it hardly ever came in sight of pirates, although the latter were
carrying on their depredations close in front and behind.

[Government steamer easily eluded.] At Samars, the principal town,
I subsequently met with a Government steamer, which for fourteen days
past had been nominally engaged in cruising against the pirates; but
the latter, generally forewarned by their spies, perceive the smoke
of the steamers sufficiently soon to slip away in their flat boats;
and the officers knew beforehand that their cruise would have no
other result than to show the distressed provinces that their outcry
was not altogether unnoticed. [158]

[Steam gunboats more successful.] Twenty small steam gunboats of light
draught had shortly before been ordered from England, and were nearly
ready. The first two indeed arrived soon after in Manila (they had to
be transported in pieces round the Cape), and were to be followed by
the rest; and they were at one time almost successful in delivering
the archipelago from these burdensome pests; [159] at least, from
the proscribed Moros who came every year from the Sulu Sea, mostly
from the island of Tawitawi, arriving in May at the Bisayas, and
continuing their depredations in the archipelago until the change
of the monsoon in October or November compelled them to return.
[160] [Renegades join pirates and bandits.] In the Philippines they
gained new recruits among vagabonds, deserters, runaway criminals,
and ruined spendthrifts; and from the same sources were made up the
bands of highway robbers (tulisanes), which sometimes started up,
and perpetuated acts of extraordinary daring. Not long before my
arrival they had made an inroad into a suburb of Manila, and engaged
with the military in the highways. Some of the latter are regularly
employed in the service against the tulisanes. The robbers are not,
as a rule, cruel to their victims when no opposition is offered. [161]

[Plants from Berlin.] In Legaspi I found awaiting me several chests
with tin lining, which had been sixteen months on their passage by
overland route, instead of seven weeks, having been conveyed from
Berlin by way of Trieste, on account of the Italian war. Their
contents, which had been intended for use in the Philippines
exclusively, were now for the most part useless. In one chest there
were two small flasks with glass stoppers, one filled with moist
charcoal, and the other with moist clay, both containing seeds of the
Victo