compulsory; so many being alloted to each family, with the assistance
and under the superintendence of the priests and tax-collectors who
received a commission of five and eight per cent on the gross amount
collected. [100]

[Lake Buhi.] The Lake of Buhi (300 feet above the sea-level) presents
an extremely picturesque appearance, surrounded as it is on all sides
by hills fully a thousand feet high; and its western shore is formed by
what still remains of the Iriga volcano. I was informed by the priests
of the neighboring hamlets that the volcano, until the commencement
of the seventeenth century, had been a closed cone, and that the
lake did not come into existence till half of the mountain fell in,
at the time of its great eruption. This statement I found confirmed
in the pages of the Estado Geografico:--"On the fourth of January,
1641--a memorable day, for on that date all the known volcanoes of
the Archipelago began to erupt at the same hour--a lofty hill in
Camarines, inhabited by heathens, fell in, and a fine lake sprang
into existence upon its site. The then inhabitants of the village of
Buhi migrated to the shores of the new lake, which, on this account,
was henceforward called the Lake of Buhi."

[1628 Camarines earthquake.] Perrey, in the Mémoires de l'Académie
de Dijon, mentions another outbreak which took place in Camarines in
1628: "In 1628, according to trustworthy reports, fourteen different
shocks of earthquake occurred on the same day in the province of
Camarines. Many buildings were thrown down, and from one large
mountain which the earthquake rent asunder there issued such an
immense quantity of water that the whole neighborhood was flooded,
trees were torn up by the roots, and, in one hour, from the seashore
all plains were covered with water (the direct distance to the shore