Evening star., 1901-10-14
Data Concerning the Islands Pre-
historic Treasures.
VALUED COLLECTION At SMITHSONIAN
Discoveries Of Objects Showing
the Skill of the Artisan.
INDO-ANTILLEAN LANGUAGE

Written for The Evening Star
An article taken from the New York
Herald under the title of Relics from Porto
Rico. or a Collection Of Archaeological
Treasures from the Southern Island" was
recently published in The Star. The author
of that article. in asserting in its first para
graph that New York possesses the most
complete archaeological collection from
Porto Rico. is in error. Not long ago Mr..
Latimer. wealthy merchant of San Juan,
Porto Rico. presented to the Smithsonian
Institution. at Washington, most splendid
collection of Porto Rican prehistoric treas
ures-a collection of such wide import
ance that the Smithsonian Institution has
considered it worth while to enrich its IL
brary with a book-already printed-treat-
ing especially of this collection.
The writer in the New York Herald goes
so far as to state that no remains have
been left in Porto Rico of Indian antiuui-
ties. an assertion in which he is also mis-
taken. l know positively that there are in
Porto Rico many who have splendid arch
geological collections. Among others 1 will
mention fine one belonging to DR.. Agus-
tin Stahl of Bayamon; another owned by
the Rev. Father Nazario of Guayanilla; a
very rich one is the property of DR.. Ca
yetano Coll Toste of San Juan; Mr.. Ed
uardo Neumann of Ponce has also a good
collection. and so on. Furthermore, I know
positively that DR.. Coll y Toste has written
a book-not yet published-under the title
of Study on Prehistoric Porto Rico,"
which work obtained first prize in pub
lie contest held in San Juan, in 1897 under
the auspices of the Royal Economic Society
of the Countrys Friend, patriotic organi-
cation of San Juan This volume, of which
l have had the opportunity and pleasure of
reading few paragraphs, DR.. Coll Toste
contemplates publishing in English and
Spanish.
~,
made by the author Of the article men,
toned, little bit Of Porto Rican history
will serve for the purpose. When in 1908
II Ponce de Leon conquered the Island of
Porto Rico, with its aborigin people, all
male Indians recruited into squads-the
encomendados as were then called-were
devoted to the exploitation of the gold
mines found In the central range Of noun
tains, and, inasmuch as the Spanish con-
| querors did not bring with them their own
women. they appropriated the native
females and held them for all domestic
purposes. the multiplication Of the people
included The male Indians, used as they
were to the free habits Of the primitive
peoples. and unable to stand the rough
work OF the mines-eSpecfally as slaves,
badly treated and still more poorly fed
were reduced to a minimum number Some
died Of exhaustion. others poisoned them
selves with the venemous juice of the yucca
bravo Gatropha manihot). and many es-
capped to the nearer islands.
The historian, Father Bartolome de las
Casas, states that the Island of Boriquen
(the Indian name for Porto Rico) was IN
habited like bee hive, and he estimated a
population of 100000. Later historians re-
gard this number as exaggerated, and ex-
press the belief that a hundred thousand is
a fair estimate. Be 1t what 1t may, the
people of the island disappeared rapidly
under the sentence of an anthropological
law-an awful law-providing that in the
contact of two peoples the inferior sue
cumbs to the superior, and the former is
annexed and absorbed by the latter-which
fact accounts for the extinction of the alb
origin people of Porto Rico.