The Philippine Islands Part 36

From the earliest period of the Spanish occupation of these Islands, attention has been given to _Gold-seeking_.

It is recorded that in the year 1572 Captain Juan Salcedo (Legaspi's grandson) went to inspect the mines of Paracale, (Camarines); and in the same district the village of Mambulao has long enjoyed fame for the gold-washing in its vicinity.

In the time of Governor Pedro de Arandia (1754-59), a certain Francisco Estorgo obtained licence to work these Paracale mines, and five veins are said to have been struck. The first was in the Lipa Mountain, where the mine was called "San Nicolas de Tolentino"; the second, in the Dobojan Mountain, was called "Nuestra Senora de la Soledad de Puerta Vaga"; the third, in Lipara, was named "Mina de las Animas"; the fourth, in the territory of San Antonio, took the name of "San Francisco," and the fifth, in the Minapa Mountains, was named "Nuestra Senora de los Dolores," all in the district of Paracale, near the village of Mambulao. The conditions of Estorgo's licence were, that one-fifth (_real quinto_) of the output should belong to the King; that Estorgo was authorized to construct, arm, and garrison a fort for his own defence against antic.i.p.ated attacks from Mahometans, and that he should have the t.i.tle of Castellano, or guardian of the fort. It was found necessary to establish the smelting-works in Mambulao, so he obtained a licence to erect another fort there on the same conditions, and this fort was named "San Carlos." In a short time the whole enterprise came to grief. Estorgo's neighbours, instigated by native legal pettifoggers in Manila, raised endless lawsuits against him; his means were exhausted, and apparatus being wanted to work the mines, he had to abandon them.

About the same time, the gold-mines of Pangotcotan and Acupan (Benguet district) were worked to advantage by Mexicans, but how much metal was won cannot be ascertained. The extensive old workings show how eagerly the precious metal was sought in the past. The Spanish Government granted only concessions for gold-mining, the t.i.tle remaining in the Crown. Morga relates (1609) that the Crown royalty of one-tenth (_vide_ p. 53) of the gold extracted amounted to P10,000 annually. According to Centeno, the total production of gold in all the Islands in 1876 did not not exceed P3,600.

During the Government of Alonso Fajardo de Tua (1618-24) it came to the knowledge of the Spaniards that half-caste Igorrote-Chinese in the north of Luzon peacefully worked gold-deposits and traded in the product. Therefore Francisco Carreno de Valdes, a military officer commanding the Provinces of Pangasinan and Ilocos, obtained permission from the Governor to make a raid upon these Igorrote-Chinese and appropriate their treasure-yielding territory. After a seven days'

march the Spanish gold-seekers and troops arrived at the deposits, where they took up their quarters without resistance. The natives held aloof whilst mutual offers of peace were made. When the Spaniards thought they were in secure possession of the neighbourhood, the natives attacked and slaughtered a number of them. The commander of the district and the leader of the native troops were among the slain. Then they removed the camp to a safer place; but provisions ran short and the wet season set in, so the survivors marched back to the coast with the resolution to renew their attempt to possess the spoil in the following year. In the ensuing dry season they returned and erected a fort, whence detachments of soldiers scoured the neighbourhood to disperse the Igorrote-Chinese, but the prospectors do not appear to have procured much gold.

Many years ago a Spanish company was formed to work a gold-mine near the mountain of Malaguit, in the Province of Camarines Norte, but it proved unsuccessful.

At the beginning of last century a company was founded, under the auspices of the late Queen Christina of Spain (great-grandmother of the present King Alfonso XIII.), which was also an utter failure. I was told that the company had s.p.a.cious offices established in Manila, whence occasionally the employees went up to the mines, situated near the Caraballo Mountain, as if they were going to a picnic. When they arrived there, all denoted activity--for the feast; but the mining work they did was quite insignificant compared with the squandered funds, hence the disaster of the concern.

The coast of Surigao (north-east extremity of Mindanao Is.) has been known for centuries to have gold-deposits. A few years ago it was found in sufficiently large quant.i.ties near the surface to attract the attention of capitalists. A sample of the washings was given to me, but gold extraction was never taken up in an organized way in that district. A friend of mine, a French merchant in Manila, told me in 1886 that for a long time he received monthly remittances of 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 lbs. of alluvial gold from the Surigao coast, extracted by the natives on their own account. In the same district a Spaniard attempted to organize labour for systematic gold-washing, but the friars so influenced the natives against him that he could only have continued his project at the risk of his life, therefore he gave it up.

In an independent way, the natives obtain gold from earth-washings in many districts, particularly in the unsubdued regions of Luzon Island, where it is quite a common occupation. The product is bartered on the spot to the Chinese ambulant traders for other commodities. Several times, whilst deer-stalking near the river, a few miles past Montalban (Rizal), I have fallen in with natives washing the sand from the river bed in search of gold, and they have shown me some of their findings, which they preserve in quills.

In other places in Luzon Island gold is procured in very small quant.i.ties by washing the earth from the bottoms of pits dug from 20 to 25 feet deep and 3 feet wide. The extraction of gold from auriferous rock is also known to the natives. The rock is broken by a stone on an anvil of the same material. Then the broken pieces are crushed between roughly-hewn stone rollers put in motion by buffaloes, the pulverized ore being washed to separate the particles of the precious metal. I should hardly think the yield was of much account, as the people engaged in its extraction seemed to be miserably poor.

Gold probably exists in all the largest islands of the Archipelago, but in a dispersed form; for the fact is, that after centuries of search, large pockets or veins of it have never been traced to defined localities, and, so far as discoveries up to the present demonstrate, this Colony cannot be considered rich in auriferous deposits. Until the contrary has been proved, I venture to submit the theory that every gold-bearing reef in these Islands, accessible to man, has been disintegrated by volcanic action ages ago.

In 1887 a Belgian correspondent wrote to me inquiring about a company which, he stated, had been formed for working a Philippine mine of Argentiferous Lead. On investigation I learnt that the mines referred to were situated at Acsubing, near the village of Consolacion, and at Panoypoy, close to the village of Talamban in Cebu Island. They became the property of a Frenchman [156] about the beginning of 1885, and so far no shipment had been made, although the samples sent to Europe were said to have yielded an almost incredibly enormous amount of gold (!), besides being rich in galena (sulphide of lead) and silver. I went to Cebu Island in June, 1887, and called on the owner in Mandaue with the object of visiting these extraordinary mines; but they were not being worked for want of funds, and he left for Europe the same year, the enterprise being finally abandoned.

In 1893 "The Philippines Mineral Syndicate" was formed in London to work scientifically the historical Mambulao Gold Mines already referred to. One pound shares were offered in these Islands and subscribed to by all cla.s.ses, from the British Consul at that time down to native commercial clerks. Mr. James Hilton, a mining engineer, had reported favourably on the prospects. After the usual gold-mining period of disappointment had pa.s.sed away, an eccentric old gentleman was sent out as an expert to revive the whole concern and set it upon a prosperous basis. I had many conversations with him in Manila before he went to Mambulao, where he soon died. Heavy machinery came out from Europe, and a well-known Manila resident, not a mining engineer, but an all-round smart man, was sent to Mambulao, and, due to his ability, active operations commenced. This most recent earnest venture in Philippine gold-mining has not, however, so far proved to be a Golconda to the shareholders.

That there is gold in Mindoro Island is evident from the fact that the Minguianes, a wild tribe, wear gold jewellery made by themselves, and come down to the coast villages to barter with this metal, for they do not understand trading with the coin medium.

As a general rule, failure in most Philippine mining speculations was chiefly due to the unwillingness of the native to co-operate with European capitalists in search of quick fortunes for themselves. The native rustic did not seek and would not submit to constant organized and methodical labour at a daily wage, to be paid periodically when he had finished his work. The only cla.s.s whom one could employ in the neighbourhood of the mines was migratory and half-subjected, whilst there was no legislation whatever in force regulating the relations between workers and capitalists. Some suggested the employment of Chinese, but the obstacles to this proposal have been pointed out in Chap. viii. It is very doubtful whether much profitable mining will ever be done in this Colony without Chinese labour. Again, the wretched state of the public highways obliged the few enterprising capitalists to spend their money on the construction of roads which had already been paid for in taxes.

It is calculated that in the working of mines in the Philippines, as much as P1,300,000 was spent from the beginning of the last century up to 1876, without the least satisfactory result.

A Spanish writer [157] a.s.serts that on the coasts of Taal and Bauan, in the Province of Batangas, there were many traces of old gold-mines, and remarks: "We are already scared in this enlightened century at the number who have spent their silver and their health in excavating mines in the Philippines, only to undeceive themselves, and find their miserable greed punished."

Still Gold-seeking continues, and the hope of many an American to-day is centred in the possibility of finding the smile of fortune in the Benguet and other districts now being scoured by prospectors.

Iron-mines, situated a few miles from Manila, were worked about the middle of the 18th century by Government, but the result being disastrous, a concession of working rights was put up to public auction, and adjudicated to a certain Francisco Salgado, who engaged to pay annually to the State P20,500 in gold and 125 tons of iron. The concern was an entire failure, chiefly owing to the usual transport difficulty. Salgado afterwards discovered an iron mine in a place called Santa Ines, near Bosoboso, in the district of Morong, and obtained a concession to work it. The ore is said to have yielded 75 per cent. of pure metal. The greatest obstacle which Salgado had to contend with was the indolence of the natives, but eventually this was overcome by employing Chinese in their stead. All went well for a time, until the success which attended the undertaking awoke envy in the capital. Salgado found it desirable to erect his smelting-furnaces on the banks of the Bosoboso River to obtain a good water supply. For this a special permission had to be solicited of the Gov.-General, so the opportunity was taken to induce this authority to put a stop to the whole concern on the ground that the Chinese workmen were not Christians! Salgado was ordered to send these Chinese to the Alcayceria in Binondo (Manila), and ship them thence to China at his own expense. Moreover, on the pretext that the iron supplied to the Royal Stores had been worked by infidels, the Government refused to pay for the deliveries, and Salgado became a ruined victim of religious fanaticism.

The old parish priest of Angat, in Bulacan Province, once gave me the whole history of the rich iron-mines existing a few miles from that town. It appears that at about the beginning of last century, two Englishmen made vain efforts to work these mines. They erected expensive machinery (which has since disappeared piece by piece), and engaged all the headmen around, at fixed salaries, to perform the simple duty of guaranteeing a certain number of men each to work there daily. The headmen were very smart at receiving their pay, some of them having the audacity to ask for it in advance; yet the number of miners diminished, little by little, and no reasonable terms could induce them to resume work. The priest related that, after the Englishmen had spent a fortune of about 40,000, and seeing no result, in despair they hired a canoe, telling the native in charge to paddle out to sea, where they blew their brains out with pistols.

Afterwards a Spaniard, who had made money during years of office as Chief Judge and Governor of the Bulacan Province, thought he could, by virtue of the influence of his late position, command the services of all the labourers he might require to work the mine. It was a vain hope; he lost all his savings, and became so reduced in circ.u.mstances that for a long time he was a pauper, accepting charity in the parish convents of the province.

The Angat iron-mines undoubtedly yield a very rich ore--it is stated up to 85 per cent. of metal. Up to the Revolution they were still worked on a small scale. In 1885, at the foot of these ferruginous hills, I saw a rough kind of smelting-furnace and foundry in a dilapidated shed, where the points of ploughshares were being made. These were delivered at a fixed minimum price to a Chinaman who went to Binondo (Manila) to sell them to the Chinese ironmongers. In Malolos (Bulacan) I met one of the partners in this little business--a Spanish half-caste--who told me that it paid well in proportion to the trifling outlay of capital. If the natives chose to bring in mineral they were paid for it; when they did not come, the works and expenses were temporarily stopped.

In Baliuag, a few miles from Angat, where I have stayed a score of times, I observed, at the threshold of several houses, slabs of iron about 8 feet long by 2 feet wide and 5 inches thick. I inquired about the origin of this novelty, and several respectable natives, whom I had known for years, could only inform me that their elders had told them about the foreigners who worked the Angat mines, and that the iron in question came from there. Appearing to belong to no one in particular, the slabs had been appropriated.

Copper is extracted in small quant.i.ties by both the wild tribes of the North and the Mahometans of the South, who manufacture utensils of this metal for their own use. In the North, half-worked copper is obtained from the Igorrotes, but the attempt of a company--the _Compania Cantabro-Filipina_, established in the middle of last century--to exploit the copper deposits in Mancayan, in the district of Lepanto, has hardly been more successful than all other mining speculations undertaken on a large scale in this Colony.

Marble exists in large beds in the Province of Bataan, which is the west-coast boundary of Manila Bay, and also in the Island of Romblon, but, under the circ.u.mstances explained, no one cared to risk capital in opening quarries. In 1888 surface (boulder) marble was being cut near Montalban (Rizal) under contract with the Dominican friars to supply them with it for their church in Manila. It was of a motley whitish colour, polished well, and a sample of it sent by me to a marble-importer in London was reported on favourably.

Granite is not found in these Islands, and there is a general want of hard stone for building purposes. Some is procurable at Angono, up the Lake of Bay, and it is from here that the stone was brought by the Spaniards for the Manila Port Works. Granite is brought over from Hong-Kong when needed for works of any importance, such as the new Government House in Manila City, in course of construction when the Spaniards evacuated the Islands. For ordinary building operations there is a material--a kind of marl-stone called _Adobe_--so soft when quarried that it can be cut out in small blocks with a hand-saw, but it hardens considerably on exposure to the air.

Gypsum deposits occur in a small island opposite to the town of Culasi (Antique) on the west coast of Panay, called Marilisan. The superinc.u.mbent marl has been removed in several places where regular workings were carried on for years by natives, and shiploads of it were sent to Manila until the Spanish Government prohibited its free extraction and export.

Sulphur exists in many islands, sometimes pure, in unlimited quant.i.ties, and often mixed with copper, iron, and a.r.s.enic. The crater peak of the Taal Volcano in the Bombon Lake burst in 1749 (_vide_ p. 18), and from that date, until the eruption of 1754, sulphur was extracted by the natives. These deposits were again worked in 1780, and during a few years following. Bowring states [158] that a well-known naturalist once offered a good sum of money for the monopoly of working the sulphur mines in the Taal district.

Mineral oil was discovered some 12 years ago in the mountains of Cebu Island, a few miles from the west-coast town of Toledo. A drill-boring was made, and I was shown a sample of the crude _Oil_. An Irishman was then conducting the experimental works. Subsequently a British engineer visited the place, and reported favourably on the prospects. In 1896 I was again at the borings. Some small machinery had been erected for working the drills. A Dutch mining engineer was in charge of the work, which was being financed by a small British syndicate; but so far a continuous flow had not been obtained, and it was still doubtful whether a well had been struck or not. The Dutchman was succeeded by an American, who, when the Spanish-American War was on the point of breaking out, had to quit the place, and the enterprise has since remained in suspense.

There is a tendency, in most new and unexplored countries, to see visionary wealth in unpenetrated regions--to cast the eye of imagination into the forest depths and the bowels of the earth, and become fascinated with the belief that Nature has laid vast treasures therein; and the veil of mystery const.i.tutes a tradition until it is rent by scientific investigation.

CHAPTER XX

Domestic Live-stock--Ponies, Buffaloes, Etc.

The Phillipine pony is not an indigenous animal. It is said to have originated from the small Andalusian horse and the Chinese mare. I have ridden more than 500 Philippine ponies, and, in general, I have found them swift, strong, and elegant animals when well cared for. Geldings are rarely met with. Before the American occupation ponies ranged in value from P25 to P150 for a sound animal. Unfortunately, prices of everything have risen since 1898, and, moreover, a fatal horse-disease, called "surra," unknown in the Islands before that period, has considerably reduced the stock of ponies. Due to these causes, ponies cost to-day about three times the former prices.

The importation of Spanish and Australian horses resulted in failure, because green gra.s.s (_zacate_)--the fodder of Philippine ponies--was not the diet they had been accustomed to. Amateur enthusiasts constantly urged the Spanish authorities to take measures for the improvement of the breed, and in 1888 the acting Gov.-General Molto sent a commission to British India to purchase breeding-horses and mares. A number of fine animals was brought to Manila, but the succeeding Gov.-General, Weyler, disapproved of the transaction, and the stock was sold to the public. Two stallions and two mares fetched together P2,600, the prices of the others ranging about P700 each.

Pony-races took place at Santa Mesa (Manila) every spring. They were organized by "the Manila Jockey Club," usually patronized by the Gov.-General of the day, and the great meet lasted three days, when prizes were awarded to the winners. Ponies which had won races in Manila fetched from P300 to P1,000. The new racecourse is at Pasay.

In Cebu also there were pony races every autumn on the racecourse facing the _Cotta_ and the Government House.

Since 1898 the American authorities have imported thousands of horses from the United States for the public service, and American dealers have brought quant.i.ties of them from Australia and the United States for private sale. All their fodder, however, has to be procured from America in pressed bales, as they cannot thrive on the food of the country. It is thought, however, that a plant, called _Teosinte_, which is now being cultivated, will be suitable for horse-fodder when the animals become thoroughly acclimatized.

The ordinary native has no notion of the proper treatment of ponies, his idea being, generally, that this highly nervous animal can be managed by brute force and the infliction of heavy punishment. Sights, as painful as they are ridiculous, are often the result of this error. Unfortunately, the lower-cla.s.s native feels little attachment to any animal but the Buffalo, or _Carabao_, as it is called here, and the family pig.

Buffaloes six years old are considered in the prime of life for beginning work, and will continue at hard labour, when well pastured and bathed, for another six years. At 12 years of age a carefully worked buffalo will still serve for light labour for about five years. It is an amphibious animal, and if left to itself it would pa.s.s quite one-third of its life in water or mud, whilst it is indispensable to allow it to bathe every day. When grazing near flooded land it will roam into the water up to its neck and immerse its head for two minutes at a time, searching for vegetable food below the surface. Whilst undisturbed in the field it is usually accompanied by five or six white herons, which follow in its trail in perfect security and feed on the worms and insects brought to the surface by its foot-prints. It seems also to enjoy the attentions of a small black bird, which hops about on its back and head to cleanse its skin and ears of vermin. It is curious to watch this bird flying towards the buffalo, which raises its head to receive it.

The rustic and the buffalo are familiar companions, and seem to understand each other perfectly well. There is a certain affinity between them in many ways. When a peasant is owner of the animal he works, he treats it almost like one of the family. It is very powerful, docile, slow in its movements, and easy to train. Many times I have seen a buffalo ridden and guided by a piece of split rattan attached to a rattan-ring in its nostril by a child three years of age. It knows the voices of the family to which it belongs, and will approach or stand still when called by any one of them. It is not of great endurance, and cannot support hard work in the sun for more than a couple of hours without rest and bathing if water be near. Europeans cannot manage this animal, and very few attempt it; it requires the patience, the voice, and the peculiar movement of the native.

Altogether the buffalo may be considered the most useful animal in the Philippines. It serves for carting, ploughing, carrying loads on its back, and almost all labour of the kind where great strength is required for a short time. A peasant possessed of a bowie-knife, a buffalo, and good health, need not seek far to make an independent living. I owe a certain grat.i.tude to buffaloes, for more than once they have pulled my carriage out of the mud in the provinces, where horses could get along no farther. Finally, buffalo-meat is an acceptable article of food when nothing better can be got; by natives it is much relished. Its flesh, like that of deer and oxen, is sometimes cut into thin slices and sun-dried, to make what is called in the Philippines _Tapa_, in Cuba _Tasajo_, and in Spain _Cecina_.

In the Visayas Islands oxen are used as draught-animals as frequently as buffaloes,--sometimes even for carriages.

Wild buffaloes are met with, and, when young, they are easily tamed. Buffalo-hunting, as a sport, is a very dangerous diversion, and rarely indulged in, as death or victory must come to the infuriated beast or the chaser. A good hunting-ground is Nueva Ecija, near the Caraballo de Baler Mountain.

The domesticated buffalo is subject to a bronchial disease called _garrotillo_; it rarely recovers from a serious sprain, and more rarely still from a broken leg. In 1887-88, an epidemic disease, previously unknown, appeared among the cattle, and several thousands of them died. From the autopsy of some diseased buffaloes, it was seen that the inside had become converted into blood. Agriculturists suffered great losses. In the poor neighbourhood of Antipolo alone, 1,410 head of cattle died within four months, according to a report which the Governor of Morong showed to me. An old acquaintance of mine in Bulacan Province lost 85 per cent. of his live-stock in the season, whilst the remainder were more or less affected.

As a consequence of the Revolution (1896-98) and the War of Independence (1899-1901) the stock of buffaloes was considerably reduced, many thousands of these useful animals having been stolen from their owners by the belligerents, only to slay them or work them to death. When peace dawned again on the Colony, rinderpest commenced to make ravages in the buffalo herds, which are now reduced to a mere fraction of what they were in 1896. The consequences of these losses in live-stock are referred to in Chap. x.x.xi. Before the wars, a buffalo could be got for P10 in places, such as hemp districts, where ploughing is seldom necessary, whilst in the sugar-yielding Island of Negros P30 was about the lowest price for an average trained animal. The present value is from P125 to P250.

In all my travels in this Colony I have seen only five _Donkeys_, which were imported simply as curiosities.