but now
it is thoroughly impoverished. It has a wooden house and church,
and Ours minister to about seven hundred Indians. [135] The people
are Tagals. As one goes thither from Manila, he descends a truly
frightful hill for more than one legua. The convent lies on the
lake shore, and on the brow of the same land or slope. Tanauan lies
eleven or twelve leguas from Manila, and belongs to the latter's
bishopric. In it is Comintan, where many cotton hose are made. The
inhabitants are healthier and more clever than the others. Champans
(which are Sangley boats) enter this lake through the Taal River, by
which the lake empties into the sea; for the Chinese go everywhere,
and there is no islet, however devoid of profit it be, where they do
not go. If they can obtain nothing else at any islet they get wood;
and if that is lacking, yet they find on the coast material from
which they make lime. This they take to Manila, and it is not the
least expensive thing.

A convent and religious were established in Lipa, which is located on
this lake, four leguas from the convent of Tanauan, of which I have
just spoken. This convent has at present about four hundred Indians. It
has one religious, and the place formerly was densely populated. But
already I have mentioned how this lake region has retrograded. Many
Indians have been taken thence to Cavite, and but very few return;
for they remain in that neighborhood, fleeing from work. There are
a very fine new house and church there, which are built of wood and
better than those of Tanauan.

Religious were established in San Pablo in the mountains, [136]
which is fourteen leguas from Manila by way of Laguna de Bay--ten to
the Bay, and four to this convent. It was nothing until father Fray
Hernando Cabrera [137]--of the province of Andalucia, and a son of the
house at Cordova--went there, who was prior in that convent for many
years. Although neither its house nor its churches of stone, yet they
are of wood, and the best and finest in the province--particularly the
church, with its reredoses and paintings of the saints of the order,
so handsomely made that there is nothing finer in the islands. It
is feared, and with good reason, that since it is built of wood,
it will last but a short time, and that all that expense and beauty
will be wasted. The Indians were settled as if they were Spaniards,
and their village was laid out with its squares and so excellent
houses that it was good only to