8: Captain Pedro Duarte, Letter to Spain, (1898)


a portion of a memoir written by a Spanish official about the capture of Guam. In this screenshot the memoir talks about the discussion between Spanish officials about how to defend the Island from the Americans. They ended up realizing they needed to surrender without a fight.

This source is a private letter that was sent from the Philippines to Spain by Captain Pedro Duarte, who was the secretary to the Spanish Governor of Guam. Captain Duarte was taken prisoner by the Americans during the capture and this letter is a recollection/memoir of the Spanish perspective of what happened during the capture and the letter also details his experiences as a prisoner. He wrote this letter when the American ships docked in the Philippines.

The screenshot that I took is a portion of the memoir that details the discussion between Spanish officials about how to defend the Island from the American ships. They ended up realizing that they needed to surrender without a fight. This source is very important because without it we would not know that there was discussion amongst the Spanish about how to defend the Island. This is one of the few digitized Spanish perspectives about the capture. I picked this source because it provides an excellent window into the Spanish perspective of that day, June 20 1898. 


Duarte, Pedro. “Manila, November 3 of 1898.” University of Guam. (1898).


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