ELECTION OF OFFICIALS

From the convent, a view is had of part of the island of Sámar, the mountain forms of which appear to be a continuation of the horizontal strata. In the centre of the district, at the distance of some miles, a table mountain, famous in the history of the country, towers aloft.

The natives of the neighbouring village of Palápat retreated to it after killing their pastor, a too covetous Jesuit father. For years, it did guerilla warfare with the Spaniards until they were finally vanquished by treachery.

The interior of the country is difficult to traverse from the · absence of roads, and the coasts are much infested by pirates.

Quite recently several pontins and four schooners, laden with abacá, were captured, and the crews cruelly murdered, their bodies having been cut to pieces. This, however, was opposed to their general practice, for the captives are usually employed at the oars during the continuance of the foray, and afterwards sold as slaves in the islands of the Solo Lake.

It was well that we did not encounter the pirates, for, although we carried four small cannons on board, nobody understood how to use them.*

The governor, who was expected to conduct the election of the district officials in person, but was prevented by illness, sent a deputy. As the annual elections are conducted in the same manner over the whole country, that at which I was present may be taken as typical of the rest.

It took place in the common hall; the governor (or his deputy) sitting at the table, with the pastor on bis right hand, and the clerk on his left,—the latter also acting as interpreter; while Cabézas de Barangay, the gobernadorcillo, and those who had previously filled the office, took their places all together on benches.

First of all, six cabézas and as many gobernadorcillos are chosen by lot as electors; the actual gobernadorcillo is the 13th, and the rest quit the hall.

After the reading of the statutes by the president, who exhorts the electors to the conscientious performance of their duty, the latter advance singly to the table, and write three names on a piece of paper. Unless a valid protest be made either by the pastor or by the electors, the one who has the most votes is forth with named gobernadorcillo for the coming year, subject

• Small ships which have no cannon should be provided with pitchers filled with water and the fruit of the sacchariferous arenga, for the purpose of besprinkling the pirates, in the event of an attack, with the corrosive mixture, which causes a burning heat. Dumont d’Urville mentions that the inhabitants of Solo had, during his visit, poisoned the wells with the same fruit. The kernels preserved in sugar are an agreeable confection.

to the approval of the superior jurisdiction at Manila ; which, however, always consents, for the influence of the cura would provide against a disagreeable election. The election of the other functionaries takes place in the same manner, after the new gobernadorcillo has been first summoned into the hall, in order that, if he have any important objections to the officers then

A PERILOUS JOURNEY

about to be elected, he may be able to make them. The whole affair was conducted very quietly and with dignity.*

On the following morning, accompanied by the obliging pastor, who was followed by nearly all the boys of the village, I crossed over in a large boat to Sámar. Out of eleven strong baggage porters whom the governor’s representative had selected for me, four took possession of some trilling articles and sped away with them, three others hid themselves in the bush, and four had previously decamped at Láuang.

The baggage was divided and distributed amongst the four porters who were detained, and the little boys who had accompanied us for their own pleasure. We followed the sea-shore in a westerly direction, and at a very late hour reached the nearest visita, where the cura was successful, after much difficulty, in supplying the places of the missing porters.

On the west side of the mouth of the Pambújan a neck of land projects into the sea, which is a favourite resort of the sea-pirates, who from their shelter in the wood command the shore which extends in a wide curve on both sides, and forms the only communication between Láuang and Catárman. Many travellers had already been robbed in this place; and the father, who was now accompanying me thus far had, with the greatest difficulty, escaped the same danger only a few weeks before.

The last part of our day’s journey was performed very cautiously. A messenger who had been sent on had placed boats at all the months of rivers, and, as hardly any other Europeans besides ecclesiastics are known in this district, I was taken in the darkness for a Capuchin in travelling attire; the men lighting me with torches during the passage, and the women pressing forward to kiss my hand. I passed the night on the road, and on the following day reached Catárman (Caladman on Coello’s map), a clean, spacious locality numbering 6,358 souls, at the mouth of the river of the same name.

Six pontins from Catbalogan awaited their cargoes of rice for Albáy. The inhabitants of the north coast are too indifferent sailors to export their products themselves, and leave it to the people of Catbalogan, who, having no rice-fields, are obliged to find employment for their activity in other places.

• There were also elected a teniente mayor (deputy of the gobernadorcillo), a juez mayor (superior judge) for the fields, who is always an ex-captain; a second jndge for the police ; a third judge for disputes relating to cattle; a second and third teniente ; and first and second policemen; and finally, in addition, a teniente, a judge, and a policeman for each visita.

All three of the judges can be ex-capitanos, but no ex-capitano can be teniente. The first teniente must be taken from the higher class, the others may belong either to that or to the common people. The policemen (alguacils) are always of the latter class.

The river Catárman formerly debouched further to the east, and was much choked with mud. In the year 1851, after a continuous heavy rain, it worked for itself, in the loose soil which consists of quartz sand and fragments of mussels, a new and shorter passage to the sea—the present harbour, in which ships of two hundred tons can load close to the land; but in doing so it destroyed the greater part of the village, as well as the stone church and the priest’s residence.

In the new convent there are two saloons, one 16.2 by 8.8, the other 9 by 7.6 paces in dimensions, boarded with planks from a single branch of a dipterocarpus (guiso). The pace is equivalent to 30 inches ; and, assuming the thickness of the boards, inclusive of waste, to be one inch, this would give a solid block of wood as high as a table (2] feet), the same in breadth, 18 feet in length, and of about 110 cubic feet.* The houses are enclosed in gardens ; but some of them only by fencing, within which weeds luxuriate. At the rebuilding of the village, after the great flood of water, the laying out of gardens was commanded; but the industry which is required to preserve them is often wanting. Pasture grounds

• G. Squier (“ States of Central America," 192) mentions a block of mahogany, 17 ft. in length, which, at its lowest section, measured 5 ft. 6 in. square, and contained altogether 550 cubic feet.

extend themselves, on the south side of the village, covered with fine short grass ; but, with the exception of some oxen and sheep belonging to the cura, there are no cattle.

Still without servants, I proceeded with my baggage in two small boats up the river, on both sides of which rice-fields and cocoa-groves extended; but the latter, being concealed by a thick border of Nipa palms and lofty cane, are only visible occasionally through the gaps. The sandy banks, at first flat, became gradually steeper, and the rock soon showed itself close at hand, with firm banks of sandy clay containing occasional traces of indistinguishable petrifactions.

A small mussel * has pierced the clay banks at the water-line, in such numbers that they look like honeycombs. About twelve we cooked our rice in an isolated hut, amongst friendly people. The women whom we surprised in dark ragged clothing of guinára drew back ashamed, and w soon after appeared in clean Alu chequered sayas, with earrings of brass and tortoise-shell combs. When I drew a little naked girl, the mother forced her to put on a shirt. About two we again stepped into the boat, and after rowing the whole night reached a small visita, Cobocóbo, about nine in the forenoon. The rowers had worked without interruption for twenty-four

• According to Dr. V. Martens, Modiola striatula, Hanley, who found the same bivalve at Singapore, in brackish water, but considerably larger. Reeve also delineates the species collected by Cumming in the Philippines, without precise mention of the locality, as being larger (38mm), that from Catarman being 17mm.

hours, exclusive of the two hours’ rest at noon, and though somewhat tired were in good spirits.

At half-past two we set out on the road over the Salta Sangley (Chinese leap) to. Tragbúcan, which, distant about a mile in a straight line, is situated at the place where the Calbayot, which debouches on the west coast at point Hibáton, becomes navigable for small boats. By means of these two rivers and the short but troublesome road, a communication exists between the important stations of Catárman on the north coast, and Calbáyot on the west coast.

A WATER JOURNEY

The road, which at its best part is a small path in the thick wood uninvaded by the sun, and frequently is only a track, passes over slippery ridges of clay, disappearing in the mud puddles in the intervening hollows, and sometimes running into the bed of the brooks. The water-shed between the Catárman and Calbáyot is formed by the Salta Sangley already mentioned, a flat ridge composed of banks of clay and sandstone, which succeed one another ladder-wise downwards on both its sides, and from which the water collected at the top descends in little cascades. In the most difficult places rough ladders of bamboo are fixed. I counted fifteen brooks on the north-east side which feed the Catárman, and about the same number of feeders of the Calbayot on the south-west side. About forty minutes past four we reached the highest point of the Salta Sangley, about ninety feet above the sea ; and at half-past six we got to a stream, the highest part of the Calbayot, in the bed of which we wandered until its increasing depth forced us, in the dark, laboriously to beat out our path through the underwood to its bank ; and about eight o’clock we found ourselves opposite the visita Tragbúcan. The river at this place was already six feet deep, and there was not a boat. After shouting entreaties and threats for a long time, the people, who were startled out of sleep by the report from a revolver, agreed to construct a raft of bamboo, on which they placed ourselves and our baggage. The little place, which consists of only a few poor huts, is prettily situated, surrounded as it is by wooded hillocks on a plateau of sand fifty feet above the reed-bordered river.

Thanks to the activity of the teniente of Catárman who accompanied me, a boat was procured without delay, so that we were able to continue our journey about seven o’clock. The banks were from twenty to forty feet high ; and, with the exception of the cry of some rhinoceros birds which fluttered from bough to

Boat with Outriggers of Bamboo. The upper edge consists only of a loose tresswork of palm-leaves, held together by

strips of bamboo.

bough on the tops of the trees, we neither heard nor saw a trace of animal life. About half-past eleven we reached Taibágo, a small visita, and about half-past one a similar one, Magubáy; and after two hours’ rest at noon, about five o’clock, we got into a current down which we skilfully floated, almost without admitting any water. The river, which up to this point is thirty feet broad, and on account of many projecting branches of trees difficult to navigate, here is twice as broad. About eleven at night we reached the sea, and in a complete calm rowed for the distance of a league

along the coast to Calbáyot, the convent at which place affords a commanding view of the islands lying before it.

A thunderstorm obliged us to postpone the journey to the chief town, Catbalogan (or Catbalónga), which was seven leagues distant, until the afternoon. In a long boat, formed out of the stem of one tree, and furnished with outriggers, we travelled along the shore, which is margined by a row of low-wooded hills with many small visitas ; and as night was setting in we rounded the point of Napalísan, a rock of trachytic conglomerate shaped by perpendicular fissures with rounded edges into a series of projections like towers, which rises up out of the sea to the height of sixty feet, like a knight’s castle. At night we reached Catbalógan, the chief town of the island, with a population of six thousand, which is picturesquely situated in the middle of the western border, in a little bay surrounded by islands and necks of land, difficult to approach and, therefore, little guarded. Not a single vessel was anchored in the harbour.

The houses, many of which are of boards, are neater than those in Camarines; but the people, though idle, are more modest, more honourable, more obliging, and of cleaner habits, than the inhabitants of South Luzon.

Through the courtesy of the governor I quickly obtained a roomy dwelling, and a servant who understood Spanish. Here I also met a very intelligent Indian who had acquired great skill in a large variety of crafts. With the simplest tools he improved in many points on my instruments and apparatus, the purpose of which he quickly comprehended to my entire satisfaction, and gave many proofs of considerable intellectual ability.