fter Ponce de León had enjoyed the hospitality of the islanders and had won their confidence, he returned to his own realm and planned for the conquest of Puerto Rico. He brought an expedition into the island to subjugate the natives and this proved by no means a difficult undertaking from the beginning. He killed off as many of them as possible and all who were captured were sent as slaves to Haití. Then the natives, driven to desperation, organized a more determined resistance and commenced to massacre the Spaniards. This did not last long. Ponce de León obtained re-enforcements promptly and the Indians were convinced that these new-comers were the resurrected bodies of those they had once killed. Feeling helpless against such a combination, they lost all hope and courage and fell an easy prey to their enemies. Within comparatively few years the aboriginal population, large as it had been, was almost completely exterminated and to-day it is almost impossible to detect a trace of the aboriginal type in any native of Puerto Rico. The island population has been entirely renewed since the Spanish conquest.

The Spaniards began to colonize Puerto Rico as soon as their conquest was complete and in 1509 founded the town of Caparra, now called Quebrada Margarita. The site was found to be high and inaccessible and it was abandoned some 40 years later. The Present capital city of San Juan was founded in 1511 by Ponce de León and for the governor's palace the structure still standing, known as Casa Blanca, was erected.

From that time on a steady stream of Spaniards flowed into the island from the neighboring islands and from Europe and the colony began to prosper. After De León's unsuccessful expedition to Florida, where he received a mortal wound from the Indians, who united to repulse him, his remains were brought back to Puerto Rico and interred in the Dominican church of the capital.

During the centuries of warfare in which Spain, France and England carried on conflict in Europe as well as in their colonial possessions, Puerto Rico underwent its share of trouble. Sir Francis Drake and many less notable buccaneers and privateers invaded its seaports and levied tribute upon its commerce. The first invasion was that of the French in 1538. Then the island was left in peace until 1595, when the English, under Sir Francis Drake, paid the island a visit. He was prevented from entering the harbor of San Juan, by a vessel which the Spanish sunk in the neck of the harbor, thus bottling up their own fleet. The town was bombarded and a great deal of damage done, but altogether the effort was considered a failure. The loss of the English fleet was considerable and the squadron finally withdrew from the capital. Drake contented himself with laying tribute upon the colony by burning the towns on the south side of the island and carrying away a large amount of booty.

Three years later the Duke of Cumberland attacked San Juan with a fleet and after three days' fighting laid the city in ruins. He was unable to follow up his victory, however, as the fever killed his men by the hundreds. The English tried to take the city again in 1615 and the Dutch took their turn at a similar effort in 1625. Other assaults were made by the British in 1678, 1702, 1703 and 1743. At times they were successful and laid the city under tribute, and again they were defeated in their assaults. Finally, in 1795, San Juan experienced its last bombardment for more than a hundred years. The English were anxious to obtain the harbor of San Juan, realizing its value, but they were repulsed with great slaughter. The next invasion of the peace of the city was that made by the forces of the United States more than a century later.

Spain neglected the island of Puerto Rico for nearly 300 years, during which time it was used chiefly as watering place for ships and as a penal colony. About the time of the end of the Napoleonic wars, however, when England and Spain had been fighting together in the peninsula, they began to take more interest in Puerto Rico and to realize its future possibilities. In 1815 the island was thrown open to colonization and land was given free to all Spaniards who went there to settle. In consequence, hosts of adventurers hastened there, as well as many Spanish royalists, who, during the next few years, left the rebellious Spanish colonies of México, Central and South America. In order to provide laborers for the plantations, there was a large importation of negro slaves from Africa and the wealth and population of the island increased rapidly.

The succession of revolutions against the Spanish rule sweeping over South America stimulated the people of Puerto Rico to a similar effort and in 1820 they made their first effort to obtain their independence. This rebellion was suppressed by the Spanish, after a short guerrilla war. The next effort to obtain freedom for the island was that of 1868. Simultaneously with the beginning of the ten years' war in Cuba, a formidable outbreak occurred in Puerto Rico. After two months of severe fighting the Spanish regulars were victorious and the leader of the rebels, Dr. Ramón Betances, was captured. He and many other prisoners were sentenced to be shot November 4, 1868. On the day before the execution of the sentence, news was received from Spain that Queen Isabella had been deposed, and in consequence all the political prisoners were released and banished from the island.

The novels of Hugo and Dumas are very popular in the island. Few books in Italian are sold, but the Italian classics are carried in Spanish and in French translations. Beautiful editions of the "Divina Comedia" of Dante were for sale in either language, but the translations were in prose instead of verse. No American poets appeared in the stores, but Byron's popularity was evidenced by the multitude of his works on sale. "Don Juan" seemed to be the favorite, partly, no doubt, because of its Spanish subject and partly because of its literary pungency--a favorite quality among Spanish-Americans as among the Spanish themselves. The poem suffered, however, like that of Dante, by not having the metrical translation, and it is hard to understand its attractions in this form. German literature was confined to the works of Schiller and Goethe and the booksellers said that not many of those were sold.

Of course the larger part of the stock on the book shelves is made up of the work of Spanish writers, classic and modern. The people read Cervantes with as much avidity as if he were satirizing the faults of others instead of their own.

Among the books written and published in Puerto Rico, the text books used in the island schools are notable. Many of these--are local productions. One of that sort is before me as I write, "Elementos de Cosmographía y Geographía Particular de la Isla de Puerto Rico." It was written by Felipe Janer y Soler, who is a bachelor of arts and an upper professor in the schools, so the title page explains. This edition, the second, was printed in San Juan in 1890, the work having been decreed a text book for the schools of the province by a governmental decree seven years earlier. The book gained a medal at the Paris exposition of 1889.

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