still had Indians in their possession should construct stone or adobe
houses for them under penalty of losing them. In 1543 it was ordained
by an Order in Council that all Indians still alive in Cuba, la
Española, and Puerto Rico, were as free as the Spaniards themselves,
and they should be permitted to loiter and be idle, "that they might
increase and multiply."

Bishop Rodrigo Bastidas, who was charged to see to the execution of
this order in Puerto Rico, still found 80 Indians to liberate.
Notwithstanding these terminant orders, so powerless were they to
abolish the abuses resulting from the iniquitous system, that as late
as 1550 the Indians were still treated as slaves. In that year
Governor Vallejo wrote to the emperor: "I found great irregularity in
the treatment of these few Indians, ... they were being secretly sold
as slaves, etc."

Finally, in 1582, Presbyter Ponce de Leon and Bachelor-at-Law Santa
Clara, in a communication to the authorities, stated: "At the time
when this island was taken there were found here and distributed 5,500
Indians, without counting those who would not submit, and to-day there
is not one left, excepting 12 or 15, who have been brought from the
continent. They died of disease, sarampion, rheum, smallpox, and
ill-usage, or escaped to other islands with the Caribs. The few that
remain are scattered here and there among the Spaniards on their
little plantations. Some serve as soldiers. They do not speak their
language, because they are mostly born in the island, and they are
good Christians." This is the last we read of the Boriquén Indians.

* * * * *