The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-03
appearance: Rota. with 500 inhabitants

and Guam
Guam, or Guajan. the sorthernmost
and largest Of the islands, is % miles
long. and has population OF about
5000. two-thirds of whom are in Agana
and nearly all the rest uDon
the seaboard. the country inland being
almost without inhabitants. Agana,
1t IS beautifully clean. and possesses
the capital. is also a convict settlement.
good government officials. a hospital.
schools and a church.
The Spanish residents have usually
numbered about 20, and the regular
soldiery about 200. all quartered here
Inc miltia, comprising about all the
male population, is commanded by ma
tive officers The civil government is
similar to that of the Philippines. Post
al communication has been quarterly.
When first discovered the Ladrones
had population of about $4,000. Not
one or the original race survives, and
the islands are peopled chiefly by Ia
gals and Bisayans from the Philip
pines, mixed descendants of South Am
erican Indians, a colony of Caroline
islanders, who founded Garapan. in the
island Of Saipan, and numerous cha
morro-Spanish half-breeds. The CEN
sus OF 1888 reports a population of SAG
IN Agana, and total of 10172 in all the
islands, 1904 being males and 5,13S fe-
males. There are is schools in the
island Of Guam. Only 10 per cent of
the Ladrone Islanders are unable to
read and write Spanish is the recog-
nized language, but many of the ma
tiveS speak a little English. The eli
mate is good and equable; 20 TO so de-
grees Fahrenheit is the range of the
thermometer
The first period of their known his
tory, 1871 to 1868, is one OF voyage and
discovery. That master spirit Magel-
Ian. with his scurvy-stricken starving
crew, steered his failing ships across
the waste of waters towards the high
peak of Rota, then southwestward to
the evergreen asylum of Guam Re
freshed, they proceeded. Magellan to
his death in the Philippines. and the
Victoria to the completion Of her cir
COMMUNICATION The Trinidad, endeav-
ortng to recrosS the Pacific, touched at
two other islands of the Ladrones. and
three sailors ran away, one of whom
was picked up five years later by the
ships of Loyasa in still another island
of the Ladrones.
In 1928 Saavedra took nominal poses
sion, as did Legaspi in 1865, but no set
tlement was made. During this period
Drake, Cavendish, Van MORT. Spill
bergen, Schouten, LIE Marie and the
Nassau fleet, on their way around the
world. stopped at the LadrOnes and
were heartily welcomed and enter
tanned by the natives.
The account given by Dampier of the
remarkable bread fruit tree is the best:
"A certain fruit called the bread fruit
grows on tree as big as our large ap-
pie 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. it turns yellow, soft
and sweet; but the natives take it
green and bake it in an oven till the
rind is black.
This they scrape off and eat the in
side. which is soft and white, like the
inside of new-baked bread, having
neither seed nor stone; but if it is
kept "a hours it 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 LadrOnes isles had plenty
of ii. 1 never heard of it in any other
place" Little else is known of the
original flora, 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 cat
tie, hogs and fowls have run wild for
more than a century. There are no
snakes in the Ladrones.
The second period, 1868 to 1893, is that
of conquest. The religious conquest is
by the Apostle of Mari
ana" Diego Luis de Sanvitores, the
scion of an illustrious house of old Cas-
tile, and descended by his mother from
a nephew of the Cid. He gave up the
most brilliant prospect of court prefer
ment to enter the order of the Jesuits.
He arrived at the Ladrones with five
other priests and some lay assistants
in 1868. He established his faith in Is
of the islands, founded eight churches
and three seminarieS, baptized $4,000
natives, and was killed in 1872, at the
age of 45, while successfully attempt
ing to baptiZe baby against the will
Of its parents. His monuments a few
miles northwest of Agana.
The political conquest is represented
by soldiers who came with Sanvitores
and by others who came later.
Burney, in his Voyages says: of
all the intercourse of Europeans with
the natives of the South Sea islands.
the settlement of the LadrOnes by the
Spaniards has been the most unfOr-
tunate."
In the war of determination we be-
come acquainted with the original ma
tives of the Ladrones, called ChamOr-
ros, meaning friends" word of salu-
tation among those islanders.
The third historical period. 1899 to |
1898, is a chain of administrations by a
of governors appointed by I
the governor general of the Philip |
pines, the last of whom, General MARI |
IA, with his secretary, Port Captain |
Duarta, Lieutenant Gutierrez and two /
)ther lieutenants, Sergeant Romeio and |
a soldiers, was taken prisoner by the /
cruiser Charleston June q, 1898.