TAAL  , a

town of the province of Batangas, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the Pansipit river, opposite Lemery, with which it is connected by a bridge, and about 50 M . S. of Manila . Pop. of the municipality (1903) 17,525 . Taal is built, chiefly of stone, on the summit and terraced slopes of a hill overlooking the Gulf of Balayan into which the Pansipit river flows . It has a cool and healthy climate, is an important military station, and a port for coastwise vessels . Extensive agricultural lands in the vicinity produce rice, Indian corn, sugar-cane, pepper, cacao, and cotton, but the great coffee plantations which were formerly to be seen in its vicinity have been destroyed by insects . The inhabitants are also engaged in raising horses and cattle, in fishing, and in carrying on a considerable trade in cotton goods, sugar, coffee, &c . Taal is the only town in the Philippines where effective efforts have been made to exclude the Chinese . The hostility of the inhabitants toward them was such that none succeeded in establishing a residence here until the latter days of the revolution against the American government . The town was founded in 1754 after the destruction by Taal volcano of an old town of the same name on Lake Taal . The language is Tagalog .