128 rSEFVL PLAXTS OF GUAH. 



to his assif^tant, and 46 pesos for the minor expenses attending the 

 education of "poor children."" 



The education dispensed was of the most elementary nature. At 

 times it consisted of a course in "music and primary letters" and in 

 giving- to a few boys sufficient instruction to serve as acolytes for the 

 priests. ^lany of the governors disapproved of the higher education 

 of the natives. Don Francisco Yillalobos suggested to the captain- 

 general that the college be abolished and that the funds be applied to 

 ■■general education, to repairs and ornaments of the churches, and to 

 the improvement of government buildings and priests" residences on 

 the island."' He also recommended that the schoolhouse be converted 

 into an inn or guest house for the entertainment of strangei-s. and that 

 the iixed income therefrom be applied to goverimient purposes. 



The 'jupils, it was asserted, were injured rather than benefited b^' 

 their ect ^cation and rendered untit for future usefulness. On entering 

 'fr i colleji'e they soon forgot the misery and poverty of their homes, 

 and during their stay of five or six years became accustomed to good 

 food, clothing, and lodging, without learning any trade by which they 

 might aftei-wards earn a living and without forming habits of industry. 

 The discipline was declared to be bad. and everytliing tended to make 

 the students incompetent to earn their living, discontented with their 

 lot, and, the more quick-witted among them, thorns in the side of the 

 governor, who was often obliged to impose '■correctional punish- 

 ments"" upon them." 



Another governor, Don Felipe de la Corte, recommended that the 

 education of the nati\"es be limited to the merest rudiments, to avoid 

 their acquiring a superficial knowledge of the more advanced branches 

 of learning, which would lead to pretensions on their part to be men 

 of education. Such persons, he declared, gave more trouble to the 

 authorities than any other class and were a disturbing element among 

 the natives. In spite of Don Felipe's recommendation the captain- 

 general at ^Manila did not see fit to divert the fund from its original 

 object. 



From these and other extracts from the archives it is easily seen 

 that the Spanish governors of the island of Guam discouraged the 

 higher education of the natives not because they thought them inca- 

 pable of receiving it, but liecause they believed they would be more 

 tractable if they remained ignorant. 



SOCIAL IXSTITrXIOXS AN'D CCSTOMS. 



Maebiage. — The natives marry at a comparatively early age, and 

 the voung couple, though they may continue to live with the family 

 of the bride or of the groom in the town residence, usually enter into 



a Don Francisco Villalobos, letters to the captain-general of the Phihppines, inedited, 

 November 16, 1831, and Febraary 9, 1833. 



