March.] 



MANILLA— THE NATIVES. 



385 



off the port or city of Manilla, when you will have from five to four 

 fathoms, within one mile of the walls of the city. 



On the north and south sides of the bay of Manilla there are several 

 sand and mud-banks, running from half a mile to a mile off-shore, 

 upon the most of which the natives have fishing weirs or stakes of 

 bamboo, with their upper ends about four feet above the water, and 

 very close together. This bay is large and spacious, being about 

 twenty leagues in circumference. Its entrance, or the Corregidor, is 

 in latitude 14° 27' N., long. 120° 37' E. 



The anchorage at the port of Manilla is good, safe, and commodious 

 during the fine season of the year, which is during the north-east mon- 

 soons. In fact, a ship may lay at this port all the year round in per- 

 fect safety, provided she has good ground-tackling. But if there should 

 be any doubt respecting this apparatus, I would advise them, during 

 the season of the hurricanes and the south-west monsoons, to moor 

 their ships at Cavite, which is properly the seaport of Manilla. Here 

 ships may lie in perfect safety all the year round, in smooth water. 



This bay is bountifully supplied with a great variety of excellent 

 fish ; and the natives employ a great part of their time in the morning 

 and fore-part of the day in fishing. But at night it is literally covered 

 with their little canoes, each of which has a light in its bows, which 

 gives the bay from the anchorage a very beautiful and picturesque ap- 

 pearance. These exhaustless treasures of the deep have drawn 

 round the shores of the bay and the environs of the city a very thick 

 population of the natives, each of whom is contented to live twenty- 

 four hours on a little fish and a handful of rice. 



The river of Manilla is not less amusing than the bay. It is on the 

 east side of the city, from which it separates the suburbs. The mouth 

 of this river is formed by two moles, about fifty fathoms apart, with a 

 lighthouse on the eastern point ; and is obstructed by a bar, which 

 prevents vessels entering that draw more than ten feet of water. It is 

 quite a pleasure to sail on this river in the canoes or bankers of the 

 natives, with which, near its mouth, it is literally covered, bringing pro- 

 duce to market. The small boats that come down the river are gen- 

 erally too well loaded to afford room for the owner, who wades by its 

 side or at its stern, pushing it along in the water. In this task they are 

 also assisted by the women, who are as fearless of the water as a duck. 

 They wade into any reasonable depth, say up to their knees, and fre- 

 quently to their hips, always taking care to preserve their dress from 

 getting wet, which they hold with one hand, while they propel the 

 canoe with the other. 



The natives of both sexes are almost constantly in the water, either 

 for business or pleasure, which at once purifies the body, and imparts 

 a pleasing elasticity to the animal spirits. They bathe at all periods of 

 life from infancy to old age ; at all seasons, and in all weathers. It is sup- 

 posed by some writers that these constant ablutions and their temperate 

 diet contribute to the great fruitfulness of the Luconian females, and 

 their ripeness for early marriage. I have known several of them who 

 had borne twins at the age of twelve, and some of them become 



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