The police laws and regulations are also badly administered, being very shameful to the Government which permits things to go on under the same loose system as before. Were there a more numerous and efficient police force scattered over the country, none of the Spaniards would be afraid, as many of them now actually are, to live out of town, or to make distant excursions to the country, from fear of the _tulisanes_, or robber-bands, which are scattered about in various places, and are found pursuing their avocations in the neighbourhood of the capital, although not so boldly as they did a few years since. These robbers plunder the country in bands perfectly organized, and bodies of them are generally existing within a few miles of Manilla,--the wilds and forests of the Laguna being favourite haunts, as well as the shores of the Bay of Manilla, from which they can come by night, without leaving a trace of the direction they have taken, in bodies of ten and twenty men at a time, in a large banca. They have apparently some friends in Manilla, who plan out their enterprises, send them intelligence, and direct their attacks; so that every now and then they are heard of as having gutted some rich native or Mestizo's house in the suburbs of Manilla, after which they generally manage to get away clear before the alguacils come up.
The houses of Europeans are also occasionally attacked, although much less boldly within the last year or two; yet it is the custom for people to retire to bed, even in the heart of the town without the walls, with pistols, a sword, or some other weapon within reach. That these people do immense damage there is no doubt, as they not only plunder the country people of buffaloes and horses, but rifle their houses, if no better prey is to be had, to such an extent, that the natives are afraid to live at any distance from each other in many parts of the country, solely through fear of them. From this cause, patches of fine paddy land in out-of-the-way districts are left uncultivated, or are hurriedly ploughed and sown by adventurous persons, who after doing so retire into the nearest village to live, till the time comes to reap as much of the paddy as the deer and numerous wild pigs have left untouched.