From this time to 1679 several expeditions were fitted out in San Juan to drive the filibusters from one or another of the islands in the neighborhood.  In 1780 a fleet was equipped with the object of definitely destroying all the pirates’ nests.  The greater part of the garrison, all the Puerto Ricans most distinguished for bravery, intelligence, and experience, took part in the expedition.  The fleet was accompanied by the Spanish battle-ship Carlos V, which carried 50 cannon and 500 men.  Of this expedition not a soul returned.  It was totally destroyed by a hurricane, and the island was once more plunged in mourning, ruin, and poverty, from which it did not emerge till nearly a century later.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 40:  In fifteen days 110 men and women were assassinated in the capital alone, some of them persons of distinction.  Canovas, Decadencia de Espana, Libro VI.]

CHAPTER XXI

BRITISH ATTACKS ON PUERTO RICO—­SIEGE OF SAN JUAN BY SIR RALPH ABERCROMBIE

1678-1797

The entente cordiale which had existed between England under Charles I and Spain under Philip IV ceased with the tragic death of the first-named monarch.[41]

Immediately after Cromwell’s elevation both France and Spain made overtures for an alliance with England.  But the Protector well knew that in the event of war with either power, Spain’s colonies and treasure-laden galleons offered a better chance for obtaining booty than the poor possessions of France.  He favored an alliance with Louis XIV, and ended by signing a treaty with him in 1657.

The first result of the hostilities that ensued was the capture by the English Admirals Blake and Stayner of several richly laden galleons.

From that time to the end of the eighteenth century England’s attempts to secure the two most-coveted Antilles (Cuba and Puerto Rico) continued with short intervals of peace.

In 1768 an English fleet of 22 ships, with a landing force under the command of the Earl of Estren, appeared before San Juan and demanded its surrender.  Before a formal attack could be made a furious hurricane wrecked the fleet on Bird Island, and everybody on board perished excepting a few soldiers and marines, who escaped a watery grave only to be made prisoners.[42]

It is certain, however, that on August 5, 1702, an English brigantine and a sloop came to Arecibo and landed 30 men, who were forced to reembark with considerable loss, though the details of this affair, as given by Friar Abbad, and repeated by Mr. Neuman, are evidently largely drawn from imagination.

In September of the following year (1703) there were landings of Englishmen near Loiza and in the neighborhood of San German, of which we know only that they were stoutly opposed; and we learn from an official document that there was another landing at Boca Chica on the south coast in 1743, when the English were once more obliged to reembark with the loss of a pilot-boat.