[Foreign mail facilities.] The distance from Manila to Hongkong is
six hundred fifty nautical miles, and the course is almost exactly
south-east. The mail steamer running between the two ports makes the
trip in from three to four days. This allows of a fortnightly postal
communication between the colony and the rest of the world. [9]

[Slight share in world commerce.] This small steamer is the only thing
to remind an observer at Hongkong, a port thronged with the ships of
all nations, that an island so specially favored in conditions and
fertility lies in such close proximity.

[Little commerce with Spain.] Although the Philippines belong to Spain,
there is but little commerce between the two countries. Once the
tie which bound them was so close that Manila was wont to celebrate
the arrival of the Spanish mail with Te Deums and bell-ringing, in
honor of the successful achievement of so stupendous a journey. Until
Portugal fell to Spain, the road round Africa to the Philippines was
not open to Spanish vessels. The condition of the overland route
is sufficiently shown by the fact that two Augustinian monks who,
in 1603, were entrusted with an important message for the king,
and who chose the direct line through Goa, Turkey, and Italy, needed
three years for reaching Madrid. [10]

[Former Spanish ships mainly carried foreign goods.] The trade by
Spanish ships, which the merchants were compelled to patronize in
order to avoid paying an additional customs tax, in spite of the
protective duties for Spanish products, was almost exclusively
in foreign goods to the colony and returning the products of the
latter for foreign ports. The traffic with Spain was limited to the