III.] LIFE IN JOLO. 49 



possesses look not only extremely neat and clean, but even 

 picturesque, planted as they are by rows of bananas and cotton- 

 trees on either side. There is a market-place formed of palm-leaf 

 sheds, beneath which the ]\Ianila men chatter and discuss the 

 merits of then- fighting cocks, which, slung up in handkerchiefs 

 with their legs protruding, or tied to a post of the stall, are visible 

 in aU du'ections, for cock-fighting is as much a ruling passion here 

 as it is in Cuba, and at any street-corner one may see a couple of 

 natives putting their birds together for half a minute's friendly 

 spar without spurs. 



The Governor, who was a colonel in the army, chatted to us in 

 excellent French, and gave us some information about the town. 

 Life in it must indeed be monotonous and trying to a degTce; a mere 

 vegetative existence, with little or nothmg novel to break the dull 

 round save the advent of cholera or a Sulu running amok. Except 

 in parties of ten or a dozen fully armed, no one leaves the town ; 

 and the evening promenade in the Plaza to listen to the band, the 

 Sunday cock-fighting, and an occasional water-party appear to be 

 the only amusements. The garrison is composed of six companies 

 of the Manila native regmients, under a commandant and about 

 twenty-five officers. These latter, with their wives and children 

 and sixteen artillerymen, are the only Europeans. They number 

 about 120. The rest of the inhabitants are made up of a very 

 large number of con^dcts, sent from Manila and other parts of the 

 Philippines. They seemed tolerably happy and contented, wore 

 no chains, and were said to be very harmless. 



Waiting for our boat to take us off to the ship, we witnessed a 

 marine phenomenon as pretty as it was extraordinary. The calm 

 water around the pier, itself not phosphorescent, was full of a 

 Pyrosoma, of some such creature, that was most strongly so. 

 These creatures progressed slowly in a very irregular serpentine 

 fashion, leaving behind a vi\dd phosphorescent train which lasted 

 for some little time. There were great numbers of them, and the 

 effect was as if the water were full of fiery snakes. "We did not 

 VOL. II. E 



