LAGUNA DE BAIE. 
245 
causes of the distemper was, a quantity of fish, which had been 
thrown upon the shores of the lake by the force of a hurricane, and 
had remained till they became putrid. A more probable cause of its 
fatality to the natives, was their refusing to use the means success- 
fully employed by Europeans for its cure. St. Croix indeed states, 
that the Laguna de Baie communicates with the volcanoes of some 
of the surrounding mountains ; and mentions, in proof of his asser- 
tion, that “ during the summer of 180S a great quantity of dead 
fish appeared on the surface of the lake, giving to the waters a 
fetid odour, and rendering them undrinkable.” He adds, that they 
followed the course of the river Passig in such immense quantities as 
almost to fill its bed, and to cause the apprehension of a plague at 
Manilla ; and supposes their mortality to have been the consequence 
of the water having been strongly impregnated with sulphur.* 
Whilst conversing about the disease, the chorus of distant voices 
drew us to the window of the convent. A procession of Indians by 
torch-light, headed by a native priest, was approaching the church of 
the convent, forming one of the sides of the quadrangle in its front, 
to implore the removal of the distemper. The half-illumined figures of 
the Indians, their far projected shadows, the gloom of the surround- 
ing scene, the large cross occasionally but faintly disclosed by the 
gleam of the torches, and the dashing of the lake upon the shore 
* Ce lac parait avoir quelques communications avec les volcans des montagnes qui 
l’environnent. Une des preuves les plus fortes qu’on en puisse donner, c’est qu’en 1800, 
on vit, pendant les chaleurs, une tres-grande quantite de poissons morts sur la surface 
du lac, dont les eaux cesserent d’etres potables, et avaient une odour fetide et cori'ompue. 
Le grande nombre de ces poissons qui suivaient la cours de la riviere, fit craindre la 
peste a Manilla ou tout ou moins une epidemie. Une chose digne d’etre remarquee, 
c’est qu’une tres-grande quantite de ces poissons n’etaient pas entierement morts ; le corps 
paraissait conserver du mouvement et de la sensibilite, lorsque la tete etait deja en 
putrefaction. Le lit de la riviere en etait rempli, tant le nombre en etait prodigieux. 
On jugea que, dans la communication du volcan avec le lac, il s’etait repandu beaucoup 
de soufre, et que c’etait une des principals causes de cette mortalite ; les eaux en etaient 
tres-fortement impregnees. Je ne me permettrais pas de rapporter ce fait, s’il n’etait 
avere par tous les habitans de la colonie et par les proces-verbeaux que j’ai eus entremes 
mains. — Voyage aux Indes Orientales, par M. Felix Renouard de Sainte-Croix, tome 
ii. p. 217 , 218. 
