This city, the capital of Porto Rico, was founded by Ponce de Leon in
1511. It is a fine specimen of an old walled town, having portcullis,
gates, walls and battlements which cost millions of dollars. It is built
on a long, narrow island, connected with the mainland by a bridge. Its
population in 1899, estimated at 31,000.]

ANCIENT INHABITANTS.

As to the number of natives in Porto Rico when the Spaniards came old
chroniclers differ. Some say there were 500,000, others 300,000. It is
all surmise. Probably the latter figure is an over-estimate, for Cuba,
more than ten times as large, was not thought to contain more than half
a million inhabitants at most. A detailed account of their manners and
customs was written by one of the early Spaniards, and part of it is
translated by the British Consul, Mr. Bidwell, in his Consular Report of
1880. Some of the statements in this old book are most peculiar and
interesting. Within the last forty years archaeologists have discovered
many stone axes, spear-heads and knives, stone and clay images, and
pieces of earthenware made by the aboriginal Porto Ricans, and these are
preserved in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, in Berlin, and
elsewhere. It is curious that none of these remains had been found prior
to 1856. On the banks of the Rio Grande there still stands, also, a rude
stone monument, with strange designs carved upon its surface.

From the earliest times, the island, with its rich produce and commerce,
was the prey of robbers. The fierce cannibal Caribs from the south made
expeditions to it before the white men came; and for many decades after
the Spanish conquest it suffered attacks from pirates by sea and
brigands upon land, who found easy hiding within its deep forests.

ATTACKS AND INVASIONS BY FOREIGN FORCES.

In 1595, San Juan was sacked by the English under Drake, and again,
three years later, by the Duke of Cumberland. In 1615, Baldwin Heinrich,
a Dutchman, lost his life in an attack upon the governor's castle, and
several of his ships were destroyed by a hurricane. The English failed
to capture it, fifty-three years later; and Abercrombie tried it again
in 1797, but had to give up the undertaking after a three days' siege.
It was one hundred and one years after Abercrombie's siege before
another hostile fleet appeared before and bombarded San Juan. That was
done by Admiral Sampson, May 12, 1898, with the United States squadron
of modern ironclad battl