There are some Pampanga fishermen on the River Betis, at San José, and amongst the labyrinth of creeks and mangrove swamps forming the north-western shores of Manila Bay. Their avocation is not destitute of danger, for these swamps are the home of the alligator. [27] Although they are not as large as some I have seen in the River Paraguay or on the River Dáule, in Ecuador, they are quite large enough to seize a horse or a man. I was once visiting Fr. Enrique Garcia, the parish priest of Macabébe, when a native woman came in and presented him with a dollar to say a Mass in thanksgiving for the escape of her husband from death that morning. She told us that he was pushing a shrimp-net in shallow water when the buaya seized him by the shoulder. The fisherman, however, called upon his patron saint, and putting out his utmost strength, with the aid of Saint Peter, succeeded in extricating himself from the reptile's jaws and in beating him off. His shoulder, however, was badly lacerated by the alligator's teeth. It was lucky for him that he was in shallow water, for the alligator usually holds its prey under water and drowns it. The Pampangos also fish on the Rio Grande, the Rio Chico, and in the Pinag de Candaba. This latter is an extensive swampy plain, partly under cultivation in the dry season, partly laid out as fish-ponds. The Nipa palm grows in abundance in the delta of the Bétis, and small colonies of half-savage people are settled on dry spots amongst these swamps engaged in collecting the juice or the leaves of this tree. The stems are punctured and the juice runs into small vessels made of cane. It is collected daily, poured into jars and carried in small canoes to the distillery where it is fermented and distilled. The distilleries are constructed in a very primitive manner, and are worked by Chinese or Chinese half-breeds. The produce is called Vino de Nipa, and is retailed in the native stalls and restaurants. The leaves are doubled and sewn with rattan strips upon a small piece of bamboo, they are taken to market upon a platform laid across the gunwales of two canoes. This arrangement is called bangcas mancornadas, canoes yoked together. The nipa is sold by the thousand, and serves to thatch the native houses anywhere, except in certain parts of Manila and other towns where its use is forbidden on account of the great danger of its taking fire.