310 MANILLA. 



concerns the provinces, the government maybe called, notwithstanding 

 the officers, courts, &c, monastic. The priests rule, and frequently 

 administer punishment, with their own hands, to either sex, of which 

 an instance will be cited hereafter. 



As soon as we could procure the necessary passports, which were 

 obligingly furnished by the governor to " Don Russel Sturges y quatro 

 Anglo Americanos," our party left Manilla for a short jaunt to the 

 mountains. It was considered as a mark of great favour on the part 

 of his excellency to grant this indulgence, particularly as he had a few 

 months prior denied it to a party of French officers. I was told that 

 he preferred to make it a domestic concern, by issuing the passport in 

 the name of a resident, in order that compliance in this case might not 

 give umbrage to the French. It was generally believed that the cause 

 of the refusal in the former instance was the imprudent manner in which 

 the French officers went about taking plans and sketches, at the corners 

 of streets, &c, which in the minds of an unenlightened and ignorant 

 colonial government, of course excited suspicion. Nothing can be so 

 ridiculous as this system of passports; for if one was so disposed, a 

 plan, and the most minute information of every thing that concerns the 

 defences of places, can always be obtained at little cost now-a-days ; for 

 such is the skill of engineers, that a plan is easily made of places, 

 merely by a sight of them. We were not, however, disposed to question 

 the propriety of the governor's conduct in the former case, and I felt 

 abundantly obliged to him for a permission that would add to our stock 

 of information. 



It was deemed at first impossible for the party to divide, as they had 

 but one passport, and some difficulties were anticipated from the number 

 being double that stated in the passport. The party consisted of 

 Messrs. Sturges, Pickering, Eld, Rich, Dana, and Brackenridge. Mr. 

 Sturges, however, saw no difficulty in dividing the party after they had 

 passed beyond the precincts of the city, taking the precaution, at the 

 same time, not to appear together beyond the number designated on the 

 paper. 



On the 14th, they left Manilla, and proceeded in carriages to Santa 

 Anna, on the Pasig, in order to avoid the delay that would ensue if 

 they followed the windings of the river in a banca, and against the 

 current. 



At Santa Anna they found their bancas waiting for them, and 

 embarked. Here the scene was rendered animated by numerous boats 

 of all descriptions, from the parao to the small canoe of a single log. 



There is a large population that live wholly on the water: for the 

 padrones of the paraos have usually their families with them, which, 



