80 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
however, not grown in sufficient quantities for the con¬ 
sumption of the island, and some twenty or twenty-five 
thousand tons are annually imported. While in 1887 a 
total of 174 vessels entered the port, rather less than 
half that number were registered in 1890, and with in¬ 
creased taxes and dues the prosperity of the island seems 
seriously threatened. 
Negros. 
Negros lies to the south-east of Panay, from which 
it is separated by a strait about 15 miles in width. 
It is 130 miles long, and on the average about 30 
miles wide. Its area is 4650 square miles. Its 
coast is comparatively little broken by bays or inlets, 
and it has no good harbours. A central chain of 
mountains runs through its entire length. Por the most 
part these are of no great height, but the Malaspina or 
Canloon volcano, situated towards the northern end, forms 
an exception. Its height is estimated at 8192 feet, and 
it is in a state of intermittent activity. Owing to the 
narrowness of the island there are no navigable rivers. 
The inhabitants are chiefly Bisayans, and number with the 
Negritos, from whose abundance the island received its 
name, about 226,000. 
The island is fertile, and produces sugar, rice, tobacco, 
and the textiles abaca and pina, and in common with 
Zebu and Samar, a large amount of cacao. Its coal 
mines appear to be no longer worked. The capital is 
Bacolod on the west coast, opposite to Iloilo, where the 
“ politico -military ” governor resides, and there are 
numerous large villages around the coast, though few in 
the interior. Hinigaran, the former capital, contains 
over 12,000 inhabitants. 
