x on the most important industry of the country not only crippled
the free trade in palms, but also the manufacture of raw sugar;
for the government, to favor their own monopoly, had forbidden the
sugar manufacturers to make rum from their molasses, which became
in consequence so valueless that in Manila they gave it to their
horses. The complaints of the manufacturers at last stirred up the
administration to allow the manufacture of rum; but the palm-brandy
monopoly remained intact. The Filipinos now drank nothing but rum,
so that at last, in self-defence, the government entirely abandoned
the monopoly (January, 1864). Since that, the rum manufacturers pay
taxes according to the amount of their sale, but not upon the amount
of their raw produce. In order to cover the deficit occasioned by
the abandonment of the brandy monopoly, the government has made a
small increase in the poll-tax. The practice of drinking brandy has
naturally much increased; it is, however, a very old habit. [67] With
this exception, the measure has had the most favorable consequences.

[Santa Cruz.] Santa Cruz is a lively, prosperous place (in 1865 it
contained 11,385 inhabitants), through the center of which runs a
river. As the day on which we passed through it was Sunday, the stream
was full of bathers, amongst them several women, their luxuriant hair
covered with broad-brimmed hats to shade them from the sun. From the
ford the road takes a sharp turn and inclines first to the east and
then to the south-east, till it reaches Magdalena, between which and
Majaijai the country becomes hilly. Just outside the latter, a viaduct
takes the road across a deep ravine full of magnificent ferns, which
remind the traveller of the height--more than 600 feet--above the sea
level to which he has attained. The spacious convento at Majaijai,
built by the Jesuits, is celebrated for its splendid situation. The
Lagoon of Bay is seen to extend far to the north-east; in the distance
the Peninsula of Jalajala and the Island of Talim, from which rises
the Susong-Dalaga volcano, terminate the vista. From the convento to
the lake stretches an endless grove of coco-trees, while towards the
south the slope of the distant high ground grows suddenly steeper,
and forms an abruptly precipitous conical hill, intersected by deep
ravines. This is the Banajao or Majaijai volcano, and beside it Mount
San Cristobal rears its bell-shaped summit.

[Scenery along Lucban-Maubon road.