uly, and in the interval between those
months the ships lie dismantled under sheds. [Communication.] There
also is communication by the coast eastwards to Guian, northwards
to Catarman, and sometimes to Lauang. The crews consist partly of
natives, and partly of foreigners, as the natives take to the sea
with great reluctance; indeed, almost only when compelled to leave
their villages. Samar has scarcely any other means of communication
besides the navigation of the coast and rivers, the interior being
roadless; and burdens have to be conveyed on the shoulders. An
able-bodied porter, who receives a real and a half without food,
will carry three arrobas (seventy-five pounds at most) six leagues in
a day, but he cannot accomplish the same work on the following day,
requiring at least one day's rest. A strong man will carry an arroba
and a half daily for a distance of six leagues for a whole week.

[No markets.] There are no markets in Samar and Leyte; so that whoever
wishes to buy seeks what he requires in the houses, and in like manner
the seller offers his goods.

[Debts.] A Filipino seeking to borrow money has to give ample security
and pay interest at the rate of one real for every dollar per month
(twelve and one-half per cent. monthly); and it is not easy for
him to borrow more than five dollars, for which sum only he is
legally liable. Trade and credit are less developed in eastern and
northern Samar than in the western part of the island, which keeps
up a more active communication with the other inhabitants of the
Archipelago. There current money is rarely lent, but only its value
in goods is advanced at the rate of a real per dollar per mensem. If
the debtor fails to pay within the time appointed, he frequently
has to part with one of his children, who is obliged to serve the
lender for his bare food, without wages, until the debt has been
extinguished. I saw a young man who had so served for the term of
five years, in liquidation of a debt of five dollars which his father,
who had formerly been a gobernadorcillo in Paranas, owed to a mestizo
in Catbalogan; and on the east coast a pretty young girl, who, for
a debt of three dollars due by her father, had then, for two years,
served a native, who had the reputation of being a spendthrift. I was
shown in Borongan a coconut plantation of three hundred trees, which
was pledged for a debt of ten dollars about twenty years ago, since
which period it had been used by t