[Majaijai.] To ascend the volcano was under such circumstances impracticable.  According to some notes written by the Majaijai priest, an ascent and survey of Mount Banajao was made on the 22nd of April, 1858, by Senors Roldan and Montero, two able Spanish naval officers, specially charged with the revision of the marine chart of the archipelago.  From its summit they took observations of Manila cathedral, of Mayon, another volcano in Albay, and of the Island of Polillo.  They estimated the altitude of Banajao to be seven thousand and twenty Spanish feet, and the depth of its crater to be seven hundred.  The crater formerly contained a lake, but the last eruption made a chasm in its southern side through which the water flowed away. [69]

[Calauan.] I reached Calauan in the pouring rain, wading through the soft spongy clay upon wretched, half-starved ponies, and found I must put off my water journey to Manila till the following day, as there was no boat on the lake at this point.  The next morning there were no horses to be found; and it was not till the afternoon that I procured a cart and a couple of carabaos to take me to Santa Cruz, whence in the evening the market-vessel started for Manila.  One carabao was harnessed in front; the other was fastened behind the cart in order that I might have a change of animals when the first became tired.  Carabao number one wouldn’t draw, and number two acted as a drag—­rather useless apparatus on a level road—­so I changed them.  As soon as number two felt the load it laid down.  A few blows persuaded it to pick itself up, when it deliberately walked to the nearest pool and dropped into it.  It was with the greatest trouble that we unharnessed the cart and pushed it back on to the road, while our two considerate beasts took a mud bath.  At last we reloaded the baggage, the carabaos were reharnessed in the original positions, and the driver, leaning his whole weight upon the nose-rope of the leading beast, pulled with might and main.  To my great delight the animal condescended to slowly advance with the cart and its contents. [Pila.] At Pila I managed to get a better team, with which late in the evening, in the midst of a pouring rain, I reached a little hamlet opposite Santa Cruz.  The market-vessel had left; our attempts to get a boat to take us across to the village only led to barefaced attempts at extortion, so I entered one of the largest of the hamlet’s houses, which was occupied by a widow and her daughter.  After some delay my request for a night’s lodging was granted.  I sent for some oil, to give me a little light, and something to eat.  The women brought in some of their relations, who helped to prepare the food and stopped in the house to protect its owners.  The next morning I crossed the river, teeming with joyous bathers, to Santa Cruz, and hired a boat there to take me across the lake to Pasig, and from thence to Manila.  A contrary wind, however, forced us to land on the promontory of Jalajala, and there wait for the calm that accompanies the dawn. [Earthquake evidences.] Betwixt the extreme southern point of the land and the houses I saw, in several places, banks of mussels projecting at least fifteen feet above the surface of the water, similar to those which are so frequently found on the sea-coast;—­a proof that earthquakes have taken place in this neighborhood.