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.