entire village, as a rule, is utterly
done for. During my stay in Bulacan, the whole suburb of San Miguel,
in the neighborhood of Manila, was burnt down, with the exception of
the house of a Swiss friend of mine, which owed its safety to the
vigorous use of a private fire-engine, and the intermediation of a
small garden full of bananas, whose stems full of sap stopped the
progress of the flames.
[To Calumpit by carriage.] I travelled to Calumpit, a distance of
three leagues, in the handsome carriage of an hospitable friend. The
roads were good, and were continuously shaded by fruit-trees, coco and
areca palms. The aspect of this fruitful province reminded me of the
richest districts of Java; but the pueblos here exhibited more comfort
than the desas there. The houses were more substantial; numerous roomy
constructions of wood, in many cases, even, of stone, denoted in every
island the residence of official and local magnates. But while even
the poorer Javanese always give their wicker huts a smart appearance,
border the roads of their villages with blooming hedges, and display
everywhere a sense of neatness and cleanliness, there were here far
fewer evidences of taste to be met with. I missed too the alun-alun,
that pretty and carefully tended open square, which, shaded by waringa
trees, is to be met with in every village in Java. And the quantity
and variety of the fruit trees, under whose leaves the desas of Java
are almost hidden, were by no means as great in this province, although
it is the garden of the Philippines, as in its Dutch prototype.
[Calumpit.] I reached Calumpit towards evening, just as a procession,
resplendent with flags and torches, and melodious with song, was
marching round the stately church, whose worthy priest, on the strength
of a letter of introduction from Madrid, gave me a most hospitable
reception. Calumpit, a prosperous place of 12,250 inhabitants, is
situated at the junction of the Quingua and Pampanga rivers, in an
extremely fruitful plain, fertilized by the frequent overflowing of
the two streams.
[Mt. Arayat.] About six leagues to the north-west of Calumpit,
Mount Arayat, a lofty, isolated, conical hill, lifts its head. Seen
from Calumpit, its western slope meets the horizon at an angle of 20 deg.,
its eastern at one of 25 deg.; and the profile of its summit has a gentle
inclination of from 4 deg. to 5 deg..
[Picking fish.] At Calumpit I saw some Chinese catching fish in a
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