as confined for not pursuing
the Dutch vessels after the sea fight off Corregidor. The crumbling
walls still whisper of intrigue and secrecy. The fort was built in
1587, and became the base of operations, not only against the pirate
fleets of the Chinese, the Moros, and the Dutch, but also in the riots
of the Chinese and the Japanese that broke out frequently in the old
days. At one time twenty thousand Chinamen were beaten back by an
alliance of the Spaniards, Japanese, and natives. On this historic
ground the treaty was made in 1570 between the Spaniards and the
rajas of Manila, Soliman and Lacandola. The walls survived the fire of
1603. The earthquake causing the evacuation of Manila could not shake
them. Another prisoner of state, Corcuera, who had fought the Moros
in the Jolo Archipelago, was locked up in the _Cuartel de Santiago_
at the instance of his Machiavellian successor. In 1642 the fort was
strengthened by additional artillery because of an expected visit
from the Dutch. Today a soldier in a khaki uniform mounts guard at the
street entrance. The courtyard is adorned by pyramids of cannon-balls
and tidy rows of _bonga_-trees. The soldiers' quarters line the avenue
on either side, and bugle-calls resound where formerly was heard the
call of the night watchman.

A number of elaborate but narrow passages--dim, gloomy archways, where
the chain and windlass stand dust-covered from disuse--connect the
walled town with the extra-muros sections. The _Puerto del Parian_,
on the Ermita side, is one of the most imposing of these gates. Near
the botanical gardens on the boulevard, at the small booth where
Juliana sells cigars and bottled soda, following the turnpike over
the moat, you come to the Parian gate, crowned by the Spanish arms,
in crumbling bas-relief. Beyond the drawbridge--lowered never to be
raised again--where rumbling pony-carts crowd the pedestrians to the
wall, the passage opens into gloomy dungeons, with barred windows
looking out upon the stagnant waters of the moat. With an involuntary
shudder, you pass on. A native policeman, in an opera-bouffe uniform,
stands at the further end in order to dispatch the vehicles that can
not pass each other in the narrow gate. Windowless, yellow walls, upon
the corners of the streets, make reckless driving very dangerous,
and collisions frequently occur. A vacant sentry-box stands just
within the city walls, and, turning here into the long street, you
immediately f