French line of steamers in the Oriental
trade.--Tr.

[49] Referring to the expeditions--_Mision Espanola Catolica_--to the
Caroline and Pelew Islands from 1886 to 1895, headed by the Capuchin
Fathers, which brought misery and disaster upon the natives of those
islands, unprofitable losses and sufferings to the Filipino soldiers
engaged in them, discredit to Spain, and decorations of merit to a
number of Spanish officers.--Tr.

[50] Over the possession of the Caroline and Pelew Islands. The
expeditions referred to in the previous note were largely inspired
by German activity with regard to those islands, which had always
been claimed by Spain, who sold her claim to them to Germany after
the loss of the Philippines.--Tr.

[51] "Where the wind wrinkles the silent waves, that rapidly break,
of their own movement, with a gentle murmur on the shore."--Tr.

[52] "Where rapid and winged engines will rush in flight."--Tr.

[53] There is something almost uncanny about the general accuracy of
the prophecy in these lines, the economic part of which is now so
well on the way to realization, although the writer of them would
doubtless have been a very much surprised individual had he also
foreseen how it would come about. But one of his own expressions was
"fire and steel to the cancer," and it surely got them.

On the very day that this passage was translated and this note written,
the first commercial liner was tied up at the new docks, which have
destroyed the Malecon but raised Manila to the front rank of Oriental
seaports, and the final revision is made at Baguio, Mountain Province,
amid the "cooler temperatures on the slopes of the mountains." As for
the political portion, it is difficult even now to contemplate calmly
the blundering fatuity of that bigoted medieval brand of "patriotism"
which led the decrepit Philippine government to play the Ancient
Mariner and shoot the Albatross that brought this message.--Tr.

[54] These establishments are still a notable feature of native
life in Manila. Whether the author adopted a title already common or
popularized one of his own invention, the fact is that they are now
invariably known by the name used here. The use of _macanista_ was due
to the presence in Manila of a large number of Chinese from Macao.--Tr.

[55] Originally, Plaza San Gabriel, from the Dominican mission for the
Chinese established there; later, as it became a commercial center,
Plaza Vivac; and now kno