in consequence, it is recorded, of the many variations of temperature
to which he was exposed in his ascent of the volcano.

[Estimates of height] Some books say that the mountain is of
considerable height; but the Estado Geografico of the Franciscans for
1855, where one could scarcely expect to find such a thoughtless
repetition of so gross a typographical error, says that the
measurements of Siguenza give the mountain a height of sixteen
hundred and eighty-two feet. According to my own barometrical reading,
the height of the summit above the level of the sea was twenty-three
hundred and seventy-four meters, or eighty-five hundred and fifty-nine
Spanish feet.


CHAPTER X


[An accident and a month's rest.] I sprained my foot so badly in
ascending Mayon that I was obliged to keep the house for a month. Under
the circumstances, I was not sorry to find myself settled in a roomy
and comfortable dwelling. My house was built upon the banks of a
small stream, and stood in the middle of a garden in which coffee,
cacao, oranges, papayas, and bananas grew luxuriantly, in spite of
the tall weeds which surrounded them. Several over-ripe berries had
fallen to the ground, and I had them collected, roasted, mixed with
an equal quantity of sugar, and made into chocolate; an art in which
the natives greatly excel. With the Spaniards chocolate takes the
place of coffee and tea, and even the mestizos and the well-to-do
natives drink a great deal of it.