with whom I afterwards became very intimate,
often said to me, that the Indies were detrimental
to morals. He counselled me, if ever I married
and had children, not to allow them to go to the
Indies. Two things only, he added,form and
hold together societies ; religion, that is to say,
the fear o f God ; and honour, that is to say, the
idea one attaches to this word: that these two
things, which we must consider as the p r o p s o f
societies, failing, one has no good to hope fo r from
men ; that at Manilla these two props were crazy,
and very tottering.
“ I cannot here help making one reflection. It is
a great pity that so fine a country, which appears
to be a terrestrial paradise, where nature seems to
be prodigal of her benefits! It is a great pity, I
say, that the state of manners make it a habitation
unfit for good men.
“ It would be difficult to mention a city where
the manners are more corrupt than at Manilla ; religion
is unequal to bridle them. There is, to be
sure, an inquisition, but the conniption of manners
is not exposed to the censure of this tribunal.
One proof of this corruption, the only one of which
I can here be permitted to make mention, is the
abuse of the baths. The men and women, in fact,
bathe there together, a monstrous thing, which
all the eloquence of the preachers has not yet been
able to reform; and never will this abuse reform
itself, as long as there is no police established at
Manilla.* To be sure, the women, when in the
bath, keep on their shirts, the men theirs, and
their drawers; but this does not prevent inde-
ceney, a fact admitted by some women, who have
been known to remark, that, on coming out >
bath, the men have their drawers so closely fitted
to the body, that one may see the form and colour
of the skin ; this one can more easily conceive, as
the cloth which they use at Manilla to make shirts
and drawers of is very fine and transparent. It is
true, that to bathe with the women, one must be a
relation, or familiar friend; and although this manner
of bathing be general, I have known some women
who revolted at the custom, and admitted no
man into the bath when they were there.
“ One enjoysmuch freedom in the country houses.
The custom at Manilla, as in all hot countries, is
to take a nap after dinner ^ for the purpose of this
indulgence they stretch many mats on the floor, and
all lay themselves down upon them, both men an
women, side by side, sleeping as they can. They
have likewise at Manilla an admirable secret for
bringing about assignations. Every body smokes,
women as well as men-, they have for this purpose
little rolls of tobacco, made expressly for the purpose,
from four to five or six inches in length,
and about the size of the thumb. This they light
# The philosopher would have made a very poor legislator !