r one reason,
because of its great sterility, and the lack of ground to cultivate;
and, on the other hand (which can more easily be believed), because,
confident in their gold mines, they have thereby sufficient to purchase
whatever they wish from Pangasinan, where the nearest abundant supply
of provisions is to be found. The richest and chiefest among them
is he who has more heads hanging in his house than the others; for
that is a sign that he has more food, and gives more banquets. These
mountains contain large pines, and other trees found in Castilla. Don
Luis Dasmarinas, as above stated in the relation of Captain Miranda,
sent Captain Clavijo to discover those mines; but he did nothing
therein, because his guide was wounded on the road.

It is not known that these people have as yet received any evil
religious sect. Accordingly they are pagans, and but little given
to pagan rites, at that. On the contrary they are very lukewarm in
their idolatry, and consequently it will be easy to inculcate in
them the holy Catholic faith, as they are a race uncorrupted with
pagan rites. One may greatly hope, with the divine aid, that their
souls will be stamped with the faith, like a clean tablet. The same
is said of the inhabitants of Tuy.

Don Gonzalo Ronquillo, former governor of these islands, sent Juan
Pacheco Maldonado to discover those mines. It was said of this man
that he was of little diligence and intelligence, and that he remained
two months amid those mountains, in which period he could not catch
a single Indian except only two women. At the end of that time,
he returned because his provisions were all consumed. He brought
a quantity of earth with him, which he declared to be from the
mines. A charlatan--who had been brought from Espana, at a salary of
one thousand ducados, as an assayer--having made the test, found no
gold in this earth. They say that the reason was, that he threw salt
into the mass that he was about to smelt; and that salt should not be
thrown into gold as is done in smelting silver. As then but few men
knew of that, they did not investigate this difficulty. That test was,
accordingly, worth nothing, since the experience of so many centuries
and that of the present prove that those mines contain quantities of
gold, most of it of twenty-two carats; for almost daily those Ygolotes
go to a village of the province of Pangasinan, as to an emporium,
to buy provisions in exchange. Of this one cannot dou