IIL Conquest

The landing on Guam in 1668 of the first officially sponsored Spanish mission among the Chamorros opened the next epoch in the post-contact history of the Marianas. This period, which lasted for thirty years, was distinguished by the conversion of the Cha- morros to Christianity and by their complete political subjugation to Spain. It was a time of continuous strife and unrest, interspersed with brief phases of peace. By the close of the period, the Chamorros had been decimated and subdued by years of violence. Our knowledge of this thirty-year epoch derives almost entirely from the Jesuit missionaries. As was characteristic of their mis- sionary efforts elsewhere, the Jesuit padres carefully documented their work in numerous letters and reports. These formed the source materials for two important works, those of Garcia (1683) and Le Gobien (1700), which provide us with most of what is known of this period in the history of the Marianas. Important supplementary information is contained in a number of seventeenth century Jesuit letters translated and published by Repetti (1940a, b, c, 1941a, b, 1945-46, 1946 47), as well as in later secondary sources (Murillo Velarde [1749], Freycinet [1829 37], and Corte [1876]). The Jesuit missionaries recorded events in the Marianas from their own par- ticular point of view, and in the absence of other first-hand accounts it is often difficult to arrive at a balanced historical interpretation. Certain of the principal events of the period are outlined below. In 1662, Luis de Sanvitores, a Spanish Jesuit, stopped briefly at Guam on his way to the Philippines. His glimpse of the Marianas led him to resolve to form a mission among the Chamorros. After overcoming numerous difficulties he was finally able to obtain the necessary support, and he set out for the Marianas with a small company of fellow Jesuits and secular companions. On June 15, 1668, their ship arrived off Guam, and the company landed on the island.

At first the padres were hospitably received. They made Agafia their headquarters and commenced the construction of a church and a house for their company. But it was not long before resistance

41 42 SAIPAN

developed. To judge from the missionary accounts, Chamorro an- tagonism toward the missionaries centered around baptism, particu- larly of infants and children. Enough cases occurred where baptism was followed by the death of the child for the Chamorros to infer that baptism was the cause of death. Also, by this time, the infant mortality rate may have been boosted by the introduction of new diseases. As far as the missionaries were concerned, the devil's advocate in the Chamorro resistance to baptism was a Chinese named Choco, who had been shipwrecked in the Marianas in 1648. For twenty years prior to the arrival of the Spanish missionaries he had lived among the Chamorros and in 1668 was residing in a village in the southern !)art of Guam. According to the missionaries, it was Choco who spread the belief that baptism caused death, and who encour- aged the Chamorros to resist. Sanvitores himself sought out Choco and, having succeeded in getting him to agree to being baptized, performed the ceremony on the spot, though the earnest padre was embarrassed to have his two Filipino secular helpers run amok during the service. Choco's baptism did not stick, however, and soon he was again encouraging the Chamorros to oppose the Spanish. Although baptism was a focal point around which resistance crystallized, it may well be somewhat over-emphasized in the ac- counts of Garcia and Le Gobien. It was attempts at baptism that resulted in the killing of a number of Spanish priests and helpers, including Sanvitores himself, who became a martyr to his cause when he was killed on Guam on April 2, 1672. Baptism was the occasion for open Chamorro hostility. However, it must not be forgotten that the missionaries' opposition to the sorcerers; to pre- vailing pre-marital sex practices and the apparently brittle marriage tie; to methods of disposal of the dead, which involved the display of ancestral skulls in the men's houses; to the men's houses them- selves; to the custom of wearing little or no clothing; and probably to other undescribed facets of Chamorro custom, affected a series of institutions at the core of the local society and culture. The net effect is described by Garcia, who noted the commencement of armed opposition to the Spanish in the following words (Garcia, 1683, Higgins' translation):

Certain villages of the island of Guam were uneasy, and there was unrest because of the inconstancy of those natives, who change just for a change, and because their shoulders, unaccustomed to the weight of law or reason, felt the yoke of Christ too heavy, although it is light and easy for those who love him. WADERO KliTHATO DEEL PTEDJECO LVJS

Fig. 3. Sanvitore.s (from Garcia, 1683).

43 44 SAIPAN

Once aiUagonism toward the Spanish had broken out into open hostihty, the secular power of Spanish coloniahsm was set into force. At first it was most inadequate, as only a small group of secular hi'lpi'rs and soldiers accompanied the priests, a force that was slightly replenished from time to time with the annual arrival of the galleon from Mexico. In 1676, the first governor of the Marianas was appointed, Don Francisco de Irisarry y Vivar, who took up residence on Guam and supported a strong secular policy. We are told (Gai'cia, 1683, Higgins' translation) that Irisarry

. . . made it obligatory for all baptized indios to attend church on Sun- days and fiesta days, and to send their sons and daughters not only to learn the things of our Faith, but also to perform certain offices and duties necessary to the formation of a Christian and political republic.

The Spanish troops in the Marianas were never very numerous but the Spaniards finally prevailed, through their uncompromising zeal. The situation was such that it is doubtful that they could have remained in the islands without constant recourse to armed force. The man responsible for breaking the back of Chamorro re- sistance was Jos^ de Quiroga, who arrived on Guam in 1679. There- after he directed most of the armed expeditions against the Cha- morros. (Completely fearless, highly aggressive, thoroughly cogni- zant of Chamorro methods of warfare, physically tough as nails, and quite unscrupulous, Quiroga was in the tradition of the typical Spanish conquistador. He spent nearly twenty years in pacifying the islands, in which effort he finally succeeded. Thus, in the Mari- anas as in the New World, the sacred and secular aspects of Spanish colonialism were firmly bound together. The policy cannot be de- scribed better than in the words of Garcia's account of the conversion of the Chamorros:

It has been necessary in this spiritual conquest, as experience has shown us that it is always necessary among barbarians, that our Spanish zeal carry

in its right hand ... a plow and the Kvangelical seed; and in its left hand . . . the sword, with which to prevent embarrassment to the religious labor.

Certain other features of the thirty-year period of conversion and conquest deserve brief mention. The Spanish were aided by the lack of a high degree of political organization among the Cha- morros. The latter were accustomed to fighting each other before the Spanish came, and inter-district warfare continued to be a feature of Chamorro life, even though opposition to the Spanish no doubt created a common bond. Thus, in 1669, Sanvitores was influential in effecting a peace on Tinian between Marpo, an interior district. CONQUEST 45

and Sunharon, a coastal one, which seem to have been traditional enemies.

Also, during the period, the missionaries slowly succeeded in gaining converts among the Chamorros, so that a group of Chris- tianized Chamorros was created to assist the Spanish effort. It is at this time that marriages of Spanish men and Chamorro women were first described. In one such instance, occurring in 1676, Garcia records that the father of the bride made an attempt to kill the bridegroom but was frustrated by the Spaniards, who hanged the father publicly in Agafia. The Spanish centered their efforts on Guam. Their headquarters were at Agaiia, where they built a church, a parish house, a seminary and a small presidio. From Agafia, they ventured to other parts of Guam and to the northern islands. The latter, however, were visited only periodically, though in the first few years the padres explored the chain as far north as Maug, apparently landing on all but two of the smallest islands—Farallon de Medinilla and Farallon de Pajaros. To the remaining thirteen, Sanvitores also gave Span- ish names, though Asuncion is the only island name that has per- sisted. In the other twelve cases the original name has been retained. The list of names is given below:

Chamorro name Spanish name Guam San Juan Rota Santa Ana (in the Jesuit accounts, Rota is also referred to as Zarpana, which sounds very much like a phonetic modification of Santa Ana) Aguijan San Angel Tinian Buenavista Mariana Saipan San Joseph (Saipan— spelled Saypan by Garcia—is today sometimes said to be of nineteenth century Carolinian origin. This is incor- rect, as the name is found as far back as the sixteenth century) Anatahan San Joaquin Sariguan San Carlos Guguan San Phelipe Alamagan Concepcion Pagan San Ignacio Agrihan San Francisco Xavier Asonson Asuncion Maug San Lorenzo

Sanvitores also established the name "Marianas" for the islands as a whole, in honor of Marie Ana of Austria, thereby superseding 46 SAIPAN

the names "Ladronos" and "Islas de Latinas Velas" which had been in previous use, though "Ladrones" continued to be used as a syno- nym. Also (hiring this period, the first reasonably accurate chart of the Marianas was drawn by Padre Alonzo Lopez. Lopez arrived on duani from Mexico in 167L He was sent by Sanvitores to Aguijan, Tinian, and Saipan, and he spent some time on Tinian, where he established a small seminary.

It is interesting to note that the exploration carried out by the padres was done entirely by outrigger canoes, manned by Chamorros. These were the accepted method of transportation and required a high degree of hardiness. In October, 1668 in the typhoon season Padres Sanvitores and Morales set out from Guam for the north- ern islands. Sanvitores went as far as Saipan, and Morales con- tinued on to Anatahan, Sariguan, Guguan, Alamagan, Pagan, and Agrihan, returning to Guam six months later. In July, 1669, San- vitores went even farther north to Asuncion and Maug, returning to Guam in four and a half months. Trips to Rota, Tinian, and Saipan seem to have been relatively routine. A Spanish comment on these outrigger trips gives an indication of what they were like (Garcia, 1683, Higgins' translation):

[On a cancel . . . the greatest happiness that one may dare to hope for, not being a fish ... is to escape with his life, for death is always before him, the imminence of it not permitting him to eat or sleep, and when dire necessity makes him take some sustenance, the fare is nothing more than a few roots, which together with sea.sickness, serve more to alter the condition of the stomach than to succor his needs.

Guam was the center of Spanish colonization in the Marianas, and the islands to the north were decidedly peripheral. By the end of the seventeenth century the northern islands had been conquered and all the Chamorros forced to move to Guam, with the exception of a few who managed to stay on Rota. The following chronology, covering the period of conquest and conversion to Christianity, outlines the principal events affecting Saipan and the other islands north of Guam. The chronology makes only brief mention of the course of local history on Guam, which, though it was the base of Spanish operations, is subsidiary to Saipan as the principal subject of this account.

Chronology of Events Affecting Saipan

1668: On June 15, Luis de Sanvitores arrived in the Marianas. He landed on Guam with four other Jesuit priests, Fathers Medina, ^l/ytvuvntj oil jf

GUAHAN

I*agon it

Santfiin I

^4/tatnfan C^

TtlXttVt

^IgmifttLiii Q

on Kota ^\f

Guahnn

ISLAS Marianas. rorr.AiojizoLopea.

Fig. 4. Chart of the Marianas, by Alonzo Lopez (1700; from Burney. 1803-17, vol. III). 47 48 SAIPAN

Cassanova, Cardenosa and Morales; one novitiate, Lorenzo Bustillos; and a small group of secular helpers and soldiers Spanish, Filipino, and Mexican commanded by Captain Juan de Santa Cruz. Con- tact was made with a survivor of the Concepcion, named Pedro, who assisted the Spanish. [In the Garcia account, three other Con- cepcion survivors are mentioned: Lorenzo, from the Malabar Coast; Francisco Maunahun, a Filipino; and one Macazar, a "Christian ludio," probably from either the Philippines or Mexico. Lorenzo and Maunahun became secular assistants to the padres. Lorenzo was killed on Anatahan in 1669; Maunahun, who was found living on Alamagan, was killed on Rota in 1672. Macazar sided with the Chamorros and was later captured by the Spanish.] Sanvitores was at first confined to Agafia by the wishes of the chiefs, but Medina was sent to visit all the villages of Guam. Cas- sanova was sent to Rota, and Cardenosa and Morales were ordered to proceed to Tinian. Morales went on to Saipan, but in August, he returned to Guam with a severe wound in the leg received from hostile Chamorros while he was administering baptism. Sergeant Lorenzo Castellanos and Gabriel de la Cruz, his Tagalog servant, were attacked and "died in the sea near Tinian."

On October 20, Sanvitores and Morales, his wound healed, left Guam for Tinian and Saipan. Morales continued on to the northern islands, while Sanvitores remained on Saipan, where he "travelled

. . . over the entire island , and there was not a single village, either on the beach or in the hills that he did not visit." He also went to Aguijan and Tinian, where he established a residence with one padre (presumably Cardenosa) and returned to Guam on January 5, 1669. In the meantime Morales was making his way north by canoe. He reached Agrihan in December, 1668, and then returned to Guam, the entire trip taking six months. 1669: The church at Agaiia was dedicated, and construction of the college of San Juan de Lateran on Guam was commenced. In July, Sanvitores, with two secular companions, started from Guam once more for the northern islands, as he believed Morales had not discovered them all. He went to Rota, Tinian, and Saipan and then made his way northward beyond Agrihan to Asuncion and Maug, arriving at the latter in August. Morales had not reached either of these two islands, both of which were inhabited. According to the Spanish sources, apparently all the islands which Sanvitores re-named had Chamorros living on them. Sanvitores then turned back to Guam. On his way back, he stopped at Anatahan and it CONQUEST 49 was here that Lorenzo, the Concepcion survivor, was killed while attempting to administer baptism to a child. Sanvitores continued on to Tinian. Here he found Medina and Cassanova trying to settle a local civil war. Unable to calm the unrest, Sanvitores de- cided on a show of force. Returning to Guam on November 15, he set out for Tinian ten days later with an expedition consisting of ten soldiers (eight of whom were Filipinos), under the command of Captain Juan de Santa Cruz, and accompanied by the "general de artilleria," Antonio de Alexalde, who had one field piece, the size of which can be inferred from the fact that the gun, along with the entire personnel of the expedition, was carried by three or four canoes. The party arrived on Tinian and a peace was negotiated. During the negotiations Medina visited Saipan briefly and returned to Tinian. 1670: With calm restored on Tinian, Medina crossed over to Saipan once more. He landed on the south coast of the island, at Obian (Objan) and with two secular companions walked northward to the town of Laulau, on Magicienne Bay. The three then pro- ceeded to an interior village called Cao. On January 21, while at- tempting to enter a house to baptize a crying child, Medina and one companion were both killed by lance thrusts. The bodies were recovered by Captain Juan de Santa Cruz and his soldiers, who came over from Tinian. On Santa Cruz's return to Tinian, the Tinian Chamorros rose against the Spanish, but were routed by the field piece and two muskets. The island was pacified, and in May Sanvitores went back to Guam.

1671: On June 9, the galleon Nuestra Senora del Buen Socorro arrived at Guam from Mexico en route to the Philippines. Four new padres arrived with her: Francisco Ezquerra, Francisco Solano, Alonzo Lopez, and Diego de Norega. A few soldiers also disem- barked. Sanvitores sent Cassanova, who had returned from the northern islands. Morales, and Bustillos on to the Philippines, so the mission gained only one padre. Shortly after the departure of the galleon, the Guam Chamorros staged an uprising, ascribed by the Spanish to the opposition of the Chamorro sorcerers (makahnas) to the padres. At this time the Spanish garrison consisted of thirty-one soldiers (twelve Spaniards and nineteen Filipinos), armed with muskets and bows, and with, of course, their small but impressive field piece. They had also taken the precaution of stockading the Agana church and parish house. The Chamorros attacked at Agana but were repulsed, and inter- mittent fighting continued until October, when peace was made. 50 SAIPAN

After the uprising, the padres again set out for the other islands. Ezquerra went to Rota, and Lopez to Aguijan, Tinian, and Saipan, the hitter ishmd not having been visited since Medina's death there the previous year. Lopez estabhshed himself on Tinian at Sunharon —located at the harbor area on the west coast—and built a small seminary for the teaching of Chamorro children. Apparently no attempt was made to establish a mission on Saipan; in these early days, efforts were concentrated on Tinian. 1672: Norega died of illness on Guam in January, and, shortly after, Ezquerra returned from Rota. In March, unrest broke out on Guam, and Diego Bazan, a secular assistant from Mexico, was killed. Sanvitores ordered all members of the Spanish group to Agafia, though word could not be gotten to Lopez on Tinian. Be- fore the company could be concentrated, four of the Spanish were killed in various parts of Guam. Sanvitores allowed himself, as superior of the mission, more freedom of movement. On April 2, while attempting to baptize a child near Tumhon, Sanvitores and his Filipino assistant, Pedro Calangson, were killed.

After Sanvitores' death, the southern villages on Guam remained friendly to the Spanish, but the northern ones were hostile. A puni- tive expedition was carried out against the Tumhon area. Unrest spread to Rota, where Francisco Maunahun, a Filipino survivor of the Concepcion wreck and helper of the Spanish, was killed with another Filipino on June 5. Solano, Sanvitores' successor as superior, died on June 13. The unrest on Guam continued. In the meantime, Lopez remained on Tinian, unaware of Sanvi- tores' death. Tinian continued quiet, and Lopez went on with his work. However, Ezquerra, who had succeeded Solano, sent a mes- sage to Lopez to return to Agafia. Unrest was spreading and no doubt would soon have reached Tinian. Lopez accordingly returned to Guam, avoiding Rota, which was in open rebellion. 1673 81: During this period, the Spanish were so occupied on Guam that they hardly concerned themselves with the other islands. It was a time of intermittent outbreaks, of sporadic killing of padres, secular assistants, and soldiers by the Chamorros; and of the burning of villages and the killing of Chamorros by the Spanish. The first governor of the Marianas was appointed in 1676, and he proceeded with punitive expeditions "to restrain the pride of some villages and castigate the insolence of others." One brief expedition of this type was carried out against Rota in 1675. Jose de Quiroga arrived in 1679 and assumed command of the soldiers in 1680. Stringent CONQUEST 51 measures were taken against the Guamanians and a plan was ini- tiated to concentrate them in a few villages. In 1681, Quiroga undertook a punitive expedition to Rota, which "served as a place of retreat and asylum for the seditious, who came from time to time to the island of Guahan [Guam] in order to pervert their compa- triots and to inspire in them a spirit of revolt."

Fig. 5. Excavations at Obian (Objan,\ View from above, showing a house site in process of excavation. This house formed part of the village attacked by Quiroga in 1684.

at least out- 1682 9 Jf.: By 1682, Guam was sufficiently quiet, wardly, so that the Spanish could turn their attention once more to the northern islands. In his annual relacion for the year June, 1861, to June, 1862, Solorzano, the superior on Guam, reported that a missionary had gone by canoe to Rota, Aguijan, Tinian, and Saipan and that "good results were obtained at every place." (Repetti, 1940a.) Presumably this was Padre Peter Coomans, a Belgian Jesuit from Antwerp, who went to Rota in March, 1682 (Repetti, 1940b). Le Gobien (1700, p. 800) notes that Coomans, after indicating the site for a church which was to be built on Rota and leaving three fervent workers there, proceeded "to visit the northern islands, with

LIBKAKY llMll/CI?«|-rw nr 52 SAIPAN some officers who had received orders from the governor." After returning, Coomans apparently remained on Rota, for in a letter written from the island in May, 1683 (Repetti, 1940b), he reported that a church and parish house had been constructed on the west side of the island and that a second church and house had been started in the northern part of Rota at the village of Agusan. In 1684, the Spanish determined to make a major effort to sub- jugate the islands north of Rota. On March 22, 1684, Quiroga left Guam for the northern islands with twenty canoes and a small frigate (Le Gobien, 1700, p. 302). He stopped at Rota and left on April 12, with Padre Coomans, for Tinian (Repetti, 1940c). They arrived at Tinian two days later and found the Chamorros friendly. The next day they set out for Saipan, taking some canoes and crews from Tinian. The subsequent events are taken from Coomans' letter (Repetti, 1940c).

The expedition landed, judging from the letter, on the west coast of Saipan and immediately met armed resistance. For several days it fought its way along the shore, and then marched south to the village of Agingan, located on the shore at the point nearest Tinian. The friendly Tinian Chamorros were sent to the nearby village of Obian, also on the south coast, to offer peace, as the people of Obian on previous occasions had been friendly to the Spanish. On April 20, peace delegates arrived from Obian, though in the meantime the Spanish were fighting another group, and "brought back a Chamorro head as a trophy." By April 30 all was peaceful, and the Chamorros were asking that their children be baptized. On May 7, Coomans left Saipan, leaving "a sufficient garrison," which, judging from Le Gobien's account, included Quiroga. Coomans stopped at Tinian, and also at Aguijan, which, he noted, had a few inhabitants. On May 11, he set out for Rota. Coomans' general description of Saipan is unfortunately very brief, and merely consists of a statement that "all the land is fertile and gives abundant crops of grain and roots throughout the wide plains that surround a single mountain." For the remainder of the story we must depend on Le Gobien. He notes that, after arriving on Saipan, Quiroga sent on to the is- lands to the north an expedition consisting of some twenty-five soldiers. It is stated that Padre Coomans accompanied the party. Coomans must have gone back again to Saipan. With Quiroga, the strong man of the Marianas, absent on Sai- pan, the latent unfriendly elements among the Guam Chamorros CONQUEST 53 staged a major revolt, in July, 1684. They killed forty or fifty soldiers, a priest, and a lay brother, and wounded the governor and two priests. The Spanish retired to their fort. The governor sent a letter to Quiroga, but the messenger would go no farther than Rota. Padre Strobach on Rota then set off with the letter but was killed on Tinian, where the Chamorros revolted and also killed seventeen other Spaniards—presumably from Quiroga's group—on the island. Next, the Chamorros attacked Quiroga on Saipan. His force consisted of only thirty-six men, but, characteristically, he took the offensive and made a number of forays, burning several villages and attacking the two main camps of besiegers. He sacked Obian village and then demanded canoes to take him to Guam. This the Obian villagers were glad to do, as they "ardently desired to be delivered of so terrible and dangerous a neighbor." On the night of November 21, 1684, Quiroga and his men left Saipan in eight canoes. Three of these, containing fifteen Spaniards, were wrecked on Tinian, for it was the typhoon season, and the sea was very rough. In two days' sailing, Quiroga made Guam. Perhaps because the Chamorros on Tinian were afraid of reprisals for their killing of Strobach and the other Spaniards, they received the fifteen shipwrecked men from Quiroga's party hospitably and sent them on their way to Guam. The expedition that Quiroga had sent to the northern islands was less fortunate. It met no resistance, but on the return trip the Chamorro pilots overturned the canoes in order to drown the party. Padre Coomans, however, seized his pilot before the canoe could be capsized and put in at Alamagan, where a Chamorro noble gave him protection; Coomans later proceeded to Saipan, where he was killed in July, 1685 (Le Gobien, 1700, p. 367). On his return to Guam, Quiroga immediately took the offensive again and before long had the situation under control; but until 1694 no further attempts seem to have been made to conquer the Chamorros of the northern islands. 169Jf.~98: Quiroga had been handicapped by having as a superior a governor of weaker character than he, but in 1694, D'Esplana, the governor, died and Quiroga became governor. In October, 1694, he went to Rota. No resistance was encountered and the island was peaceful. Through the following winter and spring Quiroga pre- pared for a campaign to conquer the northern islands finally and completely. In July, 1695, Quiroga's expedition set out in a small frigate and twenty canoes. A sudden storm arose and the canoes put in at 54 SAIPAN

Rota, but Qulroga in the frigate continued on to Saipan. Here he met armed resistance, but the fire of the Spanish was so heavy that the Chamorros dispersed. We are told (Le Gobien, 1700, p. 388) :

Some who were brought before Quiroga were punished, and he explained to them that ... he came to live peacefully with them. "I ask but one thing," he said to them, "... that you listen to the preachers of the gospel and show yourselves docile to their teachings." The people of Saipan liked the.se propo- sitions and promised him everything he wished.

Quiroga then returned to Tinian, but he found that the people of Tinian had retired to the nearby island of Aguijan to make a stand. There is not a harbor or even a satisfactory landing place at Aguijan, and its inaccessibility, with steep cliffs rising from the sea, is most impressive. Despite this, Quiroga stormed the island and managed to climb the cliffs. The Chamorros surrendered and asked quarter. Quiroga granted it, on condition that the people move to Guam. Le Gobien further notes that the move "was done the next day," a highly improbable statement. The report of Quiroga's victories on Saipan, Tinian, and Aguijan spread to the northern islands, and Le Gobien states that their inhabitants were ordered to go to Saipan. In 1698, the Saipan Chamorros, too, were forced to move to Guam. As the seventeenth century closed, Saipan's green slopes were deserted. The Marianas had been conquered.