The records of the Mariana Islands span the period 1678-1899 with the bulk of the material falling between 1795 and 1898. Four periods (1795-1808, 1818-1826, 1870-1898) are represented by particularly strong documentation.

The material consists of 157 items which are a combination of original documents or contemporary copies from original documents. They are arranged in a general chronological flow within item groupings. The dates overlap both within and without these groups.

Item 1 is indexes of royal decrees sent to the Marianas from 1678 to 1843. Although not all the royal decrees are in this collection of documents, the indexes are very valuable and may be used in conjunction with the holdings of the Archivo General de Indias in Seville and the Archivo General de Simancas, Spain.

Items 2-15 include court cases, royal decrees for the years 1856-1865, instructions for the Governor of Marianas (1856-1884), edicts, and ordinances from the governor of the islands to his subjects. These documents cover a wide variety of insular affairs such as missionaries being sent to Saipan and Tinian, the farming and colonizing of the island of Agrigan, public health measures, the building of two hospitals, the establishment of a U. S. Consulate in Hagåtña, Guam, the escape of prisoners, the building of prisons, ports, and numerous reports on the ships which stopped at the ports of Agaña, Umata, Apra, etc. There is a gap in the governors’ instructions for the years 1856-1872, but otherwise these items present a view of the islands’ administration. Items 9-15 consist of edicts, ordinances, and regulations from Spanish officialdom (1794-1806) covering the everyday life of the inhabitants. The subject matter of these edicts ranges from the fencing of domestic animals to rules for hunting wild boars and the forbidding of the manufacture of coconut wine by the natives. These last items coupled with Items 16-19 and 97, which consist of official correspondence of three governors (1818-1831), present one of the strongest points of these records.

Items 20-24 are orders and circulars issued by the governors between 1870 and 1894 for the gobernadorcillos pertaining to the regulation of mining, cockfighting, and other local matters.

Items 25-38 are governors’ reports and investigations ranging from 1796 to 1806. There is one 1762 item: an edict communicating to the people of the Marianas that Spain is at war with Great Britain and surveying the men available who could bear arms in case of an invasion. The governors’ reports deal mostly with criminal proceedings, the passage of ships through the islands, and 1802 capture of a British frigate. There is an item on an investigation started in 1802 concerning the miuse of public funds by ex-governor Muro.

Items 39-50 span the years 1828-1831 and 1835-1846, and consist of criminal investigations, land grants, military salaries, port fees to be paid by visiting ships, building and repairs of military installations, roads, bridges, the royal palace at Umata, and the Santa Cruz castle.

Items 51-71 span the years 1852-1873 and contain several criminal investigations, including an inquiry into the murder of the captain of a German brigantine which lay offshore (1852), several shipwrecks (1865), the application of an American physician to settle and practice in Guam (1855), the auction of a shipwrecked vessel, and assistance given to an American whaling ship (1859). There are several items on other disabled ships, an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a party exploring Tinian and Saipan, and a lengthy investigation relating to the escape of two political prisoners aboard the schooner Scotland.

Item 72 is a report on tuberculosis. Items 73-75 contain vagrancy proceedings, plans to build a bridge at Pigo, the building of a new school, and growing coffee in the Marianas (1876-1879).

Items 76 and 77 consist of documents which grant to Mr. Capelle, a citizen of Agaña, exclusive rights to cultivate Agrigan Island, as well as a subsequent lawsuit brought by the grantee against the crew and owners of an intruding British steamer. Items 78-92 consist of various criminal and administrative investigations covering the last fourteen years of Spanish rule. An important item is 82, which is an investigation of the assassination of Governor Angel de Pazos y Vela-Hildago. Other items in this cluster include reports and plans to build sixteen bridges, vagrancy proceedings, regulation of fisheries, and the slaughter of cattle.

Items 93-96 include garrison order books for the 1795-1806 period - a strong period in the collection - and a variety of decrees, orders, and circulars to local authorities for 1855 through 1892. Items 98-99 consist of vital statistics taken in several localities, mostly on the island of Guam.

Items 100-103 deal with church matters such as fees for ecclesiastical services, a copy of the “doctrines of the faith” in Carolinian, and other matters relating to church ceremonies and services.

Items 104-107 contain the document which created the College of San Juan de Letrán in Hagåtña, Guam (1789) and rules enacted in the college in 1836. There are also other documents on schools and curricula (1836-1885). Items 108-113 refer to health matters, such as vaccinations, meetings of the Board of Public Health, the appointment of physicians and dentists, surveys of blind, physically handicapped, and poor persons needing public assistance.

Items 114-120 relate to prisons. Item 114 is particularly significant as it outlines instructions to the prison warden of Agaña by Governor Felipe María de la Corte y Ruano Calderón. The latter was an important governor and a captain of engineers, whose eleven-year term was a succession of administrative and economic experiments, many of them successful. These items also include rules and regulations governing the inspection of prisons, and inventories for the 1859-1892 period. Included also is an 1895 treasury report.

Items 121-123 are various instructions: to Governor José Casillas Salazar from the Captain General of the Philippines (1843); to the gobernadorcillos of the different towns from the island governor (1834-1835); and to the captains of the ports of Apra and Umata from the authorities in Agaña (1834-1857).

Item 124 contains electoral proceedings. Groups of citizens headed by a cabeza de barangay elected three names for gobernadorcillo and the governor chose one of the three, the second person then became teniente de barrio, and the third alguacil. This is an extremely interesting item concerning grass-roots democracy during the last years of the Spanish empire (1887-1899).

Items 125-141 are letters and reports of gobernadorcillos (1895-1898), judicial correspondence (1884-1899), and criminal proceedings (1890-1896). Items 129-141 contain a large number of administrative resolutions (1843-1895) relating to island affairs such as shipping, commerce, school budgets, salaries, public health, price scales, fishing, and agriculture.

Items 142 and 143 are instructions for urban improvements, repair of streets and houses, and directives for harvesting crops (1844 and 1856).

Item 144 consists of orders and regulations regarding foreign travelers arriving at the Marianas, and provisions for lodging and other matters relating to transients.

Items 145-148 are instructions by Governor Felipe María de la Corte y Ruano Calderó relating to the improvement of agriculture on several islands and the acquisition of ships to transport crops to the market places.

Items 149-151 contain military orders and consular correspondence, while Items 152 through 156 contain miscellaneous materials.

Item 157 is a study, by the department of engineers of the Philippines, of the water supply of the city of Manila, written in 1845.