CHAPTER XLII

THE CARIBS

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

The first European who became intimately acquainted with the people of the West Indian Islands, on the return from his first voyage, wrote to the Spanish princes: " ... In all these islands I did not observe much difference in the faces and figures of the inhabitants, nor in their customs, nor in their language, seeing that they all understand each other, which is very singular." On the other hand the readiness with which the inhabitants of Aye-Aye and the other Carib islands gave asylum to the fugitive 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 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 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[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 Juan Bautista 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 of Puerto 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 the Governor 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 el Monumento de Culebrinas, Mayaguez, 1895.

STAHL, D. AGUSTIN.--Los Indios Borinqueños. Puerto Rico, 1887.

TAPIA, D. ALEJANDRO.--Biblioteca histórica de Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, 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.

INDEX

Abbad, Friar Iñigo, 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.

Aguáda, 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.

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, 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.

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 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 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 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.

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, 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.

Guaybána, cacique in Puerto Rico; death of.

Guaybána 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 Boriquén 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.

Jíbaro, the Puerto Rican peasant; customs of.

Lando, Governor of Puerto Rico, tries to 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, 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 Guánica; 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 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 world between Portugal and Spain.

Press, the; first printing-press.

Prim, John, Count of Reus, his severe proclamation 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 Spanish Government; granted too late.

Religion of the peasantry.

Republic of Boriquén proclaimed.

Revolution, against Spanish oppression.

Rodney, English admiral, attacks French West 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 (Puerto Rico).

Santa Cruz taken and held by the French.

Santo Domingo, discovery of.

Schools, number and attendance of, in 1889.

Sedeño, Contador of Puerto Rico; his peculations and death.

Slavery, Indians placed in, through the system 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 of beet-sugar.

Tiedra, Vasco de, Governor of Puerto Rico.

Tobacco, its cultivation permitted by a special law.

Trade, its growth.

United States sends army to Puerto Rico; acquires the island.

Weyler, General, his inhuman proceedings in 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