1 889-] A Month in the Eastern Phillipincs. 103 
standing in a tragic attitude, with his sword thrust through a 
poor little centipede, which he had pinned to the floor. 
The harbor of Catbalogan is formed by several small islands 
but is not considered safe in storms from the northwest. The 
town is on low ground near the sea, and has about ten thou- 
sand inhabitants, and shows the usual church and parish house 
with a governor'sand other officer's residences, for it is the capital 
of a province ; in addition to the usual streets of Indian houses 
supported on posts in the ordinary way. The town had an un- 
mistakable appearance of age and unthrift, though the little 
square in front of the church was decorated with triumphal 
arches and flowers, for we had brought a new governor with 
us, the same who had so courageously attacked the centipede 
in the morning. 
The island of Samar is some one hundred and twenty miles 
long, by thirty or forty broad, and is said to have two hundred 
thousand inhabitants. Its native name is Ibabao, which means 
up above, and we were certain before we had left it that it was 
well named. It is very mountainous and steep so that a 
great part of it is uncultivable. The exports are chiefly of 
manila hemp which is sent to Cebu or Manila for shipment. 
The captain of the steamer landed us and our goods on the 
beach and steamed away, and we were left again to find a 
home among strangers. There was no hotel, as is usual in 
such towns, and the people were too busy with the new gover- 
nor to care for us, and it looked for some time as if we might 
go hungry and without shelter unless we took refuge in the 
tribimal, the court-house, jail and common assembly room of 
the Indian population, but after noon we found an empty house 
and making a bargain with the owner, and hiring a young In- 
dian for cook, we moved in that night. Our house was out on 
the borders of the town near the hills. It had a room large 
enough to hold our hammocks, and another back one open on 
all sides, serving for a kitchen, dining-room and a place in 
which to skin birds. The hills covered with second growth 
were just behind us and we could see unmistakable patches of 
virgin forest on the mountain sides, two or three miles far- 
