ing (temperature in the sun 35 deg. R.,
of the water 25 deg. R. [179]), and lasted thirty-one hours, with few
intermissions; the party voluntarily abridging their intervals of rest
in order to get back quickly to Tacloban, which keeps up an active
intercourse with Manila, and has all the attractions of a luxurious
city for the men living on the inhospitable eastern coast. [Beauty
of Samar-Leyte strait.] It is questionable whether the sea anywhere
washes over a spot of such peculiar beauty as the narrow strait which
divides Samar from Leyte. On the west it is enclosed by steep banks
of tuff, which tolerate no swamps of mangroves on their borders. There
the lofty primeval forest approaches in all its sublimity close to the
shore, interrupted only here and there by groves of cocos, in whose
sharply defined shadows solitary huts are to be found; and the steep
hills facing the sea, and numerous small rocky islands, are crowned
with little castles of blocks of coral. At the eastern entrance of
the strait the south coast of Samar consists of white limestone,
like marble, but of quite modern date, which in many places forms
precipitous cliffs. [180] At Nipa-Nipa, a small hamlet two leagues from
Basey, they project into the sea in a succession of picturesque rocks,
above one hundred feet in height, which, rounded above like a dome,
thickly covered with vegetation, and corroded at the base by the waters
of the sea, rise out of the waves like gigantic mushrooms. A peculiar
atmosphere of enchantment pervades this locality, whose influence upon
the native mariner must be all the more powerful when, fortunately
escaping from the billows outside and the buffeting of the north-east
wind, he suddenly enters this tranquil place of refuge. No wonder
that superstitious imagination has peopled the place with spirits.

[Burial caves.] In the caverns of these rocks the ancient Pintados
interred the corpses of their heroes and ancestors in well-locked
coffins, surrounded by those objects which had been held in the highest
regard by them during life. Slaves were also sacrificed by them at
their obsequies, in order that they might not be without attendance
in the world of shadows; [181] and the numerous coffins, implements,
arms, and trinkets, protected by superstitious terrors, continued to
be undisturbed for centuries. No boat ventured to cross over without
the observance of a religious ceremony, derived from heathen times,
to propitiate the