36 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



would exceed the amount received for duties. If no guards were sta- 

 tioned the duties would be only imaginary, on account of the bad faith 

 of those who sold and their "lack of delicacy." Moreover, if it 

 should come to light that a sale had been secretly made and the corre- 

 sponding duties on the same be exacted from a foreign captain, his 

 pride and insolence would be apt to compromise the dignity of the 

 authorities beyond all bearable limits or bring about disagreeable con- 

 sequences resembling perhaps an unhappy affair between the ex-Gov- 

 ernor Ganga-Herrero and an English captain, Mr. Stavers, who, in 

 1824, died from injuries received while resisting arrest. In view of 

 these difficulties Villalobos on his own authority ventured to grant 

 free trade between the visiting ships and the islanders. 



PABLO PEREZ. 



Don Pablo Perez began his service as governor of the Mariannes on 

 September 8, 1848. Among the first reports forwarded by him to the 

 captain-general were statistical tables regarding the population of the 

 islands, a list of ships anchoring at Guam, a report of recent hurri- 

 canes, the destruction of crops, and the resulting dearth of food, and a 

 list of the useful woods of the island. He calls attention to the lack 

 of laborers in Guam, especially of men skilled in mechanical trades, 

 and begs that convicts be sent to the island, including mechanics of 

 various kinds and husbandmen or tillers of the soil. He speaks of the 

 presence of a few such men on the island who remained there after the 

 expiration of their terms of imprisonment, and states that these were 

 the only individuals skilled in the use of the plow, carpenter's tools, 

 etc. He comments upon the inadequacy of the method practiced by 

 the natives of cultivating the soil by means of the "fosino," or thrust- 

 hoe/' in consequence of which " their harvests are small which might 

 be large." Don Pablo found the roads and bridges in a deplorable 

 state, owing to the effects of recent floods and hurricanes, and he 

 reported that there was a lack of suitable tools for carrying on public 

 works and of iron for making such tools. Following the hurricanes 

 and floods there was an epidemic, caused probably by a dearth of nutri- 

 tious food, and shortly after this the island was visited by a severe 

 earthquake. In response to the report of this, supplies of rice, maize, 

 and other food were sent to Guam from Manila, together with a relief 

 fund raised by the young ladies and gentlemen of that city by means 

 of theatrical performances for the benefit of the sufferers. Don Pablo 

 acknowledges the receipt of these contributions as follows:* 



The governor of the Mariana Islands in the name of the inhabitants, who do not 

 cease giving thanks to the Almighty for not having succumbed to a desolating epi- 

 demic and the most horrible of earthquakes, which still continue, saw themselves 



See p. 144. 



& Manuscript copy of letter in the archives of Guam, dated October 10, 1849, 



