314 
MANILA UNDER THE AMERICANS. 
troubles began. In a very few moments Iliad been made an honorary 
member and was flooded by questions as to the cause of the visit of 
the flagship, an event on which the residents had formed all sorts of 
varied conjectures, many of which questions I did not attempt to 
answer. I eventually lunched at the same table with two of the older 
residents, who interested me very much with their views of the present 
situation and their accounts of how it came about, and thanks to the 
experience of these two men, I gained a very fair basis whereon to 
form my own opinions during the next few days. 
Manila, the capital and chief port of the Philippines, is situated at 
the mouth of the Pasig river. Formerly this term was confined to the 
walled city, but now embraces the suburbs, the chief of which are 
Binondo, where the large business houses are; St. Miguel, the most 
fashionable residences ; Ermita and Malate. On the outskirts are the 
Filipino suburbs of Tondo, Pandacan and Paco, the houses of which 
are mostly constructed on piles with bamboo framework, the roof and 
walls being thatched with the leaf of the nipa-palm. In the accom¬ 
panying map, the blocks containing permanent buildings are shaded 
round the edge, with a blank space left in the centre, while the 
Filipino suburbs and villages are shaded throughout with diagonal 
strokes of a different type ; and what appears like scarping round the 
outskirts of the town shows roughly where the line of under-growth and 
jungle commences, open only where the roads intersect and portions 
of cultivated land happen to be. 
THe After lunch, I decided to pay a visit to the Walled 
City, as it seemed to be an object of interest, 
wailed city ^T a ]i e( j Qity j s situated almost at the mouth 
of the Pasig river, on the left bank, built probably early in the 
18th century, its battlements have grown black with age and give it 
a very sombre appearance ; it is entirely surrounded by a moat, on the 
south and east sides there are two moats, bridged in two places. At 
the north-west corner of the Walled City are the Arsenal and fort of 
St. Jago ; to my surprise I was permitted to visit both these places. 
On approaching the Arsenal, I was stopped by a sentry, but after 
sending my card in to the officer on guard, I found him most civil. 
He showed me round the workshops (which were out of work, it being 
Sunday) gun-parks, ammunition and rifle stores, both American and 
Spanish. Here were 40,000 Mauser rifles belonging to the Spanish 
troops which, by the conditions of surrender, were to be returned 
with them when they are conveyed back to Spain. There were 
still some 3,000 Spanish troops in Manila Walled City awaiting 
transport; these were sent into the Arsenal every-day to oil and clean 
their rifles and were only allowed outside the Walled City at certain 
times and within certain limits. Here were revolving barrel machine 
guns 1J" calibre, with limbers packed full of ammunition—they had 
never been taken out of the Arsenal—also two 4*7" (about) Krupp 
guns on overbank carriages. I was told they had been used by the 
Spanish at Fort Malate, where the only fighting seems to have taken 
