Volume XXII - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection
Correspondence.,
For the Hospital REVIEW.
We are permitted to make the following
extracts from a private letter written from
one of the Philippine islands, and dated
Cebu, March 3, 1885:
Last Saturday, at five o'clock in the
afternoon, we jumped into our little American
phaeton, T. taking charge of our large
pith sun hats and our bag of clothes, and
I the reins, to manage Tony's fiery little
pair of grays, and off we started for Naga.
The ponies were frisky and T. was busy in
the vain endeavor to light his cigar without
letting the hats fall out. By the time T.
had got to the end of his box of matches
the ponies were quiet enough to allow me
to hold the hats with one hand and drive
with the other, and after T. had lighted his
cigar we settled down to admire the scenery.
One moment we were on a high hill looking
over varied colored fields of waving sugar
cane and maize, divided by dark foliaged
hedges, with here and there a nipa house
peeping out from some shady corner, and
the accompanying shed under which the
patient buffalo paced its weary rounds at
the end of a sugar mill bar ; the next moment
we were down in a hollow passing
through shady groves of cocoa palms, then
up the barren looking incline of Pardo,
with its fine unfinished church at the top,
which edifice has been crawling up for the
last four years, and will probably be finished
in the next decade ; an adieu waved to the
priest at his convent window, and then we
rattle down the incline to find ourselves
again in fertile land; two minutes difficulty
with the ponies, a narrow escape from an
upset, and we are over Talisay ford ; then
we pass along a smooth road, through a
cut, over stone and wooden bridges, through
the village of Minglanilla, down an incline,
up a hill, fording rivers, through a covered
bridge, then again along a smooth road, and
at last we stop in front of Mr. Mejia's
house, where servants relieve us of our
THE HOSPITAL REVIEW.
baggage ^nd: pontes,rand wfe find ourselves
htearfcily Welcomed* bf the ^biadk. 1 intelligent
gentleman.
With a wash to remove the dust from the
outer man, and sherry and bitters to comfort
the inner one, we were cfuite, ready to
play with the children, and chat with Don
Pablo. We were hungry, the dinner was
fine, and our walk afterwards through the
village and our visit to the little "governor
made us enjoy our sleep.
We were up at six the next morning, had
a fine sea bath, after which we took a heavy
desayuno and prepared for an excursion to
Don Pablo's estate over the mountain. At
nine o'clock we were mounted on a two
wheel cart, the driver sitting in front, T.
behind, with his limbs dangling down, and
I in the middle to balance and guard the
two bottles of beer and a corkscrew. We
took no other refreshments, expecting to be
back in two hours for breakfast, as Don
Pablo told us that "right behind the house,
on his estate, was a cascade where we could
bathe, and it would only take a short time
to see the other points of interest. A
broken bridge forced us to leave the cart
and walk to the house, and then we commenced
to search for the cascade, but the
coachman did not know where it was. We
followed the stream up for half a mile without
seeing it, and then to escape from rain
took refuge in a nipa house and were regaled
with boiled eggs and plantains. The
inmates of the house told us the cascade
was a long distance off, up through the
mountains. We did not believe them, as
Don Pablo had told us it was close to his
estate, so the rain over, we took a beautiful
road leading us through fine shady jungles,
over verdant hills, through clear limpid
streams, which we crossed sometimes on
the coachman's shoulders and sometimes
hopping* from stone to stone, occasionally
wetting our feet in a slip ; then, on, along
the overhanging bank of a stream with the
mountains rising sheer up on each side.
After walking for two hours we were told the