Of iron they have whole mountains in the very vicinity of Manila! (provinces of Pampanga and Bulacan), some of the ores yielding 75 per cent. of metal, and of an excellent quality, this having been ascertained by some Biscayan iron-masters sent out for that purpose. It contains great numbers of magnets. There are some miserable establishments for working and smelting these ores, but on a very small scale; they have only produced cast iron articles, and those of an inferior quality. They have no forging machinery. [98] Cinnabar, lead, and tin are supposed to exist; but of these last there is no certainty. Sulphur is found in the neighbourhood of the volcanoes in considerable quantities, and is an article of export to Bengal and other places: the principal part of it is collected on the island of Leyté, which is next to Samar on the south side of the strait of St. Bernardino. It is collected on the edges of numerous small apertures, which emit at times flames and smoke. These are situated in an extensive plain near the sea-coast in the vicinity of the village of Dulag, on the eastern side of the island. With these natural advantages, and those are not few that still remain to be enumerated, the commerce of this country, like its agriculture, is still in its infancy: and this has been principally owing to two great causes--the trade to Acapulco, and the prohibitory system invariably pursued by Spain in regulating the intercourse with her colonies, and which here has been burdened with an additional weight, the monopoly of the Phillippine Company. It were a task far exceeding the intention and ability of the writer of these remarks to point out the causes and effects of these extensive evils:--a few observations only will be made to elucidate such remarks as may follow on the commerce of Manila. Of the prohibitory system pursued by Spain towards her colonies, it may perhaps be said, with as much justice as of her wars, that it was, "en faire un desert pour s'en assurer l'empire;" [99] for few systems could have been better calculated to assure the first object; the last has miserably disappointed its advocates, and left a striking lesson to the world, at which humanity has cause to rejoice.