38 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



were handed over to a little Irish doctor named William E. George, 

 who had acted as apothecary on a whaler and had been permitted to 

 take up his residence in Guam; but his private supply of medicines 

 was soon exhausted. Finally the board of directors of the hospital 

 for lepers consented to furnish means out of their own fund for lint, 

 bandages, and drugs to relieve the sufferers, asking the approval of 

 their action by the captain-general. 



On September 1, the governor caused 51 of these convicts, all of 

 whom were farmers by calling, to be distributed over the island, 

 putting them under the charge of the most thrifty cultivators of the 

 soil The principal one of these was the priest of Agat, Fray Manuel 

 Encarnacion, to whom 18 of them were assigned. The governor 

 issued a circular prescribing the conditions under which they were to 

 be employed. The sick were to be kept at Agana under treatment. 

 On the 1st of September there were 14 on the sick list and on October 

 17 all had been put to work but 6. 



CONVICT LABOR. 



The governor apprehended no trouble in allowing the convicts to be 

 scattered over the island so long as there were no ships in harbor, as 

 there was no possible means for them to escape from the island. It 

 was his intention to have them divided into gangs, placed under the 

 surveillance of guards, and employed at as great a distance as possible 

 from the port, as soon as the season for the whalers' 1 visits should arrive. 

 At these seasons there were often fifteen or twenty vessels in the 

 harbor, and as most of them were short-handed, there would be great 

 danger of their smuggling these people on board on the eve of sailing. 

 Those convicts who should misbehave were to be punished by being 

 placed in gangs under a guard and compelled to work in his sight. 

 Those who might become sick or who were returned by their masters 

 as unfit for work or as dangerous subjects, would have to be sup- 

 ported by the Government. The governor asked the captain-general 

 to authorize their subsistence from Government funds under the direct 

 supervision of the governor. 



Scarcely a month had passed when the governor was informed that 

 the convicts had entered into a conspiracy to rise against the authorities 

 and take possession of the island. They were surprised b} T the guard, 

 who tired upon them and charged bayonets. Their leader, Fortunato 

 de los Angeles, "a villain from the Province of Cavite," was taken 

 prisoner, one was killed, and two wounded. The rest scattered through 

 the town and sought refuge in the woods. Before a week had passed 

 all had been captured. The governor in his report to the captain- 

 general says: 



I acknowledge that I was mistaken. Believing that men whom your excellency 

 had pardoned from the punishment of death by your decree of the 11th of last Jan- 

 uary would live grateful of such a boon, I never dreamed that they would rise 

 against the authorities and attempt to make us the victims of their ferocity. 



