January 6, 1897.J
responded with a shout of devotion and en- thusiasm, offering your lives and property on the altar of your country. Your gallant bear ing in the days of danger guarantees your demeanour while the rebellion lasts. I rely apon your assistance and your numbers, and hope that within a short time your sacrifice and patriotism will be seen to have not been in vain.
Cavite, 15th December.
The provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Manila, and Laguna are still the graat rebel strongholds, but it has also spread into Pampanga, Tayabar, Bateran, and Batanga, while predatory_bands raid the two southern provinces of Luzon, namely, Camarines Norte and Camarines. The Spanish garrison under General Aguirre holds Cavite, though he is surrounded by the rebels on all sides, except on, the coast, which the Spanish fotilla of two cruisers, Reina Cristina and Villabois, and about a dozen small obsolete gunboats dominate. The situation in Manila is a strange one. We are living in a state of siege under martial law, but admirable order is main- tained. Executions of rebels are of such com- mon occurrence that they have quite lost all excitement or novelty. We had 21 yesterday at Cavite, 4 on Monday on the Lunetta of Manila, which is the Manila Bubbling Well Road, a fashionable but more beautiful drive. The suburbs for some four miles are subject to intermittent razzias by the rebels, who, after exchanging a few shots with the Spanish videttes, retire towards Cavite, which is only distant 8 miles by sea. It is now quite im- possible to reach Cavite round the bay, as the western and southern shore is in the hands of the enemy. From where I write we can see the bombardment of the rebels outside Cavite when it takes place, so close are the opposing lines. The outlying roads containing many luxurious residences of both Spaniards and Mestisoes are deserted. All the streets are guarded by troops, but there is no panic, and confidence seems to be again growing. Bands play every afternoon on the Lunetta, society drives out in its best dresses as usual, and the cafés on the Escolta are thronged all day, mostly by officers. The chief danger which the Spanish dread is the spread of the disaffection amongst the native troops forming one-third of the army, number- ing 28,000 Spanish and natives combined. The Spanish troops are mostly very young lads just recruited, while the natives are veterans used to the country and climate. They are treacherous and disloyal, excepting a few regiments but form excellent fighting material for guerilla operations, hardy, brave, and active. They are certainly formidable foes for any fresh European troops to encounter, and I think the Spaniards at first underestimated their power, and every native seems seized with a deadly hatred towards the Spaniards. The Spanish policy seems to be to await the arrival from Spain of overwhelming reinforcements before undertaking any aggressive movements. which on a large scale are not yet possible. Last week the transport Leo Thirteenth brought 1,985 Cazadores (light infantry). All the Spaniards are armed with the new Mauser repeating rifle, but otherwise they do not seem very well sup- plied.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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successor, the Marquis-General. Polaviejo, instructions to the
manager at is more of a typical soldier, of active and ener the August sha 100 feet deepe getic temperament. Yesterday an entire native 300 feet from the surface, where column deserted at Bulacan, taking their rook is expected to be more settled; the lode equipments. Since then 2,000 Spanish troops preserving a more definite line of strike, have been sent up there. The Spaniards holding auriferous quartz in greater continuity the railway station, but the rebels hold the yielding a larger percentage of gold. Thi convent and church a few hundred yards off!
work has been taken in hand and we hope to On Sunday 170 prisoners escaped from Cavite, finish it in about six months at a cost of pro- but nearly all were shot down or retaken. bably $8,000, and you will be pleased to know They surprised the solitary sentinel at meal time that this undertaking will not interfere with and seized a lot of rifles belonging to the guard, the output, as the supply of ore for the mill but they had to abandon most of them in the will be worked through the new shaft. hot pursuit that followed.
month information was received from the mine that a new reef bad been met with in new ground, that the lay of the reef was north and south, the width fully four feet and showing - free gold in payable quantities. This point, however, has not improved as we expected it would from the favourable indications met with; but as the formation is of a very promising nature we still hope to find a valuable lode of ore in this direction. The total drivage for the year is 6,003 feet and the cost $20,155, or an average of $3.35 per foot, which rate will be found to compare favourably with other works of the kind carried out under similar conditions. The mill has been run In my opinion the rebellion is rather social continuously, with the exception of the time than political in its objects, and is largely required for each clean up, and while the old directed against the friars who have over- mill was under repair in the early part of the educated the people, filling them with new year. Both sets of stamps are now in good aspirations, which the example of the recent order and working satisfactorily. During the Japanese successes has stimulated. The Philip-year 12,469 tons of ore passed through the pinos wish to throw off the yoke of the mill, yielding 5,609,4 ounces of melted gold, Europeans. The news of the death of Maceo making an average of nearly half an was received with great elation by the Spaniards.
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The village of Pasig, 7 miles distant, was captured by rebels on Sunday week, but was retaken yesterday. A Spanish column of 2,000 infantry with two guns was despatched to San Jose, in the province of Bulucan, with the object of dislodging the rebels, numbering 800. Both General Blanco and the Marquis Polaviejo wish the China Gazette to be cor- rectly informed as to the progress of the operations, which have now assumed formidable dimensions; but the Spanish do their utmost to hinder the dissemination of all information except it is highly favourable to them or of no importance.
We have now six foreign men-of-war in port. The British cruiser Daphne is moored right up the river, opposite the Magallanes Mouument, where she can protect the immense British interests centred around the wharves; the Pique and Pigmy outside; the French have the gunboat Isly further out, the Germans the Arcona; and now the Japanese have the famous Yoshino. There are great fears of a rising in Manila itself and the Spaniards believe the rebels have many thousands of arms hidden
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away.
Readers in China cannot estimate fully the extent of the movement or the bitterness of feeling on the part of all natives and mestisoes against the Spanish rule. It will take Spain all her resources to restore the island of Luzon to its normal state. At present she only holds Manila and Cavite; every place is either in open rebellion er ready to rise.-H; O'SHEA in China Gazette.
PUNJOM MINING COMPANY, LIMITED.
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ounce to the ton. The amount of our earn- ings, you will note, is far in excess of that obtained in any former period, and if this im- provement goes on during the current year, I trust advantage will be taken of our prosperity and every effort made to introduce large im provements and a more complete and economical plant at the Jalis mine. Some time ago a small furnace was put up at the mine by Mr. Blamey to treat the concentrates by a process of calcination, because we had not hitherto been able to successfully treat them with cyanide, owing to exposure to the air producing the formation of iron salts, which have the effect of coating the tailings with a sulphide impene trable to the cyanide solvent. The action of the furnace has been very satisfactory in re- covering about 70 per cent. of the bullion, thus adding every month to our earnings · about 80 ounces of emelted gold; but as a valuable percentage is still contained in the residue, your Directors have reason to believe that there would be a greater economy in treating the concentrates by a cyanide agitator plant specially adapted to the purpose, by which we shall be able to dispense with calcining and obtain a larger percentage of the precious metal The fifth ordinary general meeting of the at less expense. We estimate the cost of such shareholders in the Punjom Mining Company. a plant, capable of operating 50 tons a month, Limited, was held at the office of the Company, at £300, and have placed ourselves in communis 9, Praya Central, on the 31st December, at noon. cation with the Cassel Company with a view to Mr. D. Gillies presided and there were also pre- obtaining their advice in the matter and an sent--Messrs. W. R. Loxley, J. H. Lewis, C. A. estimate for the vat and machinery. The Tomes (Directors), J. B. Duncan (Secretary).cyanide process has now been steadily at work G. Murray Bain, H. Wicking. Captain Tillett, since the beginning of April, with the excep- W. E. Clement, E. Georg, G. C. Cox. F. H. tion of a stoppage of four weeks during the Hohnke, D. W. Craddock, C. S. Sharp, E. W. month of July for want of cyanide, the Terrey, M. B. Polishwalla, S. B. Bhabba, A. H. supply of which had run short owing to delay Mahomed, Hart Buck, G. C. Anderson, J. R. in sending out the indents from London. Up Michael, and O. Vonder Heyde.
to the 30th September the quantity of tailings bleached in the vats was 3,260 tons, yielding 1,297 ounces of bullion of an estimated valne of $23,172. The percentage of gold realized from the cyanide process is less than we were led to expect, having regard to the results of the assays and experiments made in Glasgow, which were given at 85 per cent., but so far we have only recovered an average of 55 per cent. at a cost of nearly $4 a ton, giving a profit of $9,732 on the seven months' working. cause of the low return from the proce the heavy consumption of cyanide lies in the large quantity of weathered tailings accumulation of years) which had got with the fresh, thereby amount of acidity, which renders the tailings so difficult to tre bas
The SECRETARY read the notice calling the meeting,
Governor-General Blanco in an interview with me stated that 25,000 troops more are coming out at once, which is a sufficient indica tion of the extent of the rebellion, which is supported by at least 100,000 active insurgents, a third or a half of whom are armed with rifles, which they use behind solid earthworks with The CHAIRMAN-Gentlemen, with your deadly effect. Many have only improvised and permission we will follow the usual course barbarous weapons." The leaders are nearly all on such occasions and take the report as Chinese mestisões, as is shown by their photo-read, seeing that it has been in your hands graphs, some of which I have secured. They display undoubted skill in organization and the erection of earthworks, while the natives fight well, though the Spanish have made many gallant attempts to dislodge them. Until the arrival of reinforcements no general movement or decisive attack on Cavite is possible.
Governor-General Blanco leaves at the end of the month (on the 20th inst. in Leo Thirteenth, Spanish mail steamer), to the great regret of the people. The natives trusted him; the Spaniards admired him, while all the foreigners respected his honest record. The Church here, however, rightly regards his removal as a distinct gain. His
for some time. Our efforts during the past year have not quite met with the successful results we hoped for, neither have the deposits found in the workings proved so valuable as we from time to time anticipated; still we have made steady progress with the development of the mine. A large amount of underground work has been carried out and some important discoveries made of both new reefs and of large schutes of ore, which, although of low grade at some points, are yet payable at others, and the indications are all in favour of the value of the ore improving as we continue to open up, in which case we shall shortly have large reserves of ore in sight. Your directors have given
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been made to keep the old tailings separate, but to in handling they have been place most convenient for passin
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