Frightened at the terrible mortality they had caused, the conquerors turned to the Philippines to replenish the depopulated island. Tagals were brought over to occupy the place of the fast-disappearing natives, and with these many of the natives intermarried. The half-castes are inferior to the original inhabitants, but they have increased in population, and now number ten thousand.

Spain ceded Guam to the United States in 1898. Since the acquisition our government has established both day and evening schools for the natives, and they are making rapid progress in education.

It is a long journey to Guam—thirty-five hundred miles almost from Honolulu and not quite half as far from Manila. And how to get there? Well, it is not an easy matter. If you go to Apia, or to Manila, and remain long enough—perhaps six weeks, maybe six months—a German trading schooner will come along and take you aboard. You get there in time; for the trading schooner is likely to make a very circuitous trip, calling at a dozen islands to get copra in exchange for cloth, knives, and cheap jewelry. But if one happens to have the right sort of "pull," one can get a pass on an army transport. That means a most delightful trip from San Francisco to Honolulu, and thence to Guam. Uncle Sam does the square thing by his soldiers, and the army transports that carry them to the distant stations are fitted so as to be as comfortable as the best liners. There are a big exercise deck and a reading-room with plenty of books. Not the least important part of the equipment is a self-playing piano and a good assortment of music.

Native ploughing in rice-field, Guam. One may find rice-farms as skilfully cultivated as those of Japan or China
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There is not very much to see after one reaches Guam. One village is just about the same as all the others. Perhaps half a dozen huts are built of mud, or possibly of coral limestone; the rest are made of bamboo frames covered with palm—all in one room in which the family and the pig live.

Agaña, however, is a village of six or seven thousand people. It is laid out in streets which are fairly regular. They are deep with dust during the dry season, and with mud the rest of the year. There are several government buildings which are neat and trim, two or three churches, several school buildings, and a few stores. Most of the people one meets on the street speak Spanish; a few speak English. English is the coming language, however; for the schools are there to stay and every one of the fifteen hundred youngsters who attend school carries away a little English. A fine road bordered with palms connects Agaña with Apra, seven miles south.

There is not much to see in Guam. The scenery is much like that of every island in that part of the Pacific. About the only diversion of the soldiers stationed there is hunting, which is pretty good if one is content to hunt deer and wild hogs. Artistic sportsmen might prefer the deer, but all the real fun is the share of the hog-hunters. The hogs are savage beasts when cornered; they likewise are full of animal cunning.

Along the coast lowlands one may find rice-farms as skilfully cultivated as those of Japan or of China. Most of the rice is consumed on the island; however, copra, or dried cocoanut, is an export, and its sale brings enough money to the natives to purchase the cloth and other goods needed. Since American occupation the caçao tree has been cultivated, and cocoa bids fair to be the chief export in the near future.