EARLY NAVIGATORS. 13 



and his death was avenged by the burning* of villages, boats, and boat- 

 houses, and by killing men, women, and children." They were branded 

 by their discoverers with the name of ladrones (thieves) for stealing a 

 boat and some bits of iron. The early navigators themselves did not 

 hesitate to steal husbands from their wives and fathers from their 

 children. 



DUTCH NAVIGATORS. 



Among the Dutch who visited the island was Oliver van Noort, who 

 touched at Guam in 1600 on his way from the South American coast 

 to Manila. About 200 canoes came off to meet him, bringing fish, 

 fruit, rice, fowls, and fresh water to exchange for iron. He was 

 followed in 1616 by the Dutch admiral, J oris Spilbergen, in command 

 of a fleet fitted out by the Dutch Company, which was on its way to 

 the Moluccas by the westward route; and in 1625 by the Nassau fleet, 

 organized in Holland against Peru, and commanded ~hy Jacob l'Here- 

 mite. One hundred and fifty canoes came off to meet them, to traffic 

 with coconuts and yams. The fleet watered at the island, and in 

 exchange for iron procured rice, fowls, coconuts, yams, and bananas. 

 Coconuts were observed in inexhaustible quantities; rice was culti- 

 vated in many places, and the natives sold it hy weight in bales of 

 seventy to eighty pounds each. The Hollanders considered it unsafe 

 for their men to ramble about the island singly or unarmed. 



SAILING ROUTES IN THE PACIFIC. 



Guam was reckoned seventy da}^s from New Spain, as Mexico was 

 then called. After the founding of Manila regular traffic was estab- 

 lished between the coast of Mexico and the Philippines. The first port 

 selected as a place of departure on the Mexican coast was Navidad, but 

 Acapulco was substituted later. The vessels would leave Mexico each 

 year in February or March, shaping their course a little to the south- 

 ward until they reached the latitude of Guam, when they would con- 

 tinue due west until they reached that island. This season was chosen 

 in order to avoid the westerly monsoon in the Philippines, which 

 usually sets in about the middle of June. The vessels returned b}>- 

 a northerly route in order to avoid the trade winds and the adverse 

 equatorial current. Both the Mariannes and the Philippines were 

 made dependencies of New Spain and were ruled by the viceroy residing 

 at the City of Mexico. 



JESUIT MISSIONARIES. 



On his way from New Spain to the Philippines in one of the regular 

 vessels, Padre Diego Luis Sanvitores, a Jesuit priest, touched at Guam 

 and was moved to pity at the sight of the natives living in spiritual 



a See narrative of the expedition under Miguel Lopez Legazpi, which visited Guam 

 x n 1565, in Burney, Chron. Hist., vol. 1. 



