242 THE PLANT WORLD 



we have only three species, an eel Oiasule), a. species of Kuhlia (/>?^/a«), 

 and an ugly species of Eliotris, several of which are swimming about in 

 my well. 



Dr. Mayer seemed to enjoy his day. We had some talk about the 

 economic conditions on the island. I was pleased with his attitude 

 toward the natives. He congratulated me on being engaged in work 

 which I find so much to my taste, and said that it was a pleasure to meet 

 a man so contented with his lot. He left me with a cordial invitation to 

 visit him at Cambridge, and on his return to the Albatross sent me an outfit 

 of C5''anide bottles, screw-topped jars, and other things for use in collecting. 

 The cruise of the Albatross is now finished. She leaves here to-morrow for 

 Japan, where the party will take passage in a steamer for San Francisco.* 



Monday, March 12. — Several cases have recently come before me in 

 which merchants have complained of the failure of natives to fulfill con- 

 tracts to supply them with copra (dried coconut meat). The Governor 

 was filled with indignation when I told him of the system by which the 

 crops of the natives are engaged and paid for beforehand, the natives 

 being encouraged by the traders to go into debt as deeply as possible. 

 As a consequence of an interview with him yesterday I have issued the 

 following circular : 



" Government House, Agana, Guam, 



' ' March 12, 1900. 



To the Merchants of Guam : 



" GentIvEmen, The Governor has directed me to inform you that he 

 is now preparing an order in which he forbids the making of copra or 

 other products of the soil the currency of this island. Goods sold must 

 be paid for in money. 



" 2 . The practice of permitting people to make debts by furnishing 

 them with merchandise to be paid for at some future time in copra not 

 yet harvested at the time of making the debt is forbidden. 



" 3. Every encouragement is to be given to industry and thrift, and 

 one of the means to this end will be that the people be paid for their 

 products in money, so that it may be possible for them to practice economy 

 and they will not be obliged to spend immediately the value of the crops 

 reaped by them, and will not be kept in debt. The encouragement of 

 indebtedness is of the same nature as the pernicious system of peonage, 

 in consequence of which persons on this island have been kept for decades 

 under the power of their creditor, being obliged to furnish him with the 

 products of their soil or with the labor of their hands. This is absolutely 

 contrary to the principles of personal liberty which every subject of the 

 United States has the right to enjoy." 



* Reports of some of the results of the Agassiz Expedition to the Tropical Pacific have been pub- 

 lished in the Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. See Vol. XXVI, 

 p. 117, " Some Species of Partula from Tahiti — A Study in Variation," by Alfred Goldsborough Mayer ; 

 and p. 139, " Medusae," by Agassiz and Mayer. See also Vol. XXVIII, "The Coral Reefs of the Tropical 

 Pacific," by Alexander Agassiz. Cambridge : 1903. 



