10 
A GAZETTEER OF PORTO RICO. 
[BULL. 183. 
Year. 
Percentage of — 
White. 
Colored. 
1802 --. 
48 
46.8 
44.4 
49.7 
50.1 
52.9 
51.5 
56.3 
59.5 
61.8 
52 
1812 - 
53.2 
1820 ... ■ - - --- 
55. 6 
1827 -- - - 
50.3 
1830 - 
49.9 
1836 
47.1 
I860. .- '. 
48.5 
1877 .- 
43.7 
1887 . 
40.5 
1899 
38.2 
Of the total colored in 1899, 83.6 per cent were reported as of mixed 
white and negro blood, only 16.4 per cent being pure negroes. 
The following table shows the distribution, by percentages, of the 
white and colored in the seven departments. 
Percentage of 
Aquadilla . 
Arecibo. .. 
Mayaguez . 
Ponce 
Guayama - . 
Bayamon . . 
Humacao . 
The colored are more numerous proportionally in the eastern than 
in the western part of the island, and more numerous near the sea- 
coast than in the interior. 
At the time of its discovery the island was well populated by Indians, 
who were promptly subjugated and enslaved by the Spaniards. Harsh 
treatment, labor, and disease rapidly reduced their numbers, so that 
by 1543 they were praeticalTy exterminated, and at the present time 
no trace of Indian blood is to be found in the island. 
With the diminution in number of Indian slaves negro slaves began 
to be introduced, and throughout the eighteenth century and three- 
fourths of the nineteenth the slave trade was actively prosecuted, and 
ceased only about 1873, in which year negro slavery was abolished. 
The number of foreign born was 13,872, or only 1.5 per cent of the 
population. More than half of these were of Spanish birth, and 43 per 
cent of them were found in the three largest cities. 
As to conjugal condition, 69.7 per cent of the people were single; 
16.6 per cent were married ; 8.8 per cent were living together by mutual 
consent, having waived, mainly on account of its expense, the cere- 
mony of marriage, and 4.9 per cent were widowed. The proportion 
of the single was very large, and that of the married, even if those 
