The History of Cuba Volume I Part 12

CHAPTER XIV

The administration of Gonzalo Perez de Angulo marked the lowest point in the early history of Cuba. That was not because of the character of his administration, which was indeed better than some of its predecessors, but because various processes militating against the progress and prosperity of the island then reached their culmination. Foremost among these was the migration to Florida, Mexico, Peru and other lands, which were richer, or were reputed to be richer, than the Pearl of the Antilles. Cuba contained no such cities and treasures as those of Mexico and Peru; no such traditions as that of Florida's Fountain of Youth pertained to her. The island had been explored from end to end, and its resources were known; though by no means appreciated. The adventurers of those days were not inclined to engage in agriculture, even in so fertile a land as Cuba, when the gold and gems of the Incas were within reach. With the decline and practical disappearance of the Indians, and the increasing difficulties of the African or other slave trade, the scarcity of labor disinclined the Spanish settlers even to raise cattle.

The middle of the sixteenth century saw, therefore, a menacing emigration from Cuba to other lands which threatened to leave the island uninhabited.

Statistics of those days are scanty and not altogether trustworthy. It was the custom to report merely the number of householders or land-owners or heads of families in a place, leaving it to be estimated how many members each family contained. An exact census of the island in Angulo's time would astonish the reader of to-day with the meagreness of the settlements which had been effected in the course of forty years.

Of the seven cities which Velasquez had founded--they were called cities, and we must through courtesy retain the name--Santiago was still the largest, and was the capital. It probably contained at the period of which we are writing fewer than five hundred Spaniards and other Europeans. De Avila saw only two hundred a.s.sembled to welcome him on his arrival as Governor. The number of houses and other buildings was less than a hundred. The first town hall and church which were built there were structures of logs and thatch, which were burned by a fire which destroyed most of the place in 1528. Four years later the Franciscan monastery and other buildings shared a like fate. The Spanish government then urged the erection of buildings of stone with tiled roofs, and a few such were erected. At the end of Guzman's second administration there were perhaps a dozen such, of which Guzman himself owned two. The harbor boasted a single wharf or pier, of logs and earth, near which for protection two small cannon were placed behind an earthwork.

Such was the Cuban capital in 1550. Three years later, in 1553, a French privateer entered the harbor, silenced the two cannon, and landed a company of four hundred men, who outnumbered the entire population of the place. These freebooters took possession of Santiago and lived there at their ease, at the expense of the people, during the whole month of July. Then, having exacted from the inhabitants a ransom of what would be about $80,000 in modern currency, they departed, leaving the place uninjured save for the depletion of its people's purses. Following this visitation there was a numerous exodus of the inhabitants, to Bayamo and other places; some leaving the island altogether.

Havana was at this time the second city of the island, and was steadily rising toward first place. It had been the last of the seven cities to be founded by Velasquez, and was now occupying its third and final site.

It was first planted in July, 1515, near the mouth of the Guines or Mayabeque River, on the south sh.o.r.e of Cuba; that sh.o.r.e then being the favorite part of the island for the sake of trade with Jamaica and the South American continent. But the location was unhealthful, the swarms of mosquitoes particularly being intolerable, and two years later the city was transferred almost directly across the island to the north sh.o.r.e. This second site was near the mouth of the Almendares River, near the present town of Vedado, and was found to be vastly preferable to the former one. It was impossible, however, that the superb harbor on which the city now fronts should be neglected. It had been discovered in 1508 by Sebastian de Ocampo, while circ.u.mnavigating the island, and had been called Carenas. Accordingly in 1519 the young city of Havana, bearing the Indian name of that province of the island, was transported thither.

Credible tradition has it that the first meeting of the Munic.i.p.al Council was held under a huge ceiba tree, and that Ma.s.s was first celebrated at the same sylvan spot, the site of the tree now being marked by the building known as the Templete, in the heart of the great city. Two fine historical paintings by the artist Escobar, representing the two gatherings named, hang upon the walls of that building. In De Soto's time Havana became marked as the coming capital and metropolis of the island, partly because of its unsurpa.s.sed situation, and partly for a reason similar to that which caused it first to be founded on the south coast, namely, for the sake of trade with Mexico and Florida. De Soto during his brief sojourn there began the erection of the fortification known as La Fuerza, which has long been noted as the oldest inhabited building in the western hemisphere which was built by Europeans. By the time of Governor Angulo, Havana had grown into--or been reduced to--a community of about two hundred Europeans, and perhaps three hundred Indians and negro slaves.

Santa Maria del Puerto Principe was originally founded in 1515 on the north coast, but a dozen years later was removed inland for security against the rovers of the sea, and became known by its present name of Camaguey. For many years Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa was its chief man; a man of wealth and great force of character, who lived like a prince upon a vast estate with a great retinue of servants and slaves. All the rest of Camaguey was tributary to him; with a total population of fewer than five hundred souls.

Baracoa, originally Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, was the first permanent settlement in Cuba. Shut off from the rest of the island by a mountain wall, and visited by several disastrous epidemics, it was all but obliterated, and in the time of De Soto and Angulo contained fewer than a dozen European families. As for Trinidad, on the south coast, it fared even worse, for every Spanish or other European settler deserted it, chiefly for Sancti Spiritus, leaving there only a score of Indians.

But that did not mean any great accession to Sancti Spiritus, which place had only about two hundred Europeans, and perhaps as many more Indians and negro slaves. Bayamo was another city which was moved inland from its original site. It had in Angulo's time fewer than a hundred Spaniards and perhaps twice as many Indians and negroes.

Thus after forty years of settlement and colonization, all Cuba had not more than 1,200 inhabitants of European origin, and perhaps twice that number of Indians and negroes. The great majority of the former were, of course, Spaniards. Even at this early date, however, there was a sprinkling of other nationalities. Some Portuguese came hither in the second quarter of the century, and engaged in vine growing and agriculture. Indeed, by the middle of the century most of the profitable and commercial agriculture of the island was in their hands. The value of such colonists was appreciated by the Spanish, who were glad to have others engage in the agriculture for which they themselves had little taste or apt.i.tude. Accordingly Portuguese settlers were encouraged to come to Cuba, and legislation was enacted in their favor. Their naturalization as Spanish subjects was facilitated, and free homesteads were given to them, of choice agricultural lands.

Some Italians also came to Cuba in those early years, partly as soldiers of fortune, to enlist in the forces of the island or to seek further adventures of exploration and conquest, and partly to become horticulturists and agriculturists, after the manner of the Portuguese.

Even a few Arabs and Moors visited the island, and some German artisans.

French and English there were none, because of the generally prevailing hostilities between them and Spain.

The Spanish government was chiefly intent upon encouraging conquests in the great treasure-yielding lands of Mexico and Central and South America. Yet it was not blind to the potential value of Cuba, nor altogether neglectful of that island's interests. Various attempts were made to stimulate immigration and permanent settlement, and even to prevent settlers, once there, from leaving the island. Some of these measures were, indeed, so stringent as probably to react against their own purpose. Thus it was required that merchants and s.h.i.+p-masters sailing from Cuba for trade with other lands should give bonds for their return, while the death penalty, with confiscation of estate, was actually prescribed for many years for all persons leaving the island without permission from the authorities. The effect of this extraordinary measure was what might have been expected. Knowing that once in Cuba it would be difficult and perhaps impossible for them to get away again, prudent people were reluctant to go thither.

Efforts were also made to stimulate increase of population. Married men in Spain were forbidden to go to Cuba without taking their wives with them. Bachelors and widowers in Cuba were not permitted to employ Indians or to hold slaves, while illicit unions with native women were discouraged under penalty. Regular marriages with native women were, however, legitimized, and there were many such which resulted satisfactorily. In spite of these precautions there were, of course, some illegitimate children, and these the government took steps to legitimize, in order that they might, in default of other heirs, inherit their fathers' property and become substantial members of the community.

The population of Cuba was materially increased in another and by no means commendable way. This was by the importation of negro slaves from Africa. The traffic in human beings began in the West Indies at about the time that Velasquez began the conquest and settlement of Cuba; perhaps a little before that time. Naturally, with the settlement of Cuba slave traders visited that island to offer their wares. It must be recorded to the credit of Velasquez that he at first prohibited the entrance of negro slaves into the island, and to the end of his life opposed it though he was forced after a while to permit it. This was partly on the ground of morals, and partly on that of prudence. He did not scruple to enslave to some extent the native Cubans. But that was in order to civilize and Christianize them, and also to afford the colonists protection from them in their wild native state. Such, at least, was the argument with which he justified his policy. Moreover, the Indians were already there, in the island, and had to be dealt with in some fas.h.i.+on. But it was manifestly a very different thing to import savages from some distant land for the express purpose of making slaves of them. The other reason was his fear that if many negroes were imported they and the Indians would so outnumber the whites as to be a grave menace.

Nevertheless the slave trade was established and soon attained considerable proportions. It became so flouris.h.i.+ng that presently the Spanish government forbade private parties to conduct it save under special charter from the crown and on payment of a considerable royalty on each negro imported. Ostensibly, this was because it was feared that too many negroes might be imported, so as to endanger the security of the colonists, as Velasquez had suggested; but in fact it was largely for the sake of the revenue which thus accrued to the royal treasury.

The popular sentiment in Cuba was generally in favor of slavery. It was held that thus only could sufficient labor be secured for the development of the resources of the island. The number of negroes never was as great as some colonists urged that it should be, to wit, three male and three female slaves for every white householder, but it is probable that before the middle of the century the negro population of the island outnumbered the European.

Treatment of the slaves was on the whole humane. The negroes were forbidden to carry weapons, or to go about in companies of more than four. They were at times subjected to physical punishment by their masters for misdemeanors, though generally such discipline was required to be administered by the authorities. Miscegenation between Europeans and negroes was prohibited under penalty, and as an additional safeguard against it slaves were required to be imported in equal numbers of the s.e.xes, and all were required to be married. It may be doubted if a similar regard for their s.e.xual morals was ever exhibited elsewhere.

There was a provision under which it was possible for industrious and faithful slaves to purchase their freedom, and a considerable number of them did so; after which they became members of the community with almost the same legal rights and privileges as the Europeans.

There was, it is pleasant to record, never the prejudice against the negro in Cuba that prevailed in the states of North America. He was a slave, but he was a man. He was a social and political inferior, because of his enslavement; but he was mentally and spiritually the peer of his master. The text "Cursed be Canaan" was never thundered from Cuban pulpits, nor was it ever held that the negro must not be educated nor instructed in religion. On the contrary, it was required by law that the slaves should have the advantages of all the services of the church equally with their masters; and the Spanish aristocrat and his African slaves thus knelt side by side at the same altar. This att.i.tude of the races toward each other had two natural results. One was, that the slaves were generally contented and peaceful, and attempts at insurrection among them, while not unknown, were rare. The other was, that amalgamation of the races became frequent and was recognized as quite legitimate. We have said that miscegenation in illegitimate fas.h.i.+on, between negro slaves and Europeans, was forbidden. But there was no ban against marriage between whites and emanc.i.p.ated negroes, and such unions not infrequently occurred, with satisfactory results.

The importation of negroes naturally increased with the gradual extermination of the native Indians, and it was favored by the very men who most strongly inveighed against the enslavement of the Indians. Even La Casas himself, with all his fervor in behalf of the natives, acquiesced in negro slavery; favored it, indeed, as a means of saving the Indians from such a fate. During the second administration of Guzman, the restrictions which had been placed upon the slave trade were removed, and free importations, without payment of a royalty, were thereafter permitted. Indeed, a further step than this was contemplated.

It was urged that if the King wished the Indians to be emanc.i.p.ated, he should supply their places with negroes. This extraordinary argument prevailed, and for at least one year all the King's revenues from Cuba were ordered to be invested in negroes, who were then to be distributed among the colonists of the island in place of the Indians who were set free. These were not, however, to be free gifts, but were to be paid for by the colonists in the course of a term of years. The revenues for that year amounted to about 7,000 pesos, and it was reckoned that at the prices then prevailing in the slave market at least 700 slaves could be purchased. But at the last moment the King, or else the Council for the Indies, reconsidered the matter, and the slaves were never purchased. At the same time the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the Indians was postponed.

The early industries of Cuba were, in the order of their importance, gold mining, stock raising, and agriculture. The last named was practised by the Spanish settlers only to an extent sufficient to supply their own needs for food. Stock raising, both horses and cattle, was engaged in much more extensively, not only to supply local needs but also to supply the needs of Spanish explorers and gold-seekers in Mexico and Central and South America, who had no time nor opportunity in their strenuous quest there to attend to such matters. But the first thought of the first settlers in Cuba was for gold, and for many years the mining of that metal was the most profitable occupation. Within the first twenty years of Spanish settlement more than 500,000 pesos in gold were secured. Indeed in a single year, 1531, the mines at Cuyeba produced 50,000 pesos. There were paying mines at Savanna, at Savanna de Guaimaro, at Puerto Principe, at Portillo, and elsewhere throughout the central districts of the island; some of them being ore veins in the mountains and some placers in the river beds. But in the course of twenty-five years the mines began to fail and new ones were not discovered, so that by De Soto's time the output of gold had become insignificant. This was doubtless one of the strong contributing causes of the migration of so many settlers from the island, the eagerness of men to seek new fields in Florida, and the general decline which Cuba then suffered.

There was some compensation for the decline of gold mining in the discovery of rich copper mines, though the full value of them was not at first realized. It was during the first administration of Guzman that copper was discovered at Cobre, near Santiago. (This was the place where, as formerly related, Alonzo de Ojeda, in grat.i.tude for his restoration to health, presented a statue of the Holy Virgin to the native chief, Comendador, who had been his host and nurse and who had embraced Christianity. The statue was long famous as Our Lady of Cobre.) There is reason for believing that the Cuban natives had formerly worked those mines to a considerable extent, for traffic with other lands, though they themselves apparently did not make use of the metal in their own arts. The governor, Guzman, learning of the discovery, urged the development of the mines as the property of the discoverers, while the royal treasurer claimed that they should belong to the crown. A controversy was maintained for some time, with the result that the crown, lightly esteeming the value of the find, permitted private exploitation of the mines on a basis of ten per cent royalty. An a.s.sayer was sent from Spain to superintend the refining of the copper from the ore, and suitable works were erected. But little or nothing was done for several years. Then, after the administration of De Soto, and while the alcalde mayor, Ortiz, was acting governor, a great demand for copper arose, for the casting of cannon, in Spain, and interest in the mines was revived. A German engineer made an agreement with the local authorities to extract the copper and did so with great success. The ore was found to be very rich in copper and also to contain so much gold and silver that it would be worth working for those metals entirely apart from the copper. Under this expert management the mines became highly profitable.

In the administration of Angulo the German engineer had two mines a.s.signed to him as his own, in return for which he instructed all comers--chiefly slaves who were sent to him for the purpose by the settlers--in the art of smelting and refining copper. Large quant.i.ties of the copper were at that time sent to Spain, and the first cannon mounted on La Fuerza, in Havana, were made of it, being cast at the royal foundry at Seville. It is related that one of these cannon, a small falconet, burst in the casting, and so badly injured the superintendent of the works that he had to be taken to a hospital, where he expressed a bad opinion of Cuban copper. This was the origin of the really unfounded belief which long prevailed, and which was recorded in technological works, that Cuban copper had some peculiar quality which rendered it difficult and even dangerous to work.

The first essays toward the growing of sugar, which has become one of the greatest industries of the island and in which Cuba surpa.s.ses any other equal area of the earth's surface, were made as already related in the closing years of Velasquez's administration. They did not at that time prove important, and nothing more was done until the first administration of Guzman. That enterprising governor, always ready to do anything to enrich himself, asked permission to import negro slaves free of royalty, in order to establish the sugar industry, promising under penalty to begin the construction of a sugar mill within two years and to complete it within four years. The crown considered that too long a time, and refused to waive the royalty on slaves for his benefit, whereupon he abandoned the scheme. Then Hernando de Castro made a similar proposal, reducing the time of completion of the mill to three years. The crown was more favorably impressed by his offer, and agreed to it, only to have him withdraw it. Juan de Avila and his brother Alfonso reported strongly in favor of establis.h.i.+ng the industry in Cuba, and asked for a loan of capital from the royal treasury to finance the undertaking; but nothing was done. Chaves and Angulo also successively reported that Cuba was admirably adapted to the industry, and it was known that at that very time sugar growing was enormously successful in Hispaniola, Porto Rico and other islands. Yet by some strange fatality nothing practical was done, and the actual establishment of the great industry was postponed until near the end of the century.

The fiscal policy of the Spanish government was in early years not unfavorable to Cuba. Apart from a royalty of from five to ten per cent on precious metals mined, and on copper, and the royalty already described on the importation of negro slaves, and a customs duty of seven and a half per cent ad valorem on all imports, the island was free from taxation. The royalties in question were certainly not oppressive, and the fact that the Seville government imposed the same customs duty on all goods imported into Spain from Cuba made the tariff seem entirely just. Indeed, Cuba was favored above all other islands In the West Indies for many years. Thus after the middle of the sixteenth century one-third of what had been the import duty on goods received in Spain from the West Indies was required to be paid in the Indies as an export tax; but Cuba alone of all the islands was exempted from this arrangement. It was not, indeed, until the decline of Spain herself set in, with increasing expenses for maintaining an inefficient and often corrupt bureaucracy, and with sorely diminis.h.i.+ng resources and revenues, that Cuba began to be detrimentally exploited for the sake of the Mother Country.

CHAPTER XV

We have said that the administration of Angulo marked the nadir of early Cuban history. It also marked the turning point, and the entrance of the island into international affairs. Not yet had the great duel between Spain and England begun; which in the next century was to have so momentous results. France was the enemy. Francis I became King of that country in 1515, when Velasquez was beginning the settlement of Cuba, and Charles I (Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire) became King of Spain in the following year; and in 1521, while Velasquez was still governor of Cuba, those two monarchs began the first of their series of six wars.

Adopting the policy which was afterward pursued by England against Spain and against France, and by France against England, France struck at Spain in her American colonies. During the first, second and third wars, French attention was chiefly given to conquests in North America, with occasional raids against Spanish commerce in the Caribbean and along the coast of Mexico. Cuba appears to have remained unscathed.

With the outbreak of the fourth war in 1536, however, trouble for Cuba began. French privateers, little better than pirates in their practices, sometimes, swarmed the Caribbean and the Gulf, preying upon Spanish commerce and raiding Spanish seacoast towns. The first such blow was struck at Cuba in 1537. A fleet of five Spanish s.h.i.+ps, richly laden, was about to set forth from Havana for Spain, by way of the Bahama Channel.

Just as they spread their sails and weighed their anchors, a venturesome French privateer entered the harbor's mouth. The intruder hesitated at sight of so many vessels, whereupon three of the Spaniards, being well armed as well as laden, as most s.h.i.+ps had to be in those troublous days, gave chase. The Frenchman retired, fighting stubbornly, as far as the harbor of Mariel, where he turned at bay and for three days kept up the unequal conflict. Then, just as he seemed preparing to give up the fight and flee, an unfavorable wind struck the Spanish s.h.i.+ps, placing them at such disadvantage that their captains ordered them to be abandoned and burned. This was done, but the French boarded one before the flames had made headway, extinguished the fire, and sailed away with the prize. The daring Frenchman then returned to Havana, entered the harbor with the two s.h.i.+ps, and proclaimed to the alcaldes and citizens that he would do the place no harm if none was done to him, but that if any attack was made upon his s.h.i.+ps, he would sack the town. After a while he went out and sailed away to the west.

At that same time all commerce out of and into Santiago was practically blocked by the presence of French privateers hovering off that port. In April, 1538, an attack was made upon Santiago, and the place was defended in a most extraordinary fas.h.i.+on. A Spanish vessel tried to leave port, met a French vessel returning from a raid on Hispaniola, and tried to scuttle back, but was overtaken and captured at the entrance to the harbor. Next day, having despoiled the prize, the Frenchman sailed into the deep harbor, which never before had been thus invaded, and menaced the town. The town had no defences whatever, and the citizens were unarmed. Guzman, then just at the end of his administration, was furious at his helplessness. He railed against the citizens because they would not rush down to the wharf and repel the invader with clubs and stones. But railing was in vain, and so there was nothing to do but to take to flight inland, which most of the officials and citizens did, carrying all portable treasure with them.

The Frenchman then threatened to burn the town, which Guzman wished he would do, in order to bring the King's government to its senses and arouse it to the necessity of defending Cuba. But there chanced to be in the port a certain merchant of Seville, by name Diego Perez, who was at least as daring as the Frenchman himself. He had a little merchant sloop, not more than half the size of the Frenchman, but well armed, with guns that would carry at least as far as the Frenchman's. He ran his little craft into water too shallow for the bigger Frenchman, where he would be secure against ramming or boarding, and there began peppering the enemy with his long range guns, Perez himself aiming the best of them. The fight lasted all day, and Perez was ready to resume it next morning. But in the darkness of the night the Frenchman stole away and was seen no more in Santiago harbor. Perez had three men killed, and his vessel was badly damaged; but the Frenchman probably suffered heavier losses, since two of his men who were killed fell overboard and were picked up and buried by the Spaniards, and there were almost certainly others killed. For his valor on thus saving the capital of Cuba from destruction, Perez received from the King a coat of arms with a device emblematic of his achievement.

That same Frenchman a little later, having repaired his vessel, wreaked his revenge upon Havana. When he entered the harbor there the people fled and left the town for him to loot at his leisure. It is recorded that he took even the church bells. Moreover, being a truculent Huguenot, he took an image of Saint Peter from the church and let his men use it as a target to pelt with oranges! This incident caused De Soto, who arrived at Havana a little later, to hasten work on the defences of the place. For some time there had been talk of building a fort, but no agreement had been reached as to where it should be; whether at the Cabana, or the Morro, or on the hill in what is now Central Park. But the Frenchman's raid brought the controversy to an end, and De Soto was authorized to build wherever he thought best. The result was the building of La Fuerza. It was hastily built, and therefore badly, so that ten years later part of it had to be torn down and the whole remodelled into its present form.

By this time it was considered certain that Havana would one day become the capital and chief city of Cuba, wherefore it was decided to fortify it rather than Santiago or any other port. Beside, it was the most convenient port of call for treasure s.h.i.+ps and others plying between Mexico and Spain. A battery of cannon was therefore placed upon the Morro headland, long before the building of the castle, and La Fuerza was strongly armed. It became the custom for treasure s.h.i.+ps to put into Havana harbor, and if pursued to unload their treasure there, for safe keeping on sh.o.r.e until the danger was past. But no further attack was made upon Havana or any other Cuban port, and in 1544 the war was ended.

The prospect of Havana's becoming the capital seemed temporarily to be realized in 1550, when Angulo established his permanent residence there--the first governor so to do, though some of his predecessors had spent some time there, and De Avila had actually established a residence there. Angulo began building a large stone church at Havana, in place of the wooden thatched hut which had served the purpose before him; he built an addition to the hospital, two store houses and a slaughter house, and rebuilt the jail. He also regulated the prices of food, so as to put a stop to the artificial raising of prices whenever s.h.i.+ps came in for supplies. Yet when, in obedience to the orders of the crown, in November, 1552, he issued an emanc.i.p.ation proclamation in favor of the Indians, a storm of abuse broke upon him, in Havana as well as elsewhere. Santiago, piqued because he had spent so much time away from that place, took the initiative in demanding a judicial investigation of his conduct, charging him with venality and peculations. But the city council of Havana quickly followed suit, made more than fifty specific charges against him, and provided a s.h.i.+p to fetch a judge from Hispaniola to try him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MORRO CASTLE, HAVANA

A grim guardian, seated on the headland at one side of the entrance to Havana's peerless harbor; founded to protect the city from the sixteenth-century corsairs; captured in the seventeenth century by the British and the American Colonists after the most stubborn resistance; and in later years the prison in which many Cuban patriots were immured.]

Curiously enough, while Santiago was hostile to him because he would not live there, Havana was hostile because he would live there. It was specifically complained that he persisted in living at Havana against the will of the people of that place. They did not want him there, they said, because they were convinced that he was there for his own profit.

So they besought the court to compel him to return to Santiago. Other complaints were that he had imposed various new-fangled devices upon the city, that he was a gambler, that he engaged in trade for his own profit, that he permitted his wife to decide suits at law, and that he had instructed one of his officers to strike with a club anyone who did not rise to his feet when the governor entered the church.

Angulo denied all the charges, and declared that they had been trumped up against him because he had obeyed the King in emanc.i.p.ating the Indians. He went to Hispaniola in person to argue his cause before the Supreme Court, the chief counsel against him being Alfonso de Rojas. The court decided in his favor so far as to suspend all action and let him return to Havana, until the King could pa.s.s upon the case. No judge would be appointed to investigate him, the court added, unless one were sent from Spain. So the governor returned to Cuba in triumph. Landing at Santiago, he proclaimed the freedom of all Indians there. Thence he proceeded to Baracoa, to Bayamo, to Trinidad, and to Puerto Principe, repeating the emanc.i.p.ation proclamation at each place. At the midsummer of 1553 he reached Havana, to find that the town council had "deposed"

him, on the ground that he had been absent from his jurisdiction without leave for more than ninety days; a decree which he ignored. Meanwhile the crown had appointed a judge to investigate him, but the judge did not come and the inquest was not held. Soon after his arrival at Havana, finding that he would not give up the governors.h.i.+p at its word, the town council begged the Hispaniola court to have him investigated, and the court commissioned a judge for that purpose, who declined or at least failed to act. This was in August, 1554.

Now trouble was renewed with France, the sixth war between Henry II, who had succeeded Francis, and Charles beginning in 1552 and continuing until 1559, Charles meanwhile abdicating in favor of Philip II in 1556.

The French navy was more potent than ever, and French privateers swarmed the Spanish Main. Every Cuban port was warned to be on its guard against attack, Havana most of all, since it was now the richest and was in the most exposed situation. It was not until the fall of 1553 that the official news of the renewal of hostilities reached Cuba, and great was the consternation which it caused.

Juan de Lobera was at that time the commander of the fortifications of Havana, to wit, La Fuerza. He appears to have been a man of strangely mingled temperament, at times fearful and timorous, at others resolute and valiant. At the beginning the former characteristics prevailed. He realized, only too truly, that the fortifications and petty garrison would be entirely insufficient for the protection of the place against any considerable force, such as even a single French s.h.i.+p might bring against it, and he fell into something like a panic. Happily, however, he did not desert his post, but made pa.s.sionate demands upon the governor and the town council for additional guards. Happily, too, in the presence of menace the animosities of faction were stilled, and the council cooperated heartily with the governor whom it had just been trying to depose and whom only a little later it denounced to the court as worthy of investigation and indictment.

New guards were supplied. Day and night the beach was patrolled.

Watchmen were stationed on the Morro headland to espy approaching vessels and to signal the tidings to the fort and city. At the mouth of the Almendares River, where it was supposed that invaders were likely to land, hors.e.m.e.n were stationed, to hasten back to the city with news of any such landing or of the appearance of a hostile vessel. Twelve men, expert in arms, were held in readiness day and night to man the fort the moment a strange vessel was reported; La Fuerza being otherwise without a garrison--which amply justified the commander's lack of faith in its defensive efficiency. In case of an attack, all able-bodied citizens were to present themselves in a ma.s.sed levy under command of the governor. Every man was to be armed, at least with a sword, day and night, and none was to absent himself from the city without the permission of the governor. Every vessel of any kind that approached the harbor was signalled to stop outside until it could be visited and its ident.i.ty be established; though if any refused thus to halt there was no adequate power to compel it to do so. However, refusal to stop would of course be regarded as proof of hostile character.

With all these preparations the defensive ability of Havana was pitifully if not ludicrously slight. Three small cannon manned by twelve volunteers const.i.tuted the armament of a fort which might be attacked by a s.h.i.+p of twenty guns and two hundred men. The "army" of the place comprised sixteen hors.e.m.e.n and less than seventy footmen, scarcely any two of them armed alike. The chief commander under the governor was Juan de Rojas, who was the governor's bitterest political enemy, though he had once been his close friend and deputy. He was a brother of the former governor, Manuel de Rojas. In these circ.u.mstances the commander of the fort awaited with unspeakable trepidation the antic.i.p.ated approach of the enemy.