[Locusts.] The crops frequently suffer from the ravages of the locusts, which sweep all before them.  Fortunately for the poorer classes, their attacks take place after the rice has been harvested; but the cane is sometimes entirely cut off.  The authorities of Manila, in the vain hope of stopping their devastations, employ persons to gather them and throw them into the sea.  I understood on one occasion they had spent eighty thousand dollars in this way, but all to little purpose.  It is said that the crops rarely suffer from droughts, but on the contrary the rains are thought to fall too often, and to flood the rice fields; these, however, yield a novel crop, and are very advantageous to the poor, viz.:  a great quantity of fish, which are called dalag, and are a species of Blunnius; they are so plentiful, that they are caught with baskets:  these fish weigh from a half to two pounds, and some are said to be eighteen inches long; but this is not all; they are said, after a deep inundation, to be found even in the vaults of churches.

The Philippines are divided into thirty-one provinces, sixteen of which are on the island of Luzon, and the remainder comprise the other islands of the group and the Ladrones.

[Population.] The population of the whole group is above three millions, including all tribes of natives, mestizos, and whites.  The latter-named class are but few in number, not exceeding three thousand.  The mestizos were supposed to be about fifteen or twenty thousand; they are distinguished as Spanish and Indian mestizos.  The Chinese have of late years increased to a large number, and it is said that there are forty thousand of them in and around Manila alone.  One-half of the whole population belongs to Luzon.  The island next to it in the number of inhabitants is Panay, which contains about three hundred and thirty thousand.  Then come Cebu, Mindanao, Leyte, Samar, and Negros, varying from the above numbers down to fifty thousand.  The population is increasing, and it is thought that it doubles itself in seventy years.  This rate of increase appears probable, from a comparison of the present population with the estimate made at the beginning of the present century, which shows a growth in the forty years of about one million four hundred thousand.

The native population is composed of a number of distinct tribes, the principal of which in Luzon are Pangasinan, Ilocos, Cagayan, Tagalog, and Pampangan.

The Igorots, who dwell in the mountains, are the only natives who have not been subjected by the Spaniards.  The other tribes have become identified with their rulers in religion, and it is thought that by this circumstance alone has Spain been able to maintain the ascendency with so small a number, over such a numerous, intelligent, and energetic race as they are represented to be.  This is, however, more easily accounted for, from the Spaniards fostering and keeping alive the jealousy and hatred that existed at the time of the discovery between the different tribes.