That the Caribs[31] inhabiting the islands Guadeloupe and Dominica made common cause with the fugitives from Boriquen is not to be doubted.  The Spaniard was the common enemy and the opportunity for plunder was too good to be lost.  But the primary cause of all the so-called Carib invasions of Puerto Rico was the thirst for revenge for the wrongs suffered, and long after those who had smarted under them or who had but witnessed them had passed away, the tradition of them was kept alive by the areytos and songs, in the same way as the memory of the outrages committed by the soldiers of Pizarro in Peru are kept alive till this day among the Indians of the eastern slope of the Andes.  The fact that neither Jamaica nor other islands occupied by Spaniards were invaded, goes to prove that in the case of Puerto Rico the invasions were prompted by bitter resentment of natives who had preferred exile to slavery, coupled, perhaps, with a hope of being able to drive the enemies of their race from their island home, a hope which, if it existed, and if we consider the very limited number of Spaniards who occupied it, was not without foundation.

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It was Nemesis, therefore, and not the mere lust of plunder, that guided the Boriquen Indians and their Carib allies on their invasions of Puerto Rico.

Diego Columbus during his visit in 1514 had founded a settlement with 50 colonists along the borders of the Daguao and Macao rivers on the eastern coast.

They had constructed houses and ranchos, introduced cattle, and commenced their plantations, but without taking any precautions against sudden attacks or providing themselves with extra means of defense.

One night they were awakened by the glare of fire and the yells of the savages.  As they rushed out to seek safety they fell pierced with arrows or under the blows of the terrible Macanas.  Very few of them escaped.

The next attack was in the locality now constituting the municipal district of Loiza.

This place was settled by several Spaniards, among them Juan Mexia, a man said to have been of herculean strength and great courage.  The Indian woman with whom he cohabited had received timely warning of the intended attack, a proof that communications existed between the supposed Caribs and the Indians on the island.  She endeavored to persuade the man to seek safety in flight, but he disdained to do so.  Then she resolved to remain with him and share his fate.  Both were killed, and Alejandro Tapia, a native poet, has immortalized the woman’s devotion in a romantic, but purely imaginative, composition.

Ponce’s virtual defeat in Guadeloupe made the Caribs bolder than ever.  They came oftener and in larger numbers, always surprising the settlements that were least prepared to offer resistance.  Five years had elapsed since the destruction of Daguao.  A new settlement had gradually sprung up in the neighborhood along the river Humacao and was beginning to prosper, but it was also doomed.  On November 16, 1520, Baltazar Castro, one of the crown officers, reported to the emperor: