Gold in the Philippines. From the notes of Henry G. Hanks [pp. 141-144]

OVERLAND MONTHLY
mountains peopled by savages. whose only traffic is
bartering their gold for rice, tobacco, and other necessary articles.
Robert MacMicking in his "Recollections
of Manila," published in London in 1851, has
written:
The gold which is found at Pictas in Misaures and
at Mambalao, Paracala, and Surigao, is consumed in
the country in ornaments, etc., and some sent to China.
The amount annually produced at these places is very
uncertain and the quantity exported to China is probably a great deal more than the amount set down in
the tabular statements, it being very easy to export,
and I suppose at least an equal amount of taels are
sent privately to what appears in the tables to have
passed the Customhouse.
The author then publishes official tables
of the exports from Manila, including
gfold:
In 1847, 3,970 taels of gold dust were sent to the
Pacific and California, and in 1850, 5,068 taels to
China. The tael being reckoned at one and a third
ounces, the shipment of 1847 was 5,292 ounces and
that of 1850, 6,755.6 ounces.
The value of gold dust at Manila is from $14 to $20
per tael, according to quality.
Sir John Bowring, in "A Visit to the
Philippine Islands," London, 1859, referring
to the island of Mindanao, says: -
Mines of gold, quicksilver and sulphur are said to
abound.
The gold of the Philippine Islands is produced by
washing and digging. In several provinces it is found
in the rivers, and natives are engaged in washing their
deposits. The most remarkable of the gold mines
worked by the Indians are those of Tulbin and Suyuc
They break the rock with hammers and crush it between two small millstones, dissolving the fragments
in water, by which the gold is separated. They melt
it in small shells and it generally produces from $8
to $10 per ounce, but its fineness seldom exceeds 16
carrats, [.666 fine,] it is found in quartz, but the nuggets are seldom of any considerable size. The inhabitants of Carga cut in the mountain a basin of considerable size and conduct water to it through canals
made of wild palm. They dig up the soil while the
basin is filling, which is opened suddenly and exhibits
for working any existing stratification of gold. These
operations are continued till all the pits are filled
with inroads of earth, when they are abandoned: generally when a depth has been reached which produces
the most advantageous returns, the rush of water
carries away much of the metal which would otherwise be deposited and collected.
This operation is identical with one common in California in early times, known as
"booming." It was supposed to have been
invented here, but it is known by the few
to have been employed by the ancient Romans in the gold mines of Spain as described by Pliny, Natural History, Book 33,
Chapter 21.
Gold is also found in the alluvial deposits which are
ground between stones, thrown into water, and the
metal sinks to the bottom. The rivers of Caraballo,
Camarines, and Misamis, and the mountains of Carga
and Zebu, are the most productive. Many Indian
families support themselves by washing the river
sands, and in times of heavy rains gold is found in
the streets of some of the pueblos when the floods
have passed.
There can be no doubt of the existence of much
gold in the islands, but principally in the parts inhabited by the independent tribes.... Gold dust is
the instrument of exchange in the interior of Mindanao and is carried about in bags for the ordinary purposes of life. The possession of California by the
Spaniards for so many generations without the development of its riches, may explain their inertness and
indifference in the Philippines, notwithstanding the
repeated averments of Spanish writers that the archipelago abounds in gold.
Thus we have seen that every few years
from Magellan's time, in 1521, to the present day gold has been noted by observant
visitors as one of the principal products of
the Philippines. Now that those islands are
to pass out of the blighting control of
Spain, it is almost as certain as that the
sun shines that the next great development
of gold mines will be in them. Those who
know the West Coast people will be equally
certain that they will be among the foremost to take advantage of this wonderful
new opportunity. It will mean more to the
West Coast and its seaports than the Klondike finds, because the frightful limitations
to enterprise imposed by the northern climate will be absent, and because there will
be beside the mines a vast number of other
resources to be developed, to add to the
commerce of this new great island empire.
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