Having made arrangements to visit the lake either by starting from Manilla in a large Pasig banca or prow, which although more tedious than driving to the village of Guadaloupe, near Pasig, and then taking the water, is, I think, the better plan of the two, as the river scenery is well worth seeing, and there are no inconveniences such as are inseparable from that of changing conveyances at Guadaloupe, &c. When I started, my companion, who luckily happened to be an experienced man in such affairs, having at different times of his life roamed through the backwoods of Canada, and over the plains of Australia, recommended the water conveyance for the whole distance, as we were not pushed for time; and the excursion turned out to be one of the pleasantest I have ever been engaged in, from the satisfactory nature of his arrangements and his own hilarity and good-natured usefulness; for of course he had not knocked about so much without acquiring some _savoir faire_, so desirable in a companion during such an excursion. On Christmas eve we went together to a large dancing party or ball, given by an old and rich Mestizo, at whose house we kept up dancing and enjoying ourselves till about midnight; shortly before which all the men started, in company with the ladies, to the parish church of San Sebastian, there to hear a midnight mass, and welcome in the sacred anniversary by saying our prayers. The spectacle was rather a fine one; and on looking at the devout up-turned features of my fair companion, when kneeling at her devotions, I could scarcely believe that she was the good-natured, lively Mestiza girl I had been flirting with not five minutes before; but after half an hour's worship, which, to do them justice, was apparently of the most sincere and heartfelt kind, the fair penitents returned to the supper room with a number of the heretics, and afterwards, notwithstanding all their prayers, danced with us, being quite as lively and as full of flirting as before their visit to church. We stopped till about three o'clock in the morning, when, being thoroughly tired of the heated rooms, my companion and I resolved to enter the boat which had been engaged for the occasion, and in which clothes, provender, &c., had previously been embarked, and left under charge of a servant, Fernando, at a landing-place from the river, near the house where we had been invited to pass the evening. Taking the precaution to eat a hearty supper, to keep out the night air, on arriving at the boat, and wrapping ourselves up in our blankets, we both very speedily began to enjoy the rest necessary for next day's exertions; and having previously secured our crew of five picked men to pull, we were rapidly approaching the Laguna when we awoke, and daylight had just rested on their oars next morning; after breakfast, and a bath in the cool and delicious water of the river above Pasig, we quickly passed by the pateros or villages for