elieving the monotony of a straight line.

Forming a background to the European town, there are three thickly
wooded hillocks almost identical in appearance, and at each extremity
of the picture, lying farther back inland, there is a hill sloping
down gradually towards the coast. The slope on the eastern extremity
has been cleared of undergrowth to the extent of about 50 acres,
giving it the appearance of a vast lawn. At the eastern and western
extremities are the native suburbs, with huts of light material built a
few yards into the sea. On the east side there is a big Moro bungalow,
erected on small tree-trunks, quite a hundred yards from the beach
seawards. To the west, one sees a long shanty-built structure running
out to sea like a jetty; it is the shore market. The panorama could
not be more charming and curious. Still farther west, towering above
every other, stands the _Bad Tumantangas_ peak (Mount of Tears),
the last point discernible by the westward-journeying Joloano, who
is said to sigh with patriotic anguish at its loss to view, with all
the feeling of a Moorish Boabdil bidding adieu to his beloved Granada.

The town is uniformly planned, with well-drained streets, running
parallel, crossed at rectangles by lovely avenues of shading
trees. Here and there are squares, pretty gardens, and a clean and
orderly market-place. There is a simple edifice for a church, splendid
barracks equal to those in Manila when these were built, many houses of
brick and stone, others of wood, and all roofed with corrugated iron.

The neighbourhood is well provided with water from natural streams. The
town is supplied with drinking-water conducted in pipes, laid for the
purpose from a spring about a mile and a quarter distant, whilst other
piping carries water to the end of the pier for the requirements of
shipping. This improvement, the present salubrity of the town (once a
fever focus), and its latest Spanish embellishments, are mainly due to
the intelligent activity of its late Governors, Colonel (now General)
Gonzalez Parrado, and the late General Juan Arolas.

The town is encircled on the land side by a brick loop-holed wall. The
outside (Spanish) defences consisted of two forts, viz:--The "_Princesa
de Asturias_" and "_Torre de la Reina_" and within the town those of
the "_Puerta Blockaus_", "_Puerta Espana_" and the redoubt "_Alfonso
XII._"--this last had a Nordenfeldt gun.

The Spanish Government of Sulu was entirely