Guam

“ I said, "to discover that you can't possibly be on Guam. I see that you know something of astronomy. It won't be taken amiss if you hazard a guess as to where you are, and how you got here."
"I should like to do that, sir," said the Jap corporal, "but it does not seem possible that we should merely have seen a marine patrol, scouting the jungles of Guam, approached them to surrender, and found ourselves in the Kalahari Desert! ”

“ They were formerly most of them well inhabited; and even not sixty years ago, the three principal islands, Guam, Rota, and Tinian together, are asserted to have contained above fifty thousand people: but since that time Tinian had been entirely depopulated; and no more than two or three hundred Indians have been left at Rota to cultivate rice for the island of Guam; so that now Guam alone can properly be said to be inhabited. This island of Guam is the only settlement of the Spaniards ”

“ The natives of Guam are, as a rule, of good physique and pleasing appear- ance. Owing to their mixed blood, their complexion varies from the white of a Caucasian to the brown of a Malay. Most of them have glossy black hair, which is either straight or slightly curly. It is worn short by the men and long by the women, either braided, coiled, or dressed after the styles prevailing in Manila.
Though the natives of Guam are naturally intelligent and quick to learn, little has been done for their education, and many of them are illiterate. ”

“ We ran along the Shore, being satisfied it was the Island of Guam, from whence there came several flying Prows to look at the Ships; they run by us very swift, but none would venture aboard. At Noon the Westermost part of the Island bore West, and at the same time we made a small low Island joining to Guam, with a Shoal between it and Guam; the Island appear’d green and{264} very pleasant, off of it there runs a Spit of Sand to the Southward, but keeping it a good Birth from you as you near it, there’s no Danger, being gradual Soundings to the Shoal. ”

“ This island of Guam is about fourteen leagues long by six broad, and contains several very pleasant vallies, interspersed with fine fertile meadows, watered by many rivulets from the hills. The soil in these vallies is black and very rich, producing plenty of cocoas, potatoes, yams, papaws, plantains, monanoes, sour-sops, oranges, and lemons, together with some honey. The climate is naturally very hot, yet is wholesome, as constantly refreshed by the trade-wind. ”

“ At first they were very doubtful where they had got to, as no shoal was marked on the Spanish charts; but by keeping northward, at four o’clock that evening, the 20th of May, the island of Guam was sighted. On the following day the two vessels came to an anchor on the western side of Guam, about a mile from shore, after a run of seven thousand three hundred and two miles. The Spaniards had here a port and a garrison of thirty men. ”

“ The natives are noted as builders of the most rapidly sailing canoes in the world.
With Guam as a part of the territory of the United States, we have a direct line of possessions across the Pacific, in the order of Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines; while in a northwesterly direction from our Pacific coast we have the islands forming a part of Alaska. By holding all these islands we will be prepared to control practically the commerce of the Pacific, the future great commercial highway of the world. ”

“ As soon as the sun rose we looked out eagerly on all sides for land. Nothing broke the uniform line of the horizon except the foam-topped seas, which rose up tumultuously between us and it. We were driving all this time, it must be remembered, to the southward at the rate, the mate said, of two knots an hour, so that if we had been near Guam when the gale came on we were being driven farther and farther from it, and it would be a hard matter to regain the island. ”

“ After our marriage she was to stay with her sister, or with my friends, the Otano's, on Guam, whilst I made my way to my friend at Amboyna, and got him to provide me with such an amount of trade goods that when I returned to Guam I should be in a position to at once begin trading operations either in the Marianas, with Guam for my headquarters, or else choose some suitable place in the Caroline Archipelago. The boat, I had no doubt, I could sell at San Luis d'Apra, or San Ignacio, and this I intended to do if a fair price was offered me. ”

“ To obviate this difficulty, I must observe that it is not fifty years since the island was depopulated. The Indians we had in our custody assured us that formerly the three islands of Tinian, Rota, and Guam were all full of inhabitants; and that Tinian alone contained thirty thousand souls: but a sickness raging amongst these islands which destroyed multitudes of the people, the Spaniards, to recruit their numbers at Guam, which were extremely diminished by the mortality, ordered all the inhabitants of Tinian thither ”

“ May 10th. “This day at noon we make Serpana one of the Ladron islands, Guam being a few leagues farther ahead. The latitude of Serpana I find to be 13 : 42 N. and the difference of longitude from port Marquiss 121 : 08 W. Nothing worth notice has happen’d in this tedious passage, only burying six of our hands. All our people are very weak, and take the scurvy apace: so that land is now a very welcome sight.”
13. “Anchor at the island of Guam. Send the pinnace ashore with a flag of truce. They tell our lieutenant, they 152 cannot trade with us without leave from the Governer.” ”

“ The rest of these islands, though not inhabited, do yet abound with many kinds of refreshment and provision; but there is no good harbour or road amongst them all. Of that of Tinian we have treated largely already; nor is the road of Guam much better, since it is not uncommon for the Manila ship, though she proposes to stay there but twenty-four hours, to be forced to sea, and to leave her boat behind her. ”

“ This is an inconvenience so sensibly felt by the commerce at Manila, that it is always recommended to the Governor of Guam to use his best endeavours for the discovery of some secure port in the neighbouring ocean. How industrious he may be to comply with his instructions I know not; but this is certain, that notwithstanding the many islands already found out between the coast of Mexico and the Philippines, there is not any one safe port to be met with in that whole track, though in other parts of the world it is not uncommon for very small islands to furnish most excellent harbours. ”

“ The 5th September they came in sight of the Ladrones, and came on the 16th to Guam, one of these an island of about twenty Dutch miles in extent, and yielding fish, cocoa-nuts, bananas, and sugar canes, all of which the natives brought to the ships in a great number of canoes. Sometimes they met 200 of these canoes at one time, with four or five men in each, bawling out hiero, hiero, meaning iron; and often in their eagerness they run their canoes against the ships, overturning them and losing all their commodities. These islanders were a sly subtle people, and honest with good looking after ”

“ Our cargo out, we took in a sufficient quantity of sand ballast, and in June sailed for Manila. Within a week after getting off the coast of California, we struck the southeast trades, and had a most delightful run across the Pacific Ocean, the wind scarcely varying a couple of points for six weeks, when we sighted Guam, one of the Ladrone Islands. As scurvy had made its appearance among our crew, Captain Arthur decided to anchor and lay in a supply of fruit and vegetables. ”

“ These islands are so near the Ladrones that canoes from them have sometimes by distress been driven to Guam, and the Spaniards did once dispatch a bark for their discovery, which left two Jesuits amongst them, who were afterwards murthered. Whence it may be presumed that the inhabitants of the Ladrones, with their proas, may by storms or casualties have been driven amongst those islands. ”

“ The next year, as a result of our little war with Spain for the liberation and independence of Cuba, we acquired Porto Rico, the vast and priceless archipelago of the Philippines, and the small but useful mid-sea islet of Guam. ”

“ As none of the islands are very close together we ran a great risk of passing between them without seeing land, but then again he argued that we might be days or weeks beating up to Guam, and as he could not tell its exact position, we might even pass it after all, while by keeping to the south we might have a better prospect of having fine weather, and finding food on any shore at which we might touch. On the other hand again there was the risk of falling among savages, for the natives of these latitudes were known to be fierce, treacherous, and inhospitable to strangers. ”

“ A broad channel divides the Ladrones into two groups. The northern group consists of ten islets, without inhabitants; the southern group has seven islands, four of which are inhabited. The largest island, Guahan, known to us as Guam, ceded to us by Spain, was taken by our warship Charleston on July 4, 1898. This island contains the only town in the colony. Its full Spanish name is San Ignacio de Agaña. It is the capital of the archipelago, and contains more than half of the whole population. ”

“ The Spanish sergeant, from whom we received the account of the island, having informed us that there were some Indians on shore under his command employed in jerking beef, and that there was a bark at anchor to take it on board, we were desirous, if possible, to prevent the Indians from escaping, who doubtless would have given the Governor of Guam intelligence of our arrival, and we therefore immediately despatched the pinnace to secure the bark, which the sergeant told us was the only embarkation on the place. ”

“ This account delighted the English, and finding themselves masters of the situation, they secured a bark, which was the only vessel capable of giving notice to the Governor of Guam, and prepared to take possession of the island. A large hut, used as a storehouse, was taken possession of as a hospital, and the commodore himself and all his officers assisted in conveying the sick on shore, as he had before done at Juan Fernandez. They were indeed the only persons who had strength sufficient for this service. ”

“ Only at Mindanao I saw one like these, with the Belly and a little Boat only on one side, and the other flat, but not so neatly built.
The Indians of Guam have neat little Houses, very handsomly thatch’d with Palmeto-thatch. They inhabit together in Villages built by the Sea, on the West-side, and have Spanish Priests to instruct them in the Christian Religion.
The Spaniards have a small Fort on the West side, near the South end, with six Guns in it. There is a Governour and 20 or 30 Spanish Soldiers. There are no more Spaniards on this Island, besides 2 or 3 Priests. ”

“ His successors have labored along similar lines and Captain Dorn, governor of Guam in the year of 1908, proclaimed such commendable but rigorous doctrine as this:
“Every resident of the island having no apparent means of subsistence who has the physical ability to apply himself or herself to some lawful calling; every person found loitering about saloons, dram shops or gambling houses, or tramping or straying through the country without visible means of support ”

“ On the 23d the scurvy had made much progress, that there were hardly men enough to work the ships. In the evening of the 25th, they were off the coast of Guam, one of the Ladrones or Mariane islands, the inhabitants coming two leagues out to sea to meet them, with all sorts of refreshments, which they exchanged for old iron, and next morning 150 canoes came off with fruits and garden stuffs. On the 27th a good watering-place was found, where fifty soldiers were landed to protect the seamen. ”

“ When either of them sets out from Acapulco, it is at the latter end of March, or the beginning of April; she always touches to refresh at Guam, one of the Ladrone Islands, in about 60 Days space after she sets out. There she stays but two or three Days, and then prosecutes her Voyage to Manila, where she commonly arrives some time in June. By that time the other is ready to sail from thence, laden with East-India Commodities. She stretcheth away to the North as far as 36, or sometimes into 40 degrees of North lat. before she gets a Wind to stand over to the American shoar. ”

“ If woman be all she is represented to be, lively, charming, and angelic, she is certainly more than this when engaged in offering devotion to Almighty God, and imploring the aid of the divine Savior. The females of Guam are remarkably fair-looking: keen black eyes, long, flowing black hair, smooth complexion, and possessed of a robust and well-rounded form ”

“ The largest islands, next to Guam, are Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, all in the southern part of the group, those in the north being only small volcanic islets, and all of them mountainous. The climate is humid, but moderately warm and not unhealthful. The cocoanut and breadfruit trees are indigenous, but rice, sugar, maize, coffee, tobacco, and indigo are cultivated. The native fauna is very poor, including no mammals except a few rats and bats, and hardly any reptiles or insects. All the domestic animals of Europe, however, have been imported and thrive there. ”