Quicksilver. 20. Saturday, May eleven, one-half libra of quicksilver was incorporated with two arrobas of ore obtained from an enclosure found at one-half legua’s distance from our fort and the new mine, on the edge of a river. It was washed on the sixteenth of the said month, but nothing was found in it. One and one-half onzas of quicksilver were lost.
Quicksilver. 21. On the fourteenth of the said month one libra of quicksilver was incorporated with one quintal of ore obtained from a passage which was discovered to have been worked by the Ygolotes in the same vein and new mine, in its western part of which mention has been made. The said vein extends to the southwest. The mixture was washed on the eighteenth of the said month, and a small grain of gold, weighing one-half real, was obtained. One-half onza of quicksilver was lost.
Quicksilver. 22. On Thursday, May nine, three libras of quicksilver were incorporated with three quintals of ore obtained from the first hole and vein of the new mine, of which mention has been made. May nineteen it was washed, and a small grain of gold, of one-third real weight, obtained. Twelve onzas of quicksilver were lost.
Smelting. 23. Monday, the twentieth of the said month, another assay was made by fusing one quintal of litharge[10] and two of ore obtained from the said hole and vein preceding. From the said mixture, although they tried it several times, it was impossible to fuse or melt the said ore. On the contrary, there was a loss of the lead consumed with the said litharge, and the mixture continued to be consumed; so that having been exhausted and the oven having become clogged, it was necessary to stop without succeeding with the said assay. They attributed that to the said ore being unfit for smelting.
Quicksilver. 24. Thursday, May twenty, two libras of quicksilver were incorporated with one and one-half quintals of ore obtained from a depth of fourteen estados in the said vein and hole which was opened as above stated. On the twenty-fifth of the said month it was washed, and a small grain of gold, weighing one-half real, was obtained. Two onzas of quicksilver were lost.
Smelting. 25. Sunday, May twenty-six, a second assay by smelting was made with three quintals of litharge and one of tesmiquitate,[11] refined; both were fluxed with three quintals of ore obtained from the second hole or passage above mentioned as being near the level of the streamlet in the said vein and new mine. That was a second and different compound and was made by smelting and with the said flux; but they were unable to fuse the ore, although many efforts were exerted. It was useless because of the poor quality that the miners ascribed to the said ore. Finding that there was considerable loss and waste of the lead, they had to desist.
Smelting. 26. Monday, May twenty-six, a third assay was made by refining or smelting, by feeding the dust that was left from one quintal of ore, obtained at a depth of fourteen or more estados from the first vein and hole which, I have said, was opened in the said new mine. Having consumed twenty-five libras of lead, upon which the metal melted, a grain resulted that resembles silver, and weighs one and one-half reals.[12]
The said tests or assays having been made and finished, the lay of the land, and its natives and mines, having been examined, and having obtained a quantity of ore from all the mines, I left the said presidio and fort of Santiago well fortified with a garrison of fifty-six Spaniards and fifty Indians—twenty-five from the province of Pangasinan and twenty-five from that of Ylocos—eleven galley negroes, and one armorer, with food and all other things necessary for more than fifteen months. Then, with the said last division of the said five hundred Indians, who, as I have made mention, were to be sent me by a lieutenant by the twenty-fourth of May, I set about my descent, carrying with me, by the end of the said month, one hundred quintals of the said ore; this I am sending to the city of Manila in four hundred small rice-baskets, each numbered with the mine whence it was taken, so that proof may be made there of the efforts mentioned above; since it is the self-same ore, the governor and captain-general, the royal Audiencia, and the royal officials can confirm it anew and make the tests again, so that, understanding the said mines fully, they may report to his Majesty, and resolve upon the measures that they deem fitting in regard to the holding of the said presidio in a land of so little or no profit as is that land.
Alonzo Martin Quirante