these
robbers, and were talking about it, the story somehow got wind, and,
when it was known who had caused so much trouble, of course there
was a general laugh at the local authorities.

Lucky enough it was, however, that the affair rested there, as all
of the party might have suffered severely for their amusement and
fondness for carronading. It only caused the government to increase
their strictness in giving passports to the country, which now were
only conceded on the pleas of urgent business, or of ill health when
that was backed by a medical certificate; the alcalde also became
more strict in seeing that all travellers through the province were
provided with these documents.

CHAPTER XVII.

In the course of these excursions to the country, the native Indians,
with a stray half-breed, generally of the China Mestizo race, are
nearly the only people met with, as few Europeans are settled in the
provinces, except in the provincial capitals, or near the alcalde,
whose dependents they generally are. Should a stranger be able to
speak to the natives in their own language, he has a much better
opportunity of becoming acquainted with their character, habits,
and feelings, than if he is merely able to speak Spanish, a language
which only a very small proportion of them understand in the country,
although most of those in the neighbourhood of Manilla can speak
it after a fashion. For although the law makes it requisite for the
Capitan of every pueblo to be able to speak as well as to read and
write Spanish, yet this is not always the case, as I have frequently
met with these officials, more especially in out-of-the-way places,
who did not understand it.

Nearly the whole, certainly above three-fourths of the population, make
use of the Tagala or Tagaloc language, which, so far as I am aware,
is quite peculiar to these islands, having little or no similarity
to Malayee, so that it does not appear to have been derived from a
Malay root, although some few Malay words have been engrafted on it,
probably from the circumstance of that language being made use of
in the province of Bisayas, which is the only place in the islands
where it is spoken.

In Pampanga province, the natives speak a distinct language, differing
entirely from Tagaloc, quite as much as Welsh does from English,
although many of the Pampangans, on growing up, find it useful to know
how to speak the Tagaloc, which most of them understand a little