HOM.06

Revolts in the Marianas, 1673-1678, is the sixth volume of the History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents (HOM), compiled and edited by Rodrique Levesque.

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The History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents, Volume 6, Revolts in the Marianas

The History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents was complied, edited and published by Rod Levesque from 1992 to 2002. Copyrights were obtained by the Habele Outer Island Education Fund, a US nonprofit, in 2022, which digitized the content to facilitate noncommercial access to, and use of, the twenty-volume series. The PDF file for HOM.06 is roughly 65MB.

Levesque's Summary

Volume 6 contains 62 chapters totalling about 95 documents (not counting the originals) covering all the activities of the Mariana Island Mission during this period. Two chapters give the first history of the mission (1667-1673) written by Father Coomans, one of the Belgian Jesuits. Full details are given about the Spanish government soldiers, the missionaries and their assistants, the native rebels, the battles and martyrdoms. Four more missionaries were killed by the natives during this period.

There is also the interesting story of a Spanish boat that drifted to the Philippines in 1676. The Guam stockade was reconstructed in 1677.

— List of the 12 illustrations, including maps of Oceania and Micronesia; and a special re-construction of Aganta in 1677.

— A foreword and introduction that discuss the pernicious influence of some English writers on early Marianas history.

—The first two chapters give the never-before-published History of the Mariana Island Mission for the 1667-1673 period, as written by a Belgian Jesuit, Father Coomans.

—The Jesuit annual reports for this period are also reproduced in their entirety. The most interesting confidential report is that by Father Gayoso, a young Spaniard who drifted in a boat from Guam to the Philippines in 1676. He gives inside information about some intrigues within the Guam colony.

—The two narratives of Fr. Gayoso about his own drift voyage aboard the sailboat Santa Rosa is a good adventure story, and could have been published separately as such. How 22 men all survived without drinking water for 20 days at sea is nothing short of a miracle. Watermelons provide the answer.

—By 1674 there was a plan to build a small ship, a patache, for a regular run between Manila and Guam.

—A lot of ink did flow as a result of an internal controversy among Jesuits, as to the disposition of a 10,000 peso gift provided by a former Governor of the Philippines. This led to many accounting problems, and these in turn offer an interesting glance into 17th-century Spanish administrative practices.

—The Belgian Jesuits, Fathers Bouwens and Coomans, travelled separately around the north Pacific during this period, visiting both Manila and Mexico, again, accompanied by young natives of Guam.

—Four more missionaries were killed by natives during this period. The obituaries of Brother Diaz, Father San Basilio, Father Ezquerra and Father Monroy are included among the documents narrating these tragedies.

—There is given a full list of goods sent from Mexico to Guam in 1677 aboard the galleon Santa Rosa. Again, many textiles came from China, but there were 29 new muskets, and a thousand items to sustain a full-fledged colony. No doubt this list will be of interest to today’s archaeologists.

—The first Guam colony moved into a new square stockade, 150 paces to each side, in 1677, for protection against native rebels.

—The physical descriptions of some new missionaries as they were leaving Spain say that they were missing upper teeth and showing scars. One gets the impression that they were tough men living in tough times.

—One document mentions for the first time the presence of a flightless bird, the Guam rail. It was rare even then. Bats the size of chickens are also reported. However, the chickens themselves had come from passing ships. The same with cats and dogs, and the first horse imported into the region.

Publication Details

Lévesque Rodrigue. History of Micronesia : A Collection of Source Documents. Vol. 6 Revolts in the Marianas : 1673-1678. Gatineau Québec: Lévesque Publications; 1995.

ISBN-10: 0920201067

ISBN-13: 978-0920201060

LCC: DU500 .H58 2000

HOM.06

Contents

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Levesque's Summary

Table of Contents

Publication Details