No Indian ever works systematically, or lays up anything for a possible future time of need. The tax-gatherer is at hand, and in a desultory way the native manages to get sufficient of the wherewithal to satisfy his greed. Or a holiday approaches, and there must be a few dollars to gamble away in the cock-pit. All this is done in the intervals of other work,--the planting of his own land, or the gathering of the rice-harvest for his employer. The gold lies about him, upon which he can draw at pleasure for his extra relaxations or needs. It is always there, has always been, will always be there. Why should he trouble himself further? Mining, scientifically considered, as carried on in Europe and in America, is unknown in the Philippines. Nevertheless, from the first, so far as draining is concerned, operations have been conducted on sound engineering principles. The natives cling to ancient customs, and reject explosives of every sort, using instead the work of myriads of human hands; but they have been rewarded by obtaining thousands of ounces of gold. For instance, in draining the mines, the shafts are filled with men that bail out the water with small buckets made of palm leaf, and holding about two gallons. These are passed from hand to hand, and this seems to serve their purpose quite as well as a more modern method. To an Anglo-Saxon the slowness of the process would, of course, be intolerable. The natives wash the river-sands, or grind the alluvial deposits between stones. In the latter instance the whole mass is thrown into grates, when the metal sinks to the bottom. In the mines the rocks are broken with hammers, and the quartz pulverized between mill-stones; then dissolved. By this means the gold is separated. The inhabitants of one province cut a basin in the top of a mountain and conducted water to it through canals of palm-leaf. As they dug, the stratifications of gold revealed themselves and the quartz was detached. In another province a hillock has been cut down to sea-level, and large quantities of paying quartz must have been obtained, as the natives never work long without reward. Mambulao is on the island of Luzon. It means in Bicol language, "the place of gold." Here is an abandoned mine, worked by the ancient methods. The records say that, in its time, it produced weekly sales of gold, amounting to one thousand ounces. On the other hand, the Spaniards have conducted their mining operations without enterprise and without ingenuity, and during the last twenty-five years they have spent nearly a million and a half dollars, with results that are totally unsatisfactory.