The New Student's Reference Work/Mindoro

Mindoro (mḗn-dō′rṓ), one of the Philippine Islands, containing, it is estimated, about 4,050 square miles. It lies directly south of Manila Bay, having for its capital Calapan, 120 miles from Manila. It formerly was inhabited by the Tagalogs, but various expeditions of the Moros greatly reduced the native population. Others died from cholera and fever some years ago, when an epidemic among their herds carried off all their buffaloes and rendered cultivation of the soil impossible. The once rich rice-fields have for the most part gone back to tropical wilderness. In the interior are mountains rising 8,000 feet. The native races in these mountain fastnesses are greatly distrusted by those nearer the coasts. The population is supposed to be in the neighborhood of 28,000; but dread of the Sulus has kept the native races so far from the sea that but little is really known about them.