V 



34 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Don Francisco goes on to make the following suggestions: 



First, considering the impossibility of preventing the arrival of foreigners in these 

 islands, they should be obliged to pay at least the established anchorage dues; second, 

 industry and agriculture on the part of the natives should be fostered, obliging them, 

 on their own account and for their own benefit, to engage in producing objects easy 

 of exportation, such as dyewood, indigo, cotton, tortoise shell, mother-of-pearl, 

 arrowroot, and beches de mer, and in the breeding of animals, the more extensive 

 cultivation of land, and the production of wines, brandies, sugar, and other articles- 

 all in accordance with the regulations of good government — which will not be hard 

 to formulate according to the system in force in the Visayan Islands; third, the said 

 freedom of trade will allow the natives to sell their goods, as will be seen; fourth, 

 the royal treasury will continue to send half of the appropriation for the pay of the 

 forces on the island in goods at prices as moderate as practicable; and fifth and last, 

 if national or foreign vessels arrive with articles of commerce, they shall take away 

 with them the equivalent of what they leave in the country in products of the island, 

 and, if they do not wish the latter, they shall be sent away. 



He also suggests that the proceeds from the port dues be applied 

 in part to the payment of premiums to persons who have most excelled 

 in some branch of industry or agriculture or who have been of some 

 benefit to the public. 



By these methods [says Villalobos«], sustained with constancy and intelligence 

 and favored by the docility and good disposition which I observe in the inhabitants 

 of these islands, I believe that the day will really come in which the Marianas 

 will have much money, many goods; that they may without difficulty be self-sup- 

 porting, like other provinces; that ships will concur, and that all amplitude desired 

 will be given to trade. 



Villalobos did much to benefit the people of Guam. In his official 

 letters to his chief he reports, among other things, the segregation 

 of lepers and provision for their care and comfort; the appointment 

 of hunters to supply the leper hospital with fresh meat by killing- 

 wild hogs and cattle; his efforts to encourage commerce, so that Guam 

 may derive profit, like the Hawaiian Islands, from the visiting 

 whalers; the vaccination of the natives as a protection against small- 

 pox; the reorganization of the urban militia; proposed reforms in the 

 administration of the college for the education of native children; 

 efforts to promote the cultivation of coffee, "which article may be the 

 wealth of this country;" the condition of agriculture on the island; 

 the preparation of the large marsh east of Agana for the cultivation 

 of rice; the injuries to maize caused by rats and weevils, and the con- 

 sequent restriction of its cultivation to amounts barely sufficient for 

 the needs of each family; the substitution of taro and yams for maize, 

 when the latter has been destroyed by hurricanes, and the use of 

 plantains and bananas as food staples instead of bread; the cultivation 

 of sweet potatoes for supplying vi.siting ships; the excellence of the 

 pineapples and the use made of pineapple fiber; the fine quality of Guam 



fl Letter book, January 18, 1830. 



