are then held, the saints
thanked for their kindness, and blessings invoked for another year.
After this is over, the vessel is taken carefully to pieces, and
distributed among the owners, to be preserved for the next season.

The profits in the crops, according to estimates, vary from sixty to one
hundred per cent.; but it was thought, as a general average, that this
was, notwithstanding the great productiveness of the soil, far beyond
the usual profits accruing from agricultural operations. In some
provinces this estimate would hold good, and probably be exceeded.

Indigo would probably be a lucrative crop, for that raised here is said
to be of a quality equal to the best, and the crop is not subject to so
many uncertainties as in India: the capital and attention required in
vats, etc., prevent it from being raised in any quantities. Among the
productions, the bamboo and rattan ought to claim a particular notice
from their great utility: they enter into almost everything. Of the
former their houses are built, including frames, floors, sides, and
roof; fences are made of the same material, as well as every article of
general household use, including baskets for oil and water. The rattan
is a general substitute for ropes of all descriptions, and the two
combined are used in constructing rafts for crossing ferries.

The crops frequently suffer from the ravages of the locusts, which sweep
all before them. Fortunately for the poorer classes, their attacks take
place after the rice has been harvested; but the cane is sometimes
entirely cut off. The authorities of Manila, in the vain hope of
stopping their devastations, employ persons to gather them and throw
them into the sea. I understood on one occasion they had spent eighty
thousand dollars in this way, but all to little purpose. It is said that
the crops rarely suffer from droughts, but on the contrary the rains are
thought to fall too often and to flood the rice fields; these, however,
yield a novel crop, and are very advantageous to the poor, viz.: a great
quantity of fish, which are called dalag, and are a species of Blunnius;
they are so plentiful that they are caught with baskets; these fish
weigh from a half to two pounds, and some are said to be eighteen inches
long; but this is not all; they are said, after a deep inundation, to
be found even in the vaults of churches.

The Philippines are divided into thirty-one provinces, sixteen of which
are on the island