ng and venturesome in the Asiatic
archipelagoes and gave the Philippines much attention, having many
fights with the Spaniards. The Ladrones became well known as a resting
place between the islands of Philip and New Spain--Mexico. The Chinese
Pirates were troublesome, and the Spaniards, between the natives,
the pirates and the Dutchmen, kept busy, and had a great deal of
naval and military instruction. There were other varieties of life
of an exciting character, in terrible storms and earthquakes. The
storm season is the same in the Philippines as in the West Indies,
and the tempests have like features. October is the cyclone and
monsoon month. The most destructive storm in the island of Luzon
of record was October 31st, 1876. Floods rolled from the mountains,
and there was a general destruction of roads and bridges, and it is
reported six thousand persons were killed.

So extensive and exposed is the Bay of Manila, it is one hundred and
twenty knots in circumference--that it is not properly a harbor, but
a stormy sheet of water. Admiral Dewey's fleet has had low steam in
the boilers all the while to quickly apply the power of the engines
for safety in case of a visitation from the dreaded typhoon, which
comes on suddenly as a squall and rages with tornado intensity.

There are many volcanoes in the islands, and they exist from the
North of Luzon to the Sulus in the extreme South, a distance as great
as from Scotland to Sicily. There is one on Luzon that bears a close
resemblance both in appearance and phenomena to Vesuvius. The likeness
in eruptions is startling. The city of Manila has repeatedly suffered
from destroying shocks, and slight agitations are frequent. Within
historic times a mountain in Luzon collapsed, and a river was filled
up while the earth played fountains of sand. The great volcano
Taal, 45 miles south of Manila, is only 850 feet high, and on a
small island in a lake believed to be a volcanic abyss, having an
area of 100 square miles. Monte Cagua, 2,910 feet high, discharges
smoke continually. In 1814 12,000 persons lost their lives on Luzon,
the earth being disordered and rent in an appalling way. There were
awful eruptions July 20 and October 24, 1867, forests of great trees
buried in discharges of volcanoes. June 3, 1863, at 31 minutes after
7 in the evening, after a day of excessive heat, there was a shock
at Manila lasting 30 seconds, in which 400 people were killed, 2,000
wounded, and 26 publ