THE MODERN INHABITANTS. 127 
tances apart to rest the cooking utensils upon, high enough to admit 
of fagots under the pots, gridirons, and frying pans. The cooking 
of the present day is very much ‘after the manner of that in Mexico. 
The excavated ovens of the aborigines are little used except on 
‘anches, and baking is done in dome-shape ovens of masonry which 
were probably introduced from Mexico. (II. XXI, fig. 1.) Bread 
and breadfruit are baked. Yams and taro are baked or boiled or first 
boiled and then baked inashes. Venison and beef are fried or broiled, 
and fish is cooked in various ways. Coconut oil, when fresh, is used 
in cooking and is a good substitute for lard and butter. Coconut 
custard, expressed from the grated meat of ripe coconuts, is used in 
various combinations, giving a pleasant rich flavor to the dishes into 
which it enters. Arrowroot of Zucea pinnatifida is used for certain 
sweetmeats, and preserves or dulces are made of soursops, citrons, and 
fruits of various kinds. Maize is made into a paste and baked in the 
form of tortillas, after the Mexican fashion. Tender leaves of taro 
and other greens are used in place of spinach and asparagus. Coffee 
and chocolate are ground upon the stone used for making tortillas. 
Bread of excellent quality is made from imported wheat flour, fer- 
menting coconut sap being used to leaven it. This sap, when boiled 
fresh. is converted into sweet syrup and brown sugar. When the fer- 
mentation is allowed to continue it yields vinegar of excellent quality. 
Salt is evaporated from sea water in iron kettles. (Pl. XXI, fig. 2.) 
Nearly every native is addicted to the use of tobacco and to the habit 
of betel chewing.  Fermenting tuba (coconut sap) is a refreshing 
drink like cider, and is the common beverage of laborers. Formerly 
a kind of rum called aguardiente, or “aguayente,” was distilled from 
iton the island. The distillation of this liquor is no longer permitted. 
The use of opium is unknown. 
MENTAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
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. The college of San Juan de Letran was founded by Queen 
Maria Anna of Austria, widow of Philip IV, who settled upon it 
an annual endowment of 3,000 pesos. Through misappropriation and 
dishonesty the annual income of the college gradually dwindled to 
about 1,000 pesos. The greater part of this was absorbed by the 
rector, who was usually the priest stationed at Agana, and by the 
running expenses of the school, which were the subsistence and wages 
paid to janitor, porter, steward, doctor, and the lighting of the building. 
A head herdsman was employed with two assistants to look out for the 
‘attle belonging to the school. All of these men were paid salaries, 
so that there remained for actual expenses of instruction only 192 
pesos a year, 98 pesos of which were paid to the head master, 48 pesos 
