nd I was
engaged in looking at and examining the curiosities around me, while my
Indians were seeking some kind of game--deer, buffalo, or wild boar--to
replace our stock of rice and venison, which was exhausted. We were at
length reduced to the palms as our only resource; but the palms, though
pleasing to the palate, are not sufficiently nutritive to recruit the
strength of poor travellers, when, suffering under extreme fatigue,
and after a laborious march, they find no lodging but the moist ground,
and no shelter but the vault of the sky.

We directed our course as near as possible towards the eastern coast,
which is bathed by the Pacific ocean. We knew that it was in that
direction the Ajetas commenced their settlement. We wished also to pass
through the large Tagalese village, Binangonan de Lampon, which is to
be found, isolated and hidden, at the foot of the eastern mountains,
in the midst of the savages. We had already spent several nights in
the forest, and without experiencing any great inconvenience. The
fires which we lighted every evening warmed us, and saved us from
the myriads of terrible leeches, which otherwise would certainly
have devoured us. We imagined that we were within one day's march of
the sea-shore, where we expected to take some time for rest, when,
of a sudden, a burst of thunder at a distance gave us reason to
apprehend a storm. Nevertheless, we continued our journey; but in
a short time the growling of the thunder approached so near as to
leave no doubt that the hurricane would burst over us. We stopped,
lighted our fires, cooked our evening's repast, and placed some of
the palm leaves on poles by the side of a slope to save us from the
heavy rain. We had not finished all our preparations when the storm
broke. If we had not had the glimmering glare of our firebrands we
should have been in profound obscurity, although it was not yet
night. We all three, with pieces of palm branches in our hands,
crouched under the slight shelter which we had improvised, and there
awaited the full force of the storm. The thunder-claps were redoubled;
the rain began with violence to batter the trees, and then to assail
us like a torrent. Our fires were speedily extinguished; we found
ourselves in the deepest darkness, interrupted only by the lightning,
which from time to time rushed, serpent-like, through the trees of
the forest, scattering a dazzling light, to leave us the moment after
in profound obscurity.