242 
1UVER PASSIG. 
On the following morning I joined a party of friends on an excur- 
sion to the village of Los Bagnos, on the southern bank of a cele- 
brated lake called Laguna de Baie. This lake is situated to the east 
of Manilla, and is stated to be forty-five leagues in circumference. 
Its waters are fresh, and empty themselves into the sea by the river 
Passig. This river is navigable at all seasons of the year to very 
heavy boats, and flows about twenty miles before it reaches the Bay 
of Manilla. 
We left Manilla in a felucca provided by the Governor, and which 
was rowed by sixteen natives, who used the slow majestic manner of 
the Spaniards, rising on their feet at every stroke. The scenery 
on each bank of the river was replete with romantic beauties, and 
greatly resembled that of Java. Palms and bananas, mingled with 
trees of a more umbrageous character, surrounded the wattled 
bamboo huts of the natives, supported on piles some feet from the 
ground. They are guarded by this construction against the effects of 
inundations which sometimes occur from the overflowing of the 
river and lake ; but being built entirely of wood, are very liable to 
fire, especially as every native keeps it in some shape or other in his 
dwelling for lighting his cigar. Widely spreading conflagrations 
often occur and consume whole villages in a few hours. A very 
singular effect is said to be then produced by the air confined in the 
joints of bamboo, becoming expanded by heat, and bursting them asun- 
der and scattering them in all directions. The same circumstance, 
however, which renders them so capable of destruction, makes the 
calamity less severe, as a bamboo hut can be erected in a few hours. 
When these dwellings were so numerous as to form a village, a 
principal building was seen rising above them, sometimes distinguished 
by a gothic spire, and sometimes by a crucifix. Gothic spires and 
gothic arches, formed of bamboo, are common on the island, intro- 
duced, it might be supposed, by Europeans ; but, according to all 
accounts, they are purely native, excepting the cross which usually 
surmounts them. 
