The Inhabitants of the Philippines

by Frederic H. Sawyer

Agricultural.

The great wealth of the Archipelago is undoubtedly to be found in the development of its agriculture. Although the Central and Ilocan Mountains in Luzon and parts of Mindanao are rich in gold, it is the fertile land, the heavy rainfall and the solar heat, that must be utilized to permanently enrich the country. The land is there and the labour is there, and all that is wanting is capital, and a settled government that will make roads and bridges and keep them in repair, clear the rivers of obstructions and improve the ports, and above all, establish and maintain some tolerable courts of justice. The sun, the rain, the soil, and the hardy Philippine farmer will do the rest—a population equal to that of Java could live in affluence in the Philippines.

The agriculture of the Philippines at the time of the first arrival of the Spaniards consisted mainly in the cultivation of rice. It is to the Spaniards that the natives owe the introduction of maize, coffee, cacao, sesame, tobacco, the indigo plant, the sweet potato, and many fruits. They also imported horses, horned cattle, and sheep. But the great development of the cultivation of sugar and hemp is almost entirely due to British capital, with some assistance from Americans.

The natives probably learned from the Chinese how to terrace the hillsides and the sloping lands, and how to erect the pilápiles, or small dykes, for retaining the rain. At that time, and for centuries after, taxes were paid in paddy as they have been in Japan until quite recently.

Under the heading “Tagals,” a description is given of the planting of paddy, and an illustration shows the aspect of a newly-planted paddy-field or tubigan. Mountain rice-lands are called bacores or dalatanes. The cutting and harvesting of paddy is paid for in kind, sometimes in Camarines Sur, a third of the crop is given for getting it in, but in the province of Manila it is cultivated in equal shares to the farmer and the owner of the land.

By looking at the illustration it will be seen that, the fields being divided into such small patches of irregular shapes at different levels, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to use a reaping-machine. I have elsewhere given the reasons for my opinion that the cultivation of rice is the lowest use that the land and the husbandmen can be put to, and whenever the cultivation is given up, it is probably an indication that the cultivators are raising some more profitable crop, and earning money by exporting valuable produce, wherewith to import rice from countries in a lower stage of civilisation.

This is most certainly the case in the Philippines, and year by year, as the exports of hemp, sugar and tobacco have increased, the imports of rice from Saigon and Rangoon have risen correspondingly. And yet the United States’ Department of Agriculture, issued in the latter part of 1899 a circular with the title,’Plant Products of the Philippines,’[1] which, amongst other inaccurate appreciations, says: “It seems strange that an almost exclusively agricultural country should not produce enough food for its own population, but such is at present the case with regard to the Philippines.” It proceeds to say that in some years the value of rice imported into Manila from Saigon was valued at $2,000,000. But I would point out to the author of that circular that the export of the three great staples of the Philippines in those years averaged, perhaps, $30,000,000, and this, evidently, could not have been accomplished if they had cultivated their own rice.

The Spaniards sometimes raised this same groundless clamour, and, perhaps, the author of the circular took it from them; but I look upon it as a great mistake arising from insufficient knowledge of the subject. The rice imported into Manila is largely shipped to the tobacco and hemp provinces, Cagayan and Albay, where the people are exclusively employed in the cultivation and preparation of those valuable products, and are far richer, and on a higher grade of civilisation than the rice-growers of Cochin China.

In the Philippines themselves, the people of the rice-growing districts are the poorest and most backward of all.

Besides paddy, the natives cultivate the dava or míjo (Panicum miliaceum), the mongo, a species of lentil (Phaseolus mungo), called in some provinces balat or balatong, for their own consumption.

When rice is dear, they mix a certain amount of maize with it, and when it is really scarce they eat the seeds of the sorghum (Holcus saccharatus) instead of it. They also make an infusion of these seeds, which is not unlike barley-water. The camote (Impomœa batata) is the principal food of the more uncivilised tribes.

All the natives find a great resource in the banana, which the Tagals called saguin. The following varieties are excellent: Bungulan, Lacatan, Ternate, and Tindoc.

Wheat was formerly grown in northern Luzon. The late Archbishop of Manila, Fray Pedro Payo, informed me that, when he was a parish priest years ago, he always ate bread made from Philippine flour, which he thought far better and safer than the Californian flour that had superseded it.

Tobacco is an important crop in the Philippines, and from the year 1781 was cultivated in Cagayan as a government monopoly. In the villages of that province the people were called out by beat of drum and marched to the fields under the gobernadorcillo and principales, who were responsible for the careful ploughing, planting, weeding, and tending, the work being overlooked by Spanish officials. Premiums were paid to these and to the gobernadorcillos, and fines or floggings were administered in default. The native officials carried canes, which they freely applied to those who shirked their work.

In another part of the book I have referred to the series of abuses committed under the monopoly: how the wretched cultivators had to bribe the officials in charge of the scales to allow them the true weight, and the one who classified the leaves, so that he should not reject them as rubbish and order them to be destroyed; in fact, they had to tip every official in whose power it was to do them any injustice. Finally, they received orders on the treasury for the value of their tobacco, which were not paid for months, or, perhaps, for years. They sometimes had to sell their orders for 50 percent of the face value, or even less.

However, even the Spanish official conscience can be aroused, and at the end of 1882 the monopoly was abolished.

Here it is only right to honourably mention a Spanish gentleman to whom the natives of the Cagayan Valley in a great measure owe their freedom. Don Jose Jimenez Agius was Intendente General de Hacienda, and he laboured for years to bring about this reform, impressed with the cruelty and injustice of this worst form of slavery. The Cagayanes were prohibited from growing rice, but were allowed as an indulgence to plant a row or two of maize around their carefully tilled tobacco-fields.

Possibly this circumstance has led the author of the circular I have before quoted to make the extraordinary statement: “Tobacco, as a cultivated crop, is generally grown in the same field as maize.” Does he think it grows wild anywhere?

In 1883, the “Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas” was established in the islands, the capital being raised in Paris and Barcelona.

This Company has been under very capable management; the technical department being overlooked by M. Armand Villemer, a French engineer of great ability and experience. The Company has done a great deal to improve the cultivation of the plant and the preparation of the leaf. They run light draught paddle-steamers and barges on the Cagayan River, and sea-going screw-steamers from Aparri to Manila.

Their estates are mentioned under the heading “Cagayanes.”

Besides the Cagayan Valley, the following Provinces produce tobacco in considerable quantities.

In Luzon, the Ilocos North and South, Abra, Union, Nueva Ecija. Also Masbate, Ticao, and most of the Visayas Islands. The Igorrote also raise a considerable quantity.

The quantity of tobacco and cigars exported since 1888 is given in the Appendix; and, seeing the enormous extent of land still available in the Cagayan Valley, there can be no doubt that the production can be very largely increased as the demand grows.

The export of leaf tobacco from Manila, the only shipping port, has increased from 204,592 quintals in 1888, to 287,161 quintals in 1897, and during the same period the export of cigars has increased from 109,109 mil to 171,410 mil.

The cultivation of the Musa textilis is almost a monopoly of the Philippines, and, indeed, of certain parts of them.

Volcanic soil, a certain elevation above the sea, and exposure to the breezes of the Pacific, a bright sun and an ample rainfall, seem necessary to the production of a fine quality of this fibre.

Several attempts have been made to produce this fibre elsewhere; the Government of British India sent a gentleman to Manila to study the question. He wrote a report, but I have never heard that any abacá was produced.

The plant was said to grow wild all along the Sarawak rivers; but here again some mistake must have been made, for nothing seems to have come of it.

There is, in fact, nothing so far to compete with it, and there is an immense and growing market. The price has lately fluctuated enormously, and I do not intend to prophesy what profits might be made in planting it.

In 1897, no less than 915,338 bales were exported, about 114,400 tons, and if we take the average price at that time as $15 per bale, we get a sum of over $13,730,000 as the value of that year’s export, the largest in quantity, but not in value.

The export of hemp has been almost entirely developed by British and American enterprise, and dates from very recent times.

The spread of the sugar-cane cultivation in the Philippines from the year 1870 was rapid, and is in great measure due to the advances made by British and American houses to the planters. It was for many years a most profitable business, and this is proved by the large and handsome houses of the planters in the towns of the sugar districts. The continual increase of the beet sugar production, however brought down prices to such an extent as to reduce the profits below the heavy interest paid on loans or advances. But it seems now that bottom has been reached, and that rising prices and more economical methods of financing and of manufacturing will give the planters a fresh start. Those who know what has been and is being done by central sugar factories in Cuba, will not doubt the possibility of doing better in the Philippines, where labour is cheaper and is on the spot.

Under the headings Pampangos, Pangasinanes, and Visayas, will be found many interesting particulars of the working of sugar plantations in these provinces.

In 1893, the export of sugar amounted to 260,000 tons; since then it has declined, but in 1897 it still amounted to close on 200,000 tons.

The export of coffee has almost entirely ceased, and the cause is ascribed to the ravages of an insect which destroys the bushes. Lipa, in Batangas province, was the great coffee centre, and became one of the richest towns in Luzon. Notwithstanding this prosperity, the plantations were never cultivated with proper care. Weeding was much neglected. In 1888, the export reached 107,236 piculs, but in 1897 it had fallen to 2111 piculs.

There is an opening for coffee-planting on many of the elevated plateaux of the islands, and capital with skill ought to find its reward.

The Moros of Lake Lanao export a certain quantity of coffee of indifferent appearance but excellent flavour.

Cacao grows well in many parts of the Archipelago, but I have never seen any large plantations of it. A few trees may be seen in the gardens of old houses, but they must be protected from insects and rats, and require looking after.

The quantity raised in the islands is not sufficient to supply the home demand, so that cacao beans are imported from Venezuela and chocolate from Spain.

It is a risky business to plant cacao in the northern Philippines; the trees are delicate and suffer from the typhoons. And the produce is so valuable that, unless watched at night or protected in some way, the cones may when nearly ripe be carried away by thieves.

In Palawan, where the typhoons do not ravage, I have seen cacao trees 30 feet high, with an abundant crop.

The plant from which indigo is elaborated was cultivated in former years to a considerable extent in some provinces, notably the Ilocos, but the export trade was destroyed by the adulterations of the Chinese.

In 1895, 6672 quintals were exported from Manila, but only 462 quintals in 1896. Ten specimens of Ilocos indigo were shown at the Madrid Exhibition of 1887, and the price varied from $12 to $67 per quintal.

For home use the dye is sold in a liquid form, contained in large earthen jars called tinajas. It is known as Tintarron.

Sesame and other oil-giving seeds are cultivated to a small extent in several provinces, but neither the seed nor the oil figure in the list of exports.

The cocoa-nut palm grows in most of the lowlands of the Philippines, except in the North of Luzon. In suitable soil it grows to the very edge of the sea, as in the Cuyos Islands, In the provinces of Laguna and Tayabas there are large numbers of these trees and a lively business is carried on in making oil from nuts or in sending them to Manila for the market or for shipment.

When large quantities are to be sent, they are formed into rafts in a very ingenious manner, each nut being attached by a strip of its own fibre without any rope being required.

These rafts are sometimes a hundred feet long and ten or twelve feet wide, and are navigated across the lake and down the Pasig. Finally they are brought alongside a steamer, the nuts are cut adrift and thrown into the hold through the cargo ports.

The nuts that are to be used for making oil are stripped of their husks and cut in halves. They then pass to a workman who is provided with an apparatus called a Cutcuran. This is mounted upon a trestle and consists of a revolving shaft of hard polished wood, carrying on its overhanging end an iron disc about three inches in diameter having teeth like the rowel of a spur.

This is set edgeways in a slot in the shaft. On each side of the trestle near the ground is a treadle; from one of these a cotton cord passes over the shaft taking a round turn and is made fast to the other treadle. The operator sits astride the trestle with a foot on each treadle. By working them alternately he produces a rapid revolution of the shaft in alternate directions, and the cutting disc being double-edged it cuts both ways. By holding a half nut against the revolving cutter he in a few seconds rasps out every particle of the nut which falls upon a tray in fine shreds.

The shredded material is then heated in a cast-iron pan over a slow fire, and whilst hot is filled into bags of strong material which are placed in the press.

This is constructed entirely of hard wood, and the pressure is obtained by driving wedges with a heavy mallet.

The system is primitive, but all the apparatus is practical and very cheap.

D. Carlos Almeida of Biñan stated to me in 1890 that 400 large cocoa-nuts gave by this process one tinaja or jar of oil, equivalent to 10½ English gallons, which was then worth on the spot six Mexican dollars. It is sold in Manila. At this time cocoa-nuts were sold in Santa Cruz, the capital of the Laguna, for about $15 per thousand. The oil cake was used either to feed pigs or as a manure about the roots of coffee-plants. The owner of cocoa-palm groves in Luzon or Visayas lives in anxiety during several months of each year, for should the vortex of a typhoon pass over or near his plantation, a large proportion of his trees may be destroyed.

The true locality for such plantations is in the southern and western parts of Mindanao and Palawan, to the south of a line drawn from the northern point of Mindanao to Busuánga Island in the Calamianes, preferring the most sheltered spots.

In this region the danger from typhoons is inconsiderable, and the trees flourish exceedingly. I have been shown trees in bearing at Puerta Princesa which I was assured were only three years old. I saw older trees bearing immense bunches of nuts, too many to count, and it seemed wonderful to see a slender trunk bearing aloft sixty feet in the air so heavy a load. From fifty to one hundred trees can be planted on an acre according to the space allowed to each, and when in full bearing after six or seven years each tree might give eighty nuts in a year. The crop goes on all the year round.

Copra is prepared from the nuts either by drying the whole nut under cover in the shade, allowing the water to become absorbed and then breaking up the kernel for bagging, or else by breaking it up first of all and drying it in the sun.

In the first case a large airy shed is required, and the process takes three months. In the latter case three days of sunshine will suffice, but the kernels must be protected from the dew at night and from any chance shower of rain. Artificial heat does not produce good copra, and besides is expensive to apply.

Making copra is one of the most paying enterprises in the Philippines, but it requires capital to be laid out several years beforehand, unless a plantation can be bought to start with.

Previous to 1890, the quantity of copra exported was so small that no record was kept of it. In that year 74,447 piculs were exported, and the trade has gone up by leaps and bounds, so that in 1897 no less than 811,440 piculs were sent out, over fifty thousand tons.

The present position of agriculture seems to be that there are in the Philippines somewhere about six millions of civilised Christian people tilling eight million acres of land, and exporting some thirty million dollars’ worth of produce each year. They also raise a large quantity of food-stuffs for their own consumption, but import perhaps a couple of million dollars’ worth of rice because it is cheaper to buy it than to grow it, as we in England import wheat for the same reason. The area of land under cultivation is computed at one-ninth of the total area of the islands.

The author of the circular Plant Products of the Philippines, to which I have before referred, makes the following remarks: “In view of the natural fertility of the soil and the vast extent of these rich lands not yet under cultivation, it is safely assumed that the total agricultural production of the islands could be increased tenfold.”

This gentleman seems to be of a sanguine disposition, and he reminds me rather of Oscar F. Williams’ cheerful optimism. But in one way he is more cautious than that gentleman. He does not fix a time for his prophecy to be accomplished.

I would point out, however, that in the seventy-five million acres comprised in the islands there are volcanic cones, peaks of basalt, stony plains, unexplored regions, swamps and other undesirable localities for establishing farms or plantations, and that some of the good lands are held by warlike tribes who would resent any intrusion into their domains.

There are, it is true, great tracts of land in Mindanao and Palawan, and no doubt in time they will come under cultivation.

Taking everything into consideration, I hold to my view that with peace, honest government and a good Vagrancy law, the export of produce might be doubled in twenty years if capital is forthcoming in sufficient amount. The land is worth nothing without the husbandmen, and it will take the Philippines a long time to recover from the devastating effects of the insurrection of 1896–7 and the American war of subjugation.

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[1] In making these remarks, I am not in any way desirous of depreciating the Department of Agriculture, for I hold the belief that its reports are written with exceptional ability. But this circular bears internal evidence of having been written by some person, perhaps a consul, unfamiliar with Philippine agriculture, and published without correction.

Chapter XV.

Forestal.

Value exaggerated—Difficulties of labour and transport—Special sawing machinery required—Market for timber in the islands—Teak not found—Jungle produce—Warning to investors in companies—Gutta percha.

During the three and a quarter centuries the Spaniards have held the Philippines, the forests of Luzon have supplied enormous quantities of the finest timber for building houses, churches, convents, bridges, warships, lighters and canoes. No care has ever been taken to replant, and the consequence is that at this day long logs of many kinds most wanted are not obtainable, all the large trees of valuable timber have long ago been cut, and only in the most distant and least accessible places are any worth having to be found.

The greatest nonsense is talked about the value of the Philippine forests, but in fact it is only in the fever-stricken Island of Mindoro, and in certain parts of Palawan and Mindanao, that any large and valuable trees can be found.

Labour is a great difficulty; wood-cutters are scarce, and they are a wild, unruly lot; only men inured to such a rough life can resist the malaria of the woods, and even they are occasionally down with fever.

Chinamen would not venture into the forests, and only the natives of each district are available, as they do not care to go far from their houses. In order to engage them it is necessary to make them advances of money which it will seldom be possible to recover. A good deal of tact is required in dealing with the cutters, they are very independent and will not put up with abuse. A considerable capital is required to give advances to, and feed these men, also for buying buffaloes, which die unless good care is taken of them.

If a cutter can be found who has buffaloes of his own, it is better to hire them with him, as then they are sure to be taken care of.

The dragging the large logs to a river or port can only be done by teams of buffaloes. The conditions prevailing prevent the employment of chutes, wire ropes and winding engines, or tram-lines.

The valuable trees do not grow together in numbers as in the forests of California and Oregon, but are found at considerable distances from each other. It is therefore only possible to commence the use of mechanical conveyance at the spot where the logs can be assembled by animal labour. Even so, the number of logs from any district will be so small that it will hardly pay to lay down a tramway.

The logs are squared in the woods and the butt ends are rounded like the runners of a sleigh, two holes are chopped at the top corners with a small adze called a palacol, through which rattans are passed for the buffaloes to be yoked to. They are then dragged down to the river or sea. The wood is too heavy to float, and bundles of bamboos are attached to it to give it buoyancy.

The idea of putting up saw-mills in the forests is absurd—for the reason given above.

The wood is very hard and tough, and specially made machinery is required to work it.

The framing must be heavier, the feed lighter, and the teeth of the saws much smaller and with less set. I have had some excellent machinery and saws specially made in England for this purpose, by Thomas Robinson & Son of Rochdale, but I sent home logs of the woods required to be worked, for the saws, planers, and moulding cutters to be made to suit. The ordinary sawing machinery as shown in trade catalogues would be of no use at all.

The whole business is extremely risky, it requires a manager, immune to jungle fever, a man of great vigour yet patient and tactful. Such a man, understanding the native ways, would probably succeed after years of hard and dangerous work; but I warn any one thinking of taking up this business that in Luzon valuable trees are few and far between, and distant from port or river, whilst in other islands where there are timber trees they stand there because no one could ever be induced to go and cut them.

As for exporting these timbers to the United States or other places, there is no need to do that, for demand for timber in Manila and other towns is greater than the supply, and iron construction is increasing in consequence.

Oregon or Norway pine is of no use for building purposes in the Philippines, for it would be devoured within a year or two by the anay (white ants). I am told, however, that in spite of warnings the United States military authorities have constructed stables and storehouses of this timber.

I think it quite useless to mention the names of the different Philippine timbers, as those who take an interest in them can purchase the ‘Manual de Maderero’ (Wood-cutters’ Manual) and obtain all the information they require from it.

Molave is the most important, being proof against the white ants, and almost imperishable. Ypil and yacal are splendid woods for large roofs. They can be obtained long enough for tie-beams, even for wide spans, and excellent roof-frames can be made by bolting them together.

On the Zambales mountains and in Benguet and Lepanto there are forests of coniferæ. When the Manila-Dagupan Railway was being built, I had some sample sleepers brought down from thence. They were quite suitable, but could only be used if thoroughly creosoted, as otherwise they would merely provide food for the white ants. As there are no gasworks in the Islands, creosote could not be produced, nor would it pay to import it from Hong Kong or elsewhere on account of the freight and duties.

There is no market in the islands for pine and no one cuts the trees. They are not of great size. The Igorrotes burn them to clear the land for planting.

True ebony is not found in the forests, but a very handsome and heavy wood, called Camagon, is the nearest approach to it, being dark-brown nearly black, streaked with bright yellow. It is found of larger size than ebony and is sold by the pound.

Teak has often been reported to exist and samples of the alleged teak have been shown to me. On comparing them with teak from Rangoon a considerable difference was noted and the characteristic odour was absent. My own impression is that there is no teak in the Philippines. I have paid two dollars a cubic foot for teak in Manila and if there was any to be had, this price would, I think, have fetched it out.

As for such jungle produce as gum-damar, canes, and rattans, if the reader will refer to my remarks on Palawan he will see that the most valuable products are mostly worked out, and that in any case this is not white man’s business.

There is, however, one branch that, in view of increasing scarcity and rising price, should be carefully looked after by the Philippine Administration; I refer to the collection of gutta-percha in Mindanao. This caused quite a boom for a short time, but as usual the Chinamen got hold of the stuff and mixed it with various kinds of rubbish, so that it was soon discredited in the European market.

An official of high-standing might be appointed to the double office of Protector of the Natives, and Conservator of the Forests in Mindanao, and rules for collecting the gutta without destroying the trees should be prepared and enforced by personal visits from the conservator and his deputies, to whom all the gutta should be handed, being paid for in cash. This would probably yield a large revenue to the Government and greatly benefit the natives, for they might receive half the value of the gutta instead of the minute fraction the Chinese now give them.

The reader who has perused the previous remarks will no longer be liable to be caught by tales of the fabulous riches of the Philippine forests. And, above all, he should keep clear of any companies that may be formed to exploit them. Energetic and tactful individuals may succeed, but the success will be due to personal qualities, and will be contemporaneous with that gifted party and disappear with him. This is what happened to the “Laguimanoc Saw Mills and Timber Company” as soon as the founder left.

A large proportion of the jungle produce of Mindanao, Palawan, and the smaller Southern Islands is smuggled away by the Chinese traders to Sandakan or Singapore.

All that appears in the Table of Exports is two or three hundred tons of gum copal shipped each year from Manila.

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 surreptitiously—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 hematite in Cebú—Brown hematite 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—Analysis 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 José Centeno. But some of their most important reports are still in manuscript, 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	Tangsó.
Lead	Tinga.
Tin	Tinga puti.
Iron	Bacal.
Steel	Patalím.
Forged Steel	Binalon.
Coal	Uling.