Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE INVADERS
It's easy to imagine Puerto Rico's disparate invaders scheming in the shadowy ports of the
Caribbean and the gilded halls of Europe. To evade the guns of El Morro and sack the San
Juan harbor would write history - for pirates and princes alike. Not long after the fort was
commissioned by Spanish King Charles V in 1539, it came under siege from those seeking
strategic power in the Caribbean. Everyone from daring British dandy Francis Drake to stor-
ied cutthroats like Blackbeard tried their luck against San Juan's formidable defenses.
One of the colony's earliest invaders, Francis Drake first arrived in Puerto Rico in 1595
pursuing a stricken Spanish galleon - holding two million gold ducats - that took shelter in
San Juan harbor. While the plucky Brit may have singed the king of Spain's beard in Cádiz
a decade earlier, the Spaniards quickly got revenge in Puerto Rico when they fired a can-
nonball into Drake's cabin, killing two of his men, and - allegedly - shooting the stool from
underneath him. Drake left the island empty-handed and died the following year of dysen-
tery in Panama.
On a stinging revenge mission, San Juan was attacked by the British navy again three
years later under the command of the third earl of Cumberland. Learning from Drake's mis-
takes, Cumberland's 1700-strong army landed in what is now Condado and advanced on the
city via land from the east. After a short battle, the city surrendered and the British occupied
it for the next 10 weeks, before a dysentery epidemic hit and forced an ignominious with-
drawal.
In response to frequent British incursions, San Juan's defensive walls were repeatedly
strengthened, a measure that helped repel an ambitious attack by the Netherlands in 1625.
Acting under the command of Captain Boudewijn Hendricksz, the Dutch fired over 4000
cannonballs into city walls before landing 2000 men at La Puntilla. Although the invaders
managed to occupy the city temporarily and take the Fortaleza palace, the Spanish held El
Morro fort and, after less than a month, Hendricksz beat a hasty retreat, razing the city as he
went.
San Juan's second great fort, San Cristóbal, was inaugurated in the 1630s and the city saw
no more major attacks for almost two centuries. It wasn't until 1797 that the British, at war
again with Spain, tried one last time. Still, even though the armada under the British com-
mander Sir Ralph Abercromby had over 60 ships and 10,000 men they eventually withdrew
in bloodied and breathless exasperation. Noble in defeat, Abercromby reported that San Juan
could have resisted an attack 10 times greater.
