the great city of Nuremberg was the capital of the grand-duchy or of
the empire of Russia; learnt that the English were on the point of
returning to the bosom of the Catholic Church, and that the "others"
would soon follow, and was, in short, in spite of the particular
recommendation of Father Llanos, very badly received. Some little time
afterwards I fell into the hands of two young Capuchins, who tried to
convert me, but who, with the exception of this little impertinence,
treated me capitally. They gave me pâtés de foie gras boiled in water,
which I quickly recognized by the truffles swimming about in the
grease. To punish them for their importunity I refrained from telling
my hosts the right way to cook the pâtés, which I had the pleasure of
afterwards eating in the forest, as I easily persuaded them to sell
me the tins they had left. These are the only two occasions on which
I was subjected to this kind of annoyance during my eighteen months'
residence in the Philippines.

[Arrangements for travellers.] The traveller who is provided
with a passport is, however, by no means obliged to rely upon
priestly hospitality, as he needs must do in many isolated parts of
Europe. Every village, every hamlet, has its commonhouse, called casa
real or tribunal, in which he can take up his quarters and be supplied
with provisions at the market price, a circumstance that I was not
acquainted with on the occasion of my first trip. The traveller is
therefore in this respect perfectly independent, at least in theory,
though in practice he will often scarcely be able to avoid putting
up at the conventos in the more isolated parts of the country. In
these the priest, perhaps the only white man for miles around, is
with difficulty persuaded to miss the opportunity of housing such
a rare guest, to whom he is only too anxious to give up the best
bedroom in his dwelling, and to offer everything that his kitchen