Hence, though the men, arms, and accoutrements are not bad, the troops are, from abuses, embezzlement, and neglect, miserably deficient in a military point of view, and but poorly calculated to answer any efficient purpose. To this description, the regiment of artillery and Pampango militia are exceptions: the style of equipment and discipline of the first are a high testimony of the activity and military talents of their colonel. The queen's regiment is by far the most respectable of the infantry. Their cavalry are badly mounted, the horses being very small, and by no means good. The men too are clumsily equipped, with swords manufactured apparently in the 14th century, being straight, disproportionably long, and furnished with a steel poignet or basket, above which is a cross, resembling the rapiers of that time. Their marine is still more miserably deficient in the requisite qualities for essential service, and suffers more from the mal-administration of its various branches. All work done in the royal arsenal is computed to cost at least 40 per cent. more than that by individuals! The marine consists of a flotilla of 40 or 50 gun-boats, and as many feluccas, [79] of which about one half, or fewer, may be in constant activity; with what effect has been already remarked. Like the army, the navy is almost entirely officered by creoles and Mestizos, whose pay is but a subsistence, and consequently no prospect is offered to young men of family and enterprise who may have other resources. The arsenal at Cavite, about 10 miles from Manila, is well provided with officers and workmen, but has no docks. Vessels, however, may heave down with great safety; and the work, though expensive, is remarkably well executed. The agriculture of this very fertile country is yet in its infancy. Oppressed with so many enemies to his advancement, and placed in a climate where the slightest exertion insures subsistence, the Indian has, like the majority of his Malay brethren, been content with supplying his actual wants, without seeking for luxuries. Hence, and from the expulsion of the Jesuits, they have made no advances beyond the common attainments of the surrounding islanders.