414 FERGUSON. 



live about 250 Indian Families, which pay Tribute in Wax, Salt, and Civet. But 

 those that dwell in the Mountains, and come from other Parts are more Numerous. 

 Here are such rich Gold Mines, 22 Carats fine, that the Mate of the Galeon St. 

 Joseph, aboard which I went over to New Spain, going ashore in one of them, 

 in a very short time dug out an Ounce and a quarter of pure Gold. They do 

 not at present work at these iMines, for want of Industry in the Spaniards, who 

 having Commission every Year from New Spain, to lay out some hundred 

 Thousands of Pieces of Eight, with an Allowance to them of ten per Gent, take 

 no care to look for Gold in the IMines. As for the Indians, if they have but a 

 Dish of Rice, they never mind that precious metal and if they gather any in the 

 Rivers, it is when they are press'd for Tribute and then they gather as much as 

 serves to Pay it. 



The various members of the Spanish Inspecc-ion de Minas, wlio during 

 the latter half of the last century wrote on the mineral resources of the 

 Philippines, make no mention of Aroroy. 



Old workings are found everywhere thi-oughout the district, but with 

 one exception the natives have no traditions as to when and by whom the 

 work was done. The typical form of these workings is deep, narrow, open 

 cuts, now partly caved in, the walls of which show rounded faces as if 

 worked by means of iire. Stone mortars and pestles are often found, 

 showing the primitive nature of the ore treatment. Evidence of workings 

 of later date are found on the Buena Suerte claim on Mount Bagadilla, 

 on Boston Hill, and other j^laces. Here, underground workings of a 

 considerable extent have been carried on and the walls still show the 

 marks of sharp instruments. These workings consist of irregular gopher- 

 ing along rich streaks, sometimes opening oiit into stopes and again 

 narrowing to inclined passages barely large enough to admit a man's 

 body. The only tradition which the natives have is that an arrastre 

 was worked about one hundred years ago on the northern side of Boston 

 Hill, the southeastern continuation of Mount Kalakbao, the ore being 

 obtained from the old workings on the same hill. The ore here is a 

 hard quartz, and was broken by building fires of the native resin, brea, 

 against the face. The ruins of this arrastre are to be seen to-day. 



Modem mining dates from the American occupation of the Philippines. 

 As soon as the troops had landed in Masbate, even while the insurgents 

 held the interior of the island, American prospectors began to scour the 

 country and soon rediscovered the Aroroy district. Development work 

 progressed very slowly as capital was scarce, and hence little was ac- 

 complished beyond scattered prospect holes. Between 1905 and 1907 

 the district suffered from an ill-advised boom, during which two dredges 

 and three stamp mills began work. New development work is now under 

 way and the district is now making good progress. The subsequent 

 history of mining operations between 1907 and the present time has been 

 published in the "Mineral Eesources" for the years 1908, 1909, and 1910. 



The veins. — The veins are confined to the Panique and Aroroy forma- 

 tions, but all of those at present worked outcrop in the former. The 



