at best cultivate only small patches of
maize and other vegetables. Only occasionally do they live in settled,
self-supporting communities, but wander for the most part in scattered
families from one place to another.

CHAPTER II

THE PROVINCE OF ZAMBALES

Geographical Features

This little-known and comparatively unimportant province stretches
along the western coast of Luzon for more than 120 miles. Its average
width does not exceed 25 miles and is so out of proportion to its
length that it merits the title which it bears of the "shoestring
province." [12]

The Zambales range of mountains, of which the southern half is known
as the Cordillera de Cabusilan and which is second in importance
to the Caraballos system of northern Luzon, forms the entire eastern
boundary of Zambales and separates it from the Provinces of Pangasinan,
Tarlac, and Pampanga. A number of peaks rise along this chain, of
which Mount Pinatubo, 6,040 feet in height, is the highest. All of the
rivers of Zambales rise on the western slope of these mountains and
carry turbulent floods through the narrow plains. Still unbridged,
they are an important factor in preventing communication and
traffic between towns, and hence in retarding the development of
the province. Another important factor in this connection is the
lack of safe anchorages. The Zambales coast is a stormy one, and
vessels frequently come to grief on its reefs. At only one point,
Subig Bay, can larger vessels find anchorage safe from the typhoons
which sweep the coast. The soil of the well-watered plain is fertile
and seems adapted to the cultivation of nearly all the products of
the Archipelago. The forests are especially valuable, and besides
fine timbers for constructional purposes they supply large quantities
of pitch, resin, bejuco, and beeswax. There are no industries worth
mentioning, there being only primitive agriculture and stock raising.

The following opinions of Zambales set forth by a Spanish writer in
1880 still hold good: [13]

There are more populous and more civilized provinces whose
commercial and agricultural progress has been more pronounced,
but nowhere is the air more pure and transparent, the vegetation
more luxuriant, the climate more agreeable, the coasts more sunny,
and the inhabitants more simple and pacific.

Historical Sketch

According to Buzeta, another Spanish historian, it was Juan de Salcedo
who discover