[70] From ponte, deck; a two-masted vessel, with mat sails, of about 100 tons burden.

[71] Estado Geogr., p. 314.

[72] Officially called Cagsaua.  The old town of Cagsaua, which was built higher up the hill and was destroyed by the eruption of 1814, was rebuilt on the spot where formerly stood a small hamlet of the name of Daraga.

[73] I learnt from Mr. Paton that the undertaking had also been represented as impracticable in Albay.  “Not a single Spaniard, not a single native had ever succeeded in reaching the summit; in spite of all their precautions they would certainly be swallowed up in the sand.”  However, one morning, about five o’clock, they set off, and soon reached the foot of the cone of the crater.  Accompanied by a couple of natives, who soon left them, they began to make the ascent.  Resting half way up, they noticed frequent masses of shining lava, thrown from the mouth of the crater, gliding down the mountain.  With the greatest exertions they succeeded, between two and three o’clock, in reaching the summit, where, however, they were prevented by the noxious gas from remaining more than two or three minutes.  During their descent, they restored their strength with some refreshments Sr.  Munoz had sent to meet them; and they reached Albay towards evening, where during their short stay they were treated as heroes, and presented with an official certificate of their achievement, for which they had the pleasure of paying several dollars.

[74] From 36,000,000 to 40,000,000 lbs. of cacao are consumed in Europe annually; of which quantity nearly a third goes to France, whose consumption of it between 1853 and 1866 has more than doubled.  In the former year it amounted to 6,215,000 lbs., in the latter to 12,973,534 lbs.  Venezuela sends the finest cacaos to the European market, those of Porto Cabello and Caracas.  That of Caracas is the dearest and the best, and is of four kinds:  Chuao, Ghoroni, O’Cumar, and Rio Chico.  England consumes the cacao grown in its own colonies, although the duty (1d per lb.) is the same for all descriptions.  Spain, the principal consumer, imports its supplies from Cuba, Porto Rico, Ecuador, Mexico, and Trinidad.  Several large and important plantations have recently been established by Frenchmen in Nicaragua.  The cacao beans of Soconusco (Central America) and Esmeralda (Ecuador) are more highly esteemed than the finest of the Venezuela sorts; but they are scarcely ever used in the Philippines, and cannot be said to form part of their commerce.  Germany contents itself with the inferior kinds.  Guayaquil cacao, which is only half the price of Caracas, is more popular amongst the Germans than all the other varieties together.

[75] C. Scherzer, in his work on Central America, gives the cacao-tree an existence of twenty years, and says that each tree annually produces from 15 to 20 ounces of cacao. 1,000 plants will produce 1,250 lbs. of cacao, worth $250; so that the annual produce of a single tree is worth a quarter of a dollar.  Mitscherlich says that from 4 to 6 lbs. of raw beans is an average produce.  A liter of dried cacao beans weighs 630 grains; of picked and roasted, 610 grains.