nes, 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] asserts 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 be