Irregularity of Postal Communication. 315 



umphal arches, illuminations, &c., took so long a preparation 

 that the month of June and the rainy season were again at 

 hand before the fete could be held, which owing to the latter 

 circumstance fell through, and excited hardly any interest. 

 That intelligence should be so many months in arriving at 

 the Philippines is due less to their great distance, than to the 

 little care taken by Government to promote the public 

 interests. Until 1857, all letters to Europe were for the 

 most paii; dispatched by sailing-vessels, so that letters re- 

 mained four or five months on the way, and owing to the 

 uncertainties of the length of passage made by the various 

 vessels, it was constantly happening that the last letters sent 

 came to hand before those dispatched several weeks earlier. 

 This irregularity and uncertainty weighed so heavily upon 

 commerce, that since March, 1858, there has been estab- 

 lished regular communication by steam between Manila 

 and Europe, the epistolary matter from Europe, for the resi- 

 dents throughout the Archipelago, being conveyed by a 

 Spanish steamer from Hong-kong, which is distant only 600 

 miles, while all letters for Europe are conveyed to the latter 

 port in time for the mails of the 1st and 15th of each month, 

 whence they are forwarded together with the English corre- 

 spondence via Singapore and Suez. 



On the other hand there is up to this moment no regular 

 communication with any of the adjacent islands in the Archi- 

 pelago, even the Government only availing itself of such 

 sailing-vessels as private adventurers may from time to time 



