THE MODERN INHABITANTS. 1338 
Pronace.—Before the arrival of the Americans in Guam it was the 
practice of certain enterprising citizens of the island to encourage the 
natives to go into debt, advancing them goods or money for the use 
of their families or for the payment of funeral expenses and masses 
for the dead, in order to engage in advance as much copra as possible 
or to secure labor for their fields. As a rule very poor wages 
were paid; the employer by managing to make further advances from 
time to time increased rather than diminished the debt and kept the 
debtor in continuous servitude. A written contract was always drawn 
up before the first loan would be advanced, by means of which the 
debtor promised to work for his creditor until his indebtedness should 
be canceled.“ Shortly after the American occupation complaints were 
received by our officials that certain servants had ‘* escaped,” and atten- 
tion was called to the system by which improvident or unfortunate 
natives were virtually made slaves, having sold themselves into bond- 
age. By order of the governor all contracts binding natives to labor 
in consideration for money advanced to them were declared void and 
the natives were permitted to work where they could get the best 
price for their labor, and to pay their creditors in money. Barter, or 
exchange of produce for imported goods, was also forbidden; so that 
the natives were not obliged to accept articles of which they really 
had no need, but were paid in money, and thus might begin to accumu- 
late capital to serve them in time of necessity. Not only was this a 
benefit in itself, but it allowed them to spend their money where they 
could do so to the best advantage, whereas under the old order they 
were obliged to accept what the traders, to whom they had mortgaged 
their crops, chose to give them. 
Lanor.—The natives of Guam have often been accused of laziness 
because they will not voluntarily raise large crops nor work as day 
laborers for others. Don Felipe de la Corte, one of the wisest and 
best of the Spanish governors, says, however, it does not follow 
because they did not cheerfully obey orders to plant excessively large 
crops for the benetit of others that they are naturally indolent. Not- 
withstanding the fact that they had at times produced more food than 
could possibly be consumed, there was no provision for storing it, 
and when hurricanes laid waste their fields they found themselves as 
before, without resources, and consequently they thought it was better 
for them ‘*to work little than to work in vain. Owing to this they 
are accused of laziness, which they are far from manifesting when 
they clearly see the good accomplished by their labor.” 
~ Governor Schroeder, in his oflicial report to the Navy Department, 
says: 7 
In the study of this question [exploitation of the unoccupied public land] account 
must be taken of a noticeable trait of the Chamorro character, viz, the pride and 
“See Plant World, vol. 7, p. 26, 1904, 
