, the growth might in
time be so much extended as to supply the wants of New Spain, which
are not less than 80,000 lbs., amounting to from $350,000 to $400,000,
conveyed there in the galleon annually sent to the port of Acapulco,
by the Manila merchants, which article they are now compelled to
contract for in China.

[Mulberry trees.] The Society gave the first impulse to this laudable
project, and then the governor of the Islands, Don Jose Basco, anxious
to realize it, with this view sent Colonel Charles Conely on a special
commission to the province of Camarines. This zealous officer and
district magistrate, in the years 1786-1788 caused 4,485,782 mulberry
trees to be planted in the thirty districts under his jurisdiction;
and incalculable are the happy results which would have attended a
plan so extensive, and commenced with so much vigor, if it could have
been continued with the same zeal by his successor, and not at once
destroyed, through a mistaken notion of humanity, with which, soon
after the departure of Governor Basco, they proceeded to exonerate
the Filipinos from all agricultural labor that was not free and
spontaneous, in conformity, as was then alleged, to the general spirit
of our Indian legislation. As it was natural to expect, the total
abandonment of this valuable branch followed a measure so fatal, and
notwithstanding the efforts subsequently made by the Royal Company, in
order to obtain its restoration, as well in Camarines as the Province
of Tondo, all their exertions were in vain, though it must be allowed
that at the time several untoward circumstances contributed to thwart
their anxious wishes. Notwithstanding this failure, the project, far
from being deemed impracticable, would beyond all doubt succeed, and,
under powerful patronage, completely answer the well-founded hopes of
its original conceivers and promoters. The natives themselves would
soon be convinced of the advantages to be derived from the possession
of an article, in so many ways applicable to their own fine textures,
and besides the variety of districts in the Islands, proved to be
suitable to the cultivation of this interesting tree, it is a known
fact that many of the old mulberry groves are still in existence.

[Beeswax.] The Bisayas, Cagayan, and many other provinces, produce wax
in considerable abundance, which the Indians collect from the natural
hives formed in the cavities of the trees, and it is also brought down
by the