DEFENSELESS CONDITION OF THE ISLAND--CONSTRUCTION OF
FORTIFICATIONS AND CIRCUMVALLATION OF SAN JUAN
1555-1641
San German disappeared for want of means of defense, and if the French
privateers of the time had been aware that the forts in San Juan were
without guns or ammunition it is probable that this island would have
become a French possession.
The defenses of the island were constructed by the home authorities in
a very dilatory manner. Ponce's house in Capárra had been fortified in
a way so ineffective that Las Casas said of it that the Indians might
knock it down butting their heads against it. This so-called fort soon
fell in ruins after the transfer of the capital to its present site.
There is no information of what became of the six "espingardas" (small
ordnance or hand-guns) with which it had been armed at King
Ferdinand's expense. They had probably been transferred to San Juan,
where, very likely, they did good service intimidating the Caribs.
In 1527 an English ship came prowling about San Juan bay, la Mona, and
la Española, and this warning to the Spanish authorities was
disregarded, notwithstanding Blas de Villasante's urgent request
for artillery and ammunition.
[Illustration: Inner harbor, San Juan.]
After the burning of San German by a French privateer in August, 1537,
Villasante bought five "lombardas" (another kind of small ordnance)
for the defense of San Juan. In 1529 and 1530 both La Gama, the acting
governor, and the city officers represented to the emperor the
necessity of constructing fortifications, "_because the island's
defenseless condition caused the people to emigrate_."
It appears that the construction of the first fort commenced about
1533, for in that year the Audiencia in la Española disposed of some
funds for the purpose, and Governor Lando suggested the following year
that if the fort were made of stone "it would be eternal." The
suggestion was acted upon and a tax levied on the people to defray the
expense.
This fort must have been concluded about the year 1540, for in that
same year the ecclesiastical and the city authorities were contending
for the grant of the slaves, carts, and oxen that had been employed,
the former wanting them for the construction of a church, the latter
for making roads and bridges.
This "Fortaleza" is the same edifice which, after many changes, was at
last, and is still, used as a gubernatorial residence, the latest
reconstruction being effected in 1846.[36] As a fort, Gonzalez
Fernandez de Oviedo denounced it as a piece of useless work which,
"if it had been constructed by blind men could not have been located
in a worse place," and in harmony with his advice a battery was
constructed on the rocky promontory called "the Morro."
San Juan had now a fort (1540) but no guns. The crown officers,
reporting an attack on Guayáma by a French privateer in 1541, again
clamor for artillery. Treasurer Castellanos writes in March and June
of the same year: "The artillery for this fort has not yet arrived.
How are we to defend it?"
Treasurer Salinas writes in 1554: "The French have taken several
ships. It would have been a great boon if your Majesty had ordered
Captain Mindirichága to come here with his four ships to defend this
island and la Española. He would have found Frenchmen in la Mona,
where they prepare for their expeditions and lay in wait. They declare
their intention to take this island, and it will be difficult for us
to defend it without artillery or other arms. If there is anything in
the fort it is useless, nor is the fort itself of any account. It is
merely a lodging-house. The bastion on the Morro, if well constructed,
could defend the entrance to the harbor with 6 pieces. We have 60
horsemen here with lances and shields, but no arquebusiers or pikemen.
Send us artillery and ammunition."
The demand for arms and ammunition continued in this way till 1555,
when acting Governor Caráza reported that 8 pieces of bronze ordnance
had been planted on the Morro.
The existing fortifications of San Juan have all been added and
extended at different periods. Father Torres Vargas, in his chronicles
of San Juan, says that the castle grounds of San Felipe del Morro
were laid out in 1584. The construction cost 2,000,000 ducats.[37] The
Boquerón, or Santiago fort, the fort of the Cañuelo, and the
extensions of the Morro were constructed during the administration of
Gabriel Royas (1599 to 1609). Governor Henriquez began the
circumvallation of the city in 1630, and his successor, Sarmiento,
concluded it between the years 1635 and 1641. Fort San Cristobal was
begun in the eighteenth century and completed in 1771. Some
fortifications of less importance were added in the nineteenth
century.
When Caráza reported, in 1555, that the first steps in the
fortification of the capital had been taken, the West Indian seas
swarmed with French privateers, and their depredations on Spanish
commerce and ill-protected possessions continued till Philip II signed
the treaty of peace at Vervins in 1598.
But before that, war with England had been declared, and a more
formidable enemy than the French was soon to appear before the capital
of this much-afflicted island.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 36: The inscription on the upper front wall of the building
is: "During the reign of her Majesty, Doña Isabel II, the Count of
Mirasol being Captain-General, Santos Cortijo, Colonel of Engineers,
reconstructed this royal fort in 1846."]
[Footnote 37: Ducat, a coin struck by a duke, worth, in silver, about
$1.15, in gold, twice as much. It was also a nominal money worth
eleven pesetas and one maravedi.]