History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 9 Conquest of the Gani Islands, 1687-96

Levesque, Rodrigue. History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 9 Conquest of the Gani Islands, 1687-96. 9. Gatineau, Québec: Lévesque Publications. ISBN 978-0-920201-09-1.

Abstract: Volume 9 (HOM.09) contains 97 chapters totaling 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. The contents of HOM were compiled, translated, edited and annotated by Rodrigue Levesque. Rod located and made novel translations of thousands of documents between 1992 and 2002. These were organized in forty massive volumes, with only the first twenty being printed in physical, hardbound form. In 2022, the US nonprofit Habele obtained the copyrights to the full History of Micronesia series with the aim of offering free and navigable access to the public.