It is said that when Drake afterward learned that his abandonment of the conquest of Puerto Rico had made him miss the chance of adding 2,000,000 pesos in gold and silver to the Maiden Queen’s exchequer, he pulled his beard with vexation.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 38:  Drake and his Successors.  The Edinburgh Review, July, 1901.]

CHAPTER XVIII

OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION OF SAN JUAN BY LORD GEORGE CUMBERLAND—­CONDITION OF THE ISLAND AT THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Puerto Rico and his Majesty’s treasure were now safe.  When there was no longer any fear of the enemy’s return, haste was made to reembark the money and get rid of General Sancho and Tello and their men who were fast consuming the island’s scanty resources.

Two years after Drake’s ineffectual attack on the island another English fleet, with a large body of troops under the orders of Lord George Cumberland, came to Puerto Rico.  A landing was effected at Cangrejos (the present Santurce).  The bridge leading to the capital was not then fortified, but its passage was gallantly disputed by Governor Antonio Mosquera, an old soldier of the war in Flanders.  The English were far superior in numbers and armament, and Mosquera had to fall back.  Captain Serralta, the brothers John and Simon Sanabria, and other natives of the island, greatly distinguished themselves in this action.  The English occupied the capital and the forts without much more opposition.  An epidemic of dysentery and yellow fever carried off 400 Englishmen in less than three months and bid fair to exterminate the whole invading force, so that, to save his troops, the English commander was obliged to evacuate the island, which he did on the 23d of November.  He carried with him 70 pieces of artillery of all sizes which he found in the fortifications.  The city itself he left unhurt, except that he took the church-bells and organ and carried off an artistically sculptured marble window in one of the houses which had taken his fancy.

Mr. Brau mentions some documents in the Indian archives of Spain, from which it appears that another invasion of Puerto Rico took place a year after Cumberland’s departure.  On that occasion the governor and the garrison were carried off as prisoners, but as there was a cruel epidemic still raging in the island at the time the English did not stay.

The death of Philip II (September 13, 1598) and of his inveterate enemy, Queen Elizabeth (March 24, 1603), brought the war with England to a close.  The ambassador of Philip III in London negotiated a treaty of peace with James I, which was signed and ratified in the early part of 1604.