The History of Puerto Rico | Page 3

arduous, though self-imposed task.
R.A.V.M.
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, November 3, 1902.

CONTENTS

PART I
HISTORICAL

CHAPTER
I.
--THE DEPARTURE. 1493
II.--THE DISCOVERY. 1493
III.--PONCE AND CERON. 1500-1511
IV.--FIRST DISTRIBUTION OF INDIANS. "REPARTIMIENTOS" 1510
V.--THE REBELLION. 1511
VI.--THE REBELLION (continued.) 1511
VII.--NUMBER OF ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS AND SECOND DISTRIBUTION OF INDIANS. 1511-1515
VIII.--LAWS AND ORDINANCES. 1511-1515
IX.--THE RETURN OF CERON AND DIAZ. PONCE'S FIRST EXPEDITION TO FLORIDA. 1511-1515
X.--DISSENSIONS. TRANSFER OF THE CAPITAL. 1515-1520
XI.--CALAMITIES. PONCE'S SECOND EXPEDITION TO FLORIDA AND DEATH. 1520-1537
XII.--INCURSIONS OF FUGITIVE BORIQUéN INDIANS AND CARIBS. 1520-1582
XIII.--DEPOPULATION OF THE ISLAND. PREVENTIVE MEASURES. INTRODUCTION OF NEGRO SLAVES. 1515-1534
XIV.--ATTACKS BY FRENCH PRIVATEERS. CAUSE OF THE WAR WITH FRANCE. CHARLES V. RUIN OF THE ISLAND. 1520-1556
XV.--SEDESO. CHANGES IN THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 1534-1555
XVI.--DEFENSELESS CONDITION OF THE ISLAND. CONSTRUCTION OF FORTIFICATIONS AND CIRCUMVALLATION OF SAN JUAN. 1555-1641 XVII.--DRAKE'S ATTACK ON SAN JUAN. 1595
XVIII.--OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION OF SAN JUAN BY LORD GEORGE CUMBERLAND. CONDITION OF THE ISLAND AT THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
XIX.--ATTACK ON SAN JUAN BY THE HOLLANDERS UNDER BOWDOIN. 1625
XX.--DECLINE OF SPAIN'S POWER. BUCCANEERS AND FILIBUSTERS. 1625-1780
XXI.--BRITISH ATTACKS ON PUERTO RICO. SIEGE OF SAN JUAN BY SIR RALPH ABERCROMBIE. 1678-1797
XXII.--BRITISH ATTACKS ON PUERTO RICO (continued). INVASIONS BY COLOMBIAN INSURGENTS. 1797-1829
XXIII.--REVIEW OF THE SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN PUERTO RICO AND THE POLITICAL EVENTS IN SPAIN FROM 1765 TO 1820
XXIV.--GENERAL CONDITION OF THE ISLAND FROM 1815 TO 1833
XXV.--POLITICAL EVENTS IN SPAIN AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON AFFAIRS IN PUERTO RICO. 1833-1874
XXVI.--GENERAL CONDITIONS OF THE ISLAND, THE DAWN OF FREEDOM. 1874-1898

PART II
THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS
XXVII.--SITUATION AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF PUERTO RICO
XXVIII.--ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND CUSTOMS OF THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF BORIQUéN
XXIX.--THE "JíBARO" OR PUERTO RICAN PEASANT
XXX.--ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE MODERN INHABITANTS OF PUERTO RICO
XXXI.--NEGRO SLAVERY IN PUERTO RICO
XXII.--INCREASE OF POPULATION
XXIII.--AGRICULTURE IN PUERTO RICO
XXXIV.--COMMERCE AND FINANCES
XXXV.--EDUCATION IN PUERTO RICO
XXXVI.--LIBRARIES AND THE PRESS
XXXVII.--THE REGULAR AND SECULAR CLERGY
XXXVIII.--THE INQUISITION. 1520-1813
XXXIX.--GROWTH OF CITIES
XL.--AURIFEROUS STREAMS AND GOLD PRODUCED FROM 1609 TO 1536
XLI.--WEST INDIAN HURRICANES IN PUERTO RICO FROM 1515 TO 1899
XLII.--THE CARIBS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Columbus statue, San Juan
Ruins of Capárra
Columbus monument, near Aguadilla
Statue of Ponce de Leon, San Juan
Inner harbor, San Juan
Fort San Geronimo, at Santurce, near San Juan
Only remaining gate of the city-wall, San Juan
A tienda, or small shop
Planter's house, ceiba tree, and royal palms
San Francisco Church, San Juan; the oldest church in the city
Plaza Alphonso XII and Intendencia Building, San Juan
Casa Blanca and the sea wall, San Juan


PART I HISTORICAL

CHAPTER I
THE DEPARTURE
1493
Eight centuries of a gigantic struggle for supremacy between the Crescent and the Cross had devastated the fairest provinces of the Spanish Peninsula. Boabdil, the last of the Moorish kings, had delivered the keys of Granada into the hands of Queen Isabel, the proud banner of the united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon floated triumphant from the walls of the Alhambra, and Providence, as if to recompense Iberian knighthood for turning back the tide of Moslem conquest, which threatened to overrun the whole of meridional Europe, had laid a new world, with all its inestimable treasures and millions of benighted inhabitants, at the feet of the Catholic princes.
Columbus had just returned from his first voyage. He had been scorned as an adventurer by the courtiers of Lisbon, mocked as a visionary by the learned priests of the Council in Salamanca, who, with texts from the Scriptures and quotations from the saints, had tried to convince him that the world was flat; he had been pointed at by the rabble in the streets as a madman who maintained that there was a land where the people walked with their heads down; and, after months of trial, he had been able to equip his three small craft and collect a crew of ninety men only by the aid of a royal schedule offering exemption from punishment for offenses against the laws to all who should join the expedition.
At last he had sailed amid the murmurs of an incredulous crowd, who thought him and his companions doomed to certain destruction, and now he had returned[1] bringing with him the living proofs of what he had declared to exist beyond that mysterious ocean, and showed to the astounded people samples of the unknown plants and animals, and of the gold which he had said would be found there in fabulous quantities.
It was the proudest moment of the daring navigator's life when, clad in his purple robe of office, bedecked with the insignia of his rank, he entered the throne-room of the palace in Barcelona and received permission to be seated in the royal presence to relate his experiences. Around the hall stood the grandees of Spain and the magnates of the Church, as obsequious and attentive to him now as they had been proud and disdainful when, a hungry wanderer, he had knocked at the gates of La Rabida to beg bread for his son. It was the acme of the discoverer's destiny, the realization of his dream of glory, the well-earned recompense of years of persevering endeavor.
The news