The New International Encyclopædia/Mindoro

MINDORO, mē̇n-dō′rō̇. One of the Philippine Islands, among which it ranks seventh in size. It is situated south of the main body of Luzon, from which it is separated by a sea channel, 7½ miles wide (Map: Philippine Islands, F 7). Its extreme length from northwest to southeast is 110 miles, and its greatest width is 58 miles. The area of the mainland is 4040, and of the 26 dependent islands 68 square miles, making a total of 4108 square miles. The island has an oval shape with no large indentations, though there are a number of small bays and several almost land-locked harbors. The coasts, though generally having deep water close to shore, are lined, especially along the west side, with submarine reefs. Mindoro is, next to Mindanao, the most elevated of the Philippine Islands. The whole interior forms a mountainous plateau, reaching in Mount Halcón the height of 8860 feet. Almost the whole of the island, from the mountain summits to high-water mark, is covered with unbroken virgin forests, though in the narrow strip of lowland along the western coast there are some prairie and marshy regions. The rivers are all short and simple streams running down from the edge of the plateau on all sides, there being no large river-system. The climate is more variable than that prevailing in the southern islands, and Mindoro is especially exposed to the monsoons. The proximity of the forests to the coast towns renders these unhealthful and subject to intermittent and typhoid fevers.

In spite of the fertility and natural wealth of the island, its economic conditions are in a very backward state. A very small portion of it is cultivated, and the yield of agricultural products is scarcely enough for home consumption. The cultivation of sugar, cotton, and hemp is increasing, and a little of the latter is exported. The mineral wealth is believed to be considerable, but only the coal-beds and sulphur springs have begun to be exploited. The principal exports are forest products, such as timber and pitch, and the forests also are the basis of the principal industries—wood-cutting and rattan-splitting. Communication is almost exclusively carried on in coasting vessels, the interior being a rough and pathless wilderness.

The population of Mindoro was estimated in 1901 at 106,000, including some 30,000 savages inhabiting the interior. The inhabitants are chiefly Malayans, with a few Visayans, and the languages spoken are Visayan, Manguiano, and Tagálog. By the act of the Philippine Commission of June 23, 1902, Mindoro was incorporated in the Province of Marinduque, with the capital at Bóac, situated on the island of Marinduque (q.v.). See Philippine Islands.