The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-18

S0 HE aborigines of Porto Rico have long since disappeared from the face of the earth. When Columbus discovered the Antilles he found the is lands peopled by race which In all prob- ability was an offshot of the Carib h. dlans of the mainland. The great navi gator was impressed by the timid friend liness of the naked savages, whose peace ful tendencies were proclaimed by the fact that they possessed no sort of weapon. Their country was terres trial paradise, blessed with n soft, salubrlous climate, free from wild beasts and yenomous reptiles, and abound Ing In the fruits of the earth. Needless to say, the inhabitants of such region knew nothing of labor or hardship. They lived the lives of happy. careless children until the white gods in the flying ships" came to them from over the sea. Then life changed for the unfortunate h. llans. The Spaniards forced them to dig for gold where 1t did not exist, and slew them when they failed to find It. They
 re put to unaccustomed labor in the held, and when they rebelled Spanish sol diers slaughtered them like sheep in the shambles. They were slain to give eclat 10 tue ceftmOultS OI Il SuinI uHys they were harried by hounds to afford sport for their conquerors. In short, the pro- cess of ''pacifcaton," as pursued by the first colonists, was In fact. deliberate system of exterminatlon, so that the na- lives of Porto Rico who, according to Las Casas, numbered 100000 at the time of the discovery, disappeared with such terrible rapidlty that the Bishop of San Juan reported to the king in 1543 that there were but 60 Indians In the island These figures undoubtedly applied to the pltiful remnant of males, for large mum bers of women were preserved as concu- pines, from whom sprang a race of half breeds, which has been gradually ab- sorbed and lost in the later population. Traces of the mscegenation may oecas- ionally be seen at the present day, but they are so few and slight that they do not constitute a contradiction of the statement that the aboriginal stock Is en- tirely extinct.
 The present population of Porto Rico Is composed of the descendants of two dis tinct classes of Spaniards-of negroes and of half castes. With the exception of Cuba and Porto Rico, every sugar produc- Ing island of the West Indies contains at
 least ten times as many colored persons as whites. In Porto Rico the latter rep resent 61 per cent. of the total popula- ton, and all but one-sixth of the re- mainder have more or less white blood in their veins Porto Rico was never an ex- tensive slave-owning colony. principally because there were few capitalists in the Island. In fact, until the introduction of the sugar industry by refugees from Ja,, tha .l,ar af groes In Porto Rico was insignificant. The humane laws promulgated by the Spanish crown for the protection of slaves were widely disregarded in the colonies, but they appear to have been strictly observed in Porto Rico. As conse- quence, the negroes in that island en- joyed lenient treatment, and were per mitted to secure their freedom upon easy terms. Thus we have In Porto Rico q negro element quite satisfied with their lot in life, and, in some respects, supe- rior to their kin of the neighboring isl- ands They are fairly industrious, cheery and respectful. They have none of the lnconsequent vanity of the Santo Domingo black, and are less simple and superstl- tous than the Jamaican negro. IL could not be expected that the Porto Rican negro should be inclined to hard work. Every kind of stimulus Is lacking to him, and he has never had an example of en- ergy, for the innate incidence of the we'll to-do Spaniard Is only exceeded by that of the white peasant cultivator. How ever, the proportion of pure negroes In the population of Porto Rico Is only about the same as that of the colored to the total inhabitants of Philadelphia, and they will not be an important factor in the future development of the island.
 The mulattoes present an entirely diff farent proposition. Their numbers ac-