24 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



along the beach and around the town, making Agana an enchanting 

 place. Crozet is undoubtedly wrong in his statement as to the intro- 

 duction of many of these plants. It is certain that maize was culti- 

 vated in Guam as earty as 1676, nearly a hundred years before 

 Tobias's time; for Padre Garcia states that the natives in that year 

 destroyed the maize plantation, which was the principal sustenance of 

 the missionaries and the soldiers." Rice and sugar cane were cultivated 

 by the aborigines before the advent of the Spaniards. Many of the 

 improvements attributed by Crozet to Tobias were due to the Jesuits, 

 though it is undoubtedly true that he encouraged agriculture and other 

 useful arts, and in all probability introduced domestic animals, as well 

 as the deer which now overrun the island. What the Jesuits did for 

 the island is shown by the documentary evidence left behind them. 

 Crozet speaks of the use of cattle for draft animals, and says that 

 then, as now, they were ridden like horses and that each family of 

 natives had several riding beasts. 



La Perouse, who visited Manila in 1787, has given the following 

 account of Tobias's ^iubsequent misfortunes: 



I saw at Manila that virtuous and upright governor of the Ladrones, M. Tobias, 

 who, unhappily for his repose, has been too much celebrated by Abb6 Raynal. 

 I saw him persecuted by the monks, who, representing him as a wretch desti- 

 "tute of piety, have alienated the affections of his wife, who has even demanded to be 

 separated from him, that she might not live with a reputed reprobate, and all 

 the fanatics have applauded her resolution. M. Tobias is the lieutenant-colonel of 

 the regiment which forms the garrison of Manila, and is known to be the best officer 

 in the country, yet the governor has ordered that his appointments, which are con- 

 siderable, should be paid to this pious wife, leaving him only $26 a month for his. 

 own subsistence and that of his son. This brave soldier, reduced to desperation, was 

 waiting for a proper opportunity to quit the colony in order to obtain justice. * 



It is interesting to read Crozet's description of Agana as it was in 

 1872, six years before the rediscovery of the Hawaiian Islands by Cap- 

 tain Cook. He gives the population as about 1,500 natives. 



There is a beautiful church, decorated according to the Spanish custom. The 

 commandant's house is spacious and well built. The former residence of the 

 Jesuits, now occupied by the St. Augustinian Brotherhood, is spacious and conve- 

 nient, but the fine Jesuits' college, built for the education of the Indians, is not 

 inhabited, their successors, the Augustinians, hax'ing removed the college to a build- 

 ing near the convent. There is a barracks capable of lodging a garrison of 500 men, 

 and there is the King's fine, large magazine. All these buildings are of brick and 

 tile. The island of Guam is the only island in the vast extent of the South Sea, 

 sprinkled as it is with innumerable islands, which has a European-built town, a 

 church, fortifications, and a civilized population. 



On leaving Guam Crozet carried two plants of the breadfruit with 

 him to the island of Mauritius. 



« Garcfa, Mda y martyrio de Sanvitores, p. 554, 1683. 



6 La Perouse, Voyage Around the World, vol. 2, p. 285, 1807. 



