The population of Manila, as given in the consular reports for 1880, is in the walled town 12,000, and in the suburbs from 250,000 to 300,000. The city was founded in 1571, and is situated on the eastern shore of a circular bay 120 nautical miles in circumference. It looks like a fragment of Spain transplanted to the archipelago of Asia. On its churches and convents, even on its ruined walls, overturned in the earthquake of 1863, time has laid the brown, sombre, dull gold colouring of the mother country. The ancient city, silent and melancholy, stretches interminably along its gloomy streets, bordered with convents whose flat façades are only broken here and there by a few narrow windows. But there is also a new city within the ramparts of Manila; it is sometimes called the Escolta, from the name of its central quarter, and this city is alive with its dashing teams, its noisy crowd of Tagala women, shod in high-heeled shoes, and every nerve in their bodies quivering with excitement. They are almost all employed in the innumerable cigar factories whose output inundates all Asia. Here all sorts of nationalities elbow one another,—Europeans, Chinese, Malays, Tagalas, Negritos, in all some 260,000 people of every known race and of every known colour. In the afternoon, in the plain of Lunetto, carriages and equipages of every kind drive past, and pedestrians swarm in crowds around the military band stand in the marvellously picturesque square, lit up by the slanting rays of the setting sun, which purples the lofty peaks of the Sierra de Marivels in the distance, unfolds its long, luminous train on the ocean, and tinges with a dark reddish shade the sombre verdure of the city’s sloping banks. This is the hour when all the inhabitants hold high festival, able at length to breathe freely after the heat of the noontide. The primary cause of the Philippine rebellion was excessive taxation by Spain to raise money to carry on the war in Cuba. The islands were already overburdened with assessments to enrich Spanish coffers and to support the native poor. The additional money required for Cuba was the last straw. Extreme cruelties began when General Aguirre arrived from Spain with reinforcements. He did not undertake to penetrate the mountains, but massacred the native population in the towns. When he took Santa Clara del Laguna he spared neither man, woman, nor child. The people in the mountains heard of this. They were almost wild with fury, but they were helpless. It is stated, on what seems to be good authority, that ten thousand dead prisoners had been taken from prison in a year. Three years ago it cost the government a little more than half a cent to collect every dollar of taxation. In Luzon, it now costs ninety-five cents. The only taxes that can be profitably collected are those in Manila. The rich islands of Leyte and Mindanao contribute practically nothing.