Laguna de Bay

“ There are many lakes in the island of Luçon; the most considerable is that called by the Spaniards Laguna de Bay. The river, which washes the walls of Manila, flows out of this lake, and thus a communication, by means of boats, is open to its surrounding shores. This lake is about 30 leagues in circumference, and about 120 fathoms in depth. In the middle of it is an island, which holds out a refuge to some Indian families. They live by fishing, and preserve their liberty by prohibiting the approach of strangers to their asylum. ”

“ Applications for guides should be made to the Director of the Bureau of Commerce and Industry.
LAGUNA PROVINCE.—The Province of Laguna is situated on a narrow plain which lies to the east, south, and southeast of Laguna Lake, commonly known as Laguna de Bay. It is a very fertile province and has a very pleasant [70] climate, the usual temperature being several degrees cooler than Manila. It produces coconuts, rice, sugar-cane, abaca, corn and a great variety of fruits and vegetables.
The beautiful town of Pagsanjan, Laguna
In industrial enterprises the province is very progressive. ”

“ To the west of the flat region the country rises into the considerable Cordillera de Zambales, which contains a number of peaks 5000 or 6000 feet high, and terminates northwards in a great peninsula forming the Gulf of Lingayan and southwards in a similar promontory (Sierra de Mariveles) which helps to form the Bay of Manila. To the east and south of this bay the general configuration is again hilly and even mountainous; but the large area of 350 square miles is occupied by the Laguna de Bay, connected with Manila by the Pasig, on which small steamers ply. ”

“ Of the volcano of Tlascala is recounted almost the same thing as of Taal.”]
The father provincial settled religious in Laguna de Bay,50 which is another lake not less remarkable than the one that we have just described. Its water is [211] fresh, and it is the largest lake known [in the islands] , for it must be more than fifty leguas in circuit. It has its islets in the middle, some larger than others. It is exceedingly stormy, for, as the water has but little density, it is aroused and disturbed with but little wind, to the danger of those upon it. This convent is one of our largest. ”

“ Tradition tells us how the Japanese used to sail down the east coast of Luzon as far as the neighbourhood of Lamon Bay, where they landed and, descending the little rivers which flowed into the Lake of Bay, settled in that region which was called by the first Spanish conquerors Pagsanján Province, and which included the Laguna Province of to-day, with a portion of the modern Tayabas Province. ”

“ The northern face of the Sá Leone peninsula is fretted with little creeks and inlets, bights and lagoons, which were charming in a state of nature. Pirate's Bay, the second after the lighthouse, is a fairy scene under a fine sky; with its truly African tricolor, its blue waters reflecting air, its dwarf cliffs of laterite bespread with vivid leek-green, and its arc of golden yellow sand, upon which the feathery tops of the cocoa-palms look like pins planted in the ground. To the travelled man the view suggests many a nook in the Pacific islands. ”

“ From the west door, the eye ranges over the bustling town, with its motley groups of passengers​—​dwells for a time upon the long line of ruined buildings destroyed by the fire already described​—​scans the lovely harbour, with its graceful shipping, the interesting bay of the Five Islands on the one side, and, on the other, a long line of cocoa-nut trees and brilliant sand, bespeaking the situation of Dickenson’s Bay​—​and then roves on to the offing, where a large extent of ocean of the sweetest blue stretches out ”

“ On the east side of this plain, very near the back of the town, there is a natural lake or pond of fresh water. It is about half a mile in circumference; but being stagnant, it is only used for cattle to drink of. In the wintertime several sorts of wildfowl resort hither, affording plenty of game to the inhabitants of Laguna. This city is called Laguna from hence; for that word in Spanish signifies a lake or pond. The plain is bounded on the west, the north-west and the south-west with high steep hills ”

“ Our survey of the portage gave encouraging results. The Gulf of Mexico was only four hundred feet from the bay, and the shortest route was the best one; so, starting energetically, we dragged the boats by main force across Crooked Island, and launched them in the surf without disaster. We then rowed as rapidly as the rough sea would permit along the coast towards the wide opening of St. Joseph's Bay, the wooded beaches of which rose like a cloud in the soft mists of a sunny day. ”

“ A forest of mangos, mangosteens, bread-fruit, and cocoa-palms, extends between the town and Fort Teloko, the first Portuguese stronghold, and now a rocky outpost of Fort Orange, the headquarters of the Dutch troops. Beyond shadowy nutmeg groves lies the Laguna, a volcanic lake between mountain and sea. In the poetic Moluccas one draws closer to the warm heart of Nature than in any other part of the vast Archipelago, for the great Mother seems calling her children to rest, as she raises the veil from her inmost shrine and discloses her altar of peace. ”

“ This, they told me, was a worse harbor than Santa Barbara, for south-easters; the bearing of the headland being a point and a half more to windward, and it being so shallow that the sea broke often as far out as where we lay at anchor. The gale from which we slipped at Santa Barbara, had been so bad a one here, that the whole bay, for a league out, was filled with the foam of the breakers, and seas actually broke over the Dead Man's island. The Lagoda was lying there, and slipped at the first alarm, and in such haste that she was obliged to leave her launch behind her at anchor. ”

“ The city is apt to be a bit hazy, the sun, or the moon, often just red blotches in the dusty air in time of drought, but its hills and the countless islands of the bay seem solid rocks with woolly wigs of forest and jungle. The ferry crawling across the bay to Nictheroy, ocean-going steamers creeping in and out of the harbor, leave their paths sharp cut and clear behind them as the trail of a comet shooting across the sky. ”

“ Passing from the ultramarine deeps of the Rubicon Point, we round a sharply jutting promontory and glide into the jade-green waters of Emerald Bay, a long, oval-shaped inlet at the southern end of the lake. Surely, it is rightly named, for here green predominates, from the steep sides of the encircling hills to the very center of the shallow bay. At the upper end of the bay, rising almost sheer from the green water, is a rocky, scantily-wooded island where for many years an eccentric Englishman made his home. ”

“ We leave behind us the musical sand, and reach the point of the promontory which forms the northern extremity of the Bay of Laig. Wherever the beach has been swept bare, we see it floored with trap-dykes worn down to the level, but in most places accumulations of huge blocks of various composition cover it up, concealing the nature of the rock beneath. The long semi-circular wall of precipice which, sweeping inwards at the bottom of the bay, leaves to the inhabitants between its base and the beach their fertile meniscus of land, here abuts upon the coast. ”

“ Off the South-East end of Legendre Island the sea is very full of reefs and dry rocks, but between Hauy and Delambre Islands there is a safe channel of nine and ten fathoms deep.
The bay in which we had anchored was called, at Mr. Roe's request, Nickol's Bay; it is open only to the North-East, and affords safe shelter, with good holding-ground. At the bottom of the bay, on both sides of a projecting point of land, on which three round-backed hills were conspicuous, the coast falls back, and forms two bights, the western of which is backed by very low land, lined with mangroves ”

“ One can climb quickly into the hills from Mayagüez, with a wonderful view of the bay, the half-ruined city, with its old gray-red tile roofs, rare now in Porto Rico, and seas of cane stretching from the coast to the foot-hills, which spring abruptly into mountains, little huts strewn everywhere over their crinkled and warty surface as far as the eye can see. ”

“ The great preponderance in numbers and value of pleasure-vessels in the United States, and in the number of clubs and club-members, is due not only to our large population and long coast-line, but to the great extent of inland waters furnished by our rivers and interior lakes, and to the prevalence of bays or protected lagoons, such as Narragansett Bay, the Great South Bay of Long Island, New York harbor, Delaware and Chesapeake bays, and the long series of “sounds” that border the southern Atlantic coast from Barnegat to Biscayne. ”

“ Owing to so many calamities, its inhabitants scarcely exceed 13,000, who are attracted to this place on the frontiers of the warlike Araucanians, by the great abundance of gold that is procured in its neighbourhood. The climate is always temperate, the soil is fertile, and the sea abounds in fish of all kinds. The Bay of Conception is spacious and safe, extending above ten miles from north to south, and nearly as much from east to west. Its mouth is protected by a beautiful and fertile island, called Quiriquina, forming two mouths or entrances to the bay ”

“ It is in this vicinity that there are some of the choicest spots for settlement, although there are superior situations on the left hand bank of the river, when sailing down, and half-way to the sea. A small township at this end of the lake is not an improbable realisation of the future, in connection with the settlement of Martin’s Bay. There is deep water close to the fine beach—occasionally close to the bush; there is a level or gently rising ground behind; and it commands the finest view of the lake. ”

“ From here a low island, level with the surface of the water, runs toward the east-northeast, ending at a point where the mountains divide. The second channel, which is quite large and capable of being sounded, immediately trends northeast, one quarter east, until it reaches the dividing point in the mountains where it enters a canyon, following the direction mentioned.
All this bay, which is called the round [bay] —although it is not such—is bordered by rough mountains without trees except two groves in the coves which are situated to the southwest. ”

“ They anchored at nine o'clock in eight fathoms water, over a soft bottom, Point Venus bearing north-north-east, and One Tree Hill south by east, half east, distant from shore about half a mile. On approaching the bay, they could perceive a prodigious number of the natives on Point Venus, and round the beach, and several canoes put off from the shore, the Indians waving pieces of white cloth and making signs for them to come into the bay. ”

“ Modern navigators are not confronted by the same difficulty; for, although the north coast is unbroken by any remarkable inlet except the Carataska Lagoon, a land-locked lake on the east, with a narrow entrance from the sea, there are many small bays and estuaries, such as those of Puerto Cortes, Omoa, Ulua, La Ceiba and Trujillo, which serve as harbours. The broad basin of the Caribbean Sea, bounded by Honduras, Guatemala and British Honduras, is known as the bay or gulf of Honduras. Several islets and the important group of the Bay Islands (q.v.) belong to the republic. ”

“ Every man should be his own discoverer. It matters nothing to me that numerous others must either intentionally or by chance have come down here into St. Margaret’s Bay—seeing that there is an hotel on the beach: an hotel with a singular name, whose meaning, although I have stayed there myself, I by no means fathomed. It is called the “St. Margaret’s Bay and Hotel Lanzarote.”
There is not, I think, so much actually of a bay down here below the towering cliffs of the South Foreland, which rise to a height of 500 feet. ”

“ About three Leagues in from the mouth, on the Eastern side, there are fair sandy Bays, and very good anchoring in four, five, and six fathom. The Land on the East side is high, Mountainous, and Woody, yet very well watered with small Brooks, and there is one River large enough for Canoes to enter. On the West side of the Bay, the Land is of a mean height with a large Savannah, [47] bordering on the Sea, and stretching from the mouth of the Bay, a great way to the Westward. ”

“ The bay is a wide, sweeping indentation, with Lorenzo, Fronton, and a narrow spit of land jutting from the main, serving to keep the harbor smooth from prevailing southerly winds. To the north, the spurs of the Andes approach layer upon layer to the brink of the coast, while nearer the land trends away, towards the interior, nearly plain-like—green, fertile, and pleasant to gaze upon—with the clustering towers, and spires of Lima abutting on the distant hills. ”

“ Anyone who went upon the Bay at all was likely to land at the Beach. Once there, it was a natural impulse to go across and walk along the ocean side; for, at that time, early in 16 the thirties, it was widely believed that the sea had wealth, and often threw it up upon the shore. Never, however, was it in the least surmised by the Captain’s neighbors that these solitary excursions had woven themselves in as a part of the texture of his life. ”

“ When they had struck in at the other end of the swath, their view extended over miles—the wide Bay and the blue shore beyond, lay to the northward; west and east stretched the meadows with their sinuous edges; to the south were the Beach hills and the gap through them, affording a glimpse of the ocean. What wonder is it, then, that the mowers, bending down and watching intently to see where the next stroke should fall, lost consciousness of their surroundings, and were, the first instant on looking up, bewildered to see the impenetrable gray on all sides? ”