did not prevent
a Spanish officer spitting in the face of an Englishman. Indeed,
at any time, there was far more danger to all civilian classes from
the Spanish soldiery than from the rebels, who were strictly enjoined
by Admiral Dewey not to attempt to enter the city. Had they done so,
certainly their choicest prize would have been the Archbishop Nozaleda,
who, well aware of this, escaped, long before the capitulation of
the city, to Shanghai on board the German warship _Darmstadt_.

The volunteers, too, were constantly giving trouble to the Spanish
authorities, from whom they demanded their pay, and once when this
was refused they threatened to seize the stores.

Although trade in and with Manila had been more or less suspended,
and at intervals absolutely so, since the great naval engagement, just
a few profited by the circumstances of war. One British firm there,
figuratively speaking, "coined" money. They were able frequently to
run a steamer, well known in Chinese waters (in which I have travelled
myself), between Manila and Hong-Kong carrying refugees, who were
willing to pay abnormally high rates of passage. In ordinary times
fares ranged from P50 saloon accommodation to P8 a deck passage. On one
trip, for instance, this steamer, with the cabins filled at P125 each,
carried 1,200 deck passengers (no food) at P20, and 30 deck passengers
(with food) at P30. Their unsold cargoes on the way in steamers when
Manila was blockaded came in for enormously advanced prices. Shiploads
of produce which planters and native middlemen were glad to convert
into pesos at panic rates were picked up "dirt cheap," leaving
rich profits to the buyers. When steamers could not leave Manila, a
Britisher, Mr. B----, walked for several days under the tropical sun
to embark for Yloilo with trade news, and steamers were run at high
war rates in and out of Borneo, Hong-Kong, and the Philippine southern
ports. One British firm obtained a special licence to run a steamer
between Hong-Kong and the port of Dagupan, hitherto closed to foreign
traffic. These were, naturally, the exceptions, for, upon the whole,
the dislocation and stoppage of trade entailed very serious losses
to the general body of merchants. A few days after the bombardment of
Cavite the natives refused to accept the notes of the _Banco Espanol
Filipino_ (the Spanish bank), and a run was made on the bank to convert
them into silver. However, the managers of the Hong-Kong and Sha