nd is situated on the eastern shore of a
circular bay 120 nautical miles in circumference. It looks like a fragment
of Spain transplanted to the archipelago of Asia. On its churches and
convents, even on its ruined walls, overturned in the earthquake of 1863,
time has laid the brown, sombre, dull gold colouring of the mother
country. The ancient city, silent and melancholy, stretches interminably
along its gloomy streets, bordered with convents whose flat facades are
only broken here and there by a few narrow windows. But there is also a
new city within the ramparts of Manila; it is sometimes called the
Escolta, from the name of its central quarter, and this city is alive with
its dashing teams, its noisy crowd of Tagala women, shod in high-heeled
shoes, and every nerve in their bodies quivering with excitement. They are
almost all employed in the innumerable cigar factories whose output
inundates all Asia.

Here all sorts of nationalities elbow one another,--Europeans, Chinese,
Malays, Tagalas, Negritos, in all some 260,000 people of every known race
and of every known colour. In the afternoon, in the plain of Lunetto,
carriages and equipages of every kind drive past, and pedestrians swarm in
crowds around the military band stand in the marvellously picturesque
square, lit up by the slanting rays of the setting sun, which purples the
lofty peaks of the Sierra de Marivels in the distance, unfolds its long,
luminous train on the ocean, and tinges with a dark reddish shade the
sombre verdure of the city's sloping banks. This is the hour when all the
inhabitants hold high festival, able at length to breathe freely after the
heat of the noontide.

The primary cause of the Philippine rebellion was excessive taxation by
Spain to raise money to carry on the war in Cuba. The islands were already
overburdened with assessments to enrich Spanish coffers and to support the
native poor. The additional money required for Cuba was the last straw.

Extreme cruelties began when General Aguirre arrived from Spain with
reinforcements. He did not undertake to penetrate the mountains, but
massacred the native population in the towns. When he took Santa Clara del
Laguna he spared neither man, woman, nor child. The people in the
mountains heard of this. They were almost wild with fury, but they were
helpless.

It is stated, on what seems to be good authority, that ten thousand dead
prisoners had been taken from prison in a year.

Three y