and it is better than brick for the artillery. Should your Majesty be pleased to look favorably upon these works, and have them aided from your royal estate with an equal sum everything would be finished; and another fort could be built as well, to guard the port of Cavite and your Majesty's ships for the regular line. Since it is two leagues distant from the city, it is not made safe by the above-mentioned fortifications; and the ships cannot anchor at any nearer place, without ordinarily being in danger from the weather. In the general fire in this city four years ago, the powder and ammunition were burned, and the artillery was destroyed. Although I have had the pieces refounded, and have used up the metal remaining, still there are only twenty-six large and twenty small pieces; and this supply is very small, considering the need of artillery in this country for its defense, as well as for the expeditions that have been made and for which occasion arises. Near these islands, in one called Lumban, twenty leagues from this city, and in others near by, I have discovered a quantity of copper, which on being tested by smelting it, gives one arroba of metal to the quintal of ore. I have not found anyone who understands the smelting of it; for those who tested it are Indians, who do not smelt it in bulk.[1] I beseech your Majesty to please have some founders
- ↑ Considerable copper ore is found in the Philippines, in many localities; but these deposits are little known, and have not been worked—except in northern Luzón, where "copper ore has been smelted by the natives from time immemorial. The process … consists in alternate partial roasting and reduction to 'matte,' and eventually to black copper. It is generally believed that this process must have been introduced from China or Japan. It is practiced only by one peculiar tribe of natives, the Igorrotes … Mean assays are said to show over 16 per cent of copper." See U. S. Philippine Commission's Report, 1900, iii, p. 235.
