[Filipino hospitality.] The hospitable coast supplies them with fish, crabs, plenty of mussels, and frequently unprotected coconuts.  If it is inhabited, so much the better.  Filipino hospitality is ample, and much more comprehensive than that practised in Europe.  The crews are accommodated in the different huts.  After a repast shared in common, and washed down by copious draughts of palm-wine, mats are streched on the floor; the lamps—­large shells, fitted with rush wicks—­are extinguished, and the occupants of the hut fall asleep together.  Once, as I was sailing into the bay of Manila after a five day’s cruise, we overtook a craft which had sailed from the same port as we had with a cargo of coconut oil for Manila, and which had spent six months upon its trip.  It is by no means uncommon for a crew which makes a long stay in the capital to squander the whole proceeds of their cargo, if they have not done it before reaching town.

[Coasting Luzon.] At last one evening, when the storm had quite passed away, we sailed out of Mariveles.  A small, volcanic, pillar-shaped rock, bearing a striking resemblance to the Island of the Cyclops, off the coast of Sicily, lies in front of the harbor—­like there, a sharp pyramid and a small, flat island.  We sailed along the coast of Cavite till we reached Point Santiago, the southwestern extremity of Luzon, and then turned to the east, through the fine straits that lie between Luzon to the north and the Bisayan islands to the south.  As the sun rose, a beautiful spectacle presented itself.  To the north was the peak of the Taal volcano, towering above the flat plains of Batangas; and to the south the thickly-wooded, but rock-bound coast of Mindoro, the iron line of which was broken by the harbor of Porto Galera, protected from the fury of the waves by a small islet lying immediately before it.  The waters around us were thickly studded with vessels which had taken refuge from the storm in the Bisayan ports, and were now returning to Manila.

[Importance of straits.] These straits, which extend from the south-east to the northwest, are the great commercial highway of the Archipelago, and remain navigable during the whole year, being protected from the fury of the north-easterly winds by the sheltering peninsula of Luzon, which projects to the south-east, and by Samar, which extends in a parallel direction; while the Bisayan islands shield them from the blasts that blow from the south-west.  The Islands of Mindoro, Panay, Negros, Cebu and Bohol, which Nature has placed in close succession to each other, form the southern borders of the straits; and the narrow cross channels between them form as many outlets to the Sea of Mindoro, which is bounded on the west by Palawan, on the east by Mindanao, and on the south by the Sulu group.  The eastern waters of the straits wash the coasts of Samar and Leyte, and penetrate through three small channels only to the great ocean; the narrow straits of San Bernardino, of San Juanico, and of Surigao.  Several considerable, and innumerable smaller islets, lie within the area of these cursorily explained outlines.