Note 16 — Its Early History

Mail-steamers, subsidized by the Government, left the capital every fortnight for the different islands, and there was a quarterly Pacific Mail Service to the Ladrone Islands.16 Regular mails arrived from, and left for, Europe every fortnight, but as there were intermediate opportunities of remitting and receiving correspondence, really about three mails were received and three despatched every month. The mail-route for Europe is viâ Singapore, but there were some seven or eight sailings of steamers per month between Manila and Hong-Kong (the nearest foreign colony—640 miles), whence mails were forwarded to Europe, Australia, Japan, the United States, etc.