The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-18


 | Cortez in Mexico electrified the world and aroused again his spirit of adven- ture. In 1521 he fitted out two ships and made another voyage to the north, determined to stop en route at Bimini and head off old Father Time by copi- ous draughts from the Fountain of Youth. But alas! that the best laid | plans gang aft agley." Landing on | the Florida coast, he was at once at | tackled by the Indians and so severely wounded that he had to be conveyed in | haste to Cuba, where he died. His body was brought back to this island and deposited beneath the altar of the Dominican Church of San Juan, just | fourteen years after the beginning of his administration in Porto Rico and the building of the Casa Blanca. There is rested for more than three hundred years; when, in 1863, the lead casket | that contained the remains of the Con- | queror was disinterred. The intention was to build splendid monument to his memory and to place the coffin be-
 meath it, but why they began at the wrong end of the business, by disturb | ing the bones before the new recepta- 1 Gle was ready to receive them, l am un- | able to say. The monument was never | completed, and after thirty-fiVe years | above ground. the remains of the dis coverer of Florida and the subjugator | of Porto Rico yet lie unburied. Spain seems to have quite forgotten one of
 the bravest of her early Conquista
 dores, for nothing has been said since the American conquest of taking his
 bones home to the mother country along with those of Columbus. Uncle Samuel is very remiss in his duty if he lets the latter go, for since we took the island with all it contained, Spain has clearly no more right to those sacred relics than to the Havana cathedral which holds them.
 | The Dominican church of San Juan 1 de Bautiste de Porto Rico is a fine old pile, though greatly the worse for the wear and tear of nearly four centuries and apparently tottering to its fall In 0 corner of the musty little chapel at tached to the church you may any eay see the lead case which contains the dust of Ponce de Leon. Sic transit 1 gloria mundi The cnsket is only about three feet square, boGnd with leathern | straps sealed in the ce,.tar with the great municipal seal. On the monu- ment against which it rests the inscrip- | tion-in Spanish, of course-reads as 1 follows: This narrow grave contains | the remains of man who was Lion | by name, and much more by his 1 deeds" Rather ambiguous and not al together true-remembering his cruel | deeds and the fierce mastiff, Berezillo;
 but perhaps Ponce's spook appreciates the intended compliment The old church is full of curious decorations, rags of antique paintings and moldy relics of by-gone centuries; and it Is | earnestly to be hoped that the ponder
 ous key will be turned in the rusty lock and the whole thing burned to l ashes before careless alien hands are allowed to disturb them.
 l Aside from the quaint Qualifications and Ponces home and tomb, there are ! few sights to interest the tourist in the city of Saint John the Baptist. There is the government palace" so
 called, the Palace of Justice, a shabby opera house, market place and a few dim shops and churches. Among the most picturesque things are the mass i've arched gateways in the old wall lIldL SuIlOuDuS lIS tlty, pulll lol dC- fence nearly four hundred years ago. When the gates fronting the sea are closed, the only way to get out of San Juan into the country, or into the city from any part of the island, is through an arched entrance in the lower wall, by the one narrow street which com municates with the outer world. This is the beginning of the old Camino Real (royal road), the magnificent highway, constructed by the early Spaniards, which leads to Ponce, on the other side of the island.
 Nothing can be more delightful than an early morning horseback ride a few miles along this road. The way leads first through green fields and gardens, past the thatched huts of the poorer class of Porto Ricans, who are mostly of African descent, via Jamaica, more or less tdulterated with native blood Each tiny cottage is sur mounted by it's dove-cote (the doves are noticeable feature of Porto Rico); and generally a tame parrot or two screams from his perch on the ridge pole, or in the over -shadowing banana tree, while black pigs, lean dogs and naked babies roll around the doorway in chummy confusion.
 Presently the road turns abruptly toward the bay, where it runs some distance close to the shore, bordered on one side by a scant ringing of COCOA palms, and on the other by the surf, as it comes laundering in to assault the walls of Moro castle. Scattered along the way are little hamlets, each with it's shops and drinking booths, where in happier times the people of San Juan came to pass the afternoons, especially on Sundays By and by the outer fort of the peninsula like island on which San Juan stands is reached, and you cross a quaint bridge over the man. grove-bordered stream to the mainland of Porto Rico. In the distance you see Yunque, the mountain-king of the is- land crowned with clouds and holding court amid mighty retinue of hills, all clad in hunters green like the merry men of Robin Hood. Passing the man grove swamp, if you chance to break an over-hanging branch you hear a cracking of shells, as the oysters clinging to the roots of the trees has tily shut up shop at the first sign of disturbance. When the tide recedes some of these curious ree-oysters are left high and dry. The sight of them, hanging with gaping mouths, reminds you of Columbus surprise when he