In July and August, 1530, the scourge was repeated three times in six weeks, and Governor Lando wrote to Luis Columbus, then Governor of la Espanola:  " ...  The storms have destroyed all the plantations, drowned many cattle, and caused a great dearth of food.  Half of the houses in this city have been blown down; of the other half those that are least damaged are without roofs.  In the country and at the mines not a house is left standing.  Everybody has been impoverished and thinking of going away.  There are no more Indians and the land must be cultivated with negroes, who are a monopoly, and can not be brought here for less than 60 or 70 ‘castellanos’ apiece.  The city prays that the payment of all debts may be postponed for three years.”

Seven years later (1537), three hurricanes in two months again completely devastated the island. " ...  They are the greatest that have been experienced here,” wrote the city officers. " ...  The floods have carried away all the plantations along the borders of the rivers, many slaves and cattle have been drowned, want and poverty are universal.  Those who wanted to leave the island before are now more than ever anxious to do so.”

The incursions of Caribs from the neighboring islands made the existence of the colony still more precarious.  Wherever a new settlement was made, they descended, killing the Spaniards, destroying the plantations, and carrying off the natives.

[Illustration:  Statue of Ponce de Leon, San Juan]

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The first news of the wonderful achievements of Cortez in Mexico reached San Juan in 1520, and stirred the old adventurer Ponce to renewed action.  On February 10, 1521, he wrote to the emperor:  “I discovered Florida and some other small islands at my own expense, and now I am going to settle them with plenty of men and two ships, and I am going to explore the coast, to see if it compares with the lands (Cuba) discovered by Velasquez.  I will leave here in four or five days, and beg your Majesty to favor me, so that I may be enabled to carry out this great enterprise.”

Accordingly, he left the port of Aguada on the 26th of the same month with two ships, well provided with all that was necessary for conquest.

But the captain’s star of fortune was waning.  He had a stormy passage, and when he and his men landed they met with such fierce resistance from the natives that after several encounters and the loss of many men, Ponce himself being seriously wounded, they were forced to reembark.  Feeling that his end was approaching, the captain did not return to San Juan, but sought a refuge in Puerto Principe, where he died.

One of his ships found its way to Vera Cruz, where its stores of arms and ammunition came as a welcome accession to those of Cortez.

The emperor bestowed the father’s title of Adelantado of Florida and Bemini on his son, and the remains of the intrepid adventurer, who had found death where he had hoped to find perennial youth, rested in Cuban soil till his grandchildren had them transferred to this island and buried in the Dominican convent.