PUERTO EICO. 425 



Ponce de Leon near tlie village now known as Pueblo Yiejo (" Old Town "), south 

 of the present capital. Colonisation was at first retarded by hurricanes, a Carib 

 invasion, and other disasters, which led to a temporary abandonment of the island. 

 In 1700 it had only three villages, but during the last hundred years progress has 

 been remarkably steady and interrupted only by an outburst of cholera which 

 carried off 30,000 persons in 1855. The population, which numbered nearly 45,000 

 in 1765, now (1891) exceeds 820,000, and has doubled itself on an average every 

 thirty years, a rate almost as rapid as that of the French Canadians. This expan- 

 sion is partly due to the natural fertility of the soil and the uniform relief of the 

 land, partly to the large immigration from Spanish America during the wars of 

 independence between the years 1810 and 1825. Puerto Rico itself revolted in 

 1867, but an earthquake terrified the conspirators, and a fresh rising the following 

 year was prompth' quelled. Since that time no further attempt has been made to 

 sever the ties with the mother-country, 



Puerto Pico is one of the few countries in tropical America where the whites 

 outnumber the other races. But it Avas not alwa^'s so, and in 1775 the position 

 was reversed — 29,000 Spaniards, nearly all Andalusian peasantry, to over 50,000 

 pure and mixed blacks. Towards 1830 the two elements were about balanced, and 

 at the census of 1887 the whites exceeded the blacks by about 150,000 — 475,000 

 and 324,000 I'espectively. At the same time some doubt may prevail as to the 

 accuracy of these returns, for it is notorious that many with a strain of black 

 blood in their veins claim to be of pure Spanish descent. In any case it is 

 remarkable to find the European race on the whole increasing more rapidly than 

 the African in a climate certainly more favourable to the latter. 



It also appears from the last census that amongst the whites the males 

 exceed the females, the contrary being invariably the case everywhere in Europe. 

 The phenomenon is partly explained by the movement of immigration, which 

 here, as elsewhere in the New World, comprises more men than women. 



Topography, 



San Juan Banfista de Puerto Rico, present capital of the island, stands, not 

 on the mainland, but on a coralline reef forming an outer shore and enclosing a 

 winding lagoon, which is here crossed by a bridge. The settlement dates from 

 the year 1511, and in 1534 were begun the fortifications which add so much to 

 the picturesque appearance of the city, but which also invited numerous attacks 

 during the colonial wars. Although these attacks were for the most part success- 

 fully resisted, they had probably the effect of retarding the development of San 

 Juan, which is surpassed in size by some other towns. 



The harbour, which is deep enough to admit large vessels, communicates with 

 the open sea by a winding and difficult channel, which cannot be navigated 

 without the aid of a pilot. West of the lagoons which form an extension of the 

 basin the Ptiver Bayaraon has deposited an alluvial peninsula which is gradually 

 encroachiugr on the lateral inlets. This river cives its name to the town of 



