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

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The licentiate's report to the king, dated April 27, 1515, gives an
idea of the state of affairs in San Juan at the time. " ... I found
the island under tyranny, as will be seen from the documents I
enclose. Juan Ceron and Miguel Diaz are responsible for 100,000
Castellanos[27] for Indians taken from persons who held them by
schedule from your Highness."

"It would be well to send some bad characters away from here and some
of the Admiral's creatures, on whom the rest count for protection."

"The treasurer (Haro) and the auditor are honest men. The accountant
(Sedeno) is not a man to look after your Highness's interests. The
place of factor is vacant."

"To your Highness 200 Indians have been assigned in Puerto Rico and
300 in San German."

A few days later (May 1, 1515) Velasquez himself was accused of gross
abuse in the discharge of his duties by Inigo de Zuniga, who wrote to
the king: " ... This licentiate has committed many injustices and
offenses, as the attorney can testify. He gave Indians to many
officers and merchants, depriving conquerors and settlers of them. He
gambled much and always won, because they let him win in order to have
him in good humor at the time of distribution of Indians. He carried
away much money, especially from the 'Naborias.'" [28]

"He took the principal cacique, who lived nearest to the mines, for
himself, and rented him out on condition that he keep sixteen men
continually at work in the mines, and if any failed he was to receive
half a ducat per head a day."

"He has taken Indians from other settlers and made them wash gold for
himself, etc."

Before Ponce's departure for Spain the island had been divided into
two departments or jurisdictions, the northern, with Caparra as its
capital, under the direct authority of the governor, the southern
division, with San German as the capital, under a lieutenant-governor,
the chain of mountains in the interior being the mutual boundary.
This division was maintained till 1782.

Caparra, or Puerto Rico, as it was now called, and San German were the
only settlements when Ponce returned. The year before (1514) another
settlement had been made in Daguao, but it had been destroyed by the
Caribs, and this ever-present danger kept all immigration away.

The king recognized the fact, and to obviate this serious difficulty
in the way of the island's settlement, he wrote to his officers in
Seville:

" ... Spread reports about the great quantities of gold to be found in
Puerto Rico, and do not trouble about the antecedents of those who
wish to go, for if not useful as laborers they will do to fight."

That Ferdinand was well aware of the insecurity of his hold on the
island is shown by his subsequent dispositions. To the royal
contractors or commissaries he wrote in 1514: "While two forts are
being constructed, one in Puerto Rico and the other in San German,
where, in case of rebellion, our treasure will be secure, you will
give arms and ammunition to Ponce de Leon for our account, with an
artilleryman, that he may have them in his house, which is to do
duty as a fortress." And on May 14, 1515, he wrote from Medina del
Campo: " ... Deliver to Ponce six 'espingardas.'" [29]

During this same period the island was constituted a bishopric, with
Alonzo Manso, ex-sacristan of Prince John and canon of Salamanca as
prelate. He came in the beginning of 1513, when the intestine troubles
were at their worst, bringing instructions to demand payment of tithes
_in specie_ and a royal grant of 150 Indians to himself, which, added
to the fact that his presence would be a check upon the prevalent
immorality, raised such a storm of opposition and intrigue against him
that he could not exercise his functions. There was no church fit for
services. This furnished him with a pretext to return to the
Peninsula. When Ponce arrived the bishop was on the point of
departure. There can be no doubt that King Ferdinand, in reappointing
Ponce to the government of the island, trusted to the captain's
military qualities for the reestablishment of order and the
suppression of the attacks of the Caribs, but the result did not
correspond to his Majesty's expectations.

Haro, the treasurer, reported to the king on October 6, 1515: " ...
From the moment of his arrival Ponce has fomented discord. In order to
remain here himself, he sent Zuniga, his lieutenant, with the fleet.
He caused the caciques Humacao and Daguao, who had but just submitted,
to revolt again by forcibly taking ten men for the fleet."

The crown officers confirmed this statement in a separate report.

These accusations continued to the time of Ferdinand's death (February
23, 1516), when Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros became Regent of Spain.
This renowned prelate, whom Prince Charles, afterward Emperor Charles
V, when confirming him in the regency, addressed as "the Very
Reverend Father in Christ, Cardinal of Spain, Archbishop of Toledo,
Primate of all the Spanish Territories, Chief Chancellor of Castilla,
our very dear and much beloved friend and master," was also Grand
Inquisitor, and was armed with the tremendous power of the terrible
Holy Office.

It was dangerous for the accusers and the accused alike to annoy such
a personage with tales inspired by petty rivalries from an
insignificant island in the West Indies. Nevertheless, one of the
first communications from Puerto Rico that was laid before him was a
memorial written by one Arango, accusing Velasquez, among other
things, of having given Indians to soldiers and to common people,
instead of to conquerors and married men. "In Lent," says the accuser,
"he goes to a grange, where he remains without hearing mass on
Sundays, eating meat, and saying things against the faith ..."

The immediate effect of these complaints and mutual accusations was
the suspension in his functions of Diego Columbus and the appointment
of a triumvirate of Jerome friars to govern these islands. This was
followed two years later by the return of Bishop Manso to San Juan,
armed with the dreadful powers of General Inquisitor of the Indies and
by the nomination of licentiate Antonio de la Gama as judge auditor of
the accounts of Sancho Velasquez. The judge found him guilty of
partiality and other offenses, and on June 12, 1520, wrote to the
regent: "I have not sent the accounts of Sancho Velasquez, because it
was necessary that he should go with them, but the bishop of this
island has taken him for the Holy Inquisition _and he has died in
prison_."

The Jerome fathers on their way to la Espanola, in 1516, touched at
what they describe as "the port of Puerto Rico, which is in the island
of San Juan de Boriquen," and the treasurer, Haro, wrote of them on
January 21, 1518: " ... They have done nothing during the year, and
the inhabitants are uncertain and fear changes. This is the principal
cause of harm to the Indians. It is necessary to dispose what is to be
done ... Although great care is now exercised in the treatment of the
Indians their numbers grow less for all that, because just as they are
ignorant of things concerning the faith, so do they ignore things
concerning their health, and they are of very weak constitution."

The frequent changes in the government that had been made by Diego
Columbus, the arrest of Velasquez and his death in the gloomy dungeons
of the Inquisition, the arrival of de la Gama as judge auditor and
governor _ad interim_, and his subsequent marriage with Ponce's
daughter Isabel, all these events but served to embitter the strife of
parties. "The spirit of vengeance, ambition, and other passions had
become so violent and deep-rooted among the Spaniards," says
Abbad,[30] "that God ordained their chastisement in various ways."

The removal of the capital from its swampy location to the islet which
it now occupies was another source of dissension. It appears that the
plan was started immediately after Ceron's accession, for the king
wrote to him November 9, 1511: "Juan Ponce says that he located the
town in the best part of the island. We fear that you want to change
it. You shall not do so without our special order. If there is just
reason for change you must inform us first."

Velasquez, in his report of April, 1515, mentions that he accompanied
the Town Council of Caparra to see the site for the new capital, and
that to him it seemed convenient.

In 1519 licentiate Rodrigo de Figueroa sent a lengthy exposition
accompanied by the certified declarations of the leading inhabitants
regarding the salubrity of the islet and the insalubrity of Caparra,
with a copy of the disposition of the Jerome fathers authorizing the
transfer, and leaving Ponce, who strenuously opposed it, at liberty to
live in his fortified house in Caparra as long as he liked.

On November 16, 1520, Baltazar Castro, in the name of the crown
officers of San Juan, reported to the emperor: "The City of Puerto
Rico has been transferred to an islet which is in the port where the
ships anchor, a very good and healthy location."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 25: Annotations, p. 96.]

[Footnote 26: Ponce protested and appealed to the Audiencia, but did
not obtain restitution till 1520.]

[Footnote 27: A Castellano was the 150 part of a mark of gold. The
mark had 8 ounces.]

[Footnote 28: Indians distributed to be employed as domestic
servants.]

[Footnote 29: Small pieces of ordnance.]

[Footnote 30: XII, p. 89.]

CHAPTER XI

CALAMITIES--PONCE'S SECOND EXPEDITION TO FLORIDA AND DEATH

1520-1537

Among the calamities referred to by Friar Abbad as visitations of
Providence was one which the Spaniards had brought upon themselves.
Another epidemic raged principally among the Indians. In January, 1519,
the Jerome friars wrote to the Government from la Espanola: " ... It
has pleased our Lord to send a pestilence of smallpox among the Indians
here, and nearly one-third of them have died. We are told that in the
island of San Juan the Indians have begun to die of the same disease."

Another scourge came in the form of ants. "These insects," says Abbad,
quoting from Herrera, "destroyed the yucca or casabe, of which the
natives made their bread, and killed the most robust trees by eating
into their roots, so that they turned black, and became so infected
that the birds would not alight on them. The fields were left barren
and waste as if fire from heaven had descended on them. These insects
invaded the houses and tormented the inmates night and day. Their bite
caused acute pains to adults and endangered the lives of children. The
affliction was general," says Abbad, "but God heard the people's vows
and the pests disappeared." The means by which this happy result was
obtained are described by Father Torres Vargas: "Lots were drawn to
see what saint should be chosen as the people's advocate before God.
Saint Saturnine was returned, and the plague ceased at once."

"Some time after there appeared a worm which also destroyed the yucca.
Lots were again drawn, and this time Saint Patrick came out; but the
bishop and the ecclesiastical chapter were of opinion that this saint,
being little venerated, had no great influence in heaven. Therefore,
lots were drawn again and again, three times, and each time the
rejected saint's name came out. This was clearly a miracle, and Saint
Patrick was chosen as advocate. To atone for their unwillingness to
accept him, the chapter voted the saint an annual mass, sermon, and
procession, which was kept up for many years without ever anything
happening again to the casabe ..."

To the above-described visitations, nature added others and more cruel
ones. These were the destructive tempests, called by the Indians
Ouracan.

The first hurricane since the discovery of the island by Columbus of
which there is any record happened in July, 1515, when the crown
officers reported to the king that a great storm had caused the death
of many Indians by sickness and starvation. On October 4, 1526, there
was another, which Juan de Vadillo described thus: " ... There was a
great storm of wind and rain which lasted twenty-four hours and
destroyed the greater part of the town, with the church. The damage
caused by the flooding of the plantations is greater than any one can
estimate. Many rich men have grown poor, among them Pedro Moreno, the
lieutenant-governor."

In July and August, 1530, the scourge was repeated three times in six
weeks, and Governor Lando wrote to Luis Columbus, then Governor of la
Espanola: " ... The storms have destroyed all the plantations, drowned
many cattle, and caused a great dearth of food. Half of the houses in
this city have been blown down; of the other half those that are least
damaged are without roofs. In the country and at the mines not a house
is left standing. Everybody has been impoverished and thinking of
going away. There are no more Indians and the land must be cultivated
with negroes, who are a monopoly, and can not be brought here for less
than 60 or 70 'castellanos' apiece. The city prays that the payment of
all debts may be postponed for three years."

Seven years later (1537), three hurricanes in two months again
completely devastated the island. " ... They are the greatest that
have been experienced here," wrote the city officers. " ... The floods
have carried away all the plantations along the borders of the rivers,
many slaves and cattle have been drowned, want and poverty are
universal. Those who wanted to leave the island before are now more
than ever anxious to do so."

The incursions of Caribs from the neighboring islands made the
existence of the colony still more precarious. Wherever a new
settlement was made, they descended, killing the Spaniards,
destroying the plantations, and carrying off the natives.

[Illustration: Statue of Ponce de Leon, San Juan]

* * * * *

The first news of the wonderful achievements of Cortez in Mexico
reached San Juan in 1520, and stirred the old adventurer Ponce to
renewed action. On February 10, 1521, he wrote to the emperor: "I
discovered Florida and some other small islands at my own expense, and
now I am going to settle them with plenty of men and two ships, and I
am going to explore the coast, to see if it compares with the lands
(Cuba) discovered by Velasquez. I will leave here in four or five
days, and beg your Majesty to favor me, so that I may be enabled to
carry out this great enterprise."

Accordingly, he left the port of Aguada on the 26th of the same month
with two ships, well provided with all that was necessary for
conquest.

But the captain's star of fortune was waning. He had a stormy passage,
and when he and his men landed they met with such fierce resistance
from the natives that after several encounters and the loss of many
men, Ponce himself being seriously wounded, they were forced to
reembark. Feeling that his end was approaching, the captain did not
return to San Juan, but sought a refuge in Puerto Principe, where he
died.

One of his ships found its way to Vera Cruz, where its stores of arms
and ammunition came as a welcome accession to those of Cortez.

The emperor bestowed the father's title of Adelantado of Florida and
Bemini on his son, and the remains of the intrepid adventurer, who had
found death where he had hoped to find perennial youth, rested in
Cuban soil till his grandchildren had them transferred to this island
and buried in the Dominican convent.

A statue was erected to his memory in 1882. It stands in the plaza of
San Jose in the capital and was cast from the brass cannon left behind
by the English after the siege of 1797.

CHAPTER XII

INCURSIONS OF FUGITIVE BORIQUEN INDIANS AND CARIBS

1530-1582

The conquest of Boriquen was far from being completed with the death
of Guaybana.

The panic which the fall of a chief always produces among savages
prevented, for the moment, all organized resistance on the part of
Guaybana's followers, but _they_ did not constitute the whole
population of the island. Their submission gave the Spaniards the
dominion over that part of it watered by the Culebrinas and the
Anasco, and over the northeastern district in which Ponce had laid the
foundations of his first settlement. The inhabitants of the southern
and eastern parts of the island, with those of the adjacent smaller
islands, were still unsubdued and remained so for years to come. Their
caciques were probably as well informed of the character of the
newcomers and of their doings in la Espanola as was the first
Guaybana's mother, and they wisely kept aloof so long as their
territories were not invaded.

The reduced number of Spaniards facilitated the maintenance of a
comparative independence by these as yet unconquered Indians, at the
same time that it facilitated the flight of those who, having bent
their necks to the yoke, found it unbearably heavy. According to
"Regidor" (Prefect) Hernando de Mogollon's letter to the Jerome
fathers, fully one-third of the "pacified" Indians--that is, of those
who had submitted--had disappeared and found a refuge with their
kinsmen in the neighboring islands.

The first fugitives from Boriquen naturally did not go beyond the
islands in the immediate vicinity. Vieques, Culebras, and la Mona
became the places of rendezvous whence they started on their
retaliatory expeditions, while their spies or their relatives on the
main island kept them informed of what was passing. Hence, no sooner
was a new settlement formed on the borders or in the neighborhood of
some river than they pounced upon it, generally at night, dealing
death and destruction wherever they went.

In vain did Juan Gil, with Ponce's two sons-in-law and a number of
tried men, make repeated punitive expeditions to the islands. The
attacks seemed to grow bolder, and not till Governor Mendoza himself
led an expedition to Vieques, in which the cacique Yaureibo was
killed, did the Indians move southeastward to Santa Cruz.

That the Caribs[31] inhabiting the islands Guadeloupe and Dominica
made common cause with the fugitives from Boriquen is not to be
doubted. The Spaniard was the common enemy and the opportunity for
plunder was too good to be lost. But the primary cause of all the
so-called Carib invasions of Puerto Rico was the thirst for revenge
for the wrongs suffered, and long after those who had smarted under
them or who had but witnessed them had passed away, the tradition of
them was kept alive by the areytos and songs, in the same way as the
memory of the outrages committed by the soldiers of Pizarro in Peru
are kept alive _till this day_ among the Indians of the eastern slope
of the Andes. The fact that neither Jamaica nor other islands occupied
by Spaniards were invaded, goes to prove that in the case of Puerto
Rico the invasions were prompted by bitter resentment of natives who
had preferred exile to slavery, coupled, perhaps, with a hope of being
able to drive the enemies of their race from their island home, a hope
which, if it existed, and if we consider the very limited number of
Spaniards who occupied it, was not without foundation.

* * * * *

It was Nemesis, therefore, and not the mere lust of plunder, that
guided the Boriquen Indians and their Carib allies on their invasions
of Puerto Rico.

Diego Columbus during his visit in 1514 had founded a settlement with
50 colonists along the borders of the Daguao and Macao rivers on the
eastern coast.

They had constructed houses and ranchos, introduced cattle, and
commenced their plantations, but without taking any precautions
against sudden attacks or providing themselves with extra means of
defense.

One night they were awakened by the glare of fire and the yells of the
savages. As they rushed out to seek safety they fell pierced with
arrows or under the blows of the terrible Macanas. Very few of them
escaped.

The next attack was in the locality now constituting the municipal
district of Loiza.

This place was settled by several Spaniards, among them Juan Mexia, a
man said to have been of herculean strength and great courage. The
Indian woman with whom he cohabited had received timely warning of the
intended attack, a proof that communications existed between the
supposed Caribs and the Indians on the island. She endeavored to
persuade the man to seek safety in flight, but he disdained to do so.
Then she resolved to remain with him and share his fate. Both were
killed, and Alejandro Tapia, a native poet, has immortalized the
woman's devotion in a romantic, but purely imaginative, composition.

Ponce's virtual defeat in Guadeloupe made the Caribs bolder than ever.
They came oftener and in larger numbers, always surprising the
settlements that were least prepared to offer resistance. Five years
had elapsed since the destruction of Daguao. A new settlement had
gradually sprung up in the neighborhood along the river Humacao and
was beginning to prosper, but it was also doomed. On November 16,
1520, Baltazar Castro, one of the crown officers, reported to the
emperor:

"It is about two months since 5 canoes with 150 Carib warriors came to
this island of San Juan and disembarked in the river Humacao, near
some Spanish settlements, where they killed 4 Christians and 13
Indians. From here they went to some gold mines and then to some
others, killing 2 Christians at each place. They burned the houses and
took a fishing smack, killing 4 more. They remained from fifteen to
twenty days in the country, the Christians being unable to hurt them,
having no ships. They killed 13 Christians in all, and as many Indian
women, and '_carried off_' 50 natives. They will grow bolder for being
allowed to depart without punishment. It would be well if the Seville
officers sent two light-draft vessels to occupy the mouths of the
rivers by which they enter."

On April 15, 1521, a large number of Indians made a descent on the
south coast, but we have no details of their doings; and in 1529 their
audacity culminated in an attempt on the capital itself. La Gama's
report to the emperor of this event is as follows: "On the 18th of
October, after midnight, 8 large pirogues full of Caribs entered the
bay of Puerto Rico, and meeting a bark on her way to Bayamon, manned
by 5 negroes and some other people, they took her. Finding that they
had been discovered, they did not attempt a landing till sunrise, then
they scuttled the bark. Some shots fired at them made them leave.
Three negroes were found dead, pierced with arrows. The people of this
town and all along the coast are watching. Such a thing as this has
not been heard of since the discovery. A fort, arms, artillery, and 2
brigantines of 30 oars each, and no Caribs will dare to come. If not
sent, fear will depopulate the island."

In the same month of the following year (1530) they returned, and this
time landed and laid waste the country in the neighborhood of the
capital. The report of the crown officers is dated the 31st of
October: "Last Sunday, the 23d instant, 11 canoes, in which there may
have been 500 Caribs, came to this island and landed at a point where
there are some agricultural establishments belonging to people of this
city. It is the place where the best gold in the island is found,
called Daguao and the mines of Llagueello. Here they plundered the
estate of Christopher Guzman, the principal settler. They killed him
and some other Christians,[32] whites, blacks, and Indians, besides
some fierce dogs, and horses which stood ready saddled. They burned
them all, together with the houses, and committed many cruelties with
the Christians. They carried off 25 negroes and Indians, _to eat them,
as is their wont_. We fear that they will attack the defenseless city
in greater force, and the fear is so great that the women and children
dare not sleep in their houses, but go to the church and the
monastery, which are built of stone. We men guard the city and the
roads, being unable to attend to our business.

"We insist that 2 brigantines be armed and equipped, as was ordered by
the Catholic king. No Caribs will then dare to come. Let the port be
fortified or the island will be deserted. The governor and the
officers know how great is the need, but they may make no outlays
without express orders."

As a result of the repeated requests for light-draft vessels, 2
brigantines were constructed in Seville in 1531 and shipped, in
sections, on board of a ship belonging to Master Juan de Leon, who
arrived in June, 1532. The crown officers immediately invited all who
wished to man the brigantines and make war on the Caribs, offering
them as pay half of the product of the sale of the slaves they should
make, the other half to be applied to the purchase of provisions.

The brigantines were unfit for service. In February, 1534, the emperor
was informed: "Of the brigantines which your Majesty sent for the
defense of this island only the timber came, and half of that was
unfit.... We have built brigantines with the money intended for
fortifications."

Governor Lando wrote about the same time: "We suffer a thousand
injuries from the Caribs of Guadeloupe and Dominica. They come every
year to assault us. Although the city is so poor, we have spent 4,000
pesos in fitting out an expedition of 130 men against them; but,
however much they are punished, the evil will not disappear till your
Majesty orders these islands to be settled." The expedition referred
to sailed under the orders of Joan de Ayucar, and reached Dominica in
May, 1534. Fifteen or 16 villages of about 20 houses each were burned,
103 natives were killed, and 70 prisoners were taken, the majority
women and boys. The Spaniards penetrated a distance of ten leagues
into the interior of the island, meeting with little resistance,
because the warrior population was absent. Eight or 10 pirogues and
more than 20 canoes were also burned. With this punishment the fears
of the people in San Juan were considerably allayed.

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