Ta�no Indians who inhabited the territory, called the island Boriken or Borinquen which means: "the great land of the valiant and noble Lord" or "land of the great lords". Today this word -used in various modifications- is still popularly used to designate the people and island of Puerto Rico. The Ta�no Indians, who came from South America, inhabited the major portion of the island when the Spaniards arrived. The Ta�no Indians, lived in small villages, organized in clans and led by a Cacique, or chief. They were a peaceful people who, with a limited knowledge of agriculture, lived on such domesticated tropical crops as pineapples, cassava, and sweet potatoes supplemented by seafood.
Mayag�ez was officially founded on September 18, 1760 by a group led by brothers Faustino and Lorenzo Mart�nez de Matos, Juan de Silva and Juan de Aponte, at a hill located about one kilometer inland from Mayag�ez Bay and the outlet of the Yag�ez River. The Spanish Crown granted the founders the right to self-government in 1763, formally separating the town from the larger Partido de San Germ�n. Originally the settlement was named Nuestra Se�ora de la Candelaria de Mayag�ez (Our Lady of Candelaria of Mayag�ez) to evoke an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. Most of the town's settlers, including its founders, originally migrated from the archipelago, whose patron saint is the Virgin of Candelaria.
On May 7, 1836, the settlement was elevated to the royal status of villa, and Rafael Mangual was named its first mayor. At the time, the villa's principal economic activity was agriculture. The famous patriot, educator, sociologist, philosopher, essayist, and novelist Eugenio Mar�a de Hostos was born in Mayag�ez in 1839.
On July 10, 1877 the villa formally received its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.
The city's main Roman Catholic church, "Our Lady of the Candelaria" (plot consecrated on August 21, 1760,
