The Story of the Philippines Natural Riches, Industrial Resources, Statistics of Productions, Commerce and Population; The Laws, Habits, Customs, Scenery and Conditions of the Cuba of the East Indies and the Thousand Islands of the Archipelagoes of India and Hawaii, With Episodes of Their Early History; The Eldorado of the Orient; Personal Character Sketches of and Interviews with Admiral Dewey, General Merritt, General Aguinaldo and the Archbishop of Manila; History and Romance, Tragedies and Traditions of our Pacific Possessions; Events of the War in the West with Spain, and the Conquest of Cuba and Porto Rico

CHAPTER XXVI

Chapter 55357 wordsPublic domain

The Ladrones.

The Island of Guam a Coaling Station of the United States--Discovery, Size and Products of the Islands.

When the Philippine expedition on its way to Manila incidentally ran up the Stars and Stripes over the Island of Guam, there was perhaps no thought of the island becoming a permanent part of our domain. However, the fortunes of war are such that the island is likely to become ours permanently as a coaling station in the Pacific.

Magellan named these islands the Ladrones from the Latin word "latro," meaning a robber, because of the thievish propensities of the natives. According to Magellan's reports, the native people of these islands had reduced stealing to a science of such exactness that the utmost vigilance could not prevail against their operations. The group was named the Mariana Islands by the Jesuits, who settled in them in 1667.

The Ladrone group consists of twenty islands, of which five are inhabited. The group extends forty-five miles from north to south, and is located between 13 deg. and 21 deg. north latitude, and between 144 deg. and 146 deg. east longitude. The principal islands are Guam, Rota and Linian. They were discovered by Magellan in 1521, and have belonged to Spain ever since. Their population is 11,000. The soil is fertile and densely wooded. The climate is temperate.

Guam, the southernly and principal island, is 100 miles in circumference, and has a population of 8,100, of which 1,400 are Europeans. Its central part is mountainous, and it has a small volcano. The products are guacas, bananas, cocoa, oranges and limes. The natives are noted as builders of the most rapidly sailing canoes in the world.

With Guam as a part of the territory of the United States, we have a direct line of possessions across the Pacific, in the order of Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines; while in a northwesterly direction from our Pacific coast we have the islands forming a part of Alaska. By holding all these islands we will be prepared to control practically the commerce of the Pacific, the future great commercial highway of the world.