102 MANILA BAY. 



friends at Manila, with much reluctance, this being one 

 of the first resting-places where we could be said to have 

 been free from official restraint. 



" Manila Bay offers a scene of quiet beauty and repose 

 on a hot, calm day, which I have seldom noticed in any 

 other part of the world. The numerous shipping lie 

 perfectly motionless at their anchorage ; light, airy 

 canoes catch the faint, passing land-breeze, and glide 

 along in the blue distance, their white sails looking like 

 birds upon the water; the Cavite passage-boats, with 

 their strange out-riggers and enormous lateen sails, press 

 along towards the cigar-famed city ; the gay " banca " 

 comes sweeping by, perhaps the bearer of some gaily 

 dressed Mestiza blanckisseuse ; while the swarthy Luzon 

 boatmen propel their ponderous barges by means of long 

 poles, which they press against their shoulders, inclining 

 their bodies almost parallel to the sea, as they walk along 

 the platforms on the outside of their craft. Beautiful 

 striped and banded water-snakes play around the vessel, 

 raising occasionally their scaly heads, and gliding along 

 the smooth surface of the bay in graceful undulations. 

 The white porpoise ' rolls his graceless form ', as he gam- 

 bols merrily with his awkward companions ; while clouds 

 of noisy, screaming tern hover above the tide-ripple, quar- 

 relling for scraps thrown overboard from the shipping. 



" Should you chance to approach Manila early in the 

 morning, you may observe the stone steps leading down 

 into the river, crowded with persons of all ages, and of both 

 sexes, nearly in a state of nudity, enjoying the luxury of 

 a cool and healthy ablution before the labours of the day 

 commence, and many a female form, of perfect symmetry, 



