a complaint against one of their
+comrades, living at some leagues' distance from Jala-Jala. These
+informers accused him of having stolen cattle. After I had heard all
+they had to say, I set off with my guard to seize upon the accused, and
+brought him to my residence. There I endeavoured to make him confess
+his crime, but he denied it, and said he was innocent. It was in vain
+I promised him if he would tell the truth to grant him his pardon, for
+he persisted even in the presence of his accusers. Persuaded, however,
+that he was telling me falsehoods, and disgusted with his obstinacy
+in denying a fact which had been sworn to me, with every appearance
+of sincerity, I ordered him to be tied upon a bench, and receive a
+dozen strokes of a whip. My orders were executed; but the culprit
+denied the charge, as he had done before. This dogged perseverance
+irritated me, and I caused another correction to be administered to him
+the same as the first. The unfortunate man bore his punishment with
+unshaken courage: but in the midst of his sufferings he exclaimed,
+in penetrating accents: "Oh! sir, I swear to you that I am innocent;
+but, as you will not believe me, take me into your house. I will be a
+faithful servant, and you will soon have proofs that I am the victim of
+an infamous calumny." These words affected me. I reflected that this
+unfortunate man was, perhaps, not guilty after all. I began to fear I
+had been deceived, and had unknowingly committed an act of injustice. I
+felt that private enmity might have led these two witnesses to make
+a false declaration, and thus induce me to punish an innocent man. I
+ordered him to be untied. "The proof you demand," I said to him, "is
+easily tried. If you are an honest man, I shall be a father to you;
+but if you deceive me, do not expect any pity from me. From this moment
+you shall be one of my guard; my lieutenant will provide you with
+arms." He thanked me earnestly, and his countenance lit up with sudden
+joy. He was installed in my guard. Oh! human justice! how fragile,
+and how often unintelligible art thou! Some time after this event,
+I learnt that Bazilio de la Cruz--this was the name of the man--was
+innocent. The two wretches who had denounced him had fled, to avoid
+the chastisement they merited. Bazilio kept his promise, and during my
+residence at Jala-Jala he served me faithfully and without malice or
+ill-will. This fact made a lively impression on me; and I vowed that
+for the future I would inflict no punishment without being sure of
+the truth of the charge alleged. I have religiously kept this vow--at
+least I think so; for I have never since ordered a single application
+of the whip until after the culprit had confessed his crime.
+
+I have before said that I had expressed a wish to have a church
+built in my village, not only from a religious feeling, but as a
+means of civilisation: I was particularly desirous of having a curate
+at Jala-Jala. With this view I requested Monseigneur Hilarion, the
+archbishop, whose physician I had been, and with whom I was on terms of
+friendship, to send me a clergyman of my acquaintance, and who was at
+that time unemployed. I had, however, much difficulty in obtaining this
+nomination. "Father Miguel de San-Francisco," the archbishop replied,
+"is a violent man, and very headstrong: you will never be able to live
+with him." I persisted, however; and as perseverance always produces
+some result, I at length succeeded in having him appointed curate
+at Jala-Jala. Father Miguel was of Japanese and Malay descent. He
+was young, strong, brave, and very capable of assisting me in the
+difficult circumstances that might occur; as, for example, if it were
+necessary to defend ourselves against banditti. Indeed I must say that,
+in spite of the anticipations, and I may add the prejudices, of my
+honourable friend the archbishop, I kept him with me during the whole
+time of my abode at Jala-Jala, and never had the slightest difference
+with him. I can only reproach him with one thing to be regretted,
+which is that he did not preach sufficiently to his flock. He gave
+them only one sermon annually, and then his discourse was always the
+same, and divided into two parts: the first was in Spanish, for our
+edification, and the second in Tagaloc, for the Indians. Ah! how many
+men have I since met with who might well imitate the worthy curate
+of Jala-Jala! To the observations I sometimes made he would reply:
+"Let me follow my own course, and fear nothing. So many words are not
+necessary to make a good Christian." Perhaps he was right. Since my
+departure from the place the good priest is dead, bearing with him
+to the tomb the regret of all his parishioners.
+
+As may be seen, I was at the beginning of my labour of
+civilisation. Anna assisted me with all her heart, and with all her
+intelligence, and no fatigue disheartened her. She taught the young
+girls to love that virtue which she practised so well herself. She
+furnished them with clothes, for at this period the young girls from
+ten to twelve years of age were still as naked as savages. Father
+Miguel de San Francisco was charged with the mission more especially
+belonging to his sacred character. The more readily to disseminate
+through the colony that instruction which is the beneficent parent of
+civilisation, the young people were divided into squads of four at a
+time, and went by turns to pass a fortnight at the parsonage. There
+they learned a little Spanish, and were moulded to the customs of
+a world which had been hitherto unknown to them. I superintended
+everything in general. I occupied myself in works of agriculture,
+and giving proper instruction to the shepherds who kept the flocks I
+had purchased to make use of my pasturage. I was also the mediator of
+all the differences which arose amongst my colonists. They preferred
+rather to apply to me than to the deputy-governor; and I succeeded
+at last in obtaining over them the influence I desired. One portion
+of my time, and this was not the least busy, was occupied in driving
+the banditti from my residence and its vicinity. Sometimes I set
+off for this purpose before daybreak and did not return until night;
+and then I always found my wife good, affectionate, and devoted to
+me: her reception repaid me for the labours of the day. Oh, felicity
+almost perfect! I have never forgotten you! Happy period! which has
+left indelible traces in my memory, you are always present to my
+thoughts! I have grown old, but my heart has ever continued young in
+recollecting you.
+
+In our long chit-chat of an evening we recounted to each other the
+labours of the day, and everything that occurred to us. This was
+the season of sweet mutual confidence. Hours too soon vanished,
+alas! Fugitive moments, you will never return! It was also the time
+when I gave audience; real bed of justice, imitated from St. Louis,
+and thrown open to my subjects. The door of my mansion admitted all
+the Indians who had anything to communicate to me. Seated with my
+wife at a great round table, I listened, as I took my tea, to all the
+requests that were made to me, all the claims that were laid before
+me. It was during these audiences that I issued my sentences. My guards
+brought the culprits before me, and, without departing from my ordinary
+calmness, I admonished them for the faults they had committed; but I
+always recollected the error I bad committed in my sentence against
+poor Bazilio, and I was, therefore, very circumspect. I first listened
+to the witnesses; but I never condemned until I heard the culprit say:
+
+"What would you have, sir? It was my destiny. I could not prevent
+myself from doing what I did."
+
+"Every fault merits chastisement," I would reply; "but choose between
+the deputy-governor and me--by which do you wish to be chastised?"
+
+The reply was always the same.
+
+"Kill me, if you will, master; but do not give me up to my own
+countrymen."
+
+I awarded the punishment, and it was inflicted by my guards. When this
+was over, I presented the Indian with a cigar, as a token of pardon,
+I uttered a few kind words to him to induce him not to commit any fresh
+faults, and he went away without hearing any malice to his judge. I
+had, perhaps, been severe, but I had been just; that was enough. The
+order and discipline I had established were a great support for me
+in the minds of the Indians; they gave me a positive influence over
+them. My calmness, my firmness, and my justice--those three great
+qualities without which no government is possible--easily satisfied
+these natures, still untrained and unsophisticated. But one thing,
+however, disquieted them. Was I brave? This is what they were ignorant
+of, and frequently asked of one another. They spurned the idea of being
+commanded by a man who might not be intrepid in the face of danger. I
+had indeed made several expeditions against banditti, but they had
+produced no result, and would not serve as proofs of my bravery
+in the eyes of the Indians. I very well knew that they would form
+their definite opinion upon me from my conduct in the first perilous
+extremity we should encounter together. I was therefore determined
+to undertake anything, that I might show myself at least equal to
+the best and bravest of all my Indians: everything was comprised in
+that. I felt the imperious necessity of showing myself not only equal
+but superior in the struggle, by preserving my self-possession.
+
+An opportunity at length offered.
+
+The Indians look upon buffalo hunting as the most dangerous of all
+their wild sports, and my guards often said they would rather stand
+naked at twenty paces from the muzzle of a carbine than at the same
+distance from a wild buffalo. The difference they said is this, that
+the ball of a carbine may only wound, but the horn of a buffalo is
+sure to kill. I took advantage of the terror they had of this animal,
+and one day declared, with the utmost possible coolness, my intention
+to hunt one. They then made use of all their eloquence to turn me from
+my project; they gave me a very picturesque, but a very discouraging
+description of the dangers and difficulties I should have to encounter,
+especially as I was not accustomed to that sort of warfare,--and such
+a combat is, in fact, a struggle for life or death. But I would listen
+to nothing. I had spoken the word: I would not discuss the point,
+and I looked upon all their counsels as null and void. My decision
+was right; for these kind counsels, these frightful pictures of the
+dangers I was about to incur, had no other object than to entrap
+me; they had concerted amongst themselves to judge of my courage by
+my acceptance or refusal of the combat. My only answer was to give
+orders for the hunt. I took great care that my wife should not be
+informed of our excursion, and I set off, accompanied by half a score
+Indians, nearly all of whom were armed with muskets. Buffalo hunting
+is different in the mountains from what it is in the plains. On the
+plain one only requires a good horse, with address and agility in
+throwing the lasso; but in the mountains it requires something more:
+and, above all, the most extraordinary coolness and self-possession
+are essentially necessary.
+
+This is the way in which it is done: the hunter takes a gun on which
+he can depend, and places himself in such a position that the buffalo
+must see him on issuing from the wood. The moment the animal sees
+him, he rushes on him with the utmost velocity, breaking, rending,
+and trampling under foot every obstacle to the fury of his charge;
+he rushes on as if about to crush the enemy, then stops within some
+paces for a few seconds, and presents his sharp and threatening
+horns. This is the moment that the hunter should fire, and lodge his
+ball in the forehead of the foe. If unfortunately his gun misses fire,
+or if his coolness fails him, if his hand trembles, or his aim is bad,
+he is lost--Providence alone can save him! This was, perhaps, the
+fate that awaited me; but I was resolved to tempt this cruel proof,
+and I went forward with intrepidity--perhaps to death. We at length
+arrived on the skirts of an extensive wood, in which we felt assured
+there were buffaloes, and here we halted. I was sure of my gun,
+and I conceived I was equally so of my self-possession; I therefore
+determined that the hunt should be conducted as if I had been a simple
+Indian. I placed myself at the spot where it was fully expected that
+the animal would come out, and I forbade anyone to remain near me. I
+ordered everyone to his proper place, and I then stood alone on the
+open ground, about two hundred paces from the borders of the forest,
+to await an enemy that would show me no mercy if I missed him. It is,
+I confess, a solemn moment, when one stands between life and death by
+the more or less certainty of a gun, or the greater or less steadiness
+of the arm that holds it. I was, however, perfectly tranquil. When
+all were at their posts two hunters entered the forest, having
+first thrown off some of their clothing, the more readily to climb
+up trees in case of danger: they had no other arms than a cutlass,
+and were accompanied by the dogs. A dead silence continued for
+upwards of half-an-hour; everyone listening for the slightest noise,
+but nothing was heard. The buffalo continues a long time frequently
+without betraying his lair; but at the end of the half-hour we heard
+the repeated barking of the dogs, and the shouts of the hunters:
+the animal was aroused from his cover. He defended himself for some
+time against the dogs, till at length, becoming furious, he sprang
+forward with a bound towards the skirts of the forest. In a few minutes
+after, I heard the crashing of the branches and the young trees that
+the buffalo rent asunder in the terrible velocity of his course. His
+advance could only be compared to the galloping of several horses--to
+the rushing noise of some frightful monster--or, I might almost say,
+of some furious and diabolical being. Down he came like an avalanche;
+and at this moment, I confess, I experienced such lively emotions that
+my heart beat with extraordinary rapidity. Was it not death--aye,
+and frightful death--that was perhaps approaching me? Suddenly the
+buffalo made his appearance. He stopped for an instant; gazed, as if
+frightened, around him; sniffed up the air of the plain which extended
+in the distance; then, with distended nostrils, head bent, and horns
+projected, he rushed towards me, terrible and furious. The moment was
+come. If I had longed for an opportunity of showing off my courage
+and sang-froid to the Indians, these two precious qualities were now
+put to a severe test. There I was, face to face with the peril I had
+courted; the dilemma was one of the most decided and unavoidable that
+could possibly be: conqueror or conquered, there must be a victim--the
+buffalo or me, and we were both equally disposed to defend ourselves.
+
+It would be difficult for me to state exactly what was passing in my
+mind, during the brief period which the buffalo took in clearing the
+distance that lay between us. My heart, so vividly agitated while the
+ferocious animal was rushing through the forest, now beat no longer. My
+eyes were fixed upon him, my gaze was rivetted on his forehead in such
+a manner that I could see nothing else. My mind was concentrated on
+one object alone, in which I was so absorbed, that I could actually
+hear nothing, though the dogs were still barking at a short distance,
+as they followed their prey. At length, the buffalo lowered his head,
+presented his sharp-pointed horns, stopped for a moment, then, with
+a sudden plunge, he rushed upon me, and I fired. My ball pierced his
+skull, and I was half saved. The animal fell within a pace of me, like
+a mass of rock, so loud, and so heavy. I planted my foot between his
+two horns, and was preparing to fire my second barrel, when a long and
+hollow bellowing indicated that my victory was complete--the monster
+had breathed his last sigh. My Indians then came up. Their joy was
+succeeded by admiration; they were in ecstasy; I was everything they
+could wish for. All their doubts had vanished with the smoke of my
+rifle, when, with steady aim, I had shot the buffalo. I was brave;
+I had won their confidence; I had stood the test. My victim was cut
+up in pieces, and borne in triumph to the village. As the victor,
+I took his horns; they were six feet long. I have since deposited
+them in the museum of Nantes. The Indians, those imaginative beings,
+called me thenceforward, "Malamit Oulou," Tagal words, which signify
+"cool head."
+
+I must confess, without vanity, that the proof to which my Indians had
+subjected me was sufficiently serious to give them a decided opinion
+of my courage, and to satisfy them that a Frenchman was as brave as
+themselves. The habit I subsequently acquired of hunting convinced
+me that but little danger is really incurred when the weapon is a
+good one, and the self-possession does not fail. Once every month I
+indulged in this exercise, which imparts such lively sensations; and
+I recognised the facility with which one may lodge a ball in a plain
+surface, a few inches in diameter, and at a few paces distance. But
+it is no less true that our first huntings were very dangerous. Once
+only I permitted a Spaniard named Ocampo to accompany us. I had taken
+the precaution to station two Indians at his side; but when I quitted
+them to take up my own post, he imprudently sent them away, and soon
+after, the buffalo started from the wood, and rushed upon him. He
+fired both his barrels, and missed the animal; we heard the reports
+and ran towards him, but it was too late! Ocampo was no longer in
+existence. The buffalo had gored him through and through, and his body
+was ploughed up with frightful wounds. But no such accident ever took
+place again; for when strangers came to witness our buffalo hunts,
+I made them get up in a tree, or on the crest of a mountain, where
+they might remain as spectators of the combat, without taking any
+part in it, or being exposed to any danger.
+
+And now that I have described buffalo hunting in the mountains,
+I must return to my colonising labours.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+    Description of my House at Jala-Jala--Storms, Gales, and
+    Earthquakes--Reforming the Banditti--Card-playing--Tagal
+    Cock-fighting--Skirmishes with Robbers--Courage of my Wife--Our
+    Domestic Happiness--Visits from Europeans--Their Astonishment at
+    our Civilisation--Visit to a Sick Friend at Manilla--Tour through
+    the Provinces of the Ilocos and Pangasinan Indians--My Reception
+    by the Tinguians--Their Appearance and Habits--Manners and
+    Customs--Indian Fete at Laganguilan y Madalag--Horrible Ceremonies
+    to Celebrate a Victory--Songs and Dances--Our Night-watch--We
+    Explore our Cabin--Discovery of a Secret Well--Tomb of the
+    Tinguian Indians.
+
+
+As I have previously said, my house possessed every comfort that
+could possibly be desired. It was built of hewn stone, so that in
+case of an attack it could serve as a small fortress. The front
+overlooked the lake, which bathed with its clear and limpid waters
+the verdant shore within a hundred steps from my dwelling; the back
+part looked upon woods and hills, where the vegetation was rich and
+plentiful. From our windows we could gaze upon those grand majestic
+scenes which a beautiful tropical sky so frequently affords. At
+times, on a dark night, the summits of the hills suddenly shone
+with a weak faint light, which increased by degrees; then the bright
+moon gradually appeared, and illuminated the tops of the mountains,
+as large beacon-fires would have done; then again, calm, peaceful,
+and serene, she reflected her soft poetic light over the bosom of
+the lake, as tranquil and unruffled as herself. It was indeed an
+imposing sight. Towards evening, Nature at times showed herself
+in all her commanding splendour, infusing a secret terror into the
+very soul. Everything bore evidence of the sacred influence of the
+Divine Creator. At a short distance from our house we could perceive
+a mountain, the base of which was in the lake and the summit in the
+clouds. This mountain served as a lightning conductor to Jala-Jala:
+it attracted the thunder. Frequently heavy black clouds, charged with
+electricity, gathered over this elevated point, looking like other
+mountains trying to overturn it; then a storm began, the thunder roared
+tremendously, the rain fell in torrents; every minute frightful claps
+were heard, and the total darkness was scarcely broken by the lightning
+that flashed in long streams of fire, dashing from the top and sides
+of the mountain enormous blocks of rock, that were hurled into the
+lake with a fearful crash. It was an admirable exemplification of the
+power of the Almighty! Soon the calm was restored, the rain ceased,
+the clouds disappeared, the fragrant air bore on its yet damp wings
+the perfume of the flowers and aromatic plants, and Nature resumed
+her ordinary stillness. Hereafter I shall have occasion to speak
+of other events that happened at certain periods, and were still
+more alarming, for they lasted twelve hours. These were gales of
+wind, called in the Chinese seas Tay-Foung. At several periods of
+the year, particularly at the moment of the change of the monsoon,
+[3] we beheld still more terrifying phenomena than our storms--I
+allude to the earthquakes. These fearful convulsions of nature
+present a very different aspect in the country from what they do in
+cities. If in towns the earth begins to quake, everywhere we hear a
+terrible noise; the edifices give way, and are ready to fall down;
+the inhabitants rush out of their houses, run along the streets, which
+they encumber, and try to escape. The screams of frightened children
+and women bathed in tears are blended with those of the distracted
+men; all are on their knees, with clasped hands, their looks raised to
+Heaven, imploring its mercy with sobbing voices. Everything totters,
+is agitated; all dread death, and terror becomes general. In the
+country it is totally different, and a hundred times more imposing and
+terrific. For instance, in Jala-Jala, at the approach of one of these
+phenomena, a profound, even mournful stillness pervades nature. The
+wind no longer blows; not a breeze nor even a gentle zephyr is
+perceptible. The sun, though cloudless, darkens, and spreads around
+a sepulchral light. The atmosphere is burdened with heavy and sultry
+vapours. The earth is in labour. The frightened animals quietly seek
+shelter from the catastrophe they foresee. The ground shakes; soon it
+trembles under their feet. The trees move, the mountains quake upon
+their foundations, and their summits appear ready to tumble down. The
+waters of the lake quit their bed, and inundate the country. Still
+louder roaring than that produced by the thunder is heard: the earth
+quivers; everywhere its motion is simultaneously felt. But after this
+the convulsion ceases, everything revives. The mountains are again firm
+upon their foundations, and become motionless; the waters of the lake
+return by degrees to their proper reservoir; the heavens are purified
+and resume their brilliant light, and the soft breeze fans the air;
+the wild buffaloes again scour the plain, and other animals quit the
+dens in which they had concealed themselves; the earth has resumed
+her stillness, and nature recovered her accustomed imposing calm.
+
+I have not sought to enter upon those minute descriptions, too tedious
+generally for the reader; I only wished to give an idea of the various
+panoramas that were unfolded to our eyes whilst at Jala-Jala.
+
+I now return to the details of my ordinary life.
+
+As I had killed a wild buffalo when hunting, I had given sufficient
+proofs of my skill, and my Indians were devoted to me, because they
+had confidence in me. Nothing more now pre-occupied me, and I spent
+my time in superintending some necessary alterations. Shortly the
+woods and forests adjoining my domain were cut down, and replaced by
+extensive fields of indigo and rice. I stocked the hills with horned
+cattle, and a fine troop of horses with delicate limbs and haughty
+mien; I also succeeded in dispersing the banditti from Jala-Jala. I
+must say a great many of them abandoned their wandering sinful lives;
+I received them on my land, and made good husbandmen of them. How
+was it that I had collected such a number of recruits? In a strange
+manner, I will admit, and worthy of relating, as it will show how
+an Indian allows himself to be influenced and guided, when he has
+confidence in a man whom he looks upon as his superior. I frequently
+walked in the forests alone, with my gun under my arm. Suddenly a
+bandit would spring out, as if by enchantment, from behind a tree,
+armed from top to toe, and advance towards me.
+
+"Master," said he to me, putting one knee to the ground, "I will be
+an honest man; take me under your protection!"
+
+I asked him his name; if he had been marked out by the high court of
+justice, I would answer him severely:
+
+"Withdraw, and never present yourself again before me; I cannot
+forgive you, and if I meet you again, I must do my duty."
+
+If he was unknown to me, I would kindly say to him:
+
+"Follow me."
+
+I would take him home, and then tell him to lay down his arms; and
+after having preached to him, and exhorted him to persist in his
+resolution, I would point out to him the spot in the village where
+he might build his cabin, and, in order to encourage him, I would
+advance him some money to support himself until he became transformed
+from a bandit into an agriculturist. I congratulated myself each
+day on having left an open door to repentance, since by my cares I
+restored to an honest and laborious life, people who had gone astray
+and been perverted. I endeavoured also to persuade the Indians to
+abandon their vicious wild customs, without being too severe towards
+them; to obtain much from them I knew it was necessary to give way a
+little. The Indians are passionately fond of cards and cock-fighting,
+as I have said before; therefore, in order not to debar them entirely
+from these pleasures, I allowed them to play at cards three times a
+year--the day of the village festival, upon my wife's birthday, and
+upon my own. Woe to the one who was caught playing out of the times
+prescribed above; he was severely punished. As to the cock-fights,
+I allowed them on Sundays and holidays, after Divine service. For
+this purpose I had public arenas built. In these arenas, in presence
+of two judges, whose decrees were without appeal, the spectators
+laid heavy wagers. There is nothing more curious than to witness a
+cock-fight. The two proud animals, purposely chosen and trained for
+the day of the contest, come upon the battle-field armed with long,
+sharp, steel spurs. They bear themselves erect; their deportment
+is bold and warlike; they raise their heads, and beat their sides
+with their wings, the feathers of which spread in the form of
+the proud peacock's fan. They pace the arena haughtily, raising
+their armed legs cautiously, and darting angry looks at each other,
+like two old warriors in armour ready to fight before the eyes of an
+assembled court. Their impatience is violent, their courage impetuous;
+shortly the two adversaries fall upon and attack each other with equal
+fury; the sharp weapons they wear inflict dreadful wounds, but these
+intrepid combatants appear not to feel the cruel effects. Blood flows;
+the champions only appear the more animated. The one that is getting
+weak raises his courage at the idea of victory; if he draw back, it is
+only to recruit his strength, to rush with more ardour than ever upon
+the enemy he wishes to subdue. At length when their fate is decided,
+when one of the heroes, covered with blood and wounds, falls a victim,
+or runs away, he is declared vanquished, and the battle is ended.
+
+The Indians assist with a sort of ferocious joy at this
+amusement. Their attention is so captivated by it that they do not
+utter a word, but follow with particular care the most minute details
+of the conflict. Almost all of them train up a cock, and treat him
+for several years with comical tenderness, when one reflects that
+this animal, taken as much care of as a child, is destined by its
+master to perish the first day it fights. I also found that it was
+necessary to provide some amusement compatible with the tastes,
+manners, and habits of my former bandits, who had led for so long
+a space of time such a wandering vagabond life. For this purpose I
+allowed hunting on all parts of my estate, conditionally, however,
+that I should take beforehand, as tithe, a quarter of any stag or wild
+boar they should kill. I do not think that ever a sportsman--one of
+those men reclaimed from the paths of vice to those of virtue--failed
+in this engagement, or endeavoured to steal any game. I have often
+received seven or eight haunches of venison in a day, and those who
+brought them were delighted to be able to offer them to me.
+
+The church I had laid the foundation of was progressing rapidly;
+the population of the township was daily increasing: and everything
+succeeded according to my wishes. I had still occasional difficulties
+with the hardened robbers who surrounded me; but I pursued them
+without intermission, for it was to my interest to remove them from the
+neighbourhood of my residence. Frequently they annoyed me by the alarms
+that they gave us. These resolute, determined men arrived in gangs to
+besiege our house. My guards surrounded me, and we occasionally fought
+skirmishes, which always terminated in our favour. Providence has
+unfathomable secrets. I was never struck by a ball from a bandit. I
+bear the scars of seventeen wounds; but these wounds were made with
+naked blades. It could be said of me, as in I know not which Scotch
+ballad: "Did not the Devil's soldiers pass through the balls, instead
+of the balls passing through them." Yet I have often been fired at;
+sometimes the barrel of a gun has been pointed at my chest, and that
+at a few paces from me. My clothes have been torn by the bullet,
+but my body has always escaped harm.
+
+One morning I was cautioned to put myself on my guard, because some
+banditti had met together at a few leagues from my house, and intended
+attacking it. Hearing this, I armed my people, and set out to meet
+the band that was coming to assail me, so as to anticipate their
+attack. At the place that had been indicated to me I found nobody,
+and passed the day in exploring the neighbourhood, in hopes of meeting
+the bandits, but my search was useless. Suddenly the thought struck me
+that a secret enemy had imposed upon me, and that, at the moment I was
+going to face imaginary danger, perhaps my house I had left would be
+suddenly attacked. I trembled--I shivered all over. I gallopped off,
+and reached home in the middle of the night. My fears were but too
+well-founded. I had fallen into a snare. I found my servants armed,
+watching, with my wife at their head. "What are you doing here?" I
+exclaimed, going up to her. "I am keeping watch," she replied, with
+great presence of mind; "I was told that the advice given to you
+was false; that you would not find the robbers where you expected,
+and that, during your absence, they would come here." This act of
+heroism proved to me what courage and energy God had given to a woman
+apparently so delicate. The banditti did not attack us: was there
+not some guardian angel watching over my dwelling?
+
+We were more than a year at Jala-Jala without seeing a European. One
+would have thought that we had withdrawn ourselves entirely from the
+civilised world, and that we were going to live for ever with the
+Indians. Our mountains had so bad a reputation, that nobody dared
+expose themselves to the thousand dangers they feared to encounter in
+the locality. We were therefore alone, yet still very happy. It was,
+perhaps, the most pleasant time I spent in my life. I was living with a
+beloved and loving wife; the good work I had undertaken was performed
+under my eyes; the comfort and happiness, the natural results of
+such good work, spread themselves among my vassals, who daily became
+more and more devoted to me. How could I have regretted quitting
+the pleasures and entertainments of a town, where those diversions
+and pleasures are bought by lies, hypocrisy, and deceit--those three
+vices of civilised society? However, the terror spread around by the
+banditti was not great enough to keep away the Europeans entirely;
+and one morning some people, [4] mad enough to dare to visit a mad
+man--such was the name given to me at Manilla, when I left to go and
+live in the country--came to see me, armed to their very teeth. The
+surprise of these venturesome visitors is impossible to be described,
+when they found us at Jala-Jala, calm, and in perfect safety. Their
+astonishment increased when they went entirely through our colony; and
+on their return to town they gave such an account of our retreat, and
+of the entertainments they found there, that shortly after we received
+more visits, and I had not only to give hospitality to friends, but
+likewise to strangers. If, now and then, our affairs compelled us to
+go to Manilla, we very soon came back to our mountains and forests,
+for there only Anna and myself were happy. Very great reasons alone
+could induce us to leave our pleasant abode; however, a slight event
+occurred that obliged us to quit it for a short time. I was informed
+that one of my friends, who had acted as witness to my marriage,
+was seriously ill. [5] What the greatest pleasure, the most heartfelt
+joy, the most splendid banquet, could not obtain from me, friendship
+exacted. At this sad intelligence I determined at once upon going to
+Manilla, to give my advice to the sick man, whose family had solicited
+my aid; and as my absence might be prolonged, I packed up my things,
+and we left, our hearts sadder than ever at having to quit Jala-Jala
+on so melancholy an errand. Upon my arrival there, I was told that
+my friend had been taken from Manilla to Boulacan, a province to the
+north of that town, where it was hoped the country air would hasten
+his recovery. I left Anna at her sister's, and went off to join Don
+Simon, whom I found convalescent; my presence was almost useless,
+and the journey I had made resulted in shaking affectionately my
+former comrade by the hand, whom I would not leave until convinced
+that he was entirely recovered.
+
+In order to utilise my time, I decided upon making a tour to the north
+into the provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan. I had my reasons for so
+doing: I wished, if possible, to make an excursion to the Tinguians
+and Igorrots, wild populations, who were much talked of, but little
+known. I wished to study them myself. I took the precaution not to
+confide this idea to anybody, for then, indeed, people would not
+have known what name to give my folly. I made my preparations, and
+set out with my faithful lieutenant, Alila, who never left me, and
+who was justly styled Mabouti-Tao. We were mounted upon good horses,
+that carried us along like gazelles to Vigan, the chief town of the
+province of South Ilocos, where we left the animals. From there we
+took a guide, who conducted us on foot to the east, close to a small
+river called Abra (opening). This river is the only issue by which
+we could penetrate to the Tinguians. It winds around high mountains
+of basalt; its sides are steep; its bed is encumbered with immense
+blocks of rock, fallen from the sides of the mountains, which render
+it impossible to walk along its banks. To reach the Tinguians, it
+is necessary to have recourse to a slight skiff, that can easily
+pass through the current and the most shallow parts. My guide and
+my lieutenant soon contrived to make a small raft of bamboos; when
+it was finished we embarked, Alila and myself, our guide refusing
+to accompany us. After much trouble and fatigue, casting ourselves
+often into the water to draw our raft along, we at length got clear
+of the first range of mountains, and perceived, in a small plain,
+the first Tinguian village. When we reached there we got out, and
+went towards the huts we had distinguished in the distance. I allow
+it was acting rather foolishly to go and thus expose ourselves,
+in the midst of a colony of ferocious and cruel men whose language
+we did not know; but I relied upon my usual good fortune. I will add
+that I had taken divers objects with me to give as presents, trusting
+to meet some inhabitant speaking the Tagaloc language. I walked on,
+then, without troubling myself about what would become of us. In a
+few minutes we reached the nearest cabins, and the inhabitants gave
+us at first an unwelcome reception. Frightened at seeing us approach,
+they advanced towards us, armed with hatchets and spears; we waited
+for them without recoiling in the least. I spoke to them by signs,
+and showed them some necklaces of glass beads, to make them understand
+we were friendly disposed. They deliberated among themselves, and when
+they had held their consultation, they beckoned us to follow them. We
+obeyed. They led us to their chief, who was an old man. My generosity
+was greater towards him than it had been to his subjects. He appeared
+so delighted with my presents, that he immediately put us at our ease,
+by making us understand that we had nothing to fear, and that he took
+us under his special protection.
+
+This pleasing reception encouraged us.
+
+I then set about examining with attention the men, women, and children
+who surrounded us, and who seemed as much astonished as ourselves. My
+amazement was very great when I beheld tall men, slightly bronzed,
+with straight hair, regular features, aquiline noses, and really
+handsome, elegant women. Was I really among savages? I should rather
+have thought I was among the inhabitants of the south of France,
+had it not been for the costume and language. The only clothing the
+men wore was a sash, and a sort of a turban, made out of the bark of
+the fig tree. They were armed, as they always are, with a long spear,
+a small hatchet, and a shield. The women also wore a sash, and a small
+narrow apron that came down to their knees. Their heads were ornamented
+with pearls, coral beads, and pieces of gold, twisted among their hair;
+the upper parts of their hands were painted blue; their wrists adorned
+with interwoven bracelets, spangled with glass beads--these bracelets
+reached the elbow, and formed a kind of half-plaited sleeve. On this
+subject I learnt a remarkable fact. These interwoven bracelets squeeze
+the arm very much; they are put on when the women are quite young,
+and they prevent the development of the flesh to the advantage of the
+wrist and hand, which swell and become dreadfully big; this is a mark
+of beauty with the Tinguians, as a small foot is with the Chinese,
+and a small waist with the European ladies. I was quite astonished
+to find myself in the midst of this population, where there was no
+reason whatsoever to be alarmed. One thing only annoyed me; it was
+the odour that these people spread around them, which could be smelt
+even at a distance. However, the men and women are cleanly, for they
+are in the habit of bathing twice daily. I attributed the disagreeable
+smell to their sash and turban, which they never leave off, but allow
+to fall into rags. I remarked that the reception given me by the
+chief gained us the good-will of all the inhabitants, and I accepted,
+without hesitation, the hospitality proffered us. This was the only
+means of studying well the manners and customs of my new hosts.
+
+The territory occupied by the Tinguians is situated about 17 degrees
+north latitude, and 27 degrees west longitude; it is divided into
+seventeen villages. Each family possesses two habitations, one for
+the day and the other for the night. The abode for the day is a
+small cabin, made of bamboos and straw, in the same style as most
+Indian huts; the one for the night is smaller, and perched upon great
+posts, or on the top of a tree, about sixty or eighty feet above the
+ground. This height surprised me, but I understood this precaution
+when I knew that thus, under shelter at night, the Tinguians are saved
+from the nocturnal attacks of the Guinanes, their mortal enemies,
+and defend themselves with the stones which they throw from the tops
+of the trees. [6] In the middle of each village there is a large shed,
+in which are held the assemblies, festivities, and public ceremonies. I
+had been already two days in the village of Palan (this was the name
+of the place where I stopped at), when the chiefs received a message
+from the small town of Laganguilan y Madalag, that lies far off to the
+east. By this message the chiefs were informed that the inhabitants of
+this district had fought a battle, and that they had been victorious.
+
+The inhabitants of Palan hearing this news screamed with joy; it
+was quite a tumult when they heard that a fete would be given in
+commemoration of the success at Laganguilan y Madalag. All wished
+to be present--men, women, children; all desired to go to it. But
+the chiefs chose a certain number of warriors, some women, and a
+great many young girls: they made their preparations and set out. It
+was too favourable an opportunity for me not to avail myself of it,
+and I earnestly begged my hosts to allow me to accompany them. They
+consented, and the same night we set out on our journey, being in all
+thirty in number. The men wore their arms, which are composed of a
+hatchet, that they call aligua, a sharp-pointed spear of bamboo, and a
+shield; the women were muffled up in their finest ornaments. I remarked
+that these garments were cotton materials, of showy colours. We walked
+one behind another, according to the custom of the savages. We went
+through many villages, the inhabitants of which were also going to
+the fete; we crossed over mountains, forests, torrents, and at last,
+at break of day, we reached Laganguilan y Madalag. This small town was
+the scene of much rejoicing. On all sides the sound of the gong and
+tom-tom were heard. The first of these instruments is of a Chinese
+shape; the second is in the form of a sharp cone, covered over at
+the bottom with a deer's skin.
+
+Towards eleven o'clock, the chiefs of the town, followed by all the
+population, directed their steps towards the large shed. There everyone
+took his place on the ground, each party, headed by its chiefs,
+occupying a place marked out for it beforehand. In the middle of a
+circle formed by the chiefs of the warriors were large vessels, full
+of basi, a beverage made with the fermented juice of the sugar-cane;
+and four hideous heads of Guinans entirely disfigured--these were
+the trophies of the victory. When all the assistants had taken their
+places, a champion of Laganguilan y Madalag took one of the heads
+and presented it to the chiefs of the town, who showed it to all the
+assistants, making a long speech comprehending many praises for the
+conquerors. This discourse being over, the warrior took up the head,
+divided it with strokes of his hatchet, and took out the brains. During
+this operation, so unpleasant to witness, another champion got a second
+head, and handed it to the chiefs, the same speech was delivered,
+then he broke the skull to pieces in like manner, and took out the
+brains. The same was done with the four bleeding skulls of the subdued
+enemies. When the brains were taken out, the young girls pounded them
+with their hands into the vases containing the liquor of the fermented
+sugar-cane; they stirred the mixture round, and then the vases were
+taken to the chiefs, who dipped in their small osier goblets, through
+the fissures of which the liquid part ran out, and the solid part that
+remained at the bottom they drank with ecstatic sensuality. I felt
+quite sick at this scene, so entirely new to me. After the chieftains'
+turn came the turn of the champions. The vases were presented to them,
+and each one sipped with delight this frightful drink, to the noise
+of wild songs. There was really something infernal in this sacrifice
+to victory.
+
+We sat in a circle and these vases were carried round. I well
+understood that we were about undergoing a disgusting test. Alas! I
+had not long to wait for it. The warriors planted themselves before
+me, and presented me with the basi and the frightful cup. All eyes
+were fixed upon me. The invitation was so direct, to refuse it would
+perhaps be exposing myself to death! It is impossible to describe
+the interior conflict that passed within me. I would rather have
+preferred the carbine of a bandit five paces from my chest; or await,
+as I had already done, the impetuous attack of the wild buffalo. What a
+perplexity! I shall never forget that awful moment. It struck me with
+terror and disgust; however, I contained myself, nothing betraying my
+emotion. I imitated the savages, and, dipping the osier goblet into the
+drink, I approached it to my lips, and passed it to the unfortunate
+Alila, who could not avoid this infernal beverage. The sacrifice was
+complete; the libations were over, but not the songs. The basi is a
+very spirituous and inebriating liquor, and the assistants, who had
+partaken rather too freely of this horrible drink, sang louder to the
+noise of the tom-tom and the gong, while the champions divided the
+human skulls into small pieces destined to be sent as presents to all
+their friends. The distribution was made during the sitting, after
+which, the chiefs declared the ceremony over. They then danced. The
+savages divided themselves into two lines, and howling, as if they
+were furious madmen or terribly provoked, they jumped about, laying
+their right hand upon the shoulder of their partners, and changing
+places with them. These dances continued all day; at last night came
+on, each inhabitant retired with his family and some few guests to
+his aerial abode, and soon afterwards tranquillity was restored.
+
+We cannot help feeling astonished, when we are in Europe--in a
+good bed, under a warm eider-down coverlet, the head luxuriously
+reclining upon good pillows--when we reflect on the singular homes
+of the savages in the woods. How often have I represented to myself
+these families--roosting eighty feet above ground, upon the tops of
+trees. However, I know that they sleep as quietly in those retreats,
+open to every wind, as I in my well-closed and quiet room. Are they
+not like the birds who repose at their sides upon the branches? Have
+they not Nature for a mother, that admirable guardian of all she has
+made, and do they not also close their eyelids under the tutelary
+looks of the Supreme Father of the universe?
+
+My faithful Alila retired with me into one of the low-storied
+cabins to pass the night, as we had been in the habit of doing
+while staying with the Tinguians. For our better security we were
+accustomed to watch one another alternately; we never both slept at
+the same time. Without being timid, ought we not to be prudent? This
+night it was my turn to go to sleep the first. I went to bed, but the
+impressions of the day had been too strong: I felt no inclination to
+sleep. I therefore offered to relieve my lieutenant of his watch; the
+poor fellow was like myself--the heads of the Guinans kept dancing
+before his eyes. He beheld them pale, bloody, hideous; then torn,
+pounded, broken to pieces; then the shocking beverage of the brains,
+that he also so courageously swallowed, came back to his mind,
+and he suffered sufficiently to make him repent our visit. "Master,"
+said he to me, looking very much grieved, "why did we come among these
+devils? Ah! it would have been much better had we remained in our good
+country of Jala-Jala." He was not perhaps in the wrong, but my desire
+to see extraordinary things gave me a courage and a will he did not
+partake of. I answered him thus: "Man must know all, and see all it is
+possible to see. As we cannot sleep, and that we are masters here, let
+us make a night visit; perhaps we shall find things that are unknown
+to us. Light the fire and follow me, Alila." The poor lieutenant
+obeyed without answering a word. He rubbed two pieces of bamboo one
+against the other, and I heard him muttering between his teeth:
+
+"What cursed idea has the master now? What shall we see in
+this miserable cabin--with the exception of the Tic-balan, [7]
+or Assuan? [8] We shall find nothing else." During the Indian's
+reflections the fire burnt up. I lit, without saying a word, a cotton
+wick, plastered over with elemi gum, that I always carried with me in
+my travels, and I began exploring. I went all through the inside of
+the habitation without finding anything, not even the Tic-balan, or
+Assuan, as my lieutenant imagined. I was beginning to think my search
+fruitless, when the idea struck me to go down to the ground-floor of
+the cabin, for all the cabins are raised about eight or ten feet above
+ground, and the under part of the floor, closed with bamboos, is used
+as a store: I descended. Anyone who could have seen me--a white man,
+a European, the child of another hemisphere--wander by night, with a
+taper in my hand, about the hut of a Tinguian Indian, would have been
+really surprised at my audacity, and I may almost say, my obstinacy,
+in seeking out danger while pursuing the wonderful and unknown. But
+I went on, without reflecting on the strangeness of my conduct: as
+the Indians say: "I was following my destiny." When I had reached the
+ground, I perceived in the middle of a square, inclosed with bamboos,
+a sort of trap, and I stopped quite pleased. Alila looked at me with
+astonishment. I lifted up the trap, and saw a rather deep well;
+I looked into it with my light, but could not discover the bottom
+of it. Upon the sides only, at a depth of about six or seven yards,
+I thought I distinguished some openings that I took for entrances
+into sub terraneous galleries. What had I now discovered? Was I,
+like Gil Blas, about to penetrate into the midst of an assemblage of
+banditti, living in the internal parts of the earth; or should I find,
+as in the tales of the "Arabian Nights," some beautiful young girls,
+prisoners of some wicked magician? Indeed, my curiosity increased
+in proportion to my discoveries. "There is something strange here,"
+said I to my lieutenant; "light a second match, I will go down to the
+bottom of the well." Hearing this order, my faithful Alila shrunk back
+in dismay, and ventured to say to me, in a frightfully dismal tone:
+
+"Why, master, you are not content to see what is upon the earth,
+you must also see what is inside of it!"
+
+This simple observation made me smile. He continued: "You wish to
+leave me alone here; and if the souls of the Guinans whose brains I
+have just drank come to fetch me, what will become of me? You will
+not be here to defend me!"
+
+My lieutenant would not have been frightened at twenty banditti, he
+would have struggled against every one of them until death; but his
+legs trembled, his voice faltered, he was terrified at the idea of
+remaining alone in this cabin, exposed to the view of the spirit of
+a Guinan, which would come and ask him to restore his brains! Whilst
+he addressed me these complaints, I had leant my back against one
+side of the well, my knees were applied against the other, and down
+I went. I had already descended about four yards, when I felt some
+rubbish falling upon me. I raised my head, and saw Alila coming down
+too. The poor fellow would not remain alone. "Well done," said I to
+him, "you are becoming curious too; you will be rewarded, believe
+me, for we shall see fine sights." And I continued my under-ground
+research. After proceeding six or seven yards I reached the opening
+I had remarked from above, and stopped. I placed my light before me,
+and espied a corner, where sat the dried black corpse of a Tinguian in
+the same state as a mummy. I said nothing; I waited for my lieutenant,
+anxious as I was to enjoy his surprise. When he was aside of me: "Look,
+look," I exclaimed; "what is that?" He was stupified. "Master," said he
+at last, "I entreat of you to leave this place; let us get out of this
+cursed hole! Take me to fight against the Tinguians of the village--I
+am quite willing to do that--but do not remain among the dead! What
+should we do with our arms, if they suddenly appeared to ask us why
+we are here?" "Be quiet," I answered him; "we shall go no farther." I
+felt satisfied that this well was a tomb, and that lower down I should
+see some more Tinguians in a state of preservation. I respected the
+abode of the dead, and came up, to Alila'a great satisfaction. We
+put everything in its place, and returned to the upper story of the
+cabin. I soon fell asleep, but my lieutenant could not: the thoughts
+of the mummy and horrible beverage kept him awake.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+    Visit to Manabo--Conversation with my Guide--Religion of the
+    Tinguians--Their Marriage Ceremony--Funereal Rites--Mode
+    of Warfare--I take leave of the Tinguians--Journey to the
+    Igorrots--Description of them--Their Dwellings--A Fortunate
+    Escape--Alila and the Bandits--Recollections of Home--A Majestic
+    Fig-tree--Superstition of Alila--Interview with an Igorrot--The
+    Human Hand--Nocturnal Adventure--Consternation of Alila--Probable
+    Origin of the Tinguians and Igorrots.
+
+
+The following morning, before dawn, our hosts began to descend
+from their high regions, and we left our temporary abode, to
+make preparations for our departure. I had resided long enough at
+Laganguilan y Madalag; I was desirous of visiting Manabo, a large
+village, situated at a short distance from Laganguilan. I availed
+myself of the presence of the inhabitants of Manabo, who had come
+to assist at the Brain Feast--this was the appellation I had given
+to this savage fete--and I set out with them. Among the troop there
+was one who had spent some time among the Tagalocs; he spoke their
+language a little, and I knew it tolerably well. I profited by this
+fortunate occurrence, and during the whole of the way I conversed with
+this savage, and questioned him upon the habits, customs, and manners
+of his fellow-countrymen. One point particularly pre-occupied me. I
+was unacquainted with the religion of these people, so very curious to
+study. Until then I had seen no temple; nothing that bore resemblance
+to an idol; I knew not what God they worshipped. My guide, chatty for
+an Indian, gave me quickly every information necessary. He told me
+that the Tinguians have no veneration for the stars; they neither
+adore the sun, nor moon, nor the constellations; they believe in
+the existence of a soul, and pretend that after death it quits the
+body, and remains in the family. As to the god that they adore, it
+varies and changes form according to chance and circumstances. And
+here is the reason: When a Tinguian chief has found in the country
+a rock, or a trunk of a tree, of a strange shape--I mean to say,
+representing tolerably well either a dog, cow, or buffalo--he informs
+the inhabitants of the village of his discovery, and the rock, or
+trunk of a tree, is immediately considered as a divinity--that is to
+say, as something superior to man. Then all the Indians repair to the
+appointed spot, carrying with them provisions and live hogs. When
+they have reached their destination they raise a straw roof above
+the new idol, to cover it, and make a sacrifice by roasting hogs;
+then, at the sound of instruments, they eat, drink, and dance until
+they have no provisions left. When all is eaten and drank, they set
+fire to the thatched roof, and the idol is forgotten until the chief,
+having discovered another one, commands a new ceremony.
+
+With regard to the morals of the Tinguians, my guide informed me that
+the Tinguian has generally one legitimate wife, and many mistresses;
+but the legitimate wife alone inhabits the conjugal house, and the
+mistresses have each of them a separate cabin. The marriage is a
+contract between the two families of the married couple. The day
+of the ceremony, the man and wife bring their dowry in goods and
+chattels; the marriage portion is composed of china vases, glass,
+coral beads, and sometimes a little gold powder. It is of no profit to
+the married couple, for they distribute it to their relations. This
+custom, my guide observed to me, has been established to prevent a
+divorce, which could only take place in entirely restituting all
+the objects that were contributed at the marriage by the party
+asking for divorce--a rather skilful expedient for savages, and
+worthy of being the invention of civilised people. The relatives
+thus become much interested in preventing the separation, as they
+would be obliged to restitute the presents received; and, if one of
+the couple persisted in requesting it, they would prevent him or her
+by making away with one of the objects furnished, such as a coral
+necklace, or a china vase. Without this wise measure, it is to be
+supposed that a husband, with mistresses, would very often endeavour
+to obtain a divorce. My fellow-traveller enlightened me upon all the
+points that I wished to investigate. The government, said he to me,
+after resting himself for a few minutes, is very patriarchal. It is
+the oldest man who commands.--As at Lacedaemonia, thought I, for there
+old age was honoured.--The laws are perpetuated by tradition, as the
+Tinguians have no idea of writing. In some instances they apply the
+punishment of death. When the fatal sentence has been pronounced,
+the Tinguian who has merited it must escape, if he wishes to avoid
+it, and go and live in the forests; for, the old men having spoken,
+all the inhabitants are bound to perform their orders. Society is
+divided into two classes, as with the Tagalocs, the chiefs and the
+commonalty. Whoever possesses and can exhibit to the public a certain
+number of china vases is considered a chief. These jars constitute
+all the wealth of the Tinguians. We were still conversing about the
+natives of the country when we reached Manabo. My guide had scarcely
+ceased talking all the way from Laganguilan.
+
+My attention was now attracted by some flames that were issuing from
+under a cabin, where a large fire was burning. Around it many people
+were sitting, howling like wolves.
+
+"Ah! ah!" said my guide, seemingly very pleased; "here is a funeral. I
+did not tell you anything about these ceremonies; but you will judge
+for yourself of what they are. It will be time enough to-morrow. You
+must be tired. I will take you to my day-cabin, and you may repose
+yourself without any danger of the Guinans, for a funeral compels a
+great many people to be on the watch all night."
+
+I accepted the offer made to me, and we took possession of the Tinguian
+cabin. It was my turn to take the first watch, and my poor Alila,
+a little more at his ease, fell into a sound sleep. I followed his
+example, after my watch, and we did not wake up until it was broad
+daylight.
+
+We had scarcely finished our morning repast, composed of
+kidney-potatoes, palms, and dried venison, when my guide of the
+preceding day came to conduct me to the spot where the funeral of
+the deceased was about to take place. I followed him, and placing
+ourselves a few steps from the cortege, we assisted at a strange
+sight. The deceased sat in the middle of his cabin upon a stool;
+underneath him, and at his side, fires were burning in enormous
+chafing-dishes; at a short distance about thirty assistants were
+seated in a circle. Ten or twelve women formed another circle; they
+were seated nearer to the corpse, close by which the widow was also
+placed, and who was distinguished by a white veil, that covered her
+from head to foot. The women brought some cotton, with which they
+wiped off the moisture that the fire caused to exude from the corpse,
+which was roasting by degrees. From time to time one of the Tinguians
+spoke, and pronounced, in a slow, harmonious tone of voice, a speech,
+which he concluded by a sort of laugh, that was imitated by all the
+assistants; after which they stood up, ate some pieces of dried meat,
+and drank some basi; they then repeated the last words of the orator,
+and danced.
+
+I endured--such is the word--this sight for an hour; but I did not
+feel courage enough to remain in the cabin any longer. The odour that
+exhaled from the corpse was unbearable. I went out, and breathed the
+fresh air; my guide followed me, and I begged him to tell me what
+had occurred from the beginning of the illness of the deceased.
+
+"Willingly," he answered me.
+
+Delighted to breathe freely, I listened with interest to the following
+recital:
+
+"When Dalayapo," said the narrator, "fell sick, they took him to the
+grand square, to apply severe remedies to him; that is to say, all the
+men of the village came in arms, and, to the sound of the gong and
+the tom-tom, they danced around the sick man from the rising to the
+setting of the sun. But this grand remedy had no effect--his illness
+was incurable. At the setting of the sun they placed our friend in
+his house, and no more heed was paid to him: his death was certain,
+as he would not dance with his fellow-countrymen."
+
+I smiled at the remedy and the reasoning, but I did not interrupt
+the narrator.
+
+"For two days Dalayapo was in a state of suffering; then, at the end
+of these two days, he breathed no more; and, when that was perceived,
+they immediately put him on the bench where we saw him just now. Then
+the provisions that he possessed were gathered together to feed the
+assistants, who paid him all due honours. Each one made a speech
+in his praise: his nearest relations began the first, and his body
+was surrounded with fire to dry it up. When the provisions are
+consumed, the strangers will leave the cabin, and only the widow and
+a few relations will wait until the body is thoroughly dried. In a
+fortnight's time he will be placed in a large hole that is dug under
+his house. He will be put in a niche, or aperture, in the wall, where
+already his deceased relatives' remains are deposited, and then all
+is over."
+
+This hole, thought I, must be similar to the one I went into the
+other night at Laganguilan.
+
+The explanation that I had just received completely satisfied me, and
+I did not request to be present again at the ceremony. I resolved,
+since I was very comfortably seated, under the shade of a balete,
+upon availing myself of the obliging disposition of my guide, to ask
+him to inform me, suddenly changing the conversation all the while,
+how his tribe managed to wage war on the Guinans, their mortal enemies.
+
+"The Guinans," said he to me, without drawing in any way on my
+patience, "wear the same arms as we do. They are neither stronger,
+nor more skilful, nor more vigorous. We have two modes of fighting
+them. Sometimes we give them a grand battle at mid-day, and then we
+meet them face to face, under a burning sun; at other times, during
+some dark night, we creep in silence to their dwelling-places, and
+if we be able to surprise any of them we cut off their heads, which
+we take away with us, and then we get up a feast, such as you have
+already witnessed."
+
+That word "feast" recalled to my mind the sanguinary orgie, or
+carousing, I had been present at, and particularly the share I
+had taken in it, so that I felt I was blushing and growing pale by
+turns. The Indian took no heed of it, and went on thus:
+
+"In the grand battles all the men belonging to a village are compelled
+to take up arms, and to march against the foe. It is generally in
+the midst of a wood that the two armies meet. As soon as they come in
+sight of each other they set up crying and howling on both sides. Each
+man then rushes upon his enemy, and upon this shock depends the
+fate of the victory; for one of the armies is always panic-struck,
+and scampers away; then it is that the other pursues it, and kills
+as many as possible, taking care to preserve the heads, which they
+bring home with them." [9]
+
+"Why it is a hide-and-seek fight, the consequences of which are,
+however, very cruel," I said. My Indian was of the same opinion,
+and rejoined:
+
+"In general the conquerors are ever those who are cleverest in
+concealing themselves, in order to surprise their enemies, and who
+then dash on them bawling and howling."
+
+Here my guide stopped short, the fight having no longer any interest
+for him; and then, perceiving I questioned him no longer, he left me
+to myself, when I returned to my habitation and Alila, who was sick
+enough of Manabo. For my own part I had seen enough of the Tinguians,
+and besides I thought I had observed that they seemed not too well
+pleased with the long stay I had made among them. I passed over in my
+mind the brain feast, so I resolved upon leaving. I therefore went to
+take leave of the elders. Unfortunately I had nothing to offer them,
+but I promised them many presents, when I should get back among the
+Christians--and then I left them.
+
+The satisfaction of my faithful lieutenant was at its height when
+we started for home. Not being disposed to go back by the same way
+I had come, I determined upon keeping more to the east, crossing
+over the mountains, and upon taking the sun as my guide. This road
+seemed preferable to me, inasmuch as I was about to traverse a country
+inhabited by a few Igorrots, that other species of the savage tribe I
+was not acquainted with. The mountains we crossed over were crowned
+with magnificent forests. Now and then we perceived lovely fertile
+valleys below our feet, and the grass was so high and thick-set, that
+it was with great difficulty we could pass through it. During our
+journey, my lieutenant kept a sharp look-out, wishing to kill some
+game for our support. As for myself, I was indeed far from thinking
+of the pleasure of shooting, so great was my contemplation of the
+admirable panoramic views that we met with every moment; and I was
+too much enraptured with the virgin and fruitful soil that spread
+itself so incommensurately around us to think even of eating. But my
+faithful Alila was less an enthusiast than I was myself: however,
+in return, he was more prudent. At the close of the day on which
+we started he killed a stag; so we halted on the brink of a stream,
+cut off some palm-tree strips, in guise of rice and bread, and set
+about eating the roasted liver of the animal. Our repast was truly
+a copious one. Ah! how often since that time, when seated before a
+richly served table--having before me delicious and recherche viands,
+and that in dining-rooms where the atmosphere was balmy and perfumed by
+the aroma arising from the highly flavoured dishes--how often, I say,
+have I regretted the supper I partook of with Alila in the forest,
+after a day's ramble on the mountains! Nay, what mortal could forget
+such hours--such places?
+
+Our repast over, we made our bed of some branches we lopped off
+from the trees, and which we joined together on the very moist soil
+in the interior of the vast forest, and there we slept soundly till
+the morrow, without fear, and particularly without having any sombre
+or disagreeable dreams. At the dawn of day we were on foot again,
+all Nature seeming to wake up with ourselves. Oh! how fine and calm
+did she appear to us! The vapours that arose from her breast covered
+her all over with a veil, like a young virgin at her waking; and then
+this veil by degrees would break up into pieces, which pieces, gently
+balanced on the morning breeze, would disappear, and be lost on the
+tops of the trees or the summits of the rocks. On we walked for a long
+time, till at last, towards the middle of the day, we came to a small
+plain inhabited by the Igorrots. We found, in all, three cabins, or
+huts, so that the population was far from being large. At the door
+of one of these cabins I saw a man, of about sixty years of age,
+and a few women. As we had arrived from behind the huts we took the
+savages by surprise, so that they had no time to fly at our approach:
+we were in the midst of them.
+
+I assumed the line of conduct I had pursued on arriving at Palan,
+but as I had no more coral beads or coloured glass, I presented them
+with a part of our stag, making them understand at the same time that
+we came with the most friendly intentions. From that moment there
+was established between us a very curious sort of mimic conversation,
+during which I was able to examine at my ease the new race of beings I
+saw around me. I perceived that the costume of the Igorrots was pretty
+nearly the same as that of the Tinguians, the ornaments excepted,
+but their features and physiognomy were quite different. The men were
+smaller, their breasts being exceedingly broad, their heads immensely
+big, their limbs developed, their strength herculean; their shape was
+not so handsome as that of the savages I had just left; their colour
+of a dark bronze, very dark indeed; their noses are less aquiline,
+their eyes yellow and fully open--a la Chinoise. The women's shape
+was also very protuberant, their complexion dark, their hair long,
+and combed up--a la Chinoise. Unfortunately it was impossible for
+me, with all my mimicry, to obtain the information I wished for, so
+I was obliged to content myself with visiting the cabin, which was
+a real hut, having but the ground-floor. The surrounding parts were
+closed in by very thick piles, covered with a roof in the form of a
+bee-hive. There was but one issue, through which it was impossible to
+have either egress or ingress, except in crawling on all-fours. In
+spite of this difficulty I would see the interior of this Indian
+dwelling; so, having made a sign to my lieutenant to keep watch, I
+penetrated into the hut. The Igorrots seemed quite surprised at my
+so doing, but they made no opposition to it. I found myself within
+an obnoxious hole, or hovel, through a small opening in the summit
+of which the daylight peeped in and the smoke crept out. The floor
+was thickly covered with dust, and it was upon such a soft couch that
+the whole family laid down to rest. In one of the corners I perceived
+some bamboo lances, a few cocoa-nuts divided into two parts, so as to
+serve as cups, a heap of good-sized round pebbles, that were used in
+case of attack, and a few pieces of wood, of very common workmanship,
+that served as pillows.
+
+I soon got out of such a den, from which I was driven by the nauseous
+smell it contained in its every part, but I had been able to see
+everything in it. I then inquired, by signs, of the Igorrot, the way
+I should go, in order to join the Christians. He fully understood
+me, showed me the road with his finger, and we then proceeded on
+our journey. As I journeyed on, I remarked here and there fields
+of patates and sugar-cane, which of course must have been the only
+husbandry of those miserable savages. After about an hour's journey
+we were near running into a very great danger. On entering into a
+vast plain we saw an Igorrot, flying away as quickly as possible. He
+had remarked us, and I attributed his flight to fear, when suddenly I
+heard the sound of the tom-tom and gong, and saw, at the same time,
+twenty men armed with lances, rapidly advancing towards us. I felt
+that a fight was about to ensue, so I told my lieutenant to fire at
+the group, so as to injure none of them.
+
+Alila fired: his bullet passed over the heads of the savages, who were
+so astonished at the detonation that they suddenly halted, and examined
+us attentively. I prudently took advantage of their surprise, and an
+immense forest presenting itself on our right, we entered it, leaving
+the village on our left, but the savages did not follow us into it.
+
+During the whole of this scene my lieutenant did not utter a word. I
+had already remarked that when in presence of danger he became dumb,
+but when he had lost sight of the Igorrots his speech and loquacity
+returned to him.
+
+"Master," said he to me, in a very dissatisfied tone, "how I do regret
+not having fired directly into the middle of those miscreants!"
+
+"And why so?" asked I.
+
+"Because I am certain I should have killed one of them at least."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, master, our journey would not have terminated without our
+sending at least one soul of a savage to the devil."
+
+"Ah! Alila," said I; "so you have become wicked and naughty, have you?"
+
+"No, no, no, master," replied he; "but I cannot conceive why you
+are so kind and compassionate to that infernal race. You, who pursue
+and persecute the Tulisans, [10] who are a hundred times better than
+these wretches are, and who are Christians besides."
+
+"What!" cried I; "brigands, robbers, and assassins better than poor
+primitive beings, who have no one to guide and conduct them to the
+path of virtue!"
+
+"Oh, master!" replied my lieutenant, and most sententiously this time;
+"Oh! the brigands, as it pleases you to call them, are in nowise
+what you think them. The Tulisan is not an assassin. When he takes
+away life it is only when he is compelled, in defence of his own,
+and if he do kill, why it is always de bon coeur."
+
+"Oh! oh!" said I; "and the robberies--how do you explain them?"
+
+"If he rob, why it is only to get possession of a little of the
+superfluity of the rich, and that he divides among the poor--that's
+all. Now, master, do you know what use the Tulisan makes of his
+plunder?"
+
+"No, indeed, master Alila," answered I, smilingly.
+
+"Well, he keeps nothing of it for himself," said my lieutenant, with
+great pride; "in the first place he gives a part of it to the priest,
+to have masses said for him."
+
+"Indeed! it is mighty edifying--go on."
+
+"And then he gives another part of it to his mistress, or bonne amie,
+because he loves her, and likes to see her finely dressed out; and as
+for the remainder, why, faith! he spends it among his friends. You
+may therefore see, master, that the Tulisan possesses himself of
+the superfluity of one person to satisfy several other persons with
+it. [11] Oh! but he is far, very far indeed, from being so wicked as
+those savages, who kill you without saying a word to you, and then eat
+up your brains--fie!" And here Alila heaved a deep sigh, for the brain
+feast was ever present to his mind. His conversation so interested me,
+his system was so curious, and he himself so frank in drawing it out,
+that I almost forgot the Igorrots in listening to him.
+
+We pursued our road through the wood, keeping as much as possible
+to the south, in order to get near the province of Batangas, where
+I was to meet my poor patient, who no doubt was very uneasy about
+my long absence. When I started I said not a word about my project,
+and had I done so it is most likely I should have been thought as no
+longer belonging to this world. The recollection of my wife, whom I
+had left at Manilla, and who was far from supposing me to be among
+the Igorrots, inspired me with the most anxious desire of returning
+home to my family as quick as possible. Absorbed in my thoughts,
+and carried away by my reflections, I walked silently along, without
+even casting a glance upon the luxuriant vegetation all around us. I
+must indeed have been very much pre-occupied, for a virgin forest
+between the tropics, and particularly in the Philippine islands, is in
+nowise to be compared with our European forests. I was aroused from
+my pensiveness, and recalled to the remembrance of my whereabouts,
+by the noise of a torrent, and I gratefully admired nature in her
+gigantic productions. I looked up, and before me I perceived an
+immense balete, an extraordinary fig-tree, that thrives in the sombre
+and mysterious forests of the Philippines, and I stopped to admire
+it. This immense tree springs from a seed similar to the seed of the
+ordinary fig-tree; its wood is white and spongy, and in a few years it
+grows to an extraordinary size. Nature, who has had foresight in all
+things, and who allows the young lamb to leave its wool on the bushes
+for the timid bird to pick it up and build its nest with--Nature,
+I say, has shown herself in all her genius in the fig-tree of the
+Philippine islands, which grows so rapidly and so immensely. The
+branches of this tree generally spring from the base of the trunk;
+they extend themselves horizontally, and, after forming an elbow or
+curve, rise up perpendicularly; but, as I said before, the tree is
+spongy, and easily broken, and the branch, while forming the curve,
+would inevitably be broken, did not a ligament, which the Indians
+call a drop of water--goutte d'eau--fall from the tree and take root
+in the earth; there it swells, and grows in proportion with the size
+of the branch, and acts to it as a living prop. Besides which, around
+the trunk, and at a considerable distance from the ground, are natural
+supports, which rise up in points or spirals to about the middle of the
+trunk. Has not the Grand Architect of the world foreseen everything?
+
+The appearance presented by the balete is very frequently indescribably
+picturesque; and this is so true that, within a space of some hundred
+paces in diameter--which these gigantic fig-trees usually occupy--one
+may see by turns grottoes, halls, chambers, that are often furnished
+with natural seats, formed out of and by the roots themselves. No! no
+vegetation is more diversified, nor more extraordinary! This tree
+sometimes grows out of a rock, where there is not an inch of earth;
+its long roots run along the rock, encompass it, and then plunge into
+the neighbouring brook. It is indeed a masterpiece of nature--a chef
+d'oeuvre--which, however, is very ordinary in the virgin forests of
+the Philippine islands.
+
+"Here," said I to my lieutenant, "is a good spot for us to spend the
+night on."
+
+He recoiled some paces.
+
+"What!" said he; "do you wish to stop here, master?"
+
+"Certainly," replied I.
+
+"Oh! but you don't see that we are in still more danger here than in
+the midst of the Igorrots!"
+
+"And why, then, are we in danger?" asked I.
+
+"Why? why? Do you not know that the Tic-balan dwells in the large
+baletes. If we stop here you may be very sure that I shan't sleep a
+moment, and that we shall be tormented the whole night."
+
+I smiled, which my lieutenant perceiving:
+
+"Oh! master," said he, most dolefully, "what should we do with an
+evil spirit that fears neither bullet nor dagger?"
+
+The terror of the poor Tagal was really too great for me to resist
+him, so I yielded, and we took up our quarters for the night at a
+place much less to my own taste, but much more to Alila's. The night
+passed away like many others--I mean, perfectly well, and we woke up
+to resume our journey through the forest.
+
+We had been walking about two hours, when, on leaving the wood,
+and entering on a plain, we met an Igorrot, mounted upon a buffalo,
+face to face. The encounter was somewhat curious. I levelled my gun at
+the savage: my lieutenant took hold of the animal by the long leather
+strap, and I made a sign to the Igorrot not to stir: then--always
+in my mimic language--I asked if he were alone. I understood from
+him that he was accompanied by no fellow-traveller, and that he was
+going northwards, in the opposite direction to our own. But Alila,
+who decidedly had a grudge against the savages, was most anxious to
+lodge a ball in this fellow's head. However, I strenuously opposed
+such a project, and ordered him to let go the bridle.
+
+"But, master," said he, "allow me at least to see what these jars
+contain."
+
+Around the neck of the Igorrot's buffalo were strung three or four
+jars, covered with leaves of the banana tree.
+
+My lieutenant, without even waiting for my answer, applied his nose
+to them, and discovered, to his infinite satisfaction, that they
+contained a deer or stag ragout, which sent forth a certain perfume;
+so, still without consulting me, he undid the smallest of the jars,
+struck the buffalo a blow with the but-end of his gun, and, letting
+go the animal at the same time, exclaimed:
+
+"Go, you rascal--go!"
+
+The Igorrot, finding himself free, fled as quick as the beast could
+carry him, and we re-entered the woods, taking care to avoid the
+openings, for fear of being surprised by too large a number of savages.
+
+Towards four o'clock we halted to take our repast. This wished-for
+moment was impatiently expected by my lieutenant, as the savage's jar
+sent forth a very savoury smell. At last the desired moment arrived:
+we sat down on the grass. I stuck my poignard into the jar, which
+Alila had brought up to the fire, and I withdrew--an entire human
+hand! [12] My poor lieutenant was as stupified as I was myself, so
+we remained a few minutes without saying a word. At last I gave a
+vigorous kick to the jar, and smashed it in pieces, so that the human
+flesh it contained was scattered over the ground, while still I held
+the fatal hand on the point of my dagger.
+
+That hand horrified me; yet I examined it most carefully, and it
+appeared to me to have been the hand of a child of an Ajetas, a species
+of savages that inhabit the mountains of Nueva-Exica and Maribeles,
+of which race I shall have an opportunity of speaking during the
+course of this work. I took some strips of palm-tree, roasted in the
+burning embers; Alila did the same, and we set out, not in the best
+of humours, in search of another resting-place for the night.
+
+Two hours after sun-rise we issued from the forest and entered upon
+the plain. From time to time--that is, from distance to distance--we
+met with rice-fields, cultivated after the Tagal manner, and then
+did my lieutenant exclaim most joyously to me:
+
+"Master, we are now in Christian ground."
+
+He was right; the road was becoming more easy. We followed on a narrow
+pathway, and towards evening arrived in front of an Indian cabin,
+at the door of which a young girl was sitting, while abundant tears
+trickled down her sorrowful countenance. I drew near her, and inquired
+into the cause of her grief. On hearing my question she rose up, and
+without replying to my queries, conducted us into the interior of the
+habitation, where we beheld the inanimate body of an old woman, whom
+we learned was the mother of the young girl; the brother of the latter
+had gone to the village in quest of the relations of the deceased,
+to aid them in transporting the corpse to its final destination.
+
+This scene affected me very much. I did my best to console the
+poor young girl, and solicited hospitality for the night, which was
+instantly granted. To be in company with a dead body nowise affrighted
+me; but I bethought of Alila, so superstitious and so fearful with
+regard to ghosts and evil spirits.
+
+"Well," said I to him; "are you not afraid to spend the night near
+a corpse?"
+
+"No, master," replied he, courageously; "this dead person is a
+Christian soul, which, far from wishing us evil, will watch over us."
+
+I was really astonished at the answer of the Tagaloc, at his calmness
+and security: the rogue had his own motives for thus speaking to
+me. The Indian huts in the plains, are never composed of more than
+one room; the one we were in was scarcely large enough to hold us
+all four; however, we one and all managed as well as we could. The
+deceased occupied the back part; a small lamp, placed by her head,
+threw out a feeble light, and beside her lay the young Indian girl. I
+had established my quarters at a short distance from the bed of death,
+and my lieutenant was nearest the door, left open purposely to dispel
+the heat and foul air.
+
+Towards two o'clock in the morning I was waked up by a shrill voice,
+and I felt at the same time that some one was passing over me, and
+uttering cries that soon were heard outside the cabin. I immediately
+stretched out my hand towards the place where Alila had lain down,
+but that place was empty; the lamp was out, and the darkness complete.
+
+This made me very uneasy. I called to the young girl, who answered
+me that she had heard, like me, cries and noise, but she was ignorant
+of the cause. I snatched up my gun and sallied forth, calling out to
+my lieutenant; but to no purpose. No one answered; the stillness of
+death reigned all around. I then set out, walking over the fields at
+hazard, calling out now and then Alila's name. I had not, perhaps,
+gone a hundred paces when I heard the following words, pronounced
+most timidly, proceeding from a tree by which I was passing:
+
+"I am here, master."
+
+It was Alila himself. I drew nigh, and saw my lieutenant ensconced
+behind the trunk of the tree, and trembling like one of its leaves.
+
+"What then has happened to you?" I inquired; "and what are you
+doing there?"
+
+"Oh! master," said he to me; "pray forgive me! Bad thoughts got the
+better of me; it was the young Indian girl inspired me with them,
+and the demon blew them into my inner man. I--I--I--drew nigh, during
+the night, to the young girl's resting-place, and when I saw you fast
+asleep--I put out the lamp."
+
+"Well, and then--" said I, most impatiently and angrily.
+
+"And then--I wished to take a kiss from the young girl; but, at the
+very moment I drew nigh, the old dead woman took her daughter's place,
+so I only met with a cold and icy face, and at the same moment two
+long arms stretched out to seize upon me. Oh! it was then I gave such
+a cry--and I fled! fled! fled! but the old woman pursued me--yes,
+the corpse tracked me behind; and she has only just now disappeared,
+on hearing the sound of your voice. I then hid behind this tree,
+where you now see me, in a piteous plight."
+
+The fright of the Tagal and his mistake made me almost laugh out;
+but I severely reprimanded him for the bad intention he had of
+abusing the hospitality that had been so graciously afforded us:
+he repented, and begged of me to excuse him. He was, I should think,
+sufficiently punished by his fright. I wished to take him back to the
+cabin with me; but for no consideration would he return. I therefore
+left my gun in his charge, and went back to the house of mourning,
+where I found the poor young girl just as frightened as he was. I
+soon made her acquainted with the adventure; so thanking her for
+her kind hospitality, and morning coming on, I returned to Alila,
+who was most impatiently expecting me.
+
+The hope of seeing soon again our relations, our homes, our friends,
+gave us new courage, and before sunset we arrived at an Indian village,
+without anything remarkable having taken place: this was to be our
+last stage. [13]
+
+After this long and interesting journey I arrived at Quingua,
+a village in the province of Boulacan, where I had left my friend
+in convalescence.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+    I return to Jala-Jala--An Excursion on the Lake--Relempago's
+    Narrative--Re-organisation of my Government--A Letter from
+    my Brother Henry--His Arrival--He joins me in the Management
+    of my Plantations--Cajoui, the Bandit: Anten-Anten--Indian
+    Superstition--A Combat with the Bandit--His Death--A Piratical
+    Descent--My Lieutenant is Wounded--I extract the Ball, and
+    cure him.
+
+
+My prolonged absence from home caused great uneasiness. Very
+fortunately my wife remained at Manilla, and was totally ignorant of
+the journey I had recently undertaken.
+
+My patient had not exactly followed the prescribed regimen, so that
+his distemper had increased, and he was impatiently expecting to
+return and die, he said, in his house: his wishes were complied
+with. A few days after my arrival we set out and arrived the next
+day at Manilla, where my poor friend rendered his last sigh in the
+middle of his family. This event damped, of course, the pleasure I
+should have enjoyed in beholding my wife once more.
+
+A few days after the demise of our friend we embarked, and set sail
+for Jala-Jala.
+
+We glided most agreeably upon the lake until we left the strait
+of Quinanbutasan, but, once there, we met with so violent an east
+wind, and the water of the lake was so ruffled, that we were obliged
+to re-enter the strait, and cast anchor near the cabin of the old
+fisherman, Relempago, whom I have already noticed.
+
+Our sailors landed to prepare their supper; as for ourselves, we
+remained in our boat, where we stretched ourselves at our ease, the
+old fisherman, as he sat doubled up in the Indian fashion, amusing
+us in the best way he could by the narration of brigand stories.
+
+I interrupted him all on a sudden, saying to him:
+
+"Relempago, I should prefer hearing the history of your own personal
+adventures; do, therefore, relate your misfortunes to us."
+
+The old fisherman heaved a sigh, and then, unwilling to disoblige me,
+began his story in the poetical terms so familiar to the Tagal tongue,
+and which it is almost impossible to reproduce by a translation:
+
+"Lagune is not my native place," said he; "I was born in the
+island of Zebou, and was at the age of twenty what is called a
+fine young man; but, pray believe me, I was by no means proud of my
+physical advantages, and I preferred being the first fisherman of my
+village. Nevertheless, my comrades were jealous of me, and all that
+because the young girls would look at me with a certain complaisant
+air, and seemed to find me to their liking."
+
+I could not but smile at this frank avowal of the old man, which he
+perceiving, continued:
+
+"I tell you these things, sir," replied he, "because at my age
+one can speak of them without fearing to appear ridiculous--it is
+so long ago. And besides, allow me to inform you that I relate to
+you such things, not from vanity--Oh, no! but merely to furnish you
+with an exact recital. Besides, the sly and roguish looks that young
+girls threw at me, as I passed through the village, flattered me in
+no manner. I was in love with Theresa, sir; yes, I was passionately
+in love with her, and my love was returned, for fondly did she love
+me; a look from any other but from her was totally indifferent to
+me. Ah! Theresa was the prettiest lass in the village! but, poor
+soul! she has done like myself--she has greatly altered; for years
+are an enormous weight, which bends and breaks you down in spite of
+yourself, and against which there is no way of struggling.
+
+"When, seated as I am at present, I bethink me of the fine by-gone days
+of my youth--of the strength, the courage, that we used to find in our
+mutual affection--Oh! I shed tears of regret and sensibility. Where
+are now those fine--those happy days? Gone, gone, gone! they have
+fled before the piercing and terrible winds that forerun the storms
+and the hurricanes. Like the day, life has its dawn; like the day,
+also, it has its decline!"
+
+Here the poor old fisherman made a pause, and I was loth to interrupt
+him in his meditation. There then ensued a profound silence, that
+lasted several minutes. Suddenly Relempago seemed to start from a
+dream, and passing his hand over his forehead, looked at us for some
+time, as if to excuse himself for those few moments of mental absence,
+and then he continued as follows:
+
+"We had been brought up together," said he, "and had been affianced as
+soon as we had grown up. Theresa would have died rather than belong to
+any other, and, as I shall hereafter prove it, I would have accepted
+any condition, even the most unfavourable one, rather than abandon the
+friend of my heart. Alas! it is almost always with our tears that we
+trace our painful way through life. Theresa's relations were opposed
+to our union; they even put forward vain and frivolous pretexts;
+and whatever efforts I made to bring them to decide upon bestowing
+her affianced hand on me, I never could succeed. And yet they well
+knew that, like the palm trees, we could not live without each other,
+and were we to be separated, it would be condemning us to die. But our
+tears, our prayers, our griefs, were only heard by senseless people,
+and we were labouring under the most poignant grief, while no one would
+understand or sympathise with our sorrow. I was beginning to lose all
+courage, when one morning there came into my mind the pious thought
+of offering to the Infant Jesus, in the church of Zebou, the first
+pearl I should fish up. I therefore repaired earlier than usual to
+the sea-shore, implored the Almighty to grant me his protection, and
+to have me married to my beloved Theresa. The sun was just beginning
+to dart his burning rays upon the earth, and was gilding the surface
+of the waters. Nature was awaking from her transitory sleep, and
+every living being or object was singing in its language a hymn to
+the Creator.
+
+"With a beating heart I began diving to the bottom of the sea, in
+search of the pearl which I so ardently wished for, but my searches
+and struggles were completely fruitless at first. Had anyone been
+near me at that moment he would have easily read my disappointment
+in my face. Nevertheless, my courage failed me not. I began again,
+but with no better success. 'Oh, Lord!' cried I, 'thou hearest not
+then my prayers, my supplications! Thou wilt not then accept for thy
+beloved son the offering that I destine for him.' [14] For the sixth
+time I plunged, and brought up from the bottom of the sea two enormous
+oysters. Oh! how my heart leaped with joy! I opened one of them, and
+found it contained a pearl so large that never in my life had I seen
+one like it. My joy was so great that I set to dancing in my pirogue,
+as if I had lost my reason. The Lord, then, did vouchsafe to protect
+me, since He enabled me to accomplish my vow. With a joyful heart I
+retraced my steps to my dwelling, and, not wishing to fail in my word,
+I took my magnificent pearl to the curate of Zebou.
+
+"The reverend father," continued the old fisherman, "was delighted with
+my present. That pearl was worth 5,000 piasters (or 25,000 francs,
+i.e., L1,000 English money), and you must have admired it--you, as
+well as all other persons who attend the church--for the Infant Jesus
+always holds it in his hand. The curate thanked and congratulated me
+on my very good idea.
+
+"'Go home in peace, brother,' said he to me; 'go home in peace. Heaven
+will not forget thy meritorious action--yea, the disinterestedness of
+thy good work, and sooner or later thy desires will he hearkened to.'"
+
+"I left the holy man with my heart joyful indeed, and I hastened to
+inform Theresa of the pastor's consoling words: we rejoiced like two
+children together. Ah! true indeed it is to say that youth has been
+endowed by the Almighty with every privilege, particularly with that
+of hope. At the age of twenty if the heart think that it may live
+in hope, away with all cares immediately; and, as the morning breeze
+sips up the drops of moisture that have been left by the storm in the
+chalice of flowers, so does hope dry up the tears that moisten the eyes
+of the young, and drive away the sighs that inflate and oppress the
+breast. So sure were we that our tribulations would ere long be over,
+that we no longer thought of our by gone sorrow! In the spring-time
+of life grief leaves do more trace after it than the nimble foot of
+the wily Indian on the strand, when the sea-wind has blown over it.
+
+"The inhabitants of the village, seeing us so joyful, so purely happy,
+were envious of our lot, and Theresa's relations could no longer
+find any pretext for opposing our being united. We were now in full
+sight of connubial bliss; our boat of life was gently rocked by a
+very mild wind; we were singing the return-home hymn, not supposing,
+alas! that we were going to be dashed against a breaker! Our young
+Indians foresee not in the morning the storm that is to assail them
+in the evening. The buffalo cannot avoid the lasso, and most often,
+in order to avoid it, he anticipates the danger. I roved about, I may
+say heedlessly thoughtless of the precipice before my feet. Misfortune
+marked me for her own when I least expected it.
+
+"One evening, on my return from fishing, at the moment when I was
+repairing to Theresa's, there to repose myself after my fatigues of
+the day, I saw one of my neighbours advancing towards me. That man
+had always shown me the greatest affection, so that on seeing him
+thus advance, my limbs began to tremble, and the pulsations of my
+heart gradually ceased. His face was pale, and entirely altered. His
+haggard eyes threw forth flashes of terror, and his voice was trembling
+and agitated.
+
+"'Los Moros [15] have made a descent upon the coast,' said he to me.
+
+"'Good Heavens!' exclaimed I, covering my face with my hands.
+
+"'They surprised some persons of the village, and carried them off
+prisoners.'
+
+"'And Theresa?' exclaimed I.
+
+"'Carried off with the others,' he replied.
+
+"I heard no more of this revelation, and for some minutes--like the
+warrior pierced to the heart by a poisoned arrow--was completely
+deprived of all consciousness.
+
+"When I came back to myself tears flooded my face, and brought me some
+relief: but suddenly I resumed my courage, and felt that no time was
+to be lost. I ran to the shore where I had left my pirogue, which
+I unfastened, and, as quickly as oars could pull me, I pursued the
+Malays, not in the hope of wresting Theresa from them, but resolved
+upon partaking of her captivity and misfortune. We better endure the
+sufferings we have to undergo when we are two together than when we
+are alone. He who had brought me the fatal tidings saw me start, and
+thought I had lost my senses; the fact is, my countenance bore all the
+traces of mental alienation. Methought I was inspired by the grand
+master-spirit; my pirogue bounded along the troubled waters of the
+ocean as if it possessed wings. One would have said that I had twenty
+rowers at my disposal, and I cleft the waves with the same rapidity
+as the halcyon's flight, when wafted away by the hurricane. After
+a short time's laborious and painful rowing I at last came in view
+of the corsairs who were carrying away my treasure. At the sight my
+strength was renewed again, and I was soon up with them. When I was
+side by side with them I informed them, in words the most feeling,
+and which sprang from my poor lacerated heart, that Theresa was my
+wife, and that I would prefer being a slave with her to abandoning
+her. The pirates listened to my voice, stifled by my tears, and took
+me on board, not from commiseration, but from cruelty. In fact, I was
+a slave more added to their numbers: why should they have repulsed
+me? A few days after that fatal evening we arrived at Jolo. There the
+division of the slaves was made, and the master into whose hands we
+fell took us away with him. Was it, then, to undergo a like destiny
+that I had dived so early in the morning for a pearl for the Infant
+Jesus of Zebou? Yes, was it for this that I had made a vow to bring
+him the first pearl I should find? Notwithstanding my profound sorrow
+I murmured not, neither did I regret my offering. The Lord was the
+master! His will should be done."
+
+Here Relempago paused, and looked towards Heaven with a smile of
+angelic resignation, and we then remarked upon his face the furrows
+traced by the deep sorrows of his life. The wind was still blowing
+with violence, and our boat was dancing on the waves; our sailors had
+finished their repast, and, in order to listen to the fisherman's
+tale of woe, had taken up their place by his side. Their features
+wore an expression of the most innocent attention; so, having made
+a sign to the narrator, he resumed his story as follows:--
+
+"Our captivity lasted two years, during which time we had to endure
+very great sufferings. Very often would my master take me away with
+him to a lake in the interior of the island, and these absences
+lasted for whole months together, during which time I was perforce
+separated from my Theresa, my dear wife; for, not having been able
+to get united by a clergyman, we had joined ourselves, under the
+all-benevolent and protecting eye of the Almighty! On my return,
+I used to find my poor companion still the same good, faithful,
+devoted, and affectionate friend, whose courage sustained my own.
+
+"One circumstance decided me upon taking an audacious
+resolution. Theresa was in an interesting situation! Oh! what would
+not my joy have been had I been at Zebou, in the midst of our family
+and of our friends! What happiness should I not have felt at the idea
+of being a father! Alas! in slavery, that very same thought froze my
+blood with terror, and I firmly resolved upon snatching both mother
+and child from the tortures of captivity. In one of our excursions
+I had been wounded in the leg, and this wound came greatly to my
+aid. One day my master set out for the borders of the grand lake, and,
+knowing I had a bad leg, left me at Jolo. I availed myself of this
+opportunity to put into execution a project that I had formed for a
+long time, that of flying with Theresa. The task was a daring one,
+but the desire of freedom doubles one's strength and increases one's
+courage, so I did not hesitate for a moment. When night had lowered,
+my dear Theresa took a road I had pointed out to her; I went by another
+one, and we both arrived at the sea-shore at a short distance from
+each other. There we jumped into a pirogue, and threw ourselves upon
+the protection of Divine mercy!
+
+"We rowed vigorously the whole night, and never in my life shall
+I forget that mysterious flight. The wind blew rather violently,
+the night was dark, and the stars insensibly lost their vivid
+brightness. Every moment we thought we heard behind us the noise of our
+pursuers, and our hearts beat so loud and so violently that they could
+be heard in the midst of the silence that reigned around all nature.
+
+"Day at last appeared: we descried by degrees, in the mist of the
+morning, the rocks that lined the shore, and we could see far enough
+in the distance that no one was pursuing us. Then were our hearts
+filled with cheering hope, and we continued rowing towards the north,
+in order to land on some Christian isle.
+
+"I had taken with me some cocoa-nuts, but they were a very small
+resource, and we had been at sea three whole days without eating
+anything, when, exhausted by fatigue and want, we fell upon our knees
+and invoked the pity, compassion, and succour of the Infant Jesus of
+Zebou. Our prayer over, we felt our strength completely exhausted;
+the oars fell from our hands, and we lay down in the bottom of the
+pirogue, decided upon dying in each other's arms.
+
+"Our weakness gradually increased, and finally we swooned away,
+the pirogue all the while dashing heedlessly on with the waves.
+
+"When we recovered from our fainting fit--I know not how long it
+lasted--we found ourselves surrounded by Christians, who, having
+perceived us in our light skiff, had come to our aid, conveyed us
+to their hospitable dwelling, and took the most pious care of us. We
+had not long been disembarked when Theresa was taken with the pains
+of labour, and was confined of a very diminutive, sickly child. I
+went down on my knees before the innocent little creature that had
+so miraculously escaped from slavery, and prayed for it--it was a boy!"
+
+Here the poor old fisherman heaved a heavy sigh, while tears were
+fast falling upon his shrunken hands.
+
+We one and all respected this painful recollection of the poor old man.
+
+"Our convalescence was very long indeed," said Relempago; "at last our
+health was sufficiently restored to permit of us leaving the isle of
+Negros, where the Infant Jesus had so miraculously caused us to land,
+and we came to settle here, on the side of this large lake, which,
+being situated in the interior of the isle of Lucon, afforded me the
+means of pursuing my avocation of fisherman without in any way fearing
+the Malays, who might very easily have captured us again at Zebou.
+
+"My first care--yes, the dearest act of my life--on arriving, was to
+have our marriage celebrated in the church of Moron. I had promised it
+to God, and I would not fail in the promise I had made Him who reads
+all hearts. After that I built the little cottage you see hard-by,
+and my existence glided on most peacefully. The fishing trade went
+on prosperously. I was still a young man, active and intelligent,
+and sold my fish very easily to the vessels passing through the
+strait. My son had by this time become a fine young man."
+
+"Of course he resembled his father," said I, recollecting the beginning
+of the old man's tale, but my remark could not excite a smile upon
+his countenance.
+
+"Oh! the lad was a good fisherman," continued he, "and happily did we
+all three live together, till a dreadful misfortune befell us. The
+Infant Jesus had no doubt forsaken us, or perhaps the Almighty was
+displeased with us; but I am far from murmuring. He has visited us
+most severely, since He has overwhelmed us with grief of such a strong
+nature, that it must accompany us to our last resting-place!"
+
+And here the poor old man's tears trickled down his weather-beaten
+cheeks once more, in abundance, in bitterness, and in sorrow.
+
+Ah! how right was the Italian poet, when he said:--
+
+
+            "Nought lasteth here below but tears!"
+
+
+The voice of Relempago was stifled by his sobbing; however, he made
+one more effort, and continued thus:
+
+"One night--a fine moonlight night--we set our nets in a certain part
+of the strait, and as we felt some difficulty in drawing them up,
+the lad plunged into the water to ascertain what obstacle we had to
+contend with, and to set all to rights. I was in my pirogue, leaning
+over the side, waiting for his return, when all of a sudden I thought
+I saw, through the silvery beams of the lamp of night, a large spot
+of blood spreading itself over the surface of the water. Fear took
+possession of me, and I quickly hauled up my nets. My hapless child
+had seized upon and become entangled in them--but, alas! when he came
+to the surface he was a corpse!"
+
+"What! your son?" cried I.
+
+"My poor dear Jose-Maria," said he, "had his head bitten off by a
+cayman that had got entangled in our nets. Ever since that night--that
+fatal night!--Theresa and I offer up our prayers to the Omnipotent,
+imploring Him to take us to himself; for, alas! nothing now has
+any charms for us here below. The first of us that will depart for
+that bourn from whence no traveller returns will be interred by the
+survivor beside our beloved child--there, under that little hillock
+yonder, which is surmounted by a wooden cross, in front of my humble
+cottage; and the last of us two to leave this valley of tears will no
+doubt meet with some charitable Christian hand, to place our mortal
+remains beside the bodies of those we loved so tenderly during our
+hapless pilgrimage here below."
+
+Here Relempago ceased his painful history, and, that he might give a
+free course to his grief and tears, he rose up, and bowed us his adieu,
+which we returned to him with hearts oppressed with sympathetic sorrow.
+
+The wind had ceased blowing, and the attentive sailors were awaiting
+our orders, so that in a few moments afterwards we were sailing
+towards Jala-Jala, where we landed before sunset.
+
+On the morrow of my arrival I entered on the business of my little
+government, to which my absence had been far from useful or favourable,
+so that I was obliged to suppress many abuses that had crept into it
+while I had been away. Some slight corrections, joined to an active
+and incessant surveillance, or inspection, soon established once more
+the most perfect order and discipline; so that, from that moment, I
+was at liberty to devote all my time and attention to the cultivation
+of my lands.
+
+We were now at the beginning of the winter--the rainy and windy
+season. No stranger had dared crossing the lake, to come and visit us,
+so that, alone with my dear wife, our days glided most happily and
+tranquilly away, for we knew not what ennui was or meant: our mutual
+affection was so great that our own presence was sufficient company
+for each other.
+
+This delightful solitude was soon interrupted by a fortunate and
+unforeseen event. A letter from Manilla--a very rare circumstance at
+Jala-Jala--reached me, informing me that my eldest brother, Henry,
+had just arrived there; that he had put up at my brother-in-law's;
+and that he was expecting me with all imaginable impatience. I was
+not aware that he had left France to come and see me, so that such
+news, and his sudden, as well as unexpected, arrival, surprised and
+overjoyed me.
+
+I was once more to see one of my dearest relations--a brother whom I
+had always tenderly loved. Ah! he who has never quitted his home, his
+family, and his early attachments, will with difficulty understand the
+emotions I experienced on receiving this agreeable letter. When the
+first transports of my joy were somewhat allayed, I resolved to set
+out at once for Manilla. Preparations for my departure were speedily
+made. I chose my lightest canoe, and my two strongest Indians, and a
+few minutes after, having embraced my beloved Anna, I was scudding
+over the waters of the lake, slowly--too slowly for my impatience,
+as I wished to be able to give wings to my fragile skiff, and to
+traverse the distance that separated me from my brother as rapidly as
+my thoughts: no journey ever appeared to me so long, and nevertheless
+my two robust rowers exerted all their strength to favour my wishes. At
+length I arrived, and immediately hastened to my brother-in-law's,
+and there I threw myself into Henry's arms. Our emotions were such
+that for some time we could not speak; the abundant tears we shed
+alone showed the joy of our hearts. When the first transport was
+over, I asked him questions beyond number. Not one member of my
+family was forgotten; the smallest details concerning these beloved
+beings were to me of the greatest interest. We passed the remainder
+of the day and the following night in incessant and interesting
+conversation. The next day we started for Jala-Jala. Henry was eager
+to become acquainted with his sister-in-law, and I to make the dear
+companion of my life a sharer in my happiness. Excellent Anna! my joy
+was joy for you--my happiness was your delight! You received Henry
+as a brother, and this sisterly attachment was always, on your part,
+as sincere as your affection for me had ever been.
+
+After a few days spent in the most agreeable conversation about
+France, and about all those beloved friends who remained there,
+feelings of sadness that I could with difficulty repress became
+intermingled with my joy. I thought of our numerous family, so far
+distant, and so scattered over the globe. My youngest brother was,
+to my great regret, dead at Madagascar. My second brother, Robert,
+resided at Porto-Rico; and my two brothers-in-law, both captains of
+vessels, engaged in long voyages, were gone to the Indies. My poor
+mother and my poor sisters were alone, without protectors, without
+support: what sad moments of fear and anxiety you must have spent in
+your solitude! Ah! how I should have rejoiced to have you near me; but,
+alas! a whole world separated us, and the hope of seeing you again
+one day could alone scatter the clouds that darkened occasionally
+the happy days adorned by the presence of my brother.
+
+After some time of rest, Henry asked to join me in my labours. I then
+made him acquainted with my mode of cultivation, and he took upon
+himself the management of the plantations and of their products. I
+reserved to myself the regulation of my Indians, the charge of the
+flocks, and that of putting down the bandits.
+
+I had frequent quarrels, and even incessant conflicts, with these
+turbulent Indians; but I never boasted of these petty engagements, in
+which I was often obliged to take a most active part. On the contrary,
+I recommended strict silence to my attendants, for I did not wish to
+cause anxiety to my excellent Anna, nor to give my brother the desire
+of accompanying me. I did not like to expose him to the dangers I
+ran myself, as I had not equal hopes of safety for him. I relied
+upon my star, and really, to a certain degree, all modesty aside,
+I think that the bandits' balls respected me. When I was engaged in
+contests in the plain, or in some of the skirmishes, the danger was
+not great; but it was quite a different thing when it was necessary
+to fight hand to hand, which happened more than once; and I cannot
+forbear the pleasure of relating one of those circumstances that made
+me say just now the bandits' balls respected me.
+
+One day I was alone with my lieutenant, having both of us only our
+daggers, and we were coming back to our habitation, and passing through
+a thick forest, situated at the end of the lake. Alila said to me:
+"Master, this neighbourhood is much frequented by Cajoui." Cajoui
+was known as the chief of a most daring gang of brigands. Among
+his numerous atrocities he had amused himself, on that very day, by
+drowning twenty of his fellow-countrymen. I then determined to free
+the country of the odious assassin, and the advice of my lieutenant
+induced me to take a narrow path, that led us to a hut concealed in
+the midst of the woods. I told Alila to remain below, and to watch,
+while I went to endeavour to reconnoitre the persons who inhabited
+it. I went up by the small ladder that leads to the interior of the
+Tagalese huts; a young Indian woman was there, quite alone, and very
+busy plaiting a mat. I asked her for some fire to light my cigar, and
+returned to my lieutenant. Having accidentally cast my eyes upon the
+exterior of the hut, it appeared much larger than it did inside. I
+ran up again quickly, and looked all round the place in which the
+young girl was, and observed at the extremity of it a small door,
+covered over by a mat. I gave it a strong push, and at the moment,
+Cajoui, who, with his carbine on cock, was waiting for me behind the
+door, fired straight at me. The fire and the smoke blinded me, and
+by a most inconceivable chance the ball slightly grazed my clothes
+without wounding me. Alila, knowing I had no fire-arms, hearing the
+report, thought I was killed. He ran up to the top of the steps, and
+found me enveloped in a cloud of smoke, with my dagger in my hand,
+trying to find my enemy, who seeing me still standing erect, after he
+had shot at me, thought, no doubt, I had about me some anten-anten--a
+certain diabolic incantation that, according to the Indian belief,
+makes a man invulnerable to all sorts of fire-arms. The bandit was
+frightened, jumped out of a window, and ran away as fast as he could
+across the forest.
+
+Alila could not believe what had happened to me; he felt all over
+my body, in order to convince himself that the ball had not passed
+through me. When he was quite sure that I had not received a wound,
+he said to me:
+
+"Master, if you had not had the anten-anten about you you would have
+been killed."
+
+My Indians always believed I was possessed of this secret, as well
+as of many others. For instance, when they often saw me go for
+twenty-four, even for thirty-six hours, without eating or drinking,
+they became persuaded that I could live in that manner for an
+indefinite period; and one day, a good Tagalese padre, in whose
+house I chanced to be, almost went upon his knees while begging me
+to communicate to him the power I possessed, as he said, to live
+without food.
+
+The Tagals have retained all their old superstitions. However, thanks
+to the Spaniards, they are all Christians; but they understand that
+religion nearly in the way that children do. They believe that to
+attend on Sundays and festival days at the Divine offices, and to go
+to confession and to communion once a year, is sufficient for the
+remission of all their sins. A little anecdote that occurred to me
+will show how far they understand evangelical charity.
+
+One day two young Indians stole some poultry from one of their
+neighbours, and they came to sell them to my major-domo for about
+sixpence. I had them called before me, to administer a lecture, and
+to punish them. With the utmost simplicity they made me this answer:
+
+"It is true, master, we have done wrong, but we could not do otherwise;
+we are to go to communion to-morrow, and we had not money enough to
+get a cup of chocolate."
+
+It is a custom with them to take a cup of chocolate after communion,
+and it was considered by them a greater sin to miss taking that than
+to commit the trifling theft of which they were guilty.
+
+Two evil-doing demons play an important part among them, and in which
+all believed before the conquest of the Philippine islands. One
+of those malevolent demons is the Tic-balan which I have already
+mentioned, who dwells in the forests, in the interior of the large
+fig-trees. This demon can do every possible harm to anyone who dares
+not to respect him, or who does not carry certain herbs about his
+person; every time an Indian passes under one of these fig-trees
+he makes a movement towards it with his hand, saying: "Tavit-po,"
+Tagal words, signifying: "Lord! with your permission!" The lord of
+the place is the Tic-balan.
+
+The other demon is called Azuan. She presides especially over
+parturitions in an evil manner, and an Indian is often seen, when his
+wife is in labour, perched upon the roof of his hut, with a sabre in
+his hand, thrusting the point into the air, and striking on all sides
+with the edge, to drive away, as he says, the Azuan. Sometimes he
+continues this manoeuvring for hours, until the labour is over. One
+of their beliefs--and one that Europeans might envy--is, that when
+a child that has not reached the age of reason dies, it is happy for
+all the family, since it is an angel that has gone to heaven, to be
+the protector of all its relations. The day of the interment is a
+grand fete-day; relations and friends are invited; they drink, they
+dance, and they sing all night in the hut where the child died. But I
+perceive that the superstitions of the Indians are drawing me from my
+subject. I shall have occasion, further on, to describe the manners
+and customs of these singular people.
+
+I now resume my statement, at the moment when my lieutenant tried to
+assure me that I had some anten-anten, and that consequently I could
+not be wounded by a shot fired at me.
+
+He then addressed the young girl, who had remained in the corner,
+more dead than alive.
+
+"Ah! cursed creature!" said he to her; "you are Cajoui's mistress:
+now your turn is come!"
+
+At this moment he advanced towards her with his dagger in his hand. I
+ran between him and the poor girl, for I knew he was capable of
+killing anyone, particularly after I had been attacked in a manner
+that had placed me in danger.
+
+"Wretch!" said I to him, "what are you going to do?"
+
+"No great things, master; only to cut off the hair and ears of this
+vile woman, and then send her to tell Cajoui that we shall soon
+catch him!"
+
+It cost me much trouble to prevent him from executing his plan. I was
+obliged to use all my authority, and to allow him to burn the cabin,
+after the terrified young girl, thanks to my protection, had fled
+into the forest.
+
+My lieutenant was right in sending word to Cajoui that we should catch
+him. Some months after, and several leagues from the place where we had
+set fire to his cabin, one day, when three men of my guard accompanied
+me, we discovered, in the thickest part of the wood, a small hut. My
+Indians rushed forward in quick time to surround it; but almost all
+round it there was found a morass, covered over with sedges and bushes,
+when all three sunk in the mud, up to their middle. As I did not run
+as fast as they did I perceived the danger, and went round the marsh,
+so as to reach the cabin by the only accessible way. Suddenly I found
+myself face to face with Cajoui, and near enough almost to touch him. I
+had my dagger in my hand; he also had his--the struggle began. For
+a few seconds we aimed many strokes at each other, which each of us
+tried to avoid as well as he could. I think, however, that fortune was
+turning against me; the point of Cajoui's poignard had already entered
+rather deeply into my right arm, when with my left hand I took from
+my belt a large-sized pistol. I discharged it full at his breast:
+the ball and the wadding went through his body. For a few seconds
+Cajoui endeavoured still to defend himself; I struck him with all my
+force, and he fell at my feet; I then wrested from him his dagger,
+which I still retain. My people came out of the mud-hole and joined
+me. Compassion soon replaced the animosity we bore against Cajoui. We
+made a sort of litter; I bandaged his wound, and we carried him more
+than six leagues in this manner to my habitation, where he received
+all the care his state required. Every moment I expected him to die;
+every quarter of an hour my people came to tell me how he was; and
+they kept saying to me:
+
+"Master, he cannot die, because he has the anten-anten upon him; and
+it is very lucky that you have some of it too, and that you fired at
+him, for our arms would have been of no avail against him."
+
+I laughed at their simplicity, and expected from one minute to
+another to hear that the wounded man had breathed his last, when my
+lieutenant brought me, quite joyously, a small manuscript, about two
+inches square, saying to me:
+
+"Here, master, is the anten-anten I found upon Cajoui's body."
+
+At the same time one of my men announced his death.
+
+"Ah!" said Alila, "if I had not taken the anten-anten from him he
+would be still alive."
+
+I searched the small book through and through; prayers and
+invocations that had not much sense were therein written in the
+Tagalese language. A good friar who was present took it out of my
+hands. I imagined that he had the same curiosity as I had, but by
+no means; he rose up and went into the kitchen, and in a short time
+after came out and told me that he had made an auto-da-fe of it. My
+poor lieutenant almost cried with vexation, for he considered the
+little book to be his property, and thought that in possession of it
+he would be invulnerable. I should also have wished to have kept it,
+as a curious specimen of Indian superstition. The next day I had much
+trouble to persuade my stout friend, Father Miguel, to bury Cajoui in
+the cemetery. He maintained that a man who died with the anten-anten
+upon him ought not to receive Christian burial. To make him accede to
+my wishes it was necessary to tell him that the anten-anten had been
+taken from Cajoui before his death, and that he had time to repent.
+
+A few days after Cajoui's death it was my faithful Alila's turn to
+encounter danger, not less imminent than that to which I had been
+exposed, at the time of my combat with the bandit chief. But Alila
+was brave, and, although he had no anten-anten, fire-arms did not
+frighten him.
+
+Large vessels--real Noah's arks--freighted by various merchants,
+sailed every week from the town of Pasig for that of Santa-Cruz, where
+every Thursday a large market was held. Eight daring and determined
+brigands went on board one of these vessels: they hid their arms among
+the bales of goods. The ship was scarcely out at sea when they seized
+them, and a horrible scene of slaughter ensued. All who endeavoured
+to resist them were butchered, even the pilot was thrown overboard;
+at length, finding no more resistance, they plundered the passengers
+of the money they had upon them, took every article of value they
+could find, and, loaded with their booty, they steered the vessel to
+a deserted spot on the shore, where they landed.
+
+I had been informed of this nefarious enterprise, and went with haste
+to the spot where they landed. Unfortunately I arrived too late, for
+they had already escaped to the mountains, after they had divided the
+spoil. Notwithstanding the slight hope I entertained of overtaking
+them, I set off in pursuit, and after a long march I met an Indian,
+who informed me that one of the bandits, not so good a walker as the
+others, was not far off, and that if I and my guards ran quickly we
+might overtake him. Alila was the best runner--he was as fleet as
+a deer; so I told him: "Set out, Alila, and bring me that runaway,
+either dead or alive."
+
+My brave lieutenant, to be less encumbered in the race, left his
+gun with us, took a long spear, and went off. Shortly after we had
+lost sight of him we heard the report of firearms; we knew it must
+be the brigand firing upon Alila, and we all thought that he was
+killed or wounded. We hastened forward, in the hopes of arriving in
+time to render him assistance; but we soon saw him coming leisurely
+towards us; his face and clothes were covered with blood, the spear
+in his right hand, and in his left the hideous head of the bandit,
+which he carried by the hair--as Judith had formerly done with that
+of Holophernes. But my poor Alila was wounded, and my first care was
+to examine if the wound was serious. When I was satisfied it was not
+dangerous, I asked him for the details of his combat.
+
+"Master," said he to me, "shortly after I left you I perceived the
+bandit; he saw me also, and ran off as quickly as he could, but I ran
+faster than he, and was soon close to him. When he lost all hopes
+of escaping he turned upon me and presented his pistol; I was not
+alarmed, and advanced towards him at all risk. The pistol was fired,
+and I felt myself wounded in the face; this wound did not stop me. I
+darted at him and pierced his body with my spear; but, as he was too
+heavy for me to bring to you, I cut off his head, and here it is."
+
+When I had congratulated Alila upon his success, I examined his wound,
+and found that a fragment of a ball, cut into four pieces, had hit
+him upon the cheek, and was flattened on the bone. I extracted it,
+and a speedy cure followed.
+
+Now, as I have almost terminated, and shall not return to, my numerous
+adventures with the bandits, I resume the continuation of my ordinary
+life at Jala-Jala.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    Death of my Brother Robert--Our Party at Jala-Jala--Illness and
+    Last Moments of my Friend Bermigan--Recovery and Departure for
+    France or Lafond--Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity--Tremendous
+    Gale of Wind--Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake--Safe Return
+    to Jala-Jala--Destruction of my House and the Village by a
+    Typhoon--Rendezvous with a Bandit--Ineffectual Attempts to Reform
+    Him--His Death--Journey to Tapuzi--Its Inaccessibility--Government
+    of the Tapuzians--Morality and Religious Character of their
+    Chief--Their Curiosity at Beholding a White Man--Former Wickedness
+    and Divine Punishment--We bid Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return
+    to Jala-Jala.
+
+
+At this period a sad event plunged my house into mourning. Letters from
+my family announced to me that my brother Robert had returned from
+Porto-Rico, but that soon after a serious illness had carried him to
+the grave. He died in the arms of my mother and sisters, in the small
+house of La Planche, where, as I said before, we had all been brought
+up. My excellent Anna, wept with us, and exerted every means that
+interesting affection could suggest to alleviate the grief my brother
+Henry and myself experienced from this melancholy bereavement. A few
+months afterwards a new source of sorrow fell to our lot. Our little
+social party at Jala-Jala consisted of my sister-in-law; of Delaunay,
+a young man from St. Malo, who had come from Bourbon to establish at
+Manilla some manufactories for baking sugar; of Bermigan, a young
+Spaniard; and my friend, Captain Gabriel Lafond, like myself, from
+Nantes. He had come to the Philippine islands on board the Fils de
+France, had passed some years in South America, and had occupied
+several places of distinction in the navy, as captain-commandant,
+until at last, after many adventures and vicissitudes, he came with
+a small fortune to Manilla, where he bought a vessel, and set sail
+for the Pacific Ocean, to fish for the balate or sea-worm. He had
+scarcely readied the island of Tongatabou when the vessel struck upon
+the rocks that surround this island; he saved himself by swimming
+to the shore, having lost everything. From thence he went to the
+Marianne islands, where grief and bad food caused him to fall ill;
+he returned to Manilla, labouring under dysentry. I had him brought
+to my house, and whilst there attended to him with all the care
+a fellow-countryman and a good friend, endowed with sterling and
+amiable qualities, deserved. Our evenings were spent in amusing and
+instructive conversation. As we had all travelled a great deal, each
+had something to relate. During the day the invalids kept company
+with the ladies, while my brother and myself followed our respective
+avocations. But soon, alas! a shocking event disturbed the calm that
+reigned at Jala-Jala. Bermigan fell so dangerously ill, that a few days
+sufficed to convince me there was no hope of saving him. I shall never
+forget the fatal night: we were all assembled in the drawing-room,
+grief and consternation were in every heart and pourtrayed in every
+countenance; in an adjoining room a few short steps from us, we heard
+the death-rattle of poor Bermigan, who had only a few minutes to
+live. My excellent friend, Lafond, whom sickness had reduced almost
+to the last stage, broke silence, and said: "Well! poor Bermigan goes
+to-day, and in a few days, perhaps to-morrow, it will be my turn. Just
+see! my dear Don Pablo; I may almost say that I no longer exist. Look
+at my feet--my body! I am a mere skeleton; I can scarcely take any
+food. Ah! it is better to be dead than live like this!"
+
+I was so persuaded that his forebodings would not be delayed in being
+realized, that I scarcely dared to utter the smallest consolation or
+any hopes. Who could then have told me that he and I alone were to
+survive all those who surrounded us, full of life and health? But,
+alas! let us not here anticipate future events.
+
+Poor Bermigan breathed his last. Our house at Jala-Jala was no longer
+untouched by the hand of Death--a human being had expired therein;
+and on the following day, in sadness and silence, we all proceeded
+to the cemetery, to inter the body of our friend, and to render him
+the last proofs of our respect. The body was laid at the foot of a
+large cross, which is placed in the centre of the grave-yard. For
+many days sadness and silence prevailed in our home at Jala-Jala.
+
+Some time afterwards I had the gratification to see the efforts
+I employed for my friend Lafond were successful. By means of the
+strong remedies I administered his health was speedily restored, his
+appetite returned, and he was soon able to set sail for France. He
+is now residing in Paris, married to a woman possessed of every
+quality necessary to make a man happy, and is the father of three
+children. Holding an honourable position, and enjoying public esteem,
+he has never forgotten the six months he spent at Jala-Jala, for
+ingratitude never sullied his noble, loving, and devoted heart. A
+sincere attachment still subsists between us, and I am happy thus to
+assure him that he is, and ever will be, to me a valued friend. [16]
+
+As I have now mentioned several persons who resided for some time at
+Jala-Jala, I must not forget one of my colonists, Joachim Balthazard,
+a native of Marseilles, as eccentric a man as I have ever known. When
+Joachim was young, he set sail from Marseilles. When he arrived at
+Bourbon, his name not being on the crew's list, he was arrested,
+and put on board the Astrolabe, which was then making a voyage
+round the world. He deserted at the Marianne islands, and came to
+the Philippines in the greatest distress, and addressed himself to
+some good friars, in order, as he said, to effect his conversion
+and his salvation. He lived among them, and at their expense, for
+nearly two years; afterwards he opened a coffee-house at Manilla,
+and spent in pleasure and debauchery a large sum of money that a
+fellow-countryman and I had advanced him. He afterwards built upon
+my grounds a large straw edifice, that had more the appearance of
+a huge magazine than of a house. There he kept a kind of seraglio,
+adopted all the children which his numerous wives gave him, and, with
+his own family, made his house not unlike a mutual school. Whenever
+he was weary of either of his wives he called one of his workmen,
+saying to him in the most serious manner:
+
+"There is a wife that I give you; be a good husband, treat her well:
+and you, woman, this is your husband, be faithful to him. Go, may
+God bless you! Be off, and let me never see you again."
+
+He was generally without a farthing, or all of a sudden rich with heavy
+sums, that were spent in a few days. He borrowed from everybody, and
+never paid them back; he lived like a real Indian, and was as cowardly
+as a half-drowned chicken. His light-coloured hair, sallow complexion,
+and beardless face, gave him the nick-name among the Indians of
+Onela-Dogou, Tagalese words, that signify "one who has no blood."
+
+As I was one day crossing over the lake in a small canoe with him and
+two Indians, we were assailed by one of those extraordinary gales of
+wind, which in the Chinese seas are called Tay-Foung (typhoon). These
+gales of wind, though extremely rare, are tremendous. The sky is
+covered with the heaviest clouds; the rain pours in torrents; the
+day-light disappears, almost as much as in the densest fog; and the
+wind blows with such fury that it throws down everything it reaches
+in its course. [17]
+
+We were in our canoe; the wind had scarcely begun to blow with all
+its violence than Balthazard commenced to invoke all the saints in
+Paradise. Almost in despair, he cried out aloud:
+
+"Oh, God! have mercy upon me, a wretched sinner! Grant me the grace
+that I may have an opportunity of confessing my sins, and of receiving
+absolution!"
+
+All these lamentations and appeals served only to frighten my two
+Indians, and most undoubtedly our position was critical enough for us
+to endeavour to retain our presence of mind, so as to attend to the
+management of our little boat, which from one moment to another was in
+danger of being swamped. However, I was certain that, being provided
+with two large beams of bamboos, it could keep its position in the
+current between two waters and not capsize, if we had the precaution
+and strength to scud before the wind, and not turn the side to a wave,
+for in such case we should all have been drowned. What I foresaw,
+happened. A wave burst upon us; for a few minutes we were plunged
+in the deep, but when the wave passed over we came above water. Our
+canoe was swamped between the currents, but we did not abandon it;
+we put our legs under the seats, and held them fast; the half of
+our body was above water. But every time that a wave came towards
+us it passed over our heads, and then went off, giving us time to
+breathe until another wave came and dashed over us. Every three or
+four minutes the same manoeuvring took place. My Indians and I used
+all our strength and skill to scud on before the wind. Balthazard
+had ceased his lamentations; we all kept silence; from time to time
+I only uttered these words:
+
+"Take courage, boys, we shall reach the shore."
+
+Our position then became much worse, for night set in. The rain
+continued to pour in torrents, the wind increased in fury. From time to
+time we received some light from globes of fire, like what the sailors
+call "Saint Elmo's fire." While these rays of light continued I looked
+as far around me as I could, and only perceived an immense body of
+water in furious agitation. For nearly two hours we were tossed about
+by the waves that drove us towards the beach, and, at a moment when
+we least expected it, we found ourselves driven into the midst of an
+extensive grove of lofty bamboos. I then knew that we were over the
+land, and that the lake had inundated the country for several miles
+around. We were up to our breasts in water, and it was not in our power
+to pass through the inundation. The darkness was too great to allow
+us to go in any direction; our canoe was no longer of any use to us,
+as it was entangled among the bamboos. We climbed up the trees as well
+as we could, even to the height where the bamboos end in sharp points;
+our bodies were much torn by the sharp thorns growing on the small
+branches; the rain continued to pour without intermission; the wind
+still blowed, and each gust caused the bamboos to bend, the flexible
+branches of which tore our bodies and faces. I have suffered a great
+deal in the course of my life, but no night ever appeared to me so
+long and cruel as this! Joachim Balthazard then recovered his speech,
+and, in a trembling, broken voice, said to me:
+
+"Ah! Don Pablo, do write I beg of you, to my mother, and tell her
+the tragical end of her son!"
+
+I could not help answering him: "You cowardly rascal! Do you think,
+then, that I am more at my ease than you are? Hold your tongue,
+otherwise I shall make you turn diver, so that I may never hear you
+again." Poor Joachim then knew what to do, and did not utter a word;
+only from time to time he made us aware of his trouble by his deep
+moans.
+
+The wind, which was blowing from the north-west, towards four o'clock
+in the morning suddenly changed to the east, and shortly afterwards
+gave over. It was almost daylight: we were saved. We could at last
+see one another; all four of us looked in a wretched condition; our
+clothes being torn to pieces. Our bodies were lacerated, and covered
+with deep scratches. The cold had penetrated into the very marrow
+of our bones, and the long bath we had taken had wrinkled the skin;
+we looked just like drowned people taken out of the water, where
+they had been for some hours. Nevertheless, crippled as we were, we
+slipped down from the bamboos, and were soon bathing in the waters
+of the lake. The effect was healthful and agreeable: it seemed like
+a warm bath at 30 degrees of heat.
+
+We were quite restored by this mild temperature. We got our canoe out
+of the grove, where fortunately it had been caught so fast that neither
+the waves nor the currents could drive it any farther. We again set it
+afloat, and soon succeeded in reaching an Indian hut, where we dried
+ourselves, and recruited our strength. Calm was now re-established;
+the sun shone in all its splendour, but everywhere traces of the
+typhoon were visible. In the course of the day we reached Jala-Jala,
+where our arrival caused great joy. They knew at home that I was on
+the lake, and everything led them to presume that I had perished. My
+good and dear Anna threw herself into my arms in tears; she had been
+in such anxiety for my safety, that for some moments the tears that
+flowed down her cheeks alone expressed her joy at again seeing me.
+
+Balthazard returned to his seraglio. As long as he was under my
+protection the Indians respected him, but after my departure from
+Jala-Jala he was assassinated; and all those who knew him agreed that
+he had deserved his fate for more than one cause.
+
+As I have mentioned this typhoon, I am going to anticipate a little,
+in describing, as briefly as possible, a still more frightful one than
+that which I experienced in my slight canoe and in the bamboo grove.
+
+I had just completed some pretty baths upon the lake opposite my
+house. I was quite satisfied and proud of procuring this new pleasure
+for my wife. On the very day that the Indians had added the last
+ornaments to them, towards evening a western wind began to blow
+furiously; by degrees the waters of the lake became agitated, and
+shortly we no longer doubted but that we were going to have a typhoon.
+
+My brother and I stayed some time examining, through the panes of
+glass, whether the baths would resist the strength of the wind,
+but in a heavy squall my poor edifice disappeared like a castle
+made of cards. We withdrew from the window, and luckily too, for a
+heavier squall than that which had destroyed the baths burst in the
+windows that faced to the west. The wind drove through the house,
+and opened a way for itself, by throwing down all the wall over the
+entrance-door. The lake was so agitated that the waves went over my
+house, and inundated all the apartments. We were not able to remain
+there any longer. By assisting each other, my wife, my brother, a young
+Frenchman who was then staying at Jala-Jala, and myself, succeeded in
+reaching a room on the ground-floor; the light came from a very small
+window; there, in almost total darkness, we spent the greater part of
+the night, my brother and I leaning our shoulders against the window,
+opposing with all our strength that of the wind, which threatened to
+force it in. In this small room there were several jars of brandy: my
+excellent Anna poured some into the hollow of her hand, and gave it us
+to drink, to support our strength and to warm us. At break of day the
+wind ceased, and calm re-appeared. All the furniture and decorations
+of my house were broken and shattered to pieces; all the rooms were
+inundated, and the store-rooms were full of sand, carried there by the
+waters of the lake. Soon my house became an asylum for my colonists,
+who had all spent a wretched night, and were without shelter.
+
+The sun soon shone splendidly; the sky was cloudless; but my sadness
+was extreme when, from a window, I examined the disasters produced
+by the typhoon. There was no village! Every hut was levelled to the
+ground. The church was thrown down--my store-houses, my sugar factory,
+were entirely destroyed; there was then nothing more than heaps of
+ruins. My fine cane-fields were altogether destroyed, and the country,
+which previously had appeared so beautiful, seemed as if it had passed
+through a long wintry season. There was no longer any verdure to be
+seen; the trees were entirely leafless, with their boughs broken, and
+portions of the wood were entirely torn down; and all this devastation
+had taken place within a few hours. During that and the following day
+the lake threw up, upon the shore, the bodies of several unfortunate
+Indians who had perished. The first care of Padre Miguel was to
+bury the dead, and for a long time afterwards there were to be seen,
+in the grave-yard of Jala-Jala, crosses, with the inscription: "An
+unknown who died during the typhoon." My Indians began immediately to
+rebuild their huts, and I, as far as possible, to repair my disasters.
+
+The fertile nature of the Philippine islands speedily effaced the
+aspect of mourning which it had assumed. In less than eight days
+the trees were completely covered with new leaves, and exhibited
+themselves as in a brilliant summer, after the frightful winter had
+passed over. The typhoon had embraced a diameter of about two leagues,
+and, like a violent hurricane, had upset and shattered everything it
+met during its course.
+
+But enough of disasters: I return to the epoch when the death of poor
+Bermigan caused affliction to us all.
+
+All was prosperity in my dwelling: my Indians were happy; the
+population of Jala-Jala increased every day; I was beloved and
+respected. I had rendered great service to the Spanish government
+by the incessant warfare I carried on against the bandits; and I may
+say that even amongst them I enjoyed a high reputation. They looked
+upon me, indeed, as their enemy, but in the light of a brave enemy,
+incapable of committing any act of baseness against them, and who
+carried on an honourable warfare; and the Indian character was so
+well known to me, that I did not fear they would play me any low
+tricks, or would treacherously attack me. Such was my conviction,
+that around my house I was never accompanied by day or by night. I
+traversed without fear all the forests and mountains, and I often even
+treated with these honourable bandits, as one power does with another,
+by not disdaining the invitations sometimes sent to me to come to a
+certain place, where, without fear of surprise, they could consult me,
+or even invoke my assistance. This sort of rendezvous was always held
+in the night, and in very lonely places. On their side, as well as
+on mine, a promise given of not doing any injury to each other was
+religiously observed. In these nocturnal conversations, held without
+witnesses, I often brought back to a life of peace mistaken men, whom
+the turbulence of youth had thrown into a series of crimes, which
+the laws would have visited with most severe punishment. Sometimes,
+however, I failed in my attempts, and especially when I had to do
+with proud and untameable characters, such as are to be found among
+men who never have had any other guide but natural instinct. One day,
+among others, I received a letter from a half-breed, a great criminal,
+who infested the neighbouring province of Laguna; he told me that
+he wished to see me, and begged me to come alone in the middle of
+the night to a wild spot, where he would also come alone: I did not
+hesitate to go to the place appointed. I found him there as he had
+promised me. He told me that he wished to change his mode of life,
+and to dwell on my estate. He added, that he had never committed any
+crime against the Spaniards, but only against the Indians and the
+half-breeds. It would have been impossible for me to have received
+him without compromising myself. I proposed to place him in the house
+of a friar, where he might remain concealed for several years, until
+his crimes were forgotten, and then he could enter into society. After
+a moment's reflection, he replied:
+
+"No, that would be to lose my liberty. To live as a slave! I would
+prefer to die."
+
+I then proposed to him to go to Tapuzi, a place where the bandits, when
+hotly pursued, were enabled to conceal themselves with impunity.--(I
+shall very soon have occasion to speak of this village.)--The
+half-breed, with an insignificant gesture, replied:
+
+"No; the person I wish to take with me would not come there. You can
+do nothing for me, adieu!"
+
+He then pressed my hand, and we separated. Some days afterwards, a hut
+in which he was seen, near Manilla, was surrounded by the troops of
+the line. The bandit then caused the owners of the hut to quit it,
+and when he saw them out of danger he took his carabine and began
+firing upon the soldiers, who on their side returned the attack on
+the hut. When it was riddled with balls, and the bandit had ceased
+to defend himself, a soldier approached the hut and set fire to it,
+so great was the fear they entertained of then finding him alive.
+
+These nocturnal interviews having led me to mention Tapuzi, I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to this remarkable retreat,
+where men, when proscribed by the law, live together in a sort of
+accord and union of a most extraordinary kind.
+
+Tapuzi, [18] which in the Tagal language, signifies "end of the world,"
+is a little village, situate in the interior of the mountains, nearly
+twenty-five leagues from Jala-Jala. It was formed there by bandits
+and men who had escaped from the galleys, who live in liberty, govern
+themselves, and are altogether, on account of the inaccessible position
+which they occupy, safe from any pursuit which could be ordered against
+them by the Spanish government. I had often heard this singular village
+mentioned, but I had never met anyone who had visited it, or could give
+me any positive details relative to it. One day, therefore, I resolved
+to go thither myself. I stated my intention to my lieutenant, who said:
+
+"Master, I shall find there, no doubt, some of my old comrades,
+and then we shall have nothing to fear."
+
+Three of us set out together, under the pretext of quite a different
+journey. For two days we walked in the midst of mountains, by paths
+almost impracticable. The third day we reached a torrent, the bed of
+which was blocked up by enormous stones. This ravine was the only road
+by which we could get to Tapuzi; it was the natural and impregnable
+rampart which defended the village against the attack of the Spanish
+troops. My lieutenant had just told me:
+
+"Look, master, above your head. None but the inhabitants of Tapuzi
+know the paths which lead to the top of the mountains. All along the
+length of the ravine they have placed enormous stones, that they have
+only to push to throw them down upon those who should come to attack
+them; a whole army could not penetrate among them, if they wished to
+give any opposition."
+
+I clearly saw that we were not in a very agreeable position, and
+against which, if the Tapuzians should consider us as enemies, we could
+oppose no defence. But we were involved in it, and there was no means
+of retreating, it was absolutely necessary to go to Tapuzi. We had
+been already more than an hour in this ravine when an immense block
+of stone fell down perpendicularly, and broke into pieces only twenty
+yards before us: it was a warning. We stopped, laid down our arms,
+and sat down. Perhaps just such another block as what had fallen was
+hanging over our heads, ready to crush us to pieces. We heard a scream
+near us. I told my lieutenant to proceed alone towards the direction
+it came from. In a few minutes he returned, accompanied by two Indians,
+who, confident in my pacific intentions towards them, came to fetch us,
+to take us to the village. We proceeded cheerfully on the remainder
+of the road until we reached the spot where ended the sort of funnel
+we were walking in. Upon this height there was to be seen a plain,
+some miles in circumference, surrounded by high mountains. The part
+that we were in was stopped up by enormous blocks of rocks, lying
+one on the top of the other. From behind stretched forth an abrupt
+threatening mountain, without any signs of vegetation--not unlike
+an ancient European fortress, that some magical power had raised in
+the midst of the high mountains that commanded it. With one glance I
+beheld the whole of the site we were crossing, and at the same time
+reflected upon the great varieties nature presents to our view. We
+soon reached the long wished-for object of our journey--the village of
+Tapuzi. It lies at the extreme end of a plain, composed of about sixty
+thatched huts, similar to those of the Indians. The inhabitants were
+all at their windows, to witness our arrival. Our guides conducted
+us to their chief, or Matanda-sanayon, a fine old man, from the look
+of his face about eighty years of age. He bowed affably to us, and
+addressed himself to me.
+
+"How are you come here--as a friend, or is it curiosity--or do the
+cruel laws of the Spaniards perhaps compel you to seek refuge among
+us? If such is the case, you are welcome; you will find us brothers."
+
+"No," I said to him; "we do not come to stay among you. I am your
+neighbour, and lord of Jala-Jala. I am come to see you, to offer you
+my friendship, and to ask yours."
+
+At the name Jala-Jala the old man looked quite astonished; he then
+said to me:
+
+"It is a long time since I heard you spoken of as an agent of the
+government for pursuing unfortunate men, but I have heard also that
+you fulfilled your mission with much kindness, and that often you
+were their protector, so be welcome."
+
+After this first recognition they presented us some milk and some
+kidney potatoes, and during our repast the old man conversed freely
+with me.
+
+"Several years ago," said he to me, "at a period I cannot recollect,
+some men came to live in Tapuzi. The peace and safety they enjoyed
+made others imitate their example, who sought like themselves to avoid
+the punishment of some faults they had committed. We soon saw fathers
+of families, with their wives and children flock hither; this was
+the foundation of the small government that you see. Now here almost
+all is in common; some fields of kidney potatoes or Indian corn, and
+hunting, suffice for us; he who possesses anything gives to him who has
+nothing. Almost all our clothing is knitted and woven by our wives;
+the abaca, or vegetable silk, from the forest supplies us the thread
+that is necessary; we do not know what money is, we do not require
+any. Here there is no ambition; each one is certain of not suffering
+from hunger. From time to time strangers come to visit us. If they
+are willing to submit to our laws, they remain with us; they have a
+fortnight of probation to go through before they decide. Our laws
+are lenient and indulgent. We have not forgotten the religion of
+our forefathers, and God no doubt will forgive me my first faults,
+on account of my efforts for so many years to promote his worship,
+and the well-being of my equals."
+
+"But," said I to him, "who is your chief, who are your judges and
+priests?"
+
+"It is I," said he, "who fulfil all those functions. Formerly they
+lived like savages here. I was young, robust, and devoted to all my
+brothers. Their chief had just expired: I was chosen to replace him. I
+then took care to do nothing but what was just, and conducive to the
+happiness of those who confided in me. Until then they had devoted
+but little attention to religion: I wished to put my people in mind
+that they were born Christians. I appointed one hour every Sunday
+for us to pray together, and I have invested myself with all the
+attributes of a minister of the Gospel. I celebrate the marriages, I
+pour water upon the foreheads of the infants, and I offer consolations
+to the dying. In my youth, I was a chorister; I remembered the church
+ceremonies; and if I do not actually possess the necessary attributes
+for the functions I have given myself, I practise them with faith and
+love. This is the reason I trust that my good intentions will obtain
+my forgiveness from Him who is the Sovereign Lord of all."
+
+During the whole time of the old man's conversation I was in continual
+admiration. I was among people who had the reputation of living in
+the greatest licentiousness as thieves and robbers. Their character
+was altogether misunderstood. It was a real, great phalanstery,
+composed of brothers, almost all worthy of the name. Above all I
+admired this fine old man, who with moral principles and simple laws,
+had governed them for so many years. On the other hand, what an example
+that was of free men not being able to live without choosing a chief,
+and bringing one another back to the practice of virtuous actions!
+
+I explained to the old man all my thoughts. I bestowed upon him a
+thousand praises for his conduct, and assured him that the Archbishop
+of Manilla would approve all the religious acts he performed with so
+noble an object. I even offered to intercede with the archbishop in
+his behalf, that he might send a pastor to assist him. But he replied:
+
+"No, thank you, sir; never speak about us. We should certainly
+be glad to have a minister of the Gospel here, but soon, under his
+influence, we should be subjected to the Spanish government. It would
+be requisite for us to have money to pay our contributions. Ambition
+would soon creep in amongst us, and from the freedom which we now
+enjoy, we should gradually sink into a state of slavery, and should
+no longer be happy. Once more I entreat of you, do not speak of us:
+give me your word that you will not."
+
+This argument appeared so just to me that I acquiesced to his
+request. I again gave him all the praise he deserved, and promised
+never to disturb the peace of the inhabitants of his village under
+any pretext whatever.
+
+In the evening we received visits from all the inhabitants,
+particularly from the women and children, who all had an immoderate
+curiosity to see a white man. None of the Tapuzian women had ever been
+out of their village, and had scarcely ever lost sight of their huts;
+it was not, therefore, astonishing that they were so curious.
+
+The next day I went round the plain, and visited the fields of
+kidney potatoes and Indian corn, the principal nourishment of the
+inhabitants. The old chief and some elderly people accompanied
+me. When we reached the spot where, upon the eve, I had already
+remarked enormous blocks of rock, the old man paused and told me:
+
+"Look yonder, Castilla. [19] At a time when the Tapuzians were without
+religion, and lived as wild beasts, God punished them. Look at all
+the part of that mountain quite stripped of vegetation: one night,
+during a tremendous earthquake, that mountain split in two--one part
+swallowed up the half of the village that then stood on the place
+where those enormous rocks are. A few hundred steps further on all
+would have been destroyed; there would no longer have existed a single
+person in Tapuzi: but a part of the population was not injured, and
+came and settled themselves where the village now is. Since then we
+pray to the Almighty, and live in a manner so as not to deserve so
+severe a chastisement as that experienced by the wretched victims of
+that awful night."
+
+The conversation and society of this old man--I might say the King
+of Tapuzi--was most interesting to me. But I had already been four
+days absent from Jala-Jala. I ordered my lieutenant to prepare for
+our departure. We bid most affectionate adieus to our hosts, and set
+off. In two days I returned home, quite pleased with my journey and
+the good inhabitants of Tapuzi.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+    Suppression of War between two Indian Towns--Flourishing Condition
+    of Jala-Jala--Hospitality to Strangers--Field Sports--Bat
+    and Lizard Shooting--Visit to, and Description of, the Isle
+    of Socolme--Adventure with a Cayman--Cormorants--We Visit Los
+    Banos--Monkey Shooting--Expedition to, and Description of, the
+    Grotto of Sun-Mateo--Magnificent aspect of the Interior.
+
+
+I found Anna in great trouble, not only on account of my absence,
+but because, on the previous evening, information had been received
+that the inhabitants of the two largest towns in the province had,
+as it was stated, declared war against each other; the most courageous
+amongst them, to the number of three or four hundred on each side, had
+started for the island of Talem. There both parties, in the presence
+of each other, were upon the point of engaging in a battle; already,
+while skirmishing, several had been mortally wounded.
+
+This news frightened Anna she knew that I was not a man who would
+await quietly at home the issue of the battle; she already fancied
+she saw me, with my ten guards, engaged in the thick of the fight,
+and perhaps a victim of my devotedness. I comforted her as I had
+always done, promising to be prudent, and not forget her; but there
+was not a moment to lose; it was necessary, at all risks, to try to
+put an end to a conflict that might no doubt cause the death of many
+men. How could I do so with my ten guards? Dare I pretend to impose my
+will as law on this vast multitude? Clearly not. To attempt to do it
+by force would be to sacrifice all: what was to be done? Arm all my
+Indians--but I had not boats enough to carry them to Talem: in this
+difficulty I decided upon setting out alone with my lieutenant. We
+took our arms, and set sail in a canoe, that we steered ourselves; we
+had scarcely come near the beach within hail of the shore, when some
+armed Indians called out to us to stand off, otherwise they would fire
+upon us. Without paying attention to this threat, my lieutenant and I,
+some minutes later, jumped boldly on shore, and after a few steps we
+found ourselves in the midst of the combatants.
+
+I went immediately up to the chiefs and addressed them, "Wretched
+men," I said to them, "what are you going to do? It is upon you who
+command that the severity of the law will fall. It is still time:
+try to deserve your pardon. Order your men to give me up their arms;
+lay down your own, or else in a few minutes I will place myself at
+the head of your enemies to fight against you. Obey, if not you will
+be treated as rebels."
+
+They listened attentively to me; they were half conquered. However,
+one of them made me this reply:
+
+"And if you take away our arms who will satisfy us that our enemies
+will not come to attack us?"
+
+"I will," I told them; "I give you my word; and if they do not obey
+me as you are going to do, I will return to you, I will give you back
+your arms, and will fight at your head."
+
+These words, said with a tone of authority and command, produced the
+effect I expected. The chiefs, without uttering a word, laid their
+arms at my feet. Their example was followed by all the combatants,
+and, in a moment, a heap of carabines, guns, spears, and cutlasses
+were laid down before me. I appointed ten among these individuals
+who had just obeyed me, gave them each a gun, and told them:
+
+"I confide to you the care of these arms. If anyone attempts to take
+possession of them, fire upon the assailants."
+
+I pretended to take down their names, and went off to the opposite
+camp, where I found all the combatants on foot, ready to march and
+fight against their enemies. I stopped them, saying:
+
+"The battle is over--your enemies are disarmed. You, too, must give
+me up your arms, or else immediately embark in your canoes, and go
+home. If you do not obey me, I will give back their arms instantly to
+your opponents, and I will put myself at their head to fight against
+you. Perform what I command you; I promise you all shall be forgotten."
+
+There was no room for hesitation. The Indians knew that I did not
+allow much time for reflection, and that my threats and chastisements
+followed each other closely. Shortly after, they all embarked in
+their canoes. I remained on the beach alone, with my lieutenant,
+until I had almost lost sight of this small fleet. I then returned
+to the other camp, where I was impatiently expected. I announced to
+the Indians they had no longer any enemies, and that consequently
+they could go back quietly to their village.
+
+But a few days elapsed, as may be seen, without my having new dangers
+to encounter. I was accustomed to them: I relied upon my star, and
+triumphed from all my imprudences. My Indians were blindly submissive
+to me. I was so certain of their fidelity, that I no longer took
+against them the precautions which I considered necessary during the
+first year of my residence at Jala-Jala.
+
+My Anna took part every day more and more in my labours, anxieties,
+and even in some of my dangers. Would it have been possible not to
+have loved her with deeper affection, than that which one feels for a
+companion leading a peaceful and insignificant life? With what gladness
+she received me after the shortest absence! Joy and satisfaction
+shone on her face, her caresses were as a balsam that healed all my
+lassitude, and even the reproaches she addressed me so gently, for the
+uneasiness I had caused her, fell upon my heart us drops of beatitude.
+
+Jala-Jala was most flourishing; immense fields of rice, sugar-cane,
+and coffee, had taken the place of woods and forests unproductive
+in themselves. Rich pasture-grounds were covered with numerous
+flocks; and a fine Indian village stood in the centre of the
+labouring-ground. Here, there was everywhere to be seen plenty,
+activity; and joy smiled on the countenances of all the inhabitants. My
+own dwelling had become the rendezvous, or resorting-place, of all
+the travellers arriving at Manilla, and a refuge of convalescence
+of many patients, who would come and breath the good and mild air of
+Jala-Jala, as well as enjoy its pleasures and amusements. Under that
+roof there was no distinction, no difference; all were equals in our
+eyes, whether French, Spanish, English, American. No matter to what
+nation belonged those who landed at Jala-Jala, they were received like
+brothers, and with all that cordial hospitality to be found formerly
+in our colonies. My visitors enjoyed full and active liberty on my
+little estate; but he who was not desirous of eating alone was obliged
+to remember the time of meals: during the other hours of the day one
+and all followed their own inclinations. For instance, naturalists
+went in pursuit of insects and birds, and made an ample harvest of
+every species of plants. Persons ailing met with the assiduous care
+of a physician, as well as with the kind attention and enjoyed the
+company of a most amiable and well-informed mistress of the house,
+who had the natural talent of enchanting all those who spent but a
+short time in her society. They who liked walking might look about for
+the fine views, and choose their resting-place either in the woods,
+the mountains, near the cascades or the brooks, or on the beautiful
+borders of the lake.
+
+But to sportsmen Jala-Jala was really a "promised land;" there they
+always found a good pack of hounds, Indians to guide them, good
+stout horses to carry them across the various mountains and plains,
+where the stag and wild boar were to be met with most plentifully;
+and were they desirous of less fatiguing exercise, they only had to
+jump into some of our light canoes, and skim over the blue waters,
+shooting on their way at the hosts of aquatic birds flying around
+them in all directions,--they could even land on the various small
+islands situated between Jala-Jala and the isle of Talem. There
+they could find a sort of sport utterly unknown in Europe--that is,
+immense bats, a species of vampire, designated by naturalists by the
+name of roussettes. During six months in the year, at the period of the
+eastern monsoon, every tree on these little isles is covered, from the
+topmost down to the lowest branch, with those huge bats, that supply
+the place of the foliage which they have entirely destroyed. Muffled
+up in their vast wings they sleep during the whole day, and in the
+nighttime they start off in large bodies roaming about in search
+of their prey. But as soon as the western monsoon has succeeded the
+eastern, they disappear, and repair always to the same place,--the
+eastern coast of Luzon, where they take shelter; after the monsoon
+changed, they return to their former quarters.
+
+As soon as our guests would alight upon one of these islands, they
+opened their fire, and continued it till--frightened by so many
+explosions and the screams of the wounded, clinging to and hanging
+from the branches--the bats would fly away in a body--en masse. For
+some time they would whirl and turn round and round like a dense
+cloud over their abandoned home, imitating, in a most perfect way,
+those furies we see in certain engravings representing the infernal
+regions, and then, flying off a short distance, would perch upon the
+trees in a neighbouring isle. If the sportsmen were not over-fatigued
+by the slaughter they might then follow them, and set-to again; but
+they generally found they had made victims enough, and diversified
+their pleasure by picking up the slain from under the trees. The bat
+shooting over, our sportsmen would then proceed to a new sport--
+
+
+                  "To fresh fields and pastures new;"
+
+
+that is, in pursuit of and shooting at the iguanas, a large species of
+lizard, measuring from five to six feet long, which infest the rocks
+on the borders of the lake. Tired of firing without being obliged to
+show any skill, our chasseurs would re-embark in their pirogues and
+row in search of new amusement,--this was, to shoot at the eagles that
+came hovering over their heads. Here skill was requisite, as well
+as a prompt, sure glance of the eye, as it is only with ball that
+these enormous birds of prey can be reached. Our fowlers would then
+return home, with their boats full of game; and everyone, of course,
+had his own feats of prowess to relate.
+
+The flesh of the iguana and the bat is savoury and delicate; but as
+for its taste, that entirely depends upon the imagination, as may
+here be seen.
+
+After returning from one of these grand shooting excursions to the
+minor islands, a young American informed me that his friends and he
+himself were most desirous of tasting the iguana and the bat; so,
+supposing them all to be of the same mind, I ordered my maitre-d'hotel
+to prepare for dinner a curry of iguana and a ragout of bats. The
+first dish served round at dinner was the curry, of which they one
+and all partook with very good appetite; upon which I ventured to say:
+"You see the flesh of the iguana is most delicate." At these words all
+my guests turned pale, and they all, by a sudden motion, pushed their
+plates from before them, not even being able to swallow what their
+mouths contained. I was therefore obliged to order the removal of
+the entrees of iguana and bats before we could proceed with the repast.
+
+When it was in my power, I would accompany my guests in their
+excursions, and then the chase was abundant and full of interest,
+because I ever took care to guide them towards places abounding
+in game and very picturesque. Sometimes I would take them to
+the isle of Socolme, a still more curious place indeed than
+the bat islands. Socolme is a circular lake--being one league in
+circumference--in the midst of the great lake of Bay, from which it
+is separated by a cordon or ribbon of land; or, to express myself
+better, by a mountain which rises to an elevation of from twelve to
+fifteen hundred feet; the centre of the mountain at the summit is
+occupied by the lake of Socolme, and is evidently the crater of an
+extinct volcano. Both sides are completely covered with large trees
+of luxuriant growth. It is on the border of the small lake--where
+the Indians never go, through fear of the caymans--that almost all
+the aquatic birds of the grand lake resort to lay their eggs. Every
+tree, white with the guano which they deposit there, is covered with
+birds'-nests, full of eggs and birds of every size and age.
+
+One day, in company of my brother and Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, [20] an
+Englishman, who was as fearless an explorer as ourselves, I started
+from the plantation, with the intention of having some light canoes
+carried across the high ground which separates the Socolme lake from
+the lake of Bay, and of using them on the lake; and, after overcoming
+many difficulties, we, by the assistance of our Indians, carried out
+this project.
+
+We were the first tourists that ever ventured to expose our lives
+on this Socolme lake. The Indians who had come with us refused most
+decidedly to enter the boats, and exerted all their eloquence to
+prevent us from going on the water. They spoke to us thus:--
+
+"You are going, for no good purpose, to expose yourselves to very
+great dangers, against which you have no means of defence, for
+before you have gone far you will see thousands of caymans rising
+out of the deep water; they will come to attack you, and what can
+you oppose to those ferocious and invulnerable monsters? Your guns
+and bullets cannot wound them. And as for escape by rowing quickly,
+that is not possible. In their own element they swim much faster
+than your canoes, and when they come up to you they will turn your
+boats up-side-down with far more ease than you can drive it along;
+and then the frightful scene will begin, from which you cannot escape."
+
+There was much good sense in what they said, and there can be no doubt
+that it was most imprudent of us to embark in a little frail canoe,
+and to make a trip over a lake inhabited by such numbers of caymans,
+and especially since it was to be feared that the lake did not supply
+fish enough to satisfy their voracity; and of course when enraged by
+hunger they were more to be dreaded.
+
+But we were never deterred by dangers or difficulties; so, taking
+no account of the prognostics of my prudent Indians, we, while they
+were delivering their long speeches, had lashed together two canoes
+for greater security.
+
+We had not proceeded many yards from the bank, when we all experienced
+feelings of alarm, attributable, no doubt, to the expectation of
+danger being immediate, as well as to the aspect of the place which
+presented itself to our view.
+
+We were down in the deepest part of a gulf, surrounded by lofty
+and precipitous mountains, which were externally covered with very
+thick vegetation. They, on all sides, presented a barrier, through
+which it was impossible to pass. The shadows which they cast over
+the water, at the extreme point of the lake, produced the effect of
+half darkness, which, in conjunction with the silence prevailing in
+that dismal solitude, gave it an aspect so dreary and saddening,
+as to produce in us most painful feelings; each of us as it were,
+struck with terror, kept his thoughts to himself, and no one spoke.
+
+Our canoes went on, moving farther and farther from the brink from
+which we had embarked; and it glided easily over the glassy sheet of
+water, which is never agitated by even the roughest gales, and does not
+receive the rays of the sun except when that luminary is at the zenith.
+
+The silence in which we were absorbed was suddenly broken by the
+appearance of a cayman, which raised its hideous head, and opened
+its enormous jaws, as if about to swallow the canoes, as it darted
+after us.
+
+The moment was come; the grand drama announced by the Indians was
+about to be realised, or all our fears would be dissipated without any
+delay. There was not one instant to be spared, and we had no choice
+but to try and escape as fast as we could, for the enemy was gaining
+on us, and it would be madness to await his attack. I was steering,
+and I exerted myself to the utmost to get away from the danger and
+to escape to the shore. But the amphibious beast was approaching so
+fast that he could almost seize us, when Lindsay, running all risks,
+fired his gun direct at the brute.
+
+The effect produced by the detonation was prodigious, for, as it were
+by enchantment, it dispelled all our apprehensions. The awful silence
+was broken in the most striking manner; the cayman was frightened, and
+sank abruptly to the bottom of the lake; hundreds of echoes resounded
+from all sides, like the discharges of a rifle corps, and these were
+repeated to the tops of the mountains, while clouds of cormorants,
+starting from all the trees around, uttered their screaming and
+piercing cries, in which they were joined by the Indians, who shouted
+with joy on seeing from the bank the flight of the hostile beast,
+of which they are always so much afraid.
+
+All then became tranquil, and we proceeded at our leisure. From time
+to time a cayman made his appearance; but the explosions caused by
+our firing soon drove the monsters down into the deepest parts of
+the lake, more frightened than hurt, for even when we struck them
+our balls rebounded from their scales without piercing them.
+
+We went close to the large trees, the branches of which were spreading
+over the water; they were thickly covered with nests, filled with eggs,
+and so great a quantity of young birds, that we not only captured as
+many as we wished, but could have filled several boats with them.
+
+The cormorants, alarmed by the explosions we made, whirled over us
+continually, like an immense cloud, during the time we troubled their
+gloomy abode, and seemed to "disturb their solitary reign;" but they
+did not wish to go far from their nests, in which their young broods
+were crying out for parental care.
+
+After we had rowed round the lake, we came to the spot from which we
+started, having ended our expedition happily without any accident,
+and even without having incurred all the dangers that our Indians,
+who were awaiting our return in order to take our boats once more
+across the mountain, had wished to make us believe.
+
+Resolved not to finish the excursion without producing some beneficial
+results for the sake of scientific knowledge, we measured the
+circumference of the lake, which we found to be about two miles and
+a-half. We were able to take soundings in the deepest parts towards
+the middle, where we found the depth about three hundred feet; while at
+some few fathoms from the banks we found it was invariably one hundred
+and eighty feet. And here the remark may be made, that in no part of
+the great Lake of Bay has the depth been found to exceed seventy-five
+feet; from which it may be concluded, as we have previously stated,
+that the lake of Socolme is formed within the crater of an extinct
+volcano, its waters having percolated or filtered through from the
+outer lake of Bay.
+
+From Socolme I took my guests to Los Banos, at the foot of a mountain,
+several thousand feet high, from which several springs of boiling
+water flow into the lake, and, mixing with its waters, produce every
+temperature to be desired in a natural bath. There also, on the hill,
+we were sure to meet with good and plentiful sport. Wild pigeons and
+beautiful doves, perched upon majestic trees, "mistrustful of their
+doom," allowed our sportsmen to approach very near, and they never
+returned from "the baths" without having "bagged" plenty of them.
+
+Upon our appointed days of relaxation from labour, we would go into the
+neighbouring woods, and wage war on the monkeys, our harvest's greatest
+enemies. As soon as a little dog, purposely brought up to this mode
+of warfare, warned us by his barkings that marauders were in sight,
+we repaired to the spot, and then the firing was opened. Fright seized
+hold on the mischievous tribe, every member of which hid itself in its
+tree, and became as invisible as it possibly could. But the little
+dog would not leave his post, while we would turn round the tree,
+and never failed discovering the hidden inmate. We then commence
+the attack, not ceasing until pug was laid prostrate. After having
+made several victims, I sent them to be hung up on forks around the
+sugar-cane fields, as scarecrows to those that had escaped; I, however,
+always sent the largest one to Father Miguel, our excellent curate,
+who was very fond of a monkey ragout.
+
+Sometimes I would take my guests to a distance of several days' march,
+to show them admirable views, cascades, grottoes, or those wonders
+of vegetation produced by the fertile nature of the Philippines.
+
+One day, Mr. Lindsay, the most intrepid traveller I had ever known,
+and who had recently accompanied me to the lake of Socolme, proposed
+to me to go with him to the grotto of San-Mateo, a place that several
+travellers and myself had visited more than once, but always in
+so incomplete a manner, that we had only been able to explore
+a small portion of it. I was too well pleased with the proposal
+not to accept it with eagerness; but this time I resolved that I
+would not return from this expedition, as I had from former ones,
+without having made every possible effort to explore its dimensions
+and recesses. Lindsay, Dr. Genu, and my brother, participated in
+my resolution of verifying whether or not there was any semblance
+of truth in what the Indians related concerning that grotto; or if,
+as I had so often experienced it myself, their poetic minds did not
+create what had never existed. Their old Indian traditions attributed
+to that cavern an immense extent. There, they would say, are to be
+seen fairy palaces, with which nothing could be compared, and which
+were the residences of fantastical beings. Determined, then, on seeing
+with our own eyes all these wonders, we set out for San-Mateo, taking
+with us an Indian, having with him a crowbar and a couple of pickaxes,
+to dig us out a way, should we have the chance of prolonging our
+subterraneous walk beyond the limits which we all already knew. We
+also took with us a good provision of flambeaus, so necessary to
+put our project into execution. We arrived early at San-Mateo, and
+spent the remaining part of the day in visiting admirable views and
+situations in the neighbourhood. We also went down into the bed of
+a torrent that takes its source in the mountains, and passes through
+the north side of this district; there we saw several Indians, male
+and female, all busy in washing the sand in search of gold-dust. Their
+daily produce at this work varies from one to ten francs; this depends
+on the more or less fortunate vein that perchance they fall on. This
+trade, together with the tilling of land--to be equalled by no other
+in fertility--and hewing timber for building, which is to be found
+most plentifully on the neighbouring mountains, is all the wealth of
+the inhabitants, who, in most part, live in abundance and prosperity.
+
+At the next day's dawn we were on our way to the grotto, which is
+about two hours' walk from the village. The road, which is bordered
+by nature's most beautiful productions in vegetation, traverses the
+finest rice plantations, and is of most easy access; however, about
+half-way, it suddenly becomes dangerous and even difficult. Here we
+leave the cultivated fields, and follow along the banks of the river,
+which flows in the midst of not very high mountains, and has so many
+bends, twistings, and meanderings, that, in order to cross it, it is
+necessary at almost every moment to have recourse to swimming, and
+then to take the narrow paths leading from its margin. Nothing, until
+at a very short distance from the grotto, interrupts the monotony of
+these rural sites and situations. The traveller plods his way through
+a gorge, or ravine, where upon all sides the view is bounded by rocks,
+and a long line of verdant vegetation, composed of the shrubs that
+cover the hills. But through a vast winding, or rather turning, made
+by the river, the eye is suddenly dazzled by the splendid panorama
+that seems to develop itself and move on with fairy magnificence. Let
+the reader imagine that he is standing at the base of two immense
+mountains, resembling two pyramids in their form, both equally alike
+and similar in height. The space that intervenes between them allows
+the eye to plunge into the distance, and to discover there a tableau,
+a picture, or view, which is impossible to be described. Between
+the two monster mountains the river has found an issue, and there
+the traveller beholds it at his feet, precipitating itself like an
+impetuous torrent in the midst of white marble rocks. The water, both
+limpid and glossy, seems to play with every object that impedes its
+course; at one moment it will form a noisy cascade, and then suddenly
+disappear at the foot of an enormous rock, and soon after appear again,
+bubbling and foaming, just as if some supernatural strength had worked
+it from the bowels of the earth. Farther on, and in forming itself into
+a continuous number of minor cascades, this same river flows, with a
+vast silvery surface, over a bed of marble, as white and as brilliant
+as alabaster, and falls upon others of still equal whiteness. Finally,
+after having passed over all difficulties, all dangers, it flows with
+much more modesty over a humble bed, where may be seen the reflection
+of the admirable vegetation its banks are embellished with.
+
+The famous grotto is situated in the mountain on the right side of
+the river, which the traveller crosses over by jumping from one block
+of marble to another; and then, after having ascended a steep height
+of about two hundred yards, he finds himself at the entrance to the
+grotto, whither I shall conduct the reader step by step.
+
+The entrance, the form of which is almost regular, represents pretty
+well the portico of a church, with a full arch, adorned with verdant
+festoons, composed of creeping plants and bind-weeds. When the visitor
+has once passed under the portico he enters into a large and spacious
+hall, studded with stalactites of a very yellowish colour, and there
+a dense crowd of bats, frightened by the light of the torches, fly
+out with great noise and precipitation. For about a hundred paces,
+in advancing towards the interior, the vault continues to be very
+lofty, and the gallery is spacious; but suddenly the former declines
+immensely, and the latter becomes so narrow that it scarce admits
+of a passage for one man, who is obliged to crawl on his hands and
+knees to pass through, and continue in this painful position for
+about a hundred yards. And now the gallery becomes wide again, and
+the vault rises several feet high. But here, again, a new difficulty
+soon presents itself, and which must be overcome; a sort of wall,
+three or four yards high, must be climbed over, and immediately behind
+which lies a most dangerous subterraneous place, where two enormous
+precipices, with open mouths on a level with the ground, seem ready
+to swallow up the imprudent traveller, who, although he have his
+torch lighted, would not walk, step by step, and with the greatest
+precaution, through this gloomy labyrinth. A few stones thrown into
+these gulfs attest, by the hollow noise produced by their falling
+to the bottom, that they are several hundred feet deep. Then the
+gallery, which is still wide and spacious, runs on without presenting
+anything remarkable till the visitor arrives on the spot where the
+last researches stopped at. Here it seems to terminate by a sort of
+rotunda, surrounded by stalactites of divers forms, and which, in one
+part, represents a real dome supported by columns. This dome looks
+over a small lake, out of which a murmuring stream flows continually
+into the precipices already described. It was here that we began our
+serious investigations, desirous of ascertaining if it were possible
+to prolong this subterraneous peregrination. We dived several times
+into the lake without discovering anything favourable to our desires;
+we then directed our steps to the right, examining all the while, by
+the light of our torches, the smallest gaps to be seen in the sides
+of the gallery, when at last, after many unsuccessful attempts, we
+discovered a hole through which a man's arm could scarcely pass. By
+introducing a torch into it, how great was our surprise to see within
+it an immense space, studded with rock-crystal. I need not add that
+such a discovery inspired us with the greatest desire of more closely
+examining that which we had but an imperfect view of. We therefore
+set our Indian to work with his pick-axe, to widen the hole and make
+a passage for us; his labour went on slowly, he struck his blows
+gently and cautiously, so as to avoid a falling-in of the rock, which
+would not only have marred our hopes, but would, besides, have caused
+a great disaster. The vault of rocks suspended over our heads might
+bury us all alive, and, as will be seen by the sequel, the precautions
+we had taken were not fruitless. At the very moment when our hopes
+were about to be realised,--the aperture being now wide enough
+to admit of us passing through it--suddenly, and above our heads,
+we heard a hollow prolonged rustling noise that froze us to death;
+the vault had been shaken, and we dreaded its falling upon us. For a
+moment, which seemed to us, however, very long, we were all terrified;
+the Indian himself was standing as motionless as a statue, with his
+hands upon the handle of his pick-axe, just in the same position as
+he was when he gave his last blow. After a moment's solemn silence,
+when our fright had a little subsided, we began to examine the nature
+of the danger we had just escaped. Above our heads a long and wide
+split ran along the vault to a distance of several yards, and, at
+the place where it stopped, an enormous rock, detached from the dome,
+had been most providentially impeded in its fall downwards by one of
+the columns, which, acting as a sort of buttress, kept it suspended
+over the opening we had just made. Having, after mature examination,
+ascertained that the column and the rock were pretty solid, like rash
+men, accustomed to daunt all danger and surmount any sort of obstacle
+and difficulty, we resolved upon gliding one by one into the dangerous
+yawning. Dr. Genu, who till then had kept a profound silence, on
+hearing of our resolution was suddenly seized with such a panic fear
+that he recovered his voice, imploring and begging of us to take him
+out of the cavern; and, as if he had been suddenly seized with a sort
+of vertigo, he told us, with interrupted accents, that he could not
+breathe--that he felt himself as if he were smothering--that his heart
+was beating so violently, were he to stay any longer amidst the dangers
+we were running he was certain of dying from the effects of a rupture
+of the heart. He offered all he possessed on earth to him who would
+save his life, and with clasped hands he supplicated our Indians not
+to forsake him, but to guide him out of the place. We therefore took
+compassion upon his state of mind, and allowed the Indian to guide
+him out; but as soon as the latter returned, and having ascertained
+during his absence that neither the rocky fragment nor the column had
+stirred, but which had been the momentary cause of our alarm, we put
+our project into execution, and like serpents, one after the other,
+we crawled into the dangerous opening, which was scarcely large enough
+for our passing through. We soon ceased thinking of our past dangers,
+nor did our present imprudence much pre-occupy our minds, all our
+attention being entirely absorbed by what presented itself to our
+ravished eyes. Here we were in the midst of a saloon wearing a most
+fairy aspect, and, by the light of our torches, the vault, the floor,
+and the wall were shining and dazzling, as if they had been covered
+over with the most admirably transparent rock-crystal. Even in some
+places did the hand of man seem to have presided over the ornamenting
+of this enchanted palace. Numberless stalactites and stalagmites, as
+pellucid as the limpid stream that has just been seized by the frost,
+assumed here and there the most fantastic forms and shapes--they
+represented brilliant draperies, rows of columns, lustres, and
+chandeliers. At one end, close to the wall, was to be seen an altar,
+with steps leading up to it, and which seemed to be in expectation
+of the priest to celebrate divine service. It would be impossible
+for my pen to describe everything that transported us with joy, and
+drew forth our admiration; we really imagined ourselves to be in one
+of the Arabian Nights' palaces, and the Indians themselves were far
+from guessing the one-half of the wonders we had just discovered.
+
+Having left this dazzling palace, we continued our underground ramble,
+penetrating more and more into the bowels of the earth, following
+step by step a winding labyrinth, but which for a whole half-league
+offered nothing remarkable to our view, except now and then the
+sight of the very great dangers our undauntable curiosity urged us
+on to. In certain parts the vault no longer presented the aspect
+of being as solid as stone, earth alone seemed to be its component
+parts; and here and there, recent proofs of falling-in showed us that
+still more considerable ones might take place, and cut off from us
+all means of retreat. Nevertheless we pushed on still, far beyond
+our present adventurous discovery, and at last arrived at a new,
+magnificent, and extensive space, all bespangled, like the first,
+with brilliant stalactites, and in no way inferior to the former in
+the gorgeous beauty of its details. Here again we gave ourselves up
+to the most minute examination of the many wonders surrounding us,
+and which shone like prisms by the light of our torches. We gathered
+from off the ground several small stalagmites, as large and as round
+as hazel-nuts, and so like that fruit, when preserved, that some days
+later, at a ball at Manilla, we presented some of them to the ladies,
+whose first movement was to put them to their mouth; but soon finding
+out their mistake, they entreated to be allowed to keep them, to
+have them, as they said, converted into ear-ring drops. Having fully
+enjoyed the beautiful and brilliant spectacle presented to our eyes,
+we now began to feel the effects of hunger and fatigue. We had been
+walking in this subterraneous domain to the extent of more than three
+miles, had taken no rest or refreshment since morning, and the day
+was already far advanced.
+
+I have often experienced that our moral strength decreases in
+proportion as our physical strength does; and of course we must have
+been in that state when sinister suppositions took possession of
+our imaginations. One of our party communicated to us a reflection
+he had just made--which was, that a falling-in might have taken
+place between us and the issue from the grotto; or, what appeared
+still more probable, that the enormous rock, that was suspended and
+buttressed up by the column, might have fallen down, and thus bar
+up all passage through the hole we had so rashly made. Had such a
+misfortune happened to us, what a horrible situation we should have
+been in! We could hope for no help from without, even from our friend
+Genu, who, as we had witnessed, had been so upset by fear; so that,
+rather than suffer the anguish and die the death of the wretch buried
+alive in a sepulchre, our poignards must have been our last resource.
+
+All these reflections, which we analysed and commented upon, one by
+one, made us resolve upon returning, and leaving to others, more
+imprudent than ourselves, if any there be, the care of exploring
+the space we had still to travel over. We soon got over the ground
+that separated us from the place we had most to dread. Providence
+had favoured and protected us--the large fragment of rock, that
+object of all our fears, was still propped up. One after the other
+did we squeeze ourselves through the narrow opening, avoiding as
+much as possible the least friction, till at last we had all passed
+through. Joyous indeed were we on seeing ourselves out of danger after
+so perilous an enterprise, and we were already beginning to direct
+our steps towards the outlet of the cavern, when suddenly a hollow,
+prolonged noise, and below our feet a rapid trembling excited once
+more all our fears. But those fears were soon calmed by our Indian,
+who came running towards us at full speed, brandishing in his hand
+his pick-axe. The imprudent fellow, unwilling to sacrifice it, had
+waited till we were some paces distant, and then pulling it to him
+most forcibly, while all the while he took good care to keep quickly
+moving away, when thanks to Providence, or to his own nimbleness,
+he was not crushed to atoms by the fragment of the rock, which,
+being no longer buttressed up by the column that had been shaken,
+had fallen to the ground, completely stopping up the issue through
+which we had passed one after the other: so that no doubt no one,
+after us, will be able to penetrate into the beautiful part of that
+grotto which we had just passed through so fortunately. After this
+last episode we no longer hesitated in returning, and it was with great
+delight that we beheld once more the great luminary of the world, and
+found our friend Genu sitting upon a block of marble, reflecting on
+our long absence, and, at the same time, on our unqualifiable temerity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+    Dumont d'Urville--Rear-Admiral Laplace: Desertion of
+    Sailors from his Ship--I recover them for him--Origin of
+    the Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands--Their General
+    Disposition--Hospitality and Respect for Old Age--Tagal
+    Marriage Ceremony--Indian Legal Eloquence--Explanation of the
+    Matrimonial Speeches--The Caymans, or Alligators--Instances of
+    their Ferocity--Imprudence and Death of my Shepherd--Method
+    of entrapping the Monster which had devoured him--We Attack
+    and eventually Capture it--Its Dimensions--We Dissect and
+    Examine the Contents of its Stomach--Boa-Constrictors--Their
+    large size--Attack of a Boa-Constrictor on a Wild Boar--We Kill
+    and Skin it--Unsuccessful Attempt to capture a Boa-Constrictor
+    alive--A Man Devoured--Dangerous Venomous Reptiles.
+
+
+I shall perhaps be accused of exaggeration for what I say of the
+enjoyments and emotions of my existence at Jala-Jala: nevertheless
+I adhere to the strict truth, and it would be very easy for me to
+cite the names of many persons in support of the truth of all my
+narrative. Moreover, the various travellers who have spent some time at
+my habitation have published, in their works, the tableau or recital of
+my existence in the midst of my dear Indians, who were all so devoted
+to me. Among other works, I shall cite "The Voyage Round the World,"
+by the unfortunate Dumont d'Urville; and that of Rear-Admiral Laplace,
+in each of which works will be found a special article dedicated to
+Jala-Jala. [21]
+
+Since I have named M. Laplace, I shall here relate a little anecdote
+of which he was the hero, and which will show to what a degree my
+influence was generally considered and looked up to in the province
+of Lagune.
+
+Several sailors, belonging to the crew of the frigate commanded
+by M. Laplace, had deserted at Manilla, and, notwithstanding all
+the searches that the Spanish government had caused to be made,
+it was found impossible to discover the hiding-place of five of
+them. M. Laplace coming to pay a few weeks' visit to my little domain,
+the governor said to him: "If you wish to find out your men you have
+only to apply to M. Gironiere--no one will discover them if he do not;
+convey to him my orders to set out immediately in pursuit of them."
+
+On arriving at my habitation M. Laplace communicated to me this order,
+but I was too independent to think of executing it: my business and
+occupation had nothing to do with deserters. A few days afterwards a
+captain, accompanied by about a hundred soldiers, under his orders,
+arrived at Jala-Jala, to inform M. Laplace that he had scoured
+the province without being able to obtain the least news of the
+deserters, whom he had been looking after for the last fortnight; at
+which news M. Laplace was very much grieved, and coming to me, said:
+"M. de la Gironiere, I perceive I shall be obliged to sail without the
+hands that have deserted, if you yourself will not look after them. I
+therefore beg and beseech of you to sacrifice a little of your time,
+and render me that important service."
+
+This entreaty was no order: it was a prayer, a supplication, that
+was addressed to me, consequently I took but little time to reply
+as follows: "Commander, in one hour hence I shall be on my way,
+and before forty-eight hours are expired you shall have your men here."
+
+"Oh! take care," replied he; "mind, you have to do with more than
+rough fellows: do not therefore expose your life, and should they
+perchance make any resistance, give them no quarter, but fire on them."
+
+A few minutes afterwards, accompanied by my faithful lieutenant and
+one soldier, I crossed over the lake, and went in the direction
+where I thought that the French sailors had taken refuge. I was
+soon on their track; and on the second day afterwards I fulfilled
+the promise I had made Commander Laplace, and delivered up to him
+his five deserters against whom I had been obliged to employ neither
+violence nor fire-arms.
+
+I have already had the occasion of speaking about the Tagalocs, and
+describing their disposition. However, I have not yet entered into
+the necessary details to make well known a population so submissive
+to the Spaniards, and whose primitive origin never can be anything
+but hypothesis--yea, a true problem.
+
+It is probable, and almost incontestible, that the Philippine Islands
+were primitively peopled by aborigines, a small race of negroes still
+inhabiting the interior of the forests in pretty large numbers, called
+Ajetas by the Tagalocs, and Negritos by the Spaniards. Doubtless
+at a very distant period the Malays invaded the shores, and drove
+the indigenous population into the interior beyond the mountains;
+afterwards, whether by accidents on sea, or desirous of availing
+themselves of the richness of the soil, they were joined by the
+Chinese, the Japanese, the inhabitants of the archipelago of the
+South Seas, the Javanese, and even the Indians. It must not, then,
+be wondered at, that from the mixture proceeding from the union of
+these various people, all of unequal physiognomy, there have risen
+the different nuances, distinctions and types; upon which, however,
+is generally depicted Malay physiognomy and cruelty.
+
+The Tagal is well made, rather tall than otherwise. His hair is long,
+his beard thin, his colour brass-like, yet sometimes inclining to
+European whiteness; his eye expanded and vivacious, somewhat a la
+Chinoise; nose large; and, true to the Malay race, his cheek bones are
+high and prominent. He is passionately fond of dancing and music; is,
+when in love, very loving; cruel towards his enemies; never forgives an
+act of injustice, and ever avenges it with his poignard, which--like
+the kris with the Malays--is his favourite weapon. Whenever he has
+pledged his word in serious business, it is sacred; he gives himself
+passionately to games of hazard; he is a good husband, a good father;
+jealous of his wife's honour, but careless of his daughter's; who,
+despite any little faux-pas, meets with no difficulty in getting
+a husband.
+
+The Tagal is of very sober habits: all he requires is water, a
+little rice, and salt-fish. In his estimation an aged man is an
+object of great veneration; and where there exists a family of them
+in all periods of life, the youngest is naturally most subservient
+to the eldest.
+
+The Tagal, like the Arab, is hospitably inclined, without any sentiment
+of egotism, and certainly without any other idea than that of relieving
+suffering humanity: so that when a stranger appears before an Indian
+hut at meal-time, were the poor Indian only to have what was strictly
+necessary for his family, it is his greatest pleasure to invite and
+press the stranger to take a place at his humble board, and partake
+of his family cheer. When an old man, whose days are dwindling to
+the shortest span, can work no longer, he is sure to find a refuge,
+an asylum, a home, at a neighbour's, where he is looked upon as one
+of the family. There he may remain till he is called to "that bourne
+from whence no traveller returns."
+
+Amongst the Tagals the marriage ceremony is somewhat peculiar. It
+is preceded by two other ceremonies, the first of which is called
+Tain manoc, Tagal words, signifying or meaning "the cock looking
+after his hen." Therefore, when once a young man has informed his
+father and mother that he has a predeliction for a young Indian girl,
+his parents pay a visit to the young girl's parents upon some fine
+evening, and after some very ordinary chat the mamma of the young man
+offers a piaster to the mamma of the young lady. Should the future
+mother-in-law accept, the young lover is admitted, and then his future
+mother-in-law is sure to go and spend the very same piaster in betel
+and cocoa-wine. During the greater portion of the night the whole
+company assembled upon the occasion chews betel, drinks cocoa-wine,
+and discusses upon all other subjects but marriage. The young men
+never make their appearance till the piaster has been accepted,
+because in that case they look upon it as being the first and most
+essential step towards their marriage.
+
+On the next day the young man pays a visit to the mother, father,
+and other relatives of his affianced bride. There he is received as
+one of the family; he sleeps there, he lodges there, takes a part in
+all the labours, and most particularly in those labours depending
+upon the young maid's superintendence. He now undertakes a service
+or task that lasts, more or less, two, three, or four years, during
+which time he must look well to himself; for if anything be found
+out against him he is discarded, and never more can pretend to the
+hand of her he would espouse.
+
+The Spaniards did their best to suppress this custom, on account of the
+inconveniencies it entailed. Very often the father of a young girl,
+in order to keep in his service a man who cost him nothing, keeps on
+this state of servitude indefinitely, and sometimes dismisses him who
+has served him for two or three years, and takes another under the same
+title of pretendant, or lover. But it also frequently happens that
+if the two lovers grow impatient for the celebration of the marriage
+ceremony--for "hope deferred maketh the heart sick,"--some day or
+other the girl takes the young man by the hair, and presenting him
+to the curate of the village, tells him she has just run away with
+her lover, therefore they must be married. The wedding ceremony then
+takes place without the consent of the parents. But were the young
+man to carry off the young girl, he would be severely punished,
+and she restored to her family.
+
+If all things have passed off in good order, if the lover has undergone
+two or three years of voluntary slavery, and if his future relations
+be quite satisfied with his conduct and temper, then comes the day
+of the second ceremony, called Tajin-bojol, "the young man desirous
+of tying the union knot."
+
+This second ceremony is a grand festival-day. The relations and
+friends of both families are all assembled at the bride's house,
+and divided into two camps, each of which discusses the interests of
+the young couple; but each family has an advocate, who alone has the
+right to speak in favour of his client. The relations have no right
+to speak; they only make, in a low tone of voice, to their advocate,
+the observations they think fit.
+
+The Indian woman never brings a marriage portion with her. When she
+takes a husband unto herself she possesses nothing; the young man alone
+brings the portion, and this is why the young girl's advocate speaks
+first, and asks for it, in order to settle the basis of the treaty.
+
+I will here set before my readers the speeches of two advocates in a
+ceremony of this kind, at which I had the curiosity to be present. In
+order not to wound the susceptibility of the parties, the advocates
+never speak but in allegorical terms, and at the ceremony which
+I honoured with my presence the advocate of the young Indian girl
+thus began:--
+
+"A young man and a young girl were joined together in the holy
+bands of wedlock; they possessed nothing--nay, they had not even a
+shelter. For several years the young woman was very badly off. At last
+her misfortunes came to an end, and one day she found herself in a
+fine large cottage that was her own. She became the mother of a pretty
+little babe, a girl, and on the day of her confinement there appeared
+unto her an angel, who said to her:--'Bear in mind thy marriage,
+and the time of penury thou didst go through. The child that has
+just been born unto thee will I take under my protection. When she
+will have grown up and be a fine lass, give her but to him who will
+build her up a temple, where there will be ten columns, each composed
+of ten stones. If thou dost not execute these my orders thy daughter
+will be as miserable as thou hast been thyself.'"
+
+After this short speech, the adverse advocate replied:--"Once upon a
+time there lived a queen, whose kingdom lay on the sea-side. Amongst
+the laws of her realm there was one which she followed with the
+greatest rigour. Every ship arriving in her states' harbour could,
+according to that law, cast anchor but at one hundred fathoms deep,
+and he who violated the said law was put to death without pity or
+remorse. Now it came to pass one day that a brave captain of a ship was
+surprised by a dreadful tempest, and after many fruitless endeavours
+to save his vessel, he was obliged to put into the queen's harbour,
+and cast anchor there, although his cable was only eighty fathoms
+long, for he preferred death on the scaffold to the loss of his ship
+and crew. The enraged queen commanded him to her audit chamber. He
+obeyed, and throwing himself at her feet, told her that necessity
+alone had compelled him to infringe upon the laws, and that, having
+but eighty fathoms long, he could not possibly cast out a hundred,
+so he besought her most graciously to pardon him."
+
+And here ended his speech, but the other advocate took it up, and
+thus went on:--
+
+"The queen, moved to pity by the prayer of the suppliant captain,
+and his inability to cast his anchor one hundred fathoms deep,
+instantly pardoned him, and well did she devise."
+
+On hearing these last words joy shone upon every countenance,
+and the musicians began playing on the guitar. The bride and
+bridegroom, who had been waiting in an adjoining chamber, now made
+their appearance. The young man took from off his neck his rosary, or
+string of beads, put it round the young girl's neck, and took back hers
+in lieu of the one he had given her. The night was spent in dancing
+and merriment, and the marriage ceremony--just as Christian-like as
+our own--was arranged to take place in a week.
+
+I shall now, just as I heard it myself, give the explanation of the
+advocates' speeches, which I did not entirely understand. The bride's
+mother had married without a wedding portion on her husband's side,
+so she had gone through very adverse and pinching circumstances. The
+temple that the angel had told her to demand for her daughter was, a
+house; and the ten columns, composed of ten stones each, signified that
+with the house a sum of one hundred piasters would be requisite--that
+is, twenty pounds sterling.
+
+The speech of the young man's advocate explained that he would give
+the house, as he said nothing about it; but, being worth only eighty
+piasters, he threw himself at the feet of the parents of his betrothed,
+that the twenty piasters which he was minus, might offer no obstacle
+to his marriage. The pardon accorded by the queen signified the grace
+shown to the young man, who was accepted with his eighty piasters only.
+
+The servitude which precedes matrimony, and of which I have spoken,
+was practised long before the conquest of these isles by the
+Spaniards. This would seem to prove the origin I attribute to the
+Tagalocs, whom I believe to be descended from the Malays, and these
+latter, being all Mussulmans, would naturally have preserved some of
+the ancient patriarchal customs.
+
+Believing that I have sufficiently described the Indians and their
+habits, I will now introduce to my readers two species of monsters
+that I have often bad occasion to observe, mid even to combat--the
+one a denizen of forests, the boa constrictor; the other of lakes
+and rivers, the cayman or alligator. At the period at which I first
+occupied my habitation, and began to colonise the village of Jala-Jala,
+caymans abounded on that side of the lake. From my windows I daily
+saw them sporting in the water, and waylaying and snapping at the
+dogs that ventured too near the brink. One day, a female servant of my
+wife's, having been so imprudent as to bathe at the edge of the lake,
+was surprised by one of them, a monster of enormous size. One of my
+guards came up at the moment she was being carried off; he fired his
+musket at the brute, and hit it under the fore-leg, or arm-pit, which
+is the only vulnerable part. But the wound was insufficient to check
+the cayman's progress, and it disappeared with its prey. Nevertheless,
+this little bullet hole was the cause of its death; and here it is
+to be observed, that the slightest wound received by the cayman is
+incurable. The shrimps which abound in the lake get into the orifice,
+gradually their number increases, until at last they penetrate deep
+into the solid flesh, and into the very interior of the body. This
+is what happened to the one which devoured my wife's maid. A month
+after the frightful occurrence the cayman was found dead upon the
+bank, five or six leagues from my house. Some Indians brought back
+to me the unfortunate woman's earrings, which they had found in the
+monster's stomach.
+
+Upon another occasion, a Chinese was riding onwards in advance
+of me. We reached a river, and I let him go on alone, in order to
+ascertain whether the river was very deep or not. Suddenly, three or
+four caymans which lay in waiting under the water, threw themselves
+upon him; horse and rider disappeared, and for some minutes afterwards
+the water was tinged with blood.
+
+I was curious to obtain a near view of one of these voracious animals,
+and, at the time when they frequented the vicinity of my house, I made
+several attempts to accomplish my wishes. One night I baited a huge
+hook, secured by a chain and strong cord, with an entire sheep. Next
+morning, sheep and chain had disappeared. I lay in wait for the
+creatures with my gun, but the bullets rebounded, half flattened
+upon their scales, without doing the slightest injury. One evening
+that a large dog of mine had died, belonging to a race peculiar to
+the Philippines, and exceeding in size any of the canine species of
+Europe, I had his carcass dragged to the shore of the lake, and hid
+myself in a little thicket, with my gun ready cocked, in the event
+of any cayman presenting itself to carry off the bait. Presently
+I fell asleep; when I awoke, the dog had disappeared, the cayman,
+luckily for me, not mistaking his prey.
+
+In the course of a few years' time, these monsters had disappeared
+from the environs of Jala-Jala; but one morning, when out with my
+shepherds, at some leagues' distance from my house, we came to a river,
+which could only be crossed by swimming. One of my people said to me:
+
+"Master, the water is deep here, and we are in the courses where the
+caymans abound; an accident soon happens, let us try further up the
+river, and pass over in a shallower spot."
+
+We were about to follow this advice, when another man, more rash
+than his comrades, said: "I'm not afraid of caymans!" and spurred
+his horse into the stream. He had scarcely got half-way across, when
+we perceived a monstrous cayman rise and advance to meet him. We
+uttered a warning shout, the Indian himself perceived the danger,
+threw himself from his horse, and swam for the bank with all his
+strength. He had already reached it, but imprudently stopped behind
+the trunk of a tree that had been felled by the force of the current,
+and where he had the water up to his knees. Believing himself secure,
+he drew his cutlass, and watched the movements of the cayman, which,
+meanwhile, had reached the horse just as, the Indian quitted the
+animal. Rearing his enormous head out of the water, the monster threw
+himself upon the steed and seized him by the saddle. The horse made
+a violent effort, the girths broke, and thus enabled him to reach
+the shore. Soon, however, finding that his prey had escaped, the
+cayman dropped the saddle, and made towards the Indian. We perceived
+this movement, and quickly cried out: "Run, run, or the cayman will
+have you!" The Indian, however, would not stir, but calmly waited,
+cutlass in hand. The monster advanced towards him; the Indian struck
+him a blow on the head, which took no more effect than a flip of the
+fingers would have on the horns of a bull. The cayman made a spring,
+seized him by one of his thighs, and for more than a minute we beheld
+my poor shepherd--his body erect above the surface of the water,
+his hands joined, his eyes turned to heaven, in the attitude of a man
+imploring Divine mercy--dragged back again into the lake. The drama
+was over: the cayman's stomach was his tomb. During these agonizing
+moments, we all remained silent, but no sooner had my poor shepherd
+disappeared than we all swore to avenge him.
+
+I caused to be made three nets of strong cords, each of which nets
+was large enough to form a complete barrier across the river. I also
+had a hut built, and put an Indian to live in it, whose duty was to
+keep constant watch, and to let me know as soon as the cayman returned
+to the river. He watched in vain, for upwards of two months, but at
+the end of that time he came and told me that the monster had seized
+a horse, and had dragged it into the river to devour at leisure. I
+immediately repaired to the spot, accompanied by my guards, and by my
+priest, who positively would see a cayman hunt, and by an American
+friend of mine, Mr. Russell, [22] who was then staying with me. I
+had the nets spread at intervals, so that the cayman could not escape
+back into the lake. This operation was not effected without some acts
+of imprudence; thus, for instance, when the nets were arranged, an
+Indian dived to make sure that they were at the bottom, and that our
+enemy could not escape by passing below them. But it might very well
+have happened that the cayman was in the interval between the nets,
+and so have gobbled up my Indian. Fortunately everything passed off
+as we wished. When all was ready, I launched three pirogues, strongly
+fastened together, side by side, with some Indians in the centre,
+armed with lances, and with long bamboos, with which they could touch
+the bottom. At last, all measures having been taken to attain my end,
+without risk of accident, my Indians began to explore the river with
+their long bamboos.
+
+An animal so formidable in size as the one we were in search of,
+could not hide himself very easily, and soon we beheld him on the
+surface of the river, lashing the water with his long tail, snapping
+and clattering with his jaws, and endeavouring to get at those
+who disturbed him in his retreat. A universal shout of joy greeted
+his appearance; the Indians in the pirogues hurled their lances at
+him, whilst we, upon either shore of the lake, fired a volley. The
+bullets rebounded from the monster's scales, which they were unable
+to penetrate; the keener lances made their way between the scales,
+and entered into the cayman's body some eight or ten inches. Thereupon
+he disappeared, swimming with incredible rapidity, and reached the
+first net. The resistance it opposed turned him back; he re-ascended
+the river, and again appeared on the top of the water. This violent
+movement, broke the staves of the lances which the Indians had stuck
+into him, and the iron alone remained in the wounds. Each time that
+he appeared the firing recommenced, and fresh lances were plunged
+into his enormous body. Perceiving, however, how ineffectual firearms
+were to pierce his cuirass of invulnerable scales, I excited him by
+my shouts and gestures, and when he came to the edge of the water,
+opening his enormous jaws all ready to devour me, I approached the
+muzzle of my gun to within a few inches, and fired both barrels, in
+the hope that the bullets would find something softer than scales in
+the interior of that formidable cavern, and that they would penetrate
+to his brain. All was futile. The jaws closed with a terrible noise,
+seizing only the fire and smoke that issued from my gun, and the balls
+flattened against his bones without injuring them. The animal, which
+had now become furious, made inconceivable efforts to seize one of
+his enemies; his strength seemed to increase, rather than to diminish,
+whilst our resources were nearly exhausted. Almost all our lances were
+sticking in his body, and our ammunition drew to an end. The fight
+had lasted more than six hours, without any result that could make us
+hope for its speedy termination, when an Indian struck the cayman,
+whilst at the bottom of the water, with a lance of unusual strength
+and size. Another Indian, at his comrade's request, struck two vigorous
+blows with a mace upon the but-end of the lance; the iron entered deep
+into the animal's body, and immediately, with a movement as swift as
+lightning, he darted towards the nets and disappeared. The lance pole,
+detached from the iron head, returned to the surface of the water;
+for some minutes we waited in vain for the monster's re-appearance;
+we thought that his last effort had enabled him to reach the lake, and
+that our chase would result fruitlessly. We hauled in the first net, a
+large hole in which convinced us that our supposition was correct. The
+second net was in the same condition as the first. Disheartened by
+our failure, we were hauling in the third, when we felt a strong
+resistance. Several of the Indians began to drag it towards the bank,
+and presently, to our great joy, we saw the cayman upon the surface
+of the water. He was expiring. We threw over him several lassos of
+strong cords, and when he was well secured, we drew him to land. It
+was no easy matter to haul him up on the bank; the strength of forty
+Indians hardly sufficed. When at last we had got him completely out
+of the water, and had him before our eyes, we stood stupified with
+astonishment, for it was a very different thing to see his body thus
+and to see him swimming, when he was fighting against us. Mr. Russell,
+a very competent person, was charged with his measurements. From the
+extremity of his nostrils to the tip of his tail, he was found to
+be twenty-seven feet long, and his circumference was eleven feet,
+measured under the arm pits. His belly was much more voluminous,
+but we thought it unnecessary to measure him there, judging that the
+horse upon which he had breakfasted must considerably have increased
+his bulk.
+
+This process at an end, we took counsel as to what we should do
+with the dead cayman. Every one gave his opinion. My wish was to
+convey it bodily to my residence, but that was impossible; it would
+have required a vessel of five or six tons burthen, and we could not
+procure such a craft. One man wanted the skin, the Indians begged for
+the flesh, to dry it, and use it as a specific against asthma. They
+affirm, that any asthmatic person who nourishes himself for a certain
+time with this flesh, is infallibly cured. Somebody else desired to
+have the fat, as an antidote to rheumatic pains; and, finally, my
+worthy priest demanded that the stomach should be opened, in order to
+ascertain how many Christians the monster had devoured. Every time,
+he said, that a cayman eats a Christian he swallows a large pebble;
+thus, the number of pebbles we should find in him would positively
+indicate the number of the faithful to whom his enormous stomach had
+afforded sepulture. To satisfy everybody, I sent for an axe wherewith,
+to cut off the head, which I reserved for myself, abandoning the rest
+of the carcass to all who had taken part in the capture. It was no
+easy matter to decapitate the monster. The axe buried itself in the
+flesh to half-way up the handle without reaching the bones; at last,
+after many efforts, we succeeded in getting the head off. Then we
+opened the stomach, and took out of it, by fragments, the horse which
+had been devoured by the monster that morning. The cayman does not
+masticate, he snaps off a huge lump with his teeth, and swallows it
+entire. Thus we found the whole of the horse, divided only into seven
+or eight pieces. Then we came to about a hundred and fifty pounds'
+weight of pebbles, varying from the size of a fist to that of a
+walnut. When my priest saw this great quantity of stones:
+
+"It is a mere tale," he could not help saying; "it is impossible that
+this animal could have devoured so great a number of Christians."
+
+It was eight o'clock at night when we had finished the cutting up. I
+left the body to our assistants, and had the head placed in a boat to
+convey it to my house. I very much desired to preserve this monstrous
+trophy as nearly as possible in the state in which it then was, but
+that would have required a great quantity of arsenical soap, and I
+was out of that chemical. So I made up my mind to dissect it, and
+preserve the skeleton. I weighed it before detaching the ligaments;
+its weight was four hundred and fifty pounds; its length, from the
+nose to the first vertebrae, five feet six inches.
+
+I found all my bullets, which had become flattened against the bones
+of the jaws and palate as they would have done against a plate of
+iron. The lance thrust which had slain the cayman was a chance--a sort
+of miracle. When the Indian struck with his mace upon the but-end
+of the pole, the iron pierced through the nape, into the vertebral
+column, and penetrated the spinal marrow, the only vulnerable part.
+
+When this formidable head was well prepared, and the bones dried and
+whitened, I had the pleasure of presenting it to my friend Russell,
+who has since deposited it in the museum at Boston, United States.
+
+The other monster, of which I have promised a description, is the
+boa-constrictor. The species is common in the Philippines, but it is
+rare to meet with a specimen of very large dimensions. It is possible,
+nay probable, that centuries of time are necessary for this reptile to
+attain its largest size; and to such an age, the various accidents to
+which animals are exposed, rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas
+are consequently to be met with only in the gloomiest, most remote,
+and most solitary forests.
+
+I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our
+European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my
+house, and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my
+bed. Several times, when passing through the woods with my Indians,
+I heard the piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot
+whence they proceeded, we almost invariably found a wild boar, about
+whose body a boa had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting
+him up into the tree round which it had coiled itself.
+
+When the wild boar had reached a certain height, the snake pressed
+him against a tree with a force that crushed his bones and stifled
+him. Then the boa let its prey fall, descended the tree, and prepared
+to swallow it. This last operation was much too lengthy for us to
+await its end. To simplify matters, I sent a ball into the boa's
+head. My Indians took the flesh to dry it for food, and the skin to
+make dagger sheaths of. It is unnecessary to say that the wild boar
+was not forgotten, although it was a prey that had cost us but little
+trouble to secure. One day an Indian surprised one of these reptiles
+asleep, after it had swallowed an enormous deer. Its size was so great,
+that a buffalo waggon would have been necessary to transport it to the
+village. The Indian cut it in pieces, and contented himself with as
+much as he could carry off. Having been informed of this, I sent after
+the remains, and my people brought me a piece about eight feet long,
+and so large in circumference that the skin, when dried, enveloped the
+tallest man like a cloak. I presented it to my friend Hamilton Lindsay.
+
+I had not yet seen any of these largest sized serpents alive, when,
+one afternoon, crossing the mountains with two of my shepherds, our
+attention was drawn to the constant barking of my dogs, which seemed
+to be assailing some animal that stood upon its defence. We at first
+thought that it was a buffalo that they had roused from its lair, and
+approached the spot with due caution. My dogs were dispersed along the
+brink of a deep ravine, in which was an enormous boa constrictor. The
+monster raised his head to a height of five or six feet, directing it
+from one edge to the other of the ravine, and menacing his assailants
+with his forked tongue; but the dogs, more active than he was, easily
+avoided his attacks. My first impulse was to shoot him; but then it
+occurred to me to take him alive, and to send him to France. Assuredly
+he would have been the most monstrous boa that had ever been seen
+there. To carry my design into execution we manufactured nooses of
+cane, strong enough to resist the efforts of the most powerful wild
+buffalo. With great precaution we succeeded in passing one of our
+nooses round the boa's neck; then we tied him tightly to a tree,
+in such a manner as to keep his head at its usual height--about six
+feet from the ground. This done, we crossed to the other side of the
+ravine, and threw another noose over him, which we secured like the
+first. When he felt himself thus fixed at both ends, he coiled and
+writhed, and grappled several little trees which grew within his reach
+along the edge of the ravine. Unluckily for him everything yielded
+to his efforts: he tore up the young trees by the roots, broke off
+the branches, and dislodged enormous stones, round which he sought in
+vain to obtain the hold or point of resistance he needed. The nooses
+were strong, and withstood his almost furious efforts.
+
+To convey an animal like this, several buffaloes and a whole system
+of cordage were necessary. Night approached; confident in our nooses,
+we left the place, proposing to return next morning and complete
+the capture; but we reckoned without our host. In the night the
+boa changed his tactics, got his body round some huge blocks of
+basalt, and finally succeeded in breaking his bonds and getting
+clear off. When I had assured myself that our prey had escaped us,
+and that all search for the reptile in the neighbourhood would be
+futile, my disappointment was very great, for I much doubted if a like
+opportunity would ever present itself. It is only on rare occasions
+that accidents are caused by these enormous reptiles. I once knew of
+a man becoming their victim. It happened thus:--
+
+This man having committed some offence, ran away, and sought refuge
+in a cavern. His father, who alone knew the place of his concealment,
+visited him occasionally to supply him with food. One day he found,
+in place of his son, an enormous boa sleeping. He killed it, and
+found his son in its stomach. The poor wretch had been surprised
+in the night, crushed to death, and swallowed. The curate of the
+village, who had gone in quest of the body to give it burial, and
+who saw the remains of the boa, described them to me as being of
+an almost incredible size. Unfortunately this circumstance happened
+at a considerable distance from my habitation, and I was only made
+acquainted with the particulars when it was too late to verify them
+myself: but still there is nothing surprising that a boa which can
+swallow a deer should as easily swallow a man. Several other feats of
+a similar nature were related to me by the Indians. They told me of
+their comrades, who, roaming about the woods, had been seized by boas,
+crushed against trees, and afterwards devoured; but I was always on my
+guard against Indian tales, and I am only able to verify positively the
+instance, I have just cited, which was related to me by the curate of
+the village, as well as by many other witnesses. Still there would be
+nothing surprising that a similar accident should occur more than once.
+
+The boa is one of the serpents the least to be feared among those
+infesting the Philippines. Of an exceedingly venomous description is
+one which the Indians call dajon-palay, (rice leaf). Burning with
+a red-hot ember is the only antidote to its bite; if that be not
+promptly resorted to, horrible sufferings are followed by certain
+death. The alin-morani is another kind, eight or ten feet long, and,
+if anything, more dangerous still than the "rice leaf," inasmuch as
+its bite is deeper, and more difficult to cauterise. I was never
+bitten by any of these reptiles, despite the slight precaution I
+observed in wandering about the woods, by night as well as by day.
+
+Twice only I endangered myself: the first time was by treading upon
+a dajon-palay; I was warned by a movement under my foot. I pressed
+hard with that leg, and saw the snake's little head stretching out
+to bite me on the ankle; fortunately my foot was on him at so short a
+distance from his head that he could not get at me. I drew my dagger,
+and cut off his head. On another occasion, I noticed two eagles
+rising and falling like arrows amongst the bushes, always at the
+same place. Curious to see what kind of animal they were attacking,
+I approached the place; but no sooner had I done so, than an enormous
+alin-morani, furious with the wounds the eagles had inflicted on him,
+advanced to meet me. I retreated; he coiled himself up, gave a spring,
+and almost caught me on the face. By an instantaneous movement,
+I made a spring backwards, and avoided him; but I took care not to
+turn my back and run, for then I should have been lost. The serpent
+returned to the charge, bounding towards me; I again avoided him, and
+was trying, but in vain, to reach him with my dagger, when an Indian,
+who perceived me from a distance, ran up, armed with a stout switch,
+and rid me of him.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+    The Prosperity and Happiness of my Life at
+    Jala-Jala--Destructiveness of the Locusts--Agriculture in the
+    Philippines--My Herds of Oxen, Buffaloes, and Horses--My Wife
+    presents me with a Daughter, who Dies--The Admiration of the Indian
+    Women for my Wife--Birth of my Son--Continued Prosperity--Death
+    of my brother Henry--My Friendship with Malvilain--His Marriage
+    with my eldest Sister--His Premature Death--I take my Wife to
+    Manilla--Melancholy Adieus--We Return to Jala-Jala--Death of my
+    Wife--My friend Vidie--I determine to Return to France.
+
+
+Never was life more actively spent, or more crowded with emotions,
+than the time I passed at Jala-Jala, but it suited my tastes and
+my character, and I enjoyed as perfect happiness as one can look
+for when far away from one's home and country. My Anna was to
+me an angel of goodness; my Indians were happy, peace and plenty
+smiled upon their families; my fields were covered with abundant
+crops, and my pasturages with numerous herds. It was not, however,
+without great difficulty and much toil that I accomplished my aim;
+how often did I find all my courage and all my philosophy necessary
+to face, without despair, reverses which it was impossible for me
+to avoid? How often did I behold hurricanes and inundations destroy
+the fine harvest that I had protected with so much labour against
+the buffaloes, the wild boars, the monkeys, and even against an
+insect more destructive still than all the other pests which I have
+just mentioned--the locust, one of the plagues of Egypt, apparently
+transported into this province, and which almost regularly, every seven
+years, leave the isles of the south in clouds, and fall upon Luzon,
+bringing desolation, and often famine. It is indeed necessary to have
+witnessed this desolation to be able to form any idea of it. When the
+locusts arrive, a fire-coloured cloud is perceived in the horizon,
+formed of countless myriads of these destructive insects. They fly
+rapidly, often covering, in a closely packed body, a space of two or
+three leagues in diameter, and occupy from five to six consecutive
+hours in passing over head. If they perceive a fine green field they
+pounce down upon it, and in a few minutes all verdure has disappeared,
+the ground is stripped completely bare; they then continue their flight
+elsewhere, bearing on their wings destruction and famine. At evening
+it is in the forests, upon the trees, that they take shelter. They
+hang in such dense masses upon the ends of the boughs that they break
+down even the stoutest limbs from the trees. During the night, from
+the spot where they are reposing, there issues a continual croaking,
+and so loud a noise, that one scarcely believes it to be produced by
+so small an insect. The following morning they leave at day-break, and
+the trees upon which they have reposed are left stripped and broken,
+as though the lightning had swept the forest in every direction; they
+pursue their course elsewhere to commit fresh ravages. At certain
+periods they remain on vast plains or on fertile mountains; where,
+elongating the extremity of their bodies in the form of a gimblet,
+they pierce the earth to the depth of an inch and upwards to deposit
+their eggs. The operation of laying being completed, they leave
+the ground pierced like a sieve, and disappear, for their existence
+has now reached its termination. Three weeks afterwards, however,
+the eggs open, and myriads of young locusts swarm the earth. On
+the spot where they are born, whatever will serve them for food is
+quickly consumed. As soon as they have acquired sufficient strength
+they abandon their birth-place, destroy all kinds of vegetation that
+comes in their way, and direct their course to the cultivated fields,
+which they desolate until the period when their wings appear. They
+then take flight in order to devastate more distant plantations.
+
+As may be seen, agriculture in the Philippines presents many
+difficulties, but it also yields results that may be looked for in
+vain in any other country. During the years which are exempt from
+the calamities I have described the earth is covered with riches;
+every kind of colonial produce is raised in extraordinary abundance,
+frequently in the proportion of eighty to one, and on many plantations
+two crops of the same species are harvested in one year. The rich and
+extensive pasturages offer great facilities for raising a large number
+of cattle, which absolutely cost nothing but the trifling wages paid
+by the proprietor to a few shepherds.
+
+Upon my property I possessed three herds--one of three thousand
+head of oxen, another of eight hundred buffaloes, and the other of
+six hundred horses. At that period of the year when the rice was
+harvested, the shepherds explored the mountains, and drove these
+animals to a vast plain at a short distance from my dwelling. This
+plain was covered by these three species of domesticated animals,
+and presented, especially to the proprietor, an admirable sight. At
+night they were herded in large cattle-folds, near the village, and on
+the following day a selection was made of the oxen that were fit for
+slaughter, of the horses that were old enough for breaking-in, of the
+buffaloes that were strong enough to be employed in working. The herds
+were then re-driven to the plain, there to remain until night. This
+operation lasted during a fortnight, after which time the animals
+were set at liberty until the same period of the following year. When
+at liberty the herd divided itself into bands, and thus roamed about
+the mountains and the valleys they had previously quitted, the only
+trouble caused to the shepherds being an occasional ramble about the
+spots where the animals tranquilly grazed.
+
+Around me all was prosperity. My Indians were also happy,
+and entertained towards me a respect and obedience bordering on
+idolatry. My brother gave me every assistance in my labours, and when
+near my beloved Anna I forgot all the toils and the contrarieties I
+had experienced. About this time a new source of hope sprung up, which
+augmented the happiness I enjoyed with her, and made her dearer to me
+than ever. During several months the health of my wife had changed: she
+then found all the symptoms of pregnancy. We had been married twelve
+years, and she had never yet shown any signs of maternity. I was so
+persuaded that we should never have children that the derangement
+of her health was causing me serious uneasiness, when one morning
+as I was going to my work she said to me: "I don't feel well to-day,
+and I wish you to remain with me." Two hours afterwards, to my great
+surprise, she gave premature birth to a little girl, whose arrival no
+one expected. The infant was born before the due time, and lived only
+one hour, just sufficient to receive baptism, which I administered to
+her. This was the second human being that had expired in the house
+of Jala-Jala; but she was also the first that had there first drawn
+the breath of life. The regret which we all experienced from the loss
+was softened by the certainty that my dear Anna might again become a
+mother, under more favourable circumstances. Her health was speedily
+re-established, and she was again gay and beautiful as ever: indeed
+she appeared so handsome, that often Indian women came from a long
+distance for the sole purpose of looking at her. They would remain for
+half-an-hour gazing at her, and afterwards returned to their villages,
+where they gave birth to creatures little resembling the model which
+they had taken such pains to observe, with a confidence approaching
+to simplicity.
+
+Eventually Anna exhibited new signs of maternity; her pregnancy went
+through the usual course, and her health was not much affected. In due
+time she presented me with a little boy, weakly and delicate, but full
+of life. Our joy was at the highest, for we possessed that which we
+had so long wished for, and that which alone was in my opinion wanting.
+
+My Indians were delighted with the birth, and for several days there
+was a round of rejoicings at Jala-Jala; and my Anna, although confined
+to bed, was obliged to receive visits, at first from all the women
+and maidens of the village, and afterwards from all the Indians who
+were fathers of families. Each brought some little present for the
+newly born, and the cleverest man of them was commissioned to express
+a compliment in the name of all; which comprised their best wishes
+for the happiness of the mother and child, and full assurances of
+the satisfaction they felt in thinking that they would one day be
+ruled over by the son of the master from whom they had experienced so
+much kindness, and who had conferred upon them such benefits. Their
+gratitude was sincere.
+
+The news of the accouchement of my wife brought a very numerous
+party of friends and relations to my house, where they waited for
+the baptism, which took place in my drawing-room. Anna, then almost
+thoroughly well, was present on the occasion: my son was named Henry,
+after his uncle. At this time I was happy; Oh, so truly happy! for my
+wishes were nearly gratified. There was but one not so--and that was
+to see again my aged mother and my sisters; but I hoped that the time
+was not far distant when I should realise the project of revisiting
+my native country. My farming speculation was most prosperous: my
+receipts were every year on the increase; my fields were covered with
+the richest crops of sugar-canes, to the cultivation of which, and of
+rice, I had joined that of coffee. My brother had taken upon himself
+the management of a very large plantation, which promised the most
+brilliant results; and appeared likely to secure the premium which
+the Spanish government had promised to give to the proprietor of a
+plantation of eighty thousand feet of coffee in product. But, alas! the
+period of my happiness had passed away, and what pain and what grief
+was I not doomed to suffer before I again saw my native country.
+
+My brother--my poor Henry--committed some imprudences, and was
+suddenly attacked with an intermittent fever, which in a few days
+carried him off.
+
+My Anna and I shed abundance of tears, for we both loved Henry with
+the warmest affection. For several years we had lived together; he
+participated in all our labours, our troubles, and our pleasures. He
+was the only relative I had in the Philippines. He had left France,
+where he had filled an honourable position, with the sole object
+of coming to see me, and of aiding me in the great task which I
+had undertaken. His amiable qualities and his excellent heart had
+endeared him to us: his loss was irreparable, and the thought that I
+had no longer a brother added poignancy to my bitter grief. Prudent,
+the youngest, had died at Madagascar; Robert, the next to me, died
+at La Planche, near Nantes, in the little dwelling where we spent
+our childhood; and my poor Henry at Jala-Jala. I erected a simple
+tomb for him near the door of the church, and for several months
+Jala-Jala was a place of grief and mourning.
+
+We had scarcely begun, not indeed to console ourselves, but rather
+to bear with resignation the loss we had experienced, when a new
+dispensation of fate came to strike me to the earth.
+
+On my arrival in the Philippines, and while I resided at Cavite,
+I formed a close connection with Malvilain, a native of St. Malo,
+and mate of a ship from that port. During several years which he
+spent at Cavite our friendship was most intimate. A day seldom passed
+that we did not see each other, and two days never, for we were much
+attached. Our two ships were at anchor in the port, not far one from
+the other. One day as I was walking on deck, waiting for a boat to
+take me on board Malvilain's ship, I saw his crew at work in regulating
+one of the masts, when a rope suddenly snapped, and the mast fell with
+a frightful crash on the deck, in the midst of the men, amongst whom
+Malvilain was standing. From the deck of my own ship I beheld all that
+passed on that of my friend, who I thought was killed or wounded. My
+feelings were worked to the highest pitch of anguish and alarm; I
+could not control myself; I jumped into the water and swam to his
+ship, where I had the pleasure of finding him uninjured, although
+considerably stunned by the danger from which he had escaped. Wet
+as I was from my sea-bath I caught him in my arms, and pressed him
+to my heart; and then hastened to afford relief to some of the crew,
+who had not been so fortunate to escape without injury as he had been.
+
+Another time I was the cause of serious alarm to Malvilain. One day,
+a mass of black and thick clouds was gathered close over the point
+of Cavite, and a frightful--that is, a tropical--storm burst. The
+claps of thunder followed each other from minute to minute, and
+before each clap the lightning, in long serpent-like lines of fire,
+darted from the clouds, and drove on to the point of Cavite, where
+it tore up the ground of the little plain situate at the extremity,
+and near which the ships were moored. Notwithstanding the storm I was
+going to see Malvilain, and was almost in the act of placing my foot on
+the deck of his vessel, when the lightning fell into the sea so near
+to me that I lost my breath. Instantly I felt an acute pain in the
+back, as if a burning torch had been laid between my shoulders. The
+pain was so violent, that the moment I recovered myself I uttered a
+sharp scream. Malvilain, who was within a few paces of me, felt very
+sensibly the electric shock which had struck me, and, on hearing my
+cry, imagined that I was dangerously hurt. He rushed towards me and
+held me in his arms until I was able to give every assurance of my
+recovery. The electric fluid had grazed me, but without causing any
+positive injury.
+
+I have related these two slight anecdotes to show the intimacy that
+subsisted between us, and how I afterwards suffered in my dearest
+affections.
+
+My existence has to this day, when I write these lines, been filled
+with such extraordinary facts, that I have been naturally led to
+believe that the destiny of man is regulated by an order of things
+which must infallibly be accomplished. This idea has had great
+influence over me, and taught me to endure all the evils which have
+afflicted me. Was it, then, my destiny which bound me to Malvilain,
+and bound him to me in the same manner? I have no doubt of it.
+
+Some days before the terrible scourge of the cholera broke out in
+the Philippines, Malvilain's ship set sail for France. With hearts
+oppressed with grief we separated, after promising each that we should
+meet again; but, alas! fate had ordained it otherwise. Malvilain
+returned home, went to Nantes to take the command of a ship, and there
+became acquainted with my eldest sister, and married her. This news,
+which reached me while I resided in Manilla, gave me the greatest
+satisfaction, for if I had had to choose a husband for my dear sister
+Emilie, this marriage was the only one to satisfy the wishes I had
+formed for the happiness of both.
+
+After his marriage Malvilain continued to sail from the port of
+Nantes. His noble disposition and his accurate knowledge of his
+duties caused him to be highly esteemed by the leading merchants. His
+affairs were in a state sufficiently good as not to require him to
+expose himself longer to the dangers of the sea, and he was on his
+last voyage, when, at the Mauritius, he was attacked by an illness,
+which carried him off, leaving my sister inconsolable, and with three
+very young girls to lament him.
+
+This fresh and irreparable loss, the news of which had then reached
+me, added to my grief for the sad death of my poor brother. Every
+calamity seemed to oppress me. After some years of happiness I saw,
+by little and little, disappear from this world, the persons on whom I
+had concentrated my dearest affections; but, alas! I had not even then
+reached the term of my sorrows, for other and most bitter sufferings
+were still to be passed through.
+
+I saw with pleasure my boy was enjoying the best health, and that he
+was daily increasing in strength; and yet I was far from being happy,
+and to the melancholy caused by the losses I had experienced was
+added another most fearful alarm. My beloved Anna had never thoroughly
+recovered after her accouchement, and day by day her health was growing
+weaker. She did not seem aware of her state. Her happiness at being
+a mother was so great that she did not think of her own condition.
+
+I had gathered in my sugar-cane crop, which was most abundant,
+and my plantations were finished, when, wishing to procure some
+amusement for my wife, I proposed to go and spend some time at the
+house of her sister Josephine, for whom she entertained the warmest
+affection. She, with great pleasure, agreed to do so. We set out with
+our dear little Henry and his nurse, and took up our quarters at the
+house of my brother-in-law, Don Julian Calderon, then residing in a
+pretty country-house on the banks of the river Pasig, half a league
+from Manilla.
+
+Of the three sisters of my wife, Josephine was the one for whom I had
+the most affection: I loved her as I did my own sister. The day of our
+arrival was one of rejoicing. All our friends at Manilla came to see
+us, and Anna was so pleased in seeing our little Henry admired that
+her health seemed to have improved considerably; but this apparent
+amelioration lasted but a few days, and soon, to my grief, I saw that
+she was growing worse than ever. I sent for the only medical man in
+Manilla in whom I had confidence, my friend Genu. He came frequently
+to see her, and after six weeks of constant attention, he advised
+me to take her back to my residence near the lake, where persons
+attacked with the same malady as my dear Anna had often recovered. As
+she herself wished to return, I appointed a day for our departure. A
+commodious boat, with good rowers, was ready for us on the Pasig, at
+the end of my brother-in-law's garden; and a numerous assemblage of our
+friends accompanied us to the water's edge. The moment of separation
+was one of most melancholy feelings to us all. The countenance of each
+seemed to ask: "Shall we meet again?" My sister-in-law Josephine, in a
+flood of tears, threw herself into Anna's arms. I had great difficulty
+in separating them; but we were obliged to set out. I took my wife
+into the boat, and then those two sisters, who had always maintained
+towards each other the most tender love, addressed with their voices
+their last adieus, while promising not to be long separated, and that
+they would see each other very soon.
+
+Those painful adieus and the sufferings of my wife caused the trip,
+which we had often previously made with the greatest gaiety, to be
+melancholy and silent. On our arrival, I did not look on Jala-Jala with
+the usual feelings of satisfaction. I had my poor patient placed in
+bed, and did not quit her room, hoping by my continual care to afford
+her some relief in her sufferings. But, alas! from day to day the
+malady made fearful progress. I was in despair. I wrote to Josephine,
+and sent a boat to Manilla for her to come and take care of her sister,
+who was most anxious to see her. The boat returned without her; but a
+letter from kind-hearted Josephine informed me that she was herself
+dangerously ill, and confined to her room, and could not even leave
+her bed; that she was very sorry for it, but I might assure Anna that
+they would soon be re-united, never again to be separated.
+
+Fifty days--longer to me than a century--had scarcely elapsed since our
+return to Jala-Jala than all my hopes vanished. Death was approaching
+with rapid strides, and the fatal moment was at hand when I was to be
+separated from her whom I loved with such intensity. She preserved her
+senses to the last, and saw my profound melancholy, and my features
+altered by grief; and finding her last hour was near, she called me
+to her, and said: "Adieu, my beloved Paul, adieu. Console thyself--we
+shall meet again in Heaven! Preserve thyself for the sake of our dear
+boy. When I shall be no more, return home to thy own country, to see
+thy aged mother. Never marry again, except in France, if thy mother
+requires thee to do so. Do not marry in the Philippines, for thou wilt
+never find a companion here to love thee as I have loved." These words
+were the last which this good and gentle angel spoke. The most sacred
+ties, the tenderest and purest union, were then severed--my Anna was
+no more! I held her lifeless body clasped in my arms, as if I hoped by
+my caresses to recall her to life; but, alas! her destiny was decided!
+
+It required absolute force to tear me from the precious remains which
+I pressed against my heart, and to draw me into a neighbouring room,
+where my son was. While I pressed him convulsively to my breast,
+I wished to weep; but my eyes were tearless, and I was insensible to
+the caresses even of my poor child.
+
+The strongest constitution cannot resist the fatigue of fifty days
+of constant watching and uneasiness; and the state of annihilation in
+which I was, both physically and morally, after despair had taken the
+place of the glimmering hope which sustained us to the last moment,
+was such that I fell into a state of insensibility, which ended
+in a profound sleep. I awoke on the following day with my son in my
+arms. But how frightful was my state on awaking. All that was horrible
+in my position presented itself to my imagination. Alas! she was no
+more; my adorable companion, that beloved angel and consolatrix,
+who had, on my account, abandoned all--parents, friends, and the
+pleasures of a capital--to shut herself up with me in a deserted
+wilderness, where she was exposed to a thousand dangers, and had but
+me to support her. She was no more; and fatal destiny had torn her
+from me, to sink me for ever in desolation and grief.
+
+The funeral took place on the following day, and was attended by
+every inhabitant of Jala-Jala. Her body was deposited near the altar
+in the humble church which I had caused to be erected, and before
+which altar she had so often poured forth prayers for my happiness.
+
+For a long time mourning and consternation reigned in Jala-Jala. All
+my Indians showed the deepest sympathy for the loss which they had
+suffered. Anna was, during her life, beloved even to idolatry, and
+after her death she was most sincerely lamented.
+
+For several days I continued in a thorough depression, unable to attend
+to anything, except to the cares which my son, then my only remaining
+consolation, required. Three weeks elapsed before I quitted the room in
+which my poor wife had expired. I then received a note from Josephine,
+in which she stated that her illness had grown worse. The note ended
+with these words: "Come, my dear Paul; come to me: we shall weep
+together. I feel that your presence will afford some consolation."
+
+I did not hesitate to comply with the request of dear Josephine, for
+whom I entertained an affection as if for my own sister. My presence
+might prove a solace to her, and I myself felt that it would prove
+to me a great consolation to see a person who had so sincerely loved
+my Anna. The hope of being useful to her re-animated my courage a
+little. I left my house under the care of Prosper Vidie, an excellent
+friend, who during the last days of my wife's life had not quitted me,
+and departed, accompanied by my son.
+
+After the first emotion which Josephine and I felt on meeting, and when
+we both had shed abundant tears, I examined her state. It required a
+strong effort on my part to conceal from her my anxiety, on finding
+her labouring under a most serious malady, and which gave me grounds
+for fearing that a fresh misfortune was not far distant. Alas! my
+forebodings were correct; for eight days afterwards poor Josephine
+expired in my arms, after the most poignant sufferings. What abundant
+sources of woe in so short a space of time! It required a constitution
+strong as mine was to bear up against such a number of sorrows,
+and not to fail under the burthen.
+
+When I had paid the last duties to my sister-in-law I went back to
+Jala-Jala. To me everything was burthensome. I was obliged to betake
+myself to my forests and to my mountains, in order to recover a little
+calmness. Some months passed over before I could attend to my affairs;
+but the last wishes of my poor wife required to be fulfilled, and I
+was to quit the Philippines and return to my country. I commenced
+preparations for the purpose. I made over my establishment to my
+friend Vidie, who was, as I considered, the person best adapted for
+carrying out my plans, and for treating my poor Indians well. He
+requested me to stop a little time with him, and to show him the
+secrets of my little government. I consented, and the more willingly,
+as those few months would serve to render my son stronger, and better
+able to support the fatigues of a long voyage. I therefore remained at
+Jala-Jala; but life had become painful to me, and without an object,
+so that it was positively a trouble. There was nothing to distract
+me--nothing to remove the most painful thoughts from me. The pretty
+spots of Jala-Jala, over which I had often looked with the greatest
+pleasure, had become altogether indifferent to me. I sought out
+the most melancholy and silent places. I often went to the banks
+of a rivulet, concealed in the midst of high mountains, and shaded
+by lofty trees. This spot was perhaps known to no other person; and
+probably no human being had ever previously been seated in it. There
+I gave free vent to my bitter recollections--my wife, my brothers,
+my sister-in-law, engrossed my imagination. When the thought of my
+son drove away these sombre reveries, I returned slowly to my house,
+where I found the poor child, who, by his caresses, seemed to try to
+find some way to cause a change in my grief; but they seemed only to
+recall the time when Anna always came to welcome me home, and when,
+clasping me in her arms, she caused me to forget all the toil and
+trouble I met with when absent from her. Alas! that blissful time
+had flown away, and was never to return; and in losing my companion
+I lost every happiness.
+
+My friend Vidie tried every means in his power to rouse me. He spoke to
+me often of France, of my mother, and of the consolation I should feel
+on presenting my son to her. The love of my country, and the thought
+of finding there those affections of which I stood so much in need,
+was a soft balm, which lulled for a while the sufferings that were
+constantly vibrating in the bottom of my heart.
+
+My Indians were deeply afflicted on learning the resolution I had
+taken of quitting them. They showed their trouble by saying to me,
+every time they addressed me! "Oh, master: what will become of us
+when we shall not see you again?" I quieted them as well as I could,
+by assuring them that Vidie would exert himself for their welfare;
+that when my son should be grown up, I would come back with him and
+then never leave them. They answered me with their prayers: "May God
+grant it, master! But what a long time we shall have to pass without
+seeing you! However, we shall not forget you."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+    My friend Adolphe Barrot visits me at Jala-Jala--The Bamboo
+    Cane--The Cocoa-Nut Tree--The Banana--Majestic Forests of Gigantic
+    Trees--The Leeches--A Tropical Storm in a Forest--An Indian
+    Bridge--"Bernard the Hermit"--We arrive at Binangon-de-Lampon--The
+    Ajetas--Veneration of the Ajetas for their Dead--Poison used by
+    the Ajetas--I carry away a Skeleton--We Embark on the Pacific in
+    an old Canoe, reach Maoban, and ultimately arrive at Jala-Jala.
+
+
+At this epoch of my recollections, in the midst of my melancholy and
+of my troubles, I formed an intimate and enduring friendship with
+a compatriot, a good and excellent man, for whom I always preserve
+the attachment first formed in a foreign country, several thousand
+leagues from home. I now speak of Adolphe Barrot, who was sent as
+consul-general to Manilla. He came with several friends to spend
+some days at Jala-Jala. Being unwilling that he should suffer any
+unpleasantness from the state of my feelings, I endeavoured to render
+his stay at Jala-Jala as agreeable as in my power. I arranged several
+hunting and shooting parties, and excursions through the mountains
+and on the lake. For his sake I resumed my old mode of life, such as
+I had been used to before I was overwhelmed by misfortune.
+
+The days which I thus spent in company with Adolphe Barrot aroused
+within me my former taste for exercise, and my ruling passion for
+adventure. My friend Vidie--always with the intention of exciting me
+to action--pressed me very much to go and visit a certain class of
+the natives which I had often expressed a wish to examine. My affairs
+being almost regulated; my son being placed under his care, and that
+of his nurse, and of a housekeeper in whom I had every confidence;
+I was induced, by this feeling of security, and by the instances of my
+friend, to proceed to visit the district of the Ajetas, or Black-men,
+who were a wild race, altogether in a state of nature. They were the
+aborigines of the Philippines, and had for a long time been masters
+of Luzon. At a time not very far distant, when the Spaniards conquered
+the country, the Ajetas levied a kind of black-mail from the Tagalese
+villages situated on the banks of the lake of Bay. At a fixed period
+they quitted their forests, entered the villages, and forced the
+inhabitants to give them a certain quantity of rice and maize; and
+if the Tagalese refused or were unable to pay these contributions,
+they cut off a number of heads, which they carried away as trophies
+for their barbarian festivities. After the conquest of the Philippines
+by the Spaniards, the latter took upon themselves the defence of the
+Tagalese, and the Ajetas, terrified by their fire-arms, remained in
+the forests, and did not re-appear among the Indians.
+
+The same race is found in various parts of the Malay country; and the
+people of New Zealand--the Paponins--resemble them very much in form
+and colour.
+
+My intention was to pass some days amongst those wild savages, and
+our preparations were speedily made. I chose two of my best Indians to
+accompany me. It is not requisite to state that my lieutenant was one
+of the party, for he was always with me in all my perilous expeditions.
+
+We took each of us a small haversack, containing rice for three or
+four days, some dried venison, a good provision of powder, ball,
+and shot for game, some coloured handkerchiefs, and a considerable
+quantity of cigars for our own use, and to insure a welcome
+amongst the Ajetas. Each of us carried a good double-barreled gun
+and his poignard. Our clothes were those which we wore in all our
+expeditions,--on our heads the common salacote, a shirt of raw silk,
+the pantaloon turned up to above the knee; the feet and legs remained
+uncovered. With these simple preparations we set out on a trip of
+some weeks, during which, and from the second day of our starting,
+we could expect no shelter but the trees of the forest, and no food
+but the game we shot, and the edible parts of the palm tree.
+
+I took special care not to forget the vade mecum which I always
+took with me, whenever I made these excursions for any number of
+days--I mean paper and a pencil, with which I made notes, to aid my
+recollections, and enable me afterwards to write down in a journal
+the remarks I made during my travels. Every preparation being made,
+we one morning started from Jala-Jala. We traversed the peninsula
+formed by my settlement, and embarked on the other side in a small
+canoe, which took us to the bottom of the lake to the north-east of
+my habitation. We passed the night in the large village of Siniloan,
+and at an early hour the following day resumed our march. This first
+day's journey was one of toil and suffering: we were then beginning
+the rainy season, and the heavy storms had swelled the rivers. We
+marched for some time along the banks of a torrent, which rushed
+down from the mountains, and which we were obliged to swim through
+fifteen times during the day. In the evening we came to the foot of
+the mountains where begin the forests of gigantic trees, which cover
+almost all the centre of the island of Luzon. There we made our first
+halt, lighted our fires, and prepared our beds and our supper. I think
+that I have already described our beds, which use and fatigue always
+rendered agreeable to us, when no accident occurred to disturb our
+repose. But I have said nothing of the simple composition of our meals,
+nor of our manner of preparing them. Our rice and palms required to
+be cooked, an operation which might seem rather embarrassing, for we
+had with us no large kitchen articles: we sometimes wanted a fire-box
+and tinder. But the bamboo supplied all these. The bamboo is one of
+the three tropical plants which Nature, in her beneficence and care,
+seems to have given to man to supply most of his wants. And here I
+cannot forbear dedicating a few lines to the description of those
+three products of the tropics, viz: the bamboo, the cocoa-nut tree,
+and the banana-plant.
+
+The bamboo belongs to the gramineous family; it grows in thick groves,
+in the woods, on the river banks, and wherever it finds a humid
+soil. In the Philippines there are counted twenty-five or thirty kinds,
+different in form and thickness. There are some of the diameter of the
+human body, and hollow in the interior: this kind serves especially
+for the construction of huts, and for making vessels to transport
+and to keep water. The filaments are used for making baskets, hats,
+and all kinds of basket-work, cords, and cables of great solidity.
+
+Another bamboo, of smaller dimensions, and hollow within, which
+is covered with varnish, almost as hard as steel, is employed in
+building Indian houses. Cut to a point it is extremely sharp, and is
+used for many purposes. The Indians make lances of it, and arrows,
+and fleams for bleeding horses, and lancets for opening abscesses,
+and for taking thorns or other things out of the flesh.
+
+A third kind, much more solid, and as thick as one's arm, and not
+hollow within, is used in such parts of the buildings as require sold
+timber, and especially in the roofing.
+
+A fourth kind, much smaller, and also without being hollow, serves to
+make the fences that surround enclosed fields when tilled. The other
+kinds are not so much employed, but still they are found to be useful.
+
+To preserve the plants, and to render them very productive, the shoots
+are cut at ten feet from the ground. These shoots look like the tubes
+of an organ, and are surrounded with branches and thorns. At the
+beginning of the rainy season there grows from each of those groves a
+quantity of thick bamboos, resembling large asparagus, which shoot up
+as it were by enchantment. In the space of a month they become from
+fifty to sixty feet long, and after a short time they acquire all the
+solidity necessary for the various works to which they are destined.
+
+The cocoa-nut tree belongs to the palm family: it requires to grow
+seven years before it bears fruit; but after this period, and for
+a whole century, it yields continually the same product--that is,
+every month about twenty large nuts. This produce never fails, and
+on the same tree may be seen continually flowers and fruits of all
+sizes. The cocoa-nut affords, as everyone knows, nutritious food,
+and when pressed yields a quantity of oil. The shell of the nut
+serves to make vases, and the filamentary parts are spun into ropes
+and cables for ships, and even into coarse clothing. The leaves are
+used to make baskets and brooms, and for thatching the huts.
+
+A liquor is also taken from the cocoa-nut tree, called cocoa-wine;
+it is a most stupifying drink, of which the Indians make great use
+at their festivities. To produce the cocoa-wine, large groves of
+the cocoa-trees are laid out, from which merely the sap or juice
+is expected, but nothing in the shape of fruit. These trees have
+long bamboos laid at their tops from one to another, on which the
+Indians pass over every morning, bearing large vessels, in which they
+collect the liquid. It is a laborious and dangerous employment,--a
+real promenade in the air, at the height of from sixty to eighty
+feet from the ground. It is from the bud which ought to produce the
+flower that the liquid is drawn of which the spirit is afterwards
+made. As soon as the bud is about to burst, the Indian employed in
+collecting the liquid ties it very tight, a few inches from its point,
+and then cuts across the point beyond the tying. From this cutting,
+or from the pores which are left uncovered, a saccharine liquid
+flows, which is sweetish and agreeable to the palate before it has
+fermented. After it has passed the fermentation it is carried to the
+still, and submitted to the process of distillation, it then becomes
+the alcoholic liquor known in the country as cocoa-wine.
+
+Besides these uses, the cocoa-nut shell, when burned, gives the fine
+black colour which the Indians make use of to dye their straw hats.
+
+The banana is an herbaceous plant, without any woody matter: the
+trunk of each is formed of leaves placed one above the other. This
+trunk rises from twelve to fifteen feet from the ground, and then
+spreads out into long broad leaves, not less than five or six feet
+each. From the middle of these leaves the flower rises, and also the
+spike (regime). By this word is to be understood a hundred of large
+bananas growing from the same stalk, forming together a long branch,
+that turns towards the sun.
+
+Before the fruit has reached its full ripeness, the spike is cut, and
+becomes fit for use. The part of the plant which is in the earth is
+a kind of large root, from which proceed successively thirty shoots,
+and each shoot ought not to have more than one spike, or bunch; it
+is then cut fronting the sun, and as all the shoots rising from the
+same trunk are of different ages, there are fruits to be found in all
+the stages of growth; so that every month or fortnight, and at all
+seasons, a spike or two may be gathered from the same plant. There
+is also a species of banana the fruit of which is not good to eat,
+but from which raw silk is formed, called abaca, which is used to make
+clothes, and all kinds of cordage. This filament is found in the trunk
+of the plant, which, as I have said, consists of leaves placed one
+over another, which, after being separated into long strips, and left
+for some hours in the sun, is then placed on an iron blade, not sharp,
+and then dragged with force over it. The parenchyme of the plant is
+taken off by the iron blade, and the filaments then separate. Nothing
+is now wanting but to expose them for some time to the sun's rays;
+after which they are brought to market.
+
+I observe that I have left my journey aside to describe three tropical
+plants, which afford a sufficiency for all the wants of man. Those
+plants are well-known; yet there may be some persons ignorant of
+the utility, and of the various services which they render to the
+inhabitants of the tropics. My readers will from them be naturally
+led to reflect how the inhabitants of the torrid zone are favoured
+by nature, in comparison with those of our frigid climate.
+
+We were at the foot of the mountains, preparing to pass the night. Our
+labour was always divided: one got the beds ready, another the fire,
+a third the cookery. He who had to prepare the fire collects a quantity
+of dry wood and of brambles. Under this heap of firewood he puts about
+twelve pounds of elemi gum, which is common in the Philippines, where
+it is found in quantities at the foot of the large trees from which
+it flows naturally. He then takes a piece of bamboo, half a yard long,
+which he splits to its length, tears with poignard so as to make very
+thin shavings, which he rubs together while rolling them between his
+hands, and then puts them into the hollow part of the other piece,
+and lays it down on the ground, and then with the sharp side of the
+piece from which he had taken the shavings, he rubs strongly the
+piece lying on the ground, as if he wished to saw it across. In a
+short time the bamboo containing the shavings is cut through and on
+fire. The flame rising from the shavings, when blown lightly upon,
+quickly sets the elemi gum in a blaze, and in an instant there is a
+fire sufficient to roast an ox.
+
+He who had to manage the cooking cut two or three pieces of the large
+bamboo, and put in each whatever he wished to cook--usually rice or
+some part of the palm tree--he added some water, stopped the ends of
+the bamboo with leaves, and laid it in the middle of the fire. This
+bamboo was speedily burned on the outside, but the interior was
+moistened by the water, and the food within was as well boiled as
+in any earthen vessels. For plates we had the large palm leaves. Our
+meals, as may be observed, were Spartan enough, even during the days
+while our provision of rice and dried venison lasted. But when game
+was found, and that a stag or a buffalo fell to our lot, we fed like
+epicures. We drank pure water whenever a spring or a rivulet tempted
+us, but if we were at a loss we cut long pieces of the liana, called
+"the traveller's drink," from which flowed a clear and limpid draught,
+preferable perhaps to any which we might have procured from a better
+source.
+
+It was evident I was not travelling like a nabob; and it would have
+been impossible to take more baggage. How could any one, with large
+provisions and a pompous retinue move in the midst of mountains
+covered with forests literally along untouched by human feet, and
+forced, in order to get through them, at every instant to swim across
+torrents, and having no other guide than the sun, or the blowing of
+the breeze. There was no choice but to travel in the Indian style,
+as I did, or to remain at home.
+
+The first night we spent in the open air passed quietly; our strength
+was restored, and we were recruited for the journey. At an early hour
+we were up, and, after a frugal breakfast, we resumed our march. For
+more than two hours we climbed up a mountain covered with heavy timber,
+the ascent was rough and fatiguing, at last we reached the top,
+quite exhausted, where there was a vast flat, which it would take us
+some days to traverse. It was there, on this flat, that I beheld the
+most majestic, the finest virgin forest that existed in the world. It
+consists of gigantic trees, grown up as straight as a rush, and to
+a prodigious height. Their tops, where alone their branches grow,
+are laced into one another, so as to form a vault impenetrable to
+the rays of the sun. Under this vault, and among those fine trees,
+prolific nature has given birth to a crowd of climbing plants of
+a most remarkable description. The rattan and the flexible liana
+mount up to the topmost branches, and re-descending to the earth,
+take fresh root, receive new sustenance, and then remount anew, and
+at various distances they join themselves to the friendly trunks
+of their supporting columns, and thus they form very often most
+beautiful decorations. Varieties of the pandanus are to be seen,
+of which the leaves, in bunches, start from the ground, forming
+beautiful sheaves. Enormous ferns were to be met with, real trees
+in shape, and up which we clambered often, to cut the top branches,
+for their delicious perfume and which serve as food nearly the same as
+the palms. But, in the midst of this extraordinary vegetation nature
+is gloomy and silent; not a sound is to be heard, unless perhaps
+the wind that shakes the tops of the trees, or from time to time the
+distant noise of a torrent, which, falling precipitately, cascades
+from the heights of the mountains to their base. The ground is moist,
+as it never receives the sun's rays: the little lakes and the rivers,
+that never flow unless when swollen by the storms, present to the eye
+water black and stagnant, on which the reflection of the fine clear
+blue sky is never to be seen.
+
+The sole inhabitants of these melancholy though majestic solitudes
+are deer, buffaloes and wild boars, which being hidden in their lairs
+and dens in the daytime, come out at night in search of food. Birds
+are seldom seen, and the monkeys so common in the Philippines, shun
+the solitude of these immense forests. One kind of insect is met
+with in great abundance, and it plagues the traveller to the utmost;
+they are the small leeches, which are found on all the mountains of
+the Philippines that are covered with forests. They lie close to the
+ground in the grass, or on the leaves of the trees, and dart like
+grasshoppers on their prey, to which they fasten. Travellers are
+therefore always provided with little knives, cut from the bamboo,
+to loosen the hold of the insects, after which they rub the wound
+with a little chewed tobacco. But soon another leech, attracted by
+the flowing blood, takes the place of the one which was removed, and
+constant care is necessary to avoid being victimised by those little
+insects, of which the voracity far exceeds that of our common leeches.
+
+Our way lay through these singular creations of nature, and I was
+engaged in looking at and examining the curiosities around me, while my
+Indians were seeking some kind of game--deer, buffalo, or wild boar--to
+replace our stock of rice and venison, which was exhausted. We were at
+length reduced to the palms as our only resource; but the palms, though
+pleasing to the palate, are not sufficiently nutritive to recruit the
+strength of poor travellers, when, suffering under extreme fatigue,
+and after a laborious march, they find no lodging but the moist ground,
+and no shelter but the vault of the sky.
+
+We directed our course as near as possible towards the eastern coast,
+which is bathed by the Pacific ocean. We knew that it was in that
+direction the Ajetas commenced their settlement. We wished also to pass
+through the large Tagalese village, Binangonan de Lampon, which is to
+be found, isolated and hidden, at the foot of the eastern mountains,
+in the midst of the savages. We had already spent several nights in
+the forest, and without experiencing any great inconvenience. The
+fires which we lighted every evening warmed us, and saved us from
+the myriads of terrible leeches, which otherwise would certainly
+have devoured us. We imagined that we were within one day's march of
+the sea-shore, where we expected to take some time for rest, when,
+of a sudden, a burst of thunder at a distance gave us reason to
+apprehend a storm. Nevertheless, we continued our journey; but in
+a short time the growling of the thunder approached so near as to
+leave no doubt that the hurricane would burst over us. We stopped,
+lighted our fires, cooked our evening's repast, and placed some of
+the palm leaves on poles by the side of a slope to save us from the
+heavy rain. We had not finished all our preparations when the storm
+broke. If we had not had the glimmering glare of our firebrands we
+should have been in profound obscurity, although it was not yet
+night. We all three, with pieces of palm branches in our hands,
+crouched under the slight shelter which we had improvised, and there
+awaited the full force of the storm. The thunder-claps were redoubled;
+the rain began with violence to batter the trees, and then to assail
+us like a torrent. Our fires were speedily extinguished; we found
+ourselves in the deepest darkness, interrupted only by the lightning,
+which from time to time rushed, serpent-like, through the trees of
+the forest, scattering a dazzling light, to leave us the moment after
+in profound obscurity. Around us the din was horrible; the thunder
+was continuous, the echoes of the mountains repeating from distance
+to distance its sound, sometimes deadened, and sometimes with awful
+grandeur. The wind, which blew with violence, shattered the uppermost
+parts of the trees, breaking off large branches, which fell with a
+crash to the ground. Some trunks were uprooted, and, while falling,
+tore down the boughs of the neighbouring trees. The rain was incessant,
+and in the intervals between the thunder we could hear the awful roar
+of the waters of a torrent which rushed madly past the base of the
+mound where we had taken refuge. Amidst all this frightful commotion,
+mournful and dismal sounds were heard, like the howls of a large
+dog which had lost its master: they were the cries of the deer in
+their distress, seeking for a place of shelter. Nature seemed to
+be in convulsions, and to have declared war in every element. The
+loose thatch under which we had taken refuge was soon penetrated,
+and we were completely deluged. We soon quitted this miserable hole,
+preferring to move our stiffened and almost deadened limbs, covered
+with the fearful little leeches, which terrible infliction deprived
+us of the strength so necessary in our awful position.
+
+I avow that at this moment I sincerely repented my fatal curiosity,
+for which I paid so dearly. I could compare this frightful night only
+to the one I had passed in the bamboos, when I was wrecked on the
+lake. In appearance there was not such pressing danger, for we could
+not be swallowed up by the waves; but there were large trees, under
+which we were obliged to stop, and one of which might be uprooted
+and fall upon us; a bough torn off by the wind might crush us; and
+the lightning, equally terrific in its reports and its effects,
+might strike us at any moment. One thing was especially painful,
+and that was the cold, and the difficulty of moving our frozen and
+almost paralysed limbs. We awaited with impatience the cessation of
+the storm; but it was not until after three hours of mortal agony that
+the thunder gradually ceased. The wind fell; the rain subsided; and
+for some time we heard nothing but the large drops which dripped from
+the trees, and the dread sound of the torrents. Calm was restored;
+the sky became pure and starry: but we were deprived of that view
+which gives hope to the traveller, for the forest presented only a
+dome of green, impenetrable to the sight.
+
+Exhausted as we were by our exposure to the elements and our
+exertions, we were so overpowered by nature's great renovator sleep,
+that, notwithstanding our clothes were saturated with the rain,
+we were able to pass the remainder of the night in tranquillity. At
+break of day the forest, which a few hours previously had been the
+scene of the terrors which I have described, was again tranquil
+and silent. When we quitted our lair we were frightful to look at;
+we were covered with leeches, and the marks of blood on our faces
+rendered us hideous. On looking at my two poor Indians I could not
+avoid laughing aloud; they also looked at me, but their respect
+for me prevented their laughing. I was no doubt equally punished,
+and my white skin must have served to show well the ravages of those
+creatures. We were, indeed, knocked up; we could scarcely move, so
+weak had we become. However, act we must, and promptly,--to light a
+fire quickly, in order to warm us; to cook some of the palm stalks;
+to cross, by swimming, a torrent which, with a terrible noise, was
+rushing on below us; and to reach, during the day, the shores of the
+Pacific ocean. If we delayed to start it might not be possible to pass
+through the torrents,--we had left several behind us,--we might find
+ourselves in the impossibility of going either backward or forward,
+and perhaps be obliged to remain several days waiting for the waters
+to subside before we could proceed. Besides, other storms might arise,
+frequent as they are at this season, and we should have to remain for
+several weeks in a desert spot without resources, and where the first
+night passed under such a bad roof was no recommendation, There was no
+time to be lost. From a large heap of palm leaves, where we had placed
+and covered up our haversacks in order to preserve them from the wet,
+we drew them out safe; our precautions had fortunately been successful,
+they were quite dry. We made a large fire, thanks to the elemi gum,
+which burns with such ease. Our feelings were delightful when the
+heat entered our frames, dried our dripping garments, re-animated our
+courage, and gave us some strength. But, to enjoy that satisfaction
+fully, one should have acquired it at the same cost as I had. I very
+much doubt that any European would like to participate in the scenes
+of that night simply for the enjoyments of the following day.
+
+Our scanty cookery was soon ready, and expeditiously dispatched,
+and we moved off in quick time.
+
+My Indians were uneasy, as they feared they would not be able to
+pass through the torrent which was heard at a distance, consequently
+they marched quicker than I did. On reaching the bank I found them
+in a consternation. "Oh, master!" said my faithful Alila, "it is not
+possible to pass; so we must spend some days here." I cast my eyes
+on the torrent, which was rolling between steep rocks, in a yellow,
+muddy stream: it had all the appearance of a cascade, and was carrying
+down the trunks of trees and branches broken off during the storm. My
+Indians had already come to a decision, and were arranging a spot for
+a fit bivouac; but I did not wish to give up all hopes of success so
+speedily, and set about examining with care the means of overcoming
+the difficulty.
+
+The torrent was not more than a hundred yards in breadth, and a
+good swimmer could with ease get over in a few minutes. But it was
+necessary, on the opposite side, to arrive at a spot which was not too
+steep, and where one could find safe footing, and out of the torrent;
+otherwise the risk would be run of being drawn down, no one could
+tell whither.
+
+From the bank on which we were it was easy to jump into the water,
+but on the other side, for a hundred yards down the stream, there was
+but one spot where the rocks were interrupted. A small stream joined
+there the one we wished to cross. After I had carefully calculated by
+sight the length of the passage, I considered myself strong enough to
+attempt it. I was a better swimmer than my Indians; and I was certain
+if I was once on the other side, that they would follow. I told them
+that I was going to cross over the torrent.
+
+But one reflection caused me to hesitate. How could I preserve our
+haversacks, and save our precious provision of powder? How keep
+our guns from injury? It would not be possible to think of carrying
+those articles on my back through a torrent so rapid, and in which,
+beyond doubt, I should be under water more than once before I gained
+the other side.
+
+The Indians, being fertile in expedients, speedily extricated me
+from this difficulty: they cut several rattans, and joined the ends
+together, so as to form a considerable length. One of them climbed a
+tree which leant over the torrent, and there fastened one end of the
+rattan length, while I took the other end to carry it over to the other
+bank. All our arrangements being effected I plunged into the water,
+and without much difficulty gained the opposite side, having the end
+of the rattan with me, which I fastened to a tree on the steep bank I
+had gained, allowing a slight inclination of the line towards me, yet
+raised sufficiently over the water to allow the articles which we were
+anxious to pass over to slide along without touching the water. Our
+newly constructed bridge was wonderfully successful. The articles
+came across quite safe and dry; and my Indians, by its aid, quickly
+joined me. We congratulated each other on our fortunate passage,
+and the more so, as we expected before sunset to reach the Pacific
+ocean. Of the woods we had had enough: and we now looked for the sun,
+which for several days had been obscured by clouds; the leeches caused
+us considerable suffering, and weakened us very much, and our miserable
+diet was not sufficient to recruit our exhausted frames. Moreover we
+did not doubt that, on reaching the sea, we should be amply recompensed
+for all the privations we had endured. In fine, with renewed hopes we
+found our courage revive, and soon forgot the fatal night of the storm.
+
+I walked nearly as quick as my Indians, who, like me, hastened to
+get clear of the insupportable humidity in which we had existed for
+several days.
+
+Two hours after we had passed the torrent a dull and distant sound
+struck our ears. At first we supposed it to be a fresh storm; but
+soon we knew, from its regularity, that it was nothing less than the
+murmur of the Pacific ocean, and the sound of the waves which come
+from afar to break themselves on the eastern shore of Luzon. This
+certainty caused me a most pleasing emotion. In a few hours I should
+again see the blue sky, warm myself in the generous rays of the sun,
+and find a boundless horizon. I should also get rid of the fearful
+leeches, and should soon salute Nature, animated in creation, in
+exchange for the solitudes from which we had just emerged.
+
+We were now on the declivity of the mountains, the descent of which
+was gentle and our march easy. The sound of the waves increased by
+degrees. Near three o'clock in the afternoon we perceived through the
+trees that the sun was clear; and an instant afterwards we beheld the
+sea, and a magnificent beach, covered with fine glittering sand. The
+first movement of all three was to strip off our clothes and to
+plunge into the waves; and while we thus enjoyed a salutary bath, we
+amused ourselves in collecting off the rocks a quantity of shell-fish,
+which enabled us to make the most hearty meal we had eaten since we
+started from home.
+
+Having thus satisfied our hunger, our thoughts were directed to taking
+rest, of which we stood in great need; but it was no longer on knotty
+and rough pieces of timber, that we were going to repose,--it was on
+the soft sand, which the shore offered to us, warmed as it was by the
+last rays of the setting sun. It was almost night when we stretched
+ourselves on this bed, which to us was preferable to one of down. Our
+sacks served as pillows; we laid our guns, which were properly primed,
+close by our sides, and after a few minutes were buried in a profound
+sleep. I know not how long I had enjoyed this invigorating balm when
+I was awakened by the painful feeling of something crawling over
+me. I felt the prickings of sharp claws, which fastened in my skin,
+and occasionally caused me great pain. Similar sensations had awakened
+my two Indians. We collected the embers which were still ignited, and
+were able to see the new kind of enemies which assailed us. They were
+the crabs called "Bernard the Hermit," [23] and in such quantities that
+the ground was crawling with them, of all sizes and of all ages. We
+swept the sand on which we laid down, hoping to drive them away,
+and to have some sleep; but the troublesome--or rather, the famishing
+hermits--returned to the charge, and left us neither peace or quiet. We
+were busy in resisting their attacks, when suddenly, on the edge of
+the forest, we perceived a light, which came towards us. We seized
+our guns, and awaited its approach in profound silence and without
+any movement. We then saw a man and woman coming out of the wood,
+each having a torch in their hands. We knew them to be Ajetas, who
+were coming, no doubt, to catch fish on the beach. When they reached
+within a few steps from us, they stood for an instant motionless and
+gazed at us with fixed attention. We three were seated, watching them,
+and trying to guess their intentions. One of them put his hand to his
+shoulder, as if to take his bow; and I instantly cocked my gun. The
+noise caused by the movement of the gun-lock was sufficient to frighten
+them: they threw down their light, and scampered off like two wild
+beasts, in the highest alarm, to hide themselves in the forest.
+
+Their appearance was enough to prove that we were in a place frequented
+by the Ajetas. The two savages whom we had seen were perhaps gone to
+inform their friends, who might come in great numbers and let fly
+at us their poisoned arrows. This dread, and the incessant attacks
+of Bernard the Hermit, caused us to spend the remainder of the night
+near a large fire.
+
+As soon as day broke we made an excellent breakfast, thanks to the
+abundance of shell-fish, of which we could take whatever quantity we
+liked, and then set out again. Our way lay sometimes along the shore,
+and at other times through the woods. The journey was very fatiguing,
+but without any incident worthy of notice. It was after night-fall
+when we arrived at the village of Binangonan de Lampon. This village,
+inhabited by Tagalocs, is thrown, like an oasis of men, somewhat
+civilised, in the midst of forests and savage people, and who had no
+direct communication with the other districts which are governed by
+the Spaniards.
+
+My name was known to the inhabitants of Binangonan de Lampon,
+consequently we were received with open arms, and all the heads of
+the village disputed with each other for the honour of having me as
+a guest. I gave the preference to him who had first invited me, and
+in his dwelling I experienced the kindest hospitality. I had scarcely
+entered when the mistress of the house herself wished to wash my feet,
+and to show me all those attentions which proved to me the pleasure
+they felt that I had given them this preference.
+
+During supper, while I was enjoying the good food which was before me,
+the small house in which I was seated became filled with young girls,
+who gazed at me with a curiosity which was really comic. When I had
+finished my meal the conversation with my host began to weary me,
+and I stretched myself on a mat, which on that occasion I regarded
+as an excellent substitute for a feather-bed.
+
+I spent three days with the kind Tagalocs, who received and treated me
+like a prince. On the fourth day I bade them adieu, and we shaped our
+course to the northward, in the midst of mountains covered with thick
+forests, and which, like those that we had quitted, showed no path
+for the traveller, except some tracks or openings through which wild
+animals passed. We proceeded with great caution, for we found ourselves
+in the district peopled by Ajetas. At night we concealed our fire, and
+each of us in turn kept watch, for what we dreaded most was a surprise.
+
+One morning, while marching in silence, we heard before us a number
+of shrill voices, resembling rather the cries of birds than human
+sounds. We kept strict watch, and shaded ourselves as much as possible
+by the aid of the trees and of the brushwood. Suddenly we perceived
+before us, at a very little distance, forty savages of both sexes,
+and of all ages; they absolutely seemed to be mere brutes; they were
+on the bank of a river, and close to a large fire. We advanced some
+steps presenting the but-end of our guns. The moment they saw us
+they set up a shrill cry, and were about to take to flight; but I
+made signs, and showed the packet of cigars which we wished to give
+them. Fortunately I had learned at Binangonan the way by which I was
+to approach them. As soon as they understood us they ranged themselves
+in a line, like men about to be reviewed; that was the signal that we
+might come near them. We approached with the cigars in our hands, and
+at one end of the line I began to distribute my presents. It was highly
+important to make friends of them, and, according to their custom,
+to give to each an equal share. My distribution being finished, our
+alliance was cemented, and peace concluded: the savages and we had
+nothing to dread from each other. They all began smoking. A stag
+had been suspended to a tree; their chief cut three large pieces
+from it with a bamboo knife, which he threw into the glowing fire,
+and a moment afterwards drew it out again and handed it round, a piece
+being given to each of us. The outside of this steak was burned, and a
+little spotted with cinders, but the inside was raw and full of blood;
+however it was necessary not to show any repugnance, and to make a
+cannibal feast, otherwise my hosts would have been affronted, and I
+was anxious to live with them for some days on a good understanding. I
+therefore eat my portion of the stag, which, after all, was not bad:
+my Indians did as I had done. Good relations were thus established
+between us, and treachery was not then to be expected.
+
+I now found myself in the midst of a tribe of men whom I had come from
+Jala-Jala to see, and I set about examining them at my ease, and for
+as long as I wished. We fixed our bivouac some steps from theirs, as
+if we wished to form part of the family of our new friends. I could
+not address them but by signs, and I had the greatest difficulty in
+making them understand me, but on the day after my arrival I had an
+interpreter. A woman came to me with a child, to which she wished
+to give a name; she had been reared amongst the Tagalocs; she had
+spoken that language, of which she remembered a little, and could
+give, although with much difficulty, all the information I desired
+which was to me of interest.
+
+The creatures with whom I had thus formed a connection for a few days,
+and as I saw them, seemed rather to be a large family of monkeys than
+human beings. Their voices very much resembled the shrill cries of
+those animals, and in their gestures they were exactly like them. The
+only difference I could see was that they knew how to handle a bow
+and a lance, and to make a fire. To describe them properly I shall
+give a sketch of their forms and physiognomies.
+
+The Ajeta, or little negro, is as black as ebony, like the Africans;
+his greatest height is four feet and a-half; his hair is woolly,
+and as he takes no trouble about cutting it, and knows not how to
+arrange it, it forms around his head a sort of crown, which gives him
+an odd aspect, and, at a distance makes him appear as if surrounded
+with a kind of halo; his eye is yellowish, but lively and brilliant,
+like that of an eagle. The necessity of living by the chase, and of
+pursuing his prey, produces the effect on this organ of giving to
+it the most extraordinary vivacity. The features of the Ajetas have
+something of the African black, but the lips are not so prominent;
+while young their forms are pretty; but their lives being spent in the
+woods, sleeping always in the open air without shelter, eating much
+one day and often having nothing--long fastings, followed by repasts
+swallowed with the voracity of wild beasts--gave them a protruding
+stomach, and made their extremities lank and shrivelled. They never
+wear any clothing, unless a belt of the rind of a tree, from eight to
+ten inches in breadth, which they tie round their waist; their arms
+are composed of a bamboo lance, a bow of the palm tree, and poisoned
+arrows. Their food consists of roots, of fruits, and of the products
+of the chase; the flesh they eat nearly raw; and they live in tribes
+composed of from fifty to sixty individuals. During the day, the old
+men, the infirm, and the children, remain near a large fire, while
+the others are engaged in hunting; when they have a sufficiency of
+food to last for some days, they remain round their fire, and sleep
+pell-mell among the cinders.
+
+It is extremely curious to see collected together fifty or sixty of
+these brutes of every age, and each more or less deformed; the old
+women especially are hideous, their decrepit limbs, their big bellies
+and their extraordinary heads of hair, give them all the looks of
+furies, or of old witches.
+
+I had scarcely arrived than women with very young children came in
+crowds to me. In order to satisfy them I caressed their babes: but
+that was not what they wanted, and, notwithstanding their gestures
+and their words, I could not make out their wishes. On the following
+day, the woman whom I have already mentioned as having lived for
+some time among the Tagalocs, arrived from a neighbouring tribe,
+accompanied by ten other women, each of whom had an infant in her
+arms. She explained what I was not able to comprehend on the previous
+day, and said: "We have amongst us very few words for conversation:
+all our children take at their birth the name of the place where they
+are born. There is great confusion, then, and we have brought them
+to you that you may give them names."
+
+As soon as I understood this explanation, I wished to celebrate
+the ceremony with all the pomp that the circumstances and the
+place allowed. I went to a small rivulet, and there, as I knew the
+formula for applying the baptismal water, I took my two Indians as
+sponsors, and during several days baptised about fifty of these poor
+children. Each mother who brought her infant was accompanied by two
+persons of her own family. I pronounced the sacramental words, and
+poured water on the head of the child, and then announced aloud the
+name I had given to the child. Therefore, as they have no means of
+perpetuating their recollections, from the time that I pronounced
+the name,--Francis, for instance,--the mother and her accompanying
+witnesses repeated it very often, until they learned to say it
+correctly, and commit it to memory. Then they went away, and were
+constantly repeating the name, which they were anxious to retain.
+
+The first day the ceremony was rather long; but the second day the
+number lessened, and I was allowed to pursue my examination of the
+character of my hosts. I had retained the woman who spoke Tagaloc,
+and in the long conversations which I held with her, she initiated
+me thoroughly in all their customs and usages.
+
+The Ajetas have no religion; they do not adore any star. It
+seems, however, that they have transmitted to, or received from,
+the Tinguianes, the practice of adoring, during one day, a rock or
+a trunk of any tree on which they find any resemblance whatever of
+an animal; they then abandon it, and think no more of an idol until
+they meet with a strange form, which, for a short time, constitutes
+the object of their frivolous worship. They have a strong veneration
+for the dead; and during several years it is their practice to visit
+their graves, and there to leave a little tobacco or betel. The bow
+and arrows which once belonged to the deceased are hung up over his
+grave on the day of his interment; and every night, according to
+the belief of his surviving comrades, he rises up out of his grave,
+and goes to hunt in the forest.
+
+Interments take place without any ceremony. The dead body is laid at
+full length in a grave, which is covered up with earth. But whenever
+one of the Ajetas is dangerously ill, and his recovery despaired of,
+or that he has been even slightly wounded by a poisoned arrow, his
+friends place him seated in a deep hole, with the arms crossed over
+his breast, and thus inter him while living.
+
+I thought of speaking to my interpreter on religion, and asked her
+if she did not believe in a Supreme Being--an all-powerful Divinity,
+on whom all nature--even we ourselves--depend in all things; and who
+had created the firmament, and who was looking on at our acts. She
+looked at me with a smile, and said: "When I was young, amongst
+your brothers, I remember that they spoke to me of a master, who, as
+they said, had Heaven for his dwelling-place; but all that was lies;
+for see"--(she here took up a small stone and threw it into the air,
+saying, in a very serious tone)--"how can a king, as you say, remain
+in the sky any more than that stone?" What answer could I give to
+such reasoning? I left religion aside, to put to her other questions.
+
+I have already stated that the Ajetas did not often wait for the death
+of a person to put him into the ground. As soon as the last honours are
+rendered to a deceased, it is requisite, conformably to their usages,
+to take revenge for his death. The hunters of the tribe to which he
+belonged set out, with their lances and their arrows, to kill the first
+living creature which should appear before their eyes--be it man,
+stag, wild boar, or buffalo. From the moment they start in search
+of a victim, they take care, in every part of the forest through
+which they pass, to break the young shoots of the arbustus shrub,
+by pointing its tops in the direction which they are following. This
+is done to give a caution to their friends, and other passers-by,
+to avoid those places in which they are searching for a victim, for
+if one of themselves fell into their hands, he would, without fail,
+be taken as the expiatory victim.
+
+They are faithful in marriage, and have but one wife. When a young
+man has made his choice, his friends or his parents make a demand for
+the young girl; a refusal is never given. A day is chosen; and on the
+morning of that day the young girl is sent into the forest, where she
+hides herself or not, just as she pleases, and according as she wishes
+to be married to the young man who has asked her. An hour after her
+departure, the young man is sent to find out his bride. If he has the
+good luck to find her, and to bring her back to her parents before
+sunset, the marriage is concluded, and she becomes his wife without
+fail; but if, on the contrary, he returns to the camp without her,
+he is not allowed to renew his addresses.
+
+Among the Ajetas old age is highly respected. It is always one of
+the oldest men who governs the assembled body. All the savages of
+this race live, as I have stated, in large families of from sixty to
+eighty persons. They ramble about through the forests, without having
+any fixed spot for their abode; and they change their encampment
+according to the greater or less quantity of game which they find in
+various places.
+
+While thus living in a state of nature altogether primitive, these
+savages have no instrument of music, and their language imitating,
+as I have stated, the cries of monkeys, has very few sounds, which
+are extremely difficult for a stranger to pronounce, how much soever
+may be his eagerness to study them. They are excellent hunters, and
+make a wonderful use of the bow. The young negroes, however little,
+of each sex, while their parents are out hunting, amuse themselves on
+the banks of the rivulets with their small bows. If by chance they
+see any fish in the translucent stream they let fly an arrow at it,
+and it is seldom that they miss their aim.
+
+All the weapons of the Ajetas are poisoned; a simple arrow could not
+cause a wound so severe as to stop a strong animal, such as a deer,
+in its course; but if the dart has been smeared with the poison known
+to them, the smallest puncture of it produces in the wounded animal
+an inextinguishable thirst, and death ensues upon satisfying it. The
+hunters then cut out the flesh around the wound, and use the remainder
+as food, without any danger; but if they neglect this precaution,
+the meat becomes so exceedingly bitter that even the Ajetas themselves
+cannot eat it.
+
+Never having given credit to the famous boab of Java, I made
+experiments at Sumatra on the sort of poison of which the Malays make
+use to poison their weapons. I discovered that it was simply a strong
+solution of arsenic in citron juice, with which they coated their arms
+several times. I tried to find the poison used by the Ajetas. They
+led me to the foot of a large tree, and tore off a piece of its bark,
+and told me that that was the poison they used. I chewed some of it
+before them; it was insupportably bitter, but otherwise not injurious
+in its natural state. But the Ajetas make a preparation of it, the
+secret of which they refused to impart to me. When their poison is
+made up as a paste, they give to their arms a thin coating of it,
+about an eighth of an inch in thickness.
+
+The Ajetas in their movements are active and supple to an incredible
+degree; they climb up the highest trees like monkeys, by seizing the
+trunk with both hands, and using the soles of their feet. They run
+like a deer in the pursuit of the wild animals: this is their favourite
+occupation. It is a very curious sight to see these savages set out on
+a hunting excursion; men, women, and children move together, very much
+like a troop of ourang-outangs when going on a plundering party. They
+have always with them one or two little dogs, of a very special breed,
+which they employ in tracking out their prey whenever it is wounded.
+
+I enjoyed quite at my ease the hospitality exercised towards me by
+these primitive men. I saw amongst them, and with my own eyes, all
+that I was desirous of knowing. The painful life which I had led
+since my departure from home, without any shelter but the trees,
+and eating nothing but what the savages provided, began to tire me
+exceedingly: I resolved to return to Jala-Jala. Having previously
+noticed several graves at a short distance from our bivouac, an idea
+struck me of carrying away a skeleton of one of the savages, which
+would, in my judgment, be a curiosity to present to the Jardin des
+Plantes or to the Museum of Anatomy at Paris. The undertaking was one
+of great danger, on account of the veneration of the Ajetas for their
+dead. They might surprise us while violating their graves, and then
+no quarter was to be expected. I was, however, so much accustomed to
+overcome whatever opposed my will, that the danger did not deter me
+from acting upon my resolution. I communicated my intentions to my
+Indians, who did not oppose my project.
+
+Some few days afterwards we packed up our baggage, and took farewell
+of our hosts. We shaped our course towards the Indian cemetery. In
+the first graves which we opened we found the bones decayed in part,
+and I could only procure two skulls, which were not worth the danger
+to which they exposed us. However, we continued our researches, and
+towards the close of the day discovered the remains of a woman, who,
+from the position of the body in the grave, must have been buried
+before her death. The bones were still covered with skin; but the
+body was dry, and almost like a mummy. This was a fit subject. We
+had taken the body out of the grave, and were beginning to pack it
+up piece by piece into a sack, when we heard small shrill cries at a
+distance. The Ajetas were coming upon us, and there was no time to be
+lost. We seized our prize and started off as quick as possible. We had
+not got a hundred yards, when we heard the arrows whistling about our
+ears. The Ajetas, perched on the tops of the trees, waited for us and
+attacked us, without our having any means of defence. Fortunately night
+came to our aid; their arrows, usually so sure, were badly directed,
+and did not touch us. While escaping we fired a gun to frighten them,
+and were soon able to leave them far behind, without having received
+any other injury than the alarm, and a sufficient notice of the danger
+to be encountered in disturbing the repose of their dead. On emerging
+from the wood, some drops of blood caused me to remark a slight
+scratch on the forefinger of my right hand; I attributed this to the
+hurry of my flight, and did not trouble myself much about it, as was
+my practice with trifles, but continued my march towards the sea-shore.
+
+We still retained the skeleton, which we laid on the sandy beach,
+as well as our haversacks and guns, and sat down to rest after the
+fatigue of the journey. My companions then began to make reflections
+on our position, and my lieutenant, inspired by his affection for me,
+and his sense of the danger we were exposed to, addressed me in the
+following strain:
+
+"Oh, master! what have we done, and what is to become of us? To-morrow
+morning the enraged Ajetas will come to attack us for the execrable
+booty which we have carried off from them at the risk of our lives. If
+they would attack in the open ground, with our guns we might defend
+ourselves; but what can one do against those animals, perched here
+and there like monkeys in the top branches of the trees of their
+forest? Those places are for them so many fortresses, from which they
+will to-morrow shower down upon us those darts, which, alas! never fail
+to do mischief. Luckily it was night when they attacked us just now,
+for otherwise we at this hour should have a lance through each of our
+bodies, and then they would have cut off our heads to serve as trophies
+for a superb fete. Your head, master, would first have been laid on the
+ground, and the brutes would have danced round it, and, as our leader,
+you would have been a target of honour for them to practise upon.
+
+"And now, master, all that which would have occurred to us if the
+night had not favoured our escape is but deferred, for, alas! we cannot
+remain continually on this beach, although it is the only spot where
+we can protect ourselves against these black rascals. We must go to
+our homes, and this we cannot do without passing through the woods
+inhabited by these abominable creatures, who made us eat raw meat,
+and seasoned only with cinders. Well, master, before you undertook
+this excursion, you ought to have recollected all that happened to
+us among the Tinguians and the Igorrots."
+
+I listened calmly to this touching lamentation of my lieutenant, who
+was perfectly right in all he said; but when he finished I sought to
+rouse his courage, and replied:
+
+"What! my brave Alila! are you afraid? I thought the Tic-balan, and
+the evil spirits could alone affect your courage. Do you want to make
+me think that men like yourself, without any arms but bad arrows, are
+enough to make you quake? Come, enough of this cowardice; to-morrow
+we shall have daylight, and we shall see what is to be done. In
+the meantime let us search for shell-fish, for I am very hungry,
+notwithstanding the alarm into which you are trying to throw me."
+
+This little sermon gave courage to Alila, who immediately set about
+making a fire, and then, by the aid of lighted bamboos, he and his
+comrade went to the rocks to find out the shell-fish.
+
+Alila was nevertheless quite right, and I myself could not disguise
+the fact, that good luck alone could extricate us from the critical
+position in which we were placed by my fault, in having thought of
+my country, and in wishing to ornament the Museum of Paris with a
+skeleton of an Ajetas. [24]
+
+From disposition and habit I was not a man to alarm myself with any
+danger which was not immediate; yet I avow that the last words I
+had said to Alila:--"To-morrow we shall have daylight, and we shall
+see what is to be done:"--came back to my mind, and for a short time
+occupied my thoughts.
+
+My Indians brought back a large quantity of shell-fish, sufficient
+for our supper, and Alila ran up quite breathless, saying:
+
+"Master, I have made a discovery! A hundred steps from this I have
+found a canoe, which the sea has cast upon the beach; it is large
+enough to hold us three. We can make use of it to get to Binangonan,
+and there we shall be safe from the poisoned arrows of these dogs
+the Ajetas."
+
+This discovery was either that Providence had come to our aid, or it
+was a complication of dangers greater than those reserved to us on
+land on awaking in the morning.
+
+I went instantly to the spot where Alila had made his important
+discovery, and having disencumbered the canoe from the sand with which
+it was partly covered, I soon became certain that, with some bamboos,
+and by stopping a few cracks, it would be staunch enough to take us
+over the Pacific ocean, away from the Ajetas.
+
+"Well," said I to Alila, "you see I was right, and you must admit the
+hand of Providence is here. Is it not evident that this fine boat,
+built, perhaps, several thousand leagues from this, has arrived
+express from the Polynesian islands to carry us away from the claws
+of the savages."
+
+"True, master, true; it is our luck. To-morrow they will finely be
+taken in on not finding us here; but let us set to work, for we have
+much to do before this fine boat, as you call it, will be in a fit
+state for going through the water."
+
+We immediately made a large fire on the shore, and went into the
+woods to cut down bamboos and rattans; then we set to work to stop
+the holes, which decreased fast enough under our handy-work upon the
+abandoned canoe.
+
+Persons who have never travelled amongst the savages cannot imagine
+how, without having been instructed in the arts, and without nails,
+one could stop up the fissures in such a boat, and put it in a state
+fit for sea. Yet the means were very simple; our poignards, bamboos,
+and rattans supplied everything; by scraping a bamboo we obtained from
+it something like tow, which we put into the chinks, so that the water
+could not enter. If it was necessary to stop any breach a few inches
+in width, we took from the bamboo a little plank, somewhat larger
+than the opening we wished to close, and then with the point of the
+poignard we pierced it all round with little holes, to match those
+which were made in the same manner in the boat itself. Afterwards,
+with long strings of the rattan, which we split up and made fine,
+we sewed the little plank to the boat, just as one would a piece of
+cloth on a coat; we covered the sewing with the elemi gum, and were
+sure the water could not pass through. The rattan served instead of
+hemp, and supplied all our necessities on the occasion.
+
+We worked with ardour at this our new and only means of safety. Once
+caulked, we placed in it two large bamboos as beams, for without
+those beams we could not have sailed for ten minutes without being
+upset. Another bamboo served as our mast; the large sack of matting
+that contained our skeleton was transformed into a sail. At last,
+before the night was far advanced, every preparation was finished. The
+wind was favourable, and we hastened to try our boat, and to struggle
+with new difficulties.
+
+We placed in the canoe our arms and the skeleton, the cause of our new
+troubles; we then pushed the boat over the sand and got it afloat. It
+took us a good half-hour to get clear of the breakers. We were every
+moment in danger of being swamped by the large waves, which rolled
+on, dashing against the rocks that bound the shore. At last, after
+we had overcome a thousand difficulties and dangers, we reached the
+open sea, and the regular wave--a real movable mountain--lifted up,
+without any sudden shock, our frail boat almost to the skies, and
+then in the same quiet manner let it sink into an abyss, from which
+it was again raised to the top of a liquid mountain. These large
+waves, which follow each other usually from interval to interval very
+regularly, cause no danger to a good pilot, who takes the precaution
+of turning the prow of his boat so as to meet them. But woe to him
+if he forgets himself, and makes a false manoeuvre, he is then sure
+to be upset and wrecked. Being used to the management of canoes,
+and, more confident in my own vigilance when at sea than in that
+of my Indians, I took the helm. The wind was favourable; we set
+up our little sail, and went very fast, although every moment I
+was obliged to turn the prow to the heavy waves. We were already a
+sufficient distance from the shore not to fear, if the wind changed,
+that we should be driven in among the breakers. Everything led us to
+expect a safe voyage, when unfortunately my poor Indians were taken
+ill. They had never sailed before except on the lakes of fresh water,
+and were now attacked with sea-sickness. This was vexatious to me,
+for I knew from experience that a person so attacked for the first
+time is altogether incapable of rendering any service, and even of
+protecting himself against the smallest danger that threatens him. I
+had no one to aid me in managing the boat, and was obliged to rely
+on my own exertions. I told him who held the sheet of the sail to
+hand it to me, and I twisted it round my foot, for both my hands
+were engaged in holding the paddle which was our helm. My Indians,
+like two inanimate bodies, lay at the bottom of the boat.
+
+When I reflect on my position,--on the ocean, in a frail boat; having
+only for helps two individuals who could not move, two skulls, and a
+skeleton of an Ajetas,--I cannot help thinking that the reader may
+imagine that I have concocted a story for his amusement. However,
+I relate facts exactly as they occurred, and I leave all at liberty
+to believe as they please.
+
+I was, as it were, alone in my frail boat, struggling continually
+with the large waves, which obliged me every moment to deviate from
+the course. I longed for daylight, for I hoped to be able to discern
+the beach of Binangonan de Lampon, as a place of refuge, where I
+should find the frank hospitality and the valuable assistance of my
+old friends.
+
+At last the long-wished-for sun arose above the horizon, and I saw
+that we were about three leagues from the coast. I had gone far too
+much out to sea, and had passed Binangonan a long way. It was not
+possible to steer back, the wind would not allow it; so I decided on
+pursuing the same course, and on doing my best to reach, before night,
+Maoban, a large Tagaloc village, situate on the coast of Luzon, and
+which is separated by a small ridge of mountains from the lake of
+Bay. The first rays of the sun and a little calm restored my Indians
+to a state of being able to render me some service. We passed the
+day without eating or drinking, and we had the regret of seeing that
+we had not attained our purpose. Our position was most distressing:
+a storm might rise, the wind might blow with force, and our only
+resource then would be to throw ourselves into the breakers, and to
+reach the shore as well as we could. But luckily nothing of the kind
+took place; and about midnight we knew, from meeting a small island,
+that we were in front of the village of Maoban. I steered to it, and
+in a short time we arrived in a calm quiet bay, near a sandy shore. The
+fatigue and want of food had thoroughly exhausted my strength. I had no
+sooner landed than I threw myself on the ground, and fell into a deep
+sleep, which lasted until day. When I awoke I found the sun's rays
+were shining full upon me: it was near seven o'clock. On any other
+occasion I should have been ashamed of my laziness, but could I feel
+dissatisfied with myself for sleeping soundly after thirty-six hours'
+fasting, and spent in such extraordinary exertions? During my sleep
+one of my Indians went into the village in search of provisions, and
+I found excellent rice and salt fish near me. We made a delicious and
+splendid breakfast. My Indians, on behalf of the inhabitants, asked me
+to go to the village, and spend the day, but I was too eager to reach
+home. I knew by walking quickly we could get through the mountains,
+and arrive at night on the banks of the lake, within a few hours'
+journey from my house. I determined to start without any delay. We took
+our things out of the boat; the little sail retook its former shape,
+as a sack, to hold the skulls and the skeleton, the cause of all the
+disasters to which we had been exposed, and, with reunited strength,
+and abundant provisions for the day, we began to mount the high hills
+which separate the gulf of Maoban from the lake of Bay. The journey
+was laborious and painful. At seven o'clock we embarked on the lake,
+and towards midnight we reached Jala-Jala, where I very speedily
+forgot all the toil and trouble of my long and dangerous journey,
+while pressing my son in my arms and covering him with paternal kisses.
+
+My excellent friend Vidie, to whom I sold my house and establishment,
+gave me letters which he had received from Manilla, and from them I
+learned that my presence was desired there on affairs of importance. I
+resolved to start on the following day.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+    I Determine not again to Separate from my Son--I take
+    him to Manilla--The Effects of the Wound I received among
+    the Ajetas--My Recovery--Kindness of the Spanish and other
+    Inhabitants of Manilla--Illness of my Son--I return with him to
+    Jala-Jala--Sorrowful Remembrances--The Death of my poor Boy--His
+    Interment--My frantic Grief and Despair--I Determine to Quit the
+    Philippines--I am Called to Manilla by Madame Dolores Seneris--My
+    Final Departure from Jala-Jala--I Arrive at Manilla, where I
+    resume Practice as a Surgeon--I Embark for France--Discontent--My
+    Travels through Europe--I Marry again--Death of my Mother and my
+    Second Wife--Conclusion.
+
+
+Having now concluded my last trip into the interior of the Philippines,
+I was desirous of not separating myself again from my son, the only
+being that remained to me of all those whom I had loved so tenderly. I
+took him with me to Manilla; but I did not altogether bid farewell
+to Jala-Jala, yet I had almost the intention of never going back to it.
+
+The journey was as agreeable as my melancholy recollections would
+permit. I experienced such pleasure in holding my boy in my arms,
+and in receiving his gentle caresses, that I occasionally forgot
+every sorrow.
+
+I arrived at Manilla, and took up my quarters in the environs, at
+the abode of Baptiste Vidie, brother of the friend whom I had left
+at Jala-Jala.
+
+After my escape from the Ajetas, I had noticed a small wound on
+the forefinger of my right hand, which I attributed to having
+been accidentally scratched by a branch or a thorn, while we were
+endeavouring to make our escape with such precipitation from the arrows
+which the savages let fly at us. The first night I spent at Manilla,
+I felt in the place where the wound was such extreme pain that I fell
+down twice totally senseless. The agony increased every instant, and
+became so violent that I could no longer doubt that it was caused by
+the poison of an arrow, shot at me by the Ajetas. I sent for one of
+my confreres, and after a most careful examination, he made a large
+incision, which did not, however, afford me any relief: the hand,
+on the contrary, festered up. By little and little the inflammation
+extended itself up my arm, and I was soon in an alarming state.
+
+In short, after suffering during a whole month, and after the most
+cruel incertitude, it seemed that the poison had passed into my
+breast. I could not sleep for an instant; and, in spite of me, dead
+and painful cries came forth from my breast, which was on fire. My
+eyes were veiled--I could not see; a burning sweat covered my face;
+my blood was on fire, and did not circulate in my veins; my life
+seemed about to become extinct. The medical men declared that I could
+not pass through the night. According to the usages of the country,
+I was told that I ought to regulate my affairs for death. I asked
+that the consul-general of France, my excellent friend Adolphe Barrot,
+should be sent for.
+
+Adolphe I knew to be a man of true heart and affection, and to him I
+recommended my poor boy. He promised to take care of him as if he were
+his own son, to take him to France, and to give him over to my family.
+
+Lastly a good Dominican friar came, and with him I had several long
+conferences, and after he had dispensed to me the consolations of his
+ministry, he gave me extreme unction. Everything was done according
+to the customary form, and nothing was wanting but my death.
+
+However, amidst all these preparations, I alone was not so eager;
+and, although in excessive anguish, I preserved my presence of
+mind, and declared I should not die. Was it courage? Was it great
+confidence in my strength and robust health, which made me believe in
+my recovery? Was it a presentiment, or was it an inward voice which
+told me: "The doctors are wrong, and how great will be their surprise
+tomorrow on finding me better?" In short, I did not wish to die; for,
+according to my system, my will ought to stop the order of nature,
+and to make me survive all imaginable pain.
+
+The following day I was better: the doctors found my pulse regular,
+and without any intermitting symptom. Some days afterwards the poison
+passed out to my skin: my whole body was covered with a miliary
+eruption, and thenceforth I was safe. My recovery was very gradual,
+and for more than a year I felt acute pains in my breast.
+
+During the course of my illness I received the kindest attention from
+my fellow-countrymen, and in general from all the Spanish inhabitants
+of Manilla; and here I ought to state, to the praise of the latter
+class, that during twenty years spent in the Philippines, I always
+found amongst those with whom I had dealings, a great nobleness of
+soul and a devotedness free from egotism. I shall never forget the
+kindnesses I received from this noble race, for which I entertain
+feelings of the warmest gratitude. To me, every Spaniard is a brother;
+and to him I shall always be happy to prove that his countrymen have
+not conferred obligations on an ungrateful character. I hope the
+reader will pardon me for having quitted my subject for a short time
+to fulfil the duty of gratitude; but are they not my recollections
+which I am detailing? [25]
+
+The wish to undertake, together with my boy, the voyage which would
+restore me to my country; the hope of seeing my kind good mother,
+my sisters, and all the friends whom I had left behind, reconciled me
+somewhat to existence, and made me experience a little happiness. I was
+awaiting with impatience the time for embarking; but, alas! my mission
+was not yet terminated in the Philippines, and a new catastrophe,
+quickly opened afresh all my sorrows.
+
+I was scarcely recovered, when my dear boy--my sole delight the last
+beloved being that remained to me on this earth, so fruitful in joys,
+and still so destructive of them--my poor Henry fell suddenly ill,
+and his disease made the most rapid progress. My friends immediately
+foreboded that a great misfortune would befall me. I alone did not know
+the state in which my child really was. I loved him with such an ardent
+passion, that I believed it impossible that Providence would deprive
+me of him. My medical attendant, or rather my friend, Genu, advised
+me to take him to Jala-Jala, where his native air and the country,
+as he said, would without doubt promote his recovery. I liked the
+advice, for so many persons had recovered their health at Jala-Jala
+that I hoped for my child a similar good result. I set out with him
+and his governess; the voyage was one of sadness, for I saw my poor
+boy continually suffering, without being able to afford him any relief.
+
+On our arrival Vidie came to receive us, and in a few moments I
+occupied, with my Henry, the room which brought to my remembrance two
+very sorrowful losses--the death of my little daughter and that of my
+beloved Anna. It was, moreover, in that very room my Henry was born,--a
+cruel association of the happiest moments of my existence with that
+when I was bewailing the state of my beloved boy. Nevertheless, I did
+not altogether despair, for I had hopes in my art and experience. I
+seated myself by his bedside, and did not leave him for a moment. I
+slept close to him, and I passed every day in administering the
+medicine and all the comforts in my power, but without any good result,
+or any relief for his sufferings. I lost all hope, and on the ninth
+day after our arrival the dear boy expired in my arms.
+
+It is not possible for me to give an account of my feelings on this
+last trial. My heart was broken, my head on fire! I became mad, and
+never did despair take such a hold on me. I listened to nothing but
+my sorrow; and force became necessary to tear from my arms the mortal
+remains of my child.
+
+On the following day he was laid close to his mother, and another
+tomb was erected in the church of Jala-Jala.
+
+In vain did my friend Vidie endeavour to afford me consolation, or
+to change the current of my affliction. Several times he tried to
+remove me from the fatal room, which I now looked upon as a scene
+of misfortunes, but he could not succeed. I hoped at the time--and
+I also thought that I too had a right--to die there, where my wife
+and my son had breathed their last sighs. My tears refused to flow,
+and even words failed me to express the full extent of my grief. An
+ardent fever, which devoured me, was far too slow for the eagerness
+of my wishes. In a moment of bewilderment, I was near committing
+the greatest act of cowardice which man can perpetrate against his
+Creator. I double-locked the door; I seized the poignard which I had
+so often used to protect my life, and pointed it against myself. I
+was already choosing the spot in which I should strike, in order by
+one blow to terminate my miserable existence. My arm, strengthened by
+delirium, was about to smite my breast, when one sudden thought came to
+prevent me from consummating the crime which has no pardon--although
+the crime of despair. My mother, my poor mother, whom I had so much
+loved, my good mother presented herself to my mind, and said to me:
+"Thou wouldst abandon me--I shall see thee no more!" I recollected
+then the words of Anna: "Go, and see thy mother again!" This thought
+changed my resolution completely. I threw the poniard aside with
+horror, and fell on my bed quite exhausted. My eyes, which during many
+days had been dry and burning, were once again overflowing with tears,
+which removed the heavy weight from my lacerated heart.
+
+The force of mind of which I stood so much in need was awakened again
+within me: I no longer thought of death, but of fulfilling my rigorous
+destiny. Calmed and relieved already by the abundant flow of tears,
+I gave myself up wholly to the idea of embracing my mother and my
+sisters. Then I wished to add the following pages to my journal. My
+head was not thoroughly right. I shall translate what I then wrote
+in Spanish, which was my adopted and familiar language, in preference
+even to French, which I had scarcely spoken during twenty years:--
+
+"How have I strength to take this pen? My poor boy!--my son!--my
+beloved Henry!--is no more: his soul has flown to his Creator! Oh,
+God! pardon this complaint in my distress. What have I done to be
+thus cruelly afflicted? My boy!--my dear son!--my only hope!--my last
+happiness!--I shall never again see thee! Formerly I was happy; I had
+my good Anna and my dear child; but cruel fate soon tore my companion
+from me. My trouble was indeed great, and my affliction was profound;
+but thou wast still with me, Oh, my child! and all my affections were
+concentrated in thee. "With thy caresses thou didst dry my tears; thy
+smile was like that of thy mother, and thy beautiful features reminded
+me of her, and in thee I found her again. But to-day, alas! I have
+lost you both. What a void! Oh, God! what a solitude! Oh! I ought to
+die in this room which is the depository of all my misfortunes. Here I
+bewailed my poor brother; here I closed the eyes of my daughter; here,
+also, Anna, when dying, bade me, bathed in tears, her last adieus;
+and here, at last, thou, my son, they tore thee from my arms, to lay
+thee near the ashes of thy mother.
+
+"So many afflictions and so many troubles for one man! Oh, God of
+goodness and mercy, will you not restore to me my poor child? Alas! I
+scarcely feel that I am mistaken: but He will pity my bewilderment--he
+who has been beloved and who has seen carried off, one by one, all
+the elements of his happiness. As for me, an isolated being, and
+henceforward useless on this earth, it matters little where I shall
+sink under the weight of my afflictions. If it was not from the hope of
+seeing my mother and sisters, I should terminate my wretched existence,
+my grave should be with you--you all!--whom I loved so much. I should
+remain near you, and during the rest of my miserable existence I should
+every day visit your tombs! But no; a sacred duty obliges me to leave
+you, and to separate for ever from you. Cruel! Oh, cruel indeed will
+be the hour when I shall depart from you. And thou, my beloved, my
+good, excellent wife, my Anna, thy last words shall be accomplished. I
+will set out, but regret and grief accompany me during the voyage; my
+heart and my memory will remain at Jala-Jala. Oh! land bedewed with
+my sweat, with my blood, and with my tears! when fate brought me to
+thy shores thou wast covered with dismal forests which this day have
+given place to rich harvests: among thy inhabitants order, abundance,
+and prosperity have taken the place of debauchery and misery. My
+efforts were crowned with full success; all was prosperity around
+me. Alas! I was too happy! But while misfortune strikes me down and
+overwhelms me, it will have stricken me alone, my work will outlive
+me. You will be happy, Oh, my friends! and if I myself have been so
+in contributing to your welfare, let a thought sometimes awaken your
+feelings towards him to whom you often gave the name of 'Father;'
+and if you preserve gratitude towards him, Oh, take a religious care
+of the tombs, trebly dear to him, which he now intrusts to you."
+
+My readers will pardon this melancholy and long lamentation; they
+will understand it if they examine with care my position. Separated
+from my country by five thousand five hundred leagues, the stroke
+of fate which laid all my cherished hopes in the dust was the
+more acutely felt as it was unexpected. I had no relatives in the
+Philippines; in France alone I might yet find some affections; and,
+at the moment of quitting Jala-Jala for ever, the idea of parting with
+my Indians--attached, devoted, as they were to me--was an additional
+grief to the many which overpowered me. Thus I could not resolve to
+acquaint them beforehand of this separation. I remained in my room,
+without quitting it even at meal times. My friend Vidie did everything
+possible to prepare me for these adieus, and to console me. He pressed
+me to start speedily for Manilla, and to make arrangements for my
+departure; but an irresistible force retained me at Jala-Jala. I
+was weak; my heart was so crushed by sorrows that I had no courage
+to adopt any resolutions. I put it off from day to day, and from day
+to day I was more undecided. An unexpected occasion was necessary in
+order to conquer my apathy; it was requisite also to triumph over me
+by sentiments of gratitude--sentiments which I could never resist.
+
+On this occasion, the motive which decided my departure was furnished
+by Providence. I had a friend in Manilla, a lady of angelic goodness,
+gentleness, and devotedness. United from the period of my arrival in
+the most intimate manner with all her family, I had known her as a
+child, and afterwards married to a highly honourable man, of whom when
+she was subsequently bereaved, I afforded her all the consolations
+which the sincerest friendship could offer. She was a witness of the
+happiness which I enjoyed with my dear Anna, and, hearing that I was
+unhappy, she did not hesitate to undertake a long journey, and in her
+turn to come and take a part in my troubles. The excellent Dolores
+Seneris arrived one morning at Jala-Jala; she threw herself into my
+arms, and for some moments tears alone were the interpreters of our
+thoughts. When we recovered from our first emotions, she told me that
+she had come to take me away, and she herself made the preparations
+for my departure. I was too grateful for this proof of the friendship
+of the good Dolores not to acquiesce in her wishes, and it was decided
+that on the following day I should quit Jala-Jala for ever.
+
+The report was soon spread among my Indians. They all came to bid me
+farewell: they wept, and they said to me:
+
+"Oh, master, do not deprive us of all hope of seeing you again. Go,
+and receive consolation from your mother, and then return to your
+children." That day was filled with most distressing feelings.
+
+The day following was Sunday. I went to say adieu to the remains of
+those whom I had loved even in their tombs. I heard for the last time
+the divine service in the modest little church which I had erected,
+and in which for a long time, surrounded by my dearest friends, I was
+happy to assemble, on the same day of the week, the small congregation
+of Jala-Jala.
+
+After the service I proceeded to the beach, where the boat was waiting,
+which was to take me to Manilla. There--surrounded by my Indians, the
+good parish priest, Padre Miguel, and my friend Vidie--I bade adieu
+to them all for the last time. Dolores and I got into the boat, which
+was scarcely pushed off from the shore when every arm was stretched
+out towards me, and every one exclaimed:--"May your voyage be happy,
+master! And oh! return soon!"
+
+One of the oldest Indians made a sign for silence, and then in a loud
+voice uttered these solemn words:--"Brothers, let us weep and pray,
+for the sun is obscured to us; the star which is going has shed light
+on our best days, and now for the future, being deprived of that light,
+we cannot tell how long will last the night in which we are plunged
+by the misfortune of his departure."
+
+This exhortation of the old Indian were the last words that reached
+us: the boat moved away, as I, for the last time, fixed my eyes on
+the beloved land which I was never again to behold.
+
+We reached Manilla late: it was one of those enchanting nights, which
+I have described in the happy period of my voyages. Dolores insisted
+that I should not lodge in any house but hers. Before she set out
+her careful friendship had provided for everything. I was surrounded
+by all those little attentions of which woman alone has the secret,
+and which she knows how to confer with such grace on him who is the
+object for whom they are designed.
+
+My windows looked on the pretty river Pasig. I there passed whole
+days in looking at the graceful Indian canoes gliding over the water,
+and receiving the visits of my friends, who came with eagerness to
+endeavour to divert my thoughts, and to afford sources of pleasing
+conversation.
+
+When I was alone I sought to dispel my melancholy by thinking of my
+voyage; on the happiness I should experience on seeing again my poor
+mother and sisters, a brother-in-law whom I did not know, and nieces
+born during my absence.
+
+The obligation of returning the visits I received, and the
+re-establishment of my health, allowed me at length to enter into
+affairs connected with my departure.
+
+My friend, Adolphe Barrot, consul-general of France, was every day in
+expectation of intelligence from his government, with orders for his
+return home. He proposed to me to wait for him, so that we might make
+the voyage together. I accepted the proposal with pleasure, and we
+decided amongst ourselves that, for our return, we should take the
+route of India, of the Red Sea, and of Egypt.
+
+While I stayed at Manilla I did not wish to be idle. The Spaniards
+reminded me that at a former epoch I had carried on the art of
+medicine, and with great success. I soon had patients from all quarters
+of the island, and I resumed my old profession, and gave advice. But
+what difference between this time and that of my debut. Then I was
+young, full of strength and of hope; then I indulged in the illusions
+usual to youth; a long future of happiness presented itself to my
+imagination. Now, overwhelmed by the weight of troubles and of the
+laborious works I had executed, there was only one wish to excite
+me, and that was, to see France again; and yet my recollections took
+me continually back to Jala-Jala. Poor little corner of the globe,
+which I civilised! where my best years were spent in a life of labour,
+of emotions, of happiness, and of bitterness! Poor Indians! who loved
+me so much! I was never to see you again! We were soon to be separated
+by the immensity of the ocean.
+
+Reflections and recollections beyond number thus occupied my mind. But,
+alas! it is vain to struggle against one's destiny; and Providence,
+in its impenetrable views, was reserving me for rude trials and
+fresh misfortunes.
+
+Having again become a doctor at Manilla, where I had such difficulty
+at my commencement, I visited patients from morning until night. To
+Dolores and to her sister Trinidad I was indebted for the most touching
+and most delicate attentions, calculated to heal the wounds which were
+still bleeding in the bottom of my heart. I frequently saw the two
+sisters of my poor wife, Joaquina and Mariquita, as well as my young
+niece, the daughter of excellent Josephine, for whom I had entertained
+so warm a friendship, and who so soon followed my darling Anna to
+the grave. By little and little I was forming new ties of affection,
+which I was soon to break, and never afterwards to renew. I could
+not forget Jala-Jala, and my recollections never quitted that place
+where were deposited the remains of those whom of all the world I
+had most loved. My eager wishes induced me to hope that my work of
+colonisation should continue, and that my friend Vidie should find some
+compensation for the rough task he had undertaken. At this period, even
+while I remained in Manilla, a great misfortune was nearly the cause
+of throwing Jala-Jala back into its former state of barbarism. The
+bandits, who always respected the place while I was in possession of
+it, came one night to attack it, and made themselves masters of the
+house in which Vidie had shut himself up, and defended until he was
+forced to escape out of a window, and to run and hide in the woods,
+leaving his daughter, then very young, to the care of an Indian
+nurse. The bandits pillaged and shattered everything in the house;
+wounded his daughter by a sabre-cut, of which to this day she bears the
+marks; and then went off with the plunder they had made. But Jala-Jala
+had become too important a point to be neglected; and the Spanish
+government sent troops to it, to protect Vidie, and to maintain order.
+
+At last, Adolphe Barrot received from the French government the
+long-awaited instructions to return home; all my preparations were
+made for setting out. It was in 1839; twenty years had passed over
+since I left my country, which I was now about to return to with
+satisfaction. For a long time I had received no news from my mother,
+and the pleasure which I anticipated from seeing her was troubled by
+the dread of having new sorrows to experience on my arrival. My mother
+was then very old; her life had been passed in long tribulations,
+and in complete sacrifice of self. The numerous moral troubles which
+she had gone through must have affected her state of health. Besides,
+I had been so unfortunate: fate seemed to have so roughly treated all
+my affections, that I could not refrain from thinking that I should
+never again see her for whom I abandoned my much-loved country. The
+day for sailing came; yet it was not without a heartfelt grief that
+I tore myself away from my friends, and bade adieu to the Philippines.
+
+
+
+Here ought to terminate the account which I proposed: yet I cannot
+refrain from dedicating a few lines to my return to my native land.
+
+On board various vessels I passed the coasts of India, the Persian
+Gulf, and the Red Sea.
+
+After having often admired the grand works of Nature, I felt a strong
+desire to see the gigantic works executed by the hand of man.
+
+I went to Thebes, and there visited in detail its palaces, its tombs,
+and its monolithes. I descended the Nile, stopping at every place
+which contained any monuments worthy of my curiosity. I ascended
+one of the Pyramids. I passed several days in Cairo, and set out for
+Alexandria, where I embarked anew, to pass over the small space of
+sea which separated me from Europe.
+
+I have sometimes wished to compare the grandest of human productions
+with the works of the Creator; the comparison is by no means
+favourable to the former, for all those useless ornaments are nothing
+but lasting proofs of pride, and of the fanaticism of a few men, who
+were obeyed by a people in slavery. I also saw all that remained of
+the traces of destruction committed by two of the greatest conquerors
+of the world: the first was but a haughty despot, causing cohorts of
+slaves to act as he pleased, and carrying the sword and destruction
+amongst peaceful people, to profane their tombs, to follow up useless
+conquests,--history afterwards shows him dying of an orgie; and the
+other, alas! was enchained to a rock.
+
+From the summit of one of the Pyramids, in religious abstraction, I
+had contemplated the majestic Nile, which glides serpent-like through
+a vast plain, bordered by the Desert and arid mountains. Looking,
+then, below me, I could with difficulty descry some of my travelling
+companions, who were gazing at the Sphinx, and who appeared like little
+spots on the sand. And I then exclaimed: "It is not these useless
+monuments that we ought to admire, but rather this magnificent river,
+which, in obedience to the laws of all-powerful wisdom, overflows
+every year, at a fixed period, its limits, and spreads itself, like
+a vast sea, to water and to vivify these immense plains, which are
+afterwards covered with rich harvests. If this immutable and beneficent
+order of Nature did not endure, all these fertile districts would be
+but a desert waste, where no living creature could exist."
+
+These reflections took their origin, without doubt, from my having
+spent almost all my life amidst those grand creations of Nature,
+from which man continually derives sentiments that elevate him to
+the Supreme Being. I had studied that Nature--in all her details,
+her beneficence, and her magnificence--too attentively to allow
+the productions of man's genius to make upon me the impression
+which I thought might be expected, when I first formed the wish
+to see the monuments of Egypt; and, while sailing for Europe, I
+already anticipated the feeling that a short sojourn in the midst of
+civilisation would cause me to regret my ancient freedom, my mountains,
+and my solitudes in the Philippine Islands.
+
+On arriving at Malta I was for eighteen days locked up in Fort Manuel,
+and then passed the quarantine. I there received news of my family. My
+mother and sisters wrote to me that they were in the enjoyment of
+excellent health, and were awaiting with impatience my coming to
+them. After the quarantine was over, I stopped nearly a week in
+the city, while waiting for a steamer that was going to France. I
+embraced the opportunity of seeing every curiosity in the island. I
+then resumed my voyage to my native land, and the following week I
+recognised the arid rocks of Provence and France, from which I had
+been absent for twenty years.
+
+In a few days I reached Nantes, where for some time I enjoyed, in every
+respect, all the happiness which one feels when those beloved beings
+from whom one had been long severed, and who formed the last living
+ties of affection for an unhappy being who had been severely tried
+by a capricious destiny. But the want of excitement in which I lived
+soon became irksome; my life had been too active, so that the sudden
+transition could not fail to prove injurious to my health, and the idea
+of submitting during the remainder of my existence to a life sterile
+and monotonous became intolerable. Not knowing how to employ myself,
+I resolved to travel through Europe, and to study the civilised world,
+which was then so strange to me. I travelled through France, England,
+Belgium, Spain, and Italy, and returned to my family, without being
+able to discover anything that could induce me to forget my Indians,
+Jala-Jala, and my solitary excursions in the virgin forests. The
+society of men reared in extreme civilisation could not efface from my
+memory my past modest life. Notwithstanding all my efforts, I retained
+in my heart a fund of sadness, which it was not possible to conceal. My
+kind-hearted mother, who with deep regret observed my repugnance
+to establish myself in any part of the country, and who entertained
+fears, perhaps well-founded ones, that I should yet endeavour to go
+back to the Philippines, used every means to prevent me. She spoke
+to me of marriage, and in all her letters repeated that she should
+not be happy until I agreed to enter into the ties of a new union:
+she said my name would otherwise become extinct, and, as her last
+consolation, she asked me to allow her to choose a companion for me.
+
+The wish to satisfy her, and also the remembrance of Anna's last words:
+"Return to thy country, and marry one of thy countrywomen," decided
+my resolution.
+
+I soon made choice of one, who would have fully rendered a man happy
+who had not too frequently before him the remembrance of a previous
+union. Nevertheless, I was as happy as I could be. My new wife
+possessed every quality necessary for my happiness. By her I became
+father of two children, and I began to bless the determination which my
+mother had contributed so much to make me adopt; but, alas! happiness
+was never for me lasting; the cup of bitterness was not yet exhausted,
+and I had still to shed many tears.
+
+In the cemetery of Vertoux, a modest tomb for thee, poor mother! is
+erected, between that of a husband and a son; and soon after another
+grave was opened at Neuilly. In profound affliction I had the following
+lines engraved on the latter:
+
+
+        "Veille, du haut des cieux, sur ta triste famille;
+        Conserve-moi ton fils et revis dans ta fille." [26]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+[1] Pablo signifies Paul, my Christian name. I was always called thus
+at Manilla and at Cavite.
+
+[2] The betel is a species of pepper plant, the leaves of which
+are wrapped round areca nuts and the chunam--the latter is a kind
+of burnt-lime made of shells, and the areca nut is the fruit of
+a species of palm. The Indians, Chinese, half-breeds, and a great
+number of Creoles, continually chew this mixture, which is reputed
+to sweeten the breath and assist digestion.
+
+[3] During six months the winds blow continually from the north-east,
+and during the other six months from the north-west: these two periods
+are termed north-east monsoon and north-west monsoon.
+
+[4] At their head was Don Jose Fuentes, my constant friend.
+
+[5] Don Simon Fernandez, Oidor at the Court Royal.
+
+[6] The most bitter enemies of the Tinguians are a race of cruel,
+blood-thirsty savages, who inhabit the interior of the mountains. They
+have also to fear the Igorrots, who live nearer, but who are less
+savage.
+
+[7] Evil Spirit.
+
+[8] A malicious divinity of the Tagalocs.
+
+[9] It is on account of this cruel custom of beheading their victims
+that the Spaniards have given to these savages the name of "corta
+cabesas," "decapitators."
+
+[10] Banditti.
+
+[11] "The nakedness of the poor might be clothed out of the trimmings
+of the vain."--Dr. Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield."--Tr.
+
+[12] The Igorrots, however, according to the reports of the Indians,
+are not anthropophagi; perhaps the one in question had received these
+ragouts from some other savages--the Guinans, for instance.
+
+[13] It would be difficult to establish from what nations the divers
+species of men who inhabit the interior of Luzon originally came. The
+Tinguians, from their fine shape, their colour, their eyes, their
+almost aquiline nose, the value they set upon china vases, their music,
+and finally from their habits, would appear to be the descendants
+of the Japanese. It is most likely that at a very distant period
+some junks from the Japan coasts, hurried along by strong northern
+winds, may have been wrecked upon the Luzon shores, and that their
+crews, seeing no possibility of returning to their native country,
+as well as to avoid the Malayan population that was in possession
+of the beaches,--it is possible, I say, that the shipwrecked persons
+withdrew into the interior of the mountains, the difficulty of access
+to which protected them from all invasion.
+
+The Japanese sailors, who are merely coasters, sail about with their
+wives, as I had an opportunity of witnessing on board many junks,
+whither I went through mere curiosity. Those same junks, beaten by
+the tempest, had steered for shelter to the eastern coast of Luzon,
+where they anchored for four months, waiting for the return of the
+monsoon; and had they not met with a protecting government, their crews
+would have been compelled to fly into the mountains, as I suppose the
+Tinguians had been obliged to do. The latter having some women with
+them, must have procured others from among the neighbouring population,
+and as they inhabit the finest and healthiest country in the world,
+their number must have considerably increased. They are now spread
+over sixteen villages: Palan, Jalamey, Mabuantoc, Dalayap, Lanquiden,
+Baac, Padanquitan y Pangal, Campasan y Danglas, Lagayan, Ganagan,
+Malaylay, Bucay, Gaddani, Laganguilan y Madalag, Manab, Palog y Amay.
+
+The Igorrots, whom I had less opportunities of studying, seem to
+be the descendants of the remains of the grand naval army of the
+Chinese Lima-On, who, after attacking Manilla, on the 30th November,
+1574, had taken refuge in the province of Pangasinan, in the gulf of
+Lingayan, where he was a second time defeated, and his fleet completely
+destroyed. A part of the crew escaped into the mountains of Pangasinan,
+where the Spaniards could not pursue them.
+
+The Igorrot has long hair, eyes a la Chinoise, a flat nose, thick
+lips, high cheek bones, broad shoulders, strong and nervous limbs,
+and bronze colour; he greatly resembles the Chinese of the southern
+provinces of the Celestial Empire.
+
+I could obtain no information as to extraction concerning the Guinans,
+another people of savages, ferocious and cruel, who live in the
+neighbourhood of the Tinguians.
+
+I keep back for a future period a description of the Ajetas, or
+Negritos, the aborigines of Luzon.
+
+[14] According to Indian tradition, and to Spanish tradition
+likewise, the Infant Jesus of Zebou existed before the discovery of
+the Philippines. After the conquest the Infant was found upon the
+sea-shore; the Spanish conquerors deposited it in the cathedral,
+where it performed great miracles.
+
+[15] The Malays.
+
+[16] See Appendix, I.
+
+[17] I experienced two such gales during my residence at Jala-Jala--the
+one I am now speaking of, and another to which I shall afterwards
+allude.
+
+[18] Tapuzi is situated in the mountains of Limutan. Limutan is a
+Tagalese word, signifying "altogether forgotten."
+
+[19] In the eyes of the natives of Tagal all Europeans are Spaniards.
+
+[20] While this work was in the press, Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, who has
+already published an account of his "Voyage to the Northern Ports of
+China," kindly furnished the Publishers with confirmatory proofs of
+M. de la Gironiere's narrative, see Appendix, No. II.
+
+[21] See Appendix III. and IV.
+
+[22] Of the house of Russell and Sturges, a good and true friend, the
+recollection of whom, often present to my mind, will never be effaced.
+
+[23] Bernard the Hermit is a crab, which lodges in the abandoned
+shell of the molluscae, and comes at night in search of food, which
+it finds on the sea beach.
+
+[24] The skeleton is now in the Musee Anatomique of Paris.
+
+[25] Gratitude here requires that I should name some of those to
+whom I am specially indebted for marks of affection and kindness. It
+would be indeed ungrateful on my part to forget them, and I beg them
+to accept this proof of my recollections.
+
+The Governors of the Philippines to whom I owe these remembrances
+are:--Generals Martines, Ricafort, Torres Enrile, Camba, and Salazar;
+in the various administrations of the colony, the Judges (Oidorrs)
+Don Inigo Asaola, Otin-i Doazo, Don Matias Mier, Don Jacobo Varela,
+administrator-general of the liquors; Don Jose de la Fuente, commissary
+of the engineers, who rendered me innumerable kindnesses; Colonel Don
+Thomas de Murieta, corregidor of Tondoc; the colonel of engineers, Don
+Mariano Goicochea; the Colonel-Commandant Lante Romana; the Governor of
+the province, Don Jose Atienza; the brothers Ramos, sons of the judge;
+all the family Calderon; that of Seneris; Don Balthazar Mier, Don
+Jose Ascaraga; and lastly my friend, Don Domingo Roxas, whose son, Don
+Mariano Roxas, after having received a solid and brilliant education at
+Manilla, came to travel in Europe. He has acquired the most extensive
+information in the sciences and arts, and when he shall have returned
+to the Philippine Islands, he will most worthily replace his dignified
+father, whom a premature death has snatched away from the industry,
+the agriculture, and the advancement of his country. If gratitude
+has induced me to mention here the Spaniards from whom I experienced
+many acts of kindness, the same feeling compels me to allude to an
+English gentleman to whom I was indebted for one of those important
+services which are never to be forgotten. I allude to Mr. Thomas Dent,
+with whom I have frequently conversed upon our hunting parties at
+Jala-Jala, in which he was occasionally one of the principal actors.
+
+[26]        "From Heaven's height look down and see
+            The sorrows of thy family;
+            Preserve for me thy only boy,
+            And in thy daughter give me joy."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures in the Philippine Islands, by
+Paul P. de La Gironiere
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