The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 21

CHAPTER XVI.

THE MINERALS.

Gold: Dampier--Pigafetta--De Comyn--Placers in Luzon--Gapan--River Agno--The Igorrotes--Auriferous quartz from Antaniae--Capunga--Pangutantan--Goldpits at Suyuc--Atimonan--Paracale--Mambulao--Mount Labo--Surigao--River Siga--Gigaquil, Caninon-Binutong, and Cansostral Mountains--Misamis--Pighoulugan--Iponan--Pigtao--Dendritic gold from Misamis--Placer gold traded away surrept.i.tiously--Cannot be taxed--Spanish mining laws--Pettifogging lawyers--Prospects for gold seekers. Copper: Native copper at Surigao and Torrijos (Mindoro)--Copper deposits at Mancayan worked by the Igorrotes--Spanish company--Insufficient data--Caution required. Iron: Rich ores found in the Cordillera of Luzon--Worked by natives--Some Europeans have attempted but failed--Red hemat.i.te in Cebu--Brown hemat.i.te in Paracale--Both red and brown in Capiz--Oxydized iron in Misamis--Magnetic iron in San Miguel de Mayumo--Possibilities. Coal (so called): Beds of lignite upheaved--Vertical seams at Sugud--Reason of failure--a.n.a.lysis of Masbate lignite. Various Minerals: Galena--Red lead--Graphite--Quicksilver--Sulphur Asbestos--Yellow ochre--Kaolin, Marble--Plastic clays--Mineral waters.

It is a great mistake to suppose that nothing is known of the geology and mineralogy of the Philippines, or that no attempts have been made to exploit them.

The maps of the Archipelago are marked in dozens or hundreds of places, coal, copper, lead, iron, gold, and a number of works treating of the subject have been published. Amongst the authors are the mining engineers, Don Enrique Abella and Don Jose Centeno. But some of their most important reports are still in ma.n.u.script, for the revenues of the Philippines were almost entirely absorbed in paying the salaries of the officials, and there was a great disinclination to spend money in any other way.

At the Philippine Exhibition, held at Madrid in 1887, more than seven hundred specimens of auriferous earths or sand, gold quartz, and ores of various metals were shown, and in this branch alone there were 109 exhibitors from all parts of the Archipelago.

Besides ores there were the tools and utensils used by the miners, and models of the furnaces and forges in which the metals were reduced and worked, with the metals in different stages of concentration or manufacture, and a complete show of the finished products.

A great many Mining Companies have been formed in Spain or in Manila at different times which have all failed from a variety of causes, want of skill, bad management, costly administration, or because the richness of the vein or seam had been exaggerated.

The difficulty of getting labour is considerable, as mining is a work the generality of natives do not care to take up, although in some provinces they are used to it, for example, in Camarines Norte and in Surigao.

Employers seem to forget that the ordinary food of a native, rice and fish, is not sufficiently nourishing to enable him to do hard and continuous work, such as is required in mining. A higher rate of pay than the current wage is essential, to allow the miner to supply himself with an ample ration of beef or pork, coffee and sugar, and provision should be made for him to be comfortably housed.

In this complaint of want of labour it is not always the native who is to blame, and if a mine cannot afford to pay a reasonable price for labour, it had better stand idle.

Probably the one great reason why mines have not prospered in the Philippines is that there has never been slavery there, as in Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, ancient Egypt, and other great mining countries, where whole populations have been used up to minister to the avarice of their fellow-men.

Names of some Metals in Tagal.

Gold Guinto.

Silver Pilac.

Copper Tangso.

Lead Tinga.

Tin Tinga puti.

Iron Bacal.

Steel Patalim.

Forged Steel Binalon.

Coal Uling.

Gold.

From my remarks upon the other minerals it will be seen that I have no illusions on the immediate prospects of working them.

With gold, however, it is different. For centuries large quant.i.ties have been collected or extracted, mostly, no doubt, from placers, still some rich veins are known to exist.

The early writers agree that gold is plentiful. Dampier says: "Most, if not all, the Philippine Islands are rich in gold."

Speaking of the Batanes Islanders, he says:--

"They have no sort of coin, but they have small crumbs of the metal before described" (he seemed at first to doubt whether it was gold), which they bind up very safe in plantain leaves or the like. This metal they exchange for what they want, giving a small quant.i.ty of it--about two or three grains--for a jar of drink that would hold five or six gallons. They have no scales, but give it by guess."

In the 'Relacion de las Islas Filipinas,' 1595(?), the author remarks that the Tagals "like to put on many ornaments of gold, which they have in great abundance."

Farther on, he says of Luzon:--

"The people of this island are very clever in knowing" (valuing) "gold, and they weigh it with the greatest subtleness and delicacy which has ever been seen; the first thing they teach their children is to know gold and the weights used for it, for amongst them there is no other money."

Farther on, he says:--

"Ilocos ... has much gold, for the princ.i.p.al mines of these islands are in the mountain ranges of this province, of which they get the advantage, for they trade with the miners more than any people. The Spaniards have many times endeavoured to people the mines so as to work them, but it has not been possible up to the present, although the Governor, Gonzalo Ronquillo, took the greatest pains, and it cost him many men, the country being so rough and dest.i.tute of provisions."

In Pigafetta's 'Voyage Round the World' (Pinkerton), Vol. ii., p. 333, we read that at Caraga (Mindanao) a man offered an ingot of ma.s.sive gold for six strings of gla.s.s beads.

On p. 331, he says:--

"The king who accompanied us informed us that gold was found in his island in lumps as large as walnuts, and even as an egg, mingled with earth; that they used a sieve for sifting it, and that all his vessels, and even many of the ornaments of his house were of this metal."

On p. 348, he says that he saw many utensils of gold in the house of the Raja or King of Butuan.

On p. 349, we find the following remarks:--

"What most abounds is gold. Valleys were pointed out to me in which by signs they made me comprehend there were more lumps of gold than we had hair on our heads, but that, for the want of iron, the mines exact greater labour to work them than they feel inclined to bestow."

Coming down to later days, Thomas de Comyn, 1810, writes:--

"Gold abounds in Luzon and in many of these islands; but as the mountains which contain it are in the power of pagan Indians, the veins are not worked, nor even the mines known. These savages collect it from placers or streams, and bring it as dust to the Christians who inhabit the plains, in exchange for coa.r.s.e cloth or fire-arms, and at times they have brought it in grains of one or two ounces' weight.

"It is the general opinion that this cla.s.s of mines abound in the province of Caraga, situated on the east of the great island of Mindanao, and that there, as well as at various other points, gold is found of 22 carat fine."

He states that the Royal Fifth, or rather Tenth (for it was found the mines could not pay a fifth, and it was reduced by half), in the year 1809 amounted to $1144. This would represent an extraction of gold equal to only $11,440; but this was probably but a small part of the whole, as from the circ.u.mstances of the case the gold dust from the washings would be surrept.i.tiously disposed of, and only the few mines that were worked, paid the tax. I had occasion, about twelve years ago, to make inquiry how much gold was raised in Camarines Norte, and a person well-informed on the subject estimated it at a value of $30,000 gold dollars.