The following two partial chapters were taken from this book and deal with the distribution [repartimiento] of Indians in Puerto Rico which is the subject of this page.

CHAPTER IV

FIRST DISTRIBUTION OF INDIANS. "REPARTIMIENTOS"

1510

At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards the natives of Boriquén seem to have led an Arcadian kind of existence; their bows and arrows were used only when some party of Caribs came to carry off their young men and maidens. Among themselves they lived at peace, and passed their days in lazily swinging in their hammocks and playing ball or dancing their "areytos." With little labor the cultivation of their patches of yucca[12] required was performed by the women, and beyond the construction of their canoes and the carving of some battle club, they knew no industry, except, perhaps, the chipping of some stone into the rude likeness of a man, or of one of the few animals they knew.

                     * * * * *  

The system of "repartimientos" (distribution), sometimes called  "encomiendas" (patronage), was first introduced in la Española by Columbus and sanctioned later by royal authority. Father Las Casas  insinuates that Ponce acted arbitrarily in introducing it in Boriquén,  but there were precedents for it.

The first tribute imposed by Columbus on the natives of la Española was in gold and in cotton[13](1495). Recognizing that the Indians could not comply with this demand, the Admiral modified it, but still they could not satisfy him, and many, to escape the odious imposition, fled to the woods and mountains or wandered about from place to place. The Admiral, in virtue of the powers granted to him, had divided the land among his followers according to rank, or merit, or caprice, and in the year 1496 substituted the forced labor of the Indians for the tribute, each cacique being obliged to furnish a stipulated number of men to cultivate the lands granted. Bobadilla, the Admiral's successor, made this obligation to work on the land extend to the mines, and in the royal instructions given to Ovando, who succeeded Bobadilla, these abuses were confirmed, and he was expressly charged to see to it "that the Indians were employed in collecting gold and other metals for the Castilians, in cultivating their lands, in constructing their houses, and in obeying their commands." The pretext for these abuses was, that by thus bringing the natives into immediate contact with their masters they would be easier converted to Christianity. It is true that the royal ordinances stipulated that the Indians should be well treated, and be paid for their work like free laborers, but the fact that they were _forced_ to work and severely punished when they refused, constituted them slaves in reality. The royal recommendations to treat them well, to pay them for their work, and to teach them the Christian doctrines, were ignored by the masters, whose only object was to grow rich. The Indians were tasked far beyond their strength. They were ill-fed, often not fed at all, brutally ill-treated, horribly punished for trying to escape from the hellish yoke, ruthlessly slaughtered at the slightest show of resistance, so that thousands of them perished miserably. This had been the fate of the natives of la Española, and there can be no doubt that the Boriqueños had learned from fugitives of that island what was in store for them when Ponce ordered their distribution among the settlers.

The following list of Indians distributed in obedience to orders from the metropolis is taken from the work by Don Salvador Brau.[14] It was these first distributions, made in 1509-'10, which led to the rebellion of the Indians and the distributions that followed:

 
                                                           Indians
   To the general treasurer, Pasamonte, a man described by
   Acosta as malevolent, insolent, deceitful, and sordid...... 300

   To Juan Ponce de Leon...................................... 200

   To Christopher Soto Mayor[15]...............................100

   To Vicente Yañez Pinzón, on condition that he should settle
   in the island.............................................. 100

   To Lope de Conchillos, King Ferdinand's Chief Secretary,
   as bad a character as Pasamonte............................ 100

   To Pedro Moreno and Jerome of Brussels, the delegate and
   clerk of Conchillos in Boriquén, 100 each...................200

   To the bachelor-at-law Villalobos........................... 80

   To Francisco Alvarado....................................... 80

A total of 1,060 defenseless Indians delivered into the ruthless hands of men steeped in greed, ambition, and selfishness.                              

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 12: The manioc of which the "casaba" bread is made.]

[Footnote 13: A "cascabel" (a measure the size of one of the round bells used in Spain to hang round the neck of the leader in a troop of mules) full of gold and twenty-five pounds (an arroba) of cotton every three months for every Indian above sixteen years of age.]

[Footnote 14: Puerto Rico y su historia, p. 173.]

[Footnote 15: Among the Indians given to Soto Mayor was the sister of the cacique Guaybána second. She became his concubine, and in return for the preference shown her she gave the young nobleman timely warning of the impending rebellion.]

CHAPTER VII

NUMBER OF ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS AND SECOND DISTRIBUTION OF INDIANS

1511-1515

  * * * * *

The immediate consequence to the natives of the panic and partial submission that followed the death of their leader was another and more extensive distribution. The first distributions of Indians had been but the extension to San Juan of the system as practised in la Española, which consisted in granting to the crown officers in recompense for services or as an inducement to settle in the island, a certain number of natives.[20] In this way 1,060 Boriqueños had been disposed of in 1509 to 9 persons. The ill usage to which they saw them subjected drove the others to rebellion, and now, væ victis, the king, on hearing of the rebellion, wrote to Ceron and Diaz (July, 1511): "To 'pacify' the Indians you must go well armed and terrorize them. Take their canoes from them, and if they refuse to be reduced with reason, make war upon them by fire and sword, taking care not to kill more than necessary, and send 40 or 50 of them to 'la Española' to serve us as slaves, etc." To Ponce he wrote on October 10th: "I give you credit for your labors in the 'pacification' and for having marked with an F on their foreheads all the Indians taken in war, making slaves of them and selling them to the highest bidders, separating the fifth part of the product for Us."

This time not only the 120 companions of Ponce came in for their share of the living spoils of war, but the followers of Ceron claimed and obtained theirs also.

The following is the list of Indians distributed after the battle of Yacüeca (if battle it may be called) as given by Mr. Brau, who obtained the details from the unpublished documents of Juan Bautista Muñoz:

 
                                                      Indians

   To the estates (haciendas) of their royal Highnesses  500
       Baltasar de Castro, the factor                    200
       Miguel Diaz, the chief constable                  200
       Juan Ceron, the mayor                             150
       Diego Morales, bachelor-at-law                    150
       Amador de Lares                                   150
       Louis Soto Mayor                                  100
       Miguel Diaz, Daux-factor                          100
       the (municipal) council                           100
       the hospitals                                     100
       Bishop Manso                                      100
       Sebastian de la Gama                               90
       Gil de Malpartida                                  70
       Juan Bono (a merchant)                             70
       Juan Velasquez                                     70
       Antonio Rivadeneyra                                60
       Gracian Cansino                                    60
       Louis Aqueyo                                       60
       the apothecary                                     60
       Francisco Cereceda                                 50
       40 other individuals 40 each                    1,600
                                                       _____
                                                       4,040
   Distributed in 1509                                 1,060
                                                       _____
        Total                                          5,100

These numbers included women and children old enough to perform some kind of labor. They were employed in the mines, or in the rivers rather (for it was alluvium gold only that the island offered to the greed of the so-called conquerors); they were employed on the plantations as beasts of burden, and in every conceivable capacity under taskmasters who, in spite of Ferdinand's revocation of the order to reduce them to slavery (September, 1514), had acted on his first dispositions and believed themselves to have the royal warrant to work them to death.

The king's more lenient dispositions came too late. They were powerless to check the abuses that were being committed under his own previous ordinances. The Indians disappeared with fearful rapidity. Licentiate Sancho Velasquez, who had made the second distribution, wrote to the king April 27, 1515: " ... Excepting your Highnesses' Indians and those of the crown officers, there are not 4,000 left." On August 8th of the same year the officers themselves wrote: " ... The last smeltings have produced little gold. Many Indians have died from disease caused by the hurricane as well as from want of food...."

To readjust the proportion of Indians according to the position or other claims of each individual, new distributions were resorted to. In these, some favored individuals obtained all they wanted at the expense of others, and as the number of distributable Indians grew less and less, reclamations, discontent, strife and rebellion broke out among the oppressors, who thus wreaked upon each other's heads the criminal treatment of the natives of which they were all alike guilty.

Such had been the course of events in la Española. The same causes had the same effects here. Herrera relates that when Miguel de Pasamente, the royal treasurer, arrived in the former island, in 1508, it contained 60,000 aboriginal inhabitants. Six years later, when a new distribution had become necessary, there were but 14,000 left--the others had been freed by the hand of death or were leading a wandering life in the mountains and forests of their island. In this island the process was not so rapid, but none the less effective.

FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 20: The king's favorites in the metropolis, anxious to enrich themselves by these means, obtained grants of Indians and sent their stewards to administer them. Thus, in la Española, Conehillos, the secretary, had 1,100 Indians; Bishop Fonseca, 800; Hernando de la Vega, 200, and many others, "The Indians thus disposed of were, as a rule, the worst treated," says Las Casas.]

If you want to read the whole book, you can do so as we have downloaded copy of the eBook from the "Project Gutenberg" Click here for the book to open in a new browser page