Note 16 — Chapter V · That your Majesty possesses in the Filipinas enormous wealth, even with the little effort made to realize it.

After the Spaniards founded the city of Manila and reduced that island to peace, they learned that in some mountainous regions which lie about forty leguas from the city, in the province of Pangasinan, there were many mines of gold, according to the information which the Indians gave them; but that they were inhabited by warlike and barbarous Indians, [252] who never permitted those of the plains to go up there. This was known because they came down at certain times of the year to buy a quantity of cattle, and brought a great deal of gold. On this information, although it was somewhat indefinite, Guido de Labaçares, who governed at that time, sent a number of soldiers to climb up the mountain.16 These, being unprovided with necessities, and fewer in number than were needed, encountered much resistance from the natives. As the country is rough, and their food soon failed them, they went back, many of them ill. Although they brought some information, it was not sufficient to encourage the governor or to cause him again to further the enterprise. Therefore, little by little, this knowledge was fading away among the Spaniards, notwithstanding that the religious who ministered in the neighboring provinces were well informed, and certain Indians told them of it. Accordingly, considering the host of vexations, injuries, and losses, and the diminution of numbers that are suffered by the Indians in all the Western Indias on account of the labor in the mines, the Order of St. Dominic especially, who administer the province of Pangasinan, have tried with all their might to cover up this information, on account of this fear which possesses them.