36 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
would exceed the amount received for duties. If no guards were sta- 
tioned the duties would be only imaginary, on account of the bad faith 
of those who sold and their ‘‘lack of delicacy.” Moreover, if it 
should come to light that a sale had been secretly made and the corre- 
sponding duties on the same be exacted from a foreign captain, his 
pride and insolence would be apt to compromise the dignity of the 
authorities beyond all bearable limits or bring about disagreeable con- 
sequences resembling perhaps an unhappy affair between the ex-Gov- 
ernor Ganga-Herrero and an English captain, Mr. Stavers, who, in 
1824, died from injuries received while resisting arrest. In view of 
these difficulties Villalobos on his own authority ventured to grant 
free trade between the visiting ships and the islanders. 
PABLO PEREZ, 
Don Pablo Perez began his service as governor of the Mariannes on 
September 8, 1848. Among the first reports forwarded by him to the 
captain-general were statistical tables regarding the population of the 
islands, a list of ships anchoring at Guam, a report of recent hurri- 
anes, the destruction of crops, and the resulting dearth of food, and a 
list of the useful woods of the island. He calls attention to the lack 
of laborers in Guam, especially of men skilled in mechanical trades, 
and begs that convicts be sent to the island, including mechanics of 
various kinds and husbandmen or tillers of the soil. He speaks of the 
presence of a few such men on the island who remained there after the 
expiration of their terms of imprisonment, and states that these were 
the only individuals skilled in the use of the plow, carpenter’s tools, 
etc. He comments upon the inadequacy of the method practiced by 
the natives of cultivating the soil by means of the “‘ fosifio,” or thrust- 
hoe,“ in consequence of which ‘‘their harvests are small which might 
be large.” Don Pablo found the roads and bridges in a deplorable 
state, owing to the effects of recent floods and hurricanes, and he 
reported that there was a lack of suitable tools for carrying on public 
works and of iron for making such tools. Following the hurricanes 
and floods there was an epidemic, caused probably by a dearth of nutri- 
tious food, and shortly after this the island was visited by a severe 
earthquake. In response to the report of this, supplies of rice, maize, 
and other food were sent to Guam from Manila, together with a relief 
fund raised by the young ladies and gentlemen of that city by means 
of theatrical performances for the benefit of the sufferers. Don Pablo 
acknowledges the receipt of these contributions as follows:? 
The governor of the Mariana Islands in the name of the inhabitants, who do not 
cease giving thanks to the Almighty for not having sueeumbed to a desolating epi- 
demic and the most horrible of earthquakes, which still continue, saw themselves 
@See p. 144. 
6 Manuscript copy of letter in the archives of Guam, dated October 10, 1849. 
