THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
65 
11. The Capital—Life and Manners. 
The traveller visiting Manila for the first time will 
be struck by the scene of busy life which the port 
affords. The anchorage is full of shipping, and the 
quays thronged with people. Although the larger vessels 
anchor off the town, the quays afford sufficient depth of 
water to permit the greater number to warp alongside 
and discharge or load direct. The Pasig river, which 
bisects the city, admits vessels of three or four hundred 
tons, but a new harbour is in course of construction in 
front of the citadel, which will materially advantage 
shipping. The Spanish men-of-war lie in the harbour of 
Cavite, about 10 miles to the south, where is the arsenal 
and slip. 
The Pasig is a small stream, some 150 yards in 
breadth, which drains the great lake known as the 
Laguna de Bay. It is less than 10 miles in length, but 
is lined with villages throughout its course, and but for a 
bar at its origin would admit vessels of considerable size 
into the lake. In its course through the city it is 
spanned by three bridges, which connect the old and 
fortified “ Manila intvarrmros ” with its populous suburbs. 
The city itself, situated at the head of a magnificent bay, 
on a navigable river leading to a lake whose waters teem 
with fish and whose shores are specially favourable for 
agriculture, possesses advantages of site which were at 
once recognised by Legaspi on his arrival in 1571, and 
he commenced its founding without delay. It is there¬ 
fore the oldest European town in the East after Goa. 
Before this, Zebu had served as capital for the first 
Spanish settlers. When the English seized Manila in 
1762 the Spanish temporarily removed the seat of 
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