THE PI.ANT WORLD 151 



and work in our fields. If it were not for this none of us could live." 

 He also said that he had been having trouble on account of chicken 

 thieves. Since the Americans have come chickens are becoming scarce, 

 and the prices have risen. Men sent to buy them can not always find 

 enough to satisfy the demand, and they do not fear discovery very much, 

 since the chickens are killed at once and can not be identified. If 

 things keep on in this way there will soon be a dearth of chickens on 

 the island. Pigs are also becoming scarcer, and it looks as though it is 

 only a question of time when all the cattle will be killed off. 



Monday, September 25. — Dotia Ana Pangelinan called on me to-day, 

 accompanied by her sister, Dofia Rosa, the wife of Juan Martinez, the 

 silversmith. These ladies are daughters of the late Don Vicente Pange- 

 linan, a most talented man, to whose many good qualities and remarkable 

 versatility Don Francisco Olive y Garcia pays a high tribute.* Dona Ana 

 stated that she wished to bring action against Don Joaquin de Leon 

 Guerrero y Espinosa, who is in unlawful possession of a tract of land be- 

 longing to her, she having inherited it from her father. I sent for Don 

 Joaquin, who is the official armorer of the native artillery company, an 

 excellent blacksmith, and a very thrifty, industrious man. He stated 

 that the land in question had originally been granted to an agricultural 

 syndicate, called " L,a Sociedad Agricola de la Concepcion," for cultiva- 

 tion. The company had failed and the usufruct of it, not the ownership, 

 had afterwards been granted to Don Vicente Pangelinan. Don Vicente 

 did nothing whatever to improve the property, which consisted princi- 

 pally of an overgrown swamp. With his knowledge and consent Don 

 Joaquin went to work, cleared the land, and prepared it for the cultiva- 

 tion of rice, often for days at a time standing waist deep in the mire 

 cutting down trees and shrubs and clearing away thickets of cane and 

 ferns. The remainder of the land had continued without improvement ; 

 and now the young lady wished to deprive him of the fruit of his work, 

 to drive him away from the fine plantation which he had created from an 

 unkempt marsh. He also stated that the Spanish authorities had already 

 taken action in the case and refused to deprive him of the fruits of his 

 toil. On consulting the records I found that the case had indeed been 

 decided by the courts of the island, and I refused to reconsider it. 



The young lady has a good deal of land lying idle ; and like every- 

 body else on the island she can not get any one to work for her. The 

 only incentive to labor here is self-interest ; and where each person has 

 a plot of land of his own, it is not strange that he should prefer to reap 

 all the profits of his labor rather than to share them with another. 

 Several citizens of the island own vast tracts of land for which they pay 



* Islas Marianas ; por Francisco Olive y Garcia, Teniente Coronel, ex-Gobernador P. M. Manila, 

 1887. P. 83. 



