iles.

Vessels drawing up to 13 feet could enter the river. In the middle of
1887 a few electric lights were established along the quays from the
river mouth to the first bridge, and one light also on that bridge,
so that steamers could enter the river after sunset if desired. The
wharfage is wholly occupied by steamers and sailing-craft trading
within the Archipelago. The tides are very irregular. The rise and
fall at springs may be taken to be five feet.

Up to 1887 ships needing repairs had to go to Hong-Kong, but in that
year a patent slip was established at Canacao Bay, near Cavite, seven
miles southward from the Manila Bay anchorage. The working capacity
of the hydraulic hauling power of the slip was 2,000 tons.

At Cavite, close by Canacao, there was a Government Arsenal and a
small slip, having a hauling power of about 500 tons.

Up to the year 1893 the streets of Manila City and suburbs were
badly lighted--petroleum lamps, and sometimes cocoanut oil, being
used. (The paving was perhaps more defective than the lighting.) In
1892 an Electric Light Company was formed, with a share capital of
P500,000 (P350,000 paid up) for illuminating the city and suburbs and
private lighting. Under the contract with the Municipality the company
received a grant of P60,000, and the concern was in full working order
the following year. The poorest working class of Manila--fishermen,
canoemen, day labourers, etc.--live principally in the ward of Tondo,
where dwellings with thatched roofs were allowed to be constructed. In
the wet season the part of this ward nearest to the city was simply
a mass of pollution. The only drainage was a ditch cut around the
mud-plots on which the huts were erected. Many of these huts had
pools of stagnant water under them for months, hence it was there
that the mortality from fever was at its maximum ratio in the dry
season when evaporation commenced. Half the shore side of Tondo
has been many times devastated by conflagrations and by hurricanes,
locally termed _baguios_.

Binondo presents an aspect of great activity during the day. The import
and export trade is still largely in the hands of British merchants,
and the retail traffic is, to a great extent, monopolized by the
Chinese. Their tiny shops, grouped together in rows, form bazaars. At
each counter sits a Chinaman, casting up accounts, with the ancient
_abacus_ [165] still serving him for practical reckoning. Another
is ready at the count