The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 278 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 278 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55.
as concerns those where the Spaniards have been.  The second is the island of Negros, which is absolutely peaceful.  It contains about twenty thousand inhabitants, and is divided among the Spaniards who remained in Cubu.  There are said to be gold mines there.  Next is the said island of Cubu, which is poorly populated.  Between these three islands there are many insignificant islets, some of them inhabited and some not.  These I shall not mention, in order to avoid prolixity, but in all of them there are mines.  Farther to the northwest from Cubu are Baybay, Bayugo, Abuyo, Cavalian, Tandaya, Barciogama, and other islets, among these which I have mentioned.  They are divided among the same citizens of Cubu.  Very few of them have peaceable inhabitants.  With them as with the others, it is best to bring about peace in these islands.  Rice, cotton, great numbers of swine and fowls, wax, and honey are produced there in great abundance.  There are many mines, as has been shown, and the natives say that they are well populated.  There is gold in all of these islands; but the most important thing is wanting, Spanish people to colonize them.  There remains to the west the island of Panay, which was very populous and fertile, and yielded great abundance of rice, swine, fowls, wax, and honey.  The natives say that there are gold mines in this island; and, since they say it, it must be true.  The gold found there is very pure.  When the governor was in that island there fell upon it—­because of our sins and those of the natives, or God knows what—­an extremely great plague of locusts, which has lasted three years and still continues.  No field is sown which they do not destroy.  A great famine and pestilence have sprung up among the natives of that island, so that more than half of them have died; and they will continue to die until God our Lord is pleased to remove his anger from over it.  From that island to the island of Luzon it is about sixty leagues, and in the course is that of Mindoro.  This is an island where much wax and honey is produced.  It contains many gold mines, and rivers where gold is gathered.  I have been all about it; on the farther coast, which is to the south, it is well populated, while on the northern coast is the village called Mindoro, as well as other thickly-populated rivers.  Those who have not seen it or set foot upon it say that it contains about eight thousand men.  I shall dare to affirm from what I have seen of it that it has more than fifteen thousand.  It is very near the island of Luzon.  Between this island and the others above named, lie many small islets, which are friendly, although they have but small populations.  As I say, next is the island of Luzon, where the governor resides now, and which was settled in the manner above related.  This island is thickly populated and large.  The greater and better part of it is still to be conquered, I would say from what I have seen of the villages and land.  It does not seem to me that there will
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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.