3IO Voyage of the Novara. 



meadow-land, surrounded by water on both sides, on wliicli 

 lias been erected within these few years a simple monument 

 in honour of Magelhaens, the discoverer of the Philippines, 

 who, wounded by a native with a poisoned arrow, breathed 

 his last, 15th April, 1521, on the small island of Mactan, 

 lying opposite Cebu. A Doric column of black marble, 76 

 feet high, with inscriptions engraven on the four sides of the 

 pedestal, lifts its head here since 1854,* and is altogether a 

 more appropriate monument than that which the Spaniards 

 erected at Havanna to the greatest navigator of any age, 

 Christopher Columbus, to whom they owe all their after 

 power and greatness, on the spot where his ashes reposed for 

 many a long year in the cathedral before they were con- 

 veyed back to Spain. A poor insignificant votive tablet, 

 built into a recess near the altar, is all that intimates that 

 there once reposed there for a season the mortal remains of 

 the man who, to use the words of a German poet, " bestowed 

 on the world another world."f 



On this isthmus are situated the most delightful pleasure 

 grounds in Manila; the esplanade, with its simple, shady 

 walks, and benches on which to repose, and further on, 

 nearer the sea on the left bank of the river, the '' Calzada" 

 dam (causeway). Hither every evening comes the gay 



* On the island of Mactan (10° 20' N., 124° 10' E.) there was also erected on the 

 promontory of Sugano a monument to the memory of Magelhaens, and the happy 

 idea was entertained of making it also into a hght-house, to warn ships of the 

 danger in approaching the immense numbers of reefs that are found here. 



■j- V. Heinrich Heine's " Romanzero." 



