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 quantity 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 principal 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 destitute 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 massive gold for six strings of glass 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.”