The History of Puerto Rico by R.A. Van Middeldyk

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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.

Population, growth of.

Portugal, Alexander VI divides world
between Portugal and Spain.

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