h occurrences
is interdicted by the government. The difficulty to which I refer
was said to have originated from the preaching of a fanatic priest,
who inflamed them to such a degree that they overthrew the troops
and became temporarily masters of the country. Prompt measures were
immediately taken, and orders issued to give the rebels no quarter;
the regiments most hostile to those engaged in the revolt were ordered
to the spot; they spared no one; the priest and his companions were
taken, put to death, and according to report, in a manner so cruel as
to be a disgrace to the records of the nineteenth century. Although I
should hope the accounts I heard of these transactions were incorrect,
yet the detestation these acts were held in, would give some color
to the statements.

The few gazettes that are published at Manila are entirely under the
control of the government; and a resident of that city must make
up his mind to remain in ignorance of the things that are passing
around him, or believe just what the authorities will allow to be
told, whether truth or falsehood. The government of the Philippines
is emphatically an iron rule: how long it can continue so, is doubtful.

[The governor-general.] One of my first duties was to make an
official call upon His Excellency Don Marcelino Oroa, who is the
sixty-first governor of the Philippine Islands. According to the
established etiquette, Mr. Moore, the vice-consul, announced our
desire to do so, and requested to be informed of the time when we
would be received. This was accordingly named, and at the appointed
hour we proceeded to the palace in the city proper. On our arrival,
we were announced and led up a flight of steps, ample and spacious,
but by no means of such splendor as would indicate the residence of
vice-royalty. The suite of rooms into which we were ushered were so
dark that it was difficult to see. I made out, however, that they were
panelled, and by no means richly furnished. His excellency entered
from a side-door, and led us through two or three apartments into his
private audience-room, an apartment not quite so dark as those we
had come from: our being conducted to this, I was told afterwards,
was to be considered an especial mark of respect to my country. His
reception of us was friendly. The governor has much more the appearance
of an Irishman than of a Spaniard, being tall, portly, of a florid
complexion. He is apparently more than sixty years of ag