Their food is rice, plain boiled, which they eat either with salted fish, or by putting into the water in which it is dressed a spice, which takes off its insipid taste. There are many lakes in the island of Luçon; the most considerable is that called by the Spaniards Laguna de Bay. The river, which washes the walls of Manila, flows out of this lake, and thus a communication, by means of boats, is open to its surrounding shores. This lake is about 30 leagues in circumference, and about 120 fathoms in depth. In the middle of it is an island, which holds out a refuge to some Indian families. They live by fishing, and preserve their liberty by prohibiting the approach of strangers to their asylum. This lake is bounded on the west by high mountains; the level country is fertile, and is inhabited by a people of gentle manners: they employ themselves in manufacturing matting, cloth, and different fabrics, from the abaca. Perhaps the first monks who were sent to convert them were attracted there by the mildness of their character. The Spaniards, in supplying them with a religion, have left their laws unaltered; in fact, their ancient usages are retained, and they are governed by an Indian of their village, nominated, however, by the Spaniards, and whose authority they acknowledge. This people, though of a mild character, treat crimes with severity; the greatest, in their opinion, is adultery, which is the only one punished with death. Eastward of the lake there are immense plains; large and deep rivers traverse them, and spread to a great distance a natural fertility. This country might be the residence of a numerous population, which might live happy in the cultivation of it. Only a few villages, however, are to be seen scattered here and there; miserable dwellings, inhabited by men devoid of honesty, without justice, who, in a constant state of warfare, entertain mutual fear of each other, and who, instead of laws, of the protection of which they are ignorant, place their security in their arms; these they never quit, they hold them in readiness in approaching each other, and the intercourse they have together less resembles a social act than a state of perpetual warfare. Even the rights of blood afford no security: parents, brothers, wife and husband, live in constant distrust of each other, and, consequently, in a state of reciprocal hatred. The origin of manners, so far removed from the mild character of their neighbours, may be found in the mode adopted for their subjection, and the recollection of those punishments they have been exposed to by the priests, in compelling them to adore the cross.