Limited Trade with the Philippines.--The Philippines were now forced to communicate by ship directly with Spain. The route for the next fifty years lay by sailing-vessels around the Cape of Good Hope. It occupied from four to six months, but this route had now become practically a neutral passage, its winds and currents were well understood, and it was annually followed by great numbers of vessels of Europe, England, and the United States. Trade was still limited to the ships of the Royal Philippine Company, and this shipping monopoly lasted until 1835, when a new era in the commercial and industrial life of the Philippines opened. An English commercial house was established in Manila as early as 1809. Volcanic Eruptions.--The terrible eruptions of Mount Taal, the last of which occurred in 1754, were followed in the next century by the destructive activity of Mount Mayon. In 1814 an indescribable eruption of ashes and lava occurred, and the rich hemp towns around the base of this mountain were destroyed. Father Francisco Aragoneses, cura of Cagsaua, an eye-witness, states that twelve thousand people perished; in the church of Budiao alone two hundred lay dead. [84] Rebellions in the Philippines.--The Liberal Spanish Cortes.--Two revolts in the Philippines that occurred at this period are of much importance and show the effect in the Philippines of the political changes in Spain. In 1810 the liberal Spanish Cortes had declared that "the kingdoms and provinces of America and Asia are, and ought to have been always, reputed an integral part of the Spanish monarchy, and for that same, their natives and free inhabitants are equal in rights and privileges to those of the Peninsula." This important declaration, which if carried out would have completely revolutionized Spain's colonial policy, was published in the Philippines, and with that remarkable and interesting facility by which such news is spread, even among the least educated classes of Filipinos, this proclamation had been widely disseminated and discussed throughout the Islands. It was welcomed by the Filipino with great satisfaction, because he believed it exempted him from the enforced labor of the polos and servicios. These were the unremunerated tasks required of Filipinos for the construction of public works, bridges, roads, churches, and convents.