pproachable; while the south coast, screened by the outlying
islands, remains always accessible. The most fertile districts of the
eastern provinces, which during summer export their produce by the
northern ports, in the winter often remain for months cut off from
all communication with the chief town, because there is no road over
the small strip of land to the south coast. How much has been done by
Nature, and how little by man, to facilitate this intercourse, is very
evident when we reflect upon the condition of the road to Pasacao,
lately described, in connection with the condition of matters in the
east, as shown by the map.

[River highways.] Two rivers, one coming from the north-west,
and the other from the south-east, and both navigable before they
reach the borders of the province, flow through the middle of it in
a line parallel with the coast (taking no account of its windings),
and, after their junction, send their waters together through the
estuary of Cabusao into the Bay of San Miguel. The whole province,
therefore, is traversed through its center by two navigable rivers,
which, as regards commerce, form only one.

[Cabusao and Pasacao harbors.] But the harbor of Cabusao, at the bottom
of the Bay of San Miguel, is not accessible during the north-east
monsoon, and has this further disadvantage, that the intercourse of
the whole of the eastern part of Luzon with Manila can be carried
on only by a very circuitous route. On the south coast, on the other
hand, is the harbor of Pasacao, into which a navigable little river,
above a mile in width, discharges itself; so that the distance between
this river highway and the nearest point of the Bicol River amounts to
a little more than a mile. The road connecting the two seas, laid out
by an active alcalde in 1847, and maintained up to 1852, was however,
at the date of my inquiry, in so bad a condition that a picul of abaca
paid two reals freight for this short distance, in the dry season; and
in the wet season it could not be forwarded for double the price. [139]

[Bad roads raise freights.] Many similar instances may be brought
forward. In 1861 the English vice-consul reported that in Iloilo a
picul of sugar had risen more than 2 r. in price (as much as the cost
of freight from Iloilo to Manila), in consequence of the bad state
of the road between the two places, which are only one league asunder.

[Social and political reasons for bad roads.] If, without refer