General Condition Of The Island

FROM 1815 TO 1833



That Ferdinand should, while engaged in cruel persecution of his best

subjects in the Peninsula, think of dictating liberal laws for this

island is an anomaly which can be explained only by its small

political importance.



In August, 1815, there appeared a decree entitled "Regulations for

promoting the population, commerce, industry, and agriculture of

Puerto Ri o." It embraced every object, and provided for all the

various incidents that could instil life and vigor into an infant

colony. It held out the most flattering prospects to industrious and

enterprising foreigners. It conferred the rights and privileges of

Spaniards on them and their children. Lands were granted to them

gratis, and no expenses attended the issue of titles and legal

documents constituting it private property. The quantity of land

allotted was in proportion to the number of slaves introduced by each

new settler. The new colonists were not to be subject to taxes or

export duty on their produce, or import duties on their agricultural

implements. If war should be declared between Spain and their native

country, their persons and properties were to be respected, and if

they wished to leave the island they were permitted to realize on

their property and carry its value along with them, paying 10 per cent

on the surplus of the capital they had brought. They were exempted

from the capitation tax or personal tribute. Each slave was to pay a

tax of one dollar yearly after having been ten years in the island.

During the first five years the colonists had liberty to return to

their former places of residence, and in this case could carry with

them all that they had brought without being obliged to pay export

duty. Those who should die in the island without heirs might leave

their property to their friends and relations in other countries. The

heirs had the privilege of remaining on the same conditions as the

testators, or if they preferred to take away their inheritance they

might do so on paying a duty of 15 per cent.



The colonists were likewise exonerated from the payment of tithes for

fifteen years, and at the end of that period they were to pay only 2

12 per cent. They were equally free, for the same period, from the

payment of alcabala, and at the expiration of the specified term

they were to pay 2 12 per cent, but if they shipped their produce to

Spain, nothing. The introduction of negroes into the island was to be

perpetually free. Direct commerce with Spain and the other Spanish

possessions was to be free for fifteen years, and after that period

Puerto Rico was to be placed on the same footing with the other

Spanish colonies. These concessions and exemptions were contained in

thirty-three articles, and though, at the present day, they may seem

but the abolition of unwarrantable abuses, at the time the concessions

were made they were real and important and produced salutary effects.

They brought foreigners possessing capital and agricultural knowledge

into the country, whose habits of industry and skill in cultivation

soon began to be imitated and acquired by the natives.



The effects of the revolution of 1820 were felt in Puerto Rico as well

as in Spain. The concentration of civil and military power in the

hands of the captains-general ceased, but party spirit began to show

its disturbing influence. The press, hitherto muffled by political and

ecclesiastical censors, often went to the extremes of abuse and

personalities. Mechanics and artisans began to neglect their workshops

to listen to the harangues of politicians on the nature of governments

and laws. Agriculture and commerce diminished. Great but ineffectual

efforts were made to induce the people of Puerto Rico to follow the

example of the colonies on the continent and proclaim their

independence.



This state of affairs lasted till 1823, when, through French

intervention, the constitutional Government in Spain was overthrown,

and a second reactionary period set in even worse in its

manifestations of odium to progress and liberty than the one of 1814.

The leading men of the fallen government, to escape death or

imprisonment, emigrated. Among them was O'Daly, who, after living some

time in London, settled in Saint Thomas, where he earned a precarious

living as teacher of languages.



* * * * *



In 1825 the island's governor was Lieutenant-General Miguel de la

Torre, Count de Torrepando, who was invested by the king with

viceregal powers, which he used in the first place to put a stop to

the organized system of defalcation that existed. The proof of the

efficacy of the timely and vigorous proceedings which he employed was

the immediate increase of the public revenue, which from that day

continued rapidly to advance. The troops in garrison and all persons

employed in the public service were regularly paid, nearly half the

arrears of back pay were gradually paid off, confidence was restored,

and "more was accomplished for the island during the last seven years

of Governor La Torre's administration (from 1827 to 1834), and more

money arising from its revenues was expended on works of public

utility, than the total amounts furnished for the same object during

the preceding 300 years."



The era of prosperity which marked the period of Count de Torrepando's

administration, and which at the same time prevailed in Cuba also, was

largely due to the advent in these Antilles of many of the best and

wealthiest citizens of Venezuela, Colombia, and Santo Domingo, who,

driven from their homes by the incessant revolutions, to escape

persecution settled in them, and infused a new and healthier element

in the lower classes of the population.



The condition of Puerto Rican society at this period, though much

improved since 1815, still left much to be desired. The leaders of

society were the Spanish civil and military officers, who, with little

prospect of returning to the Peninsula, married wealthy creole women

and made the island their home. Their descendants form the aristocracy

of today. Next came the merchants and shopkeepers, active and

industrious Catalans, Gallegos, Mallorquins, who seldom married but

returned to the Peninsula as soon as they had made sufficient money.

These and the soldiers of the garrison made a transitory population.

Tradesmen and artisans, as a rule, were creoles. Besides these, the

island swarmed with adventurers of all countries, who came and went as

fortune favored or frowned.



There was another class of "whites" who made up no inconsiderable

portion of the population - namely, the convicts who had served out

their time in the island's fortress. Few of them had any inducements

to return to their native land. They generally succeeded in finding a

refuge with some family of colored people, and it may be supposed that

this ingraftment did not enhance the morality of the class with whom

they mixed. The evil reputation which Puerto Rico had in the French

and English Antilles as being an island where rape, robbery, and

assassination were rife was probably due to this circumstance, and not

altogether undeserved, for we read that in 1827 the municipal

corporation of Aguadilla discussed the convenience of granting or

refusing permission for the celebration of the annual Feast of the

Conception, which had been suspended since 1820 at the request of the

curate, "on account of the gambling, rapes, and robberies that

accompanied it."



Horse-racing and cock-fighting remained the principal amusement of the

populace. Every house and cabin had its game-cock, every village its

licensed cockpit. The houses of all classes were built of wood; the

cabins of the "jibaros" were mere bamboo hovels, where the family,

males and females of all ages, slept huddled together on a platform of

boards. There were no inns in country or town, except one in the

capital. Schools for both sexes were wanting, a few youths were sent

by their parents to be educated in France or Spain or the United

States, and after two or three years returned with a little

superficial knowledge.



About this time the formation of a militia corps of 7,000 men was a

step in the right direction. The people, dispersed over the face of

the country, living in isolated houses, had little incentive to

industry. Their wants were few and easily satisfied, and their time

was spent swinging in a hammock or in their favorite amusements. The

obligation to serve in the militia forced them to abandon their

indolent and unsocial habits and appear in the towns on Sundays for

drill. They were thus compelled to be better dressed, and a salutary

spirit of emulation was produced. This created new wants, which had to

be supplied by increased labor, their manners were softened, and if

their morals did not gain, they were, at least, aroused from the

listless inactivity of an almost savage life to exertion and social

intercourse.



Such were the social conditions of the island when the death of

Ferdinand VII gave rise to an uninterrupted succession of political

upheavals, the baneful effects of which were felt here.