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Of this railroad the following parts have been completed: San Juan, along the coast through Rio Piedras, Bayamon, Dorado, Arecibo, and Hatillo, to Camuy; Aguadilla, through Aguado, Rincon, Anasco, and Mayaguez, to Hornigueros. A branch of this railroad from Anasco, through San Sebastian, to Lares. Ponce, through Guayanilla, to Yauco.
In the night, Juan De Añasco, with one or two companions, embarked in a canoe, and, by sounding, found a place in the channel of the river nearly a hundred and twenty feet deep. They cut down an evergreen oak, whose wood is almost as solid and heavy as lead, gouged out a place in it sufficiently large to receive the body, and nailed over the top a massive plank.
It will be remembered that Patofa, the commander-in-chief of the native army, had, with a large number of his warriors, accompanied Añasco. He had pledged his word to his chief that he would do everything in his power to harass, pillage and destroy their ancestral foes. Añasco encamped his band a little outside the village.
A short time after this, as Anasco was still proceeding, one of the Spaniards observed that they were going blindly in search of a woman who was said to have gone to hide herself from them in another place; and as Soto already had the daughter in his power, he had no occasion for the mother also, and as their number was small they were exposed to much danger, and had much better return to head-quarters.
"Negroes and Indians," says Abbad, "seeing the small number of Spaniards and their misery, escaped to the mountains of Luquillo and Añasco, whence they descended only to rob their masters." A slight improvement in the gloomy situation of the people of San Juan took place when, driven by necessity, they began to dedicate themselves to agriculture.
De Soto's great anxiety now was to get access to the ocean. But he could not learn that the Cacique had ever heard of such a body of water. He then sent Juan de Añasco with eight horsemen to follow down the banks of the river in search of the sea.
Soto now advanced with the Spaniards through a pleasant and plentiful country, but which was abandoned by the natives on account of the ravages and slaughters that had been committed by Patofa and his people. Three days afterwards, to avoid going on at random, Soto sent on Juan Anasco with thirty horse to explore the country.
The other Indians who accompanied Anasco said that in their opinion he had killed himself because he was carrying a message which he believed was disagreeable to the old lady.
Sending a messenger to la Española with the news of the insurrection and a demand for reenforcements, which, seeing his strained relations with the Admiral, there was small chance of his obtaining, he proceeded to divide his force in four companies of 30 men to each, and gave command to Miguel del Toro, the future founder of San German, to Louis de Añasco, who later gave his name to a province, to Louis Almanza and to Diego Salazar, whose company was made up exclusively of the maimed and wounded, and therefore called in good-humored jest the company of cripples.
Juan De Añasco, who had command of the vessels, left them well manned in the bay, and with the remainder of the ship's company marched to Anhayea, under escort of the troops sent him by De Soto. Soon after this, Pedro Calderon arrived with his gallant little band of a hundred and twenty men.
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