316 Voyage of the Novara. 



cliarter. Wlien any cliange of officials takes place, tlie new 

 appointment must often remain vacant for months till the oc- 

 cupant reach his post ; indeed, during our stay in Manila we 

 witnessed a case in which the consort of the Governor of the 

 Marianne Archipelago had been vainly waiting for months for 

 an opportunity to return to her husband.* Some foreign 

 merchants settled at Manila had made an offer to the 

 Government, in consideration of a fixed subsidy, to establish 

 regular communication between the various islands of the 

 Archipelago, and to keep it on foot by means of five steam 

 vessels. But the Colonial Government did not see its way to 

 giving the company a larger subsidy than 43,000 Spanish 

 piasters (£6763 at par), and thus the whole plan once more 

 fell through, the carrying out of which would so greatly tend 

 to the development of these islands. 



Notwithstanding the fertility of the islands in all manner of 

 natural wealth, there are at present but three products of the 

 soil which are exported in anything like large quantities to 

 the European and North American markets, and which thus 

 give this group any importance in the eyes of the commercial 

 world, viz. tobacco, Abdca, or Manila hemp, and sugar. 

 The amount of all other articles exported, such as coffee, 

 indigo, Sapan wood [C(Esalpinia sapan), straw-plait, f hides 



* This unhappy lady died a melancholy death, having, what rarely occurs among 

 Spanish women, committed suicide at her hotel by swallowing Prussic acid. It was 

 rumoured that an unhappy attachment led to this fatal resolve. 



t Of these straw-plait manufactories the cigar-holders are especially noticeable for 

 their fine texture and elegance. These are usually sold at very high prices ; some of 



