The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1899-09-09
GOLD IN THE PHILIPPINES

There may be at least one COM
pensatory feature connected with the
war which this country has been wag-
ing in the Philippines the past seven
months with the view to gaining con-
troll of those islands, and that is that
rich gold mines are said to exist there.
which may in time compensate, In n
financial way, for the millions we are
expending in our endeavor to perfect
title to country for which we gave
Spain $40, ,0OO, 900 to obtain aquit claim
deed. OF course the mines will neces-
sarially have to be pretty rich to repay
the first cost, but so long as there are
mines there, it gives little consnla-
tion to those of US who have looked
upon the war as gigantic blunder.
A writer in late number of the
Review of Reviews-Ramon Reyes
Lata-says that it was known that gold
existed in the Philippines long before
the Spaniards conquered and took
possession of the islands. When they
did, however, they thought they had
found another Peru, and told extrava-
CANT stories of the weight and beauty
of the bracelets, necklets and anklets
of pure gold worn by the natives. The
Spaniards, however, helped themselves
to all in sight as they did in Mexico
and Peru, and made fair exhibit OF
the gold output of the Philippines to
Spain and her people. The mining
was done after the crudest style and
about as much slipped through the
unskillful fingers of the Spaniards as
they saved. They took the dust from
the more accessible districts near the
coasts, but the natives mined theirs in
the interior of Luzon, where they
obtained it in larger quantities. MIR.
Lata Gays: 'sIn certain regions here
Is not stream, large or small, whose
sands do not show the yellow trace OF
gold, while now and then the natives
of the interior offer heavy nuggets for
SALE" The inference was that the heavy
pieces were specimens detached from
pieces of outcropping quartz ledges by
the action of the elements, heat and
water. There Is no question that very
rich gold bearing quartz will be found
in the mountains of the interior of the
islands.
Mr.. Lata says that 1.-THE principal
-~o15 r;a1d;,r rarion of Tnzon ia the
district of Mambulao. The metal has
also been found in Mindanao, Mindoro,
Panag, Cebu and the smaller islands
of Samar, Calanduanes, Sibuyan,
Bohol and Panaor. One of the larger
islands, Mindoro, gains its name from
its gold deposits, it sienifying Nina de
ore (gold mine.p" The natives say
there are places in the interior which
are rich in gold. 1t is so plen tiful in
some places that the natives carry it
in bags or purses for use in their or |
ordinary buying and selling. The
yield of some of the pIacers to the !
native miners is about $50 ounces a |
month to the man. What could an
American placer miner do there with
a little giant and plenty OF water and
fall?
Rich quartz lodes are said to be
known in the island of Misamis, and
also in the small island Of Panaon, but
about all the mining which has been
lone there has been done in placer
ground. Doubtless the natives are
we'll aware of the wealth of precious
metal deposits in the islands, fact
which may have led them to make such
IN obstinate stand against the advance
If the Americans in the interior.
They want the gold for their own use.