250 
CBULSE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER, 
from the branches or fences, or creep up around the 
simple dwellings. 
While here, the English residents made onr stay 
as agreeable as possible. There was a dance at 
the Consulate, and this with two or three cricket- 
matches soon brought the time round to say farewell 
to Manilla. 
We left Manilla on the evening of the 14th January, 
and on the 15th passed down San Bernadino Straits, 
with land fully in sight on both sides: on the 
left, the island of Luzon, with the fine volcano of 
Taal, many high volcanic peaks richly wooded 
to the top, and low intervening volcanic ridges, 
partially cleared, with here and there pretty groups 
of cottages, and patches of yellowish grass or bright 
green sugar-cane; on the right, the islands of Cabra 
and Lubang, and then the long stretch of coast of the 
wild island of Mindanao, showing little cultivation, 
but said to be full of deer and other game, and to 
be inhabited by a dangerous race of “ Moros/’ as the 
Spaniards call all dark men beyond the pale of 
Western or Eastern civilisation. 
About noon on the 16th we passed through the 
narrows among the islands, and into a little closed 
sea, about 70 miles long and 35 miles wide, extending 
from the north point of the island of Tablas to the 
strait between the north-east angle of Panay and the 
south-west point of Masbate. It is bounded on the 
north-west by Tablas ; on the north-east by Pomplon 
