,
1887. It is said that a commission once recommended the cleansing of
the moats, which were half full of mud, stagnant water, and vegetable
putrid matter, but the authorities hesitated to disturb the deposit,
for fear of fetid odours producing fever or other endemic disease.

These city defences, although quite useless in modern warfare with
a foreign Power, as was proved in 1898, might any day have been
serviceable as a refuge for Europeans in the event of a serious revolt
of the natives or Chinese. The garrison consisted of one European
and several native regiments.

There are eight drawbridge entrances to the Citadel [162] wherein
were some Government Offices, branch Post and Telegraph Offices,
the Custom-house (temporarily removed to Binondo since May 4, 1887,
during the construction of the new harbour), Colleges, Convents,
Monasteries, a Prison, numerous Barracks, a Mint, a Military Hospital,
an Academy of Arts, a University, a statue of Charles IV. situated
in a pretty square, a fine Town Hall, a Meteorological Observatory,
of which the director was a Jesuit priest, an Artillery Depot, a
Cathedral and 11 churches. [163] The little trade done in the city
was exclusively retail. In the month of April or May, 1603, a great
fire destroyed one-third of the city, the property consumed being
valued at P1,000,000.

Manila City was a lifeless capital, with narrow streets all running at
right angles with each other, of sombre, monastic aspect. It had no
popular cafes, no opera-house or theatre; indeed absolutely no place
of recreation. Only the numerous religious processions relieved the
uniformity of city life. The whole (walled) city and its environments
seem to have been built solely with a view to self-defence. Since
1887 it had been somewhat embellished by gardens in the public squares.

Besides the churches of the walled city, those of the suburbs are of
great historical interest. In the Plaza de Santa Cruz is established
the _Monte de Piedad_, or Public Pawnshop--a fine building--erected
under the auspices of Archbishop Pedro Payo.

The great trading-centre is the Island of Binondo, on the right (north)
bank of the Pasig River, where the foreign houses are established. On
the city side of the river, where there was little commerce and
no export or import trade whatever, a harbour was in course of
construction, without the least hope of its ever being completed by
the Spaniards. All the sea-wall visible of thes