OUR SMALLEST POSSESSION-GUAM 



By William E. Safford 



Mr Safford was formerly a lieutenant i?i the U. S. Navy, and his cruises took 

 him to many of the islaiids of the Pacific, where he made many notes and collections. 

 He so felt the wa7itof a handy volume describing the luxuriant tropical plants, a large 

 number of which are very useful, that when he later joined the botajiical staff of the 

 Department of Agriculture he resolved to write a book on the subject. This book, a 

 volume of 4.20 pages, profusely illustrated, and with an introductioji by Mr Frederick 

 V. Coville, Curator of Botany , has fist been published by the U. S. National Museum 

 under the title 1 1 The Useful Plants of the Island of Guam. ' ' In it the author describes 

 the principal plants used for food, fiber, oil, starch, sugar, and forage in our tropical 

 islands, and he further includes much inter estijig information about the people of Guam 

 and their descendants. The followi7ig article is based on this report : 



GUAM is considerably larger than 

 Tutuila, the most important 

 of the Samoan Islands owned 

 by the United States, though its chief 

 port, San Luis de Apra, cannot be com- 

 pared with Pango-Pango, our naval sta- 

 tion in the South Pacific, and perhaps 

 the finest harbor in the world. The 

 advantage of Guam as a station for re- 

 pairs and supplies is evident, forming, 

 as it does, a stopping place for vessels 

 between Hawaii and the Philippines. 

 Its strategic importance has been greatly 

 enhanced since j it has been made the 

 landing place of the trans- Pacific cable, 

 and the completion of the Panama Canal 

 will make it still more valuable to our 

 government. 



The extreme length of the island from 

 north-northeast to south-southwest is 

 29 statute miles. Its width is from 7 to 

 9 miles, narrowing at the middle to a 

 neck only 4 miles across. On the north- 

 west coast of this neck is situated Agana, 

 the capital, a city of over 6,000 inhab- 

 itants. The entire population of the 

 island, according to the census of 1901, 

 was 9,676. 



THE COMING OF MAGELLAN 



The Island of Guam was discovered 

 on March 6, 1521, by Magellan, after a 

 passage of three months and twenty 

 days from the strait which bears his 

 name. An account of the privations 



and suffering of his crew, many of whom 

 died on the way across the hitherto un- 

 explored ocean, is graphically given by 

 Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's historian. 

 He describes how the expedition arrived 

 at Guam with the crews suffering from 

 scurvy and in a starving condition, hav- 

 ing been compelled on the passage to 

 eat rats and even the leather from off the 

 standing rigging to keep soul and body 

 together. In comparison with Magel- 

 lan's feat of crossing the vast Pacific, 

 the first voyage of Columbus from the 

 Canary Islands to the West Indies 

 seems insignificant. The natives of 

 Guam came to meet the Spaniards in 

 strange "flying praos " (canoes pro- 

 vided with outriggers and triangular 

 sails of mats). The Spaniards had 

 dropped anchor, furled their sails, and 

 were about to land, when it was dis- 

 covered that a small boat which rode 

 astern of the flagship was missing. 

 Suspecting the natives of having stolen 

 it, Magellan himself went ashore at the 

 head of a landing party of 40 armed 

 men, burned 40 or 50 houses and many 

 boats, and killed seven or eight natives, 

 male and female. He then returned to 

 his ship with the missing boat and im- 

 mediately set sail, continuing his course 

 to the westward. 



The natives did not fare much better 

 at the hands of later visitors. Mission- 

 aries came in 1668. 



