Porto Rico

CHAPTER II.

STRUGGLES OF THE PAST.

Ever since the days of Ponce de Leon, Porto Rico has been a Spanish possession. It has never been captured, although many attempts have been made to take it both by external and internal forces.

None of these attacks seriously affected Spanish authority on the island.

But although the island has never been taken, it has been sacked. It may be said that it was pirates who did this, for while the commanders of several of the expeditions against the island bore great names, they were really little more or less than pirates.

The first to attack was no less than the famous English commander, Sir Francis Drake, who had Elizabeth behind him. This was in 1595, and Drake then scored his first failure, in spite of the fact that when he left his ballast consisted of ducatoons, and the shops of San Juan were in ruins.

It is rather a strange c