Incursions Of Fugitive Boriquen Indians And Caribs
1530-1582
The conquest of Boriquen was far from being completed with the death
of Guaybana.
The panic which the fall of a chief always produces among savages
prevented, for the moment, all organized resistance on the part of
Guaybana's followers, but they did not constitute the whole
population of the island. Their submission gave the Spaniards the
dominion over that part of it
atered by the Culebrinas and the
Anasco, and over the northeastern district in which Ponce had laid the
foundations of his first settlement. The inhabitants of the southern
and eastern parts of the island, with those of the adjacent smaller
islands, were still unsubdued and remained so for years to come. Their
caciques were probably as well informed of the character of the
newcomers and of their doings in la Espanola as was the first
Guaybana's mother, and they wisely kept aloof so long as their
territories were not invaded.
The reduced number of Spaniards facilitated the maintenance of a
comparative independence by these as yet unconquered Indians, at the
same time that it facilitated the flight of those who, having bent
their necks to the yoke, found it unbearably heavy. According to
"Regidor" (Prefect) Hernando de Mogollon's letter to the Jerome
fathers, fully one-third of the "pacified" Indians - that is, of those
who had submitted - had disappeared and found a refuge with their
kinsmen in the neighboring islands.
The first fugitives from Boriquen naturally did not go beyond the
islands in the immediate vicinity. Vieques, Culebras, and la Mona
became the places of rendezvous whence they started on their
retaliatory expeditions, while their spies or their relatives on the
main island kept them informed of what was passing. Hence, no sooner
was a new settlement formed on the borders or in the neighborhood of
some river than they pounced upon it, generally at night, dealing
death and destruction wherever they went.
In vain did Juan Gil, with Ponce's two sons-in-law and a number of
tried men, make repeated punitive expeditions to the islands. The
attacks seemed to grow bolder, and not till Governor Mendoza himself
led an expedition to Vieques, in which the cacique Yaureibo was
killed, did the Indians move southeastward to Santa Cruz.
That the Caribs inhabiting the islands Guadeloupe and Dominica
made common cause with the fugitives from Boriquen is not to be
doubted. The Spaniard was the common enemy and the opportunity for
plunder was too good to be lost. But the primary cause of all the
so-called Carib invasions of Puerto Rico was the thirst for revenge
for the wrongs suffered, and long after those who had smarted under
them or who had but witnessed them had passed away, the tradition of
them was kept alive by the areytos and songs, in the same way as the
memory of the outrages committed by the soldiers of Pizarro in Peru
are kept alive till this day among the Indians of the eastern slope
of the Andes. The fact that neither Jamaica nor other islands occupied
by Spaniards were invaded, goes to prove that in the case of Puerto
Rico the invasions were prompted by bitter resentment of natives who
had preferred exile to slavery, coupled, perhaps, with a hope of being
able to drive the enemies of their race from their island home, a hope
which, if it existed, and if we consider the very limited number of
Spaniards who occupied it, was not without foundation.
* * * * *
It was Nemesis, therefore, and not the mere lust of plunder, that
guided the Boriquen Indians and their Carib allies on their invasions
of Puerto Rico.
Diego Columbus during his visit in 1514 had founded a settlement with
50 colonists along the borders of the Daguao and Macao rivers on the
eastern coast.
They had constructed houses and ranchos, introduced cattle, and
commenced their plantations, but without taking any precautions
against sudden attacks or providing themselves with extra means of
defense.
One night they were awakened by the glare of fire and the yells of the
savages. As they rushed out to seek safety they fell pierced with
arrows or under the blows of the terrible Macanas. Very few of them
escaped.
The next attack was in the locality now constituting the municipal
district of Loiza.
This place was settled by several Spaniards, among them Juan Mexia, a
man said to have been of herculean strength and great courage. The
Indian woman with whom he cohabited had received timely warning of the
intended attack, a proof that communications existed between the
supposed Caribs and the Indians on the island. She endeavored to
persuade the man to seek safety in flight, but he disdained to do so.
Then she resolved to remain with him and share his fate. Both were
killed, and Alejandro Tapia, a native poet, has immortalized the
woman's devotion in a romantic, but purely imaginative, composition.
Ponce's virtual defeat in Guadeloupe made the Caribs bolder than ever.
They came oftener and in larger numbers, always surprising the
settlements that were least prepared to offer resistance. Five years
had elapsed since the destruction of Daguao. A new settlement had
gradually sprung up in the neighborhood along the river Humacao and
was beginning to prosper, but it was also doomed. On November 16,
1520, Baltazar Castro, one of the crown officers, reported to the
emperor:
"It is about two months since 5 canoes with 150 Carib warriors came to
this island of San Juan and disembarked in the river Humacao, near
some Spanish settlements, where they killed 4 Christians and 13
Indians. From here they went to some gold mines and then to some
others, killing 2 Christians at each place. They burned the houses and
took a fishing smack, killing 4 more. They remained from fifteen to
twenty days in the country, the Christians being unable to hurt them,
having no ships. They killed 13 Christians in all, and as many Indian
women, and 'carried off' 50 natives. They will grow bolder for being
allowed to depart without punishment. It would be well if the Seville
officers sent two light-draft vessels to occupy the mouths of the
rivers by which they enter."
On April 15, 1521, a large number of Indians made a descent on the
south coast, but we have no details of their doings; and in 1529 their
audacity culminated in an attempt on the capital itself. La Gama's
report to the emperor of this event is as follows: "On the 18th of
October, after midnight, 8 large pirogues full of Caribs entered the
bay of Puerto Rico, and meeting a bark on her way to Bayamon, manned
by 5 negroes and some other people, they took her. Finding that they
had been discovered, they did not attempt a landing till sunrise, then
they scuttled the bark. Some shots fired at them made them leave.
Three negroes were found dead, pierced with arrows. The people of this
town and all along the coast are watching. Such a thing as this has
not been heard of since the discovery. A fort, arms, artillery, and 2
brigantines of 30 oars each, and no Caribs will dare to come. If not
sent, fear will depopulate the island."
In the same month of the following year (1530) they returned, and this
time landed and laid waste the country in the neighborhood of the
capital. The report of the crown officers is dated the 31st of
October: "Last Sunday, the 23d instant, 11 canoes, in which there may
have been 500 Caribs, came to this island and landed at a point where
there are some agricultural establishments belonging to people of this
city. It is the place where the best gold in the island is found,
called Daguao and the mines of Llagueello. Here they plundered the
estate of Christopher Guzman, the principal settler. They killed him
and some other Christians, whites, blacks, and Indians, besides
some fierce dogs, and horses which stood ready saddled. They burned
them all, together with the houses, and committed many cruelties with
the Christians. They carried off 25 negroes and Indians, to eat them,
as is their wont. We fear that they will attack the defenseless city
in greater force, and the fear is so great that the women and children
dare not sleep in their houses, but go to the church and the
monastery, which are built of stone. We men guard the city and the
roads, being unable to attend to our business.
"We insist that 2 brigantines be armed and equipped, as was ordered by
the Catholic king. No Caribs will then dare to come. Let the port be
fortified or the island will be deserted. The governor and the
officers know how great is the need, but they may make no outlays
without express orders."
As a result of the repeated requests for light-draft vessels, 2
brigantines were constructed in Seville in 1531 and shipped, in
sections, on board of a ship belonging to Master Juan de Leon, who
arrived in June, 1532. The crown officers immediately invited all who
wished to man the brigantines and make war on the Caribs, offering
them as pay half of the product of the sale of the slaves they should
make, the other half to be applied to the purchase of provisions.
The brigantines were unfit for service. In February, 1534, the emperor
was informed: "Of the brigantines which your Majesty sent for the
defense of this island only the timber came, and half of that was
unfit.... We have built brigantines with the money intended for
fortifications."
Governor Lando wrote about the same time: "We suffer a thousand
injuries from the Caribs of Guadeloupe and Dominica. They come every
year to assault us. Although the city is so poor, we have spent 4,000
pesos in fitting out an expedition of 130 men against them; but,
however much they are punished, the evil will not disappear till your
Majesty orders these islands to be settled." The expedition referred
to sailed under the orders of Joan de Ayucar, and reached Dominica in
May, 1534. Fifteen or 16 villages of about 20 houses each were burned,
103 natives were killed, and 70 prisoners were taken, the majority
women and boys. The Spaniards penetrated a distance of ten leagues
into the interior of the island, meeting with little resistance,
because the warrior population was absent. Eight or 10 pirogues and
more than 20 canoes were also burned. With this punishment the fears
of the people in San Juan were considerably allayed.
In 1536 Sedeno led an expedition against the Caribs of Trinidad and
Bartholome. Carreno fitted out another in 1539. He brought a number of
slaves for sale, and the crown officers asked permission to brand them
on the forehead, "as is done in la Espanola and in Cubagua."
The Indians returned assault for assault. Between the years 1564 and
1570 they were specially active along the southern coast of San Juan,
so that Governor Francisco Bahamonde Lugo had to take the field
against them in person and was wounded in the encounter. Loiza, which
had been resettled, was destroyed for the second time in 1582, and a
year or so later the Caribs made a night attack on Aguada, where they
destroyed the Franciscan convent and killed 3 monks.
With the end of the sixteenth and the commencement of the seventeenth
centuries the West Indian archipelago became the theater of French and
English maritime enterprise. The Carib strongholds were occupied, and
by degrees their fierce spirit was subdued, their war dances
relinquished, their war canoes destroyed, their traditions forgotten,
and the bold savages, once the terror of the West Indian seas,
succumbed in their turn to the inexorable law of the survival of the
fittest.