The " Cahada"" or Public Drive. 311 



world of Manila, in long rows of carriages, to bo fanned hj 

 the delicious cool sea-breeze. Arrived at the farther ex- 

 tremity of the promenade, the coachman, resplendent in 

 gorgeous livery and large shining top-boots, for he does not 

 drive from the box but rides postilion, is usually ordered to 

 stop, and the gentlemen leave the carriage in order to chat 

 with the ladies in the surrounding vehicles, just as we accost 

 our fair friends in the theatre, and pay our visits in the 

 boxes. For in Manila there are neither theatres nor con- 

 cert-rooms, and the public promenade is therefore the only 

 rendezvous of the ''beau monde." 



Unfortunately we reached Manila in the height of the 

 rainy season, when even the attractiveness of nature can only 

 be guessed at by occasional glimpses, and the delightful out- 

 door life which enlivens the streets and the front porch of 

 the private residences of the inhabitants, is utterly arrested. 

 Here, as in Batavia, the tropical rains fall with a violence of 

 which a native of the northern climates, who has never lived 

 in the tropics, and knows only the rainfall of his own 

 country, can hardly form any conception. In July, 1857, it 

 rained here for fourteen days uninterruptedly, so that the 

 Pasig overflowed its banks, and people were ferried about 

 the streets of Manila, as in the city of Lagoons, by means of 

 small boats, called here hancas. This inundation was con- 

 verted into a merry-making, and \4sits were paid on all sides 

 in elegant little boats. 



The one sole amusement with which even the rainy season 



