hamlet on the north-western coast of Leyte to purchase provisions.  Instead of laying in a stock for the voyage at Tacloban, the sailors preferred doing so at some smaller village on the shores of the straits, where food is cheaper, and where their landing gave them a pretext to run about the country.  The straits of San Juanico, never more than a mile, and often only eight hundred feet broad, are about twenty miles in length:  yet it often takes a vessel a week to sail up them; for contrary winds and an adverse current force it to anchor frequently and to lie to for whole nights in the narrower places.  Towards evening our captain thought that the sky appeared very threatening, so he made for the bay of Navo, of Masbate. [An intermittent voyage.] There he anchored, and a part of the crew went on shore.  The next day was a Sunday; the captain thought “the sky still appeared very threatening;” and besides he wanted to make some purchases.  So we anchored again off Magdalena, where we passed the night.  On Monday a favorable wind took us, at a quicker rate, past Marinduque and the rocky islet of Elefante, which lies in front of it.  Elefante appears to be an extinct volcano; it looks somewhat like the Iriga, but is not so lofty.  It is covered with capital pasture, and its ravines are dotted with clumps of trees.  Nearly a thousand head of half-wild cattle were grazing on it.  They cost four dollars a-piece; and their freight to Manila is as much more, where they sell for sixteen dollars.  They are badly tended, and many are stolen by the passing sailors.  My friend the captain was full of regret that the favorable wind gave him no opportunity of landing; perhaps I was the real obstacle.  “They were splendid beasts!  How easy it would be to put a couple on board!  They could scarcely be said to have any real owners; the nominal proprietors were quite unaware how many they possessed, and the herd was continually multiplying without any addition from its masters.  A man lands with a little money in his pocket.  If he meets a herdsman, he gives him a dollar, and the poor creature thinks himself a lucky fellow.  If not, so much the better.  He can do the business himself; a barrel of shot or a sling suffices to settle the matter.”

[Plunder.] As we sailed along we saw coming towards us another vessel, the Luisa, which suddenly executed a very extraordinary tack; and in a minute or two its crew sent up a loud shout of joy, having succeeded in stealing a fishbox which the fishermen of Marinduque had sunk in the sea.  They had lowered a hook, and been clever enough to grapple the rope of the floating buoy.  Our captain was beside himself with envy of their prize.