The History of Cuba Volume I Part 18

These preparations proved to be only too justified. For the Dutch had fitted out an expedition against the Spanish possessions in America. In June of that year there appeared a fleet of more than thirty vessels with three thousand men, commanded by Pit Hein, one of the most famous mariners of his time. The Dutch had several encounters with the Spanish fleet and were compelled to retire from Havana, which they had tried to enter. They gained some advantages over the armada commanded by Don Juan de Benavides, but in the following year the Spaniards inflicted great losses upon the Dutch fleet commanded by Cornelius Fels, driving him back from Havana and capturing one of his frigates.

A little pamphlet published or printed by Heinrich Mellort Jano in Amsterdam in 1628 gives the Dutch version of the expedition of Pit Hein.

It is ent.i.tled "Ausfuhrlicher Bericht wie es der Silber Flotille herganger wann (durch wen wie und wie viel) solcherin diesem 1628. Jahr Erobert fort und eingebracht." Therein is related with much detail how the West India Company, recognizing the rich booty which the capture of Spanish ships promised, had furnished and fitted out a fleet and manned it with a crew of brave and hearty sailors and soldiers, with the avowed purpose of intercepting a silver-laden fleet returning from the colonies to Spain. The Dutch set out on the twentieth of May, 1628, under the command of General Petri Peters Heyn and Admiral Heinrich Corneli Lang.

The Dutch reached San Antonio on the west end of Cuba on the fourth of August. Their arrival became known to the Spaniards and on the twenty-third of that month Governor Cabrera dispatched some vessels to warn the silver fleet. General Peters Heyn sailed close up to the fortifications of Havana and then turned three or four miles out to sea to meet the treasure-laden ships, which his informers had reported to be sailing in that neighborhood, but south winds drove him northeast.

Finally on the eighth of September the famous fleet hove in sight, and the Dutch captured nine vessels, and seeing eight more, sailed briskly out to cut them off from the port of Havana. The Spaniards arrived at Matanzas Bay, hotly pursued by the Dutch, and immediately organized a defensive. But they were outnumbered in the combat which ensued and laid down their arms. The Dutch General and his staff offered thanks to the Almighty for this great victory. The next day the ships were all secured fast by chains, and the third day the booty was unloaded from the Spanish and transferred to the Dutch ships. There were bars of silver, crosses, chalices, other vessels and art objects fashioned out of silver, in all weighing eighteen thousand four hundred pounds.

The Dutch started on their home voyage on the seventeenth of September and took with them four Spanish galleons, two laden with skins and two with iron and other ore. On the twenty-sixth they reached Bermuda and sent two couriers to Holland to report to the directors of the West India Company. The first reached Rotterdam on the fifteenth of November and received from the Prince of Orange as reward for the good news a jewelled gold chain. To the story of the expedition is added a detailed account of the goods carried by the individual ships, which shows that they also brought dye-stuffs, oil, wine, silks, furniture and other merchandise which with the silver, other ore and skins brought the total value up to thirty millions, presumably of Dutch gulden.

In the meantime there sailed from Cadiz an imposing squadron under the command of the Marquis de Valdueza and carrying as second in command the celebrated mariner D. Antonio de Oquendo. The object of the expedition was to clear the coasts of the islands of all the pirates which had begun to infest the Antilles. Off Nelson's Island, or Nevis, so called by Columbus in 1493 because the cloud-veiled summit of its highest peak reminded him of snow, they captured four Dutch corsairs in a violent combat from which the island suffered seriously. In September the Spanish fleet sailed for the island of San Cristobal, and obtained possession of the fortifications of Charles and Richelieu, compelling the French filibusters who were garrisoned there to surrender. These brilliant exploits had within the brief s.p.a.ce of eight weeks placed the Spaniards in possession of two thousand three hundred prisoners, one hundred and seventy-three pieces of artillery, seven vessels and a great quant.i.ty of arms, powder and tobacco. Besides losing the islands the pirates suffered a loss of property to the amount of fifty million pesos. For a time the Antilles and surrounding sea enjoyed freedom from the menace that had hung over them and disturbed their tranquillity for so many years.

But in spite of these successes Cabrera was unpopular. By permitting a cargo of negroes to be sold in Havana he had called forth heated discussion in official circles and among the people. Not a few voices were heard to question his honesty. Other charges, some of a grave nature, were raised against him and an investigation was demanded. In response to the island's urgent request the Court of Madrid sent Don Francisco de Praga, prosecutor of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, to Cuba, with instructions to inquire into the state of things. The charges being proved, Cabrera was removed from office on the seventh of October, 1630, and taken to Spain for trial. He died in Seville in a dungeon. De Praga acted as provisional political governor, and the Alcalde of the Morro, Cristobal de Arranda, as military governor until the successor of Cabrera arrived from Spain.

CHAPTER XXIV

Spain was at this time gradually working her defection, political and economic. Philip III. had died in 1621 and, as he had thrown the responsibilities of the government upon the shoulders of the Duke of Lerma, so his successor, Philip IV., left them to his favorite Olivares.

Olivares immediately renewed the war with the United Provinces, which were still a thorn in the flesh of Spain, for, on being freed from the Spanish yoke, they had plunged into feverish activity which portended their development into a maritime and mercantile power bound in due time to rival and surpa.s.s Spain.

The Dutch were by the nature of their country obliged to seek their means of subsistence upon the sea and in far-off regions. Their famous son, Hugo Grotius, had been the first to proclaim the freedom of the seas as an indispensable condition to the growth and progress of the world's civilization. Since Lisbon had closed her ports to the Netherlands and Spain was imposing a series of unreasonable restrictions upon the navigators of other countries, the Dutch had for some time past been determined to discover a pa.s.sage by which their ships could penetrate the seas of Asia. Dutch mariners who had been in the employ of the Spaniards and Portuguese and had shared in their voyages of discovery, had brought home tales of the strange lands and stranger peoples, which stirred the imagination of the ambitious and capable nation. The unknown continents and islands stimulated the scholars'

desire for investigation and research. Exaggerated reports about the mineral wealth and other treasures of the New World had roused the merchants' spirit of enterprise and acquisition. As visions of the riches that awaited development in those foreign climes, and of territories they might once call their own, rose before the minds of these merchant princes and lords of the sea, the thirst of conquest quickened in this st.u.r.dy seafaring people.

Step by step the Dutch followed the discoveries and explorations of the Spaniards, and recorded and described them minutely. From the middle of the sixteenth century on the publishing houses of Amsterdam, Leyden and other centers of the printing trade of the country sent out books dealing with the new continent conquered by their enemy, and especially the West Indies. Stirred by this reading, the spirit of the people rose and demanded a share in the lands and the wealth which their mariners had helped to discover. There was an abundance of unemployed labor and capital in the country. Hence the government, knowing only too well that the future of the Dutch people lay on the seas, encouraged this spirit and deliberated upon numerous plans of exploration and colonization.

The first step towards a realization of these plans was taken when a charter was granted to the Dutch East India Company, which gave that organization the exclusive right to commerce beyond the Cape of Good Hope on the one side and the Straits of Magellan on the other side. As it recalled similarly privileged inst.i.tutions in feudal times, when the rights of the cla.s.ses engaged in trade and industry had to be protected against violation by n.o.ble lords, more properly called robber barons, the ideal this company represented appealed to the people. Statesmen of other countries realized its advantages and the Dutch East India Company became the model for the great trade corporations which eventually sprang up in France and England.

But the East alone could not engage all the forces of the active little country. The tales of the sailors and the books about the Western Hemisphere made the people look more and more longingly towards the continent and the islands across the Atlantic. There unlimited opportunities beckoned; there was an outlet for their energies. But unfortunately the Spaniards had long before this established their claims in that continent and the men at the helm of the Dutch government were determined to keep peace with Spain. Although Holland's great pioneer of the "freedom of the seas," Hugo Grotius, refers in his writings to the great plans upon which the Dutch were deliberating at the time when Captain John Smith sailed for Virginia, no step was taken in that direction until two years after the founding of Jamestown. The voyage of Henry Hudson up the river that bears his name, and the eventual establishment of the colony called Nieuw Amsterdam, did not conflict with any Spanish interests and opened the eyes of the enterprising people to other possibilities in the vast new continent.

Before long the ships of the little confederacy were found in many harbors all along the Atlantic coast. They discovered some little islands in the West Indies, which the Spaniards had not found worth while to colonize, because their rocky structure was prohibitive to cultivation. So they did not hesitate to anchor their ships in the inlets of these islands and finally made them a center of contraband traffic with the continent.

The States-General of Holland still hesitated to grant a charter to the long-projected West India Company. But they found means to open to private enterprise almost unrestricted facilities for operation. On the twenty-seventh of March, 1614, they enacted a measure giving private individuals an exclusive privilege for four successive voyages to any pa.s.sage, harbor or country they should hereafter find. This gave a powerful impetus to the enterprise of Dutch mariners and merchants, and also to adventurers of divers nationality. Finally on the third of June, 1621, the Dutch West India Company received a charter for twenty-four years with privilege of renewal, which gave it the right to traffic and plant colonies on the coast of America from the Straits of Magellan to the extreme north. The ships of the company immediately adopted the policy of reprisals on Spanish commerce. In the expedition of Pit Hein in 1628, which has been narrated in the previous chapter, the privateers of the company secured booty eighty times more in value than all their own exports for the preceding four years had amounted to. Dutch buccaneers became as much of a menace to Cuban ports and to the ships plying between Cuba and other countries as the French and British had been.

The sixty years of Philip IV.'s reign proved a long series of failures for Spain. They would have resulted in serious disadvantage to the American possessions, and especially to Cuba, had not the immediate successors of Cabrera in the governorship of Cuba been able men who managed the affairs of the island with sagacity and foresight. D. Juan Bitrian de Viamonte, Caballero de Calatrave, a native of Navarre, was appointed head of the administration and entered upon his duties on the seventh of October, 1630. As auditor of the interior was appointed the Licentiate Pedro so who a few months later was succeeded by D. Francisco Rege Corbalan. One of the most famous religious inst.i.tutions in the West Indies was founded about this time. A pious woman, known as Sister Magdalen de Jesus, opened a retreat for women devoting themselves to a religious life; it was at first called Beaterio, but subsequently became known far and wide as the convent of the nuns of Santa Clara.

Governor Bitrian de Viamonte was neither strong of physique nor of personality; yet he discharged the functions of his office most successfully. During his administration was projected the construction of two towers, one in Chorrera, the other in Cojimar. The garrison of the place was increased and Castellane was made a respectable stronghold. He also organized the militia, creating six companies in Havana, two in Santiago and two in Bayamo. He had, however, serious disagreements with the Marquis de Cadreyta, and being something of an invalid and considered unfit to defend the island against the attacks of some powerful enemy, he was removed to the comparatively easier post of Captain-General of Santo Domingo. His successor was the Field-marshal D. Francisco Riano y Gamboa, a native of Burgos. He suffered shipwreck on the coast of Mariel while on his voyage from Spain and lost everything but his patents, but was duly inaugurated on the twenty-third of October, 1634.

The precautions taken by his successor to insure an effective defense of the island were by no means superfluous. For as the power of Spain was steadily declining, that of the Netherlands and of England was rising.

The establishment of the Dutch along the Hudson, their founding of Nieuw Amsterdam and their settlements on some of the minor West Indies, had brought the danger of Dutch invasion nearer than ever before. The colonies founded by the British at Jamestown and Plymouth had brought within reach the eventuality of having to guard the Spanish possessions against the British as well. Dutch and British navigation on the Atlantic was vastly increasing and the future foreshadowed conflicts of the interests of Spain and Holland on the one, and Spain and England on the other side. The Cuban authorities, wrought up and kept in a perpetual state of tension by their experiences with the buccaneers, had become morbidly susceptible to danger of any kind. The appearance of a foreign ship in the neighborhood of Cuban waters sufficed to fill them with the gravest apprehension, lest the stranger might harbor hostile designs.

These apprehensions were justified, for the Dutch soon resumed their operations against Cuba. It was reported that Maurice of Na.s.sau himself had set out with a powerful squadron, though no historian has any record of it. But in July, 1638, Cornelius Fels, who was by the Spaniards called Pie de Palo, appeared in the Bahama Channel, and from that point sailed for Havana at the head of a fleet of some twenty Dutch vessels enforced by some filibusters. Pie de Palo took his post at a convenient place to intercept any message sent by Governor Riano to Mexico or Peru.

Near the coast of Cabanas the fleet of the Spaniards, commanded by D.

Carlos Ibarra and composed of seven badly armed galleons and hookers, came across the Dutch. Ibarra formed a battle line extending his vessels so as to flank the enemy. Pie de Palo with six of his galleons bravely attacked the Spanish ships _Capitana_ and _Almirante_, being under the impression that they carried a great quant.i.ty of coined money and bars of gold and silver.

Relying on the experience and the valor of Ibarra and Pedro de Ursua, who commanded the two vessels so proudly attacked by Pie de Palo, the captains Sancho Urdambra, Jacinto Molendez, the Marquis de Cordenosa, Pablo Contreras and Juan de Campos endeavored in the mean time to check the other galleons of the enemy. The unequal combat between Ibarra and Ursua and the Dutch vessels lasted eight hours and the brave Spanish sailors issued from it as victors. Pie de Palo was seriously wounded, more than four hundred Dutchmen were killed and three of their vessels were destroyed. The enemy fled, pursued by Ibarra, who returned to Vera Cruz after saving the honor of the Spanish flag and the riches the fleet had carried. They sang a Te Deum in Mexico as thanksgiving for the victory and King Philip IV. rewarded Ibarra and his men by rich gifts.

The success of this expedition awakened in Havana the old spirit of adventure and military prowess. Cuba had so far been the victim of piracy and privateering; now it decided to defend her rights by fitting out her own privateers and sending them against the enemy. The first encounter was with corsairs that had been lying in wait for a vessel coming from Vera Cruz; the Cuban who distinguished himself in the command of the expedition which frustrated the enemy's designs, was Andres Manso de Contreras.

The demand for ships suitable for undertakings of this kind was so great that the ship-builders Carera and Perez of Oporto were kept busy building vessels for that purpose.

The administration of D. Francisco Riano y Gamboa was short, but some important measures were enacted in that period. The Exchequer Tribunal de Corientes was established with a single auditor for the royal chests of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Florida and other Spanish possessions. When it was subsequently found that the duties were too numerous for one man, a second official was appointed. It was then arranged that while one of the auditors was to remain in Cuba, the other was alternately to visit the other cajas (chests). In this way the government tried to avoid delays and complications which had caused considerable trouble. At this period, too, a commission of the Inquisition of Carthagena, elsewhere generally abolished, established its residence in Havana. Ecclesiastical life a.s.sumed greater proportions and a wider sphere of influence.

Bishops who had previously looked upon Havana as an undesirable place of residence, no longer hesitated to accept a call to that city.

Work on the fortifications of the island was actively pursued during the administration of Gamboa. It was ordered that el Morro should have a garrison of two hundred, and that as soon as feasible, la Punta and la Fuerza were to be garrisoned by one hundred men each. The construction of the fort at the entrance to the port of Santiago de Cuba was an important improvement. It was called San Pedro de la Rocca, in honor of the governor of that city, D. Pedro de la Rocca, although it is generally known as the Morro. A garrison was installed, consisting of one hundred and fifty men sent from the Peninsula, and the ammunition destined for the defense came from New Spain. The power of the armadilla, which had theretofore been arbitrary, was also regulated at this time. Governor Gamboa, however, retired from office on the fifteenth of September, 1639, when he had barely inaugurated these improvements, and sailed for Spain.

Gamboa's successor was D. Alvaro de Luna y Sarmiento, a knight of the Order of Alcantara. During his administration, which began on the fifteenth of September, 1639, and ended on the twenty-ninth of September, 1647, the work of constructing defenses was eagerly pushed.

Two leagues leeward of Chorrera a fort was erected. At the mouths of the rivers Casiguagas and Cojimar were built the two towers that had been planned by Governor Viamonte; they were intended to protect those advanced points of the capital. The able engineer Bautista Antonelli superintended the construction of these works of fortification. As the cost of these structures was defrayed by the inhabitants of the city, the governor saw fit to entrust their defense to three companies of men recruited from the native population. It was the first regiment of the kind organized on the island. By January of the next year the fortifications of the Castillo del Morro were also completed.

With the insurrection of Portugal which occurred at this period the pirates became bolder and renewed their outrages. The Dutch, too, threatened Havana once more. A squadron commanded by Admiral Fels had approached close to the coast, but had been driven back by a violent hurricane. Four of the vessels had been left between Havana and Mariel.

Governor Luna sent Major Lucas de Caravajal against them; three hundred Dutch were taken prisoners, and seventeen bronze cannon, forty-eight iron cannons, two pedreros (swivel guns) and a great stock of arms and ammunition were captured. The captured pieces served to reenforce the artillery of the forts of La Punta and Morro.

D. Diego de Villalba y Toledo, Knight of the Order of Alcantara, became the successor of Governor Luna on the twenty-eighth of September, 1647.

His a.s.sistant deputy was the Licentiate Francisco de Molina. A great calamity befell the island in the second year of his administration. A terrible epidemic broke out in the spring of 1649; the doc.u.ments and chronicles of the period give hardly any details about the origin and the character of the disease, but it was most likely a putrid fever imported from the Indian population of Mexico and Cartagena by barges that had come from those places. The people who were attacked by it succ.u.mbed within three days, and it was estimated that in the course of five months one third of the population died.

Among those who died as victims of the scourge were the deputy auditor Molino and the three licentiates who succeeded him, Pedroso, Torar and Olivares, an Alcalde and many other functionaries, one third of the garrison and a great number of the pa.s.sengers and crew of the fleet which its general, D. Juan Pujedas, had held ready to station in Havana.

Governor Villalba himself was seriously ill and only saved by utmost care. The ravages of the epidemic seriously disturbed not only the ordinary activities of the population, but also the regular routine of the administration.

During this period of suffering and sorrow the conduct of the religious orders of both s.e.xes was so admirable as to deserve special mention and warm recognition. The monks and nuns received the sick in their monasteries and convents, tenderly cared for them and when they did not succeed to nurse them back to health, escorted the victims to their graves. Among those who individually distinguished themselves by this true Christian spirit was Padre Antonio de Jesus. After the epidemic had spent itself and Governor Villalba had recovered, he organized a company of militia lancers under the command of Martin Calvido la Puerta, one of the wealthiest men of Havana. Like many other governors of Cuba, Villalba became at the end the victim of calumny and cabal. The government of Spain relieved him from his office and the Oidor of Santo Domingo, D. Francisco Pantoja de Ayala, was charged with an investigation of the complaints and accusations brought against him.

The victories of the Dutch fleets in India, Brazil and Peru and their conquest of some of the West Indian Islands, as also England's expansion of her dominions and the growth of her naval power were cause for grave anxiety. Measures of defense and protection became the subject of interminable discussions in the official circles of Madrid and Havana. The governors sent over by the court were urged to multiply their effort to fortify Cuba and insure safety from attacks by covetous enemies. D. Francisco Gelder, Field-marshal and Knight of Calatravas, succeeded Villalba and was inaugurated on the twenty-eighth of March, 1653. One of his first official acts was to sever communication with Santiago and Bayamo, for these two towns were at that time ravaged by the same epidemic from which Havana had suffered. His preventative measure set an example which was soon after followed by the authorities of Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Puerto Principe, Baracoa and Remedios, and the spreading of the epidemic being checked, the island soon returned to normal conditions.

Like other governors before him, Gelder showed a deplorable leniency towards those elements of the population that carried on contraband traffic with negroes. But he displayed great energy in the persecution of pirates. During his administration Captain Rojas de Figuerosa captured the island of Tortuga, which had been a formidable base of corsair operations. The news of this exploit caused great rejoicing in Havana and was celebrated by a Te Deum under the direction of Bishop Torre. Gelder also devised a plan to protect Havana from invasion by land. He proposed to open a ca.n.a.l from the extreme interior bay running north and extending to the sea, which would have surrounded the town by water and make it practically safe. But the suggestion did not seem to meet with approval. Before any other plans could be drafted, he died of apoplexy, on the twenty-third of June, 1654, and in the interval between his death and the arrival of his successor from Spain, the government was administered by the Regidor D. Ambrosio de Soto and D. Pedro Garcia Montanes, commandant of Morro.

The newly appointed governor, Field-marshal D. Juan Montano Velasquez, was inaugurated in June, 1655, but dying within a year, did not vitally influence the course of affairs in the island. His plan of fortifying Havana consisted in enclosing the city with walls from the landside, running a rampart with ten bastions and two half-bastions. For the execution of this plan the neighborhood of Havana offered to contribute nine thousand peons (day-laborers) and the town corporation imposed a tax on every pint of wine sold to a.s.sist in defraying the expenses of the construction. The king approved heartily of these offers and ordered that the treasury of Mexico should aid by an additional contribution of twenty-thousand pesos. But the historian Arrato reports that the whole scheme was soon after abandoned on account of the war in which Spain was about to be involved.

The British, their appet.i.te for colonial possessions once being awakened, saw in the growing weakness of Spain an opportunity to get hold of some of her dominions. It was well known that Cromwell, although England was then at peace with Spain, tried hard to increase and strengthen its political and commercial power in America. The British had already conquered the islands Barbadoes and San Cristobal, and in the year 1655 a squadron of fifty-six vessels and a great number of transports sailed from England, determined to wrest from Spain more of her West Indian possessions. A force of nine thousand men was on these vessels, many of them filibusters who had joined the British.

The British command had primarily in view the conquest of Santo Domingo; but, being repelled, it concentrated its efforts upon Jamaica. The governor and his people stubbornly resisted the inroads of the enemy. In the desperate struggle with a superior and well-trained force two brave land-holders distinguished themselves by their heroism: D. Francisco Proenza and D. Cristobal de Isasi. But their small and poorly equipped forces were outnumbered by the numerous and well prepared enemy; they were finally obliged to retire within the fortified camp and to surrender the place to the British invaders. Panic-stricken and unwilling to live under the rule of the enemy, thousands of Jamaicans left for Cuba. The population of this island having been recently decimated by the great epidemic, the refugees were warmly welcomed. They numbered about ten thousand and the population of Cuba increased, until it was estimated at forty thousand. This, however, did not compensate Cuba for the loss of Jamaica, which in time became as valuable to the British as it became ruinous to Spanish commerce.

The comparatively easy victory of the British was a heavy blow to Spanish pride and ranks high among the great disasters that marked the reign of Philip IV. Realizing that Cuba might at any time suffer the same fate as Jamaica, one hundred thousand soldiers were sent over from the Peninsula and some ammunition from Spain. The establishment of the British in colonies so near to Cuba was a constant menace to its security, and during his brief administration Governor Montano devoted himself with commendable perseverance to the improvement of the defenses of Havana, beginning with the most important and urgent work upon its walls. But before the realization of his plans Montano was taken ill and died during Easter week of the year 1656.

The conquest of Jamaica by the British had furnished the world such incontestable proof of Spain's military decline, that the lawless elements roving the sea under the black flag of the pirates once more set out upon their criminal expeditions. They extended their depredations to the whole coast of Spanish America and menaced the life and property of the inhabitants wherever the lack of forts or adequate garrisons facilitated their manoeuvres. As the pirates were supposed to be either British or French, the government of Spain was suddenly roused to action and entered complaints at the courts of France and England. But they received little satisfaction beyond an exchange of polite diplomatic notes, which contained nothing rea.s.suring whatsoever.

Both governments replied that the miscreants were private individuals and criminals for whose actions their government, however seriously it discountenanced them, was by no means responsible. Moreover, interference was out of the question, since the offenses were committed outside of the jurisdiction of the respective countries. Spain was thus left to her own resources in proceeding against those disturbers of the peace and safety of her American colonies.

But these colonies were thousands of miles away and Spain, under the weak rule of a weak sovereign, was too much absorbed by the futile effort to stay the decline of her European power. Roussillon and Artois had been ceded to France, the war with Portugal was dragging along hopelessly. Although the revenues of the crown had been materially increased under the king's favorite, Olivares, the profligate extravagance of the court was forever draining the coffers. The colonies had to get along as best they could and they had a troublesome time to fight the ever growing menace of pirate invasion with little or no aid from the mother country.

The death of Governor Montano made necessary another provisional government; it consisted of D. Diego Ranzel, as political and the Alcalde Jose Aguirera as military governor. When the duly appointed new governor, Captain General D. Juan de Salamanca, entered upon his office on the fifth of March, 1658, he soon found his hands full. Some years before, a number of Frenchmen, regardless of the Spanish claim of priority, had settled on the island of Tortuga. They were hunters, planters and laborers, with a fair sprinkling of adventurers. The settlement had grown into a real colony, before the Spaniards became aware of the fact that it const.i.tuted a grave danger. Several expeditions were sent against them, but failed to dislodge them.

Encouraged by this triumph over the Spaniards, these intruders set about to extend their operations to the coast contiguous to Hayti. Sometimes these men were working by authority of the French Company of the West Indies, and of the governor appointed to rule over them; at other times they undertook excursions quite independently. They fairly succeeded in making themselves masters of Cape France. Before long they seem to have reached some agreement with the British authorities of Jamaica, to combine for concerted action against Spain, and they began to terrorize the population of the Spanish possessions by sending out piratical expeditions that kept the people on the coasts in constant fear for their life and property.

The work ent.i.tled "Pirates of America" contains a wealth of facts concerning the corsairs sent out by these French and British settlements and the many other buccaneers and filibusters that hara.s.sed the people of the Spanish colonies. Among them is the story of the famous pirate Lolonois, also known as Francisco Nau and el Olones, whose descent upon Cuba during the administration of Governor Salamanca has all the elements of a thrilling though gruesome melodrama. Lolonois had been in Campeche and was supposed to have perished in one of his forays. But in reality he had made his escape and reached Tortuga, where he was able to arm himself anew. He reached the northern part of Cuba at a small trading town, los Cayo, which he intended to rob of its stores of tobacco, sugar and skins. Some fisherman recognized him and hurried to Havana with the news that Lolonois had arrived with two boats and was planning a raid. The governor doubted, having been a.s.sured of his death at Campeche, but urged by the entreaties of the men, he sent against him a vessel with ten pieces of artillery and ninety armed men. Their order was not to return until the pirate horde was annihilated; every one of them was to be hung, except Lolonois who was to be brought to Havana alive.

The pirates somehow were fully informed of the expedition against them and awaited the arrival of the vessel in the Riviera estera where it was to anchor. They terrorized some poor fisherfolk into showing them the entrance to the port, hoping there to find better boats than their own canoes. They reached the war-ship at two o'clock in the morning and were asked by the sentinel whence they came and whether they had seen any pirates. They made a prisoner answer for them, that they had not seen any, and the sentinel saw no cause for alarm. At day-break the Cubans found out their mistake; for the pirates began to attack them from all sides with such violence that their artillery was soon of no avail.

Sword in hand the outlaws forced the Spaniards to hide in the lower parts of the ship. Then Lolonois ordered them to be brought on deck, one by one, and had their heads cut off. Thus the whole force perished with the exception of one, who was sent as courier to the governor with the insolent message:

"I shall never give quarter to a Spaniard, I cherish the firm hope to execute on your own person what I did with those you sent with your vessel and what you intended to do with me and my companions."

Lolonois finally met with a tragical death in Nicaragua. But although the lack of preparedness on the part of the Cubans and the inefficiency of the commander and his crew make this story almost incredible, the exploit of the British pirate Juan or Henry Morgan in Puerto del Principe, is equally remarkable and vouched for not only in the book mentioned above, but also by the historian Urrutia. Morgan planned an attack upon Havana with twelve vessels, but yielding to the persuasion of his officers who feared its forts, he contented himself with descending upon the neighboring coast town. As the fleet approached, a Spanish prisoner dashed into the water, swam ash.o.r.e and warned the people of the danger. They put into safety their most precious household goods and when they gathered about the alcalde numbered about eight hundred men. A detachment of cavalry was displayed in hope of intimidating the approaching pirates and attacking them from the rear.

But the enemy advanced in good order, and when the Alcalde and many of the leaders were killed, the people fled to the mountains. Morgan's forces entered the city, where they met with some resistance, but when the pirates threatened to set fire to the town, the people gave up to them. As soon as they saw themselves masters of the place, the pirates locked the inhabitants into the churches, plundered as much as they could find and so ill-treated their victims that many died. Then they demanded ransom, threatening to take them to Jamaica, if it were not paid in two weeks. Before the term expired some of the pirates captured a negro coming towards the town with a message from the governor of Cuba, promising the people quick help. Morgan then demanded five hundred bulls or cows with sufficient salt to salt them to be driven to the coast, took with him six hostages and fifty thousand pesos cash and jewels, and left his companions attending to the shipping of the cattle.