TALOFOFO THROUGH THE CENTURIES A HISTORY EMBEDDED IN NATURE

On 19 June 1721, there was sighted from the Marianas a strange boat, very lofty, which carried full sail(s) and was mistaken for a frigate. It anchored on the east coast of the Island of Guahan in a neighborhood called Tarafofo. Aboard it were 1 1 men, 7 women and 6 children, making a total of 24 persons. Some of them disembarked and, going into the bush, made provisions of coconuts and of some roots. Immediately, the mayor of the town of lnarajan was notified. He, along with the Father Minister, named Muscati, and a few natives, went to meet with the guests who had just arrived, to find out which country they came from. As soon as they saw the retinue, the newcomers became frightened, specially the women, who were uttering many shouts, until one of the men, more daring than the rest, approached the Father and offered him a few small gifts from his island, which consisted of pieces of coral, of the type they use to make bracelets, and some yellow or reddish paste, which they rub on their bodies during festivities.

The Father embraced him and accepted his gift with as much familiarity as possible. They all stepped ashore, and they were given an abundance of food to eat, and also some clothes to put on for greater decency. They then remained in Inarahan until a decision was made by the Governor, who had been advised of the arrival of such guests.

On the 21st of the same month and year, another boat arrived at Orote Point, on the west coast of the Island of Guahan. This boat carried 4 men, 1 woman and 1 child. They were taken to the town of Umatac, where the Governor, who was then Don Luis Sanchez de Tagle, could then be found. When they were brought into contact with the othergroup of drifters, both groups showed their great joy at recognizing one another, and they embraced warmly. Then it was learned that their two craft had been part of four canoes that had left the Island of Farroilep to go to the Island of Ulee [i.e. Woleai], and having been surprised by a strong westerly during the crossing, they were forced to seek their way separately, and let themselves be carried by the currents and the wind for 20 days, during which they were at continuous risk of foundering.

During this time they were bothered very much by hunger and thirst, but they still made extraordinary efforts to resist the force of the currents by continuously rowing, and so became exhausted, and above all, had the skin of their hands worn off. One of these unfortunate men died within a few hours on account of these hardships, but just before dying he received baptism. His own clothes were a piece of cloth that encircled his waist and passed between his legs. The clothes of the chiefs are different, as it is a sort of cloth open on the sides that covers the shoulders and chest, and reaches down to the knees. The women, besides the piece that encircled the waist and passed between the legs, the same as the men, used a sort of skirt reaching down to the calf of the legs. They had holes made in their ears, from which hanged some flowers, aromatic herbs, coconut nuggets, glass beads and some large rings of various types. All of them were well shaped, rather tall and proportionally fat, with frizzy hair, flat noses, big and lively eyes, and a well furnished beard. There were differences in the color of their skin; indeed, some looked like the Indians of the Marianas, others were not as dark and showed themselves to be mestizos born of Indian women and Spaniards [sic].

Once they had cheered up a little, regained their former health or had gotten over their past hardships, they made contacts with the more intelligent islanders, from whom it was learned, albeit with some remaining confusion, the situations of all of their islands located between the 6° and 1 1 ° of latitude North, and divided among five provinces, each of which having its own individual language. The first province, situated to the East, is Torres or Hogoleu, the name of the main island; its inhabitants are blacks, mulattoes, and whites, and are ruled by a king whose dominion extends over many other well-populated islands, distant from 8, 1 5, or 30 leagues from one another. The second province, they said, consists of about 26 islands, 1 4 of which are wellpopulated. Their names are Ulee, Eurrupuc, Farroilep, etc. etc. The latter had been discovered in 1 696 by Pilot Juan Rodriguez, when he ran aground upon Santa Rosa Bank, and according to his estimate, it was distant over 45 leagues from Guahan and was situated between 1 0° and 1 1 ° of latitude North; our drifters came from these Islands.

The third province is a complex of islands, about 25 leagues in length and 1 5 in width, the first of which is called Fais, and they were discovered in 1 7 1 2 by Captain Bernardo de Egui.

The fourth province is located at a distance of about 30 leagues to the west of the third one. The Island of Yap is the main one; it is more than 40 leagues in circumference. It is well-populated and very fertile; indeed, one can find camotes [i.e. yams] there and other root crops, brought from the Philippines by a Carolinian who drifted overthere by a similar accident. They have multiplied so much that they can be supplied to the other islands of that archipelago.

Finally, the fifth province is at about 45 leagues from the Island of Yap, and consists of a large number of islands named Palaos, and Panleu [i.e. Palau] by the Indians. There are seven islands lined up North to South. Their lord holds court at Yalap.

The people forming this large town are so inhuman and barbarian that they eat human flesh. Some 25 leagues further toward the Southwest, are the two Islands of San Andres, called by the natives Sonrol and Cadocopui [that’s an island now known as Tobi].

They were observed to have no idea of religion at all, and to lack the very type of knowledge that make people what they are. For instance, they did not know who made the heavens and the earth, and only recognized some good and evil spirits, to whom they attributed material bodies and they gave them two or three wives. According to them, the oldest spirit named Sabucour, out of his marriage with Cliulep, had a son to whom they give this name, which means Big Celestial Spirit, and a daughter named gobund. And, out of this beginning, with many more errors, they develop the propagation of their islands, into which they mix many fables, although they do not hold them to be completely true. fact, they build no temples to such deities, make no idols of them, render them no cult, sacrifices, or offerings.

They do have superstitious practices with their deceased; to deal with them they have male and female priests who would have them believe that they can contact them and correspond with their souls, and out of their own authority they declare who goes heaven and who are those to be thrown into hell. The people have a coarse and barbarian cult; in fact, a sort of crocodile is the object of their veneration, under a horrible figure. The devil exercises his cruel tyranny upon them in this way, and it is his actions that direct them to do good or evil, to survive or to die. They hold to be honorable to have many wives. They look upon adultery with horror, but the crime is fined by making a good present to the husband of the adulterous woman. The husband repudiates the unfaithful wife. The wife enjoys the following arrangements because of the dowry: the widow weds the brother of her dead husband, if the latter dies without an heir.

The authority of the government is divided among many noble families, whose chiefs are called Tamols, and in each province there exists one Tamol to whom the others render obedience, and he lets his beard grow long, in order to attract more respect to self. They give orders with assurance, speak little and adopt serious airs. When a chief holds an audience, he sits on top of a high table, and in the act the people bow down to the ground, and [also] as soon as they spot him, they go walking this manner, holding their head almost between their legs, until they get close to his person. Then, the people sit down upon the ground and receive the orders from their chief or authority, with the eyes cast downward and very humbly. When he dismisses them, they withdraw in the same manner as when they appeared before him, and do not walk straight up again until losing sight of him. His orders are received as oracles, and as such as obeyed blindly, and if he grants some favor, the beneficiaries kiss his hand and his feet. The criminals are not punished with imprisonment, nor with any fines; indeed, the delinquents are punished with exile to other islands. Their houses are very bad; indeed, they are but low huts covered with palm leaves, and those of the Tamols are made of wood, not very large, but adorned with some rare paintings.

In each village there are two houses assigned for the education of boys and girls who are taught some vague principles of Astrology, to which are dedicated almost all of the people of these islands, because they are useful for navigation. The teacher has a sphere upon which are shown the main stars, and shown the winds that must be followed according to the various courses that they mast take. The main occupation of the men is to build fishing canoes, and cultivate the earth of their farm plots; the women work in the kitchen and help their husbands in the plantations; they also spin a sort of wild banana [fiber], and make cloths with it and with another called balibago.1 They use wedges and adzes made of stone to cut wood, for lack of iron. The are accustomed to bathe frequently, and do so three times a day: in the morning, at noon, and at night.

They go to sleep at sunset and get up at dawn. They peacefully solve altercations among the residents, usually with some gift, and individual quarrels never proceed beyond, but when they are public, between one village and another, war determines them. They weapons are stones, and lances tipped with fish bones; and their manner of fighting is the same as between two individuals, i.e. they fight two by twos, with the man front of them, as chosen by fate. If two enemy villages decide to have a battle, they choose a flat field. The formation of each army is in three rows; the young men make up the first row, the taller men are in the second, and the third row is made up of older men. The battle begins between the first rows, with one man throwing stones and lances at another. When one man is knocked out of the battle by a wound, he is immediately replaced by another man from the second row, who is in turn replaced by the closest man from the third row. The victors then give great shouts, and they always insult the vanquished. These islanders live off fruits, roots and fish; and although they have chickens and other birds, there are no four-legged animals at all in these islands. The land does not produce rice, nor wheat, or com, but it does produce trees whose wood is good for building canoes. About the many half-breeds whose skin is white, it can probably be conjectured that they are the descendents of the men who were left with Lope Martin the year 1 566, he who mutinied with 20 others, and were marooned at one island of barbarians [rather bearded men] to the East of the Marianas, and it can be believed that this island is part of the Carolines,2 where, having intercourse with the Indian women, might have procreated these half-breeds, who have since multiplied and extended through these islands.

During the four months that the Carolinians of the two canoes had lived in Guahan, they had been busy picking up as many nails, axes and pieces of iron as they could find, esteeming it all as something of very high value. Then, wishing to be allowed to take this treasure to their country, or somewhere else, anxious as they were to rejoin their wives, children and friends, they were under stress, and therefore, they solicited eagerly permission to return to their country. The Governor thought that he could give it to them, but not to all, by retaining their leaders and granting permission to the rest to return to their country; he believed that in doing it this way he would establish frequent trade between the Marianas and the Carolines.

Father Juan Antonio Cantova thought similarly and therefore had the idea of accompanying those who were being dispatched, in order to get to know their islands, character, and customs. The Governor relented, saying that he would loan him a boat and grant permission to Spaniards and Filipinos to join this expedition voluntarily. To this effect, Father Juan requested permission from his Vice-Provincial, but the answer being unfavorable, he went to Inarahan, the place where his superior resided, to whom he explained that the Caroline Islands were not far from the Island of Guahan, and that the crossing was not dangerous, since he would be guided by the islanders, in whose islands the eventual missionaries would be safe, because they were easy to live with and opposed to any cruelty; furthermore, by leaving a few of those natives in the Marianas, as hostages, they would be responsible for the conduct of their countrymen. All of these arguments made no impression upon the Vice-Provincial, who feared that the enterprise would not be approved in Manila, and if he were to encourage it, he would be guilty and responsible. Things were at this stage when the Carolinians begged to return to their country, beseeching the Governor with tears to let them go back, and telling him that they would surely all die without a remedy, if they delayed their departure, because in the absence of their relatives, they found life to be tough and unbearable. The Governor changed his mind and would console them with very kind words, in order to delay them until the storms and the bad weather that make those seas unnavigable would return; his idea was to detain them until spring, to give enough time to mount an expedition to those islands.

The Governor succeeded in detaining them and during this time he made his preparations, and Father Cantova finally succeeded in getting permission from his Vice Provincial to make that expedition. They left with some of the drifters the following year 1722, and having sailed in search of those islands from 11 May until 6 June of the same year, and not having found any island, they diverted to Manila. 1 Here Father Cantova exercised the most vigorous efforts to repeat the voyage, but was detained until the year 1730 when he was able to board the patache leaving Cavite for the Marianas. He arrived at the city of Agafia, and on the 11th of February of the following year 173 1, he left from there with Father Victor Walter aboard a small boat with 8 ship’s boys and 12 soldiers, taking along another man who had drifted from those islands in 1725, whom the Father trusted very much because he had baptized him.