armed with spears and shields, and kept up a continual skirmish as they marched. Next in procession was a battalion of infantry, composed of boys armed with wooden muskets and pasteboard cartridge-boxes, and followed by a squadron of hussars, also boys, with drawn sabres of wood, not riding, but carrying pasteboard horses: each of these had a hole cut in its saddle, through which the hussar thrust his feet, relieving the charger from any actual necessity of making use of his own--though, to show its high blood and mettlesome quality, each emulated his fellow in prancing, rearing, and kicking with front and hind-legs, to the no small danger of discomfiting the parade order of the squadron. To this redoubtable army succeeded a party of giants two fathoms high, dressed in the very extremity of fashion, the upper part of their bodies being represented in pasteboard, accompanied by ladies elegantly attired, and of nearly equal dimensions, and by some very small dwarfs: the business of this whole group was to entertain the populace with pantomimic gestures, and comic dances. Next came all sorts of animals, lions, bears, oxen, &c. of a size sufficiently gigantic to conceal a man in each leg. Then, with grave and dignified deportment, marched Don Quixote and his faithful Sancho. To the question, what the honourable Knight of the Rueful Countenance was doing there, somebody replied that he represented the inhabitants of Manilla, who were just then mistaking a windmill for a giant. The hero of Cervantes was followed by a body of military, seemingly marching under his command; and after them came two hundred young girls from the different provinces of the Philippine Islands, richly and tastefully attired in their various local costumes. Fifty of these young graces drew the triumphal car, richly gilt, and hung with scarlet velvet, which contained the picture of Ferdinand. Not content with the mantle the painter had given him, they had hung round him a real mantle of purple velvet embroidered with gold. By his side, and seated on a globe, was a tall female form dressed in white, with an open book in one hand, and in the other a wand, pointing towards the portrait. This figure was to represent the Muse of History:--may she one day cast a glance of friendly retrospection on the prototype of her pictured companion! A body of cavalry followed the car, and the carriages of the most distinguished inhabitants of the place closed the procession. Several Chinese triumphal arches crossed the streets, through which the retinue passed; they were temporary erections of wood, occupying the whole breadth of the street, and were decorated in the gayest and most showy manner by the Chinese, who, on this occasion, seemed to have spared no expense in order to flatter the vanity of the Spaniards.