[and] had no knowledge of seamanship.” Nevertheless, rumors of the decimation of the Hagåtña garrison somehow reached Quiroga as did the rumor of Quiroga’s demise reach Hagåtña . These rumors were most likely instigated by Chamorros on both islands, endeavoring to end the Spanish presence. Apparently believing that his Hagåtña colleagues had been killed and the garrison overrun by Chamorro warriors, Quiroga “encouraged his soldiers with greater vigor that with the sword they might avenge so many sacrileges” and led them to southern Saipan where allegedly “the enemy despairing to resist him withdrew from the island toward the neighboring island.” Then moving north, Quiroga and his soldiers slew “many rebels” and captured and wounded many others. During an apparent lull in his Saipan campaign, Quiroga executed a disobedient Spanish soldier, imploring his troops not to offend either God’s or the military’s laws. The man was executed by firing squad to the amazement of Saipan Chamorros. Quiroga then had a Chamorro woman, who had brought gifts for his soldiers seized as a hostage to force someone from her village to voyage to Guam and bring back news. Upon reaching her village with Quiroga and his force, the woman cried out, leading Quiroga to cause “havoc among the Indians” killing more than 200 men, many apparently while they slept (men, “who not withstanding the vociferation of his guide, did not wake up”). Quiroga threatened to kill five members of a chief’s family as well as to “annihilate” all the Chamorros of Saipan, if the chief failed to deliver the commander’s letter to Guam or if he returned without an answer. Quiroga finally learned of the four-month siege of the Hagåtña garrison when the voyager (it is not clear if it was the chief or someone he commanded to go) went to a Christian Chamorro friend on Guam. This “good Indian” from Saipan invoked “the Holy Eucharist which was the password” at the Hagåtña garrison and carried Quiroga’s letter in to Sargento Mayor Damián de Esplana, who gave orders for Quiroga to return immediately to Guam. Meanwhile “rebel” canoes from Saipan had also reached Guam with an apparent Chamorro spy for the Spanish letting the garrison defenders know that Quiroga was about to return to Guam, and thus, according to Bouwens, “restore once again the lost Christian religion.”
72 ・ Marianas History Conference 2012