[Rooming in a powder-magazine.] Notwithstanding a very bad road, a pleasant ride carried us from Paracale to the sea-shore, and, through a beautiful wood, to Mambulao, which lies W. by N. I alighted at the tribunal, and took up my lodgings in the room where the ammunition was kept, as being the only one that could be locked.  For greater security, the powder was stored in a corner and covered with carabao-hide; but such were my arrangements that my servant carried about a burning tallow light, and his assistant a torch in the hand.  When I visited the Filipino priest, I was received in a friendly manner by a young girl who, when I offered my hand, thanked me with a bow, saying, “Tengo las sarnas” ("I have the itch").  The malady, which is very common in the Philippines, appears to have its focus in this locality.

[Gneiss and crystalline rock.] A quarter of a league N.N.E. we came upon the ruins of another mining undertaking, the Ancla de Oro.  Shaft and water-cutting had fallen in, and were thickly grown over; and only a few of the considerable buildings were still standing; and even those were ready to fall.  In a circle some natives were busily employed, in their manner, collecting grains of gold.  The rock is gneiss, weathered so much that it cannot be recognized; and at a thousand paces on the other side is a similar one, clearly crystalline.

[Hornblende and hornblende slate.] Half a league N. by E. from Mambulao is the lead-mountain of Dinianan.  Here also all the works were fallen in, choked with mud and grown over.  Only after a long search were a few fragments found with traces of red-lead ore.  This mountain consists of hornblende rock; in one place, of hornblende slate, with very beautiful large crystals.

[Copper.] A league and a half S. from Mambulao a shallow hollow in the ground marks the site of an old copper-mine, which must have been eighty-four feet deep.  Copper ores are found in several places in Luzon; and specimens of solid copper were obtained by me at the Bay of Luyang, N. of the Ensenada de Patag, in Caramuan.

[Unsuccessful copper-mining.] Very considerable beds of copper ore occur in Mancayan, in the district of Lepanto, and in the central mountain-range of Luzon between Cagayan and Ilocos, which have been worked by a mining company in Manila since 1850; but the operations seem to have been most unsuccessful.  In 1867 the society expended a considerable capital in the erection of smelting furnaces and hydraulic machinery; but until a very recent date, owing to local difficulties, particularly the want of roads, it has not produced any copper. [133]

[Paying minus dividends.] In 1869 I heard, in London, that the undertaking had been given up.  According to my latest information, however, it is certainly in progress; but the management have never, I believe, secured a dividend.  The statement of 1872, in fact, shows a loss, or, as the Spaniards elegantly say, a dividendo pasivo.