Puerto Rico was scantily provided with priests till the year 1518, when the treasurer, Haro, wrote to Cardinal Cisneros: "There are no priests in the granges as has been commanded; only one in Caparra, and one in San German. The island is badly served. Send us a goodly number of priests or permission to pay them out of the produce of the tithes."

The "goodly number of priests" was duly provided. Immediately after the transfer of the capital to its present site in 1521, the Dominicans began the construction of a convent, which was nearly completed in 1529, when there were 25 friars in it. They had acquired great influence over Bishop Manso, and obtained many privileges and immunities from him. Bishop Bastidas, Manso's successor, was less favorably disposed toward them, and demanded payment of tithes of the produce of their agricultural establishments. He reported to the king in 1548: "There is a Dominican monastery here large enough for a city of 2,000 inhabitants,[79] and there are many friars in it. They possess farms, cattle, negroes, Indians, and are building horse-power sugar-mills; meanwhile, I know that they are asking your Majesty for alms to finish their church ... It were better to oblige them to sell their estates and live in poverty as prescribed by the rules of their order."

The Franciscans came to Puerto Rico in 1534, but founded no convent till 1585, when one of their order, Nicolas Ramos, was appointed to the see of San Juan. Then they established themselves in "la Aguada," and named the settlement San Francisco de Asis. Two years later it was destroyed by the Caribs, and five of the brothers martyrized. No attempt at reconstruction of the convent was made. The order abandoned the island and did not return till 1642, when they obtained the Pope's license to establish themselves in the capital. Like the Dominicans, they soon acquired considerable wealth.

The privilege of administering parishes and collecting tithes, which was the principal source of monastic revenues, was canceled by royal schedule June 13, 1757. The monks continued in the full enjoyment of their property till 1835, when all the property of the regular clergy throughout the Peninsula and the colonies was expropriated by the Government. In this island the convents were appropriated only after long and tedious judicial proceedings, in which the Government demonstrated that the transfer was necessary for the public good. Then the convents were used—that of the Dominicans as Audiencia hall, that of the Franciscans as artillery barracks. The intendancy took charge of the administration of the estate of the two communities, the mortmain was canceled, and the transfer duly legalized. A promised indemnity to the two brotherhoods was never paid, but in 1897 a sum of 5,000 pesos annually was added to the insular budget, to be paid to the clergy as compensation for the expropriated estate of the Dominicans in San German. Succeeding political events prevented the payment of this also. The last representatives in this island of the two dispossessed orders died in San Juan about the year 1865.

Bishop Monserrate made an effort to reestablish the order of Franciscans in 1875-'76. Only three brothers came to the island and they, not liking the aspect of affairs, went to South America.

* * * * *

The first head of the secular clergy in Puerto Rico was nominated in 1511. The Catholic princes besought Pope Julius II to make it a bishopric, and recommended as its first prelate Alonzo Manso, canon of Salamanca, doctor in theology, a man held in high esteem at court. His Holiness granted the request, and designated the whole of the island as the diocese, with the principal settlement in it as the see.

The subsequent conquests on the mainland kept adding vast territories to this diocese till, toward the end of the eighteenth century, it included the whole region extending from the upper Orinoco to the Amazon, and from Guiana to the plains of Bogota. Manso's successors repeatedly represented to the king the absolute impossibility of attending to the spiritual wants of "the lambs that were continually added to the flock." They requested that the see might be transferred to the mainland or that the diocese might be divided in two or more. This was done in 1791, when the diocese of Guiana was created, and Puerto Rico with the island of Vieyques remained as the original one.

The bishop came to San Juan in 1513, and at once began to dispose all that was necessary to give splendor and good government to the first episcopal seat in America. Unfortunately, he arrived at a time when dissension, strife, and immorality were rampant; and when it became known that he was authorized to collect his tithes in specie, the opposition of the quarrelsome and insubordinate inhabitants became so violent that the prelate could not exercise his functions, and was forced to return to the Peninsula in 1515. He came back in 1519, invested with the powers of a Provincial Inquisitor, which he exercised till 1539, when he died and was buried in the cathedral, where a monument with an alabaster effigy marked his tomb till 1625, when it was destroyed by the Hollanders.

Rodrigo Bastidas, a native of Santo Domingo, was Manso's successor. He was appointed Bishop of Coro in Venezuela in 1532, but solicited and obtained the see of Puerto Rico in 1542. He was a man of great capacity, virtuous and benevolent. He advised the suppression of the Inquisition, asked the Government for facilities to educate the youth and advance the agricultural interests of his diocese, and commenced the construction of the cathedral. He died in Santo Domingo in 1561, very old and very rich.

Friar Diego de Salamanca, of the order of Augustines, succeeded Bastidas. He continued the construction of the cathedral, but soon returned to the metropolis, leaving the diocese to the care of the Vicar-General, Santa Olaya, till 1585, when the Franciscan friar Nicolas Bamos was appointed to the see. He was the last Bishop of Puerto Rico who united the functions of inquisitor with those of the episcopate, and a zealous burner of heretics. After him the see remained vacant for fourteen years; since then, to the end of the eighteenth century there were 39 consecrated prelates, 9 of whom renounced, or for some other reason did not take possession. The most distinguished among the remaining 30 were: Bernardo Balbuena, poet and author, 1623-'27; Friar Manuel Gimenez Perez, pious, active, and philanthropist, 1770-'84; and Juan Alejo Arismendi, who, according to the Latin inscription on his tomb, was an amiable, religious, upright, zealous, compassionate, learned, decorous, active, leading, benevolent, paternal man. Of the rest little more is known than their names and the dates of their assumption of office and demise.

* * * * *

The year 1842 was, for the secular clergy, one of anxiety for the safety of their long and assiduously accumulated wealth. The members to the number of 17 individuals, including the bishop, drew annual stipends from the insular treasury to the amount of 36,888 pesos, besides which they possessed and still possess a capital of over one and a half millions of pesos, represented by: 1. Vacant chaplaincies. 2. Investments under the head Ecclesiastical Chapter. 3. Idem for account of the Carmelite Sisterhood. 4. Legacies to saints for the purpose of celebrating masses and processions in all the parishes of the island. 5. Pious donations. 6. Fraternities and religious associations for the worship of some special saint. 7. Revenues from an institution known by the name of Third Orders. 8. Capital invested by the founders of the Hospital of the Conception, the income of which is mostly consumed by the nuns of that order. And 9. The ecclesiastical revenues of different kinds in San German.

All this was put in jeopardy by the following decree:

"Dona Isabel II, by the grace of God and the Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, Queen of Spain, and during her minority Baldomero Espartero, Duke of 'la Victoria' and Morella, Regent of the kingdom, to all who these presents may see and understand, makes known that the Cortes have decreed, and we have sanctioned, as follows:

"ARTICLE I. All properties of the secular clergy of whatever class; rights or shares of whatever origin or denomination they may be, or for whatever application or purpose they may have been given, bought, or acquired, are national properties.

"ART. II. The properties, rights, and shares corresponding in any manner to ecclesiastical unions or fraternities, are also national properties.

"ART. III. All estates, rights, and shares of the cathedral, collegiate and parochial clergy and ecclesiastical unions and fraternities referred to in the preceding articles, are hereby declared for sale."

* * * * * The 15 articles that follow specify the properties in detail, the manner of sale, the disposition of the products, administration of rents, etc.

The law was not carried into effect. Espartero, very popular at first, by adopting the principles of the progressist party, forfeited the support of the conservatives—that is, of the clerical party, and the man is not born yet who can successfully introduce into Spain a radical reform of the nature of the one he sanctioned with his signature September 2, 1841. From that moment his overthrow was certain. Narvaez headed the revolution against him, his own officers and men abandoned him, and on July 30, 1843, he wrote his farewell manifesto to the nation on board a British ship of war.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 79: San Juan had only about 100 "vecinos"—that is, white people.]



CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE INQUISITION

1520-1813

Bishop Manso, on his arrival in 1513, found Puerto Rico in a state bordering on anarchy, and after vain attempts to check the prevalent immorality and establish the authority of the Church, he returned to Spain in 1519. The account he gave Cardinal Cisneros of the island's condition suggested to the Grand Inquisitor the obvious remedy of clothing the bishop with the powers of Provincial Inquisitor, which he did.

Diego Torres Vargas, the canon of the San Juan Cathedral, says in his memoirs: "Manso was made inquisitor, and he, being the first, may be said to have been the Inquisitor-General of the Indies; ... the delinquents were brought from all parts to be burned and punished here ... The Inquisition building exists till this day (1647), and until the coming of the Hollanders in 1625 many sambenitos could be seen in the cathedral hung up behind the choir."

These "sambenitos" were sacks of coarse yellow cloth with a large red cross on them, and figures of devils and instruments of torture among the flames of hell. The delinquents, dressed in one of these sacks, bareheaded and barefooted, were made to do penance, or, if condemned to be burned, marched to the place of execution. It is said that in San Juan they were not tied to a stake but enclosed in a hollow plaster cast, against which the faggots were piled,[80] so that they were roasted rather than burned to death. The place for burning the sinners was outside the gate of the fort San Cristobal. Mr. M.F. Juncos believes that the prisons were in the lower part of the Dominican Convent, later the territorial audience and now the supreme court, but Mr. Salvador Brau thinks that they occupied a plot of ground in the angle formed by Cristo Street and the "Caleta" of San Juan.

Of Nicolas Ramos, the last Bishop of Puerto Rico, who united the functions of inquisitor with the duties of the episcopate, Canon Vargas says: " ... He was very severe, burning and punishing, as was his duty, some of the people whose cases came before him ..."

It seems that the records of the Inquisition in this island were destroyed and the traditions of its doings suppressed, because nothing is said regarding them by the native commentators on the island's history. Only the names of a few of the leading men who came in contact with the Tribunal have come down to us. Licentiate Sancho Velasquez, who was accused of speaking against the faith and eating meat in Lent, appears to have been Manso's first victim, since he died in a dungeon. A clergyman named Juan Carecras was sent to Spain at the disposition of the general, for the crime of practising surgery. In the same year (1536) we find the treasurer, Blas de Villasante, in an Inquisition dungeon, because, though married in Spain, he cohabited with a native woman—an offense too common at that time not to leave room for suspicion that the treasurer must have made himself obnoxious to the Holy Office in some other way. In 1537, a judge auditor was sent from the Espanola, but the parties whose accounts were to be audited contrived to have him arrested by the officers of the Inquisition on the day of his arrival. Doctor Juan Blazquez, having attempted to correct some abuses committed by the Admiral's employees in connivance with the Inquisition agents, suffered forty days' imprisonment, and was condemned to hear a mass standing erect all the time, besides paying a fine of 50 pesos.

These are the only cases on record. Only the walls of the Inquisition building, could they speak, could reveal what passed within them from the time of Manso's arrival in 1520 to the end of the sixteenth century, when the West Indian Superior Tribunal was transferred to Cartagena, and a special subordinate judge only was left in San Juan. Bishop Rodrigo de Bastidas, who visited San Juan on a Government commission in 1533, perceiving the abuses that were committed in the inquisitor's name, proposed the abolition of the Holy Office; but the odious institution continued to exist till 1813, when the extraordinary Cortes of Cadiz removed, for a time, this blot on Spanish history. The decree is dated February 22d, and accompanied by a manifesto which is an instructive historical document in itself. It shows that the Cortes dared not attempt the suppression of the dreaded Tribunal without first convincing the people of the disconnection of the measure with the religious question, and justifying it as one necessary for the public weal.

"You can not doubt," they say, "that we endeavor to maintain in this kingdom the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion, which you have the happiness to profess; ... the deputies elected by you know, as do the legislators of all times and all nations, that a social edifice not founded on religion, is constructed in vain; ... the true religion which we profess is the greatest blessing which God has bestowed on the Spanish people; we do not recognize as Spaniards those who do not profess it ... It is the surest support of all private and social virtues, of fidelity to the laws and to the monarch, of the love of country and of just liberty, which are graven in every Spanish heart, which have impelled you to battle with the hosts of the usurper, vanquishing and annihilating them, while braving hunger and nakedness, torture, and death."

The Inquisition is next referred to. It is stated that in their constant endeavor to hasten the termination of the evils that afflict the Spanish nation, the people's representatives have first given their attention to the Inquisition; that, with the object of discovering the exact civil and ecclesiastical status of the Holy Office, they have examined all the papal bulls and other documents that could throw light on the subject, and have discovered that only the Inquisitor-General had ecclesiastical powers; that the Provincial Inquisitors were merely his delegates acting under his instructions; that no supreme inquisitorial council had ever been instituted by papal brief, and that the general, being with the enemy (the French troops), no Inquisition really existed. From these investigations the Cortes had acquired a knowledge of the mode of procedure of the tribunals, of their history, and of the opinion of them entertained by the Cortes of the kingdom in early days. " ... We will now speak frankly to you," continues the document, "for it is time that you should know the naked truth, and that the veil be lifted with which false politicians have covered their designs.

"Examining the instructions by which the provincial tribunals were governed, it becomes clear at first sight that the soul of the institution was inviolable secrecy. This covered all the proceedings of the inquisitors, and made them the arbiters of the life and honor of all Spaniards, without responsibility to anybody on earth. They were men, and as such subject to the same errors and passions as the rest of mankind, and it is inconceivable that the nation did not exact responsibility since, in virtue of the temporal power that had been delegated to them, they condemned to seclusion, imprisonment, torture, and death. Thus the inquisitors exercised a power which the Constitution denies to every authority in the land save the sacred person of the king.

"Another notable circumstance made the power of the Inquisitors-General still more unusual; this was that, without consulting the king or the Supreme Pontiff, they dictated laws, changed them, abolished them, or substituted them by others, so that there was within the nation a judge, the Inquisitor-General, whose powers transcended those of the sovereign.

"Here now how the Tribunal proceeded with the offenders. When an accusation was made, the accused were taken to a secret prison without being permitted to communicate with parents, children, relations, or friends, till they were condemned or absolved. Their families were denied the consolation of weeping with them over their misfortunes or of assisting them in their defense. The accused was not only deprived of the assistance of his relations and friends, but in no case was he informed of the name of his accuser nor of the witnesses who declared against him; and in order that he might not discover who they were, they used to truncate the declarations and make them appear as coming from a third party.

"Some one will be bold enough to say that the rectitude and the religious character of the inquisitors prevented the confusion of the innocent with the criminal; but the experiences of many years and the history of the Inquisition give the lie to such assurances. They show us sage and saintly men in the Tribunal's dungeons. Sixtus IV himself, who, at the request of the Catholic kings, had sanctioned the creation of the Tribunal, complained strongly of the innumerable protests that reached him from persecuted people who had been falsely accused of heresy. Neither the virtue nor the position of distinguished men could protect them. The venerable Archbishop of Grenada, formerly the confessor of Queen Isabel, suffered most rigorous persecutions from the inquisitors of Cordova, and the same befell the Archbishop of Toledo, Friar Louis de Leon, the venerable Avila, Father Siguenza, and many other eminent men.

"In view of these facts, it is no paradox to say that the ignorance, the decadence of science, of the arts, commerce and agriculture, the depopulation and poverty of Spain, are mainly due to the Inquisition.

"How the Inquisition could be established among such a noble and generous people as the Spanish, will be a difficult problem for posterity to solve. It will be more difficult still to explain how such a Tribunal could exist for more than three hundred years. Circumstances favored its establishment. It was introduced under the pretext of restraining the Moors and the Jews, who were obnoxious to the Spanish people, and who found protection in their financial relations with the most illustrious families of the kingdom. With such plausible motives the politicians of the time covered a measure which was contrary to the laws of the monarchy. Religion demanded it as a protection, and the people permitted it, though not without strong protest. As soon as the causes that called the Inquisition into existence had ceased, the people's attorneys in Cortes demanded the establishment of the legal mode of procedure. The Cortes of Valladolid of 1518 and 1523 asked from the king that in matters of religion the ordinary judges might be declared competent, and that in the proceedings the canons and common codes might be followed; the Cortes of Saragossa asked the same in 1519, and the kings would have acceded to the will of the people, expressed through their representatives, especially in view of the indirect encouragement to do so which they received from the Holy See, but for the influence of those with whom they were surrounded who had an interest in the maintenance of the odious institution."

The manifesto terminates with an assurance to the Spanish people that, under the new law, heresy would not go unpunished; that, under the new system of judicial proceedings, the innocent would no longer be confounded with the criminal. " ... There will be no more voluntary errors, no more suborned witnesses, offenders will henceforth be judged by upright magistrates in accordance with the sacred canons and the civil code ... Then, genius and talent will display all their energies without fear of being checked in their career by intrigue and calumny; ... science, the arts, agriculture, and commerce will flourish under the guidance of the distinguished men who abound in Spain ... The king, the bishops, all the venerable ecclesiastics will instruct the faithful in the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion without fear of seeing its beauty tarnished by ignorance and superstition, and, who knows, this decree may contribute to the realization, some day, of religious fraternity among all nations!"

From this beautiful dream the Cortes were rudely awakened the very next year when King Ferdinand VII, replaced on his throne by the powers who formed the holy alliance, entered Madrid surrounded by a host of retrograde, revengeful priests. Then the Regency, the Cortes, the Constitution were ignored. The deputies were the first to suffer exile, imprisonment, and death in return for their loyalty and liberalism; the public press was silenced; the convents reopened, municipalities and provincial deputations abolished, the Jesuits restored, the Inquisition reestablished, and priestcraft once more spread its influence over the mental and social life of a naturally generous, brave, and intelligent people.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 80: Neumann, p. 205.]



CHAPTER XXXIX

GROWTH OF CITIES

The proceedings in the formation of a Spanish settlement in the sixteenth century were the same everywhere. For the choice of a site the presence of gold was a condition sine qua non, without gold, no matter how beautiful or fertile the region, no settlement was made.

When a favorable locality was found the first thing done was to construct a fort, because the natives, friendly disposed at first, were not long in becoming the deadly enemies of the handful of strangers who constituted themselves their masters. The next requisite was a church or chapel in which to invoke the divine blessing on the enterprise, or maybe to appease the divine wrath at the iniquities committed. Last, but certainly not least in importance, came the smelting-house, where the King of Spain's share of the gold was separated.

Around these the settlers grouped their houses or huts as they pleased.

The first settlement on this island was made in 1508, on the north coast, at the distance of more than a league from the present port of San Juan, the space between being swampy. Ponce called it Caparra. When the promising result of Ponce's first visit to the island was communicated to King Ferdinand by Ovando, the Governor of la Espanola, his Highness replied in a letter dated Valladolid, September 15, 1509: "I note the good services rendered by Ponce and that he has not gone to settle the island for want of means. Now that they are being sent from here in abundance, let him go at once with as many men as he can." To Ponce himself the king wrote: "I have seen your letter of August 16th. Be very diligent in the search for gold-mines. Take out as much as possible, smelt it in la Espanola and remit it instantly. Settle the island as best you can. Write often and let me know what is needed and what passes."

Armed with these instructions, and with his appointment as governor ad interim, Ponce returned to San Juan in February, 1510, with his wife and two daughters, settled in Caparra, where, before his departure in 1509, he had built a house of stamped earth (tapia), and where some of the companions of his first expedition had resided ever since. Ponce's house, afterward built of stone, served as a fort. A church or chapel existed already, and we know that there was a smelting-house, because we read that the first gold-smelting took place in Caparra in October, 1510, and that the king's one-fifth came to 2,645 pesos.



With the reinstatement of Ceron and Diaz, complaints about the distance of the settlement from the port, and its unhealthy location, soon reached the king's ears, accompanied by requests for permission to transfer it to an islet near the shore. No action was taken. In November, 1511, the monarch wrote to Ceron: "Ponce says that he founded the town of Caparra in the most favorable locality of the island. I fear that you want to change it. You shall not do so without our special approval. If there is just reason for moving you must first inform me."

Caparra remained for the time the only settlement, and was honored with the name of "City of Puerto Rico." A municipal council was installed, and the king granted the island a coat of arms which differed slightly from that used by the authorities till lately.

The next settlement was made on the south shore, at a place named Guanica, "where there is a bay," says Oviedo, "which is one of the best in the world, but the mosquitoes were so numerous that they alone were sufficient to depopulate it." [81] The Spaniards then moved to Aguada, on the northwestern shore, and founded a settlement to which they gave the name of their leader Soto Mayor.

This was a young man of aristocratic birth, ex-secretary of King Philip, surnamed "the Handsome." He had come to the Indies with a license authorizing him to traffic in captive Indians, and Ponce, wishing, no doubt, to enlist the young hidalgo's family influence at the court in his favor, made him high constable (alguacil mayor) of the southern division (June, 1510).

The new settlement's existence was short. It was destroyed by the Indians in the insurrection of February of the following year, when Christopher Soto Mayor and 80 more of his countrymen, who had imprudently settled in isolated localities in the interior, fell victims of the rage of the natives.

Diego Columbus proposed the reconstruction of the destroyed settlement, with the appellation of San German. The king approved, and near the end of the year 1512, Miguel del Torro, one of Ponce's companions, was delegated to choose a site. He fixed upon the bay of Guayanilla, eastward of Guanica, and San German became the port of call for the Spanish ships bound to Paria. Its proximity to the "pearl coast," as the north shore of Venezuela was named, made it the point of departure for all who wished to reach that coast or escape from the shores of poverty-stricken Puerto Rico—namely, the dreamers of the riches of Peru, those who, like Sedeno, aspired to new conquests on the mainland, or crown officers who had good reasons for wishing to avoid giving an account of their administration of the royal revenues. The comparative prosperity which it enjoyed made San German the object of repeated attacks by the French privateers. It was burned and plundered several times during the forty-three years of its existence, till one day in September, 1554, three French ships of the line entered the port and landed a detachment of troops who plundered and destroyed everything to a distance of a league and a half into the interior. From that day San German, founded by Miguel del Torro, ceased to exist.

The town with the same name, existing at present on the southwest coast, was founded in 1570 by Governor Francisco Solis with the remains of the ill-fated settlement on the bay of Guayanilla. The Dominican friars had a large estate in this neighborhood, and the new settlement enhanced its value. Both the governor and the bishop were natives of Salamanca, and named the place New Salamanca, but the name of New San German has prevailed. In 1626 the new town had 50 citizens (vecinos).

San Juan.—Licentiate Velasquez, one of the king's officers at Caparra, wrote to his Highness in April, 1515: " ... The people of this town wish to move to an islet in the port. I went to see it with the town council and it looks well"; and some time later: " ... We will send a description of the islet to which it is convenient to remove the town of Puerto Rico."

Ponce opposed the change. His reasons were that the locality of Caparra was dry and level, with abundance of wood, water, and pasture, and that most of the inhabitants, occupied as they were with gold-washing, had to provide themselves with provisions from the neighboring granges. He recognized that the islet was healthier, but maintained that the change would benefit only the traders.

The dispute continued for some time. Medical certificates were presented declaring Caparra unhealthy. The leading inhabitants declared their opinion in favor of the transfer. A petition was signed and addressed to the Jerome friars, who governed in la Espanola, and they ordered the transfer in June, 1519. Ponce was permitted to remain in his stone house in the abandoned town as long as he liked. In November, 1520, Castro wrote to the emperor expressing his satisfaction with the change, and asked that a fort and a stone smelting-house might be constructed, because the one in use was of straw and had been burned on several occasions. Finally, in 1521, the translation of the capital of Puerto Rico to its present site was officially recognized and approved.

There were now two settlements in the island. There were 35 citizens in each in 1515, but the gold produced attracted others, and in 1529 the Bishop of la Espanola reported that there were 120 houses in San Juan, "some of stone, the majority of straw. The church was roofed while I was there." He says, "a Dominican monastery was in course of construction, nearly finished, with more than 125 friars in it."

During the next five years the gold produce rapidly diminished; the Indians, who extracted it, escaped or died. Tempests and epidemics devastated the land. The Caribs and the French freebooters destroyed what the former spared. All those who could, emigrated to Mexico or Peru, and such was the depopulated condition of the capital, that Governor Lando wrote in 1534: "If a ship with 50 men were to come during the night, they could land and kill all who live here."

With the inhabitants engaged in the cultivation of sugar-cane, some improvement in their condition took place. Still, there were only 130 citizens in San Juan in 1556, and only 30 in New San German. In 1595, when Drake appeared before San Juan with a fleet of 26 ships, the governor could only muster a few peons and 50 horsemen, and but for the accidental presence of the Spanish frigates, Puerto Rico would probably be an English possession to-day. It was taken by the Duke of Cumberland four years later, but abandoned again on account of the epidemic that broke out among the English troops. When the Hollanders laid siege to the capital in 1625 there were only 330 men between citizens and jibaros that could be collected for the defense. In 1646 there were 500 citizens and 400 houses in San Juan, and 200 citizens in New San German. Arecibo and Coamo had recently been founded.

Scarcely any progress in the settlement of the country was made during the remaining years of the seventeenth century. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century great steps in this direction had been made. From Governor Bravo de Rivera's list of men fit for militia service, we discover that in 1759 there were 18 new settlements or towns in the island with a total of 4,559 men able to carry arms; exclusive of San Juan and San German, they were:



Ponce with 356 men. Aguada with 564 " Manati " 357 " Anasco " 460 " Yauco " 164 " Coamo " 342 " La Tuna " 104 " Arecibo " 647 " Utuado " 126 " Loiza " 179 " Toa-Alta " 188 " Toa-Baja " 294 " Piedras " 104 " Bayamon " 256 " Caguas " 100 " Guayama " 211 " Rio Piedras with 46 " Cangrejos with 120 "

The oldest of these settlements is

La Aguada.—The name signifies "place at which water is taken," and Aguadilla, which is to the north of the former and the head of the province, is merely the diminutive of Aguada. The first possesses abundant springs of excellent water, one of them distant only five minutes from the landing-place. In Aguadilla a famous spring rises in the middle of the town and runs through it in a permanent stream.

In 1511 the king directed his officers in Seville to make all ships, leaving that port for the Indies, call at the island of San Juan in order to make the Caribs believe that the Spanish population was much larger than it really was, and thus prevent or diminish their attacks. The excellence of the water which the ships found at Aguada made it convenient for them to call, and the Spanish ships continued to do so long after the need of frightening away the Caribs had passed.

The first regular settlement was founded in 1585 by the Franciscan monks, who named it San Francisco de Asis. The Caribs surprised the place about the year 1590, destroyed the convent, and martyrized five of the monks, which caused the temporary abandonment of the settlement. It was soon repeopled, notwithstanding the repeated attacks of Caribs and French and English privateers. Drake stopped there to provide his fleet with water in 1595. Cumberland did the same four years later. The Columbian insurgents attempted a landing in 1819 and another in 1825, but were beaten off. Their valiant conduct on these occasions, and their loyalty in contributing a large sum of money toward the expenses of the war in Africa, earned for their town, from the Home Government, the title of "unconquerable" (villa invicta) in 1860.

Aguada, or rather the mouth of the river Culebrinas, which flows into the sea near it, is the place where Columbus landed in 1493. The fourth centenary of the event was commemorated in 1893 by the erection, on a granite pedestal, of a marble column, 11 meters high, crowned with a Latin cross. On the pedestal is the inscription:

1493 19th of November 1893

Loiza.—Along the borders of the river which bears this name there settled, about the year 1514, Pedro Mexia, Sancho Arango, Francisco Quinaos, Pedro Lopez, and some other Spaniards, with their respective Indian laborers. In one of the raids of the Indians from Vieyques or Aye-Aye, which were so frequent at the time, a cacique named Cacimar met his death at the hands of Arango. The fallen chief's brother Yaureibo, in revenge, prepared a large expedition, and penetrating at night with several pirogues full of men by way of the river to within a short distance of the settlement, fell upon it and utterly destroyed it, killing many and carrying off others. Among the killed were Mexia and his Indian concubine named Louisa or Heloise. Tradition says that this woman, having been advised by some Indian friend of the intended attack, tried to persuade her paramour to flee. When he refused, she scorned his recommendation to save herself and remained with him to share his fate.

In the relation of this episode by the chroniclers, figures also the name of the dog Becerrillo (small calf), a mastiff belonging to Arango, who had brought the animal from the Espanola, where Columbus had introduced the breed on his second voyage. In the fight with the Indians Arango was overpowered and was being carried off alive, when his dog, at the call of his master, came bounding to the rescue and made the Indians release him. They sprang into the river for safety, and the gallant brute following them was shot with a poisoned arrow.[82]

Arecibo is situated on the river of that name. It was founded by Felipe de Beaumont in 1616, with the appellation San Felipe de Arecibo.

Fajardo.—Governor Bravo de Rivero, with a view to found a settlement on the east coast, detached a number of soldiers from their regiment and gave to them and some other people a caballeria[83] of land each, in the district watered by the river Fajardo. Alexander O'Reilly, the king's commissioner, who visited the settlement in 1765, found 474 people, and wrote: " ...They have cleared little ground and cultivated so little that they are still in the very commencements. The only industry practised by the inhabitants is illicit trade with the Danish islands of Saint Thomas and Saint Cross. The people of Fajardo are the commission agents for the people there. What else could be expected from indolent soldiers and vagabonds without any means of clearing forests or building houses? If no other measures are adopted this settlement will remain many years in the same unhappy condition and be useful only to foreigners." In 1780 there were 243 heads of families in the district; the town proper had 9 houses and a church.

With regard to the remaining settlements mentioned in Governor Bravo de Rivero's list, there are no reliable data.

From 1759, the year in which a general distribution of Government lands was practised and titles were granted, to the year 1774, in which Governor Miguel Muesas reformed or redistributed some of the urban districts, many, if not most of the settlements referred to were formed or received the names they bear at present.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 81: The first landing of the American troops was effected here on July 25, 1898.]

[Footnote 82: These two episodes have given rise to several fantastic versions by native writers.]

[Footnote 83: Ten by twenty "cuerdas." The cuerda is one-tenth less than an English acre.]



CHAPTER XL

AURIFEROUS STREAMS AND GOLD PRODUCED FROM

1509 TO 1536

If a systematic exploration were practised to-day, by competent mineralogists, of the entire chain of mountains which intersects the island from east to west, it is probable that lodes of gold-bearing quartz or conglomerate, worth working, would be discovered. Even the alluvium deposits along the banks of the rivers and their tributaries, as well as the river beds, might, in many instances, be found to "pay."

The early settlers compelled the Indians to work for them. These poor creatures, armed with the simplest tools, dug the earth from the river banks. Their wives and daughters, standing up to their knees in the river, washed it in wooden troughs. When the output diminished another site was chosen, often before the first one was half worked out. The Indians' practical knowledge of the places where gold was likely to be found was the Spanish gold-seeker's only guide, the Indians' labor the only labor employed in the collection of it.

As for the mountains, they have never been properly explored. The Indians who occupied them remained in a state of insurrection for years, and when the mountain districts could be safely visited at last, the auri sacra fames had subsided. The governors did not interest themselves in the mineral resources of the island, and the people found it too difficult to provide for their daily wants to go prospecting. So the surface gold in the alluvium deposits was all that was collected by the Spaniards, and what there still may be on the bed-rocks of the rivers or in the lodes in the mountains from which it has been washed, awaits the advent of modern gold-seekers.

The first samples of gold from Puerto Rico were taken to the Espanola by Ponce, who had obtained them from the river Manatuabon, to which the friendly cacique Guaybana conducted him on his first visit (1508). This river disembogues into the sea on the south coast near Cape Malapascua; but it appears that the doughty captain also visited the north coast and found gold enough in the rivers Coa and Sibuco to justify him in making his headquarters at Caparra, which is in the neighborhood. That gold was found there in considerable quantities is shown by the fact that in August of the same year of Ponce's return to the island (he returned in February, 1509), 8,975 pesos corresponded to the king's fifth of the first washings. The first smelting was practised October 26, 1510. The next occurred May 22, 1511, producing respectively 2,645 and 3,043 gold pesos as the king's share. Thus, in the three first years the crown revenues from this source amounted to 14,663 gold pesos, and the total output to 73,315 gold pesos, which, at three dollars of our money per peso, approximately represented a total of $219,945 obtained from the rivers in the neighborhood of Caparra alone.

In 1515 a fresh discovery of gold-bearing earth in this locality was reported to the king by Sancho Velasquez, the treasurer, who wrote on April 27th: " ... At 4 leagues' distance from here rich gold deposits have been found in certain rivers and streams. From Reyes (December 4th) to March 15th, with very few Indians, 25,000 pesos have been taken out. It is expected that the output this season will be 100,000 pesos."

The streams in the neighborhood of San German, on the south coast, the only other settlement in the island at the time, seem to have been equally rich. The year after its foundation by Miguel del Toro the settlers were able to smelt and deliver 6,147 pesos to the royal treasurer. The next year the king's share amounted to 7,508 pesos, and Treasurer Haro reported that the same operation for the years 1517 and 1518 had produced $186,000 in all—that is, 3,740 for the treasury.

A good idea of the island's mineral and other resources at this period may be formed from Treasurer Haro's extensive report to the authorities in Madrid, dated January 21, 1518.

" ... Your Highness's revenues," he says, "are: one-fifth of the gold extracted and of the pearls brought by those who go (to the coast of Venezuela) to purchase them, the salt produce and the duties on imports and exports. Every one of the three smeltings that are practised here every two years produces about 250,000 pesos, in San German about 186,000 pesos. But the amounts fluctuate.

"The product of pearls is uncertain. Since the advent of the Jerome fathers the business has been suspended until the arrival of your Highness. Two caravels have gone now, but few will go, because the fathers say that the traffic in Indians is to cease and the greatest profit is in that ... On your Highness's estates there are 400 Indians who wash gold, work in the fields, build houses, etc.; ... they produce from 1,500 to 2,000 pesos profit every gang (demora).... I send in this ship, with Juan Viscaino, 8,000 pesos and 40 marks of pearls. There remain in my possession 17,000 pesos and 70 marks of pearls, which shall be sent by the next ship in obedience to your Highness's orders, not to send more than 10,000 pesos at a time. The pearls that go now are worth that amount. Until the present we sent only 5,000 pesos' worth of pearls at one time."

The yearly output of gold fluctuated, but it continued steadily, as Velasquez wrote to the emperor in 1521, when he made a remittance of 5,000 pesos. Six or seven years later, the placers, for such they were, were becoming exhausted. Castellanos, the treasurer, wrote in 1518 that only 429 pesos had been received as the king's share of the last two years' smelting. Some new deposit was discovered in the river Daguao, but it does not seem to have been of much importance. From the year 1530 the reports of the crown officers are full of complaints of the growing scarcity of gold; finally, in 1536, the last remittance was made; not, it may be safely assumed, because there was no more gold in the island, but because those who had labored and suffered in its production, had succumbed to the unaccustomed hardships imposed on them and to the cruel treatment received from their sordid masters.

Besides the river mentioned, the majority of those which have their sources in the mountains of Luquillo are more or less auriferous. These are: the Rio Prieto, the Fajardo, the Espiritu Santo, the Rio Grande, and, especially, the Mameyes. The river Loiza also contains gold, but, judging from the traces of diggings still here and there visible along the beds of the Mavilla, the Sibuco, the Congo, the Rio Negro, and Carozal, in the north, it would seem that these rivers and their affluents produced the coveted metal in largest quantities. The Duey, the Yauco, and the Oromico, or Hormigueros, on the south coast are supposed to be auriferous also, but do not seem to have been worked.

The metal was and is still found in seed-shaped grains, sometimes of the weight of 2 or 3 pesos. Tradition speaks of a nugget found in the Fajardo river weighing 4 ounces, and of another found in an affluent of the Congo of 1 pound in weight.

Silver.—In 1538 the crown officers in San Juan wrote to the Home Government: " ... The gold is diminishing. Several veins of lead ore have been discovered, from which some silver has been extracted. The search would continue if the concession to work these veins were given for ten years, with 1.20 or 1.15 royalty." On March 29th of the following year the same officers reported: " ... Respecting the silver ores discovered, we have smolten some, but no one here knows how to do it. Veins of this ore have been discovered in many parts of the island, but nobody works them. We are waiting for some one to come who knows how to smelt them."

The following extract from the memoirs and documents left by Juan Bautista Munoz, gives the value in "gold pesos"[84] of the bullion and pearls, corresponding to the king's one-fifth share of the total produce remitted to Spain from this island from the year 1509 to 1536:

In 1509, gold pesos 8,975 1510, " 2,645 1511, " 10,000 1512, " 3,043 1513, " 27,291 1514, " 18,000 1515, " 17,000 1516, " 11,490 1517-18, " 38,497 1519, " 10,000 1520, " 35,733 In 1521, " 10,000 1522, " 7,979 1523-29, " 40,000 1530, " 12,440 1531, " 6,500 1532, " 9,000 1533, " 4,000 1534, " 8,500 1535, " 1,848 1536, " 10,000 _ Total, 15 share 277,941



The entire output for this period was 1,389,705 gold pesos, or $4,169,115 Spanish coin of to-day, as the total produce in gold and pearls of the island of San Juan de Puerto Rico during the first twenty-seven years of its occupation by the Spaniards.



FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 84: Washington Irving estimates the value of the "gold peso" of the sixteenth century at $3 Spanish money of our day.]



CHAPTER XLI

WEST INDIAN HURRICANES IN PUERTO RICO FROM

1515 TO 1899

Whoever has witnessed the awful magnificence of what the primitive inhabitants of the West Indian islands called ou-ra-can, will never forget the sense of his own utter nothingness and absolute helplessness. With the wind rushing at the rate of 65 or more miles an hour, amid the roar of waves lashed into furious rolling mountains of water, the incessant flash of lightning, the dreadful roll of thunder, the fierce beating of rain, one sees giant trees torn up by the roots and man's proud constructions of stone and iron broken and scattered like children's toys.

The tropical latitudes to the east and north of the West Indian Archipelago are the birthplace of these phenomena. According to Mr. Redfield[85] they cover simultaneously an extent of surface from 100 to 500 miles in diameter, acting with diminished violence toward the circumference and with increased energy toward the center of this space.

In the Weather Bureau's bulletin cited, there is a description of the most remarkable and destructive among the 355 hurricanes that have swept over the West Indies from 1492 to 1899. Not a single island has escaped the tempest's ravages. I have endeavored in vain to make an approximate computation of the human life and property destroyed by these visitations of Providence. Such a computation is impossible when we read of entire towns destroyed not once but 6, 8, and 10 times; of crops swept away by the tempest's fury, and the subsequent starvation of untold thousands; of whole fleets of ships swallowed up by the sea with every soul on board, and of hundreds of others cast on shore like coco shards.

To give an idea of the appalling disasters caused by these too oft recurring phenomena, the above-mentioned bulletin gives Flammarion's description of the great hurricane of 1780.[86]

"The most terrible cyclone of modern times is probably that which occurred on October 10, 1780, which has been specially called the great hurricane, and which seems to have embodied all the horrible scenes that attend a phenomenon of this kind. Starting from Barbados, where trees and houses were all blown down, it engulfed an English fleet anchored before St. Lucia, and then ravaged the whole of that island, where 6,000 persons were buried beneath the ruins. From thence it traveled to Martinique, overtook a French transport fleet and sunk 40 ships conveying 4,000 soldiers. The vessels disappeared."

Such is the laconic language in which the governor reported the disaster. Farther north, Santo Domingo, St. Vincent, St. Eustatius, and Puerto Rico were devastated, and most of the vessels that were sailing in the track of the cyclone were lost with all on board. Beyond Puerto Rico the tempest turned northeast toward Bermuda, and though its violence gradually decreased, it nevertheless sunk several English vessels. This hurricane was quite as destructive inland. Nine thousand persons perished in Martinique, and 1,000 in St. Pierre, where not a single house was left standing, for the sea rose to a height of 25 feet, and 150 houses that were built along the shore were engulfed. At Port Royal the cathedral, 7 churches, and 1,400 houses were blown down; 1,600 sick and wounded were buried beneath the ruins of the hospital. At St. Eustatius, 7 vessels were dashed to pieces on the rocks, and of the 19 which lifted their anchors and went out to sea, only 1 returned. At St. Lucia the strongest buildings were torn up from their foundations, a cannon was hurled a distance of more than 30 yards, and men as well as animals were lifted off their feet and carried several yards. The sea rose so high that it destroyed the fort and drove a vessel against the hospital with such force as to stave in the walls of that building. Of the 600 houses at Kingston, on the island of St. Vincent, 14 alone remained intact, and the French frigate Junon was lost. Alarming consequences were feared from the number of dead bodies which lay uninterred, and the quantity of fish the sea threw up, but these alarms soon subsided...."

"The aboriginal inhabitants," says Abbad, "foresaw these catastrophes two or three days in advance. They were sure of their approach when they perceived a hazy atmosphere, the red aspect of the sun, a dull, rumbling, subterranean sound, the stars shining through a kind of mist which made them look larger, the nor'west horizon heavily clouded, a strong-smelling emanation from the sea, a heavy swell with calm weather, and sudden changes of the wind from east to west." The Spanish settlers also learned to foretell the approach of a hurricane by the sulphurous exhalations of the earth, but especially by the incessant neighing of horses, bellowing of cattle, and general restlessness of these animals, who seem to acquire a presentiment of the coming danger.

"The physical features of hurricanes are well understood. The approach of a hurricane is usually indicated by a long swell on the ocean, propagated to great distances, and forewarning the observer by two or three days. A faint rise in the barometer occurs before the gradual fall, which becomes very pronounced at the center. Fine wisps of cirrus-clouds are first seen, which surround the center to a distance of 200 miles; the air is calm and sultry, but this is gradually supplanted by a gentle breeze, and later the wind increases to a gale, the clouds become matted, the sea rough, rain falls, and the winds are gusty and dangerous as the vortex comes on. Then comes the indescribable tempest, dealing destruction, impressing the imagination with the wild exhibition of the forces of nature, the flashes of lightning, the torrents of rain, the cold air, all the elements in an uproar, which indicate the close approach of the center. In the midst of this turmoil there is a sudden pause, the winds almost cease, the sky clears, the waves, however, rage in great turbulence. This is the eye of the storm, the core of the vortex, and it is, perhaps, 20 miles in diameter, or one-thirtieth of the whole hurricane. The respite is brief, and is soon followed by the abrupt renewal of the violent wind and rain, but now coming from the opposite direction, and the storm passes off with the several features following each other in the reverse order." [87]

The distribution over the months of the year of the 355 West Indian hurricanes which occurred during the four hundred and six years elapsed since the discovery, to the last on the list, is as follows:

Months. No of hurricanes.

January 5 February 7 March 11 April 6 May 5 June 10 July 42 August 96 September 80 October 69 November 17 December 7

355

Puerto Rico has been devastated by hurricanes more than 20 times since its occupation by the Spaniards. But the records, beyond the mere statement of the facts, are very incomplete. Four stand out prominently as having committed terrible ravages. These are the hurricanes of Santa Ana, on July 26, 1825; Los Angeles, on August 2,1837; San Narciso, on October 29, 1867, and San Ciriaco, on August 8, 1899.

The first mention of the occurrence of a hurricane in this island we find in a letter from the crown officers to the king, dated August 8, 1515, wherein they explain: " ... In these last smeltings there was little gold, because many Indians died in consequence of sickness caused by the tempest as well as from want of food ..."

The next we read of was October 8, 1526, and is thus described by licentiate Juan de Vadillo:

"On the night of the 4th of October last there broke over this island such a violent storm of wind and rain, which the natives call 'ou-ra-can' that it destroyed the greater part of this city (San Juan) with the church. In the country it caused such damage by the overflow of rivers that many rich men have been made poor."

On September 8, 1530, Governor Francisco Manuel de Lando reported to the king: "During the last six weeks there have been three storms of wind and rain in this island (July 26, August 23 and 31). They have destroyed all the plantations, drowned many cattle, and caused much hunger and misery in the land. In this city the half of the houses were entirely destroyed, and of the other half the least injured is without a roof. In the country and in the mines nothing has remained standing. Everybody is ruined and thinking of going away."

1537.—July and August. The town officers wrote to the king in September: "In the last two months we have had three storms of wind and rain, the greatest that have been seen in this island, and as the plantations are along the banks of the rivers the floods have destroyed them all. Many slaves and cattle have been drowned, and this has caused much discouragement among the settlers, who before were inclined to go away, and are now more so."

1575.—September 21 (San Mateo), hurricane mentioned in the memoirs of Father Torres Vargas.

1614.—September 12, mentioned by the same chronicler in the following words: "Fray Pedro de Solier came to his bishopric in the year 1615, the same in which a great tempest occurred, after more than forty years since the one called of San Mateo. This one happened on the 12th of September. It did so much damage to the cathedral that it was necessary partly to cover it with straw and write to his Majesty asking for a donation to repair it. With his accustomed generosity he gave 4,000 ducats."

1678.—Abbad states that a certain Count or Duke Estren, an English commander, with a fleet of 22 ships and a body of landing troops appeared before San Juan and demanded its surrender, but that, before the English had time to land, a violent hurricane occurred which stranded every one of the British ships on Bird Island. Most of the people on board perished, and the few who saved their lives were made prisoners of war.

1740.—Precise date unknown. Monsieur Moreau de Jonnes, in his work,[88] says that this hurricane destroyed a coco-palm grove of 5 or 6 leagues in extent, which existed near Ponce. Other writers confirm this.

1772, August 28.—Friar Inigo Abbad, who was in the island at the time, gives the following description of this tempest: "About a quarter to eleven of the night of the 28th of August the storm began to be felt in the capital of the island. A dull but continuous roll of thunder filled the celestial hemisphere, the sound as of approaching torrents of rain, the frightful sight of incessant lightning, and a slow quaking of the earth accompanied the furious wind. The tearing up of trees, the lifting of roofs, smashing of windows, and leveling of everything added terror-striking noises to the scene. The tempest raged with the same fury in the capital till after one o'clock in the morning. In other parts of the island it began about the same hour, but without any serious effect till later. In Aguada, where I was at the time, nothing was felt till half-past two in the morning. It blew violently till a quarter to four, and the wind continued, growing less strong, till noon. During this time the wind came from all points of the compass, and the storm visited every part of the island, causing more damage in some places than others, according to their degree of exposure."

1780, June 13, and 1788, August 16.—No details of these two hurricanes are found in any of the Puerto Rican chronicles.

1804, September 4.—A great cyclone, a detailed description of which is given in the work of Mr. Jonnes.

1818 and 1814—Both hurricanes happened on the same date, that is, the 23d of July. Yauco and San German suffered most. A description of the effects of these storms was given in the Dario Economico of the 11th of August, 1814.

1819, September 21.—(San Mateo.) This cyclone is mentioned by Jonnes and by Cordova, who says that it caused extraordinary damages on the plantations.

1825, July 26.—(Santa Ana.) Cordova (vol. ii, p. 21 of his Memoirs) says of this hurricane: "It destroyed the towns of Patillas, Maunabo, Yabucoa, Humacao, Gurabo, and Caguas. In the north, east, and center of the island it caused great damage. More than three hundred people and a large number of cattle perished; 500 persons were badly wounded. The rivers rose to an unheard of extent, and scarcely a house remained standing. In the capital part of the San Antonio bridge was blown down, and the city wall facing the Marina on Tanca Creek was cracked. The royal Fortaleza (the present Executive Mansion) suffered much, also the house of Ponce. The lightning-conductors of the powder-magazine were blown down."

1837, August 2.—(Los Angeles.) This cyclone was general over the island and caused exceedingly grave losses of life and property. All the ships in the harbor of San Juan were lost.

1840, September 16.—No details.

1851, August 18.—No details, except that this hurricane caused considerable damage.

1867, October 29.—(San Narciso.) No details.



1871, August 23.—(San Felipe.) No details. 1899, August 8.—(San Ciriaco.) When this hurricane occurred there was a meteorological station in operation in San Juan, and we are therefore enabled to present the following data from Mr. Geddings's report: "The rainfall was excessive, as much as 23 inches falling at Adjuntas during the course of twenty-four hours. This caused severe inundations of rivers, and the deaths from drowning numbered 2,569 as compared with 800 killed by injuries received from the effects of the wind. This number does not include the thousands who have since died from starvation. The total loss of property was 35,889,013 pesos."

The United States Government and people promptly came to the assistance of the starving population, and something like 32,000,000 rations were distributed by the army during the ten months succeeding the hurricane.

* * * * *

Such are the calamities that are suspended over the heads of the inhabitants of the West Indian Islands. From July to October, at any moment, the sapphire skies may turn black with thunder-clouds; the Eden-like landscapes turned into scenes of ruin and desolation; the rippling ocean that lovingly laves their shores becomes a roaring monster trying to swallow them. The refreshing breezes that fan them become a destructive blast. Yet, such is the fecundity of nature in these regions that a year after a tempest has swept over an island, if the debris be removed, not a trace of its passage is visible—the fields are as green as ever, the earth, the trees, and plants that were spared by the tempest double their productive powers as if to indemnify the afflicted inhabitants for the losses they suffered.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 85: See Bulletin H, Weather Bureau, West Indian Hurricanes, by E.B. Garriott, Washington, 1900.]

[Footnote 86: L'Atmosphere, p. 377 and following.]

[Footnote 87: Enrique del Monte, Havana University, On the Climate of the West Indies and West Indian Hurricanes.]

[Footnote 88: Histoire physique des Antilles Francaises.]



CHAPTER XLII

THE CARIBS

The origin of the Caribs, their supposed cannibalism and other customs have occasioned much controversy among West Indian chroniclers. The first question is undecided, and probably will remain so forever. With regard to cannibalism, in spite of the confirmative assurances of the early Spanish chroniclers, we have the testimony of eminent authorities to the contrary; and the writings of Jesuit missionaries who have lived many years among the Caribs give us a not unfavorable idea of their character and social institutions.

The first European who became intimately acquainted with the people of the West Indian Islands, on the return from his first voyage, wrote to the Spanish princes: " ... In all these islands I did not observe much difference in the faces and figures of the inhabitants, nor in their customs, nor in their language, seeing that they all understand each other, which is very singular." On the other hand the readiness with which the inhabitants of Aye-Aye and the other Carib islands gave asylum to the fugitive Boriquen Indians and joined them in their retaliatory expeditions, also points to the existence of some bond of kinship between them, so that there is ground for the opinion entertained by some writers that all the inhabitants of all the Antilles were of the race designated under the generic name of Caribs.

The theory generally accepted at first was, that at the time of the discovery two races of different origin occupied the West Indian Archipelago. The larger Antilles with the groups of small islands to the north of them were supposed to be inhabited by a race named Guaycures, driven from the peninsula of Florida by the warlike Seminoles; the Guaycures, it is said, could easily have reached the Bahamas and traversed the short distance that separated them from Cuba in their canoes, some of which could contain 100 men, and once there they would naturally spread over the neighboring islands. It is surmised that they occupied them at the time of the advent of the Phoenicians in this hemisphere, and Dr. Calixto Romero, in an interesting article on Lucuo, the god of the Boriquens,[89] mentions a tradition referring to the arrival of these ancient navigators, and traces some of the Boriquen religious customs to them. The Guaycures were a peacefully disposed race, hospitable, indolent, fond of dancing and singing, by means of which they transmitted their legends from generation to generation. They fell an easy prey to the Spaniards. Velasquez conquered Cuba without the loss of a man. Juan Esquivel made himself master of Jamaica with scarcely any sacrifice, and if the aborigines of the Espanola and Boriquen resisted, it was only after patiently enduring insupportable oppression for several years.

The other race which inhabited the Antilles were said to have come from the south. They were supposed to have descended the Orinoco, spreading along the shore of the continent to the west of the river's mouths and thence to have invaded one after the other all the lesser Antilles. They were in a fair way of occupying the larger Antilles also when the discoveries of Columbus checked their career.

In support of the theory of the south-continental origin of the Caribs we have, in the first place, the work of Mr. Aristides Rojas on Venezuelan hieroglyphics, wherein he treats of numerous Carib characters on the rocks along the plains and rivers of that republic, marking their itinerary from east to west. He states that the Achaguas, the aboriginals of Columbia, gave to these wanderers, on account of their ferocity, the name of Chabi-Nabi, that is, tiger-men or descendants of tigers.

In the classification of native tribes in Codazzi's geography of Venezuela, he includes the Caribs, and describes them as "a very numerous race, enterprising and warlike, which in former times exercised great influence over the whole territory extending from Ecuador to the Antilles. They were the tallest and most robust Indians known on the continent; they traded in slaves, and though they were cruel and ferocious in their incursions, they were not cannibals like their kinsmen of the lesser Antilles, who were so addicted to the custom of eating their prisoners that the names of cannibal and Carib had become synonymous." [90]

Another theory of the origin of the Caribs is that advanced by M. d'Orbigny, who, after eight years of travel over the South American continent, published the result of his researches in Paris in 1834. He considers them to be a branch of the great Guarani family. And the Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Raymond and Dutertre, who lived many years among the Antillean Caribs, concluded from their traditions that they were descended from a people on the continent named Galibis, who, according to M. d'Orbigny, were a branch of the Guaranis.

But the Guaranis, though a very wide-spread family of South American aborigines, were neither a conquering nor a wandering race. They occupied that part of the continent situated between the rivers Paraguay and Parana, from where these two rivers join the river Plate, northward, to about latitude 22 deg. south. This region was the home of the Guaranis, a people indolent, sensual, and peaceful, among whom the Jesuits, in the eighteenth century founded a religious republic, which toward the end of that period counted 33 towns with a total population of over one hundred thousand souls. A glance at the map will show the improbability of any Indian tribe, no matter how warlike, making its way from the heart of the continent to the Orinoco through 30 deg. of primitive forests, mountains, and rivers, inhabited by hostile tribes.[91]

The French missionaries who lived many years with the Caribs of Guadeloupe and the other French possessions, do not agree on the subject of their origin. Fathers Dutertre and Raymond believe them to be the descendants of the Galibis, a people inhabiting Guiana. Fathers Rochefort, Labat, and Bristol maintain that they are descended from the Apalaches who inhabited the northern part of Florida. Humboldt is of the same opinion, and suggests that the name Carib may be derived from Calina or Caripuna through transformation of the letters l and p into r and b, forming Caribi or Galibi.[92] Pedro Martyr strongly opposes this opinion, the principal objection to which is that a tribe from the North American continent invading the West Indies by way of Florida would naturally occupy the larger Antilles before traveling east and southward. Under this hypothesis, as we have said, all the inhabitants of the Antilles would be Caribs, but in that case the difference in the character of the inhabitants of the two divisions of the archipelago would have to be accounted for.

Most of the evidence we have been able to collect on this subject points to a south-continental origin of the Caribs. On the maps of America, published in 1587 by Abraham Ortellus, of Antwerp, in 1626 by John Speed, of London, and in 1656 by Sanson d'Abbeville in Paris, the whole region to the north of the Orinoco is marked Caribana. In the history of the Dutch occupation of Guiana we read that hostile Caribs occupied a shelter[93] constructed in 1684 by the governor on the borders of the Barima, which shows that the vast region along the Orinoco and its tributaries, as well as the lesser Antilles, was inhabited by an ethnologically identical race.

* * * * *

Were the Caribs cannibals? This question has been controverted as much as that of their origin, and with the same doubtful result.

The only testimony upon which the assumption that the Caribs were cannibals is founded is that of the companions of Columbus on his second voyage, when, landing at Guadeloupe, they found human bones and skulls in the deserted huts. No other evidence of cannibalism of a positive character was ever after obtained, so that the belief in it rests exclusively upon Chanca's narrative of what the Spaniards saw and learned during the few days of their stay among the islands. Their imagination could not but be much excited by the sight of what the doctor describes as "infinite quantities" of bones of human creatures, who, they took for granted, had been devoured, and of skulls hanging on the walls by way of receptacles for curios. It was the age of universal credulity, and for more than a century after the most absurd tales with regard to the people and things of the mysterious new continent found ready credence even among men of science. Columbus, in his letter to Santangel (February, 1493), describing the different islands and people, wrote: "I have not yet seen any of the human monsters that are supposed to exist here." The descriptions of the customs of the natives of the newly discovered islands which Dr. Chanca sent to the town council of Seville were unquestioned by them, and afterward by the Spanish chroniclers; but there is reason to believe with Mr. Ignacio Armas, an erudite Cuban author, who published a paper in 1884 entitled the Fable of the Caribs, that the belief in their cannibalism originated in an error of judgment, was an illusion afterward, and ended by being a calumny[97]. Father Bartolome de las Casas was the first to contradict this belief. "They [the Spaniards] saw skulls," he says, "and human bones. These must have been of chiefs or other persons whom they held in esteem, because, to say that they were the remains of people who had been eaten, if the natives devoured as many as was supposed, the houses could not contain the bones, and there is no reason why, after eating them, they should preserve the relics. All this is but guesswork." Washington Irving agrees with the reverend historian, and describes the general belief in the cannibalism of the Caribs to the Spaniards' fear of them. Two eminent authorities positively deny it. Humboldt, in his before-cited work, in the chapter on Carib missions, says: "All the missionaries of the Carony, of the lower Orinoco, and of the plains of Cari, whom we have had occasion to consult, have assured us that the Caribs were perhaps the least anthropophagous of any tribes on the new continent, ..." and Sir Robert Schomburgh, who was charged by the Royal Geographical Society with the survey of Guiana in 1835, reported that among the Caribs he found peace and contentment, simple family affections, and frank gratitude for kindness shown.[94]

* * * * *

The narratives of the French, English, and Dutch conquerors of the Guianas and the lesser Antilles accord with the observations of Humboldt in describing the Caribs as an ambitious and intelligent race, among whom there still existed traces of a superior social organization, such as the hereditary power of chiefs, respect for the priestly caste, and attachment to ancient customs. Employed only in fishing and hunting, the Carib was accustomed to the use of arms from childhood; war was the principal object of his existence, and the proofs through which the young warrior had to pass before being admitted to the ranks of the braves, remind us of the customs of certain North American Indians.

They were of a light yellow color with a sooty tint, small, black eyes, white and well-formed teeth, straight, shining, black hair, without a beard or hair on any other part of their bodies. The expression of their face was sad, like that of all savage tribes in tropical regions. They were of middle size, but strong and vigorous. To protect their bodies from the stings of insects they anointed them with the juice or oil of certain plants. They were polygamous. From their women they exacted the most absolute submission. The females did all the domestic labor, and were not permitted to eat in the presence of the men. In case of infidelity the husband had the right to kill his wife. Each family formed a village by itself (carbet) where the oldest member ruled.

Their industry, besides the manufacture of their arms and canoes, was limited to the spinning and dyeing of cotton goods, notably their hammocks, and the making of pottery for domestic uses. Though possessing no temples, nor religious observances, they recognized two principles or spirits, the spirit of good (boyee) and the spirit of evil (maboya). The priests invoked the first or drove out the second as occasion required. Each individual had his good spirit.

Their language resembled in sound the Italian, the words being sonorous, terminating in vowels. By the end of the eighteenth century the missionaries had made vocabularies of 50 Carib dialects, and the Bible had been translated into one of them, the Arawak. A remarkable custom was the use of two distinct languages, one by the males, another by the females. Tradition says that when the Caribs first invaded the Antilles they put to death all the males but spared the females. The women continued speaking their own tongue and taught it to their daughters, but the sons learned their fathers' language. In time, both males and females learned both languages.

"It is true," says the Jesuit Father Rochefort, in his Histoire des Antilles, "that the Caribs have degenerated from the virtues of their ancestors, but it is also true that the Europeans, by their pernicious examples, their ill-treatment of them, their villainous deceit, their dastardly breaking of every promise, their pitiless plundering and burning of their villages, their beastly violation of their girls and women, have taught them, to the eternal infamy of the name of Christian, to lie, to betray, to be licentious, and other vices which they knew not before they came in contact with us."

Father Dutertre declares that at the time of the arrival of the Europeans the Caribs were contented, happy, and sociable. Physically they were the best made and healthiest people of America. Theft was unknown to them, nothing was hidden; their huts had neither doors nor windows, and when, after the advent of the French, a Carib missed anything in his hut, he used to say: "A Christian has been here!" Dutertre says that in thirty-five years all the French missionaries together, by taking the greatest pains, had not been able to convert 20 adults. Those who were thought to have embraced Christianity returned to their practises as soon as they rejoined their fellows. "The reason for this want of success," says the father, "is the bad impression produced on the minds of these intelligent natives by the cruelties and immoralities of the Christians, which are more barbarous than those of the islanders themselves. They have inspired the Caribs with such a horror of Christianity that the greatest reproach they can think of for an enemy is to call him a Christian."

The reason the Spaniards never attempted the conquest of the Caribs is clear. There was no gold in their islands. They defended their homes foot by foot, and if, by chance, they were taken prisoners, they preferred suicide to slavery. Toward the end of the eighteenth century there still existed a few hundred of the race in the island of St. Vincent. They were known as the black Caribs, because they were largely mixed with fugitive negro slaves from other islands and with the people of a slave-ship wrecked on their coast in 1685. They lived there tranquil and isolated till 1795, when the island was settled by French colonists, and they were finally absorbed by them. They were the last representatives in the Antilles of a race which, during five centuries, had ruled both on land and sea. On the continent, along the Esequibo and its affluents, they are numerous still; but in their contact with the European settlers in those regions they have lost the strength and the virtues of their former state without acquiring those of the higher civilization. Like all aboriginals under similar conditions, they are slowly disappearing.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 89: Revista Puertoriquena, Tomo I, Ano I, 1887.]

[Footnote 90: The word "cannibal" is but a corruption of guaribo, is, "brave or strong," changed into Caribo, Cariba, and finally that Carib. The name Galibi, also applied to the Caribs, means equally strong or brave.]

[Footnote 91: The author visited this region and sketched some of the ruins of these Jesuit-Guarani missions, of which scarcely one stone has remained on the other. They were destroyed by the Brazilians after the suppression of the Society of Jesus by Pope Clement XIV in 1773; the defenseless Indians were cruelly butchered or carried off as slaves. The sculptured remains of temples, of gardens and orchards grown into jungles still attest the high degree of development attained by these missions under the guidance of the Jesuit fathers.]

[Footnote 92: Voyage aux Regions Equinoctiales du Nouveau Continent, Paris, 1826.]

[Footnote 93: "Kleyn pleysterhuisye," small plaster house.]

[Footnote 94: As an example of the credulity of the people of the period, see Theodore Bry's work in the library of Congress in Washington, in which there is a map of Guiana, published in Frankfort in 1599. On it are depicted with short descriptions the lake of Parmie and the city of Manao, which represent El Dorado, in search of which hundreds of Spaniards and thousands of Indians lost their lives. There is a picture of one of the Amazons, with a short notice of their habits and customs, and there is the portrait of one of the inhabitants of the country Twai-Panoma, who were born without heads, but had eyes, nose, and mouth conveniently located in their breast.]



BIBLIOGRAPHY The history of Puerto Rico has long since been a subject of study and research by native writers and others, to whose works we owe many of the data contained in this book. Their names, in alphabetical order, are:

ABBAD, FRAY INIGO.—Historia geografica, civil y natural de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico. Madrid, 1788.

AGOSTA, D. JOSE JULIAN.—New edition of Abbad's history, with notes and commentaries. Puerto Rico, 1866.

BRAU, D. SALVADOR.—Puerto Rico y su historia. (Critical investigations.)Valencia, 1894.

CEDO, D. SANTIAGO.—Compendio de geografia para instruccion de la juventud portoriquena. Mayaguez, 1855.

COELLO, D. FRANCISCO.—Mapa de la isla de Puerto Rico, ilustrado con notas historicas y estadisticas escritas por Don Pascual Madoz. Madrid, 1851.

COLL Y TOSTE, D. CAYETANO.—Colon en Puerto Rico. (Disquisiciones historico-filologicas.) Puerto Rico, 1894. Repertorio historico de Puerto Rico. A monthly publication.

CORDOVA, D. PEDRO TOMAS.—Memorias geograficas, historicas, economicas y estadisticas de la isla de Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, 1830. Memoria sobre todos los ramos de la administracion de la isla de Puerto Rico. Madrid, 1838.

CORTON, D. ANTONIO.—La separacion de mandos en Puerto Rico. Discurso escrito y comenzado a leer ante la Comision del Congreso de los Diputados. Habana, 1890.

FLINTER, COLONEL.—An Account of the Present State of the Island of Puerto Rico. London, 1834.

JIMENO AGIUS, J.—Puerto Rico. Madrid, 1890. LEDRU, ANDRE PIERRE.—Voyage aux iles Teneriffe, la Trinite, St. Thomas, Ste. Croix et Porto Rico, avec des notes et des additions par Sonnini, Paris, 1810. (A work full of fantastic and imaginary data, without any historical value.)

MELENDEZ Y BRUNA, D. SALVADOR.—Puerto Rico. Representation of the Governor of the Island to the King. Cadiz, 1811.

NAZARIO, D. JOSE MARIA.—Guayanilla y la historia de Puerto Rico. Ponce, 1893.

PEREZ MORIS, D. JOSE, Y CUETO, D. LUIS.—Historia de la insurreccion de Lares.

SAMA, D. MANUEL MARIA.—El desembarco de Colon en Puerto Rico y el Monumento de Culebrinas, Mayaguez, 1895.

STAHL, D. AGUSTIN.—Los Indios Borinquenos. Puerto Rico, 1887.

TAPIA, D. ALEJANDRO.—Biblioteca historica de Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, 1854.

TORRES, D. LUIS LLORENS.—America. Estudios historicos y filologicos. Madrid y Barcelona, 1897.

UBEDA Y DELGADO, D. MANUEL.—Isla de Puerto Rico, Estudio historico-geografico. Puerto Rico, 1878.

VIZCARRONDO, D. JULIO.—Elementos de historia y geografia de la isla de Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, 1863.

There are other writings on subjects connected with the island's history by native authors, some published in book or pamphlet form, others, like those of Zeno Gandia, Neumann, Dr. Dominguez, and Navarrete, have appeared in the columns of periodicals at different times before the American occupation of the island.



INDEX

Abbad, Friar Inigo, his history of Puerto Rico; cited; on state of agriculture in 1776.

Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, attacks San Juan.

Aborigines, see Indians.

Agriculture, inhabitants of Puerto Rico forced to turn to; condition of, in 1776.

Aguada, its history.

Albemarle, Earl of, captures Havana.

Alexander VI, Pope, divides the world between Spain and Portugal.

American army, landing of; recognized as liberators,; also see preface v.

Americans, interest of, in the insurrection of Lares, 1868.

Antigua, discovery of.

Arecibo, town of.

Armada, effects of destruction of.

Autonomy granted to Puerto Rico.

Bastidas, Bishop Rodrigo, charged with liberating Indian slaves in Puerto Rico.

Beet-sugar, its injurious competition with cane-sugar, 228.

Bemini (Florida), island of, King Ferdinand wants Ponce to explore it, 59; Indian reports of, 60; discovery of, 61.

Blake, English admiral, captures Spanish galleons, 136.

Blasquez, Juan, judge-auditor of Puerto Rico, 102.

Boabdil, last of the Moorish kings.

Boriquen, first known name of Puerto Rico; seat of Guaybana; Boriquenos restless; revolt in; last of the Boriquen Indians; the republic of, proclaimed; falls; native inhabitants of.

Bowdoin, Hendrick, commands Dutch fleet in attack on San Juan.

Brau, his history of Puerto Rico quoted.

Bruckman, an American, takes active part in insurrection; shot.

Buccaneers, their origin.

Cacao.

Cannibals, supposed to be found among the Caribs.

Caparra, first settlement of Spaniards in Puerto Rico; capital transferred from, to San Juan; the old capital.

Capital, transferred from Caparra to Sun Juan.

Caribs, supposed by Columbus to be on Guadeloupe; annoy Spaniards in Puerto Rico; assist the Boriquen Indians; raids in Puerto Rico; in Dominica punished by the Spaniards; in the Windward Islands; their extermination of aborigines of the West Indies; origin of; characteristics; were they cannibals?; disappearing.

Castellano y Villaroya, Spanish Colonial Minister, intercedes in behalf of Puerto Rico.

Castellanos, Juan, brings 75 colonists to Puerto Rico; attorney for Puerto Rico at the court of Spain.

Castellanos, Juan de, treasurer of Puerto Rico.

Castro, Baltazar, reports depredations of Caribs.

Ceron, Juan, Governor of Puerto Rico; arrested by Juan Ponce; restored to office; returns to Puerto Rico as governor.

Cervantes de Loayza, governor.

Charles V, King of Spain; quarrels with Francis I of France; orders the fortification of San German.

Cholera, epidemic of.

Church, in general.

Cities, growth of.

Clergy; the island made a diocese; Alonzo Manso, first prelate; decree of Isabel II affecting clergy.

Coco-palm introduced.

Coffee.

Columbus, Christopher, returns from his first voyage; received by the court at Barcelona; second expedition organized; his second expedition sails from Cadiz; discovers the Windward Islands; introduces system of enslaving the Indians by "distribution" of them among settlers.

Columbus, Diego, with Christopher Columbus's second expedition; viceroy and admiral, in la Espanola; deposes Ponce; authority of, suspended; deprived of the power of appointing Governor of Puerto Rico.

Commerce, its development; imports and exports.

Cortez, his conquest of Mexico.

Cromwell, his alliance with France against Spain.

Cuba, influence of Cuban revolution on Puerto Rico; reforms in, suggested by Sagasta.

De la Gama, Antonio, charged with executing the royal decree against the "distribution" of Indians.

Diaz, Bernal, de Pisa, with Columbus's second expedition.

Diego, Rafael, organizer of the revolution of 1812.

Distribution of Indians among the Spanish conquerors as slaves; system introduced by Columbus.

Dominica, discovery of; Caribs in, aid Puerto Rico Indians against the Spaniards; Spanish expedition against Caribs in.

Dominicans, order of.

Drake, Francis, his expeditions in the Caribbean.

Education; illiteracy and general ignorance; in hands of clergy; new interest in; first college; schools.

Elective system.

England contracts to take slaves into the Spanish-American colonies.

English, ship visits Puerto Rico and alarms inhabitants; war with, fleet sent against Spaniards in West Indies; fleet anchors off "Caleta del Cabron," and is fired on by Spaniards; abandons the attack; alliance with France against Spain; capture Havana; attack San Juan.

Espanola (Santo Domingo).

Fajardo, town of.

Ferdinand, King of Spain, his interest in Puerto Rico.

Fetichism in the religion of the peasantry.

Filibusters, origin of.

Finance.

Florida, discovery of; Ponce's last expedition to.

Francis I, King of France, quarrel with Charles V of Spain.

Franciscans, order of.

French, send privateers to attack the Antilles; capture San German twice and destroy it; attack Guayama; fail in an attack on Puerto Rico; alliance with English against Spain; pirates in the Caribbean.

Fuente, Alonso la, his letters to the Spanish Government.

Ginger.

Gold, in Puerto Rico; early search for; first discovery; gold-bearing streams; production of gold.

Government of Puerto Rico, instructions by the King of Spain.

Guadeloupe, discovery of; Caribs in, aid Puerto Rico Indians against the Spaniards.

Guaybana, cacique in Puerto Rico; death of.

Guaybana second, heads revolt against the Spaniards; massacres Spaniards; is defeated; killed.

Haro, Juan de, governor, defends San Juan against the Dutch.

Havana, captured by the English under the Earl of Albemarle and Admiral Pocock.

Hawkyns, John, his freebooting voyages among the Antilles; his fleet captured; killed.

Holland, Spain's war with; sends fleet against Puerto Rico; it is defeated.

Hurricanes in the West Indies; in Puerto Rico.

Indians, system of "distribution" of, introduced; in revolt; slaughter Spaniards; defeated by Ponce; number of, in Puerto Rico; "distribution" of; rapid decrease of; condition of; efforts to prevent extinction of; "distribution" of, among settlers forbidden; the last 80 survivors liberated from slavery; last report of the Boriquen Indians.

Inquisition, the, in Puerto Rico; Nicolas Ramos, the last Inquisitor; abolition of the Inquisition; reestablished.

Isabel II, her decree declaring property of the secular clergy national property.

Jews, property of, confiscated to supply funds for Columbus's second expedition.

Jibaro, the Puerto Rican peasant; customs of.

Lando, Governor of Puerto Rico, tries to prevent persons leaving the island.

Lares, the insurrection of.

Las Casas, Bartolome de, his "Relations of the Indies" cited; seeks to prevent extinction of Indians; favors introduction of negro slaves.

Laws, reform, promised; electoral.

Leeward Islands, discovery of.

Le Grand, Pierre, the French pirate.

Libraries; since American occupation.

Loiza, settlement of.

l'Olonais, sobriquet of Sables d'Olone, q.v.

Macias, Manuel, governor-general, declares the island in a state of war.

Manso, Alonzo, first bishop of Puerto Rico.

Marie-Galante, discovery of.

Mayor, Soto, forms a settlement at Guanica; killed by Indians.

McCormick, James, his report on Puerto Rico in 1880.

Mestizos, or mixed races.

Military service, number of men in Puerto Rico able to carry arms.

Mixed races; prejudice against.

Montbras, French pirate.

Morals in the island under Spanish rule.

Morgan, Sir Henry, the pirate.

Mulattoes in the Spanish colony.

Napoleon, his influence over Spain.

Natives, see Indians.

Negroes, introduced into Santo Domingo as slaves; into Puerto Rico; as slaves in Puerto Rico; introduced to save the Indians from extermination; intermix with Indians; number of, in the island; severe laws against.

Newspapers.

O'Daly, General, leads successful revolution in Puerto Rico.

Palm, coco-, introduced.

Papers, see Newspapers.

Peasants of Puerto Rico.

Peru, gold discoveries there serve to attract many settlers from Puerto Rico.

Philip I, his character.

Philip II, death of.

Pirates, see Buccaneers and Filibusters.

Pocock, English admiral, and the Earl of Albemarle, capture Havana.

Political rights.

Ponce, Juan, de Leon, with Columbus's second expedition; lands on Puerto Rico; appointed governor; deposed; restored; arrests Ceron; recalled by the King of Spain; defeats Guaybana with 5,000 to 6,000 Indians; deprived of his privileges; retires to Caparra; prepares for exploring the island of Bemini; discovers Florida; honored by the king; ordered to destroy the Caribs; accused of fomenting discord in Puerto Rico; last expedition to Florida, wounded, dies; monument to him in San Juan.

THE END