The History of Cuba Volume I Part 15

The second feature of the administration was the persistent ravages of the French. Despite the fact that they were engaged in contraband trade with the people of Cuba, the French were at this time the most frequent raiders of Cuban coast towns; sometimes directing their attacks against the very towns in which they had been peacefully trading, while the people were quite ready at any time to trade with those who just before had visited them with fire and sword and demands for ransom. It was a curious circ.u.mstance that by far the most efficient guardian of Cuba against such raids was that same Gomez de Rojas who had been exiled by Mazariegos and who had illegally a.s.sumed command of La Fuerza and had bitterly quarreled with Montalvo. After being compelled to leave La Fuerza he had taken to seafaring, and as commander of a Spanish vessel he drove more than one French privateer away from the neighborhood of Havana.

Montalvo was the first to urge that Cuba be protected not alone with land fortifications and batteries but also by naval vessels.

Particularly he wished for a powerful war-galley, which the king did not provide him. In 1576 French raiders attacked Santiago, and were with difficulty repulsed; upon which Montalvo sarcastically reported that if another such attack occurred he would himself be relieved of the necessity of fortifying the harbor and city of Santiago, for the place would cease to exist. A little later a daring French raid was made upon Spanish s.h.i.+pping just outside the harbor of Havana. This greatly incensed Montalvo, and caused him to renew his pleadings for a galley.

He urged that the whole Cuban coast should be patrolled by light, swift vessels, preferably frigates, and that strong galleys should be stationed at the chief ports. He would have had the frigates, at any rate, built in Cuba and at least partly paid for by that island; but the Havana munic.i.p.al council protested against this, demanding that Cuba be entirely exempted from the costs of defending her from enemies. The result was that in the lack of means of defence Cuba suffered more and more from the ravages of privateers and freebooters, which became more frequent as the island increased in population and wealth and thus became better worth raiding.

The third unfavorable feature of the time was the haggling over La Fuerza. Begun by De Soto, and later almost entirely rebuilt, that famous fortress seemed to be under some malign spell which made it a source of injury rather than of benefit to Havana. Year after year pa.s.sed, appropriation after appropriation was made and expended, and still it remained unfinished. Man after man undertook the task of completing it, only to fail and lose his personal reputation either for efficiency or for honesty. Moreover, as the work proceeded grave faults were developed, both in plan and in construction. The fort, which at first had been denounced as needlessly large, was seen to be entirely too small to shelter a garrison sufficient for the defence of Havana. The original design had been to make it a shelter to which all the people of the town could flee in case of attack, and it might have served this purpose at a time when the people of Havana were numbered by scores, or at most by a hundred or two. But with the figures extending into thousands it became evident that La Fuerza was entirely inadequate to any such purpose. Indeed, it was realized that that design was ill-conceived, for if the place was to grow into a considerable city it would be impracticable and undesirable to make any fortification large enough to hold all the population.

The construction was also faulty. The fort was built of stone, but there had thoughtlessly been chosen for the purpose a stone which had the advantages of being plentiful and so soft as to be easily worked.

Unhappily it had also the very serious disadvantages of being so soft that it would probably soon be battered to fragments by cannon b.a.l.l.s, and of being so porous that water soaked into and through it as through a sponge. During the rainy season the place was flooded, water standing in pools on the floor, and the magazine being so wet that gunpowder could not be kept there without spoiling; wherefore another building, of wood, had to be provided for that purpose. The same kind of stone was used, moreover, for the reservoir which was to provide fort and city with water, with the result that its contents quickly leaked out. There arose a proverbial saying in the city that the powder magazine was always wet and the water reservoir was always dry; and it was sarcastically proposed that the functions of the two be exchanged. The powder would be kept dry in the reservoir, and there would always be plenty of water in the magazine! Nor was this the only error in construction. The whole structure was said to be dangerously weak, so that if all its guns should be fired simultaneously, the shock might tumble the walls into ruin. The guns were available for use in only a narrow zone; they were of too short range to carry to the other extremity of the harbor, and they were so placed that they could not be depressed so as to hit vessels which had come close in toward the water front of the city. Therefore a hostile s.h.i.+p with long range guns could lie out of reach of La Fuerza and bombard the fort and city at will. Or one could sail swiftly in, running the gantlet of the narrow zone of fire, and gain a place under the walls of the fort where it would be quite safe for the guns of the latter while it could use its own at short range with deadly effect. It was also complained that the parapet was too low to afford shelter to the men serving the guns, and that the four big wooden gates were a source of fatal weakness.

It was presently perceived, too, that fortifications elsewhere than in the heart of the city were needed for adequate defence of the place.

Especially were such works needed at the headlands commanding the entrance to the harbor. Without them, a daring enemy might seize one of those spots, bring up some long range guns from his s.h.i.+ps, and have not only Havana but La Fuerza itself at his mercy. Montalvo appears to have recognized this need, and to have urged the construction of such forts, especially on the Cabanas hill, but to no avail. Instead, the royal government proposed the construction of a strong wall around the entire city, including the water front. It actually ordered that work to be undertaken, the first step being to destroy a large part of the city, including the church, to make room for the wall. Against this suicidal policy Montalvo effectively protested, declaring that if the city were thus demolished it would never be rebuilt, and also pointing out that the day of walled cities was past. In the face of his representations the wall scheme was abandoned; but his wise suggestions of forts commanding the harbor were not acted upon until years afterward.

It is to be recorded to his credit that Montalvo gave more attention than his immediate predecessors had done to development of some of the natural resources of the island. He interested himself in forestry, and soon had an immense trade in timber and lumber between Cuba and Spain.

The exquisite cabinet work of the Escurial, in Spain, was made of wood from the forests of Cuba--mahogany, ebony, ironwood, cedar, and what not. Wood was supplied for other purposes, too, notably for s.h.i.+p-building. It was at this time that interest arose in the great island just off the southern coast, which at that time was so richly clad with pine forests as to receive from Montalvo on that account its present name of "Isle of Pines." During the administration of Menendez the whole island was granted to Alfonso de Rojas for a cattle range, a purpose for which it was admirably adapted, and there are legends to the effect that the water between the Isle of Pines and Cuba was at times so shallow as to make it possible to drive herds of cattle across from the one land to the other. It is to be observed, in pa.s.sing, that thus early in history was the Isle of Pines recognized as an integral part of Cuba.

Montalvo also did much to promote agriculture, and the raising of swine.

He endeavored to revive interest in both gold and copper mining, and seems to have been persuaded that there were enormously rich deposits of the former metal hidden somewhere on the island, in places known only to the natives. He strove diligently and persistently to get from the few surviving Indians information concerning these mines, but in vain. If the Indians knew, they would not tell; but it seems altogether probable that they did not know, and that no such mineral wealth existed on the island.

It was in Montalvo's time, too, that what was destined to become Cuba's greatest industry had its permanent establishment. At various times and places thitherto men had experimented with sugar growing and manufacture, with varying degrees of success. But every such undertaking had after a while been abandoned, either for lack of profit or because of the superior attractions of something else. It was not until 1576 that plantations were established which were never to be abandoned but were to continue in cultivation down to this present time, and that sugar mills of similar permanence were put into operation. The scene of this epochal enterprise was the region around Havana, particularly between Havana and Matanzas. There in the year named at least three mills were established, a fact indicating that a considerable area was planted in cane. These mills were of the most primitive description, each consisting of three wooden rollers, formed of logs of trees denuded of the bark, mounted in a rude frame of timber, and caused to revolve by a long pole of which one end was fastened to the end of one of the upright rollers while to the other was. .h.i.tched a mule or an ox, which walked in a circle around the "mill." The expressed juice was caught in trays or jars of earthenware, and then was boiled in open pans. The sugar thus produced was not refined beyond the stage of what would now be considered a very coa.r.s.e brown sugar, but it served the uses of the island. It does not appear that any considerable quant.i.ty was exported until a number of years later. These primitive establishments in 1576 were, however, the beginning of Cuba's gigantic sugar industry.

One other incident of Montalvo's administration must be recalled, to wit, his quarrel with the church, or at least with the Bishop. Diego Sarmiento, who became Bishop in De Soto's time, had been gathered to his fathers, and had been succeeded by Bishop Durango. The latter had in turn died, and in 1560 had been succeeded by Bernardino de Villapando, who spent only three years in the island and then departed for Mexico under unpleasant charges of embezzlement of funds. The charges against him do not appear to have been pressed, nor did they affect his standing in the church, for he was presently transferred to the then much more important see of Guatemala. Moreover, despite the charges made against him, he was recognized as a most energetic and successful prelate. He established many mission stations throughout the island, and expedited the completion of the cathedral at Santiago.

Upon his promotion to Guatemala after three years' service Bishop Villapando was succeeded by Juan de Burgos, who continued with much success the work of his predecessor. He secured the erection of a large church school on the site now occupied by the Hospital of San Juan de Dios, at Havana, and there the famous missionary preachers and teachers, Juan Roger and Francisco Villaroel, gave instruction to Indian youths in the Christian religion and in the Spanish tongue. In connection with this school there was built the church of San Juan de Dios, and from the establishment thus founded by Bishop Burgos grew the first hospital in Havana. It took originally the form of a military hospital, for the soldiers of the Havana garrison and for soldiers in transit to or from Florida, Mexico and other places. It is recorded that for his work Bishop Burgos depended entirely upon the offerings of the people; demonstrating what could be accomplished by an honest and businesslike administrator.

The next Bishop of Cuba was Pedro del Castillo, who came to the island from the University of Salamanca. He was a most aggressive and strenuous prelate, with policies of his own and with the courage to enforce them.

Arriving in Cuba in 1570, he glanced at Santiago when he landed there, crossed the island to Havana, where he spent a little time, and then proceeded to Bayamo, where he established his home, preferring that to any other city of Cuba. He then laid claim to the island of Jamaica as a part of his bishopric, and succeeded in carrying that point despite the opposition of the Archbishop at Hispaniola. Then he complained that the royal officials were not properly collecting the t.i.thes, or at any rate were not paying him his proper revenue; wherefore he himself began collecting the t.i.thes. This brought him into conflict with the crown, a circ.u.mstance which did not alarm him nor swerve him from his course. He made a number of appointments of the clergy under him which he deemed to be for the good of their parishes but which made him unpopular with them. Also he incurred much unpopularity among the people by his insistence upon certain reforms in their morals.

This strenuous policy presently led Castillo into conflict with Montalvo. The Governor thought that the Bishop ought to reside at Santiago, where were his official residence and also the Cathedral.

Castillo refused to do so, on the nominal ground that he considered Santiago an unhealthful spot. There is reason to suspect, however, that he preferred Bayamo because of certain very rich legacies which had been left years before for the erection of a masonry church and parochial school at that place. The provisions of these wills had not been carried out, and the strenuous Bishop set himself to the task of finding out why the church and school had not been built, and of getting possession of the legacies and administering them himself. In the litigation which ensued he quarrelled with Montalvo so bitterly that he excommunicated him; an act which the governor did not take greatly to heart. The strife between the two accentuated, however, the antagonism between church and state which was even at that early time beginning to prevail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH

One of the most ancient of the many ecclesiastical edifices in Havana, built in 1575 and rebuilt in 1731, and presenting a singularly perfect and characteristic example of ancient Spanish architecture. In late years it was used by the Government for a custom house, and post office.

The ill.u.s.tration presents it in its earlier aspect with its former surroundings restored.]

CHAPTER XIX

It would be easy for the reflective historian to engage in many interesting and pertinent observations concerning the time in which Captain Francisco Carreno became governor of Cuba. It was the year 1577.

That was the year in which the sixth religious war in France began, a struggle which made inevitable the still greater religious wars which followed, in which not merely two factions in France but the two great powers of Spain and England were the chief belligerents. That was the year, too, in which Sir Francis Drake began his voyage around the world, which was perhaps the most momentous since that of Columbus in 1492, since it led directly to the strife between Spain and England in America, the English conquest of Cuba, the foundation of the English colonies in North America, and the subsequent development of the United States; all having the most direct and important bearing upon the fortunes of Cuba.

Albeit he was a native of that city of Cadiz in the harbor of which Drake performed one of his most daring and most famous feats, Carreno probably entered upon his governors.h.i.+p with no premonitions of what was in store. While Drake was furrowing the strange expanses of the South Sea, it was French privateers that chiefly troubled the Spanish Main and menaced the ports of Cuba. Their favorite cruising ground was in the waters between Cuba and Jamaica, and between Cuba and Hispaniola, and their menace to Cuba was chiefly to the ports between Cape Maysi and Cape Cruz, and in the Gulf of Guacanabo. The chief sufferers, as also the chief gainers from contraband trade, were Santiago, Manzanillo, and the settlements at the mouth of the Guantanamo River. The people of those places were never sure whether an approaching French vessel was bent on contraband trade or war and plunder; and indeed the Frenchman himself sometimes left that question to be answered after he had landed and viewed the place. He then decided which would be the more profitable, to trade with the people or to plunder them. At times, too, it must be confessed, the Spaniards were in similar uncertainty whether to receive the French as traders or to slay them--if they could--as enemies.

Carreno was the first governor of Cuba to die in office, his death occurring on April 27, 1579. His administration thus lasted only two years; but they were years filled with hard work on his part and with much progress for the island. The sugar industry which had been founded in the preceding administration prospered and expanded, and caused a considerable increase in slave-holding. Negro slaves were the favorite workmen on the plantations and at the mills, and a large number of them was needed at each establishment. The increase in the number of slaves caused, however, some anxiety lest there should be servile insurrections, such as had occurred on the Isthmus of Panama, in Mexico and elsewhere; so that in 1579 the government refused to permit any more to be imported, even though they were wanted by the governor himself. It is recorded that his personal request for a thousand negroes to work at copper mining was refused by the King, or by the Council for the Indies.

Anxiety was caused, also, by the increasing number of free negroes, and of slaves who were practically free. Most of the entirely free negroes had been slaves but had bought their freedom from their masters for cash. This was not particularly difficult, since the market value of the best negro slaves at that time was only from fifty to sixty pesos. Those practically free were slaves who were permitted by their owners to live where they pleased and work as they pleased, on condition of paying their masters certain royalties every week or month. In Carreno's time there were hundreds of negroes of these cla.s.ses in and about Havana, and probably still more of them in the eastern end of the island. The anxiety concerning them arose from two causes. One was, the fear that they might incite the slaves to insurrection, placing themselves at the head of the movement; a fear which was not at that time realized. The other was, the fear that they would build up objectionable communities.

Thus in Havana they occupied a quarter of the town by themselves, in which their wooden cabins were huddled closely together; the sanitary conditions were bad; and the danger of fire which might imperil the whole town was obviously imminent. There was in Carreno's time a movement to procure their deportation to Florida or elsewhere, and to forbid the residence of free negroes in Cuba; but it did not become effective.

It is agreeable to remember that in spite of the obviously objectionable nature of the inst.i.tution of slavery, and in spite of the fears and anxieties which have been mentioned, negro slavery in Cuba in those early days was not marked with the distressing features which it has elsewhere borne. It was probably more humane than it was two and a half centuries later in the United States. The slaves were seldom sold by one master to another, and never in circ.u.mstances which separated husband and wife, or parents and young children. Severe physical punishments were prohibited. Their masters were compelled to feed them well, and to provide them with decent and comfortable clothes. There was no personal or social prejudice against them, but they were permitted to attend church and to frequent all public places on equal terms with the Spaniards. Ordinarily they were not permitted to carry weapons; but those who occupation seemed to make it desirable for them to be armed, such as cattle-rangers, and messengers travelling from one part of the island to another, were permitted to bear arms just as white men would have done. Moreover, the free negroes were called upon equally with the whites to serve as sentinels on the water fronts of cities, and were of course provided with arms. There are no authentic records of intermarriage between Spaniards and negroes, yet neither is there any proof that it did not occasionally occur. We have already seen that amalgamation with the Indians was not unknown, and in other Spanish colonies of those and later days there were some fusions with African blood.

What is chiefly to be remembered, however, is that negroes, although enslaved, were regarded in Cuba as human beings, with immortal souls, no less than their masters, and that they were invariably so treated. There was no pretence that they were of an intrinsically inferior race, or that they were suffering from the primaeval curse of Canaan or of Ham.

And when they gained their freedom and became educated, they were treated socially and politically according to their merits, without regard for the color of their skin.

In the most literal sense, the administration of Carreno was marked with constructive statesmans.h.i.+p. As a statesman this Governor set about enlarging and improving Havana and other cities, and providing them with public and private buildings commensurate with the needs of an increasing population. He laid out enough of the streets of Havana to establish for all time the plan of that city. He encouraged the building of houses, or at any rate discouraged the holding of town sites unimproved, by making distributions of lots to all who wished them, on condition that the owners would promptly build. If they did not build within six months, their t.i.tles were forfeited. Another important reform effected by him was the subst.i.tution of adobe or other masonry for wood as building material. By the end of his administration fully half of the houses in Havana had walls of masonry, and a considerable number had also tiled roofs.

It was Carreno, too, who began the building of the first custom house in Cuba, at Havana. The king had ordered Montalvo to undertake this enterprise, but he appears to have taken no steps whatever in that direction, not even selecting a site. Carreno essayed the task with characteristic energy. He selected an appropriate site, at the water front and close to the princ.i.p.al wharf, where an excellent rock foundation was to be found, and there he planned to erect a building of solid masonry, seventy feet long and two stories high. The royal government approved the plans, and the work was promptly entered upon.

Finally, it was impossible that the new governor should not be seriously concerned with La Fuerza. Carreno found that long-delayed edifice practically finished, according to the old plans; its though condition was, as. .h.i.therto suggested, decidedly unsatisfactory. He began by insisting upon clearing away all buildings of any kind close to the fort. This had been ordered nearly a score of years before but had never been done. The purpose was, of course, to strengthen the fort by leaving no shelter near its walls which might harbor or facilitate the approach of a hostile force. Then he insisted upon building an additional story on La Fuerza. This he declared was necessary, for barracks for the garrison, and for a storage place for gunpowder, the fort proper being flooded more than half the time. Doubtless these needs were real, and Carreno intended to meet them with the new story. Yet it seems also to have been his plan thus to secure for himself living quarters more pleasant than the house which had been a.s.signed to him for that purpose.

There was much opposition to his plans for enlarging La Fuerza, but he persisted in them, and they were nearly completed at the time of his death.

During the administration of Governor Carreno the question of the distribution, proprietors.h.i.+p and use of land became of much social and economic importance in Cuba. The population of the Island was still small, and yet because of the immense size of the tracts which many settlers had appropriated for cattle ranges nearly all the accessible and available area had been taken up. In the eastern part of the Island there was practically no unclaimed land left excepting that in the mountains and some almost impenetrable swamps, and already many controversies and not a few forcible conflicts had arisen over rival claims. Thus far no private owners.h.i.+p of land was authorized outside of building sites in the towns and cities. Cattle ranges and farms were held under indefinite leases from the Crown, subject to forfeit if the land were permitted to remain unoccupied and unused for the s.p.a.ce of three years. These grants were made by the munic.i.p.al government in the name of the Crown. At first the tracts thus taken were of unlimited extent and indeed their boundaries were defined in only the vaguest possible manner. The result naturally was that innumerable and interminable conflicts arose over overlapping claims.

To correct such evils and to provide for a more equitable distribution of land in future, Alfonso Caceres, who had been sent to investigate the administration of Governor Menendez, was charged with a complete revision of the land system of the Island and with the prescribing of new rules and regulations for subsequent grants and t.i.tles. In entering upon that work he found some settlers holding enormous tracts which they had never attempted to utilize. Of these he summarily voided the t.i.tles and a.s.signed the land to others. Such areas were quickly taken up by new comers, in smaller and definitely bounded tracts, so that by the time of Governor Carreno practically the only unoccupied lands of considerable extent and practical value were to be found in the extreme west end of the Island.

Around Havana and some other large munic.i.p.alities there were reserved una.s.signed zones of from fifteen to twenty miles in width which were kept practically as public game preserves. No grants of cattle ranges were made in them. But they were infested by many stray cattle and hogs which had escaped from the ranges beyond and were there running at large in practically a wild state, and these were regarded as fair game for hunters from the cities. It was, however, insisted that anyone killing such stray animals must bring their hides to market with the ears attached, so as to prove that they were indeed wild strays, since then their ears would be unbranded while all the animals on the ranges had their ears branded with their owner's marks.

The Government wisely desired to encourage agriculture, even at the expense of stock raising, the latter occupation having been expanded disproportionately to the former. It was accordingly provided that grants of land for farming purposes might be made within this hunting zone, and also that such grants might be made of land already apportioned for cattle ranges, the owners of the ranges thus invaded being indemnified by other grants of land elsewhere. By this means a varied agricultural industry was gradually developed to the great advantage of the Island, though for many years cattle raising remained the chief industry. During Carreno's administration more than 20,000 hides were exported yearly, and in the great demand for leather at that time this trade was exceedingly profitable. Of course a large amount of meat was also produced, but the difficulty of preserving it in the warm climate of Cuba caused much of it to go to waste, so that yearly thousands of heads of cattle were slaughtered for their hides alone, their carca.s.ses being left to the dogs and buzzards.

The sudden death of Carreno caused some curious complications in the Government of the Island. As he had been appointed for a definite term of four years, and as that term was scarcely half expired, no successor had yet been chosen for him. In this emergency the Supreme Court of Hispaniola appointed a temporary governor to discharge the functions of the office until the Crown should make a permanent appointment. The choice of the court fell upon a lawyer, Gaspar de Torres. Even he was not appointed until several months after the death of Carreno, and in fact not until after the King had selected a permanent Governor to succeed Carreno. However, as the permanent Governor would not take office until the expiration of the term for which Carreno had been appointed it was necessary for the temporary Governor to fill the vacancy. Torres was appointed in October, 1579, but did not actually a.s.sume office until the first of January, 1580. Little is known of his antecedents, but he appears to have been an unworthy member of the legal profession. He was possessed of an itching palm. As a result his brief administration was filled with scandals and with controversies and conflicts, practically all arising from his pecuniary greed and from the unscrupulous means which he employed for satisfying it.

He came into conflict with the powerful and numerous Rojas family, and particularly with the most conspicuous member, Juan Bautista Rojas, the Royal Treasurer. This latter official declared that Torres was the worst Governor Cuba had ever had, and that he misappropriated more funds than all his predecessors put together. Apparently as Torres had been appointed merely to fill out Carreno's unexpired term, he determined to make hay while the sun shone. He took office in January, 1580. Eight months later a judicial investigation into his administration was ordered, as a result of which he was very quickly convicted of misappropriation of funds and was ordered to refund several thousand ducats which had been improperly collected and retained by him. Instead of refunding, however, he absconded, leaving his bondsman to make good his liabilities.

CHAPTER XX

The regularly appointed successor of Governor Carreno was another soldier, to wit, Captain Gabriel de Luzan. He was an army veteran who had performed distinguished service in the Netherlands and elsewhere and was personally known to and greatly favored by the King. He was selected for the governors.h.i.+p and was informed of the appointment in the early fall of 1579, a few weeks before the malodorous Torres was appointed by the Court of Hispaniola. It was intended, however, that he should not actually take office until the expiration of the full term for which Carreno had been appointed, and he accordingly had much time to attend to his affairs in Spain and elsewhere before removing to Havana. His duties were not to begin until 1581. But he removed to Cuba in the fall of 1580 while Torres was being investigated. There came to Cuba with him Juan Ceballos, who had been selected for Lieutenant-Governor. Both of these officials were to receive the same salaries that their predecessors had received, although Rojas, the Royal Treasurer, vigorously protested that their salaries should be reduced by one-half.

Governor Luzan was very soon involved in numerous controversies, largely over questions of dignity and precedents among insular officials.

Something of the spirit of the formal Spanish Court appears to have permeated Cuba at this time, and the insular and munic.i.p.al officials became as great sticklers for forms and ceremonies and for recognition of their comparative ranks as any of the Grandees at Seville or Madrid.

Thus Jorge de Balza, Adjutant General of the Royal Forces in the Island, insisted upon the privilege of wearing his sword at meetings of the munic.i.p.al council of Havana, of which he was ex officio a member, although it was a penal offense for anyone else, even the Governor himself, to wear a sword or dagger in that a.s.sembly. Another controversy arose, as might confidently be a.s.sumed, over La Fuerza. The office of captain or commander of that fortress paid a salary of 300 ducats, on which account several former governors had appointed themselves to the place and had drawn that salary for themselves. Governor Carreno regarded this practice as reprehensible. It was not right, he said, for the Governor to hold another office and to draw a second salary.

Therefore, he appointed his own son, a lad just in his teens, to be Captain of La Fuerza and to draw the salary. Whether the boy had the spending of the money himself or dutifully handed it over to his father is not a matter of record.

Governor Luzan stopped this nonsense and put a real soldier at the head of the Fort and then quarreled with him. This commander was Captain Melchior Sarto de Arana, an expert soldier who had been Luzan's comrade in arms in the wars of Spain, in the Netherlands and in Italy. He and his family moved into that upper story of La Fuerza which Carreno had insisted upon building, regarding it as the most desirable place of residence in Havana. The unhappy garrison in the lower part of the building was subject to the dampness which there prevailed, to the great detriment of health. Indeed conditions were so bad that their weapons became almost ruined with rust and it was almost impossible to keep gunpowder in condition for use. The Governor appears to have envied Captain Arana his quarters in the Fort, but he was not able to displace him, and so he turned his own attention to completing the Custom House for his own use. Governor Torres had stopped all work upon this latter building because of some uncertainty concerning the site, and had appropriated to his own use some of the funds which had been provided for completing it. But Luzan secured the necessary funds, hurried the work of construction and soon moved in to the fine new quarters which that building provided.

This gave great umbrage to the royal accountant of the Island, one Pedro de Arana, who does not appear to have been related, unless very remotely, to the Commander of the Fort. He declared that the Governor had no right to live in the Custom House, that the King's money had not been appropriated for any such purpose. It was true, he admitted, that a part of the Custom House building had been designed for an official residence. But it was not for the Governor, but for one of the royal officials. Now as Rojas, the Royal Treasurer, had a fine house of his own, the meaning of this suggestion was obvious. The royal accountant wanted the place for himself. He indeed went so far as to order the Governor, in the King's name, to vacate the building. But he did not venture to move in and take possession himself, and so the Governor presently returned and remained. In retaliation Luzan personally charged Pedro de Arana with various illegal acts, particularly in violating the law which forbade royal officials to encourage any trade. He declared that Arana was the owner, or half owner, of a vessel trading between Cuba and Yucatan, a vessel which was built to be chiefly used for smuggling. He also said that Arana was organizing an expedition to seek and raise sunken treasure s.h.i.+ps along the coast and was planning to establish cattle ranches in Bermuda. On the strength of these charges, which were probably true, he began a searching investigation into Arana's affairs, raided his house and ordered him to be arrested by his namesake and confined in a cell in La Fuerza. To this, however, Captain Melchior de Arana demurred. It was not that he did not regard the accountant as worthy of arrest. But he held that it was beneath his dignity to arrest a mere civilian and beneath the dignity of the Fort to serve as a prison for him. The arrest, he said, should be made by the sheriff, and the prisoner should be confined in the civil jail. At this the Governor was furious and he retaliated by sending the sheriff to arrest Captain Melchior de Arana and to confine him not in the military fortress but in the civil jail. A little later, however, he had the Captain transferred to a cell in La Fuerza. Then he made his brother-in-law, Juan de Ferrer, Captain of the Fort in Melchior's place.

In his strenuous dealings with the royal accountant the Governor appears merely to have antic.i.p.ated the King himself. At any rate, a very little while after he had begun his investigation of Pedro de Arana the instructions came to him from Madrid that he should pursue precisely that course. This naturally encouraged him to renewed zeal in the prosecution. And the result was that in March, 1582, he removed Arana from the office of royal accountant and appointed Manuel Diaz temporarily to fill his place. At this Arana made his way to Hispaniola, there to appeal to the Supreme Court against the Governor. He did more than appeal. He made grave charges against Luzon and got the court to order an investigation. The court appointed as chief inquisitor into Luzan's affairs Garcia de Torquemada, who went to Cuba in April, 1583, taking Arana along with him. Diaz made no attempt to maintain his t.i.tle to the office, but, regarding discretion as the better part of valor, left Havana and repaired to his plantation in the Far West. But the Governor and also Rojas, the Royal Treasurer, who sided with him against Arana, stood their ground.

In the meantime, early in 1582, the King became dissatisfied with the fast and loose game which was being played at Havana, and chiefly at La Fuerza, and determined to take matters into his own hand. He did so by appointing a Captain-General to be Commander of the Fortress, who should be independent of the Governor of Cuba. This involved some awkward complications. The Governor, Luzan, had been regularly commissioned as Captain-General as well as Governor. And the King naturally hesitated for a time over the question of appointing another man to the same place. He would have preferred that the Governor and Captain-General should have continued to be one and the same man. But that seemed no longer practicable, unless indeed he should dismiss Luzan altogether, which he was not yet prepared to do. He therefore consulted with the Council for the Indies, and in conjunction with that body finally decided to make a new appointment. Luzan was to continue to bear the nominal t.i.tle of Captain-General, so as to give him rank comparable with that of the military and naval commanders who might visit Havana with the fleets of Spain. But the same t.i.tle with real authority over the fortifications and defenses of Havana, and indeed a measure of authority over the fortifications and defenses of the entire Island, was to be given to another man.

The man selected for the new Captain-Generals.h.i.+p was a practical soldier of experience named Diego Hernandez de Quinones. He took office in July, 1582, and found La Fuerza substantially complete, save for the construction of a moat, and containing a garrison of 120 men, the majority of whom were always more or less sick because of the dampness and unsanitary conditions of the place. The fortress had been completed, however, in some respects in a highly unsatisfactory way. Thus there was no stairway inside the building connecting the lower and upper stories.