ence to
transport by sea, the islands were not favored in so extraordinary a
manner by innumerable rivers with navigable mouths, a still greater
proportion of their produce would not have been convertible into
money. The people, as well as the local authorities, have no desire
for roads, which they themselves construct by forced labor, and,
when completed, must maintain by the same method; for, when no roads
are made, the laborers are so much more easily employed in private
operations. Even the parish priests, generally, are as little favorable
to the planning of commercial intercourse, by means of which trade,
prosperity, and enlightenment would be introduced into the country,
and their authority undermined. Indeed the Government itself, up
to within a short time since, favored such a state of affairs; for
bad roads belong to the essence of the old Spanish colonial policy,
which was always directed to effect the isolation of the separate
provinces of their great transmarine possessions, and to prevent the
growth of a sense of national interest, in order to facilitate their
government by the distant mother country.

[Spanish economic backwardness.] Besides, in Spain itself matters
are no better. The means of communication there are so very deficient
that, as an instance, merchandise is sent from Santander to Barcelona,
round the whole Iberian peninsula, in preference to the direct route,
which is partly accomplished by railway. [140] In Estremadura the hogs
were fed with wheat (live animals can be transported without roads),
while at the same time the seaports were importing foreign grain. [141]
The cause of this condition of affairs in that country is to be sought
less in a disordered state of finance, than in the enforcement of
the Government maxim which enjoins the isolation of separate provinces.

CHAPTER XVII

[Mt. Isarog.] The Isarog (pronounced Issaro) rises up in the middle
of Camarines, between San Miguel and Lagonoy bays. While its eastern
slope almost reaches the sea, it is separated on its western side by
a broad strip of inundated land from San Miguel Bay. In circumference
it is at least twelve leagues; and its height 1,966 meters. [142]
Very flat at its base, it swells gradually to 16 deg., and higher up
to 21 deg. of inclination, and extends itself, in its western aspect,
into a flat dome-shaped summit. But, if viewed from the eastern side,
it has the appearance of a circular chain of mountains ren