270 
SAN FBANCISCO TO MANILLA. 
Sabtang and Batan are of broken surface, shooting up into many 
remarkable peaks, to the elevation of a thousand feet. These are 
both inhabited, and afford one or two anchorages. 
In the route from Oahu, we had experienced a set to the westward 
of four hundred miles by current; the greater part of this was felt 
before reaching the meridian of the Ladrone Islands. 
I now stood to the southward along the island of Luzon, to pass 
just clear of Cape Bolinao. On the 9th, we continued to have very 
strong winds. A very heavy sea arose, without apparent cause; the 
progressing motion of the waves in passing the ship was twenty-two 
miles per hour; their width, as near as it could be ascertained, was 
one hundred and forty yards. 
At sunset of the 10th, we were off Cape Capones, and numerous 
lights were seen on shore. The breeze failed us after midnight, and 
in the morning we found that we had drifted some thirty miles to 
the leeward of Cape Miravales, having Cape Capones due north, the 
current having set to the southward. As the breeze was adverse to 
our entrance into the bay, we continued beating until the afternoon, 
when the sea-breeze gave us the hope of reaching the anchorage; but 
it was so feeble that we made no way, and the night was again passed 
under sail. 
The next day, the 12th, was also passed in working up for the city 
of Manilla. For this delay I had something to console me in the 
arrival of the Flying-Fish, which vessel was discovered at 3 h 30 m p. m. 
beating in. Signal was made for her to join company. 
On arriving at the island of Corregidor, we were boarded by a go¬ 
vernment galley, pulling sixteen oars, and having a large brass twelve- 
pound piece mounted on the bow. These vessels, I understood, are 
intended principally to pursue the pirates of Sooloo, who not unfre- 
quently make excursions among the islands, attacking the villages, 
and carrying off the inhabitants as slaves. They are manned by the 
natives of this island, who are represented as active and expert sailors, 
although they are, generally, of small size. 
After dark, we anchored about eight miles from the city, in the 
middle of the broad and beautiful expanse of its bay, which is nearly 
circular, with an almost uniform depth of water. I learned, whilst at 
Manilla, that since the settlement of Europeans, the bay has filled up 
in places very considerably, from the wash of the hills. The lands in 
the vicinity are high and mountainous, and are clothed with the vege¬ 
tation of the tropics. After dark, the many lights that were seen in 
the direction of the city gave the bay an animated appearance, and 
bespoke our being near a large and active population. 
Mr. Knox reported to me that after his separation, on the 30th of 
