"In June, 1805, the Frenchman Félix Renouard de Sainte-Croix was commissioned to examine the gold mines in Mambulao (in Camarines); and in his report he explained that various gold mines existed there, with very rich veins, but some were difficult to develop and others had been abandoned. By royal order of July 5, 1805, was decreed the total independence of the Manila custom-house, ordaining that its manager should be under the immediate orders of the [treasury] superintendent." [1] On December 20, 1806, Aguilar created a Bureau of Vaccination at Manila, of which he was president; and regulations were made for public vaccination, which had a marked effect in diminishing the ravages of the smallpox. This governor gave much attention to the construction of public works, one of the more important of these being the highway from Manila to Cavite. He caused the streets of the capital to be lighted at public expense, and paved sidewalks to be built, and made the police system more efficient; he also did much to promote domestic industries. Aguilar endeavored, throughout his term of office, to check the incursions of the Moros. The pirates attacked even the coasts of Luzón in 1793, and an expedition sent out against them in December of that year accomplished almost nothing, being too late and ineffective. In the following year the governor called a council of the leading military officers and other persons experienced in Moro wars and the affairs of the southern islands, where it was shown that the Moros made captive some 500 persons a year, whom they rendered slaves--excepting the old, who "were sold to the inhabitants of Sandakan, who sacrificed these captives to the shades of their deceased relatives or of prominent personages, [2] preserving the skull of the victim as a proof that they had complied with so barbarous a usage." It was shown at this council that during the time from the establishment of the vintas in 1778 until the end of 1793 the colony had spent the sum of 1,519,209 pesos fuertes for vessels, expeditions, wages, etc., in the warfare with the Moros, to say nothing of the losses and destruction caused by the pirate raids. The council resolved to abolish the present equipment of vintas and pancos, replacing these by lanchas carrying cannon, in six divisions of six lanchas and one panco each, with extra pay and honors to the crews; and to repair and strengthen all the forts on the coasts liable to attack. Aguilar attempted to open negotiations for peace with the Moro sultans; but these had no effect, the piracies still continuing. In the summer of 1794, a Portuguese trader of Manila who had carried goods to Joló was treacherously attacked on his return, when near Iloilo, by the same Moros with whom he had traded at Joló; but he defended his vessel bravely, and one of the leading dattos of Joló was killed in the fray. In August, 1795, two vessels of the Spanish royal navy arrived at Manila, with