as getting
dusk, we crossed the river, then tolerably broad, on a wretched leaking
bamboo raft, which sank at least six inches beneath the water under
the weight of our horses, and ran helplessly aground in the mud on
the opposite side.

[Visitors to festival.] The tribunal or common-house was crowded with
people who had come to attend the festival which was to take place
on the following day. The cabezas wore, in token of their dignity,
a short jacket above their shirts. A quantity of brightly decorated
tables laden with fruit and pastry stood against the walls, and in
the middle of the principal room a dining-table was laid out for
forty persons.

[Hospitality of tribunal.] A European who travels without a
servant--mine had run away with some wages I had rashly paid
him in advance--is put down as a beggar, and I was overwhelmed
with impertinent questions on the subject, which, however, I left
unanswered. As I hadn't had the supper I stood considerably in need of,
I took the liberty of taking a few savory morsels from the meatpot,
which I ate in the midst of a little knot of wondering spectators;
I then laid myself down to sleep on the bench beside the table, to
which a second set of diners were already sitting down. When I awoke
on the following morning there were already so many people stirring
that I had no opportunity of performing my toilet. I therefore betook
myself in my dirty travelling dress to the residence of a Spaniard who
had settled in the pueblo, and who received me in the most hospitable
manner as soon as the description in my passport satisfied him that
I was worthy of a confidence not inspired by my appearance.

[Trade in molaze.] My friendly host carried on no trifling
business. Two English ships were at that moment in the harbor, which
he was about to send to China laden with molave, a species of wood
akin to teak.

[Butucan waterfall.] On my return I visited the fine waterfall of
Butucan, between Mauban and Lucban, a little apart from the high
road. A powerful stream flows between two high banks of rocky
soil thickly covered with vegetation, and, leaping from a ledge
of volcanic rock suddenly plunges into a ravine, said to be three
hundred and sixty feet in depth, along the bottom of which it is
hurried away. The channel, however, is so narrow, and the vegetation
so dense, that an observer looking at it from above can not follow
its course. This waterfall has a great similarity to that which