44 THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE PHILIPPINES 



to speculation. European capital for such purposes was not to 

 be found during the disturbances, and methodical working in 

 some provinces was equally impossible, quite apart from the 

 other difficulties mentioned above. 



Centeno further states that mercury was formerly found in 

 various places. At the end of the last century a bottle was sent 

 to Manila from Mindanao and a second from Capiz. In 1848 

 mercury was discovered in Casiguron, in the province of Albay, 

 but the general opinion was that the find was altogether insig- 

 nificant. At all events, none of these discoveries appears to have 

 been of any importance. 



At the beginning of the seventies two beds of galena were dis- 

 covered in Cebu, in the neighborhood of the village of Consola- 

 cion. Specimens were analyzed at the mint at Manila and 

 showed, it is true, only 47 per cent of lead, but also 1 ounce of 

 gold and 2 ounces of silver per hundredweight. Nevertheless, 

 the beds were not of sufficient significance to assure profitable 

 working even on a small scale, so the mines were again aban- 

 doned. The department of mines in Manila did certainly recom- 

 mend further exploration in Cebu, but, so far as I am aware, 

 active steps were never taken. In Mambulao and Paracale the 

 beds of galena and red-lead ore have more than once been got 

 ready for working and are probably very rich. The workings, 

 however, have always been abandoned again — chiefly, it may 

 be surmised, on account of these Spanish undertakings being 

 insufficiently provided with capital from the commencement 

 and because of the lack of the necessary circumspection. 



There is naturally an abundance of sulphur in this volcanic 

 archipelago, that which occurs on the Buiusan, in Albay ; the 

 Taal, in Batangas, and the Apo, in Mindanao, being of fairly pure 

 quality. Really extensive beds, worthy of exploitation, were 

 found years ago in Leite, in the interior, not far from Dulagyand 

 were worked on a small scale by the natives. In 1818, 3,410 

 piculs, at $2.50 per picul, were exported, and Dr Jagor states 

 that the price paid in Manila for this sulphur in the fifties was 

 from $1.50 to $4.50. For the last twenty years, however, the 

 sulphur industry has been wholly dead. Alabaster is found in 

 Camarines Sur, and there is a beautiful marble at Bohol and 

 Guimaras, near Iloilo. Granite of excellent quality is quarried 

 at the other side of the Bay of Mariveles, opposite to Manila. 

 Rock oil was found some years ago in Cebu and Paragua and 

 promises to be of importance. I have neither seen samples nor 



