ravelling attire; the men lighting me with torches during the passage,
and the women pressing forward to kiss my hand. I passed the night
on the road, and on the following day reached Catarman (Caladman on
Coello's map), a clean, spacious locality numbering 6,358 souls, at
the mouth of the river of the same name. Six pontins from Catbalogan
awaited their cargoes of rice for Albay. The inhabitants of the north
coast are too indifferent sailors to export their products themselves,
and leave it to the people of [Catbalogan monopoly of interisland
traffic.] Catbalogan, who, having no rice-fields, are obliged to find
employment for their activity in other places.

[A changed river and a new town.] The river Catarman formerly emptied
further to the east, and was much choked with mud. In the year 1851,
after a continuous heavy rain, it worked for itself, in the loose
soil which consists of quartz sand and fragments of mussels, a new
and shorter passage to the sea--the present harbor, in which ships
of two hundred tons can load close to the land; but in doing so it
destroyed the greater part of the village, as well as the stone church
and the priest's residence. In the new convent there are two salons,
one 16.2 by 8.8, the other 9 by 7.6 paces in dimensions, boarded with
planks from a single branch of a dipterocarpus (guiso). The pace is
equivalent to 30 inches; and, assuming the thickness of the boards,
inclusive of waste, to be one inch, this would give a solid block of
wood as high as a table (two and one-half feet), the same in breadth,
eighteen feet in length, and of about one hundred and ten cubic
feet. [166] The houses are enclosed in gardens; but some of them only
by fencing, within which weeds luxuriate. At the rebuilding of the
village, after the great flood of water, the laying out of gardens
was commanded; but the industry which is required to preserve them is
often wanting. Pasture grounds extend themselves, on the south side
of the village, covered with fine short grass; but, with the exception
of some oxen and sheep belonging to the priest, there are no cattle.

[Up the river.] Still without servants, I proceeded with my baggage in
two small boats up the river, on both sides of which rice-fields and
coco-groves extended; but the latter, being concealed by a thick border
of Nipa palms and lofty cane, are only visible occasionally through
the gaps. The sandy banks, at first flat, became gradually steeper,
and the