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L66 CUBA AND PORTO ItICO 



only ono fourth that of Barbados. Apparently the island 

 has attained a sufficient number of people in proportion 

 to its capacities. 



The aborigines of Porto Rico, of Arawak or Carib stock, 

 were largely exterminated in 1811, immediately after an 

 uprising on their part against the Spanish soldiers. The 

 survivors, enslaved, quickly vanished. The race was not 

 very numerous. Espinosa, the ethnologist, says that at the 

 present time no people of this race can be found, except 

 a few individuals whose hair and color would indicate a 

 mixture of Indian and negro. 



The native people, as a whole, may be divided into four 

 classes: the better class of Creoles, who call themselves 

 Spaniards; the lower class of white peasantry, known as 

 gibaros ; the colored people, or mestizos; and the blacks. 



The Porto Rican Spaniards of the upper class, in point 

 of connections and respectability, are the descendants of 

 military men who, during the long period when the island 

 was a mere garrison, formed alliances and settled within it. 

 These people maintain the pride of their descent with all 

 the stateliness of grandees, and some of them are opulent. 

 This class, of white blood and Spanish feelings, opinions, 

 and prejudices, so widely different from what is to be found 

 in the British or French islands, forms the distinctive 

 feature of the population. 



They are a good-looking, happy, and prosperous set of 

 people, and they have had the time and taken the trouble 

 to acquire some education. They constitute the commer- 

 cial, professional, and planter classes. The ladies are 

 handsome and refined, and as strictly secluded as in other 

 Spanish countries. Their goodness of heart and unaffected 

 frankness with their friends are charming. Those of gentle 

 birth and breeding are sweet and flower-like, with the 

 bright alertness of a Latin woman transplanted to Ameri- 

 can soil and climate. Their glances are swift and meaning, 

 and their great black eyes full of expression. Their features 

 are regular. They are petite of form and have small hands 



