pecies. Rich deposits of
gold are known to exist, but have been little developed.

To quote from the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ of Paris:

In the same district are found Indians, Negritos, Manthras, Malays,
Bicols, half-breed Indians and Spaniards, Tagalas, Visayas, Sulus, and
other tribes. The Negritos (little negroes) are real negroes, blacker than
a great many of their African conquerors, with woolly hair growing in
isolated tufts. They are very diminutive, rarely attaining four feet nine
inches in height, and with small, retreating skulls. This race forms a
branch equal in importance to the Papuan. It is believed to be the first
race inhabiting the Philippines, but, as well as everywhere else, except
in the Andaman Islands, it has been more or less absorbed by the stronger
races, and the result in the archipelago has been the formation of several
tribes of half-breeds numbering considerably more than half a million.
Side by side with them, and equally poor and wretched, are the Manthras, a
cross between the Negritos and Malays and the degenerate descendants of
the Saletes, a warlike tribe conquered by the Malayan Rajah Permicuri in
1411. Then come the Malay Sulus, all Mohammedans and still governed by
their Sultan and their _datos_, feudal lords who, under the suzerainty of
the Spaniards, have possessed considerable power.

The soil is fully sufficient--indeed, more than sufficient--to support this
population, whose wants are of the most limited character. The land is
exceedingly fertile and bears in abundance all tropical products,
particularly rice, sugar, and the abaca, a variety of the banana-tree. The
fibres of the abaca are employed in making the finest and most delicate
fabrics, of which from three to four million dollars' worth are exported
annually. The exports of sugar amount to about four millions and a half,
of gold to two millions and a half, and of coffee and tobacco close on to
a million and a quarter each. The rice is consumed at home. It forms the
staple food of the people, and nearly three million dollars' worth is
imported yearly. The husbandman cannot complain that his toil is
inadequately rewarded. A rice plantation will yield a return of at least
fifteen per cent.; if he plant his farm with sugar-cane he will realise
thirty per cent., if not more. On the other hand, the price of labour is
very low. An adult who gains a _real fuerte_ (about thirteen cents) a day,
thinks he is doing well.

In thi