to agriculture and commerce, and largely increase the number of Chinese and European residents.  Then at last, perhaps, the authorities will see the necessity of improving the social position of their officials by decreasing their number, by a careful selection of persons, by promoting them according to their abilities and conduct, and by increasing their salaries, and allowing them to make a longer stay in one post.  The commercial relations of the Philippines with California and Australia are likely to become very active, and liberal ideas will be introduced from those free countries.  Then, indeed, the mother country will have earnestly to consider whether it is advisable to continue its exploitation of the colony by its monopolies, its withdrawal of gold, and its constant satisfaction of the unfounded claims of a swarm of hungry place-hunters. [94]

[Different English and Dutch policy.] English and Dutch colonial officials are carefully and expressly educated for their difficult and responsible positions.  They obtain their appointments after passing a stringent examination at home, and are promoted to the higher colonial offices only after giving proofs of fitness and ability.  What a different state of things prevails in Spain!  When a Spaniard succeeds in getting an appointment, it is difficult to say whether it is due to his personal capacity and merit or to a series of successful political intrigues. [95]

CHAPTER XIII

[Batu.] In an hour and a half after leaving Polangui we reached Batu, a village on the north-western shore of the lake of the same name.  The inhabitants, particularly the women, struck me by their ugliness and want of cleanliness.  Although they lived close to the lake, and drew their daily drinking water from it, they never appeared to use it for the purpose of washing.  The streets of the village also were dirty and neglected; a circumstance explained, perhaps, by the fact of the priest being a native.

[The lake.] Towards the end of the rainy season, in November, the lake extends far more widely than it does in the dry, and overflows its shallow banks, especially to the south-west.  A great number of water-plants grow on its borders; amongst which I particularly noticed a delicate seaweed [96], as fine as horse hair, but intertwined in such close and endless ramifications that it forms a flooring strong enough to support the largest waterfowl.  I saw hundreds of them hopping about and eating the shell fish and prawns, which swarmed amidst the meshes of the net-like seaweed and fell an easy prey to their feathered enemies.  The natives, too, were in the habit of catching immense quantities of the prawns with nets made for the purpose.  Some they ate fresh; and some they kept till they were putrid, like old cheese, and then used them as a relish to swallow with their rice.  These small shell-fish are not limited to the Lake of Batu.