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Louis Claude de Freycinet
Louis Claude de Freycinet (1779 – 1841) was born in France, and at the age of 14, he joined the French navy. His early stint with the navy occurred during the tumultuous years of the French Revolution. He was an ardent supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte and shared Napoleon’s interests in science, exploration, and cartography.
Early European Observations of CHamorus
Early European observations of the CHamorus people represent a significant source of ethnographical and historical information. Many comments made by visitors to the Marianas focus on visible realities such as nudity, body ornaments, structures and watercraft.
Adventurer: William Dampier
William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, chronicler (he kept a detailed journal of his travels), and scientific observer in the 17th century. Considered by his contemporaries to be an erudite sea tactician and well-read writer — a Renaissance man of the high seas — Dampier’s early career, however, involved piracy; the 28-year-old was a product of nationalist sentiment.
Adventurer: William “Bully” Hayes
William “Bully” Hayes was a blackbirder (slave trader) and criminal who in the 19th century terrorized the inhabitants of Micronesia for many years. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio sometime around 1829 and died in the Marshall Islands in 1877.
Adventurers: Pirates on Guam
Although the word “pirate” is used in early documents, secondary literature on Guam’s history has also referred to these pirates as “adventurers,” “buccaneers” and “privateers,” all of which refer to the same profession of, among other things, preying upon and stealing from ships, with the primary objective being Spanish galleons carrying gold and silver.
Adventurer: Oliver van Noort
In 1597 the Dutch began raiding into the Pacific, hoping that by attacking the Spanish colonies and ships they could force the Spanish to grant them independence. In 1598 the Dutch launched an expedition to the Pacific under Admiral Oliver van Noort, who was acclaimed a hero for striking at the Spanish and completing the fourth expedition (after Magellan, Hawkins, and Cavendish) to circumnavigate the globe.
US Naval Era: Judges and Island Attorneys
US Naval Governor Edward Dorn replaced all CHamoru justices in 1910 with commissioned officers from the US Navy and Marine Corps. However, by 1918 local judges were back in the island’s courts.
Adventurers: Beachcombers
In the Pacific, no other group of people was more reviled than the beachcomber. Considered degenerate characters, they have been charged with infecting islanders with whom they lived with a moral disease deemed more destructive than smallpox or influenza.
US Naval Era: Island Court System
Many of the first US Naval governors of Guam attempted to reorganize the court system. Guam’s first appointed US Navy Governor Richard P. Leary (1899–1900) created the Supreme Court of Guam in April 1900.
US Naval Era: Development of the Code of Guam
Although Guam became an American possession in 1898, it was not until 1933 that the laws of Guam began to reflect those of the United States rather than of Spain. For nearly 34 years of American rule the rulings and decisions made in the island’s judicial system were based heavily upon the terms laid out in Spanish law, including the titles used in court and methods of punishment.