450 THE PHILIPPINES. [1842. 



The Europeans and their descendants dress principally 

 after the Spanish fashion, but the ladies are so fond of dis- 

 playing their finely-moulded arms and ankles, that sleeves 

 and stockings are usually at a discount. The costume of the 

 other classes is a sort of mixture of Chinese and Malay, 

 blended together in different shades and forms. 



Manilla possesses considerable commerce ; it is the capital 

 of the Spanish settlements in the East, and the only port in 

 the Philippines with which foreign vessels are allowed to 

 trade.* Its exports amount anually to over two millions of 

 dollars, and the imports are about one million seven hundred 

 thousand dollars. The former consist mainly of sugar, 

 hempen stuffs, rice, indigo, sapan and other woods, tobacco, 

 cigars, hides, ebony, coffee, cotton, and tortoise-shell. The prin- 

 cipal articles imported are iron, and all kinds of manufactured 

 goods. The harbor of Manilla, which is formed by the river 

 Pasig, is accessible to merchant vessels of six hundred tons 

 burden, and those of three hundred tons can ascend as high 

 up as the bridge. Beyond the bridge the stream is navigable 

 for small boats to the lake in which it rises, a distance of 

 about nine miles. Large vessels anchor in the roads, at from 

 one to two miles off the shore, and discharge their cargoes 

 into lighters, except during the prevalence*of the south-west- 

 ern monsoons, in (he months of July, August, and Septem- 

 ber, when they are obliged to anchor at Cavite, six or seven 

 miles from the mouth of the river, where they are sheltered 

 by a long neck of land from the fury of the winds. 



(2.) The Philippine Islands were discovered by Magellan, in 

 1521, and were first claimed by the; Spanish in 1565. They 

 are the most valuable colonial possession belonging to Spain, 

 with the exception of the island of Cuba. They lie between 

 the parallels of 5° and 20° north latitude, and the 117th and 

 i!i meridians of eastern longitude; being separated on the 

 north, from the Batanes and Basher islands, by the Balintang 



* Previous to the Spnnish invasion, Manilla was a native town of some ira- 

 portance. It was taken in 1571, when the Spaniards m;ule it the capital of 

 thur Eastern possessions. 



