Spain, where they were placed, to have escaped the
violence and cruelty of that haughty nation, so fatal to a large
proportion of the whole human race: But it seems their remote situation
could not protect them from sharing in the common destruction of the
western world, all the advantage they received from their distance being
only to perish an age or two later. It may perhaps be doubted, if the
number of the inhabitants of Tinian, who were banished to Guam, and who
died there pining for their native home, was so great, as what we have
related above; but, not to mention the concurrent assertion of our
prisoners, and the commodiousness of the island, and its great
fertility, there are still remains to be met with on the place, which
evince it to have been once extremely populous: For there are, in all
parts of the island, a great number of ruins of a very particular kind;
they usually consist of two rows of square pyramidal pillars, each
pillar being about six feet from the next, and the distance between the
rows being about twelve feet; the pillars themselves are about five feet
square at the base, and about thirteen feet high; and on the top of each
of them there is a semi-globe, with the flat part upwards; the whole of
the pillars and semi-globe is solid, being composed of sand and stone
cemented together, and plastered over. If the account our prisoners gave
us of these structures was true, the island must indeed have been
extremely populous; for they assured us that they were the foundations
of particular buildings set apart for those Indians only, who had
engaged in some religious vow; and monastic institutions are often to be
met with in many Pagan nations. However, if these ruins were originally
the bases of the common dwelling-houses of the natives, their numbers
must have been considerable; for in many parts of the island they are
extremely thick planted, and sufficiently evince the great plenty of
former inhabitants. But to return to the present state of the island."

"Having mentioned the conveniences of this place, the excellency and
quantity of its fruits and provisions, the neatness of its lawns, the
stateliness, freshness, and fragrance of its woods, the happy inequality
of its surface, and the variety and elegance of the views it afforded, I
most now observe, that all these advantages were greatly enhanced by the
healthiness of its climate, by the almost constant breezes which prevail
there, and by the f