The History of Cuba Volume I Part 17

Governor Luzan administered the affairs of Cuba until the end of March, 1589. On that day he was succeeded by Juan de Tejada, a Field Marshal of the Spanish Army. He was selected by the King chiefly because of his military experience and knowledge, and he was the first of the line of governors of Cuba to be known as Captain-General. In him were merged both the civil and the military authority of the Island, so that there would no longer be any such friction as had prevailed between Luzan and Quinones. Tejada was speedily commissioned by the King to make plans for the fortification of Cuba and also of the other important islands of the Spanish West Indies. He was accordingly accompanied on his coming to Cuba by one of the most distinguished Italian engineers of that age, Juan Bautista Antonelli. Together they surveyed the port of Havana, the port of San Juan in Porto Rico, and that of Carthagena in Colombia and planned powerful defenses for them all. There fortifications were in fact constructed under the direction of Antonelli and to this day bear impressive testimony to his skill.

His first attention was paid, most properly, to Havana. Already there had been constructed temporary fortifications at La Punta and El Morro, and also a camp more of observation than of defense at San Lazaro Cove, probably where the Queen's battery stood in later years. Both Captain-General Tejada and Antonelli were quick to see the importance of the Punta and Morro fortifications and to approve those headlands as the sites of the most powerful fortifications of Havana. Plans were accordingly made for extensive masonry forts at both those places, and these were approved and very prompt execution ordered by the King. Funds for the work were obtained from Mexico, from which source also appropriations were received for the maintenance of La Fuerza with its garrison of 300 men.

The work of Antonelli in Cuba was by no means confined, however, to military engineering. He laid out and constructed a number of roads, including some which are to this day princ.i.p.al streets of Havana and its suburbs. He also constructed a dam across the Chorrera River and an aqueduct by means of which an ample water supply was conveyed to Havana and distributed through the city. For by this time it must be understood Havana was rapidly growing into a populous and prosperous community and was already the a.s.sured metropolis of the Island and indeed one of the three or four chief centres of Spanish civilization and authority in the western world. It was during the administration of Tejada that the technical legal t.i.tle of "City" was conferred upon Havana, and the place received the grant of a coat-of-arms. Its escutcheon bore the emblems of a crown, underneath it in a blue field three silver fortresses, emblematic of La Fuerza, La Punta and El Morro, and finally a golden key symbolic of Havana's importance as the key of the western world. The administration of Tejada lasted a little more than five years and was marked with almost unbroken peace, prosperity and progress. The new fortifications of Havana were not all completed in that time, but they were carried far toward completion and the work upon them was marked with no such difficulties and complications as had been the bane of La Fuerza.

The one exception to the rule of peace and harmony which prevailed during the administration of Captain-General Tejada was a controversy with Bishop Salcedo, who was then in charge of the diocese. Because of some differences of policy concerning the finances of the colony and the church, Salcedo bitterly criticised Tejada and even cast unfavorable reflections upon his integrity, which we must regard as unwarranted. To these attacks, however, Tejada gave little or no attention, and the peace of Cuba was therefore not materially disturbed by the incident. It seems probable that the Bishop desired larger revenues than the straitened condition of Cuban affairs made possible. Tejada indeed almost exhausted the pecuniary resources of the island in the prosecution of the much-needed works of fortification, road building, and what not, and also drew heavily upon his own private funds. He was saved from more serious embarra.s.sment by the arrival of a treasure fleet from Vera Cruz, which enabled him to discharge all obligations and to place a fund of 120,000 ducats in the insular treasury for future needs.

At this period, it is interesting to recall, the salary of the Governor, or Captain-General, was only 2,000 pesos a year, that of the Alcalde of El Morro was 6,600 reales, that of the Alcalde of La Punta was 4,400 reales, and that of the Sergeant-Mayor was 2,700 reales. The total yearly budget of the island was about 100,000 pesos.

It is gratifying to know that Tejada's fine services were appreciated by the royal government. His insistent resignation was accepted in April, 1595, with sincere regret, and he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St. James and was placed in charge of the castle and district of La Barlete, at Naples.

Tejada's successor, the second Captain-General of Cuba, was Juan Maldonado Barrionuevo, who took office in July, 1594. This distinguished servant of the crown had been an equerry to the Queen of Spain and Treasurer of the Invincible Armada which had come to grief a few years before in the Narrow Seas. He was also a Knight of the Military Order of St. James. Having had, while with the Armada, a taste of Drake's quality, and learning that that formidable commander was meditating another descent upon Cuba he gave his first and best attention to hastening the completion of the fortifications of Havana. Drake was indeed at that very time in Spanish-American waters planning disaster to every seaport within reach, but disagreement between himself and other officers of the fleet made the entire expedition a failure and led, probably, to the death of Drake himself in 1595. Learning of Drake's death Maldonado sent out an expedition to attack the British fleet as it was returning from Darien and succeeded in capturing one of its vessels and putting the others to flight near the Isle of Pines. This triumph over the much feared British fleet caused great rejoicing throughout Cuba and immensely encouraged the Government and the people in their hope of making a successful stand against British aggressions.

Despite the growth and importance of Havana it must be remembered that at this time that city was still in a very primitive condition. The great majority of the houses were still built of cedar or pine boards with thatched roofs. They were so scattered, even in the heart of the city, that it was possible to have gardens and orchards around them.

There were some houses of substantial masonry two or three stories in height. And the rich cedar, mahogany and other woods native to Cuba made it possible to finish and furnish them in very rich style. The houses of the rich were lighted with lamps of bronze or other metal, generally fed with olive oil, and those of the poor with candles made of suet. The streets were unlighted save by an occasional lantern at the entrance to some house. And they were so infested not only with stray dogs but with vagabonds and ruffians that it was unsafe for citizens to go abroad after dark without an armed guard. Social and domestic customs, which had at first been kept after those of Spain itself, by this time began to have an individuality suited to the circ.u.mstances and conditions of life on the Island. It was the custom to have the chief meal of the day at noon and a lighter supper quite late in the evening, probably between eight and ten o'clock.

It is interesting to record that during the administration of Maldonado occurred the first theatrical performance in the history of Cuba. This was on the night of St. John, in the year 1599, and the performance took place in honor of the Captain-General in the great hall of the military barracks. It is recorded that on a.s.sembling the audience was so noisy that it was impossible to begin the performance until threats had been made of serious physical punishment. Despite this vexatious incident the people were so delighted with the performance that when it came to an end they unanimously clamored for its repet.i.tion although by this time it was one o'clock in the morning.

The sugar industry was now rising to great importance, especially in the vicinity of Havana and thence toward Matanzas. The largest of all the sugar mills in the Island was that founded by Anton Recia at Guaicanama, now known as Regla. In 1588 a royal decree was issued bestowing upon the sugar mills of Cuba the same favor that was formerly granted to those of Hispaniola, namely, the exemption of the buildings, machinery, negro slaves and in fact all other property from seizure or attachment for debt. The sugar plantations were somewhat hampered at this time by lack of labor, and on that account the importation of negro slaves was encouraged and hundreds were brought in every year.

In fact, negro slavery was by this time fully established as the princ.i.p.al reliance of the industries of the island. It was recognized that Cuba was a land of inestimable wealth, particularly in agriculture.

Stock raising was the chief industry, but sugar growing was rising in importance, while the production of honey and wax was also a widespread and highly lucrative occupation. Of all industries sugar growing was the most laborious and called, therefore, for the greatest number of slaves.

Each mill required from eighty to a hundred workmen.

Strangely enough, while the royal government strove in some ways to encourage and stimulate the sugar industry, it persisted in hampering it, at any rate in Cuba, in the matter of slave labor. As far back as 1556 a decree fixed the maximum price at which slaves might be sold in the island at one hundred ducats, or about seventy pesos. Yet at the same time the price fixed for slaves in Venezuela was one hundred and ten ducats, and in Mexico one hundred and twenty ducats. The result was inevitable. Slaves were sent to Venezuela and Mexico rather than to Cuba; or the best were sent thither and the poorest to the island. This was only one of a number of eccentricities of government, which suggested a persistent and inexplicable tendency to discriminate against Cuba in favor of the other colonies.

Against such purblind policies the ablest administrators and the most enterprising planters and merchants struggled to little avail. It was a splendid achievement for the engineer Antonelli in 1586 to tap the Almendares River, west of Havana, with a system of ca.n.a.ls and aqueducts, and thus bring an abundant supply of fresh water into Havana. In so doing he not merely provided the capital with one of the prime necessities of life, but he also made Havana the centre of the sugar industry. For it was along these artificial watercourses that the first sugar mills were erected and operated. But this availed little while there was persistent discrimination against Cuba to a degree that kept the island without a t.i.the of the labor which was needed for the development of its resources. We cannot, of course, approve the slave trade, or argue that it should have been followed to a greater extent than it was. But if it was to exist at all, and Spain was willing and indeed determined that it should, justice and economic reason required that it should exist as freely in Cuba as in the neighboring colonies.

CHAPTER XXIII

The character of the European nations whose navigators and explorers had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and had opened to the bewildered gaze of the Old World a vista of unlimited possibilities in the New, underwent a great change during the seventeenth century. Acclaimed as national achievements, adding new l.u.s.tre to national glory, these discoveries at first only stimulated patriotism and became an incentive to national effort. But as Spain and Portugal which had given to the world those men with the large vision and the undaunted courage, awakened to the importance of their exploits and began to see them from the angles of political and economic advantages, the desire to restrict those advantages to their own use became so powerful, that consideration for the interests of other nations was ignored. The spirit of imperialistic expansion was roused and demanded no less than a monopoly of the traffic and trade of the world.

With this end in view the two countries adopted a protectionist policy and imposed restrictions upon mariners and merchants of other nations that in time became intolerable. The government of Spain forbade its colonists in Spanish America to receive European merchandise from any but Spanish ports, which in turn enabled Spanish exporters to demand unreasonable prices. This was resented by many colonists, and they were willing to deal with smugglers who sold this merchandise at a lower price or exchanged it for the produce of the colonies, especially for hides and sugar. The governors of Santo Domingo were among the first in the colonies to take steps against this trade. They fitted out small vessels, which they called Guardacostas, coastguards, and had them patrol all along the coast. If they succeeded in capturing the smugglers, they proceeded against them with little ceremony. They were either thrown overboard or hanged.

This summary process having stirred in the smugglers the spirit of vindictiveness, they organized for concerted action, determined to resist what they considered unwarranted severity and cruelty. They began to group into fleets, and openly invaded the coasts, burning, plundering, marauding and killing. They looked about for suitable places where to establish settlements of their own that could be used as bases of operation in the neighborhood. Hispaniola or Hayti, where the natives had been almost exterminated and which by misgovernment was nearly deserted, invited them. Herds of cattle and swine were running wild about the island and offered not only valuable provisions for themselves, but promised to become marketable commodities. Some French smugglers settled there, killed the cattle and swine, smoked the beef and salted the pork, and opened a remunerative trade with visiting sailors in these commodities as also in tallow and hides. The Indians of the island called smoked beef "boucan"; hence these traders were called boucaniers which was anglicized into buccaneers. In a similar way the English freebooter was by the French corrupted into flibustier and later came back to us as filibuster. At first the term boucanier was limited to the smugglers and traders in smoked beef living on land, while the flibustier was applied to the smuggler and trader living on board of a ship. But later these nice distinctions were ignored and the names applied indiscriminately to smugglers, freebooters and pirates.

Whatever term one chose to apply to them, these Brethren of the Coast and outlaws of the oceans became almost a recognized inst.i.tution of the century when rival European powers were fighting for supremacy in the New World and were unanimously arrayed against Spain. There were among them recruits from almost all nations, cla.s.ses and professions. There were bankrupt shopkeepers, discharged soldiers, runaway convicts, thieves and murderers, vagabonds and adventurers and many a black sheep of good family under an a.s.sumed name. A large proportion was attracted by the possibility of getting hold of some of the unlimited treasures of gold and silver which the New World was said to hold. For the reports that had been spread by the partic.i.p.ants in the early expeditions, not always limited to natives of Spain and Portugal, were so fairy-like that the cla.s.sic tale of the Argonauts paled into insignificance beside them.

It is reported that a noted French freebooter who had joined the pirates as a runaway debtor, hoped in this way to secure enough to pay off his debts. An equally large number consisted of men who in that period of adventure were seized with an insatiable desire for roving about the world, free from all fetters of conventional life.

The att.i.tude of England, France and Holland against Spain was so hostile, that whenever one of these powers was at war with Spain, these outlaws were granted the rights of belligerents. Mariner-warriors, prepared to defend themselves and to attack by force, they became a mercenary navy at the service of any power that happened to be at war with Spain. At bottom of this united effort, which at the end resulted in ruining the overseas commerce of Spain, was the opposition against its restrictions of the navigation and commerce of other countries.

Bancroft who is referred to by Pedro J. Guiteras in his "Historia de la isla de Cuba" says in the first volume of his "History of the United States" (p. 163)

"The moral sense of mariners revolted at the extravagance; since forfeiture, imprisonment, and the threat of eternal woe were to follow the attempt at the fair exchanges of trade; since the freebooter and the pirate could not suffer more than menaced against the merchant who should disregard the maritime monopoly, the seas became infested by reckless buccaneers, the natural offspring of colonial restrictions. Rich Spanish settlements in America were pillaged; fleets attacked and captured; predatory invasions were even made on land to intercept the loads of gold, as they came from the mines, by men who might have acquired honor and wealth in commerce, if commerce had been permitted."

John Fiske, too, in the second volume of his "Historical Essays," dwells upon the causes of the enormous development of piracy in the seventeenth century. Speaking of the struggle of the Netherlands and England against the greatest military power of the world, he said that the former had to rely largely and the latter almost exclusively, upon naval operations, and continued:

"Dutch ships on the Indian Ocean and English ships off the American coasts effectually cut the Spaniard's sinews of war. Now in that age ocean navigation was still in its infancy, and the work of creating great and permanent navies was only beginning. Government was glad to have individuals join in the work of building and equipping ships of war, and it was accordingly natural that individuals should expect to reimburse themselves for the heavy risk and expense by taking a share in the spoils of victory. In this way privateering came into existence and it played a much more extensive part in maritime warfare than it now does. The navy was but incompletely nationalized. Into expeditions that were strictly military in purpose there entered some of the elements of a commercial speculation, and as we read them with our modern ideas we detect the smack of buccaneering."

England in dealing leniently with these buccaneers sailing under her flag, argued that since the gold and silver carried from America to Spain in Spanish ships was used to defray the expenses of a war which threatened her, English mariners were justified in capturing these vessels and seizing such treasures. But there is little doubt that by this interpretation the doors were opened wide to all sorts of trickery and outrage, carried on regardless whether the countries under whose flags both captors and captured sailed were at the time at war or at peace. Thus the naval and commercial restrictions, which Spain imposed upon other countries, proved at the end a boomerang, which did irreparable loss to Spain itself.

For the long war with England had greatly weakened Spanish power and when the peace of 1604 was concluded, the once so powerful country was visibly entering upon its downward path. Philip II, called the Great, had left a son, Philip III, who had neither the personality nor the ability to continue his famous father's policy of imperialism. Before long it was found that the naval power had sunk from the proud Armada which had challenged England in the time of Queen Elizabeth to no more than thirteen galleys. Ship-building practically ceased. To bring the tobacco crop from Havana to Spain, French and British vessels had to be hired. Nothing was done to keep up the military strength of the kingdom which had once ranked as Europe's greatest military power and had as such been feared by other nations. The army was composed either of inexperienced youths or of nerveless old men. The magazines and a.r.s.enals stood empty. With no ships patrolling the seas and protecting the coasts, the predatory outlaws of the ocean, sailing under various flags, soon recognized in the Spanish overseas possessions a territory which upon slight effort promised to yield rich booty. Cuba, Santo Domingo, Jamaica and other West Indian Islands were repeatedly ravaged by them.

They established settlements on St. Christopher's Island, called St.

Kitts, and on one of the Bahamas, and from these bases carried on their destructive operations.

Notwithstanding the great progress which navigation had made during the previous century, news between the Eastern and the Western continent traveled slowly. This proved a serious drawback to an efficient management of the colonies which European powers had established in America. It was responsible for a great deal of confusion and for the dilatory policy which characterized the government of the Spanish West Indies. Communication between the mother country and Cuba was so irregular and unreliable that Philip III, the new king, was not proclaimed in Cuba until the spring of the year 1599. Yet at no time was the fate of the island more closely linked with that of Spain, whose decline profoundly affected Cuba's political and economic conditions during the seventeenth century.

In that most critical period for Spain, when the fate of the Kingdom pa.s.sed from the hands of Philip the Great into those of his incapable successor, Cuba had the good fortune of being under the administration of strong and able governors. D. Juan Maldonado Barrienuevo, who entered upon his office in the year 1596, did a great deal towards the improvement of the capital, starting the erection of a government house and a public prison. He recognized the great value of sugar as one of the staple products of the island and by every measure possible encouraged the cultivation of sugar cane. He obtained from the King special exemptions and privileges for the builders and owners of sugar mills. He was the first to construct that of Vicente Santa Maria in Fuente de Chaves. Sugar was at that time sold at fabulous prices. A cargo of sugar of inferior quality brought in Seville as much as twelve pesos per arroba (twenty-five pounds). The importation of and traffic in African negroes who were set to work on the sugar plantations was inseparable from this industry which henceforth became the chief source of Cuba's wealth. But Maldonado, too, had troubles with the pirates. As the two galleys in the port were known to be absolutely useless, the pirates approached almost within cannon-shot of the place.

The administration of D. Pedro de Valdes, Ensign (alfevez major) of the Order of Santiago and nephew of the famous admiral of that name, began most auspiciously. He was appointed successor of Maldonado in 1602. A worthy heir of his uncle's glory, he started for his post from San Lucas with a galleon and a galizabra (vessel used in the Levantine trade) on the seventeenth of April. On his voyage he captured an enemy vessel, sailed bravely through a Dutch squadron and sank three of their ships in the port of Santo Domingo. After putting to flight a horde of smugglers that swarmed about the coasts of Cuba, he cast anchor in Havana on the nineteenth of July, 1602.

Valdes immediately set out to improve the artillery of the fortifications, and even to superintend the casting of the cannon.

Within the short s.p.a.ce of two years he succeeded in providing the port of Havana with eighty pieces of good quality and various calibre, most of which had been cast in the capital itself. Frequent changes of administration had not only hampered the initiative of minor functionaries and opened the door to official malpractice of miscellaneous nature, but had also perceptibly weakened authority.

Valdes was determined to re-enforce it and by his energy and rect.i.tude brought upon himself the hatred of those elements who had encouraged disorder. At the end his only loyal supporter was Friar Juan Cabezas de Altamirano, who had succeeded Salcedo in the bishopric of Santiago. But Valdes did not mind the hostility, which was more or less openly manifested towards his government, and continued his untiring efforts in defense of Spanish interests and policies.

The steadily increasing wealth of these colonies excited the covetousness of the pirates and buccaneers. Realizing the necessity of taking defensive action against them, Valdes armed a few vessels, which under the command of his son, D. Fernando, cruised about and succeeded in capturing several ships. In one of these encounters Valdes was wounded, but he pursued his policy undauntedly. He was also successful in his campaign against smuggling which had extensively developed, especially in Bayamo, whither he sent as his deputy the licentiate Melchior Suarez to inquire into the state of things.

The depredations committed by the pirates at this time were so serious that the safety of the inhabitants was imperilled. The population of Santiago seems to have been especially singled out to be hara.s.sed by the outlaws. They set fire to the cathedral and other churches of the town, robbed them of the precious vessels and vestments and committed other outrages. Terror-stricken, the inhabitants fled to neighboring towns or hid in the country. The city faced gradual depopulation. Even the Bishop D. Friu Juan de las Cabezas and some of the government officials withdrew to Bayamo, which, for a time at least, offered safety.

But in the year 1604 even the roads in the vicinity of Bayamo were no longer safe for travelers. When the bishop was on a tour of visitation in the neighborhood, in company with the canons Francisco Pueblo and Diego Sanchez, a horde of pirates under the leadership of the notorious Giron surprised him at the stock farm of Yara. They tied him and took him barefoot to Mazanillo, where one of their bilanders (sloops) was anch.o.r.ed. They kept him on board their vessel for the period of eighty days, expecting the authorities of the town to present themselves and offer an enormous sum as ransom. The name of Gregorio Ramos is inscribed in the annals of the island as the bishop's deliverer. It was an undertaking calling for unusual cleverness and courage and Ramos acquitted himself most brilliantly. He bravely faced the redoubtable Giron and rescued the bishop by paying a ransom of two hundred ducats, one thousand skins and one hundred arrobas (twenty-five pounds of sixteen ounces each) of jerked beef. After having brought the prelate into security, he returned with a force of valiant men and attacked the pirates. He succeeded in destroying the whole horde and even in killing their leader Giron, whose head was triumphantly carried on the point of a lance to Bayamo, where it was exhibited in the market-place.

The growth of the island which then numbered from eighteen to twenty thousand inhabitants was greatly hampered by such invasions. Santiago offering so little safety, the bishop ventured to suggest the removal of the cathedral to Havana; but the plan was found impracticable and never carried out. In time, however, the prelates began to ignore the disapproval of the government and to install themselves in Havana. Other members of the ecclesiastical cabildo (chapter) followed their example and also left Santiago. Governor Valdes, in accord with the ayuntamento, demonstrated to the king the pitiful state of the island and urged as an indispensable necessity the stationing of a permanent fleet in Cuban waters. Only in this way did it seem possible to check the increasing pirate menace which was paralyzing commerce and arresting the progress of the island.

But the royal government at Madrid, weak and helpless in the hands of an incapable sovereign, lacked stability and strength to cope with the unrest and confusion that gradually set in. The inadequate fortifications and insufficient garrison had left the coast of Cuba almost without defense. Knowledge of these conditions had spread among the corsairs prowling about and awaiting an opportunity to descend upon the unprotected population and made them more and more audacious. Philip III, a weak though humane ruler, had transferred the reigns of government to his favorite, the Duke of Lerma. But procrastination seems to have been one of the permanent features in the Spanish kingdom's management of her American possessions, and little was done to insure her safety.

At last the king heeded the clamorous appeals of the authorities representing his loyal but unfortunate subjects in Cuba and ordered some timely steps to be taken. Royal letters patent of October eighth, 1607, arrived from Madrid. In order to safeguard the interests of the inhabitants they decreed that the island be divided into two districts, an eastern and a western, with separate jurisdiction, and Havana and Santiago as their respective capitals. The governor of Havana retained the t.i.tle of Captain-General of the island, but his general jurisdiction was reduced to the territory between Cape San Antonio and eighty leagues east of the capital. The governor of Santiago was named Capitan de Guerra (chief military authority) with a salary of one thousand eight hundred pesos and jurisdiction over the rest of the island including Puerto Principe. The governor and military commander were to remain in Havana, this being the most important district. As governor of Santiago was appointed Juan de Villaverde, a Castilian from the Morro. He was charged with the defense of the place against pirates and other enemies disturbing the peace of the island and impeding its economic and social development.

This division caused innumerable difficulties and conflicts of authority and Valdes had reasons to object to it. He had established order in the Treasury and other branches of the administration, and he feared that the new order might bring new confusion. In the meantime his energy and rect.i.tude caused the plots and intrigues spun by his enemies to multiply to such an extent that they succeeded in reaching the ear of the Spanish Audiencia. Valdes and his deputy Suarez were indicted, but on proving their innocence triumphed over their slanderers by being reinstated in authority. Then the Audiencia reversed the trial by order of the Court, and the calumniators were convicted and sentenced to various penalties.

But Valdes once more manifested his n.o.ble character by joining the Bishop in an appeal to the King to pardon the convicted men. Soon after he retired from his office.

The court of Spain, represented by the Duke of Lerma, who towards the end of his career succeeded in adding to this t.i.tle that of a cardinal, seemed at this period to be deeply concerned with the religious life of Cuba. This is apparent during the governorship of Don Gaspar Luis Pereda, Knight of the military order of Santiago, who was inaugurated on the sixteenth of June, 1608. Don Juan de Villaverde y Oceta was appointed to the governorship of Santiago. Monastic orders had acquired much land on the island and established their homes. There were at that time six convents in Cuba; three in Havana, of the order of San Franciscus, San Domingo and San Augustin, one of mercenarios, of the order of la Merced in Trinidad, and two others of the Franciscan order in Santiago and Bayamo. The government of Cuba was instructed by royal decree to inquire into and superintend the establishment of the convent of St. Augustine, then in process of erection in Havana.

The excellent bishop Cabezas, who had so signally distinguished himself during the preceding administration, was in the year 1610 promoted to the bishopric of Guatemala. He was replaced by the Carmelite padre Don Alfonso Enriquez de Almendariz, who immediately made efforts to have the king remove his episcopal seat to Havana. This caused serious disputes between the bishop and Governor Pereda, who sent the king a report disapproving of this removal. The conflict between the two culminated in the excommunication of Pereda by the bishop. The administration of his successor, Don Sancho de Alquiza, former governor of Venezuela and Guyana, was brief. He was inaugurated on the seventh of September, 1616, and died on the sixth of June, 1619. He was much interested in the economic development of Cuba, promoted the development of sugar industry, encouraged the employment of negroes on the plantations. His efforts to exploit the mineral wealth of the island were also commendable. He placed the supervision of the copper mines under the direction of the military government and the work proceeded most promisingly. The copper extracted was of superior quality and two thousand quintals of the metal were annually exported to Spain.

The sudden death of Alquiza led to much agitation due to the violent spirit of rivalry between the auditor Don Diego Vallizo and the Castellan of the Morro, Geronimo del Quero, who aspired to the governorship. A great calamity occurred in Havana during this interim administration. On the twenty-second of April, 1620, a fire broke out and a.s.sumed such disastrous proportions, that two hundred homes were destroyed and the growth of the city was for a time seriously crippled.

The dangers that beset the development of Cuba were rapidly multiplying instead of diminishing. Frequent change of administration was not calculated to insure efficiency and stability in the management of the island's affairs. Enterprises begun under one governor were interrupted under the next. Sometimes the original plan was essentially changed and entirely abandoned. A striking example of this sad state of affairs was furnished during the third decade of the seventeenth century. Don Francisco Venegas was inaugurated as governor on the fourteenth of August, 1620. He had been charged with the organization of a war fleet for the protection of the coast from invasions by pirates and freebooters. For that purpose he had brought with him some vessels. They came at an opportune moment for British and Dutch hookers had been roving in West Indian waters. The vessels of the Cuban armadilla under Vazquez de Montiel defeated these intruders at the Island of Tortuga, captured three of them and put their crews to the sword. But joy over this victory was offset by the epidemic of malignant fever which broke out and raged among the population. Another great loss to Spain was occasioned by the hurricane which in the following year sank on the reefs of Los Martires several vessels of the fleet that had been sent by Marquis de Cadreyta, D. Lope Diaz Armendiarez, and were returning to Spain with great riches.

Governor Venegas had in obedience to instructions from his government armed an esquadron, for the maintenance of which he had imposed upon the people a special tax. But on his death, on the eighteenth of April, 1624, it was found that the work on the fleet was far from complete, and in spite of the constant menace of invasion by pirates, nothing was heard of a resumption of the task during the governorship of his successors. The political governor who temporarily a.s.sumed the reigns of the administration was D. Damian Velasquez de Contreras, a.s.sisted by Juan Esquiro Saavedra as military governor. During their interimistic rule a prison was built and a new monastery established.

The successor nominated in the place of Venegas in the year 1624 was the Governor of Cartagena, Don Garcia Giron, who, however, resigned on the twentieth of July of the same year. During the interim occasioned by his resignation the names of Esquival Aranda and de Riva-Martiz are mentioned in connection with the management of the island's affairs.

There finally arrived from Spain D. Lorenzo de Cabrera, a native of Ubeda, corregido of Cadiz, field-marshal and Knight of the Order of Santiago. He was duly installed in his office on the sixteenth of September, 1626. In the command of the Morro Esquival was replaced by Captain Cristobal de Arranda and in the government of Santiago Rodrigo de Velasco was succeeded by Captain D. Pedro de Fonseca.

During the administration of Cabrera, Cuba was agitated by many exciting occurrences. Cabrera and the Marquis de Cadreyta, who commanded the fleet that had brought him to Havana, made a thorough inspection of the fortifications in order to report on their condition and propose improvements. Among the most urgent Cabrera considered the manufacture of a copper chain to shut off the entrance to the two forts; he also had an intrenchment constructed capable of sheltering two companies. The plan to block the entrance of the port with trunks of trees in order to prevent pirates from making an entry, seems, however, to have been somewhat quixotic. As Spain was then at war with the United Provinces, Cabrera provided for possible contingencies by furnishing the forts with large stores of provisions and took other measures to prepare for eventual attacks by the enemy.