The best gardens, or those from which Manilla is chiefly supplied with fruit, are in the vicinity of Cavite, from which place the country people bring it every morning, the carriers being generally young women, who, from the steadiness requisite to balance the fruit-baskets on their heads, acquire a good walk, somewhat at the expense of their necks, however. The most common sorts of vegetables exposed for sale appear to be the sweet potatoes, yams, and lettuce; and green pea-pods are sometimes to be had, but the latter are seldom good. The temperature induces such a rapid vegetation as to injure their taste, as it prevents their ripening, for, after attaining a certain growth, the sun dries up the pod in a very few days, to prevent which they are pulled very early, when the pea is so small and delicate, being barely formed, that the cooks usually serve up both pods and peas together at table, after having minced them into small pieces with a knife, being unable to separate them properly. The common potatoe is imported from China, and from the Australian colonies. Those from Van Diemen's Land are the best; the sorts received from China are usually watery and small, being greatly inferior to those sent up from Australia. In the fair monsoon, the Chinamen sometimes get supplies of apples, pears, cabbage, &c., from Shanghai, and these are considered as great delicacies. There are many other fruits and vegetables procurable at Manilla, but those mentioned are the sorts usually met with. CHAPTER XXI. The population of the islands is very uncertain, for although the Government makes the census _apparently_ with some exactness, a very little knowledge of the country is sufficient to show that they do not do so in reality, but that this resembles all their other statistical information, and cannot be depended upon, although it is useful in leading to an approximation. Their data are made up from the revenue derived from a capitation tax, which is so much per head for all grown up persons; but as it is the interest of all who may be called upon to pay it to keep out of the way during the period of its collection, many of them do so without much difficulty, more especially in the remote districts, where their facilities for concealment are much greater than in the neighbourhood of Manilla, or of the provincial capitals, where the alcaldes reside; so that those actually liable to it are very much greater than the payers of the tax. I estimate the population at a little under five million souls, the great bulk of whom are engaged in agricultural pursuits.