LITERATURE. L57 
HISTORY. 
The most important historical work relating to the island is Garcia's 
Vida y martyrio de el venerable Padre Diego Luts de Sanvitores (see 
below). This work was dedicated by the author to the Excelentisima 
Sefiora Dofia Maria de Guadalupe, Duchess of Aveyro y Maqueda, 
Duchess of Arcos, since it was by her generosity that its publication 
was rendered possible. It is made up almost entirely from the annual 
reports of the Jesuit missionaries living on the island of Guam and was 
published very shortly after the events it records. It forms the. basis 
of all subsequent histories. 
In the year 1700 there appeared at Paris a little book entitled ** His- 
toire des isles Marianes, nouvellement converties a la religion Chré- 
tienne; et de la mort glorieuse des premiers missionaires qui y ont 
préché la Foy,” par le Pére Charles Je Gobien, de la Compagnie de 
Jesus. The greater part of this work is almost a literal translation of 
the preceding, though in the introduction the name of Padre Garcia 
is not mentioned. Pére le Gobien continued the narrative from 1681 
to 1694. In conformity with the decrees of Pope Urban VIII, and of 
other sovereign pontiffs, Pére le Gobien protests at the beginning of 
the work that he does not pretend to attribute the title of saint, 
apostle, or martyr to the apostolic men of whom he speaks in the his- 
tory. In his work he has used on several occasions simple statements 
of Padre Garcia as themes for elaborate variations, giving speeches of 
natives in the form of direct discourse and sometimes exaggerating In 
a most misleading manner, as in his account of the sensations of the 
natives of Guam when first beholding fire.“ 
In Burney’s Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South 
Sea or Pacitie Ocean, to which reference has already been made, 
there is a résumé of the principal works referring to the Marianne 
Islands. Burney’s work is most interesting and is characterized by a 
broad humanity and sympathy for the simple natives of the islands of 
which he writes and hatred for injustice and oppression, 
Don Luis de Ibafiez y Garcia, in his Historia de las Islas Marianas, 
1886, repeats the historical information given by Pere le Gobien. His 
account of the social institutions, religion, and superstitions of the 
aboriginal inhabitants (chap. 10, p. 73), has nothing to do with the 
natives of Guam, who were ignorant of the gods, the bloody sacrifices, 
and disgusting practices of which he speaks. He tells of crocodiles, 
hogs, and other animals, which were unknown in Guam, and relates 
myths which he had evidently gleaned from some of the Philippine 
tribes. 
—_— 
adSee pp. 99, 100, above. 
