THE MARIANA ISLANDS. 79 



abortion, and threw their own offspring into the 

 water, being convinced that, by tliis premature 

 death, which woukl deUver them fiom misery and_ 

 trouble, they conferred happiness and salvation 

 upon them. Thus they considered dependance 

 as the greatest and most intolerable wretchedness. 

 An epidemic disorder also contributed ; which, in 

 the beginning of the century, carried off almost all 

 that remained." — Fra. Juan de la Conception, 

 Historia de Philippinas, t. vii. p. 348. 



Don Pedro Murillo Velarde gives the same pic- 

 ture, with the same circumstances. We willingly 

 leave it to the Spaniards to speak for themselves. 



The original population, according to Fra. Juan 

 de la Conception, was 40,000 j according to Mu- 

 rillo Velarde, 44,000. It is said, in the Nouveau 

 Voyage a la Mer du Sud (Marion), that the popu- 

 lation formerly above 60,000, had decreased to 

 8 or 900. The remnant of the natives were collected 

 on the islands of Guahon and Saypan, in 1695 ; 

 and, on the sickness which broke out immediately 

 after, on the former island alone. After the census, 

 without any date of the year, which Murillo Velarde 

 (published in Manilla, 1749,) communicates as 

 the latest account, there were 1738 inhabitants. 

 The population had increased, in the year 1783, 

 to about 3231 j and, in 1816, to 5389 souls. * 



* It must not be forgotten, that, in former times, hundreds of 

 Philippine islanders were brought to Guahon, to increase the 

 mission ; and that their descendants are reckoned in these 

 census. 



