The site which this town occupies [6] is a point of land on the shores of the sea, in a bay thirty leguas in circumference; into this falls a river of considerable size, which comes down from a lake distant five leguas from the city on the eastern side--by which it flows, surrounding the city, and in its progress washes its walls, until it pours its waters through the bar. Up to this time the secular government has been in charge of forty governors, twenty-three of them proprietary, and seventeen ad interim. The ecclesiastical government likewise has had one bishop and thirteen archbishops. Both these numbers are carefully estimated from the list of [those who have held] both dignities. The fortifications with which this town is girt about are everywhere of irregular shape, in accordance with the surface of the ground. Its walls, although of masonry, are not regarded as inferior--if one considers the good quality of the stone, which is easy to work on account of being soft--to those of mud or brick. On the other hand, I am persuaded that an injustice would be done to our walls if one should deny them the advantage of the former kind and the solidity of the latter, in view of their great resistance; for in the course of more than a century since their construction, some slight decay has been noticed only occasionally, and in places here and there little sheltered from the salt winds; and this is remedied, or the wall is preserved, by applying a thin coat of lime, an idea which has come as the result of experience. Its circuit appears to be 12,498 Castilian feet, both its extremities closing in with the castle of Santiago, which, on account of its position, occupies in Manila the place of the citadel. The bastions in its circuit are twelve, all furnished with terreplein; nine are small, and the others large, of the regular size. In one of these last, named "San Andres," there is a powder-magazine, bomb-proof, which the present governor caused to be constructed; an incentive to building this was the little shelter afforded by a mere shed in former times, and the exposed condition of its contents to the shots of a besieger; these risks that were feared have ceased at sight of the present fortification. There are two sentry-towers incorporated with the said wall, and besides this there are a ravelin and a crown-work. All this is a very respectable aggregate, as contributing to the greatest defense of the city; the situation of each of these defenses will be described in the proper place.