seem to have been most unsuccessful. In 1867 the society expended a
considerable capital in the erection of smelting furnaces and hydraulic
machinery; but until a very recent date, owing to local difficulties,
particularly the want of roads, it has not produced any copper. [133]

[Paying minus dividends.] In 1869 I heard, in London, that the
undertaking had been given up. According to my latest information,
however, it is certainly in progress; but the management have never,
I believe, secured a dividend. The statement of 1872, in fact, shows
a loss, or, as the Spaniards elegantly say, a dividendo pasivo.

[Igorot-mining successful.] What Europeans yet appear unable to
accomplish, the wild Igorots, who inhabit that trackless range of
mountains, have carried on successfully for centuries, and to a
proportionally larger extent; and this is the more remarkable as
the metal in that district occurs only in the form of flints, which
even in Europe can be made profitable only by particular management,
and not without expense.

[Long-established and considerable.] The copper introduced into
commerce by the Igorots from 1840 to 1855, partly in a raw state,
partly manufactured, is estimated at three hundred piculs yearly. The
extent of their excavations, and the large existing masses of slag,
also indicate the activity of their operations for a long period
of time.

[Copper kettles attributed to Negritos.] In the Ethnographical Museum
at Berlin is a copper kettle made by those wild tribes. Meyer,
who brought it, states that it was made by the Negritos in the
interior of the island, and certainly with hammers of porphyry, as