68 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



clergy, garrison, settled Spaniards, Europeans, and 

 Chinese, who make from four to six thousand. 



Manilla, with its harbour of Cavite, appears to 

 be the only considerable Spanish town in the Philip- 

 pines. In the provinces, you see the splendid 

 edifices and temples of the clergy rising among the 

 slight and cleanly huts of the natives, which, as at 

 the time of Pigafetta, are raised on posts made of 

 bamboo-cane and prickly interwoven calamus, and 

 covered with Nepa leaves, and may be compared 

 to elegant bird-cages. The fire often consumes 

 such villages as easily and rapidly as the dry grass 

 of the savannahs; and, in a few days, they rise again 

 from their ashes. 



The Spaniards in Manilla live chiefly in that 

 part of the town which is properly fortified, on 

 the left bank of the river. The suburbs of the 

 Chinese, surrounded with shops and booths, and 

 that of those Tagalese with beautiful gardens, extend 

 on the right bank. The streets of the town are 

 reo-ular. The houses massive, of one story, built 

 on a ground-story, which is not used. The damp- 

 ness of the rainy season has taught the Spaniards 

 to follow the example of the natives. They are 

 entirely surrounded on the outside with galleries, 

 the windows of which, instead of glass, are fur- 

 nished with transparent shells. The spacious, airy 

 and shady rooms afford a pleasant retreat against 

 the heat. The architecture of the convents and 

 churches, which compose the chief edifices of the 

 16 



