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 circumstances 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 quantities 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 Compañia 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 circumstances explained, no one cared to risk capital in opening quarries. In 1888 surface (boulder) marble was being cut near Montalbán (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 superincumbent 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 quantities, and often mixed with copper, iron, and arsenic. The crater peak of the Taal Volcano in the Bómbon 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[4] 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 Cebú 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 constitutes a tradition until it is rent by scientific investigation.