The History of Cuba Volume I Part 9

They therefore arrayed themselves solidly against Altamarino, and rallied to the opposition the councils of the other munic.i.p.alities and many of the princ.i.p.al men throughout the island. Altamarino replied by trumping up charges against several of the life councillors, of having expended public funds without authorization, and suspended them from their functions, or attempted to do so. He certainly could not remove them outright, and there was much question of his right to suspend them, unless during actual trial in court. The Guzmans and their allies retorted by obtaining from the court at Hispaniola an injunction restraining Altamarino from attending meetings of the Council, so that he would not know whether the suspended members continued their functions or not. Against this the Governor furiously protested, declaring that his predecessors had habitually attended all Council meetings, and he issued an order forbidding the Council of Santiago to transact any business whatever or indeed to meet officially, in his absence. Of course this brought matters to an impa.s.se, which could be solved only through appeal to the King. This was made, and resulted in a royal decision in favor of the Councils, confirming the injunction of the Hispaniola tribunal against the Governor's intrusion into council meetings.

This, in the early autumn of 1525, was obviously the beginning of the end for Altamarino. A little later, in October of that year, the various munic.i.p.al councils of the island united in sending Rodrigo Duran to Hispaniola, to prefer to the court there charges against Altamarino of a most serious character. They were indeed tantamount to his impeachment and a demand for his removal from the Governors.h.i.+p. The court hesitated to take action so radical, but considered the charges sufficiently important to warrant reference to the King. The result was that the King promptly decided against the Governor. Less than nine months after his actual a.s.sumption of office, and little more than a year and a half after his appointment to it, Altamarino was summarily removed from the place to which he had been appointed for two years.

Immediately after this, at the beginning of December, 1525, Altamarino's chief antagonist, Gonzalo de Guzman, a life Councillor of Santiago, was appointed to succeed him as Governor, and also as Repartidor of the natives, with all the plenary authority that Velasquez had exercised.

Nor was that all. Guzman was commissioned juez de residencia, to investigate the affairs of the deposed Altamarino as the latter had investigated those of the deceased Velasquez. Guzman appears not actually to have taken office until April 25, 1526, and not to have begun his inquest into his predecessor's affairs until midsummer of that year. But he then made up for the delay with the searching and ruthless character of his investigation. We can scarcely doubt that he was moved by a large degree of personal vindictiveness. Certainly he seemed to try to be as irritating and as humiliating to Altamarino as possible; the more so, perhaps, because he realized that there was nothing serious to be proved, and that the chief penalty the ex-Governor would suffer would be the heckling and denunciation which he received during the investigation. There were charges enough against him, but not one warranted any severe punishment. As a matter of fact, all the penalties imposed upon him were light, and they were all promptly remitted by the King; the royal advisers at Madrid reporting to His Majesty that the whole business had been nothing but a tempest in a teapot. Nevertheless, the episode ended the career of Altamarino in Cuba. He at once departed to Mexico, and was seen in the island no more.

We may now fittingly observe a certain highly significant political development which at this time was manifested in the island. Reference has already been made to the rise of a feeling of local pride and munic.i.p.al independence in the various provinces into which the island was divided, and also to the marked a.s.sertion of insular patriotism under Rojas and his colleagues. The former movement dated from as early as 1518, when Panfilo de Narvaez secured from the King a decree giving to some of the members of munic.i.p.al councils life terms of office. In that year, accordingly, Gonzalo de Guzman and Diego de Sumana were appointed by the King to be life Councillors, or Regidors, in Santiago; Alonzo Bembrilla and Bernardino Yniguez in Trinidad; and Francisco Santa Cruz and, as we might suppose, Panfilo de Narvaez himself in Bayamo. A little later Diego de Caballero and Fernando de Medina were appointed in Sancti Spiritus, and Rodrigo Canon and Sancho de Urrutia in Puerto del Principe. In addition to these there were, of course, other Councillors appointed by the Governor for limited terms. But the life Councillors gave tone and direction to the munic.i.p.al administrations and developed a certain degree of local independence of the general government of the island. In brief, there began to be promulgated at this early date the salutary principle that the various munic.i.p.alities or provinces were to enjoy home rule in all purely local matters, while of course remaining subject to the Governor in everything relating to the general welfare of the island; and also that the island was to enjoy home rule in all matters pertaining exclusively to it, while subject and loyal to the Crown in everything affecting the general welfare and integrity of the Spanish kingdom and its colonial empire.

The motives and purpose of Narvaez in seeking this permanent tenure for munic.i.p.al Councillors have been much debated. He has been charged by some, and not unnaturally, with a selfish purpose to entrench himself and his friends irremovably in office. On the other hand there have been those who have credited him with a high-minded and statesmanlike design of promoting the welfare of Cuba by securing stability of local government under the best men. Knowing what we do of his character, it seems reasonable to suppose that the latter motive was potent, even if the other also had some influence. What is quite certain is, however, that the system quickly became a formidable power in Cuban politics, sometimes beneficent and sometimes mischievous. These permanent Councillors were powerful in bringing to naught the brief administration of Zuazo, and they formed, as already stated, the head and front of the successful opposition to Altamarino. At the same time, through their control of the election of alcaldes and other local officers they gave to the local administrations a stability which they might not otherwise have enjoyed.

With the accession of Gonzalo de Guzman to the Governors.h.i.+p, however, a strong and widespread reaction against the Councillors arose. This was doubtless largely provoked by the injudicious action of Guzman himself.

As a life Councillor of Santiago he had been foremost in securing the exclusion of Altamarino from sessions of the councils. But when he himself became Governor, he retained his life Councillors.h.i.+p and therefore insisted upon his right to continue attending the meetings.

Remonstrance against this was made, to the King; he having appointed Guzman to both offices; but he declined to interfere. He did, however, appoint additional life Councillors, enough largely to outnumber the partisans of Guzman. He also took the very important step of authorizing each munic.i.p.ality to elect from among its Councillors a Procurator, or public advocate, corresponding in some respects to a Tribune of the ancient Roman Republic.

These procurators soon found their chief occupation in resisting and protesting against those acts of the Councils which they deemed inimical to the public welfare. The procurators of all the munic.i.p.alities met together, to compare notes and to take counsel together for the common good, and there was an increasing inclination among them to oppose what they regarded as the growing tyranny of the Councils. At such a meeting of all the procurators, in March, 1528, Manuel de Rojas, procurator for Bayamo, took the sensational action of presenting a formal popular protest against what was described as the arrogance and oligarchical tendencies of the Councils. This provoked an impa.s.sioned reply from Juan de Quexo, the procurator for Havana, who denied the statements and insinuations of the doc.u.ment and opposed its reception by the meeting.

But after an acrimonious controversy, Rojas won the day. The protest was received, adopted by the convention, and forwarded to the King of Spain.

Together with it the procurators forwarded to the King some radical recommendations for the improvement of the insular government. These were, that the Governor should always be selected from among the bona fide residents of the island and should be appointed for a term of three years; that the life tenure of Councillors should be abolished; and that all councillors, alcaldes and procurators should be elected yearly by the people.

These suggestions were not in their entirety received favorably by the King. He refused outright to adopt those relating to the selection and appointment of governors, and to the abolition of life councillors.h.i.+ps.

He did, however, order that the procurators should be elected yearly by the people, and he greatly enlarged the functions and powers of that office. A new system of choosing alcaldes was also decreed. Instead of their being elected yearly by the Councils, it was ordered that the Council presided over by the alcalde should nominate two candidates, that the Council members without the alcalde should nominate two more, and that the Governor should name one; and that from among these five a first and second alcalde should be chosen by lot.

Thus in the administration of Gonzalo de Guzman the principle of "Cuba for the Cubans," afterward long neglected, was pretty efficiently established. The Governor, at that time, and all other royal officers of the island, were Cuban colonists; and the people were invested with power to select their own procurators or advocates, who were irremovable, and who were competent to represent the people not only in the Cuban courts and in those of Hispaniola, but also before the Royal Council for the Indies at Madrid, and who were empowered to proceed against the munic.i.p.al councils, the royal officials, or even the Governor himself.

CHAPTER X

The early part of the administration of Gonzalo de Guzman was chiefly occupied with the investigation of his predecessors' stewards.h.i.+ps, and with controversies with the munic.i.p.al councils. There was also a controversy with the Crown over the payment to him of a salary for his services, which he requested of the King, and which the King ordered to be paid to him, but which he did not receive. Then came complications over the royal treasurers.h.i.+p in the island. Christopher de Cuellar had been succeeded in that office by Pedro Nunez de Guzman. The latter died, leaving a considerable fortune, and the colonial government at Hispaniola immediately designated Andres Duero to succeed him temporarily, until the King should make a permanent appointment; the expectation apparently being that Duero would be confirmed in the office. Unfortunately for the success of this design, however, the temporary appointment had been made without consulting the royal officials; who were not unnaturally piqued and offended. The result was that a protest was made to the King, not only against the method of his appointment but also against Duero himself. To this the King listened sympathetically, and he presently overruled the appointment of Duero, and in place of him named Hernando de Castro as temporary treasurer, until such time as he could have conditions investigated and could select some fitting man as a permanent inc.u.mbent.

Oddly enough, Castro had once before supplanted Duero, as the royal factor in Cuba. This office had first been held by Bernardino Velasquez, upon whose death Andres Duero had been appointed to hold it temporarily, only to be speedily replaced by Castro. The latter appears to have been one of the most enterprising men of affairs of that time, and to have done more than most of his contemporaries for the industrial and economic development of the island. He became engaged in commerce between Spain and the West Indies at an early date, and paid much attention to agriculture, which he believed would be the chief permanent industry of Cuba. It was he who introduced the cultivation of wheat and other staples, with a view to making the island self-supporting, and for such activities he received the formal thanks of the King.

Unfortunately, he too somewhat compromised himself by attempting to appropriate as his own the native Cubans who had been the serfs of Bernardino Velasquez and whom Duero, the factor pro tempore, had seized.

Soon after the replacing of Duero with Castro as treasurer pro tempore the former died, and then the latter was in turn replaced by the permanent appointment of Lopez Hurtado, who held the place for many years, and who was distinguished at once for his honesty and his irrepressible cantankerousness. He seemed to have a mania for faultfinding; though doubtless there was much legitimate occasion for the exercise of that faculty. To his mind, almost every other man in Cuba was a knave, and he never wearied of reporting to the King, in interminable written messages, his complaints and accusations. Not only in spite of but also because of this he was a most useful public servant.

Pedro Nunez de Guzman, who died in 1527, left, as we have seen, a considerable fortune. Practically all of it was left to his widow, and her the thrifty Gonzalo de Guzman presently married, and thus got himself into one of the most serious controversies of his whole career.

A part of the fortune of Pedro consisted of about two hundred Cuban serfs. These Gonzalo de Guzman, as Repartidor, transferred to the widow, and then, of course, when he married her, they became his property. This roused the animosity of the honest but cantankerous Hurtado, who thought that the Cubans should have been given to himself, as their former owner's official successor; according to the example set by Hernando de Castro, as already related. Hurtado accordingly wrote to the King a long letter on the subject, which, though it did not cause intervention in that special matter, attracted the King's attention to the complications which the Guzman marriage was producing.

The mother of the late Pedro Nunez de Guzman next appeared as a party to the controversy. This lady, Dona Leonora de Quinones, who had remained in Spain, complained that a great injustice had been done to her and to her other children by the transfer of Pedro's entire fortune to his widow and thence to the latter's second husband, and she applied to the Spanish courts for relief. The result was a series of lawsuits, which scandalized the Spanish courts for a term of years. In these suits many prominent Cubans were involved, and nearly the whole population of the island took sides for one or the other of the parties. Street brawls occurred over it, and the violence culminated in a physical scuffle in the aisle of the cathedral, between Gonzalo de Guzman and the Alcalde of Santiago, in which the latter had most of his clothes torn from his back, and for which Guzman was required to do penance.

The King had given his a.s.sent to the Guzman marriage, and was unwilling to withdraw it, or to censure Guzman for taking and striving to retain all of Pedro's estate. Nevertheless he remonstrated with the litigants for the fury of their controversy, which he truly told them was not only a disgrace to the island but was also a grave practical injury to it.

The conflict continued, however, until all the resources of the law courts were exhausted. By that time many of the lawyers were considerably enriched, but a still large part of the estate was confirmed in the possession of Gonzalo de Guzman and his wife. All this militated against the confidence with which Guzman had been regarded, and hastened steps for the subjection of him to the fate of his predecessors.

We have seen that Guzman had been commissioned to investigate the administration of his predecessor, Altamarino, and that he had performed that congenial task with energy and zeal. Now came his own turn to undergo the same treatment. It was only a little more than two years after his accession to the governors.h.i.+p that the King or the Crown officials in Spain concluded that it would be well to have his affairs looked into. For the performance of this work Juan Vadillo was selected, in the autumn of 1528. He was a notably efficient man. He had been employed for some time by the crown as a debt-collector in Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Porto Rico, and had been highly successful in that work; wherefore it was thought that he would subject Guzman's administration to a particularly thorough examination.

He declined, however, to accept the commission; for a variety of reasons. One was, that he had thitherto taken his orders and received his commissions directly from the King, and he considered it beneath his dignity now to be an underling of a mere Admiral of the Indies--or of the widow of the Admiral, since the commission for this job was to be given by the widow of Diego Columbus. Another reason was found in the terms on which the commission was to be granted. He was to be governor of Cuba for thirty days. During that time he was to conduct his investigation of Guzman's administration. Then, with the a.s.sumption that thirty days would afford him ample time to complete the work, he was to restore the governors.h.i.+p to Guzman, apparently quite irrespective of the result of his inquest. Still another reason was, that his instructions were not sufficiently explicit. It was not, for example, made clear whether he was to replace Guzman as repartidor as well as in the governors.h.i.+p. A final reason, perhaps not least of all, was that the salary offered was not sufficient.

While thus declining to accept the commission, Vadillo manifested his fitness for it and his serviceable interest in Cuban affairs by pointing out to the sovereign various grave defects in the administration of Cuban affairs, particularly in that of the repartidor's functions. One important object of the repartimiento system was to a.s.sure a suitable distribution of native labor throughout the island. It was in fact operating to just the contrary effect. Some parts of the island were overcrowded, while others were almost entirely dest.i.tute of labor. These representations had their effect at court; not, it is true, in the ordering of correction of the evils, but in confirming the desire to have Vadillo investigate insular affairs.

After more than two years' delay, then, on February 27, 1531, another summons was sent to Vadillo. This time it was not a request but a peremptory order to go at once to Cuba and undertake the work. The conditions were, however, materially changed. He was to have his commission from the King. He was to be governor for sixty days instead of thirty. He was to be repartidor, also, in conjunction with the Bishop of Cuba. He was to have an adequate salary. And at the end of his investigation of Guzman's administration he was to hand the governors.h.i.+p over, not necessarily to Guzman again, but to anyone whom he might choose, until the widow of Diego Columbus should make a permanent appointment.

On these conditions Vadillo accepted the commission and entered upon his work with the efficiency and zeal that had marked his former undertaking. He quickly found that there was much need for investigation, and of thorough reforms. The whole administration had become demoralized by the personal jealousies and local feuds which for years had been raging. Bribery, slander, false arrest, even murder, had been resorted to by political partisans for the accomplishment of their ends, until something like chaos had been precipitated upon the unhappy island. It was in November, 1531, that Vadillo arrived at Santiago de Cuba on his formidable errand. He purposed to spend a few weeks in preliminary surveys of the ground, announcing that his sixty days'

inc.u.mbency of the governors.h.i.+p would begin on January 1.

On the latter date the actual house-cleaning began. The tremendous indictment which Guzman had made against Altamarino was a petty trifle in comparison with that which Vadillo launched against Guzman. There was scarcely any conceivable form of maladministration which was not charged against the governor. He had, said Vadillo, interfered with freedom of suffrage at elections. He had levied and collected taxes for which there was no warrant in law. He had appointed and commissioned notaries, although he had no legal power to do so. He had failed to compel married men either to return to their wives in Spain or to send for their wives to come to Cuba. He had permitted illicit trade in slaves. He had been bia.s.sed and partial in his administration of justice. All these and other accusations were made with much circ.u.mstance and with a formidable array of corroborative testimony, against Guzman as governor. Against him as repartidor it was charged that he had been guilty of gross and injurious misrepresentations to the Crown and to the people; that he had a.s.signed natives as serfs to his relatives and friends in defiance of law; and that he had made the distribution of native labor inequitable.

All these charges were indignantly denied by Guzman, who defended himself with much vigor and shrewdness. But Vadillo found him to be guilty of almost every one of them, and sentenced him to pay a heavy fine and to be removed from office, both as governor and as repartidor.

Against this judgment Guzman made appeal to the Council for the Indies, in Spain. In order to bring all possible influence to bear upon that body, he himself went to Spain, in August, 1532, carrying a vast ma.s.s of doc.u.ments, and accompanied by Bishop Ramirez, who was returning to Spain to be consecrated. This ecclesiastic had been Guzman's most staunch and zealous partisan during the investigation. He had gone so far as to threaten with excommunication anyone who should testify against the governor, and had actually excommunicated Vadillo. Against this act Vadillo had protested to the King, and the King had reprimanded the Bishop and had compelled him to withdraw the writ of excommunication.

Guzman therefore took the Bishop along with him, partly so that the latter might be formally consecrated and have his conduct if possible vindicated, and partly to aid himself in his appeal to the Council for the Indies.

Vadillo did not trouble himself to go to Spain to counteract Guzman's appeal. A month before the departure of Guzman and the Bishop he left Cuba for Hispaniola, conscious of having done his duty. He had been a fearless and thorough investigator and a just judge; and he had rendered to Cuba and to the Spanish crown services far greater than he ever received compensation or credit for. Indeed, he did not enjoy so much as the grat.i.tude of the people of Cuba, most of whom were partisans of Guzman or of some other political leader, and had become so accustomed to the corrupt ways which had been followed for years that they were inclined to resent any attempt at reform.

Upon the expiration of his sixty days' inc.u.mbency, Vadillo designated Manuel de Rojas to be governor in his stead, until an appointment of permanent character could be made by the Admiral at Hispaniola. Rojas was reluctant to accept the place, knowing that he would find it more arduous and even perilous than before, but he was finally prevailed upon to do so, apparently more through a sense of public duty than for any expectation of personal advantage.

CHAPTER XI

The first governors.h.i.+p of Gonzalo de Guzman was marked with two features of very great importance to the young nation--for such we may properly regard Cuba as having been at that time. One of these was the development of the ecclesiastical establishment into a strong and sometimes dominant force in the body politic and social; and the other was the crisis of the protracted problem of dealing with or disposing of the native Indians. These two matters were, as they had been from the beginning, closely related to each other.

It is a commonplace of history that there was a certain thread of religious motive running all through the exploits of Columbus. He emphasized the significance of his name, Christopher, Christ-Bearer, sometimes signing himself X. Ferens. The same idea was expressed, as we have already seen, in the names which he gave to the various lands which he discovered. Nor were his successors in exploration and conquest neglectful of the same spirit. Accordingly the first Spanish settlers in Cuba took pains to plant there immediately the church of their faith, and to seek to convert the natives to Christianity. Among the very earliest to land upon the sh.o.r.es of the island were priests of the Roman Catholic church, and the first church was built at the first point of settlement, Baracoa.

Some obscurity invests the records of the early ecclesiastical organization, but it seems altogether probable that the first Bishop was Hernando de Mesa, a member of the Order of St. Dominic. There is no available record of his appointment and consecration, but he appears to have begun his episcopal work at Baracoa in 1513 and 1514. He built the first Cuban cathedral at Baracoa, and secured from the Spanish government in 1515 a system of t.i.thes for the support and propagation of the church. These t.i.thes were to be paid not in coin but in merchandise, and they were to be collected not by the priests or other agents of the church, but by officers of the secular government. The latter was, moreover, to retain one-third of them for the erection of new church buildings, a task which it took upon itself as a measure of public works. It was not infrequently remarked that these royal t.i.the-gatherers were much more diligent, prompt and efficient in collecting the t.i.thes from the people than in turning the proceeds over to the church.

Bishop De Mesa reigned over the diocese for about three years, and then was succeeded by Juan de Ubite, concerning whom the records are much more detailed and explicit. He seems to have been an aggressive and fearless man, who did not hesitate to engage in controversy and even in litigation with the royal government over the matter of the t.i.thes. He protested against the government's retaining and administering the one-third of the t.i.thes which was devoted to church-building, insisting that it also should be turned over to the ecclesiastical authorities, who were best fitted to know the needs and to direct the work of church building. In this contention he was not successful, but he did manage to secure the levying of t.i.thes upon the crown estates the same as upon all other property.

One of the most important achievements of Bishop Ubite was the transfer of the cathedral from Baracoa to Santiago. For this change he gave two reasons. One was, that Baracoa was an unhealthful spot; in which he was surely in error. The other was, that Santiago was a larger and more important place, indeed, the chief city of the island; in which he was quite correct. The transfer was authorized by the civil government in October, 1522, and plots of land were granted to the Bishop for the sites of the new cathedral and of the houses of the Bishop and other clergy. These latter were the same plots which are still occupied by ecclesiastical buildings, in the heart of the city of Santiago de Cuba.

This change of the site of the cathedral was doubtless to the advantage of the church. It was probably profitable, also, to the good Bishop personally. Following it he became the proprietor of extensive lands, of great herds of cattle, and of a number of Negro and Indian slaves. He interested himself to good effect in seeing to it that the civil government provided from its third of the t.i.thes abundant funds for church building, and thus secured the erection of two churches at Trinidad, one at Sancti Spiritus, and one at Havana, a place even at that early date rising rapidly in importance.

Bishop Ubite reigned over the diocese until April, 1525, and then, in circ.u.mstances which are obscure and for reasons not clearly apparent, took the extraordinary step of resigning his see. The office remained vacant until early in 1527, when Miguel Ramirez was appointed to it.

This third Bishop was, like each of his predecessors, a Dominican. He was officially styled not only Bishop but also Protector of the Indians, with the purpose of making him a sort of check upon the Repartidor. He did not arrive at Santiago until the fall of 1528, when he promptly made up for the delay by plunging into both industrial and political activities. Like Bishop Ubite, he was an extensive land owner, cattle-raiser and slaveholder.

Bishop Ramirez appears to have been a great meddler into politics, particularly as a hot partisan of Gonzalo de Guzman. He came into conflict more than once with the royal treasurer, Hurtado, and was denounced by that austere censor as a scandalous disturber of the peace.

This characterization was provoked by the Bishop's att.i.tude and conduct toward Vadillo's investigation of Guzman's administration; and it is probably not unjust to a.s.sume that the Bishop's att.i.tude and conduct were due to the fact that Vadillo had seized a lot of gold which had been mined by the husband of the Bishop's niece. Vadillo made this seizure on two grounds: That the nephew-in-law was a mere figure-head for the Bishop himself, who had no legal right to engage in gold-mining; and that the gold in question properly belonged to the royal treasury and therefore should be turned over to Hurtado. At any rate the Bishop was furious, and strove to restrain, with threats of excommunication, witnesses from testifying against Guzman in the inquests which Vadillo was conducting. Vadillo was not at all alarmed or abashed by the episcopal wrath, but proceeded to look into the affairs of the church as well as the civil government, and among other reforms ordered the Bishop and clergy to stop charging for funeral ma.s.ses higher fees than those which were charged in Hispaniola. At this the Bishop seems quite to have lost his head. He began a denunciatory tirade against Vadillo in the cathedral, at which the latter contemptuously turned his back upon the speaker and walked out of the building. Then the Bishop excommunicated him. Vadillo made appeal to the King, and the King, after careful consideration and investigation, compelled the Bishop to withdraw the excommunication, and in addition gave his royal approval to all that Vadillo had done with respect to the church.

In the first clash between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, therefore, the former were victorious. Nevertheless, the church exerted much and steadily increasing influence, particularly in matters relating to the Indian natives. And these matters were of much importance.

Although the repartimiento system, adopted early in the administration of Velasquez, was designed and supposed to put all the natives under government control, it failed to do so. Among those apportioned to the colonists as serfs--practically slaves--dissatisfaction and resentment widely prevailed, and insurrections sometimes occurred. But by no means all the natives were thus apportioned. Some fled to mountain fastnesses, and others, perhaps the majority, to the small islands or Keys off the Cuban coast, whence they became known as Key Indians. They used these islands, moreover, not alone as places of refuge but also as bases from which to make depredatory raids upon the mainland of Cuba, to the great detriment and disturbance of the Spanish settlers.

So numerous, extensive and disastrous did these raids become that Velasquez in 1523 commissioned Rodrigo de Tamayo to organize a military and naval expedition against the Key Indians, and to kill or capture them all. This programme was not fully carried out, but it was sufficiently executed to abate the troubles and to secure peace on the coasts for several years. Tamayo's commission was renewed by Altamarino, as a matter of form, there being then no need of action; and when in the administration of Gonzalo de Guzman there was some recrudescence of hostilities, the royal government specially authorized the waging of a campaign which should bring the last of the Key Indians into subjection.

The new outbreaks did not, however, prove sufficiently serious to call for or to warrant strenuous action.

The scene of trouble was, however, s.h.i.+fted from the coast to the interior of the island. Several numerous companies of Indians, securely lodged among the mountains, began hostilities, raiding the very suburbs of Santiago itself. They were known as Cimarrons, or Wild Indians, to distinguish them from the serfs and slaves. Their pernicious activities began in 1529, and in the following year their operations were so extensive and persistent as to simulate civil war. Manuel de Rojas organized a force and led it against them with much success, and would probably have soon made an end of the troubles had he not been restrained by Guzman. The governor was probably jealous of the ability, popularity and rising influence of Rojas, and was not willing that he should gain the prestige which complete victory would confer upon him.

So he called him back in circ.u.mstances which would, he thought, discredit Rojas and make his campaign seem a failure. Vadillo during his brief administration sought to end the troubles by pacific and conciliatory overtures, but failed.