3o6 Voyage of the Novara. 



The Recoletos watch over the spiritual weal of 567,416* 

 children belonging to parishes in the various islands of the 

 Archipelago, and number 127 brethren. 



In each monastery there is what is called a Procuracion, 

 where the various printed books published by the order 

 (almost exclusively dictionaries and grammars of the native 

 languages and dialects) are sold for the behoof of the funds 

 of the monastery. The members of our Expedition exerted 

 themselves to form a very complete collection of all such 

 publications; and while thus engaged they also succeeded 

 in getting several MS. treatises on language. f Works and 

 memoirs on the history of the island and the state of its 

 inhabitants are scarcely met with in the wretchedly deficient 

 libraries of the monasteries, which consist of not more than 

 500 or 600 volumes, mostly works of theology and philosophy. 

 Whatever of valuable literary material may once have belonged 

 to these institutions has aj)parently been removed to Spain, 

 whose libraries have also gradually absorbed the literary 

 treasures of the monasteries of Central and Southern America. 



Besides the monasteries, Government Square (Plaza de 

 Gobierno), in the inner portion of the city, possesses some 



* In 1857, the order baptized 23,227, joined in marriage 4830 couples, and buried 

 15,627. 



t The printed works obtained in the various monasteries of Manila consist of 

 dictionaries and small grammars of the Togala, Bisaya, Ilocana, Tbanac, Bicol, and 

 Pampangu dialects. The MSS. embrace vocabularies of the Igorotes and Ilongotes 

 languages of Luzon, as also the idiom used by the natives of the Marianne Archi- 

 pelago, togethei' with a short treatise on the Marianne group written in Spanish by 

 a missionary. All these works will be thoroughly and exhaustively treated of in the 

 ethnological portion, where also the manuscripts will be published. 



