$6 M. DE GUIGNES’ OBSERVATIONS OH
Marian iflands, where it waits for intelligence from Manila , renews its water, and takesin provifions: it then continues its way, making for Cape Efpiritu Santo, in the iflandof Samar, enters the ftrait of San Bernardino, and arrives at Manila in June. On itsarrival there is conftantly another veflfel ready prepared to depart.
The galeons are the property of the King : they meafure from twelve to fifteenhundred tons, and mount from fifty to fixty guns. The King appoints the officers, andpays the crew. The captain has the title of general, and bears the flandard of Spain at the main malt; his place produces him annually twenty thoufand dollars ; on thisaccount it is given by the governor only to thofe he favours. Each failor receivesthree hundred and fifty pieces of eight, of which feventy are paid him at Manila andthe refidue at Acapulco. The complement of men, including paffengers, is fix hun-dred. On returning, as the cargo is not bulky, the lower tier of guns is mounted,which when outward-bound is lodged in the hold, and the veflel is reinforced by theaddition of two companies of marines.
It is aftonifhing that the Spaniards, in quitting the ftrait of San Bernardino , do nothear to the north-eaft, or even more towards the north, inftead of eaft-north-eaft,which is their common practice ; and that when they attain thirty degrees north theyfhould continue to preferve that latitude, fince, if they afeended as high as thirty-fix oreven forty degrees, they would have ftronger winds from the weft, and would confe-■quently much fhorten their voyage ; but the captain of the galleon is obliged to followhis inftructions, however unfavourable to his fpeedier arrival in the region of rain, anarticle indifpenfable for the prefervation of his crew. Will it be believed that men can
Humata in April 1787 : the circumference of the ifland is from thirty to forty (Spanifli) leagues ; theport is denominated San Luis de Apra ; three leagues diitant from it is the city ot Agana, the capital ofthe Marianas . Of theiflands which form this chain, feventeen in number cxclufive of iflets, the only onespeopled are Guam , Rota or Scypan, called alfo St. Jofeph.
Thefe iflands were called originally de los Ladrones (the Hands of Thieves) by the Spaniards, who firilvifited them on account of the pilfering difpoiition of the natives. Magellan difeovered them in 1521 ;Legafpi fubjetted them to the dominion of Spain in 1565 ; and the Jefuits introduced Chriftianity in 1668.The million of this order was under the fpecial patronage of the Queen Dona Mariana of Aullria, in me-mory of whom they afterwards received their prefent name, and who founded an annual bequeft of twenty-one thoufand dollars for the fupport and defence of the colony ; feparate from one of three thoufand for themaintenance of a college dedicated to the inftrubtion of the Indians ; and another for the ilipeud of fivemonks, formerly of the order of St. Ignatius, but now Auguftins.
In no part of the world are colonifts treated in a better manner. They are maintained by the crown,but pay no tribute ; and are regarded as. his fcholars by a careful mailer, his children by a benevolentfather.
When Mr. Marion in 1771-2 failed on the expedition to the South Seas, in which he unfortunately,with twenty-two failors and fome officers, perifhed by the hands of the natives of New Zealand , and whenthe command in confequence devolved on the Chevalier Duclefmeur, the latter, after fuffering greathardfhips, had the good tortune to reach the ifland of Guam , which appeared to him a terreftrial paradife.And at this diftance from any civilized country, it furely could be deemed no fmall bleffing by a diitreffedcrew to arrive at the only port in the vail expanfe of this fea, in which the iickly and exhaufted marinercould hope fpeedily to recruit his llrength, where all provifions and neceflary refitments were in abundance,and where a city was to be found, built in the European manner, with ftraigbt ttreets, a church, fortifica-tions, public buildings, and a civilized population. The healthinefs of the ifland is beft evident from theproof afforded on this occafion. Of two hundred men fick of the feurvy (according to the account ren-dered by M. de Crizet, of the Mafcarin, the compiler of the narrative of this voyage,) not one died, butall fpeedily recovered, thanks to the air, the food, and the liberal affiftance afforded by Don MarianoTobias, the governor of the iflands.
The Abbe Raynal , who received his information refpe&ing. thefe iflands, moft probably, from officersin this expedition, however prone thereto in moft inftances, has here nothing exaggerated in his account ofthem. Hift. Pol. de los Eftab. Ultram. de las Naciones Europ. per Edv. Malo de Luque, tom. r.p.i4i,etfeq. Madrid , 1790.
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