the country, who had made the journey frequently before,
had conducted us, to begin with, to a wrong port, he ran the vessel
fast on to the bar, although there was sufficient water to sail into
the harbor conveniently.

[Lauang.] The district of Lauang (Lahuan), which is encumbered with
more than four thousand five hundred inhabitants, is situated at an
altitude of forty feet, on the south-west shore of the small island
of the same name, which is separated from Samar by an arm of the
Catubig. According to a widely-spread tradition, the settlement was
originally in Samar itself, in the middle of the rice-fields, which
continue to the present day in that place, until the repeated inroads
of sea-pirates drove the inhabitants, in spite of the inconvenience
attending it, to protect themselves by settling on the south coast
of the little island, which rises steeply out of the sea. [163] The
latter consists of almost horizontal banks of tufa, from eight to
twelve inches in thickness. The strata being continually eaten away
by the waves at low watermark, the upper layers break off; and thus
the uppermost parts of the strata, which are of a tolerably uniform
thickness, are cleft by vertical fissures, and look like the walls of
a fortress. Pressed for space, the church and the convent have taken
up every level bit of the rock at various heights; and the effect of
this accommodation of architecture to the requirements of the ground,
though not designed by the architect, is most picturesque.

[Deterioration in the town.] The place is beautifully situated; but the
houses are not so frequently as formerly surrounded by little gardens
while there is a great want of water, and foul odors prevail. Two or
three scanty springs afford a muddy, brackish water, almost at the
level of the sea, with which the indolent people are content so that
they have just enough. Wealthy people have their water brought from
Samar, and the poorer classes are sometimes compelled, by the drying-up
of the springs, to have recourse to the same place. The spring-water
is not plentiful for bathing purposes; and, sea-bathing not being in
favor, the people consequently are very dirty. Their clothing is the
same as in Luzon; but the women wear no tapis, only a camisa (a short
chemise, hardly covering the breast), and a saya, mostly of coarse,
stiff guinara, which forms ugly folds, and when not colored black
is very transparent. But dirt and a filthy existence form