e's home and country. My Anna was to
me an angel of goodness; my Indians were happy, peace and plenty
smiled upon their families; my fields were covered with abundant
crops, and my pasturages with numerous herds. It was not, however,
without great difficulty and much toil that I accomplished my aim;
how often did I find all my courage and all my philosophy necessary
to face, without despair, reverses which it was impossible for me
to avoid? How often did I behold hurricanes and inundations destroy
the fine harvest that I had protected with so much labour against
the buffaloes, the wild boars, the monkeys, and even against an
insect more destructive still than all the other pests which I have
just mentioned--the locust, one of the plagues of Egypt, apparently
transported into this province, and which almost regularly, every seven
years, leave the isles of the south in clouds, and fall upon Luzon,
bringing desolation, and often famine. It is indeed necessary to have
witnessed this desolation to be able to form any idea of it. When the
locusts arrive, a fire-coloured cloud is perceived in the horizon,
formed of countless myriads of these destructive insects. They fly
rapidly, often covering, in a closely packed body, a space of two or
three leagues in diameter, and occupy from five to six consecutive
hours in passing over head. If they perceive a fine green field they
pounce down upon it, and in a few minutes all verdure has disappeared,
the ground is stripped completely bare; they then continue their flight
elsewhere, bearing on their wings destruction and famine. At evening
it is in the forests, upon the trees, that they take shelter. They
hang in such dense masses upon the ends of the boughs that they break
down even the stoutest limbs from the trees. During the night, from
the spot where they are reposing, there issues a continual croaking,
and so loud a noise, that one scarcely believes it to be produced by
so small an insect. The following morning they leave at day-break, and
the trees upon which they have reposed are left stripped and broken,
as though the lightning had swept the forest in every direction; they
pursue their course elsewhere to commit fresh ravages. At certain
periods they remain on vast plains or on fertile mountains; where,
elongating the extremity of their bodies in the form of a gimblet,
they pierce the earth to the depth of an inch and upwards to deposit
their eggs. The operation of laying being