ere blown out like balloons, we wished him
good-bye, and returned to the ship.

Gambling is carried to a great extent in Manilla: the game played is
Monte. We visited one of their gambling houses. Winding our way down a
dark and narrow street, we arrived at a porte-cochere. The requisite
signal was given, the door opened cautiously, and after some scrutiny we
were ushered up a flight of stairs, and entered a room, in the centre of
which was a table, round which were a group, composed of every class. An
Indian squaw was sitting by the side of a military officer, the one
staking her annas, the other his doubloons. I stood by the side of an
old Chinaman, who staked his doubloon and lost every time. The strictest
silence was observed, and nothing was heard but the chinking of the
dollars, and the occasional _a quien_ of the banker, who inquired the
owner of the stakes. Every thing was conducted with the greatest order;
when one man had lost all his money he would retire, and make room for
another. The authorities of Manilla have made every effort to put a
check to this demoralising practice, but without much success. It is
universal, from the highest to the lowest, from the civilised to the
most barbarous, over the whole of the Indian Archipelago.

The Indians of the Phillippines are among the best favoured of the
Asiatic islanders, but they are not reckoned so brave as the Malays.
They are a quiet inoffensive race, clean and well shaped, and are all
converted to the Catholic faith. Their principal amusement is
cock-fighting, which, indeed, is carried to a great extent in all the
islands. Every man in the streets has his fighting cock under his arm,
and groups may be seen at all hours of the day, pitting their cocks and
betting on the issue. The country about Manilla is very pretty, well
cultivated, and studded with thriving villages. The Spanish possessions
in this part of Luzon are confined to about twenty miles in every
direction; the interior of the island being peopled with a race of
savages who occasionally make incursions into the country, carrying away
cattle or any thing else that they can lay their hands upon. I could
obtain no particulars of these aborigines, except that they go nearly if
not altogether naked.

On the 1st of December, our old acquaintance, the Velocipede schooner,
arrived from Sooloo, having on board six Lascars, who had been ransomed
from the sultan of Sooloo by Mr. Wyndham. They had formed a