The History of Cuba Volume I Part 2

Changes in European Nations--Rise of the Protectionist Policy--Retaliation by Smugglers--Hostilities against Spain--Prevalence of Piracy--Some Strong Governors of Cuba--Good Works of Maldonado and Valdes--Invasions by Pirates--Division of the Island--Interest in Religious Affairs--Successive Governors Working at Cross Purposes--Building a Fleet--Protection of the Port of Havana--An Attack by the Dutch--The Exploits of Oquendo--The Slave Market in Havana--Fall of Cabrera.

CHAPTER XXIV 283

The Decline of Spain--Enterprise and Aggressions of the Dutch--The Dutch West India' Company--Governors Who Saved Cuba for Spain--Warring with Dutch Privateers--The Great Fight with Pie de Palo--Fiscal Reforms in Cuba--Gamboa's Improvement of Fortifications--Sarmiento's Organization of Cuban Troops--Ravages of a Great Pestilence--n.o.ble Deeds of the Religious Orders--Public Works Planned--The Walls of Havana--Aggressions of the British--Conquest of Jamaica--Records of Piracy--Exploits of Lolonois--Henry Morgan--British Capture and Plundering of Santiago--Repairing the Fortifications--A Compact against Piracy.

CHAPTER XXV 304

British Designs against Spanish Possessions--Covetous Eyes Turned upon Cuba by British Empire-Builders--Isolation of Cuba from Spain--France Playing False--Cuban Reprisals--Further Attacks by Freebooters--Controversy over British Prisoners--Disastrous Earthquakes--Ecclesiastical Troubles--Spain at the Brink of Bankruptcy--Cordova's Administration--Revised Code of Laws for the Indies--Civil and Ecclesiastical Controversies--Some Ruthless Work--Founding of the City of Matanzas--Official Disputes and Scandals.

CHAPTER XXVI 325

The War of the Austrian Succession--The Treaty of Utrecht--Reign of Philip V--Renewed Conflicts in the West Indies--Settlement of Pensacola--Aggressions of the French--Cuban Interests Affected by European Affairs--Increased Protection of the Island--Two Local Governors--Attacks upon Charleston--Raids of British Wars.h.i.+ps--Speculation in Tobacco--More Fortifications in a Time of Peace--Churches and Convents--Sanitary Measures--Official Quarrels--Reorganization of the Tobacco Industry--Seeking Administrative Stability--A Tobacco Insurrection--A Warning to the British--Fortifications of Havana.

CHAPTER XXVII 345

Great Impetus Given to Discovery and Exploration Throughout the World--Interesting Observations upon Cuba and the Indies--Some Quaint Records--A Description of the Natives of Cuba--Something About the Natural Resources of the Island from Ancient Authorities--Spanish and Alien Descriptions of Cuba--Early Writings About Cuba in Various Languages--Fra Vincente Fonseca--A Dutch Description of Cuba--Attention Given to the Wealth of Cuban Forests--Reasons Given for the Rise and Subsequent Decline of Spanish Power--Some Superst.i.tions and Legends.

CHAPTER XXVIII 360

Cuba Neglected During an Era of Great Achievements--The Golden Age of Spain--Culture at Home and Conquest Abroad--A Noteworthy Group of Spanish Historians--The University of Santo Domingo--The First American Books--Cuba's Lack of Partic.i.p.ation in these Activities, and the Reasons for it--A Turning Point in Cuban History at the End of the Sixteenth Century--Cubans Beginning to Become Cubans and Not Spaniards--A Significant Change in the Temper and Character of the People of the Island.

ILl.u.s.tRATIONS

FULL PAGE PLATES:

Columbus (Janez Portrait) _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE The Havana Cathedral 36

La Fuerza 146

Morro Castle, Havana 180

San Francisco Church 226

Morro Castle, Santiago 298

TEXT EMBELLISHMENTS:

PAGE

Monument on Supposed First Tending Place of Columbus, Watling's Island 3

Queen Isabella 13

Diego Velasquez 59

Baracoa, First Capital of Cuba 60

Panfilo de Narvaez 63

Bartholomew de las Casas 64

Ponce de Leon 72

Hernando Cortez 90

Hernando de Soto 140

San Lazaro Watch Tower, Havana 155

Pedro Menendez de Aviles 199

THE HISTORY OF CUBA

CHAPTER I

CUBA; America: America; Cuba. The two names are inseparable. The record of each is in a peculiar sense identified with that of the other. Far more than any other land the Queen of the Antilles is a.s.sociated with that Columbian enterprise from which the modern and practical history of the Western Hemisphere is dated. In Cuba the annals of America begin.

This island was not, it is true, the first land discovered by Columbus after leaving Spain. It was at least the fifth visited and named by him, and it was perhaps the tenth or twelfth which he saw and at which he touched in pa.s.sing. But in at least three major respects it had the unquestionable primacy among all the discoveries of his first, second and third voyages, while in his own estimation it was not surpa.s.sed in importance by the main land of the continent which he finally reached in his fourth and last expedition. It was the first land visited or seen by him of the ident.i.ty of which there has never been the slightest question. It was the first considerable land discovered by him, the first which was worth while sailing across the ocean to discover, and it was by far the most important of all found by him in his first three adventures. It was, also, the first and indeed the only land which caused him to believe that the theory of his undertaking had been vindicated and that the supreme object of his quest had been attained.

Let us, in order to appreciate the transcendent significance of his discovery of Cuba, briefly consider these three circ.u.mstances.

We must remember with respect to the first that the ident.i.ty of Columbus's first landing place has been much disputed, and indeed has never been determined to universal satisfaction: We know that it was an island of small or moderate size. Columbus himself called it in one place "small" and in another "fairly large." It was level, low-lying, well watered, with a large central lagoon, which may or may not have been a permanent feature, seeing that his visit was in the rainy season, when any depression in the land was likely to be flooded. It was certainly one of the Bahama archipelago. But that extensive group comprises 36 islands, 687 cays, and 2,414 rocks. Which of all these was it upon which the Admiral landed, which was called by the natives Guanahani, and which, with his characteristic religious fervor, Columbus immediately renamed San Salvador, the Island of the Holy Saviour?

The distinction has been claimed, by authorities worthy of respectful consideration, for no fewer than five. Down to the middle of the Nineteenth Century the weight of opinion and tradition favored Cat Island, and upon most maps and charts it was designated as "Guanahani, or San Salvador." It is by far the largest and the northernmost of the five islands in question. Next, to the southeast, lies Watling's Island, to which the distinction of having been the scene of Columbus's landfall has now for half a century been most generally given, and upon maps it is generally named San Salvador. It is the only one of the five which stands out in the Atlantic, beyond the generally uniform line of the Bahamas, as a sort of advance post to greet the voyager from the east.

Samana, south by east from Watling's, also called Attwood's Cay, was selected as the true Guanahani by some officers of the United States Coast Survey. Mariguana, further in the same direction, was proclaimed "La Verdadera Guanahani" by F. A. de Varnhagen in a scholarly treatise published in 1864 at Santiago de Chili. Finally, Grand Turk Island, at the southeastern extremity of the Bahama chain, and just north of the coast of Hayti, was designated by Navarrete, in 1825, and by various other authorities, chiefly American, at later dates.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MONUMENT ON SUPPOSED FIRST LANDING PLACE OF COLUMBUS, WATLING'S ISLAND]

The chief interest of these speculations for present consideration in this writing is their bearing upon the subsequent course of Columbus, the ident.i.ty of the next islands which he visited, and finally the point at which he first touched the coast of Cuba. If the original landfall was on Cat or on Watling's Island, then the second land visited, which Columbus called Santa Maria de la Concepcion, was probably either the tiny island now known as Concepcion or the larger Rum Cay; the third, called by him Ferdinandina or Fernandina, was either Great Exuma or Long Island; the fourth, Isabella, may have been either Long Island or Crooked Island, according to whether Fernandina was Great Exuma or Long Island; and the coast of Cuba was reached at some point between Punta Lucrecia and Port Nuevitas. On the other hand, if Grand Turk Island was first reached, the second land would naturally have been, as Navarrete held, at Gran Caico; the third at Little Inagua; the fourth at Great Inagua; and Cuba would have been reached somewhere between Cape Maysi and Sama Point. To me it seems decidedly the more probable that the former course was pursued, and I have accordingly adopted the theory that Columbus first landed in Cuba in the region between Nuevitas and Punta Lucrecia.

The second circ.u.mstance which I have mentioned scarcely requires discussion. The first, second and third voyages of Columbus were confined to discoveries and explorations of the West India Islands, and of all of these, even including Hayti and Jamaica, there can be no question of Cuba's primacy, whether in size, in wealth of resources, in political and strategical importance, or in historical interest. It was so recognized by Columbus himself, who indeed in one respect actually esteemed it more highly than it deserved. For after long and careful exploration he became convinced that it was not an island, but was the mainland of the Asian continent--Mangi, or Cathay: that country of the Great Khan of which Marco Polo had written and which Toscanelli had indicated upon his map, and the visiting of which was the supreme object of the Admiral's enterprise.

To understand this aright we must remember that Columbus was not seeking a new continent. He had no thought that one existed. He held, with Isidore of Seville, that all the lands of the world were comprehended in Europe, Africa and Asia, and that there was only one great ocean, the Atlantic, which stretched unbroken save by islands from the western sh.o.r.es of Europe and Africa to the eastern coast of Asia and the East Indies. Moreover, he considerably overestimated the extent of Asia and underestimated the circ.u.mference of the earth. Years later, long after the circ.u.mnavigation of the globe had been effected, Antonio Galvano, learned historian and geographer though he was, computed the equatorial circ.u.mference of the earth at only 23,500 miles, or about 1,400 miles too little; while the best maps of the sixteenth century indicated the Asian continent as extending far into the western hemisphere, and the Pacific Ocean as a narrow strip not nearly comparable with the Atlantic in extent. Schoener's globe, of 1520, which is still to be seen at Nuremberg, represents the "Terra de Cuba" as integral with the whole North American continent, with its western coast only five degrees of longitude or 300 miles from the sh.o.r.e of Zipangu or j.a.pan, and only 30 degrees or 1,800 miles from the mainland of Asia.

Columbus therefore expected to find the coast of Asia in about the longitude in which he actually found America. When he reached the Bahamas he confidently a.s.sumed them to be the group of islands which Toscanelli had indicated as lying off the coast of Cathay; and when he learned from the natives of a much larger island lying to the south, which they called Colba, Cuba, or Cubanacan, he believed it to be none other than c.i.p.ango, or Zipangu, which Toscanelli had shown as by far the largest of the East Indian islands. It has been commonly a.s.sumed, apparently with little dispute or attempt at investigation, that c.i.p.ango was j.a.pan. But the distance--1,500 miles--at which it was said to lie from the coast of China, the southerly lat.i.tude a.s.signed to it, and the mult.i.tude of small islands which were cl.u.s.tered about and near it, are circ.u.mstances which suggest that instead of j.a.pan the island meant may have been Luzon, the northernmost and largest of the Philippines.