HOM.09
Conquest of the Gani Islands, 1687-1696, is the ninth 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 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.09 is roughly 65MB.
Levesque's Summary
Volume 9 contains 97 chapters totalling 156 documents covering such events as the arrest and trial of Governor Esplana, the soldiers’ mutiny of 1688 in which interim Governor Quiroga was put in jail, the shipwreck of the patache Pilar in 1690, the burning of the patache San Gabriel in 1692, the strong typhoon that hit the Marianas in 1693, the first church census of 1693, the death of Esplana in 1694, the discovery of Marcus Island by Captain Arriola in 1694, etc.
Most important was the military re-conquest of the Northern Marianas by Governor Quiroga in 1695. The Gani Islands are the islands north of Saipan; their natives began to migrate to Saipan, where Fr. Bouwens became their first curate. However, the resettlement of the native population was not completed until 1697-98.
—This volume contains 156 documents, from Spanish, Latin and German.
—Gani was the native name for the Mariana Islands north of Saipan. During this period, the Gani people began to obey the order of interim Governor Quiroga and resettled in Saipan, where Fr. Bouwens built the first church to take care of their spiri¬tual needs. As for the regular inhabitants of Saipan, Tinian and Aguijan, after they were defeated in battle in August 1695, they were moved to Guam.
—When Governor Esplana left Guam without previous permission in 1688, he was arrested at his arrival at Manila, tried, and found not guilty, but he was sent back the following year. In the meantime, a new governor had been sent, but he quickly returned to Manila, claiming sickness; the truth was that he could not get along with Quiroga, the army commander. As for Esplana, he lived until 1694, when he died of dropsy.
—The garrison soldiers mutinied against interim Governor Quiroga in 1688; they placed him in jail, but dissension among them led to Quiroga being released by repentent Captain Rodriguez. Quiroga tried to punish Rodriguez, but the missionaries effectively protected him.
—The first trained surgeon in Guam was a Brother of the Order of St. John named Francisco Beltran; he left Guam in 1688. Two years later, he was replaced by the first Italian Jesuit trained in medicine, Brother Cundari, from Sicily. Four years later, he was joined by another Italian pharmacist/surgeon, Brother Chavarri, from Naples. More German-speaking Jesuit missionaries arrived in 1688 and 1689.
—For many readers, the most important event of this period will be the shipwreck of the patache Pilar on Cocos Island (south end of Guam) in June 1690. Everyone survived and most of the treasure on board was immediately salvaged. Most of the survivors of the above shipwreck remained stranded on Guam for many months. There were 20 or so Franciscan friars, and almost 200 convicts being exiled to the Philippines. Some of these convicts plotted to kill all Spanish residents and take over the incoming Patache from Manila in September. However, the plot was discovered, the rebels arrested, and quickly tried; the ringleaders were executed.
—Fr. Morales, who had served in the Marianas, had become procurator at Madrid. When he complained to the King of Spain that the members of the Council of the Indies were cool in supporting the mission, he got some action, but also some resentment. As for another former missionary, Fr. Xaramillo, he almost became the first Bishop of the Marianas. However, when the first church census was made in 1693, and the low population figures were known at Madrid, it was realized that there was no need for a bishop. Fr. Bustillo and Fr. Bouwens presented some ideas for an administrative reform of the local government; their main point was the need for a qualified governor. The annual subsidy remained at 50,000 pesos per year. Mexican families were encouraged by the King to move to the Marianas, but none ever came, except convict soldiers.
—As for exploration work, the Island of Yap, or Carolina, was rediscovered accidentally twice in 1686, but efforts to find it once more, in 1689 and 1690, were fruitless, because its geographical position had been badly recorded as being closer to Guam. In 1694, a certain Captain Arriola, travelling hurriedly from Manila to Acapulco in a very small boat, discovered Marcus Island in the north Pacific, which the Japanese now call Minami Tori Shima. It was the island that had given rise to the quasilegendary Islands of Gold and Silver of earlier periods.
—On 20 November 1693, a giant typhoon hit Guam and destroyed all houses on the island
Publication Details
Lévesque Rodrigue. History of Micronesia : A Collection of Source Documents. Vol. 9 Conquest of the Gani Islands: 1687-1696. Gatineau Québec: Lévesque Publications; 1997.
ISBN-10: 0920201091
ISBN-13: 978-0920201091
LCC: DU500 .H58 2000
