48 



THE SULU ISLANDS. 



[chap. 



which seemed admirably adapted for raising the temperature 

 within to fever heat — received us very kindly, and showed us over 

 the town. It is completely surrounded by a loop-holed wall 

 about twenty feet in height, behind which sentries pace incessantly. 

 The gates are shut at sundown, after which no one is permitted to 

 enter. On the seaward side there is no wall, but a gun-boat is 

 always stationed at the anchorage, and the pier and shores are 



A STREET !>• JOLO. 



patrolled by soldiers. Thus closely imprisoned, the Spaniards 

 have wisely kept their men employed to the utmost of their power. 

 They have recovered a great deal of ground from the sea by 

 building dykes and filling in the ground beliind them. Hospitals 

 and barracks have been constructed on piles over the sea, but no 

 plantations have ever been attempted except by one man, who laid 

 out a small sugar estate close to the walls, only to have it 

 completely destroyed by the Sulus in the following year. In spite 

 of the youth of the settlement, the three or four streets wliich it 



