The author’s account of his 20-year stay, from 1820 to 1839, in Jalajala, on Laguna de Bay near Manila in the Philippines. The first edition, in French, appeared in 1853, and was translated and published - twice - in London in the same year. An unabridged version was published by Vizetelly, and the present edition, issued in The Traveller’s Library and sold at railway stations. According to an introductory note, “The abridgements in the following translation are confined to verbal redundancies, and to such details of the Author’s family and private affairs as are of slight general interest”.