OM.
1874-1898

PART II

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

XXVII.--SITUATION AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF PUERTO RICO

XXVIII.--ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND CUSTOMS OF THE PRIMITIVE
INHABITANTS OF BORIQUEN

XXIX.--THE "JIBARO" OR PUERTO RICAN PEASANT

XXX.--ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE MODERN INHABITANTS OF PUERTO
RICO

XXXI.--NEGRO SLAVERY IN PUERTO RICO

XXII.--INCREASE OF POPULATION

XXIII.--AGRICULTURE IN PUERTO RICO

XXXIV.--COMMERCE AND FINANCES

XXXV.--EDUCATION IN PUERTO RICO

XXXVI.--LIBRARIES AND THE PRESS

XXXVII.--THE REGULAR AND SECULAR CLERGY

XXXVIII.--THE INQUISITION. 1520-1813

XXXIX.--GROWTH OF CITIES

XL.--AURIFEROUS STREAMS AND GOLD PRODUCED FROM 1609 TO 1536

XLI.--WEST INDIAN HURRICANES IN PUERTO RICO FROM 1515 TO 1899

XLII.--THE CARIBS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Columbus statue, San Juan

Ruins of Caparra

Columbus monument, near Aguadilla

Statue of Ponce de Leon, San Juan

Inner harbor, San Juan

Fort San Geronimo, at Santurce, near San Juan

Only remaining gate of the city-wall, San Juan

A tienda, or small shop

Planter's house, ceiba tree, and royal palms

San Francisco Church, San Juan; the oldest church in the city

Plaza Alphonso XII and Intendencia Building, San Juan

Casa Blanca and the sea wall, San Juan

PART I HISTORICAL

CHAPTER I THE DEPARTURE

1493

Eight centuries of a gigantic struggle for supremacy between the
Crescent and the Cross had devastated the fairest provinces of the
Spanish Peninsula. Boabdil, the last of the Moorish kings, had
delivered the keys of Granada into the hands of Queen Isabel, the
proud banner of the united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon floated
triumphant from the walls of the Alhambra, and Providence, as if to
recompense Iberian knighthood for turning back the tide of Moslem
conquest, which threatened to overrun the whole of meridional Europe,
had laid a new world, with all its inestimable treasures and millions
of benighted inhabitants, at the feet of the Catholic princes.

Columbus had just returned from his first voyage. He had been scorned
as an adventurer by the courtiers of Lisbon, mocked as a visionary by
the learned priests of the Council in Salamanca, who, with texts from
the Scriptures and quotation