IX, A, 3 Dalburg and Pratt: Iron Ores of Bulacan 237 



Francisco Salgado secured a concession -^ to work the same mines 

 upon the basis of an annual royalty of 20,500 gold reales and the 

 guarantee of an output of at least 125 tons of iron each year. 

 He secured from Mexico an engineer named Jose Bustos, but the 

 enterprise failed after having obtained 2,000 piculs ^^ of iron 

 which were sold for the equivalent of 4,000 pesos. 



There is a further reference to these mines in a record of their 

 sale in 1781 to Maria Isabel Carreaga for 10,400 pesos, and when 

 in 1798 Conde Aviles petitioned for certain iron mines on Sapa 

 Nagaray Vivit, sitio Modete, Morong, his petition was opposed 

 by a certain Carreaga who claimed to have the right to them 

 through this sale. 



The record of the exploitation of the Bulacan ores dates from 

 1781 when Juan Belli, chaplain of the Royal Armada, was 

 entrusted with the working of iron mines near Angat. The 

 chaplain was only the director of the work, however, and Lo- 

 renzo Lopez de Buycochea was given actual possession, on July 

 18, 1781, of a concession called San Felix de Valois, situated on 

 Pinugayan Creek, which name is at present applied to the small 

 stream at the Santa Lutgarda deposit. The limits of the prop- 

 erty are stated as all territory within a radius of one league 

 around the foundry, but the actual mine was only 180 varas ^^ 

 long by 2 varas wide. At this time a foundry was situated on 

 Maasim River, and ore was evidently taken from the Santol 

 deposit. In 1784 Buycochea sold his mine to Felix de la Rosa 

 for 11,000 pesos. 



On June 6, 1805, Juan Escalante y Lazo sought title to a mine 

 on Santor and Viga Creeks (the present Santol deposit) , and on 

 July 4, 1806, obtained possession of a claim 400 brazas ^^ square. 

 The two sons of this man, Juan and Vicente, acquired a mine 

 in 1816 on Tuyo Creek which was probably their father's old 

 property, since Tuyo (dry) is another name for the upper part 

 of Santol Creek. There is no subsequent reference to the Santol 

 deposit in the Spanish records. It is held to-day by two Amer- 

 icans, Messrs. Chas. Wilson and A. G. Rose, who have two 

 mining claims on the outcrop. 



The Hison property was granted to Santiago Hison on April 

 25, 1816. This claim was demarcated as a circular area, having a 

 radius of 200 varas with an outcrop on Bacal Creek as a center. 



^' Memorias historicas y estadisticas. Arenas (1850), Chap. 9. 

 '*1 picul = 62.262 kilograms. 

 ''1 varar=0.836 meter. 

 '"1 brazas: 1.672 meters. 



