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a way so ineffective that Las Casas said of it that the Indians might

knock it down butting their heads against it. This so-called fort soon

fell in ruins after the transfer of the capital to its present site.

There is no information of what became of the six "espingardas" (small

ordnance or hand-guns) with which it had been armed at King

Ferdinand's expense. They had probably been transferred to San Juan,

where, very likely, they did good service intimidating the Caribs.



In 1527 an English ship came prowling about San Juan bay, la Mona, and

la Espanola, and this warning to the Spanish authorities was

disregarded, notwithstanding Blas de Villasante's urgent request

for artillery and ammunition.






After the burning of San German by a French privateer in August, 1537,

Villasante bought five "lombardas" (another kind of small ordnance)

for the defense of San Juan. In 1529 and 1530 both La Gama, the acting

governor, and the city officers represented to the emperor the

necessity of constructing fortifications, "because the island's

defenseless condition caused the people to emigrate."



It appears that the construction of the first fort commenced about

1533, for in that year the Audiencia in la Espanola disposed of some

funds for the purpose, and Governor Lando suggested the following year

that if the fort were made of stone "it would be eternal." The

suggestion was acted upon and a tax levied on the people to defray the

expense.



This fort must have been concluded about the year 1540, for in that

same year the ecclesiastical and the city authorities were contending

for the grant of the slaves, carts, and oxen that had been employed,

the former wanting them for the construction of a church, the latter

for making roads and bridges.



This "Fortaleza" is the same edifice which, after many changes, was at

last, and is still, used as a gubernatorial residence, the latest

reconstruction being effected in 1846. As a fort, Gonzalez

Fernandez de Oviedo denounced it as a piece of useless work which,

"if it had been constructed by blind men could not have been located

in a worse place," and in harmony with his advice a battery was

constructed on the rocky promontory called "the Morro."



San Juan had now a fort (1540) but no guns. The crown officers,

reporting an attack on Guayama by a French privateer in 1541, again

clamor for artillery. Treasurer Castellanos writes in March and June

of the same year: "The artillery for this fort has not yet arrived.

How are we to defend it?"



Treasurer Salinas writes in 1554: "The French have taken several

ships. It would have been a great boon if your Majesty had ordered

Captain Mindirichaga to come here with his four ships to defend this

island and la Espanola. He would have found Frenchmen in la Mona,

where they prepare for their expeditions and lay in wait. They declare

their intention to take this island, and it will be difficult for us

to defend it without artillery or other arms. If there is anything in

the fort it is useless, nor is the fort itself of any account. It is

merely a lodging-house. The bastion on the Morro, if well constructed,

could defend the entrance to the harbor with 6 pieces. We have 60

horsemen here with lances and shields, but no arquebusiers or pikemen.

Send us artillery and ammunition."



The demand for arms and ammunition continued in this way till 1555,

when acting Governor Caraza reported that 8 pieces of bronze ordnance

had been planted on the Morro.



The existing fortifications of San Juan have all been added and

extended at different periods. Father Torres Vargas, in his chronicles

of San Juan, says that the castle grounds of San Felipe del Morro

were laid out in 1584. The construction cost 2,000,000 ducats. The

Boqueron, or Santiago fort, the fort of the Canuelo, and the

extensions of the Morro were constructed during the administration of

Gabriel Royas (1599 to 1609). Governor Henriquez began the

circumvallation of the city in 1630, and his successor, Sarmiento,

concluded it between the years 1635 and 1641. Fort San Cristobal was

begun in the eighteenth century and completed in 1771. Some

fortifications of less importance were added in the nineteenth

century.



When Caraza reported, in 1555, that the first steps in the

fortification of the capital had been taken, the West Indian seas

swarmed with French privateers, and their depredations on Spanish

commerce and ill-protected possessions continued till Philip II signed

the treaty of peace at Vervins in 1598.



But before that, war with England had been declared, and a more

formidable enemy than the French was soon to appear before the capital

of this much-afflicted island.