hat the efforts of the king and his governors had been
able to make of it was a penal settlement, a presidio with a
population of about 400 inhabitants, white, black, and mongrel. The
littoral was an extensive hog-and cattle-ranch, with here and there a
patch of sugar-cane; there was no commerce.[39] There were no roads.
The people, morally, mentally, and materially poor, were steeped in
ignorance and vice. Education there was none. The very few who aspired
to know, went to la Espanola to obtain an education. The few spiritual
wants of the people were supplied by monks, many of them as ignorant
and bigoted as themselves. War and pestilence and tempest had united
to wipe the island from the face of the earth, and the very name of
"Rich Port," given to it without cause or reason, must have sounded in
the ears of the inhabitants as a bitter sarcasm on their wretched
condition.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 39: A precarious traffic in hides and ginger did not deserve
the name of commerce.]

CHAPTER XIX

ATTACK ON SAN JUAN BY THE HOLLANDERS UNDER BOWDOIN

1625

Holland emancipated itself from Spanish domination in 1582 and assumed
the title of "the United Provinces of Netherland." After nearly half a
century of an unequal struggle with the most powerful kingdom in
Europe, the people's faith in final success was unbounded, while Spain
was growing weary of the apparently interminable war. At this
juncture, proposals for a suspension of hostilities were willingly
entertained by both nations, and after protracted negotiations, a
truce of twelve years was signed in Bergen-op-Zoom, April 9, 1609. In
it the absolute independence of the United Provinces was recognized.

This gave the Spanish colonies a welcome respite from the ravages of
privateers till 1621, the first year of the reign of King Philip IV,
when hostilities immediately recommenced. France and England both came
to the assistance of the Provinces with money for the raising of
troops, and the wealthy merchants of Holland, following the example of
the French merchants in the former century, fitted out fleets of
privateers to prey upon the commerce and colonies of Spain and
Portugal. The first exploits of these privateers were the invasion of
Brazil and the sacking of San Salvador, of Lima and Callao (1624).

Puerto Rico was just beginning to recover from the prostration in
which the last invasion had left it, when on the morning of the 24th
of September, 1625,