[Batangas coast.] A couple of bays on the south coast of Batangas offer a road-stead, though but little real protection, to passing vessels, which in stormy weather make for Porto Galera, in the Island of Mindoro, which lies directly opposite.  A river, a league and a half in length, joins Taal, the principal port of the province, to the great inland sea of Taal, or Bombon.  This stream was formerly navigable; but it has now become so sanded up that it is passable only at flood tides, and then only by very small vessels.

[Batangas exports.] The province of Batangas supplies Manila with its best cattle, and exports sugar and coffee.

A hilly range bounds the horizon on the Luzon side; the striking outlines of which enable one to conjecture its volcanic origin.  Most of the smaller islands to the south appear to consist of superimposed mountainous ranges, terminating seaward in precipitous cliffs.  The lofty and symmetrical peak of Mount Mayon is the highest point in the panoramic landscape.  Towards evening we sighted Mount Bulusan, in the south-eastern extremity of Luzon; and presently we turned northwards, and sailed up the Straits of San Bernardino, which separate Luzon from Samar.

[Bulusan like Vesuvius.] The Bulusan volcano, “which appears to have been for a long time extinct, but which again began to erupt in 1852,” [71] is surprisingly like Vesuvius in outline.  It has, like its prototype, a couple of peaks.  The western one, a bell-shaped summit, is the eruption cone.  The eastern apex is a tall, rugged mound, probably the remains of a huge circular crater.  As in Vesuvius, the present crater is in the center of the extinct one.  The intervals between them are considerably larger and more uneven than the Atrio del Cavallo of the Italian volcano.

[San Bernardino current.] The current is so powerful in the Straits of San Bernardino that we were obliged to anchor twice to avoid being carried back again.  To our left we had continually in view the magnificent Bulusan volcano, with a hamlet of the same name nestling at the foot of its eastern slope in a grove of coco-trees, close to the sea.  Struggling with difficulty against the force of the current, we succeeded, with the assistance of light and fickle winds, in reaching Legaspi, the port of Albay, on the following evening.  Our skipper, a Spaniard, had determined to accomplish the trip as rapidly as possible.

[A native captain.] On my return voyage, however, I fell into the hands of a native captain; and, as my cruise under his auspices presented many peculiarities, I may quote a few passages relating to it from my diary....  The skipper intended to have taken a stock of vegetables for my use, but he had forgotten them.  He therefore landed on a small island, and presently made his reappearance with a huge palm cabbage, which, in the absence of its owner, he had picked from a tree he cut down for the purpose....  On another occasion the crew made a descent upon a