Interview with the Captain-general. 307 



little interest for strangers. It has the shape of a large 

 oblong, surrounded on each of its four sides by the palace. of 

 the Governor-general, that of the archbishop, the cathedi-al, 

 and the law offices, with a well-kept garden-plot in the centre, 

 in which is a handsome statue of Charles IV., the whole 

 strongly recalling the principal square in the Havanna. The 

 cathedi'al is equally as remarkable for the clumsiness of its 

 exterior as for the profusion of perishable gold and silver 

 within. The first edifice was erected by Legaspi, the con- 

 queror of Luzon, in 1571, and was composed of bamboo cane 

 thatched with j^alm-leaves. The present temple was built 

 in IGort during the papacy of Innocent X., after several 

 previous buildings had been destroyed, some by fire, others 

 by earthquake. The palace of tlie Captain-general is an 

 extensive but very simple building, with long wide conidors 

 internally, but which can make no pretensions to archi- 

 tectural magnificence externally. In one of its saloons our 

 Commodore and his companions were received by the 

 Captain-general of the Piiilippines, Don Fernando Nar- 

 zagaray, who had held this elevated post since 1857. 

 Formerly Governor of the island of Porto Rico, in the West 

 Indies, Don Fernando was, in consequence of his openly 

 avowed Carlist proclivities, sent into honourable exile to the 

 Philippines, and by a lucky chance is at present once more 

 invested Tsdth the dignity of one of the highest officials of 

 Queen Isabel II. of Spain. This gentleman received the 

 voyagers of the Novara with the proverbial lofty courtesy of 



X 2 



