The inhabitants are of the Chamorro (Indonesian) stock, strongly intermixed with Philippine Tagals and Spaniards; their speech is a dialect of Malay, corrupted by Tagal and Spanish. There are very few full-blood Chamorros. The aboriginal native was of a very dark mahogany or chocolate colour. A majority of the total number of natives live in Agana. The natives are nearly all farmers, and most of them are poor, but their condition has been improved under American rule. Public schools have been established; in 1908 the enrolment was 1700. On the island there is a small colony of lepers, segregated only after American occupation. Gangrosa is a disease said to be peculiar to Guam and the neighbouring islands; it is due to a specific bacillus and usually destroys the nasal septum. The victims of this disease also are segregated. There is a good general hospital. Agana (or San Ignacio de Agana) is the capital and principal town; under the Spanish regime it was the capital of the Ladrones. It is about 5 m. N.E. of Piti, the landing-place of Apra harbour and port of entry, with which it is connected by an excellent road. Agana has paved streets and sewer and water systems. Other villages, all small, are Asan, Piti, Sumay, Umata, Merizo and Inarajan. Guam is governed by a "naval governor," an officer of the U.S. navy who is commandant of the naval station. The island is divided into four administrative districts, each with an executive head called a gobernadorcillo (commissioner), and there are a court of appeals, a court of first instance and courts of justices of the peace. Peonage was abolished in the island by the United States in February 1900. Telegraphic communication with the Caroline Islands was established in 1905; in 1908 there were four cables ending at the relay station at Sumay on the Shore of Apra harbour. Guam was discovered by Magellan in 1521, was occupied by Spain in 1688, was captured by the United States cruiser "Charleston" in June 1899, and was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris on the 10th of December 1898. See _A List of Books (with References to Periodicals) on Samoa and Guam_ (1901; issued by the Library of Congress); L. M. Cox, "The Island of Guam," in _Bulletin of the American Geographical Society_, vol. 36 (New York, 1904); Gen. Joseph Wheeler, _Report on the Island of Guam_, June 1900 (War Department, Document No. 123); F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_ (London, 1899); an account of the flora of Guam by W. E. Safford in the publications of the National Herbarium (Smithsonian Institution); and the reports of the naval governor.