[The 1610 catastrophe.] Aduarte (I. 141) mentions a tremendous earthquake which occurred in 1610.  I briefly quote his version of the details of the catastrophe, as I find them mentioned nowhere else.

“Towards the close of November, 1610, on St. Andrew’s Day, a more violent earthquake than had ever before been witnessed, visited these Islands; its effects extended from Manila to the extreme end of the province of Nueva Segovia (the whole northern part of Luzon), a distance of 200 leagues.  It caused great destruction over the entire area; in the province of Ilocos it buried palm trees, so that only the tops of their branches were left above the earth’s surface; through the power of the earthquake mountains were pushed against each other; it threw down many buildings, and killed a great number of people.  Its fury was greatest in Nueva Segovia, where it opened the mountains, and created new lake basins.  The earth threw up immense fountains of sand, and vibrated so terribly that the people, unable to stand upon it, laid down and fastened themselves to the ground, as if they had been on a ship in a stormy sea.  In the range inhabited by the Mendayas a mountain fell in, crushing a village and killing its inhabitants.  An immense portion of the cliff sank into the river; and now, where the stream was formerly bordered by a range of hills of considerable altitude, its banks are nearly level with the watercourse.  The commotion was so great in the bed of the river that waves arose like those of the ocean, or as if the water had been lashed by a furious wind.  Those edifices which were of stone suffered the most damage, our church and the convent fell in, etc., etc.”

CHAPTER II

[Customhouse red tape.] The customs inspection, and the many formalities which the native minor officials exercised without any consideration appear all the more wearisome to the new arrival when contrasted with the easy routine of the English free ports of the east he has just quitted.  The guarantee of a respectable merchant obtained for me, as a particular favor, permission to disembark after a detention of sixteen hours; but even then I was not allowed to take the smallest article of luggage on shore with me.

[Shelter for shipping.] During the south-west monsoon and the stormy season that accompanies the change of monsoons, the roadstead is unsafe.  Larger vessels are then obliged to seek protection in the port of Cavite, seven miles further down the coast; but during the north-east monsoons they can safely anchor half a league from the coast.  All ships under three hundred tons burden pass the breakwater and enter the Pasig, where, as far as the bridge, they lie in serried rows, extending from the shore to the middle of the stream, and bear witness by their numbers, as well as by the bustle and stir going on amongst them, to the activity of the home trade.

[Silting up of river mouth.] In every rain-monsoon, the Pasig river sweeps such a quantity of sediment against the breakwater that just its removal keeps, as it seems, the dredging machine stationed there entirely occupied.