The first mention of the occurrence of a hurricane in this island we find in a letter from the crown officers to the king, dated August 8, 1515, wherein they explain: " ... In these last smeltings there was little gold, because many Indians died in consequence of sickness caused by the tempest as well as from want of food ..."

The next we read of was October 8, 1526, and is thus described by licentiate Juan de Vadillo:

"On the night of the 4th of October last there broke over this island such a violent storm of wind and rain, which the natives call '_ou-ra-can'_ that it destroyed the greater part of this city (San Juan) with the church. In the country it caused such damage by the overflow of rivers that many rich men have been made poor."

On September 8, 1530, Governor Francisco Manuel de Lando reported to the king: "During the last six weeks there have been three storms of wind and rain in this island (July 26, August 23 and 31). They have destroyed all the plantations, drowned many cattle, and caused much hunger and misery in the land. In this city the half of the houses were entirely destroyed, and of the other half the least injured is without a roof. In the country and in the mines nothing has remained standing. Everybody is ruined and thinking of going away."

_1537_.--July and August. The town officers wrote to the king in September: "In the last two months we have had three storms of wind and rain, the greatest that have been seen in this island, and as the plantations are along the banks of the rivers the floods have destroyed them all. Many slaves and cattle have been drowned, and this has caused much discouragement among the settlers, who before were inclined to go away, and are now more so."

_1575_.--September 21 (San Mateo), hurricane mentioned in the memoirs of Father Torres Vargas.

_1614_.--September 12, mentioned by the same chronicler in the following words: "Fray Pedro de Solier came to his bishopric in the year 1615, the same in which a great tempest occurred, after more than forty years since the one called of San Mateo. This one happened on the 12th of September. It did so much damage to the cathedral that it was necessary partly to cover it with straw and write to his Majesty asking for a donation to repair it. With his accustomed generosity he gave 4,000 ducats."

_1678_.--Abbad states that a certain Count or Duke Estren, an English commander, with a fleet of 22 ships and a body of landing troops appeared before San Juan and demanded its surrender, but that, before the English had time to land, a violent hurricane occurred which stranded every one of the British ships on Bird Island. Most of the people on board perished, and the few who saved their lives were made prisoners of war.

_1740_.--Precise date unknown. Monsieur Moreau de Jonnes, in his work,[88] says that this hurricane destroyed a coco-palm grove of 5 or 6 leagues in extent, which existed near Ponce. Other writers confirm this.

_1772, August 28_.--Friar Inigo Abbad, who was in the island at the time, gives the following description of this tempest: "About a quarter to eleven of the night of the 28th of August the storm began to be felt in the capital of the island. A dull but continuous roll of thunder filled the celestial hemisphere, the sound as of approaching torrents of rain, the frightful sight of incessant lightning, and a slow quaking of the earth accompanied the furious wind. The tearing up of trees, the lifting of roofs, smashing of windows, and leveling of everything added terror-striking noises to the scene. The tempest raged with the same fury in the capital till after one o'clock in the morning. In other parts of the island it began about the same hour, but without any serious effect till later. In Aguada, where I was at the time, nothing was felt till half-past two in the morning. It blew violently till a quarter to four, and the wind continued, growing less strong, till noon. During this time the wind came from all points of the compass, and the storm visited every part of the island, causing more damage in some places than others, according to their degree of exposure."

_1780, June 13, and 1788, August 16._--No details of these two hurricanes are found in any of the Puerto Rican chronicles.

_1804, September 4._--A great cyclone, a detailed description of which is given in the work of Mr. Jonnes.

_1818 and 1814_--Both hurricanes happened on the same date, that is, the 23d of July. Yauco and San German suffered most. A description of the effects of these storms was given in the Dario Economico of the 11th of August, 1814.

_1819, September 21_.--(San Mateo.) This cyclone is mentioned by Jonnes and by Cordova, who says that it caused extraordinary damages on the plantations.

_1825, July 26_.--(Santa Ana.) Cordova (vol. ii, p. 21 of his Memoirs) says of this hurricane: "It destroyed the towns of Patillas, Maunabo, Yabucoa, Humacao, Gurabo, and Caguas. In the north, east, and center of the island it caused great damage. More than three hundred people and a large number of cattle perished; 500 persons were badly wounded.

The rivers rose to an unheard of extent, and scarcely a house remained standing. In the capital part of the San Antonio bridge was blown down, and the city wall facing the Marina on Tanca Creek was cracked.

The royal Fortaleza (the present Executive Mansion) suffered much, also the house of Ponce. The lightning-conductors of the powder-magazine were blown down."

_1837, August 2_.--(Los Angeles.) This cyclone was general over the island and caused exceedingly grave losses of life and property. All the ships in the harbor of San Juan were lost.

_1840, September 16_.--No details.

_1851, August 18_.--No details, except that this hurricane caused considerable damage.

_1867, October 29_.--(San Narciso.) No details.

[Illustration: Casa Blanca and the sea wall, San Juan.]

_1871, August 23_.--(San Felipe.) No details. _1899, August 8_.--(San Ciriaco.) When this hurricane occurred there was a meteorological station in operation in San Juan, and we are therefore enabled to present the following data from Mr. Geddings's report: "The rainfall was excessive, as much as 23 inches falling at Adjuntas during the course of twenty-four hours. This caused severe inundations of rivers, and the deaths from drowning numbered 2,569 as compared with 800 killed by injuries received from the effects of the wind.

This number does not include the thousands who have since died from starvation. The total loss of property was 35,889,013 pesos."

The United States Government and people promptly came to the assistance of the starving population, and something like 32,000,000 rations were distributed by the army during the ten months succeeding the hurricane.

Such are the calamities that are suspended over the heads of the inhabitants of the West Indian Islands. From July to October, at any moment, the sapphire skies may turn black with thunder-clouds; the Eden-like landscapes turned into scenes of ruin and desolation; the rippling ocean that lovingly laves their shores becomes a roaring monster trying to swallow them. The refreshing breezes that fan them become a destructive blast. Yet, such is the fecundity of nature in these regions that a year after a tempest has swept over an island, if the debris be removed, not a trace of its passage is visible--the fields are as green as ever, the earth, the trees, and plants that were spared by the tempest double their productive powers as if to indemnify the afflicted inhabitants for the losses they suffered.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 85: See Bulletin H, Weather Bureau, West Indian Hurricanes, by E.B. Garriott, Washington, 1900.]

[Footnote 86: L'Atmosphere, p. 377 and following.]

[Footnote 87: Enrique del Monte, Havana University, On the Climate of the West Indies and West Indian Hurricanes.]

[Footnote 88: Histoire physique des Antilles Francaises.]

CHAPTER XLII

THE CARIBS

The origin of the Caribs, their supposed cannibalism and other customs have occasioned much controversy among West Indian chroniclers. The first question is undecided, and probably will remain so forever. With regard to cannibalism, in spite of the confirmative assurances of the early Spanish chroniclers, we have the testimony of eminent authorities to the contrary; and the writings of Jesuit missionaries who have lived many years among the Caribs give us a not unfavorable idea of their character and social institutions.

The first European who became intimately acquainted with the people of the West Indian Islands, on the return from his first voyage, wrote to the Spanish princes: " ... In all these islands I did not observe much difference in the faces and figures of the inhabitants, nor in their customs, nor in their language, seeing that they all understand each other, which is very singular." On the other hand the readiness with which the inhabitants of Aye-Aye and the other Carib islands gave asylum to the fugitive Boriquen Indians and joined them in their retaliatory expeditions, also points to the existence of some bond of kinship between them, so that there is ground for the opinion entertained by some writers that all the inhabitants of all the Antilles were of the race designated under the generic name of Caribs.

The theory generally accepted at first was, that at the time of the discovery two races of different origin occupied the West Indian Archipelago. The larger Antilles with the groups of small islands to the north of them were supposed to be inhabited by a race named Guaycures, driven from the peninsula of Florida by the warlike Seminoles; the Guaycures, it is said, could easily have reached the Bahamas and traversed the short distance that separated them from Cuba in their canoes, some of which could contain 100 men, and once there they would naturally spread over the neighboring islands. It is surmised that they occupied them at the time of the advent of the Phoenicians in this hemisphere, and Dr. Calixto Romero, in an interesting article on Lucuo, the god of the Boriquens,[89] mentions a tradition referring to the arrival of these ancient navigators, and traces some of the Boriquen religious customs to them. The Guaycures were a peacefully disposed race, hospitable, indolent, fond of dancing and singing, by means of which they transmitted their legends from generation to generation. They fell an easy prey to the Spaniards.

Velasquez conquered Cuba without the loss of a man. Juan Esquivel made himself master of Jamaica with scarcely any sacrifice, and if the aborigines of the Espanola and Boriquen resisted, it was only after patiently enduring insupportable oppression for several years.

The other race which inhabited the Antilles were said to have come from the south. They were supposed to have descended the Orinoco, spreading along the shore of the continent to the west of the river's mouths and thence to have invaded one after the other all the lesser Antilles. They were in a fair way of occupying the larger Antilles also when the discoveries of Columbus checked their career.

In support of the theory of the south-continental origin of the Caribs we have, in the first place, the work of Mr. Aristides Rojas on Venezuelan hieroglyphics, wherein he treats of numerous Carib characters on the rocks along the plains and rivers of that republic, marking their itinerary from east to west. He states that the Achaguas, the aboriginals of Columbia, gave to these wanderers, on account of their ferocity, the name of Chabi-Nabi, that is, tiger-men or descendants of tigers.

In the classification of native tribes in Codazzi's geography of Venezuela, he includes the Caribs, and describes them as "a very numerous race, enterprising and warlike, which in former times exercised great influence over the whole territory extending from Ecuador to the Antilles. They were the tallest and most robust Indians known on the continent; they traded in slaves, and though they were cruel and ferocious in their incursions, they were not cannibals like their kinsmen of the lesser Antilles, who were so addicted to the custom of eating their prisoners that the names of cannibal and Carib had become synonymous." [90]

Another theory of the origin of the Caribs is that advanced by M.

d'Orbigny, who, after eight years of travel over the South American continent, published the result of his researches in Paris in 1834. He considers them to be a branch of the great Guarani family. And the Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Raymond and Dutertre, who lived many years among the Antillean Caribs, concluded from their traditions that they were descended from a people on the continent named Galibis, who, according to M. d'Orbigny, were a branch of the Guaranis.

But the Guaranis, though a very wide-spread family of South American aborigines, were neither a conquering nor a wandering race. They occupied that part of the continent situated between the rivers Paraguay and Parana, from where these two rivers join the river Plate, northward, to about latitude 22 south. This region was the home of the Guaranis, a people indolent, sensual, and peaceful, among whom the Jesuits, in the eighteenth century founded a religious republic, which toward the end of that period counted 33 towns with a total population of over one hundred thousand souls. A glance at the map will show the improbability of any Indian tribe, no matter how warlike, making its way from the heart of the continent to the Orinoco through 30 of primitive forests, mountains, and rivers, inhabited by hostile tribes.[91]

The French missionaries who lived many years with the Caribs of Guadeloupe and the other French possessions, do not agree on the subject of their origin. Fathers Dutertre and Raymond believe them to be the descendants of the Galibis, a people inhabiting Guiana. Fathers Rochefort, Labat, and Bristol maintain that they are descended from the Apalaches who inhabited the northern part of Florida. Humboldt is of the same opinion, and suggests that the name Carib may be derived from Calina or Caripuna through transformation of the letters _l_ and _p_ into _r_ and _b_, forming Caribi or Galibi.[92] Pedro Martyr strongly opposes this opinion, the principal objection to which is that a tribe from the North American continent invading the West Indies by way of Florida would naturally occupy the larger Antilles before traveling east and southward. Under this hypothesis, as we have said, all the inhabitants of the Antilles would be Caribs, but in that case the difference in the character of the inhabitants of the two divisions of the archipelago would have to be accounted for.

Most of the evidence we have been able to collect on this subject points to a south-continental origin of the Caribs. On the maps of America, published in 1587 by Abraham Ortellus, of Antwerp, in 1626 by John Speed, of London, and in 1656 by Sanson d'Abbeville in Paris, the whole region to the north of the Orinoco is marked Caribana. In the history of the Dutch occupation of Guiana we read that hostile Caribs occupied a shelter[93] constructed in 1684 by the governor on the borders of the Barima, which shows that the vast region along the Orinoco and its tributaries, as well as the lesser Antilles, was inhabited by an ethnologically identical race.

Were the Caribs cannibals? This question has been controverted as much as that of their origin, and with the same doubtful result.

The only testimony upon which the assumption that the Caribs were cannibals is founded is that of the companions of Columbus on his second voyage, when, landing at Guadeloupe, they found human bones and skulls in the deserted huts. No other evidence of cannibalism of a positive character was ever after obtained, so that the belief in it rests exclusively upon Chanca's narrative of what the Spaniards saw and learned during the few days of their stay among the islands. Their imagination could not but be much excited by the sight of what the doctor describes as "infinite quantities" of bones of human creatures, who, they took for granted, had been devoured, and of skulls hanging on the walls by way of receptacles for curios. It was the age of universal credulity, and for more than a century after the most absurd tales with regard to the people and things of the mysterious new continent found ready credence even among men of science. Columbus, in his letter to Santangel (February, 1493), describing the different islands and people, wrote: "I have not yet seen any of the human monsters that are supposed to exist here." The descriptions of the customs of the natives of the newly discovered islands which Dr. Chanca sent to the town council of Seville were unquestioned by them, and afterward by the Spanish chroniclers; but there is reason to believe with Mr. Ignacio Armas, an erudite Cuban author, who published a paper in 1884 entitled the Fable of the Caribs, that the belief in their cannibalism originated in an error of judgment, was an illusion afterward, and ended by being a calumny[97]. Father Bartolome de las Casas was the first to contradict this belief. "They [the Spaniards] saw skulls," he says, "and human bones. These must have been of chiefs or other persons whom they held in esteem, because, to say that they were the remains of people who had been eaten, if the natives devoured as many as was supposed, the houses could not contain the bones, and there is no reason why, after eating them, they should preserve the relics. All this is but guesswork." Washington Irving agrees with the reverend historian, and describes the general belief in the cannibalism of the Caribs to the Spaniards' fear of them. Two eminent authorities positively deny it.

Humboldt, in his before-cited work, in the chapter on Carib missions, says: "All the missionaries of the Carony, of the lower Orinoco, and of the plains of Cari, whom we have had occasion to consult, have assured us that the Caribs were perhaps the least anthropophagous of any tribes on the new continent, ..." and Sir Robert Schomburgh, who was charged by the Royal Geographical Society with the survey of Guiana in 1835, reported that among the Caribs he found peace and contentment, simple family affections, and frank gratitude for kindness shown.[94]