n cases
of public emergency; and in this the locusts are placed midway between
sea-pirates and conflagrations. Of the various means that have been
contrived against the destructive creatures, that, at times, appear
in incredible numbers, but have been as frequently ineffectual as
otherwise, only a few will be now mentioned. On April 27, 1824,
the Sociedad Economica determined to import the bird, the martin
(Gracula sp.), "which feeds by instinct on locusts." In the autumn
of the following year the first consignment arrived from China; in
1829 a second; and in 1852 again occurs the item of $1,311 for martins.

[Tacloban to Tanauan.] On the following day I proceeded with the
priest of Dagami (there are roads in Leyte) from Tacloban southwards
to Palos and Tanauan, two flourishing places on the east coast. Hardly
half a league from the latter place, and close to the sea, a cliff
of crystal lime rock rises up out of the sandy plain, which was level
up to this point. It is of a greyish-green quartzose chlorite schist,
from which the enterprising Father had endeavored, with a perseverance
worthy of better success, to procure lime by burning. After an ample
breakfast in the convent, we proceeded in the afternoon to Dagami,
and, on the next day, to Burauen. [191]

[A pleasing people.] The country was still flat. Coco-groves and
rice-fields here and there interrupted the thick forest; but the
country is thinly inhabited, and the people appear more cheerful,
handsomer, and cleaner than those of Samar. South of Burauen rises
the mountain ridge of Manacagan, on the further slope of which is a
large solfatara, which yields sulphur for the powder manufactory in
Manila, and for commerce. A Spanish sailor accompanied me. Where the
road passed through swamp we rode on carabaos. The pace of the animals
is not unpleasant, but the stretching across the broad backs of the
gigantic carabaos of the Philippines is very fatiguing. A quarter of an
hour beyond Burauen we crossed the Daguitan, which flows south-west to
north-east, and is a hundred feet broad, its bed being full of large
volcanic blocks; and, soon after, a small river in a broad bed; and,
some hundred paces farther, one of a hundred and fifty feet in breadth;
the two latter being arms of the Burauen. They flow from west to east,
and enter the sea at Dulag. The second arm was originated only the
preceding year, during a flood.

[The height of hospitality.] We passed the night in