pped into it. It
was with the greatest trouble that we unharnessed the cart and pushed
it back on to the road, while our two considerate beasts took a mud
bath. At last we reloaded the baggage, the carabaos were reharnessed in
the original positions, and the driver, leaning his whole weight upon
the nose-rope of the leading beast, pulled with might and main. To my
great delight the animal condescended to slowly advance with the cart
and its contents. [Pila.] At Pila I managed to get a better team, with
which late in the evening, in the midst of a pouring rain, I reached
a little hamlet opposite Santa Cruz. The market-vessel had left; our
attempts to get a boat to take us across to the village only led to
barefaced attempts at extortion, so I entered one of the largest of the
hamlet's houses, which was occupied by a widow and her daughter. After
some delay my request for a night's lodging was granted. I sent for
some oil, to give me a little light, and something to eat. The women
brought in some of their relations, who helped to prepare the food
and stopped in the house to protect its owners. The next morning
I crossed the river, teeming with joyous bathers, to Santa Cruz,
and hired a boat there to take me across the lake to Pasig, and from
thence to Manila. A contrary wind, however, forced us to land on the
promontory of Jalajala, and there wait for the calm that accompanies
the dawn. [Earthquake evidences.] Betwixt the extreme southern point
of the land and the houses I saw, in several places, banks of mussels
projecting at least fifteen feet above the surface of the water,
similar to those which are so frequently found on the sea-coast;--a
proof that earthquakes have taken place in this neighborhood.

CHAPTER VIII

[To Albay by schooner.] Towards the end of August I started from
Manila for Albay in a schooner which had brought a cargo of hemp and
was returning in ballast. It was fine when we set sail; but on the
following day the signs of a coming storm increased so rapidly that
the captain resolved to return and seek protection in the small but
secure harbor of Mariveles, a creek on the southern shore of Bataan,
the province forming the western boundary of Manila bay. We reached
it about two o'clock in the night after cruising about for fourteen
hours before the entrance; and we were obliged to remain here at anchor
for a fortnight, as it rained and stormed continuously for that period.

[Mariveles.] The wea