THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 77 
inhabited. It lies immediately to the south of the 
Batangas district of Luzon, from which it is separated 
by a narrow strait about seven or eight miles in breadth. 
It has a length of about 90 miles, and is from 40 to 50 
miles wide. Its area is about 4050 square miles. With 
the neighbouring islands of Marinduque and Lubang it 
forms one of the thirty-three provinces of the Luzon 
administration, its population amounting to 37,648. It 
is under a civil governor, who resides at Calapan on the 
north coast. Therg is no other village of large size in 
the island, and no civilisation except upon the coast. 
Mindoro was discovered by Legaspi, who sent his 
nephew, Juan de Salcedo, to take possession, a task which 
he accomplished with thirty Spaniards and some native 
allies. The island was always the haunt of Illanun and 
Sulu pirates, but the Spanish gunboats have now 
effectually suppressed them. Still, little attempt at 
cultivation and civilisation has been made of late. The 
Jesuits did much, but since their evacuation there has 
been almost no advance. Many formerly populous pueblos 
in the interior are now deserted and ruined. The in¬ 
habitants of the coast are Tagals, but the people of the 
interior—the Manguianos—are in a state of almost 
complete savagery, though of harmless disposition. They 
are of sub-Malayan stock, speaking a peculiar language, 
and living in a very miserable manner on the products 
of a rude agriculture. 
Mindoro has lofty mountain ranges, wdiich culminate 
in the north in Mount Halcon (8865 feet), and are 
covered everywhere with dense forest. Near the coast 
there is much marsh land, and the island bears the repu¬ 
tation of being extremely unhealthy. There are no 
active volcanoes in Mindoro, and its geological structure 
is almost unknown. In the north-west a valley crosses 
