[The walled city of Manila.] The city proper of Manila, inhabited by Spaniards, Creoles, the Filipinos directly connected with them, and Chinese, lies, surrounded by walls and wide ditches, on the left or southern bank of the Pasig, looking towards the sea. [42] It is a hot, dried-up place, full of monasteries, convents, barracks, and government buildings.  Safety, not appearance, was the object of its builders.  It reminds the beholder of a Spanish provincial town, and is, next to Goa, the oldest city in the Indies.  Foreigners reside on the northern bank of the river; in Binondo, the headquarters of wholesale and retail commerce, or in the pleasant suburban villages, which blend into a considerable whole. [Population.] The total population of city and suburbs has been estimated, perhaps with some exaggeration, at 200,000. [Bridges.] A handsome old stone bridge of ten arches serves as the communication between the two banks of the Pasig, which, more recently, has also been spanned by an iron suspension bridge. [43] Very little intercourse exists between the inhabitants of Manila and Binondo. [Friction between classes.] Life in the city proper cannot be very pleasant; pride, envy, place-hunting, and caste hatred, are the order of the day; the Spaniards consider themselves superior to the creoles, who, in their turn, reproach the former with the taunt that they have only come to the colony to save themselves from starvation.  A similar hatred and envy exists between the whites and the mestizos.  This state of things is to be found in all Spanish colonies, and is chiefly caused by the colonial policy of Madrid, which always does its best to sow discord between the different races and classes of its foreign possessions, under the idea that their union would imperil the sway of the mother country. [44]

[Few large landowners.] In Manila, moreover, this state of things was rendered worse by the fact that the planter class, whose large landed possessions always give it a strong interest in the country of its inhabitance, was entirely wanting.  At the present day, however, the increasing demand for the produce of the colony seems to be bringing about a pleasant change in this respect. [Spaniards transient.] The manner in which the Spanish population of the Islands was affected by the gambling ventures of the galleons, at one time the only source of commercial wealth, is thus described by Murillo Velarde (page 272):—­“The Spaniards who settle here look upon these Islands as a tavern rather than a permanent home.  If they marry, it is by the merest chance; where can a family be found that has been settled here for several generations?  The father amasses wealth, the son spends it, the grandson is a beggar.  The largest capitals are not more stable than the waves of the ocean, across the crests of which they were gathered.”