3 1 2. Voyage of the Novara. 



cannot interfere, is cock-fiorhtinor. So soon as the bad 

 weather has fairly set in, universal recourse is had to this, 

 the most popular of amusements, whose cruel, murderous 

 issue is strangely in contrast with the mild, soft, timid cha- 

 racter of the natives. These " Gallos^'' as they are called, are 

 a monopoly of Government, that is to say, they can only be 

 held with their permission, and upon payment of a fee for 

 such license. The revenue which Government derives from 

 this anything but civilized amusement is very considerable,* 

 and the fee paid by the owners of the cocks and the spec- 

 tators is at any rate the least objectionable part of the spec- 

 tacle, for far larger sums are lost in the betting. What 

 cards and hazard are for hlasee Europe, cock-fighting is for 

 the simple native of Manila. Such is their passionate excite- 

 ment, that several days elapse before their ordinary apathy 

 subsides into its state of chronic contentment. It is singular 

 that, with the exception of the Spaniards and the mixed race 

 founded by them in various distant parts of the world, there 

 is not now one single civilized nation that can find any 

 pleasure in such brutal amusements as cock-fights and bull- 

 fights. -~ ?^^^A'^^^. i^^M ;f(A-'^>^UUv- Ai/^^ ' V 



The scene of action is a small building, built of bamboo, 

 and thatched with palm-leaves, in the interior of which the 

 benches for the spectators rise behind each other in form of 

 an amphitheatre, while the arena, or pit, is filled with the 

 owners of cocks and betting-men, until the signal for the 



• It was estimated, we were told, at from $35,000 to |40,000 annually. 



