Iron is found in its native state, but mixed with some other metal, which renders it softer than ours. They work it exactly as it is found. There is likewise abundance of loadstone, and considerable quarries of marble from whence that is procured, with which the churches are decorated.
The Spaniards have but a few insignificant establishments on Mindoro. All travellers have asserted that the inhabitants of this island have tails, but this idea rests on no other ground than that of the Coccix being a little elongated.
The principal establishments of the Spaniards, in the island of Panay, are Ilo-Ilo and Antigue; there is no good anchorage on the island of Panay but in this latter place.
Antigue is in 6° 42′ N. latitude; the anchorage is six fathom, at a good distance from the land. Vessels cannot take the benefit of this anchorage in November, December, and January, but with great risk, as, during that period, the south-west and west winds blow right on the coast, and render the sea tempestuous. Water for shipping is procured at a small rivulet, situated to the north; there is a much more considerable river, which serves as a ditch to the fort, and along which boats may proceed a great way; but its water is brackish even at neap tides. The inhabitants of this island, more industrious than those of Luçon, manufacture handkerchiefs and cloths from cotton, and the fibres of a plant which the country supplies; the coarsest description is used for clothing, and with the finer they trade with the neighbouring islands.
In other respects Antigue resembles the rest of the Philippines. Indulgent Nature is prodigal of her gifts, of which the inhabitants make no attempt to avail themselves, for the government uses no means of protection against the ravages and cupidity of the Moors, who incessantly harass and carry off even the fishing-boats from the bay: this is only protected by a wooden fort, garrisoned by about twenty Christian natives.
This island produces a great deal of grain, but little fruit; cocoa and plantains, of a bad quality, are alone sought after by the inhabitants. There is a great number of stags, wild boars, and wild hogs; buffaloes, horned cattle, and horses, are so common, that no attention is paid either to their safety or to their propagation; the horses wander about at their pleasure; they are public property, having no particular owner: when a horse is wanted, the first that appears is seized, and he is turned loose again when he has performed the requisite service.
The air of the whole island is unwholesome, from the want of cultivation, and the frequency of marshes. It is supposed to contain many very rich gold mines.
The Spaniards have many factories on the coasts of Mindanao, which support a precarious existence only by a constant state of warfare with the innumerable Kings reigning in the island, not one of which will acknowledge the Spanish dominion.
Sambouanga forms the chief establishment of the Spaniards on this island; it is situated on the southern coast of it. According to our observation, it lies in 120° 13′ long. and 6° 54′ lat. differing considerably from the observation of Mr. Gentil, who places it in 7° 20′ lat. apparently after some bad Spanish charts.
The Spaniards have constructed a considerable fort, with stone and brick, and capable of the defence of the bay. The inhabitants are placed within a palisade, abutting on one side to the fort, and on the other to a small wooden battery of 14 guns, which commands the environs of the town.