It was reputed to be very large and thickly populated along the shores; but it is not one tenth so thickly populated as they say. With regard to the lake, I shall state what it is like, for I have gone all around it afoot, and seeing gives authority. It is more than twelve leagues long and two wide, and is fresh. Its freshness is caused by the fact that a great number of streams enter it, and only two flow from it; and for this reason also it is very deep, because much water enters and there is but little outflow. The villages about this lake, containing about twenty-four or twenty-six thousand men, were pacified by the captain Juan de Sauzedo. From here the latter crossed with sixty men to the opposite coast of this island, in quest of some mines which the natives had told him were very rich and abounding in gold. The galley was left in the lake above mentioned. These mines are on the opposite coast of this island, which is the northeastern, and the natives call them the mines of Paracali.[1] When the captain had arrived at the mines with his soldiers, who had suffered much on the march because it was in the wet season, they found them excellent and very rich, and more than thirty or forty estados in depth. The natives were afraid and did not await the coming of the Spaniards. Some of the soldiers complained also that the captain conducted himself badly. And thus they returned having lost by death four soldiers, among whom was the sergeant Juan Ramos, newly come to this land. I believe, according to reports, that possession of these mines will be taken, and the whole coast thereabout conquered—for it is a very rich
- ↑ Gold and other minerals are still obtained from the mines of Paracale (in the province of Ambos, Camarines), Luzón.
