That  there  is  gold  in  Mindoro  Island  is  evident  from  the  fact  that
the  Minguianes,  a  wild  tribe,  wear  gold  jewellery  made  by  themselves,

'  Monsieur  Jean  Labedan^  who  had  been  the  original  proprietor  of  the
'^  Restaurant  de  Paris  "  in  La  Escolta^  Manila.
882  Iron-mining  ventures

and  come  down  to  the  coast  villages  to  barter  with  this  metal,  for  they
do  not  understand  trading  with  the  coin  medium.
As  a  general  rule,  failure  in  most  Philippine  mining  speculations
was  chiefly  due  to  the  unwillingness  of  the  native  to  co-operate  with
European  capitalists  in  search  of  quick  fortimes  for  themselves.  The
native  rustic  did  not  seek  and  would  not  submit  to  constant  organized
and  methodical  labour  at  a  daily  wage,  to  be  paid  periodically  when
he  had  finished  his  work.  The  only  class  whom  one  could  employ  in
the  neighbourhood  of  the  mines  was  migratory  and  half-subjected,
whilst  there  was  no  legislation  whatever  in  force  r^ulating  the  relations
between  workers  and  capitalists.  Some  suggested  the  employment  of
Chinese,  but  the  obstacles  to  this  proposal  have  been  pointed  out  in
Chap.  viii.  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  much  profitable  mining  will
ever  be  done  in  this  Colony  without  Chinese  labour.  Again,  the
wretched  state  of  the  public  highways  obliged  the  few  enterprising
capitalists  to  spend  their  money  on  tie  construction  of  roads  which
had  already  been  paid  for  in  taxes.
It  is  calculated  that  in  the  working  of  mines  in  the  Philippines,  as
much  as  P.l, 800,000  was  spent  from  the  beginning  of  the  last  century
up  to  1876,  without  the  least  satisfactory  result.
