, concert, or amateur performance. Strangers are presented
with tickets for these amusements--no thanks to the Spaniards--but from
the kindness of the English merchants, who are nearly all members. I
went to one of these balls: there were plenty of women--more than could
get partners; the music was good, the women well dressed, and they
waltzed exquisitely. Adjoining the ball-room was a billiard-room, in
which those who preferred smoking cigars in a cool room to dancing, with
the thermometer at 90 deg., had retreated. Nothing can be done at Manilla
without the cigar: they smoke for an appetite, they smoke for digestion,
they smoke when they are too hot, they smoke when it is chilly. As the
hands of the time-piece approached the hour of eleven, every one who
lived outside the city was obliged to be off. We, among others, took our
departure; but when we sought for our carriage, it had disappeared. We
set off at a hard trot, to reach the gates before eleven, but in our
haste we missed the road, and came to a cul-de-sac. We retraced our
steps, but when we reached the gates they were closed. A request to the
officer of the guard we knew to be useless, so we turned back, and
prepared to pass the night in the streets, in our uniforms and swords.
After wandering half an hour up and down without seeing a light or
meeting a soul, I heard a violent hammering at a door at a little
distance. I found it was one of our party, who hammered away, and called
out for "Soda water" between each hammering. "All's right!" said he;
"look here!" And sure enough there was a board outside, with "Soda
Water" painted in large letters in English. This repeated hammering and
demand for soda water at last produced the desired effect. A person in a
dressing-gown and slippers came out into the balcony, and demanded our
business. We explained our extreme thirst and benighted condition; and
as the gentleman hesitated, we again applied to the door, intimating
that if we had no admission, at all events he should have no repose. At
last he sent down to have the door opened. We found that he was a
German chemist, who fabricated soda water, among other articles, and,
knowing the partiality of the English for the beverage, had advertised
it in our language over the door. We passed the night with him very
comfortably at his house, breakfasted with him the next morning, and,
promising to bring the whole of our shipmates to drink soda water for
his benefit till we w