last year lost money on the sales of their cargoes, &, from what we hear of prices in America, and on the Continent, they must lose by the returns. But what will give the death blow to the prosperity of the Philippines, is the late horrible massacre. All those french and other foreigners, who were anxious to have established themselves in commerce or on estates in the country, are now frightened off and certainly no one will find himself, confident enough to trust to a Government, which could permit such a massacre to take place, immediately under its eyes, when it had 5,000 men in arms, ready at a minutes notice to disperse the Mob. Thus situated, Manilla offers no chance of profit or Speculation; and I confess, however my hopes and wishes may have been disappointed, I turn from them with disgust & horror, better pleased to be ordered to live, in some remote corner of Siberia, on black bread & salt, than roll in wealth, amidst such an inhuman, illiberal and unchristianlike race of Men.... I must close my letter by informing you that the Captain General has refused all the applications for indemnification, from those who have been plundered; so that as yet, neither the punishment due to the assassins has been inflicted, nor redress made to the unfortunate people who were robbed." By the kindness of James A. LeRoy, the Editors have in their hands a copy (furnished by Dr. Pardo de Tavera from the original in his possession) of a decree issued by Governor Folgueras (dated at Manila, October 20, 1820), addressed "to the natives of the Filipinas Islands, and especially to those of the district of Tondo," in which he rebukes them severely for thus violating the law of nations, under the influence of "a general frenzy," and "led astray and infuriated by certain malicious persons." He characterizes their belief that the strangers had poisoned the waters as a foolish and absurd notion, which "the mountain Negritos or the Moros of Joló and Mindanao would be ashamed to entertain;" and reminds them that the strangers whom they have plundered and slain were not only friends and brethren, but the very persons on whom the prosperity of the islands must depend, since they supplied a market for the produce of the country. He then presents the report which has been made by an official whom the governor had specially appointed (October 13) to investigate this idea of the foreigners' crime, which is to the following effect: "As the evidence of guilt [cuerpo de delito, the same as the Latin corpus delicti] in the poisoning which is charged, the Indians have brought to us, among the spoils which they plundered from the houses of the Frenchmen, various animals of different forms, and among them a serpent, of quite the usual size, one of those which they call 'house-snakes,' in a dissected state; others, with some little shellfish, preserved in spirits of wine, in a crystal flask; in another, two granos of muriatic baryte; a quantity of Peruvian