"You are quite right," chimes in the Doctor. "It is larger than the Bay of Yeddo, and Frank is not much out of the way when he thinks all the ships of the world could assemble here at once. The Bay of Manilla is 120 marine miles in circumference, and its waters wash the shores of five provinces. There is good anchorage in the greater part of it, but owing to its enormous size, it is less secure than a smaller bay would be." The captain of the _Osprey_ was standing near them during this conversation, and nodded assent to the Doctor's statement. "Manilla has no harbor, properly speaking," he remarked, "and the only place for ships, till they enter the river, is in the open roadstead. During the north-east monsoon we are all right, and can drop our anchors a mile or so in front of the city the same as we do at Batavia; but when the south-west monsoon is blowing, and in all the time of the change of monsoons, the roadstead is dangerous. Then we go to Cavite, a naval port seven miles down the coast, and all our cargo must be landed there or brought to Manilla in lighters. No ship of more than 400 tons can enter the river at Manilla safely, as there is not sufficient water on the bar. We shall anchor in front of the town, and you will go on shore in a small boat." [Illustration: SCENE ON MANILLA BAY.] The entire shores of the bay were not distinctly visible at the same moment, owing to the great distance across, but what there was to be seen was quite picturesque. In the background was a range of mountains, in front of them was a table-land, and in the immediate foreground lay a stretch of low coast covered with tropical vegetation, among which the bamboo and the palm were prominent. As they approached near the land our friends could see that it was intersected by numerous canals, and the captain told them that in the rainy season these canals overflowed their banks, and converted all the low-land into a vast lake. When the water recedes, the moist land is planted with rice, and in a few days what was before a wide stretch of water becomes a most luxuriant field. The rice product of the Philippines is very large, and the soil seems admirably adapted to the culture of the article that forms the daily food of more than half the human race.