MANILLA. 
291 
The crops frequently suffer from the ravages of the locusts, which 
sweep all before them. Fortunately for the poorer classes, their 
attacks take place after the rice has been harvested; but the cane is 
sometimes entirely cut off. The authorities of Manilla, in the vain 
hope of stopping their devastations, employ persons to gather them 
and throw them into the sea. I understood on one occasion they had 
spent eighty thousand dollars in this way, but all to little purpose. 
It is said that the crops rarely suffer from droughts, but on the con¬ 
trary the rains are thought to fall too often, and to flood the rice 
fields; these, however, yield a novel crop, and are very advantageous 
to the poor, viz.: a great quantity of fish, which are called dalag, 
and are a species of Blunnius; they are so plentiful, that they are 
caught with baskets : these fish w^eigh from a half to two pounds, 
and some are said to be eighteen inches long: but this is not all; 
they are said, after a deep inundation, to be found even in the vaults 
of churches. 
The Philippines are divided into thirty-one provinces, sixteen of 
which are on the island of Luzon, and the remainder comprise the 
other islands of the group and the Ladrones. 
The population of the whole group is above three millions, including 
all tribes of natives, mestizoes, and whites. The latter-named class 
are but few in number, not exceeding three thousand. The mestizoes 
were supposed to be about fifteen or twenty thousand; they are dis¬ 
tinguished as Spanish and Indian mestizoes. The Chinese have of 
late years increased to a large number, and it is said that there are 
forty thousand of them in and around Manilla alone. One-half of the 
whole population belongs to Luzon. The island next to it in the num¬ 
ber of inhabitants is Panay, which contains about three hundred and 
thirty thousand. Then come Zebu, Mindanoa, Leyte, Samar, and 
Negros, varying from the above numbers down to fifty thousand. 
The population is increasing, and it is thought that it doubles itself in 
seventy years. This rate of increase appears probable, from a com¬ 
parison of the present population with the estimate made at the begin¬ 
ning of the present century, which shows a growth in the forty years 
of about one million four hundred thousand. 
The native population is composed of a number of distinct tribes, 
the principal of which in Luzon are Pangarihan, Ylocos, Cagayan, 
Tagala, and Pampangan. 
The Irogotes, who dwell in the mountains, are the only natives 
who have not been subjected by the Spaniards. The other tribes 
have become identified with their rulers in religion, and it is thought 
that by this circumstance alone has Spain been able to maintain the 
