LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Perhaps because a new administration has just taken office on Guam, some people are wondering how to say "Lieutenant Governor" in Chamorro.

For many years already, the usual way most people say "Lieutenant Governor" in Chamorro is :

SEGUNDO MAGA'LÅHE

or, perhaps spelled Sigundo Maga'låhe or Segundu/Sigundu Maga'låhe.

Sigundo Maga'låhen Guåhan

"The Lieutenant Governor of Guam"

Segundo means "Second" and is borrowed from Spanish.

Segundo, by the way, is also a proper name, meaning a first name for a male. That's because most people in the past were named after saints and there are actually more than one Saint Secundus, in Spanish, San Segundo.

Maga'låhe is one way to say "Governor" and is an indigenous term, not borrowed from Spanish. It was the word for "chief" that was used at the time the Spaniards came to the Marianas.

It comes from two words. The first is må'gas, meaning "great." The second is låhe, meaning "man." The S in må'gas is dropped when combining the two words. When combined, the word means "great man." Thus, "chief."

But, over time, the Chamorros, whose chiefs all disappeared when the island politics changed, applied the word maga'låhe to the islands' Governor.

There are two issues, to my mind, created by the term "Segundo Maga'låhe."

The first is that maga'låhe is used. Today we have a woman governor. She is now being called the maga'håga ("great daughter"). But the Lieutenant Governor is being called "the Second Great Man." Is there a first "Great Man?" Is his superior also a male? No. She is a håga. Daughter. So how can there be a Second Great Man if there is no First Great Man.

And suppose we had (again) a woman Lieutenant Governor (as in the days of Lt Gov Madeleine Bordallo). If we called her the Segundo Maga'håga, does that mean there is a First Great Daughter? That her superior is also female?

The second issue is that segundo is used. If the Lieutenant Governor is the Second Governor, do we now have two governors? A first and a second?

Both these terms seem a bit problematic to me, although I do concede that they may not be problematic to anyone else in the universe but me.

So what, then, would be an alternative?

The above name for the position "Lieutenant Governor" is traditional and avoids the messiness of calling one a maga'låhe and another a maga'håga, or calling someone a "Second Governor," implying that we have two governors.

The first word in this title is a word the older people remember, but not the younger. A teniente was the second-in-command, the vice or the assistant.

Take another look at the English word we use for Lieutenant Governor.

LIEU + TENANT (teniente)

LIEU comes from French and means "place."

TENANT also comes from French (and all the way back to Latin) and means "holder."

Think of the person renting an apartment as the tenant. Our word maintenance comes from "holding" (tenance) by the "hand" (main, French from the Latin word for hand, manus, as in "manual").

A lieutenant is a "place holder." When the Governor is away, the Lieutenant Governor holds the place of the Governor.

The Marianas under Spain were full of tenientes. Take a look at this list of officials in Hagåtña during Spanish times :

At the top of this document it says "City of Agaña."

Then we see the name of Don (Sir) Mariano Luxan. He was the Governadorcillo ("little governor"), something like a town mayor, of Hagåtña. Don't worry about the X in Luxan (Lujan). For the Spanish in those days, X and J often had the same sound if it came before a vowel. Think of Don Quixote, or Oaxaca in Mexico (itself pronounced me - hi - co in Spanish).

But the next official, the second-in-command to Don Mariano, is Don Pedro Pangilinan (same as Pangelinan), who is called the - TENIENTE!

By using the word teniente, it is clear that we don't have a "second" Governor. We have only one Governor. But, we also have someone who holds the place of the Governor when she or he is absent. A Lieu-TENANT Govenor. Teniente.

Next, by using the word Gobietno (Governor), there is no issue of gender. The older meaning of maga'låhe, anyway, did NOT mean the ruler of the whole island. Before the Spaniards came, maga'låhe meant "chief," and there were many in one village and hundreds all over the island and in the neighboring islands. When all the Chamorro maga'låhe disappeared, due to the Spanish conquest, our ancestors applied the title to the Spanish Governor, of all things!

Believe me or not, in the 1970s or 1980s, I did see a campaign sign in Chamorro, asking voters to support someone for Gobietno and another person for Teniente Gobietno.

But I didn't know I'd have a blog one day, so I didn't take a photo of the sign.

This entry from Francisco Valenzuela's Chamorro Dictionary from the 1960s shows that teniente was a known word among our elders. And, as you can see, it means second-in-command.

WHEN NINA WENT TOO FAR

Washing in the Hagåtña River

The image of the old Chamorro grandmother as a sweet and cuddly matron is a figment of the imagination. Certainly there were many of those - but not all grandmothers were like that!

Many grandmothers, mothers and godmothers in the old days were strict disciplinarians, quick to use corporal punishment with all the strength of their seventy-year-old hands.

Take for example Manuela Manalisay Dueñas in 1903.

Manuela had a goddaughter, Joaquina Materne, aged 18 years old.

Joaquina was washing clothes in the river in Hagåtña one Thursday. Catalina Crisóstomo Cruz was there, as well, washing clothes in the river. Up came the godmother Manuela, who called her goddaughter Joaquina out of the river. As soon as Joaquina came up, Manuela whacked her repeatedly with a bamboo cane (båston piao).

Manuela withdrew and Joaquina went back to washing. But a short time later, godmother Manuela came back and this time beat Joaquina with a stick of ordinary wood.

Two days later, Manuela called Joaquina to her house, where she attacked her goddaughter with a piece of cord or rope. Catalina Bae Cruz was a witness to that. Joaquina filed a complaint in court against her own godmother.

Manuela admitted to the court that she beat her goddaughter Joaquina on those occasions. But, she argued, she was within her rights. Joaquina had disobeyed her and she, as godmother, had every right to punish her.

Unfortunately for Manuela, the law was not on her side. Even though she was godmother (matlina, nina) to Joaquina, what she did to Joaquina was a crime, according to the Código Penal (Penal Code) at the time. This was the same Spanish Penal Code used in the Marianas before the Americans came, so it can't be said that this was all American thinking.

In Chamorro culture, the godmother had a lot of say over her godchildren. Think of the legend of Sirena, and how her godmother mitigated the curse pronounced by Sirena's own mother.

But, even under Spanish law, the godmother could not do whatever she wanted to her godchild. Corporal punishment had its limits even then.

Manuela was fined and had to pay court costs.

The question is : did Joaquina involve her godmother in her wedding later in life? Or anything else later in life? Or was this relationship broken forever?

Godmother Manuela Dueñas' signature

CANNIBALS ON GUAM?

Slocum's article in 1889

A lot of wild and fantastic things have been said about the Marianas over the years, up to the present. Some of it is borne out of ignorance, and some of it is invented because it's entertaining to the purveyors of tall tales.

Apparently, one such fanciful tale was that you could get eaten up by cannibals if your ship happened to take you to Guam in the 1800s.

The story was that a 16-year-old boy had been captured at Guam and fattened by the natives to be the main course in a banquet.

Every westerner who sailed the Pacific in those days could have set the record straight.

One did; a rather colorful seaman named Joshua Slocum.

Slocum on the Spray

A Canadian-turned-American, Slocum was a veteran seaman who could be found in all the world's oceans. He spent a good deal of time in the Philippines and almost anywhere else you could imagine. At least once, we know, he set foot on Guam in 1879 on his way from Hawaii to Manila. On Guam, he replenished his water and food supplies, and visited Hagåtña while his ship lay in Apra Harbor.

Slocum wrote to a newspaper in 1889 mocking the report of cannibalism on Guam. He wrote that Guam had no cannibals and was a Spanish colony for a long time already. It was a place frequently visited by many ships to stock up on water, coconuts, yams, sweet potatoes, pigs and goats, all in abundance.

"One of the pleasantest days of my life was spent on this pleasant island off there in the Pacific Ocean," he wrote.

Slocum later achieved fame by being the first human being to sale around the world all alone, on his boat, the Spray, between 1895 and 1898.

MA PONGLE SI JOAQUINA

Vice and virtue have no favorites. They can be found, sometimes in equal measure, among all races, ages and genders.

Take for example Joaquina del Rosario, better known as Joaquina'n Dalalai.

Joaquina was at the top of the list of Guam's "bad girls" in the early 1900s. She was hauled into court on more than one occasion.

In 1903, Joaquina went to the home of Manuel Asunción, who was selling island moonshine called åguayente. Åguayente was a stronger liquor than tuba, although it was often made from tuba. But åguayente could be made from almost anything that contains sugar.

Joaquina bought three cups of åguayente for one reåt each. A reåt (in Spanish, real; pronounced ray - al) was a coin found in the Spanish colonies and in Latin American countries.

Those three cups were enough to make Joaquina terribly drunk and she went around Hagåtña being a nuisance. She stopped outside the house of Juana Acosta and started yelling obscenities at her. "Puñetera! Karåho! Puta! Demonio! Animåt!" The whole neighborhood could hear her. There must have been bad blood already between Joaquina and Juana.

The police came and apprehended her. As she was disorderly in public, there was no want of witnesses. She was sentenced to serve a short time in the city jail.

Later, Joaquina'n Dalalai would be arrested for something more serious than public intoxication. But that's a story for a future post.

Åguayente, by the way, is the Chamorro version of the Spanish word aguardiente, made up of two words : agua (meaning "water") and ardiente (meaning "fiery"). Fire water!

Chamorros of the early 1800s distilling åguayente

SI PÅLE' LOTTOT

An older man was telling me how he would go on and on, talking to his mother when he was a child, making bold claims as he talked to her.

His mother was not impressed with what he was saying, as teenagers often become inflated with self-importance or become over-confident in what they are saying.

To cut him back down to size, his mother said to him, "Ya kao si Påle' Lottot hao?" "And are you Father Lottot?"

The thing is that the man himself had no idea what lottot meant. His mother used the expression, and she was born in the early 1900s. We knew that påle' meant "priest," but neither of us knew what lottot meant.

From the context we knew that "Påle' Lottot" was not a term of endearment. If by calling him Påle' Lottot, the mother was more or less telling him that he was full of baloney when he talked, we knew that lottot must have meant something disparaging.

According to all the more recent dictionaries, lottot means "full of lice."

But when I checked Påle' Román's older (1932) dictionary, he says that lottot means tina in Spanish, and tina in Spanish means a tub, or basin or a large jar. But this might be an error or a typo. Perhaps Påle' Román meant tiña, not tina. Tiña means a ringworm or a kind of mite that attacks beehives. That would correspond more with "lice."

But Påle' Román's dictionary solved the mystery by adding that "Påle' Lottot" means "a false priest or minister."

Those were the days of strong religious bias, with Catholics mocking Protestants and Protestants mocking Catholics. The Protestant missionaries came to Guam in the early 1900s claiming to be preachers of God's word. Catholic missionaries would have opposed that claim. Mockery and ridicule were found everywhere in the world, and Chamorros weren't outdone in that either. I am not surprised, then, that someone considered a false preacher was called a "lice-filled priest" in those days.

IT USED TO BE CALLED KASAMATA

Today we simply call it "Government House" but, for some time during the Spanish period, the area was called Kasamåta, or in Spanish Casamata. It's mentioned in some Spanish-era documents.

That word has a meaning in Spanish. It means a domed structure where artillery is placed. Here's one photographic example of a casamata :

So, it seems possible that an actual casamata was built there. The location makes sense for one, and an actual fort was built close by at Apugan, Fort Santa Águeda.

A vigía, or lookout point, is indicated at Fort San Ågueda by Governor Villalobos in 1833.

What the pre-Spanish name of the place was, if there had been one, is unknown to me unless and until we find some evidence for it.

TA FAN MAGOF TODOS

Thanks to the German Capuchin missionaries in Saipan, we have this one, old (1900s) Chamorro song about New Years.

New Years was not as big a celebration in olden Spain, and her colonies, as the world celebrates it today. But the German culture did celebrate it with a bit more attention and so it passed from the German missionaries to their flock in Saipan and Luta in the early 1900s.

In the song, we thank God for the graces of the past year and we ask for continued grace and protection in the coming year. We also ask eternal rest on those who died in the past and on those who may die in the time ahead. This song, sung repeatedly in the Northern Marianas for New Year's, lead to the modern custom of lighting candles for each person who died in the year just passed.

LYRICS

Ta fan magof todos

(Let us all be happy)

mientras man lålå'la' hit.

(while we are still alive.)

Ta nå'e mit gråsias

(Let us give a thousand thanks)

i muna' fan huyong hit.

(to the one who created us.)

Esta måtto i nuebo

(The new year has already)

na såkkan ni para hita.

(come for us.)

Ta propone de nuebo

(Let us propose once again)

u ma arekla i ha'ani-ta.

(to rightly order our lives.)

Ta fan magof todos

(Let us all be happy)

mientras man lålå'la' hit.

(while we are still alive.)

Ta nå'e mit gråsias

(Let us give a thousand thanks)

i muna' fan huyong hit.

(to the one who created us.)

Jesus Yu'us-måme

(Jesus our God)

gi nuebo na såkkan

(in the new year)

gai'ase' nu hame,

(have mercy on us,)

apåtta i dåño.

(keep away all harm.)

Nå'e nu i deskånso

(Give rest)

i man gaige esta gi naftan

(to those already in the grave)

ya an guaha sea kåso måtai na såkkan.

(and to those who may die this year.)

Ta fan magof todos

(Let us all be happy)

mientras man lålå'la' hit.

(while we are still alive.)

Ta nå'e mit gråsias

(Let us give a thousand thanks)

i muna' fan huyong hit.

(to the one who created us.)

Fan adesea de nuebo

(Desire for each other again)

ginen i korason-miyo

(from your hearts)

"Felis na Åño Nuebo"

("Happy New Year")

todo i ha'anen-miyo.

(all the days of your life.)

Ta fan magof todos

(Let us all be happy)

mientras man lålå'la' hit.

(while we are still alive.)

Ta nå'e mit gråsias

(Let us give a thousand thanks)

i muna' fan huyong hit.

(to the one who created us.)

MAIGO' YINIUSAN PÅTGON

A Christmas song from Saipan, where the Niño is always dressed in cloth, as in the picture above.

Maigo' Yiniusan Påtgon,
(Sleep, Divine Child,)
O maigo' sen måffong!
(Oh sleep so profoundly!)
I anghet ma pupulan hao
(The angels watch over you)
yan ma kantåtåye hao
(and sing to you)
yan ma kantåtåye hao.
(and sing to you.)
Hame nu i famagu'on-mo
(We your children)
man bebela gi fi'on-mo.
(keep vigil at your side.)
Maigo', maigo' Påtgon Långet maigo'.
(Sleep, sleep heavenly child, sleep.)

Si Maria Bithen Nåna
(Mary, the Virgin Mother,)
ina'atan hao magof.
(looks happily at you.)
Si Jose gi oriyå-ña 
(Joseph at her side)
nina'manman nu hågo
(is in awe of you.)
nina'manman nu hågo.
(is in awe of you.)
I pastores ginen chågo' 
(The shepherds from afar)
man adulalak guato.
(chase after each other there.)
Maigo' maigo' Påtgon Långet maigo'.
(Sleep, sleep heavenly child, sleep.)

TODOS HAM MAN LISTO

In this Christmas carol from Saipan, the angel directs the shepherds to see the Christ Child in Bethlehem, and the shepherds respond in the refrain "We are all ready!"

This carol is only now becoming known on Guam, since it was only taught to the Chamorros of Saipan and then of Luta by the German Capuchin missionaries there in the early 1900s. Guam had the Spanish Capuchin missionaries at the time, teaching them different Christmas carols.

Todos hamyo fan malågo para i Belen guato,
(All of you run over to Bethlehem,)
para i Belen guato ya en li'e' i milågro i Mesias ni måtto.
(over to Bethlehem and see the miracle of the Messiah who has come.)
En li'e' gi un pesebre i Verbo Divino,
(You will see in a manger the Divine Word,)
i Verbo Divino na sen bula pinepble i sen såntos na Niño.
(the Divine Word, the most holy Infant who is full of poverty.)

Todos ham man listo ya tåya' u ma dingo para in adora i Niño.
(We are all ready and no one will be left behind to adore the Infant.)

Kulan sinilo åtdao en sedda' siempre i Niño,
(Like the sunrise, you will surely find the Infant,)
en sedda' siempre i Niño nai matå-ña gåtbo mås ke diamånten fino.
(you will surely find the Infant, whose face is beautiful, more than a fine diamond.)
Una bithen sin måncha en li'e' i nanå-ña,
(You will see His mother, a virgin without stain,)
en li'e' i nanå-ña ya i gaige gi langet ayo proprio Tatå-ña.
(you will see His mother and His true Father in heaven.)

Todos ham man listo ya tåya' u ma dingo para in adora i Niño.
(We are all ready and no one will be left behind to adore the Infant.)

En li'e' i estreyas na ma'lak ininå-ña,
(You will see the stars whose light is bright,)
na ma'lak ininå-ña para giå-ta guato gi sen popblen sagå-ña.
(whose light is bright to be our guide to His most poor dwelling.)
En li'e' gi un eståblo na hokkok mina'lak-ña,
(You will see in a stable its complete brightness,)
na hokkok mina'lak-ña i Niño mafañågo pot nina'siñå-ña.
(its complete brightness, the Infant born through His power.)

Todos ham man listo ya tåya' u ma dingo para in adora i Niño.
(We are all ready and no one will be left behind to adore the Infant.)

HIDDEN MALESSO' : JAPANESE RICE MILL

Much of Guam's history is hidden right in front of our eyes.

We pass these sites all the time and are not aware of the history, or that they even exist. Just turn a corner we normally ignore; venture just a few steps more, and we're facing a piece of island history.

Take for example the Japanese rice mill in Malesso'. It's not terribly difficult to see, but it is off the main road. It sits on private land, so one has to ask permission of at least the neighbor through whose land one must pass. The barking dogs will make you do that, anyway.

JAPANESE OCCUPATION

Guam Rice Paddy during Japanese Occupation

When the Japanese occupied Guam, from December 1941 till July 1944, both the Chamorros and the Japanese turned to the land and sea for food. Some food continued to be imported from off-island, but in ever-decreasing amounts due to shortages and the dangers of American attacks.

In 1943, the Japanese government made self-reliance in food the absolute rule on Guam. Even more so for the Japanese than for the Chamorros, who were quite happy with corn and other carbohydrates, rice production was a top priority. Paddies were started typically in the southern half of the island where low-lying, watery areas, often crossed by rivers and streams, made rice growing ideal.

In December of 1943, a rice mill was built by the Japanese in Malesso'. It consisted of two, non-adjoining rooms. Rice paddies may have surrounded the area, which is low-lying, not far from the beach. Though no documentation exists, that we know of, to prove it was a rice mill, this is what some local residents alive during the Occupation say it was.

The mill was not in use for long, though, if at all. First of all, rice production was more or less a failure on Guam during the Japanese Occupation, for several reasons. Harvests were poor and could not adequately feed the Japanese military on Guam, especially when their numbers increased in 1944 in anticipation of the American invasion.

By March of 1944 or so, just four months after the mill was built, preparation for all-out battle with the Americans took precedence and farming took a back seat, especially when the Japanese rounded up the Chamorros to wait out the battle in the interior hills and jungles.

Today, the roof and interior floor of the mill are gone. Inside the building, vegetative and man-made debris litter the area. All around the mill, the same conditions exist. Yet, despite typhoons and earthquakes, the four concrete walls of the mill are still standing, more than 70 years later.

It is the only non-military Japanese-built structure surviving on Guam from the Occupation.

PUENGEN YU'US (SILENT NIGHT)

This Chamorro version of the famous carol "Silent Night" is sung by Donovan Afaisen and Andrea Pangelinan. It begins with the English version and then the Chamorro version follows.

Puengen Yu'us, puengen Jesus
(Night of God, night of Jesus)
u ma tuna si Yu'us!
(God be praised!)
Ya u fåtto gi taotao siha
(And may it come to the people)
i ha tåtånga na pås-ñiha
(their longed-for peace)
gigigo ha' yan si Yu'us,
(together with God,)
gigigo ha' yan si Jesus.
(together with Jesus.)

Puengen Yu'us, puengen Jesus
(Night of God, night of Jesus)
dalai lokkue' sen mampos!
(oh my, exceedingly so!)
A'annok i Rai i rai siha
(The King of kings is revealed)
guihe gi echongñan-ñiha*
(there at their side)
ya ti yan-ñiha si Yu'us,
(but they did not love God,)
ya ti yan-ñiha si Jesus.
(they didn't love Jesus.)


Echongña. This word is now forgotten by most. Even many older people (aged 80 years and up) do not know that it means "side." The word appears in other hymns, too, like in "O Maria Nana'magof" where it says, "tunanas gi echongñå-mo," meaning "straight alongside of you." To modern-day Chamorros unaware of this word, it sounds like "echong ñåmo" or "crooked mosquito."

There are slightly different versions of the wording of this carol. Påle' Roman de Vera, Capuchin, was the first to publish a Chamorro version on Guam.

CHAMORRO EXPRESSIONS

NÁTATA LAGO'-ÑA

His/her tears are shallow.

Some people hardly ever cry at all, even when they are profoundly sad or moved. They have the ability to fight back the tears and keep their eyes dry.

Others can cry in an instant, for the simplest of reasons. It doesn't take them much to shed a tear. It's as if the tear was already on hand, just waiting for the slightest reason to come out.

These people are said to be nátata lago'-ña. Their tears are shallow. Why?

Their tears are right at the surface of their eyes. Any closer to the surface and their eyes would be spilling out tears all day long.

In order for these people to cry, they don't need to reach into the deep recesses of their storage of tears. Their tears are right there, on the surface, shallow, ready to shed at any moment.

WHEN THE AMERICANS BROUGHT CHRISTMAS TO GUAM

From a news article in 1911

As the above headline states, Christmas didn't happen on time on Guam one year, in 1910.

Well, that's according to the American Navy which ruled Guam in those days. The Chamorros and their Chamorro and Spanish priests, however, celebrated Christmas on time just the same anyway.

As far as the Americans were concerned, however, it was the United States that brought Christmas to Guam. The article from the same newspaper above stated, "Christmas on Guam is only twelve years old," brought to Guam only in 1898 when the United States took control over the island away from Spain. Never mind that the Spaniard Sanvitores came to Guam in 1668 and celebrated the first Christmas here that same year, two hundred and thirty years before the Americans came.

According to the Americans, Christmas couldn't happen on Guam either unless the American Santa Claus brought gifts and toys to the island. That's why Christmas was late in 1910.

Starting in 1907, the American Navy brought hundreds of Christmas toys and candy to Guam for the school children every year. But in December of 1910, the health officer on Guam would not allow the Navy ship to unload passengers or cargo because one man on board had a mild case of smallpox and was actually already recovering from it. Still, no amount of convincing could change the health officer's mind. The ship had to continue to Manila without leaving behind all those toys and candies for Guam's school children.

And that is why, the American newspaper said, Christmas didn't happen on time on Guam that year.

Better tell that to the thousands of Chamorros who were at midnight Mass for Christmas. Apparently they had no idea that Christmas couldn't happen until the toys came.

Christmas on Guam only started in 1898, according to this American newspaper!

News article in 1911

FINO' I MAN ÅMKO'

CHÅDA' HÅLOM CHÅ'GUAN

Egg in the grass.

This saying sounds strange at first to people hearing it for the first time, but it was heard by some older people in the past.

Here's the idea behind it. A hen usually lays her eggs in a coop (kasiyas) or basket (ålan månnok).

So if a woman gives birth to a child out of wedlock, it's like the hen who lays her egg out on the grass, in a field and so on. Far away from the public eye, from the usual places a hen would lay an egg. Even the child would be called påtgon sanhiyong, a child "from the outside, " outside of marriage, that is.

There were lots of births out of wedlock in the old days. But it was considered something shameful. There would be no christening party, for example, when the baby was baptized.

"COPY THOSE CHAMORROS!"

1742 SAKMAN

In 1742, the British admiral Lord George Anson stopped at Tinian and saw a sakman (flying proa) sailing on the sea. He was impressed with its speed, reckoned by many today at 20 knots or 23 miles per hour on land.

Anson needed to make repairs and replenish food and water supplies at Tinian, and give his crew some rest and the sick among them some convalescence, but he couldn't stay long since the Spaniards in Guam might send up an armed force if they heard about this British visit.

So Anson destroyed the boat and the sakman being used by the Spanish and Chamorro men drying beef in Tinian before he left the island. But he also had his draftsman draw, in great detail, the design of the sakman. This drawing made its rounds back in England, along with the story of Anson's travels in book form, published in 1748.

Well, twenty-some years after news of Anson's voyage in the Pacific, his visit to Tinian and his depiction of the sakman circulated around England, a British shipbuilder decided to make a canoe based on the Chamorro sakman as documented by Lord Anson. The story appeared in a British newspaper in 1767.

Notice that the article talks about a praw (proa) and that it belongs to the Indians, a common name in those centuries for natives of America and the Pacific. The Spaniards called Chamorros and Filipinos indios in those days, too. The Marianas were still called Ladrones by many in those days, as well.

The British copy of the Chamorro sakman could not have been an exact replica. Local, English materials were undoubtedly used, rather than Pacific island material. I wouldn't be surprised if there were technological changes made, too.

But it goes to show that European admiration for the Chamorro sakman's speed and agility was strong enough for one English man to make a functional replica of it 250 years ago. What became of it remains an unanswered question.