[Deterioration in the town.] The place is beautifully situated; but the houses are not so frequently as formerly surrounded by little gardens while there is a great want of water, and foul odors prevail.  Two or three scanty springs afford a muddy, brackish water, almost at the level of the sea, with which the indolent people are content so that they have just enough.  Wealthy people have their water brought from Samar, and the poorer classes are sometimes compelled, by the drying-up of the springs, to have recourse to the same place.  The spring-water is not plentiful for bathing purposes; and, sea-bathing not being in favor, the people consequently are very dirty.  Their clothing is the same as in Luzon; but the women wear no tapis, only a camisa (a short chemise, hardly covering the breast), and a saya, mostly of coarse, stiff guinara, which forms ugly folds, and when not colored black is very transparent.  But dirt and a filthy existence form a better screen than opaque garments.  The inhabitants of Lauang rightly, indeed, enjoy the reputation of being very idle.  Their industry is limited to a little tillage, even fishing being so neglected that frequently there is a scarcity of fish.  In the absence of roads by land, there is hardly any communication by water; and trade is mostly carried on by mariners from Catbalogan, who exchange the surplus of the harvests for other produce.

From the convent a view is had of part of the island of Samar, the mountain forms of which appear to be a continuation of the horizontal strata.  In the centre of the district, at the distance of some miles, a table mountain, famous in the history of the country, towers aloft. [The Palapat revolt.] The natives of the neighboring village of Palapat retreated to it after having killed their priest, a too covetous Jesuit father, and for years carried on a guerilla warfare with the Spaniards until they were finally overpowered by treachery.

[Pirate outrages.] The interior of the country is difficult to traverse from the absence of roads, and the coasts are much infested by pirates.  Quite recently several pontins and four schooners, laden with abaca, were captured, and the crews cruelly murdered, their bodies having been cut to pieces.  This, however, was opposed to their general practice, for the captives are usually employed at the oars during the continuance of the foray, and afterwards sold as slaves in the islands of the Sulu sea.  It was well that we did not encounter the pirates, for, although we carried four small cannons on board, nobody understood how to use them. [164]