The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-07
OUR LADRoNE ISLANDS.
Their Description md History Since
Their Discovery by Magellan.

4
of the peopling of America from
fore he sailed westward as a naturalized
| Spaniard TO discover the Ladrones and
lose his life in the Philippines. had al
ready, as a native of Portugal, sailed
eastward TO the Spice Islands, a part.
! geographically of the philippines. When
the Portuguese settled in the Spice
Islands they found the natives exchang-
| ing spices for silver and emeralds from
the Ladrones. The Portuguese. however,
were never able to find any mines of
J precious stones or metal in the Ladrones;
| ard the question arose, whence came
/ the silver and emeralds of the Ladrone
! Islanders?" Considering that emeralds
We're not produced in the East Indies,
that the Ladrones had been evidently the
home of an Old civilization and that the
| I.adrone Islanders were still remarkable
as navigators. it was concluded by GER
tain writers that their silver and emer-
| aids were from America; and. this con-
| nection established, il was conJectured
that here lay the answer to the question,
! Whence came the American Indianse'
OF the flying pToas of the Ladrone ISL
anders the reports of travellers are al
! proa filed the early voyager with as
constituent. and its speed with wonder.
This invention" says a recent wriser,
would do credit 10 any civilized ma
ton The stem and stern are alike, and
are very sharp. The boat sails in either
direction. and always with the same side
I to the wind. On the windward side IS a
| long outrigger and al Its extremity is
| log of wood pointed at both ends and
parallel with the boat This prevents tne
| caDsizing of the boat. the lee side OF
| which is vertical. to prevent drifting 10
leeward, while the weather side is built
In the ordinary manner.
| To change the direction of the boat, the
free end of the yard is brought down
while the other is raised. and thus the
direction of the boat is reversed, with
that of the lateen or triangular sail,
while the ouirigger is still to windward.
These proas passed between Magellan s
ships going at full sail and the boats
they towed asteru, 80 quickly and skill
fully that Ii was marvel" Van MORT,
the first Dutch circumnaviSator, says
that Sometimes two hundred Of these
! proas, with four or five men apiece,
would come 10 trade. all hallowing to-
gether Hero, Hero, that is. Iron, Iron.
and with very eaGerness run their proas
upon the ships" Jacques lie Hernite.
who was off the coast of Guam in 1878.
] says tndt the inhabitants CANT Jul SiN
miles to meet him. with all sorts of re-
freshments TO exchange for old iron. and
that there were d hundred and fifty proas
trading with him at one time. An old
/ writer says that .one of these Droas
being dispatched from Guam 10 Manila,
which is iG6 good leagues, performed the
voyage in four days
Dautpier, who was at Guam during one
of his voyages around the world, says:
Il believe they are the fastest boats in
the world. Sailing one by our log. we
had ,welve knots on our reel and the
whole of Il was run out before we he'd
turned the haif-minute glass which was
twelve niles per hour. l believe they
run aear'y twenty-four miles an hour.
! Ma.te-prun speaks of these flying proas
as models Of naval architecture.
From these pIoas Magellan gave the
ISLANDS the appropriate name Isla de las
Velas Lat:nas. Or the Lateen-sail Islands;
hut his sailors called them Ladyone or
: Robber Islands. ffty-eight years later.
he Islands of Thieves. The Ladrone
! islanders were honest among themselves
5 and kind 10 the stranger in distress. In
1888 the ship Conception was wrecked
On one of tbese islands. The natives,
2 writes lie Gobien. gave friendly assist
ance 10 those who were saved OF inc
4 snanish crew. and endeavOred 10 alleviate
= their misfortunes by kind treatment
Prazeres. or The Pleasant Islands, are
among the names that have been given
10 these islands: but since 1863 their Of
= | fetal designa ton in honor OF Marianne
l of Austria has been The Mariannes.
] The first period of their known hist9-s.'.
| 1921 to 1858, is one OF voyage and discpN-
cry That master spirit, Magellan, with
: ! his scurvy-stricxen. starving crew. steered
his failing ships across the waste of va
D | tiers towards the high peak of Rota then
+ southwestward to the evergreen asylum
of Guam Refreshed they proceeded. Ma
I ge!!an 10 his dea h in the Philippines ana
the Victoria to the completion of ner cir
cumnavigation. The Trinidad, endeavor-
| ing to recross the Pacific. touched az two
! other islands of the Ladrones, and three
! sailors ran away. one of whom was picked
i. M five wears later by the ships OF L.oyasa
in still another island of the Ladrones
In 1923 Saavedra took nominal posses
sion. as did Legaspi in 1855, but no settle
ments were made Gaspar and Grijalva.
writing in this latter year, describe the
houses as lofty. neatly built and well di-
vided into apartments, the whole raised
| a story from the earth and supported
upon strong pillars of stone Besides
these dwelling houses the natives had
others for their proas, built likewise with
| great stone pillars. one of which con-
| tanned four large proas. During this pc
Rod Drake, Cavendish, Van Mort Spill
| bergen, ScnOuten, LIE Mare and the Mas
sau fleet, on their way around the world
stopped at the Ladrones and were hearth
Iy welcomed and entertained by the ma
| tives.
The account given by Dampier of the
remarkable bread-fruit tree is the best:
"A certain fruit called the bread-fruit
| growing on a tree as big as our large
| apple trees. with dark leaves. The fruit
| is round and grows on the boughs like
| apples. of the bigness of a good penny
loaf When ripe ii turns yellow. soft
| and sweet: bat the natives take it green.
and bake it in an oven till the rind is
back. This they scrape off and eat the
inside. which is soft and white like the
| inside of new-5aked bread, having neither
seed nor stone; but if ii is kept above
| twenty-four hours, 1t is harsh. AS this
fruit is in season eight months in the
year the natives feed upon no other sort
of bread during that time They told
US that all the Ladrone Isles had plenty
of it. | never heard of it in any o.h-r
| place Little else is known OF the orig
inal fora. but the crops at present are
maize, tobacco and sugar, while cotton
coffee, rice. cocoa and Manila hemp are
| grown and the cocoa-palm is abundant
Deer are numerous and cattle hogs and
| fowls have run wild for more than a
century. There are no snakes in the La
| drones.
The second period, 1868 to 1893 is that of
| conquest. The religious conquest Is rep
resented by the Apostle of Mariana .
Diego Luis de Sanvitores, the scion of an
illustrous house of Old CASTLE, and de-
seconded by his mother from nephew of