THE PLANT WORLD 31 



flower in it. Indeed both the men and women are fond of wearing 

 flowers and fragrant leaves. In Plate 5 are three Caroline Islanders 

 adorned with flowers and leaves according to their custom when going to 

 the city. The women carry a small finely-woven bag strapped to their 

 waist, in which they carry their tobacco and betel nut outfit. 



The Guam people treat the Caroline Islanders kindly, but look down 

 upon them as savages and heathen. On one occasion I asked a Chamorro 

 lady why the ladies of Guam do not wear flowers in their hair when 

 going to a fandango. She replied: "Why, Senor, do you take us for 

 Carolinas ! ' ' Some of the Carolinos are beginning to wear clothing 

 when coming to the city, having been told that the Americans objected 

 to their scanty costume. It looks indecent to see a trouserless man walk- 

 ing along the streets wearing a modern hat and a white shirt which con- 

 ceals his breech -cloth ; whereas, in his native costume, his brown skin 

 seems to clothe him amply. 



[In Saipan, one of the northern islands of this group, a colony of 

 Carolinas has been living for many years (since 1839). These are said 

 to be more civilized than those living in Guam. In one of the letter- 

 books of the Guam archives I came across a communication made in 1849 

 by the Governor, Don Pablo Perez, to his superior, the Captain General 

 of the Philippines. Don Pablo had just returned from a visit of inspec- 

 tion to the northern islands of the group. He reported that the Caroline 

 Islanders established on Saipan showed evidence of becoming somewhat 

 civilized. He examined the boys and girls in the school in reading and 

 in the Christian Doctrine and found them ' ' like parrots which talk 

 without understanding what they say, but showing evidence of zeal and 

 careful attention on the part of the school-master." The absence of 

 priests from that island, he said, would make them slow in fitting them- 

 selves for receiving the water of Holy Baptism ; but he charged earnestly 

 the alcalde and the school-master to devote all possible care to the 

 improvement of the Carolinos under their charge, and above all, to keep 

 an eye upon their niorals. A few days after his return from the tour of 

 inspection a canoe arrived at Guam with eight Caroline Islanders from 

 the island of Satawal, about 450 sea miles S. S. E. of Guam, and on the 

 next day two more canoes of the same kind arrived from the island of 

 ' ' Lamuseg , ' ' one with ten men and fifteen women and the other with ten men 

 and six women, all in a state of misery and almost dead from hunger and 

 exposure. They were cared for by order of the governor, and permission 

 was given for them to remain in these islands. "This emigration, from 

 the evidence I was able to get from them, ' ' says the governor, ' ' was caused 

 by a great earthquake followed by an inundation, which swept over the 

 island for several hotu-s, destroying all their crops and the greater part of 

 their fruit trees, in consequence of which the survivors, including those 



