or LACEDOGNA, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, and in the Capitanata, with a bishop's see. E. Long. 15. 12. N. Lat. 41. 16.

LADRONE or Marian Islands, a cluster of 12 islands lying in the Pacific Ocean, in about 145° of east longitude, and between the 11th and 21st degree of north latitude. They were first discovered by Magellan, who sailed round the world through the Straits which bear his name. He gave them the name of Ladrones Islands; or the Islands of Thieves, from the thievish disposition of the inhabitants. At the time these islands were discovered by the Europeans, the natives were totally unacquainted with any other coun- country besides their own; and having no traditionary accounts of their own origin, they imagined that the author of their race was formed of a piece of the rock of Funa, one of their smaller islands. Many things looked upon by us as absolutely necessary to our existence, were utterly unknown to these people. They had no animals of any sort; and would not even have had any idea of them, had it not been for the birds; and even of them they had but one species, somewhat like the turtle-dove, which they never killed for eating, but only tamed them, and taught them to speak. They were much astonished on seeing a horse which a Spanish captain left among them in 1673, and could not for a long time be satisfied with admiring him. But what is most surprising and incredible in their history is, that they were utterly unacquainted with the element of fire, till Magellan, provoked by their repeated thefts, burned one of their villages. When they saw their wooden houses blazing, they first thought that the fire was a beast which fed upon the wood; and some of them who came too near, being burnt, the fell flood at a distance, lest they should be devoured or poisoned by the breathings of this terrible animal.

The inhabitants of the Ladrones are olive-coloured, but not of such a deep dye as those of the Philippine islands; their stature is good, and their limbs well proportioned. Though their food consists entirely of fish, fruits, and roots, yet they are so fat, that to strangers they appear swelled, but this does not render them less nimble and active. They often live to 100 years or more, yet retain the health and vigour of men of 50. The men go stark naked, but the women are covered. They are not ill-looking, and take great care of their beauty, though their ideas on that subject are very different from ours. They love black teeth and white hair. Hence one of their principal occupations is to keep their teeth black by the help of certain herbs, and to whiten their hair, sprinkling upon it a certain water for this purpose. The women have their hair very long; but the men generally shave it close, except a single lock on the crown of the head, after the manner of the Japanese. Their language much resembles that of the people called Tagales in the Philippine islands. It is agreeable to the ear, with a soft and easy pronunciation. One of its chief graces consists in the facility of transposing words, and even all the syllables of one word; and thus furnishing a variety of double meanings, with which these people are greatly delighted. Though plunged in the deepest ignorance, and destitute of every thing valued by the rest of mankind, no nation ever showed more presumption, or a greater conceit of themselves than these islanders, looking on their own nation as the only wise, sensible, and polished one in the world, and beholding every other people with the greatest contempt. Though they are ignorant of the arts and sciences, yet, like every other nation, they have their fables which serve them for history, and some poems which they greatly admire. A poet is with them a character of the first eminence, and greatly respected.

We neither know at what time, nor from what place the Ladrono islands were first peopled. As Japan lies within six or seven days sail of them, some have been induced to believe, that the first inhabitants of the Ladrones came from Japan. But from their greater resemblance to the inhabitants of the Philippine islands than to the Japanese, it is more probable that they came from the former than the latter. Formerly, most of the islands were inhabited; and about 90 years ago, the three principle islands, Guam, Tinian, and Rota, are said to have contained 50,000 people; but since that time, Tinian hath been entirely depopulated, and only 200 or 300 Indians left at Rota to cultivate rice for the island of Guam, which alone is inhabited by Europeans, and where the Spaniards have a governor and a garrison: here also the annual Manila ship touches for refreshments in her passage from Acapulco to the Philippines. The island of Tinian afforded an asylum to commodore Anson in 1742; and the masterly manner in which the author of that voyage paints the natural beauties of the country hath given a degree of estimation not only to this island, but to all the rest, which they had not before. Commodore Byron, in 1765, continued nine weeks at Tinian, and anchored in the very spot where the centurion lay; but gives a much less favourable account of this climate and country than the former navigator. The water, he says, is brackish, and full of worms; many of his men were seized with fevers, occasioned by the intense heat; the thermometer, which was kept on board the ship, generally stood at 86°, which is but 10 or 11 degrees less than the heat of the blood at the heart; and had the instrument been ashore, he imagines it would have stood much higher than it did. It was with the greatest difficulty that they could penetrate through the woods; and when they had fortunately killed a bull, and with prodigious labour dragged it through the forests to the beach, it stank, and was full of fly-blows by the time it reached the shore. The poultry was ill-taught; and within an hour after it was killed, the flesh became as green as grass, and swarmed with maggots. The wild hogs were very fierce; and so large, that a carcase frequently weighed 200 pounds. Cotton and indigo were found on the island. Captain Wallis continued here a month in 1767, but makes no such complaints.