Instead, therefore, of being allowed to till their land, these people are hurried off to the most distant and least accessible forests to dig for almáciga. This gum is found in crevices in the earth amongst the roots of secular trees. I was assured that deposits had been found of 25 piculs in one place--more than a ton and a half, but such finds are rare, as the gum is now scarce. The savage has to hide or guard his treasure when found, and he or his family must transport it on their backs for twenty, thirty, or forty miles, as the case may be, making repeated journeys to deliver it to their creditor. I think this hard work, and want of good food, explains the emaciation I noticed amongst these people. Some few of them were not in debt. Near Inagáhuan, I found a man named Amasa who had a small cane-field, and was at work squeezing the cane with a great lever-press, which reminded me of the wine-presses in Teneriffe. The lever was made of the trunk of a tree; the fulcrum was a growing tree, whilst the pressing block was a tree-stump hollowed at the top. The juice was boiled to a thick syrup, and found a ready sale in the neighbourhood. Amasa was the biggest and strongest man I saw amongst the Tagbanúas, and stood five feet nine inches high. He possessed a comfortable house and clothes, yet he accompanied me on one of my journeys as a porter, but the exposure at night was too much for him, and he had an attack of fever when he returned. Near Amasa lived a Christian woman named Ignacia, a widow. She had lived ten years in one place, and had an abundant supply of paddy stored in huge baskets in her house. She also had a plantation of cacao trees, many of them in full bearing. They were rather neglected, but had grown remarkably. I bought some of her produce for my own use. I was surprised to find that the Tagbanúas could read and write; one day I observed a messenger hand to one of them a strip of bark with some figures scratched on it, which the latter proceeded to read, and on inquiring from the missionary, I learnt that they had an alphabet of sixteen or seventeen letters. I obtained a copy of this from the Padre Zapater, and it will be found on page 319. They do not use a pen, but scratch the letters with the point of a knife, or with a nail, or thorn.