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.
[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.]
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, theauri sacra fameshad 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 Española by Ponce, who had obtained them from the river Manatuabón, to which the friendly cacique Guaybána 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 Cóa and Sibúco to justify him in making his headquarters at Capárra, 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 firstwashings. The firstsmeltingwas 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 Capárra 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 Daguáo, 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 Espíritu 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 Sibúco, 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 Muñoz, 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 8,9751510, " 2,6451511, " 10,0001512, " 3,0431513, " 27,2911514, " 18,0001515, " 17,0001516, " 11,4901517-18, " 38,4971519, " 10,0001520, " 35,733In 1521, " 10,0001522, " 7,9791523-29, " 40,0001530, " 12,4401531, " 6,5001532, " 9,0001533, " 4,0001534, " 8,5001535, " 1,8481536, " 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.
[Footnote 84: Washington Irving estimates the value of the "gold peso" of the sixteenth century at $3 Spanish money of our day.]
Whoever has witnessed the awful magnificence of what the primitive inhabitants of the West Indian islands calledou-ra-cán,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 vesselsdisappeared."
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 5February 7March 11April 6May 5June 10July 42August 96September 80October 69November 17December 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-cán'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 Jonnès, 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 Iñigo 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 Aguáda, 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. Jonnés.
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 Económico of the 11th of August, 1814.
1819, September 21.—(San Mateo.) This cyclone is mentioned by Jonnés and by Córdova, who says that it caused extraordinary damages on the plantations.
1825, July 26.—(Santa Ana.) Córdova (vol. ii, p. 21 of his Memoirs) says of this hurricane: "It destroyed the towns of Patillas, Maunabó, Yabucóa, Humacáo, Gurabó, and Cáguas. 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.
[Illustration: Casa Blanca and the sea wall, San Juan.]
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.
[Footnote 85: See Bulletin H, Weather Bureau, West Indian Hurricanes, by E.B. Garriott, Washington, 1900.]
[Footnote 86: L'Atmosphère, 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 Françaises.]
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 Boriquén 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 Lucúo, the god of the Boriquéns,[89] mentions a tradition referring to the arrival of these ancient navigators, and traces some of the Boriquén 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 Esquivél made himself master of Jamaica with scarcely any sacrifice, and if the aborigines of the Española and Boriquén 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 Acháguas, 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 Guaraní 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 Guaranís.
But the Guaranís, 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 Paraná, from where these two rivers join the river Plate, northward, to about latitude 22° south. This region was the home of the Guaranís, 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° 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 letterslandpintorandb, 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 Bartolomé 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.
[Footnote 89: Revista Puertoriqueña, Tomo I, Año I, 1887.]
[Footnote 90: The word "cannibal" is but a corruption of guaribó, is, "brave or strong," changed into Caribó, Caríba, 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 Parmié and the city of Manáo, 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 IÑIGO.—Historia geográfica, civil y natural de San JuanBautista de Puerto Rico. Madrid, 1788.
AGOSTA, D. JOSÉ JULIÁN.—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.
CEDÓ, D. SANTIAGO.—Compendio de geografía para instrucción de la juventud portoriqueña. Mayaguez, 1855.
COELLO, D. FRANCISCO.—Mapa de la isla de Puerto Rico, ilustrado con notas históricas y estadísticas escritas por Don Pascual Madoz. Madrid, 1851.
COLL Y TOSTE, D. CAYETANO.—Colón en Puerto Rico. (Disquisiciones histórico-filológicas.) Puerto Rico, 1894. Repertorio histórico de Puerto Rico. A monthly publication.
CÓRDOVA, D. PEDRO TOMÁS.—Memorias geográficas, históricas, económicas y estadísticas de la isla de Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, 1830. Memoria sobre todos los ramos de la administración de la isla de Puerto Rico. Madrid, 1838.
CORTÓN, D. ANTONIO.—La separación de mandos en Puerto Rico. Discurso escrito y comenzado á leer ante la Comisión del Congreso de los Diputados. Habana, 1890.
FLINTER, COLONEL.—An Account of the Present State of the Island ofPuerto Rico. London, 1834.
JIMENO AGIUS, J.—Puerto Rico. Madrid, 1890. LEDRU, ANDRÉ PIERRE.—Voyage aux iles Ténériffe, la Trinité, 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 theGovernor of the Island to the King. Cadiz, 1811.
NAZARIO, D. JOSÉ MARÍA.—Guayanilla y la historia de Puerto Rico.Ponce, 1893.
PÉREZ MORIS, D. JOSÉ, Y CUETO, D. LUIS.—Historia de la insurrección de Lares.
SAMA, D. MANUEL MARÍA.—El desembarco de Colón en Puerto Rico y elMonumento de Culebrinas, Mayaguez, 1895.
STAHL, D. AGUSTIN.—Los Indios Borinqueños. Puerto Rico, 1887.
TAPIA, D. ALEJANDRO.—Biblioteca histórica de Puerto Rico. PuertoRico, 1854.
TORRES, D. LUIS LLORENS.—América. Estudios históricos y filológicos.Madrid y Barcelona, 1897.
UBEDA Y DELGADO, D. MANUEL.—Isla de Puerto Rico, Estudio histórico-geográfico. Puerto Rico, 1878.
VIZCARRONDO, D. JULIO.—Elementos de historia y geografía 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 Gandía, Neumann, Dr. Dominguez, and Navarrete, have appeared in the columns of periodicals at different times before the American occupation of the island.
Abbad, Friar Iñigo, his history ofPuerto Rico; cited; onstate of agriculture in 1776.
Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, attacks SanJuan.
Aborigines, see Indians.
Agriculture, inhabitants of Puerto Rico forced to turn to; condition of, in 1776.
Aguáda, its history.
Albemarle, Earl of, capturesHavana.
Alexander VI, Pope, divides theworld between Spain andPortugal.
American army, landing of;recognized as liberators,; alsosee preface v.
Americans, interest of, in theinsurrection 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, capturesSpanish galleons, 136.
Blasquez, Juan, judge-auditor ofPuerto Rico, 102.
Boabdil, last of the Moorish kings.
Boriquén, first known name of Puerto Rico; seat of Guaybána; Boriqueños restless; revolt in; last of the Boriquén Indians; the republic of, proclaimed; falls; native inhabitants of.
Bowdoin, Hendrick, commandsDutch 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.
Cacáo.
Cannibals, supposed to be found among the Caribs.
Capárra, first settlement of Spaniards in Puerto Rico; capital transferred from, to San Juan; the old capital.
Capital, transferred from Capárra to Sun Juan.
Caribs, supposed by Columbus to be on Guadeloupe; annoy Spaniards in Puerto Rico; assist the Boriquén 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 ColonialMinister, intercedes in behalf of PuertoRico.
Castellanos, Juan, brings 75 coloniststo Puerto Rico; attorney for PuertoRico 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 Española; deposes Ponce; authority of, suspended; deprived of the power of appointing Governor of Puerto Rico.
Commerce, its development; imports and exports.
Cortéz, his conquest of Mexico.
Cromwell, his alliance with Franceagainst Spain.
Cuba, influence of Cuban revolution onPuerto Rico; reforms in, suggested bySagasta.
De la Gama, Antonio, charged with executingthe royal decree against the "distribution" of Indians.
Diaz, Bernal, de Pisa, with Columbus'ssecond expedition.
Diego, Rafael, organizer of the revolutionof 1812.
Distribution of Indians among the Spanishconquerors as slaves;system introduced by Columbus.
Dominica, discovery of;Caribs in, aid Puerto Rico Indians againstthe Spaniards; Spanish expedition againstCaribs in.
Dominicans, order of.
Drake, Francis, his expeditions in theCaribbean.
Education;illiteracy and general ignorance; in hands ofclergy; 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.
Española (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, quarrelwith 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 theSpanish 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.
Guaybána, cacique in Puerto Rico; death of.
Guaybána second, heads revolt against the Spaniards; massacres Spaniards; is defeated; killed.
Haro, Juan de, governor, defends SanJuan against the Dutch.
Havana, captured by the English underthe Earl of Albemarle and AdmiralPocock.
Hawkyns, John, his freebootingvoyages among the Antilles; his fleetcaptured; 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 Boriquén Indians.
Inquisition, the, in Puerto Rico; Nicolas Ramos, the last Inquisitor; abolition of the Inquisition; reestablished.
Isabel II, her decree declaring propertyof the secular clergy national property.
Jews, property of, confiscated to supplyfunds for Columbus's second expedition.
Jíbaro, the Puerto Rican peasant;customs of.
Lando, Governor of Puerto Rico, triesto prevent persons leaving the island.
Lares, the insurrection of.
Las Casas, Bartolomé 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, declaresthe island in a state of war.
Manso, Alonzo, first bishop of PuertoRico.
Marie-Galante, discovery of.
Mayor, Soto, forms a settlement at Guánica;killed by Indians.
McCormick, James, his report on PuertoRico in 1880.
Mestizos, or mixed races.
Military service, number of men in PuertoRico 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 Guaybána with 5,000 to 6,000 Indians; deprived of his privileges; retires to Capárra; 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 worldbetween Portugal and Spain.
Press, the;first printing-press.
Prim, John, Count of Reus, his severeproclamation against the negroes.
Primitive inhabitants.
Products.
Puerto Rico, discovery of; first settlement, at Capárra; made a bishopric; name of Puerto Rico first used October, 1514; divided into two departments; capital transferred from Capárra to present location, San Juan; disease and pestilence; destructive storms; news of gold discoveries in Peru causes many settlers to leave; inhabitants try to leave the island for the Peru gold fields; devastated by French and Indians; the inhabitants turn to agriculture, 100; expedition sent against the French in Santa Cruz; English fleet, under the Earl of Estren, appears off San Juan; used as a "presidio," or place of banishment for political prisoners for three centuries; condition of, in 1765, described by Alexander O'Reilly; revolution headed by Rafael Diego and General O'Daly, 153; divided into seven judicial districts; political rights in the island; efforts of Spain to promote development of the island; state of society, 159; effects of Carlist troubles in Spain; resources of, diminished; description of the island in 1880; reform laws to relieve financial distress; promise of reforms; the new electoral law; conditions in the island immediately before the American occupation; becomes part of the United States; its advantageous situation; soil and products; harbors; climate; primitive inhabitants; present inhabitants; era of greatest prosperity under Spanish rule.
Races in Puerto Rico.
Ramirez, Francisco, President of the"Republic of Boriquén,".
Reforms, promise of, by SpanishGovernment; granted too late.
Religion of the peasantry.
Republic of Boriquén proclaimed.
Revolution, against Spanish oppression.
Rodney, English admiral, attacks FrenchWest Indies.
Sables d'Olone, French pirate.
Sagasta, suggests reforms in Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Sail.
Salazar, Diego do, heroic conduct of; defeats Indians.
San German founded.
San Juan, only settlement in Puerto Rico not destroyed by the French; the fort, "Fortaleza," still used as governor's residence, built in 1540; fortification and improvement of; attacked by English fleet, under Drake; captured by English, 120; evacuated by the English; attacked by English; history of; replaces Capárra as the capital.
San Juan Bautista, island of (PuertoRico).
Santa Cruz taken and held by the French.
Santo Domingo, discovery of.
Schools, number and attendance of, in1889.
Sedeño, Contador of Puerto Rico; hispeculations and death.
Slavery, Indians placed in, through thesystem of "distribution.".
Slavery, negro, introduced into Santo Domingo; favored by Church and State; first negro slaves in Puerto Rico; discussion of its abolition; abolition of; its history in the island; introduced to replace lost labor of the Indians; England contracts to take 140,000 slaves into the Spanish-American colonies in thirty years; slaves emancipated.
Spain, Alexander VI divides the world between Spain and Portugal; effects of her disastrous wars; sends fleet against pirates in the West Indies; abolishes the slave-trade.
Spaniards, number of, in Puerto Rico; as colonists in Puerto Rico; no women among early settlers.
Storms, damages by.
Sugar;the industry injured by production ofbeet-sugar.
Tiedra, Vasco de, Governor of PuertoRico.
Tobacco, its cultivation permitted by aspecial law.
Trade, its growth.
United States sends army to Puerto Rico;acquires the island.
Weyler, General, his inhuman proceedingsin Cuba.
Windward Islands, discovered by Columbus.
Women, none among early Spanish settlers; education of, neglected.
Zambos, mixture of negro and Indian.
End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Puerto Rico, by R.A. Van Middeldyk