uently shown, that up to the present time plantations,
and consequently proper settlers, have been wanting. Formerly Naga
was the principal town of the whole of that district of Luzon lying
to the east of Tayabas, which, on account of the increased population,
was divided into the three provinces of North and South Camarines and
Albay. The boundaries of these governmental districts, those between
Albay and South Camarines more especially, have been drawn very
arbitrarily; although, the whole of the territory, as is shown by the
map, geographically is very well defined. [Land of the Bicols.] The
country is named Camarines; but it might more suitably be called the
country of the Bicols, for the whole of it is inhabited by one race,
the Bicol-Filipinos, who are distinguished by their speech and many
other peculiarities from their neighbors, the Tagals on the west,
and the Bisayans on the islands to the south and east.

[The Bicols.] The Bicols are found only in this district and in a
few islands lying immediately in front of it. Of their coming hither
no information is to be obtained from the comprehensive but confused
histories of the Spanish monks. Morga considers them to be natives
of the island; on the other hand, it is asserted by tradition that
the inhabitants of Manila and its vicinity are descended from Malays
who have migrated thither, and from the inhabitants of other islands
and more distant provinces. [107] Their speech is midway between
that of the Tagalogs and the Bisayans, and they themselves appear,
in both their manners and customs, to be a half-breed between these
two races. Physically and mentally they are inferior to the Tagalogs,
and superior to the inhabitants of the eastern Bisayan Islands. [Bicol
language.] Bicol is spoken only in the two Camarines, Albay, Luzon,
the Islands of Masbate, Burias, Ticao, and Catanduanes, and in the
smaller adjoining islands. The inhabitants of the volcanic mountain
Isarog and its immediate neighborhood speak it in the greatest
purity. Thence towards the west the Bicol dialect becomes more and
more like Tagalog, and towards the east like Bisayan, until by degrees,
even before reaching the boundaries of their ethnographical districts,
it merges into these two kindred languages.

[Rice cultivation.] In South Camarines the sowing of the rice in
beds begins in June or July, always at the commencement of the rainy
season; but in fields artificially watered, earlier, because