and to Liberty. In Ponce the people and the soldiers
fraternized, and the long-cherished aspirations of the inhabitants
seemed to be realized at last.

But they were soon to be undeceived. The Republican authorities in the
metropolis sent Sanz, the reactionist, as governor for the second
time. His first act was to suspend the individual guarantees granted
by the Constitution, then he abolished the Provincial Deputation,
dissolved the municipalities in which the Liberal reformists had a
majority, and a new period of persecution set in, in which teachers,
clergymen, lawyers, and judges--in short, all who were distinguished
by superior education and their liberal ideas--were punished for the
crime of having striven with deed or tongue or pen for the progress
and welfare of the land of their birth.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 53: Estudio Historico. San Juan, 1899.]

[Footnote 54: Cards, rum, and women.]

[Footnote 55: He had been President of the Royal Academy.]

[Footnote 56: El Porvenir, for the Liberals, the Boletin Mercantil,
for the Conservatives.]

[Footnote 57: Extracts from the History of the Insurrection of Lares,
by Jose Perez Moris.]

CHAPTER XXVI

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF THE ISLAND--THE DAWN OF FREEDOM

1874-1898

The Spanish Republic was but short lived. From the day of its
proclamation (February 11, 1873) to the landing in Barcelona of
Alphonso XII in the early days of 1876 its history is the record of an
uninterrupted series of popular tumults.

The political restlessness in the Peninsula, accentuating as it did
the party antagonisms in Cuba and Puerto Rico, led the governors, most
of whom were chosen for their adherence to conservative principles, to
endeavor, but in vain, to stem the tide of revolutionary and
Separatist ideas with more and more drastic measures of repression.

This persistence of the colonial authorities in the maintenance of an
obsolete system of administration, in the face of a universal
recognition of the principles of liberty and self-government, added to
the immediate effect on the economic and social conditions in this
island of the abolition of slavery, for which it was unprepared,[58]
brought it once more to the brink of ruin.

From 1873 to 1880 the resources of the island grew gradually less,
the country's capital was being consumed without profit, credit became
depressed, the best business forecasts turned out illusive, the most
intelligent industrial efforts