We have already quoted the enthusiastic encomium of Columbus upon Cuba at his first sight of and landing upon its shore. His diary and his narrative to the sovereigns of Leon and Castile on his return to Spain abound with similar expressions, as well as with informing bits of description of Cuba as they then found it. In the very first days of his first visit he found villages of houses "made like booths, very large, and looking like tents in a camp without regular streets but one here and another there. Within they were clean and well swept, with furniture well made. All were of palm branches, beautifully constructed. They found many images in the shape of women, and many heads like masks, very well carved. It was not known whether these were used as ornaments, or were to be worshipped."
The waters abounded in fish, and the people of the coast regions were apparently nearly all fishermen. The only domestic animals were the "dogs which never barked," and birds in cages. There were seen, however, skulls like those of cows, on which account Columbus assumed that inland there were herds of cattle. All night the air was vocal with the songs of birds and the chirping of crickets and other insects, which lulled the voyagers to rest. Along the shore and in the mouths of rivers were found large shells, unlike any that he had known in Spain, but no pearls were in them. The air was soft and salubrious, and the nights were neither hot nor cold. On the other islands which he had visited the heat was oppressive, a circumstance which he attributed to the flat and low-lying land; while Cuba was mountainous and therefore was blessed with cooling breezes.
At some point on the northeastern coast, probably in the neighborhood of Point Sama, a month after his first landing, he imagined that he had discovered deposits of gold. It was in the bed of a river, near its mouth, that he saw stones shining, as if with gold, and he had them gathered, to take home to Spain and to present to the sovereigns. At the same point some of the sailors called his attention to the pine trees on a neighboring hill. They were "so wonderfully large that he could not exaggerate their height and straightness, and he perceived that in them was material for great stores of planks and masts for the largest ships of Spain."
Further on, probably in the neighborhood of Baracoa, "they came to the largest inhabited place that they had yet seen, and a vast concourse of people came down to the beach with loud shouts, all naked, with darts in their hands." Columbus desired to have speech with them, and accordingly anchored his ships and sent boats ashore, bearing gifts for the natives. The people at first seemed inclined to resist any landing, but when the Spaniards in the boats pressed on and began to land, without manifesting any fear, they abandoned their hostile attitude and began to withdraw. The Spaniards who landed called to them and strove to lure them back, but without success. They all ran away. In consequence of this and similar incidents, Columbus wrote:
"I have not been able to see much of the natives, because they take to flight. But now, if Our Lord pleases, I will see as much as possible, and will proceed little by little, learning and comprehending; and I will make some of my followers learn the language—for I have perceived that there is only one language up to this point. After they understand the advantages I shall labor to make all these people Christians. They will readily become such, because they have no religion nor idolatry; and Your Highnesses"—he was addressing the sovereigns, in his journal—"will send orders to build a city and fortress, and to convert these people.
"It does not appear to me," he continued, "that there can be a more fertile country or a better climate under the sun, with more abundant supplies of water. This is not like the rivers of Guinea, which are all pestilential. I thank Our Lord that up to this time there has not been a person of my company who has had so much as a head-ache, except one old man who has suffered from stone all his life, and he was well again in two days. I speak of all three vessels. If it should please God that Your Highness should send learned men out here, they will see the truth of all I have said."
While in the neighborhood of Baracoa, at the end of November and beginning of December, 1492, he saw a canoe made of the hole of a single tree, 95 palms long and capable of carrying 150 persons. "Leaving the river, they came to a cove in which there were five large canoes, so well constructed that it was a pleasure to look at them. They were under spreading trees, and a path led to them from a very well built boathouse, so thatched that neither sun nor rain could do any harm. Within it there was another canoe made out of a single tree like the others, like a galley with 17 benches. It was a pleasant sight to look upon such goodly work.
"The Admiral ascended a mountain, and afterward found the country level and cultivated with many things. In the middle there was a large village, and they came upon the people suddenly, but as soon as they were seen the men and women took to flight. The Admiral made the Indian from on board, who was with him, give them bells, copper ornaments, and glass beads, green and yellow, with which they were well content. He saw that they had no gold nor any other precious thing, and that it would suffice to leave them in peace. The whole district was well peopled. … No arms are carried by them except wands, on the point of which a short piece of wood is fixed, hardened by fire, and these they are very ready to exchange.
"Returning to where he had left the boats, he sent back some men up the hill, because he fancied he had seen a large apiary. Before those he had sent could return, they were joined by many Indians, and they went to the boats, where the Admiral was waiting with all his people. One of the natives advanced into the river near the stern of the boat and made a long speech, which the Admiral did not understand. At intervals the other Indians raised their hands to heaven and shouted. The Admiral thought that the orator was assuring him that he was pleased at his arrival. But he saw the Indian who came from the ship change the color of his face and turn as yellow as wax, trembling much and indicating to the Admiral by signs that he should leave the river, as they were going to kill him. The Admiral then pointed to a cross-bow which one of his followers had, and showed it to the Indians, making them understand that they would all be slain, because that weapon killed people at a great distance. He also drew a sword from its sheath and showed it to them, telling them that it, too, would slay them. Thereupon they all took to flight; while the Indian from the ship still trembled from cowardice, though he was a tall, strong man."
Columbus then determined to seek further acquaintance with the natives, and accordingly had his boat rowed to a point on the shore of the river where they were assembled in great numbers. They were naked, and painted; some wearing tufts of feathers on their heads, and all carrying bundles of darts. "I came to them," said Columbus, "and gave them bread, asking for the darts, in exchange for which I gave copper ornaments, bells and glass beads. This made them peaceable, so that they came to the boats again and gave us what they had. The sailors had killed a turtle, and the shell was on the boat, cut into pieces, some of which the sailors gave them in exchange for a bundle of darts. They were like the other people we had seen, with the same belief that we had come from heaven." They were ready, he added, to give anything that they had in exchange for any trifle, which they would accept without saying that it was little, and Columbus believed that they would thus give away gold and spices, if they had had any. In one of the houses which he entered "shells and other things were fastened to the ceiling." He thought that it was a temple, and he inquired, by signs, if such was the case and if prayers were there offered. The natives replied in the negative, and one of them climbed up to take down the ceiling ornaments and give them to Columbus, who accepted a few of them.
It was early in November, 1492, that one of the most noteworthy discoveries in relation to Cuba was made. At that time Columbus sent inland from the port at the mouth of the Rio de Mares two men, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, to explore the inland country and to find if possible the high road to the capital and palace of the Great Khan. These men did not find what they had been sent for, but something else, which proved in after years to be of incalculable value to Cuba and to the world. To quote Las Casas:
"They met on the road many men and women, passing to their villages, the men always with half-burned brands in their hands and certain herbs for smoking. These herbs are dry and are placed in a dry leaf made in the shape of the paper tubes which the boys make at Easter. Lighted at one end, at the other the smoke is sucked or drawn in with the breath. The effect of it is to make them sleepy and as it were intoxicated, and they say that using it relieves the feeling of fatigue. These rolls they call 'tabacos.'" Some of Columbus's men, when it was reported to them, tried smoking the "tabacos," and the habit soon became prevalent among the Spanish colonists in Hispaniola.
These few items, then, compose practically the sum and substance of the knowledge which Columbus acquired of that land which was, second to only the continent, by far the most important of all his discoveries. They are few and meagre. It is indeed doubtful if history records an even approximately comparable instance of the disappearance of a numerous and capable people from a country of vast interest and importance, leaving behind them so few traces of themselves and so little information concerning them. For these things are not merely all that Columbus learned about Cuba. They are all that his successors learned and that the world has ever learned about Cuba as it existed prior to and at the time of the great discovery. Tobacco, hammocks, canoes, and the name of the island and the names of various places on it which have persisted in spite of the repeated attempts to substitute a new nomenclature; these are the world's memorials of pre-Columbian Cuba.
The brief visits and superficial inspection which we have recorded were not, however, destined to be the full compass of the Discoverer's personal relationship to Cuba. While he did not again visit the island in life, nor give to it any of the attention which ampler knowledge would have shown him it deserved, his mortal remains were conveyed thither, and there remained for a considerable period; though by a strange fatality this fact, well authenticated as it is, has been persistently and elaborately disputed, until the tomb of Columbus has in the minds of many become almost as much a matter of speculation and uncertainty as the place of his birth.
It was on Ascension Day, May 20, 1506, that Columbus died at Valladolid, in Spain, and there his body was laid to rest in the parish church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, a church of the Franciscan Fathers. The date of the first removal is unknown, and is much disputed. Some have placed it as late as the year 1513, while others, as the result of later and more assured research, declare it to have been within a year or two, or at most within three years, of his death. Of the new place of sepulture, however, there is no question. It was in a chapel of the Carthusian monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas, at Seville; where also, years afterward, were laid the remains of his son, Diego, who died at Montalban on February 23, 1526.
But as in life, so in death Columbus must needs be a wanderer. In 1542 the city of Santo Domingo, the capital of that island colony of Hispaniola to which Columbus's chief attention had been given, demanded to be made the repository of the body of its founder. Accordingly, Charles I decreed the removal, and the bodies of Christopher Columbus and his son Diego were both transferred from Seville to a double tomb in the cathedral of Santo Domingo, hard by the fortress in which the Discoverer had once been confined by Bobadilla as a prisoner. Thus far the record was and is clear; and for two and a half centuries the tomb remained inviolate. Indeed, it was so little meddled with that its precise location became a matter of doubt, save that it was somewhere "in the main sanctuary" of the cathedral.
The first attempt to determine it was made about 1783 by the French politician and writer, Moreau de Saint-Mery, a kinsman of the Empress Josephine and a member of the Colonial Council of Santo Domingo. Diligent inquiry, without actual exhumation, resulted in the information that the remains of Christopher Columbus, enclosed first in a leaden casket and then in a massive coffin of stone, lay underneath the Gospel side of the sanctuary, and that those of his brother, Bartholomew Columbus, similarly enclosed, lay underneath the Epistle side. This was contrary, in one respect, to the understanding of years before, which was that it was the body of Columbus's grandson Luis which lay under the Epistle side of the sanctuary. The problem was complicated by the fact that the cathedral had been so remodelled that the tomb of Columbus was underneath its wall, where actual examination was difficult; and in fact no exhumation was then attempted.
In 1795, however, the island was transferred to French sovereignty, and the Spanish governor, on relinquishing his rule, requested permission to remove the remains of Columbus to Havana, Cuba, in order that they might continue to rest beneath the Spanish flag. This was granted to him, and accordingly, in January, 1796, the tomb beneath the wall on the Gospel side of the sanctuary of the cathedral of Santo Domingo was opened, and the coffin found within was reverently removed and borne to Havana, where it was deposited in a new tomb in the cathedral—formerly the Church of the Jesuits—where its presence was indicated by a medallion and inscription on the wall of the chancel. For many years that was indubitably regarded as the tomb of the Discoverer.
It was not until 1877 that doubt of this fact arose. In that year repairs were made to the cathedral of Santo Domingo, in the course of which the rector, the Rev. Francis Navier Billini, insisted upon reopening the tomb underneath the Epistle side of the sanctuary, which had of old been reputed to contain the coffin of Luis Columbus, but which Saint-Mery had been informed contained the remains of Bartholomew Columbus. There was discovered a leaden casket, which, like that which had been taken to Havana, bore no inscription. But upon or close by it there lay a sheet of lead bearing the words, "The Admiral Don Luis Colon, Duke of Veragua and Marquis of. … " The remainder was undecipherable. The casket was therefore accepted as that of Columbus's grandson; confirming the common belief before the time of Saint-Mery.
Not content with this discovery, the enterprising rector continued his excavations, and presently the finding of another leaden casket was announced, which was reported to bear an inscription, much abbreviated, which, amplified, ran thus: "Discoverer of America; First Admiral." This created a great sensation, and stimulated Dominican pride. The rector at once sent for the President of Santo Domingo and other dignitaries of state and church, including various foreign diplomats and consuls, and in their presence continued the examination of the treasure trove. Upon opening the casket, the inner side of the lid was found also to bear an inscription, greatly abbreviated, which was interpreted as reading: "Illustrious and Noble Man, Don Cristoval Colon." This the Dominicans joyfully proclaimed to be proof positive that the remains of the Discoverer were still in their possession, and that the casket which had been taken to Havana contained the bones of some other member of the Columbus family.
From that event arose a controversy which probably will never be settled to universal satisfaction. The Dominicans marshalled to the support of their claims various historical and antiquarian authorities, and the Cubans and the Spanish government secured at least an equal array in support of their claim that the remains of Columbus had been transferred to Havana. A strongly convincing report to the latter effect was made to the Spanish government by Señor Colmeiro, of the Spanish Royal Academy of History, and his judgment was generally accepted throughout Cuba and Spain. It was pointed out that the inscriptions contained various anachronisms indicating that they must have been written at a much later date than that of the death and interment of Columbus.
Havana therefore continued confidently to pride itself upon being the repository of the dust of the Great Admiral, and his tomb in the ancient cathedral was thus recognized and revered by countless visitors. But at last, in 1899, after the independence of Cuba from Spain had been accomplished, a request was made by the Spanish Government for the transfer of the casket and its precious contents back to Spain, where historically they belonged. It was indeed pointed out that the transfer to Havana in 1796 had been intended to be only temporary, pending a fitting opportunity for a further removal to Spain. This request was granted, and the dust of the Discoverer was finally reinterred in the cathedral of Seville.
THE HAVANA CATHEDRAL
Originally the church of the Jesuits, this imposing edifice was built in 1656, though not completed until 1724, and took the place of the first cathedral in 1762. Within a tomb within its walls the remains of Columbus rested from 1796, when they were taken thither from Santo Domingo, to 1899, when they were conveyed to Spain.
For a considerable time after the last visit of Columbus, Cuba was strangely neglected by the enterprising explorers and conquistadors of Spain. Hispaniola, since known as Hayti or Santo Domingo, became the chief colony and centre of Spanish authority in the Antilles, and it for many years far outranked Cuba in interest and importance. It does not appear that for more than a dozen years after the last visit of Columbus any attempt whatever was made to colonize or to explore the great island, if indeed it was so much as voluntarily visited. Navigators doubtless frequently passed near its shores, on their way to and from Darien and the Venezuelan coast, and occasionally stress of weather on the "stormy Caribbean" or actual shipwreck compelled some to land upon it. Such involuntary landings were presumably made either in the neighborhood of the Zapata Peninsula or, still more probably, not exactly upon Cuba at all but upon the southern shore of the tributary Isle of Pines. In consequence, the voyagers carried back to Hispaniola or to Spain the not unnatural report that Cuba consisted of nothing but swamps; a report which of course did not inspire others with zeal to visit so unfavorable a place.
For a similar space of time, too, the delusion that Cuba was a part of the continent generally prevailed. It is true that on a map of Juan de la Cosa's, to which the date of 1500 is attributed, Cuba is indicated to be an island. But the date is not certain, by any means; and it is notorious that more than one early cartographer drew upon imagination as well as upon ascertained geographical facts. Somewhat more significant is the fact that Peter Martyr spoke of Cuba as an island, and said that some sailors pretended to have circumnavigated it. There is no proof, however, that this was more than rumor. What seems certain is that as late as 1508 the best authorities were ignorant whether Cuba was island or mainland, and that not until that time was the question settled.
Columbus had been succeeded in authority in Hispaniola by Francisco de Bobadilla, and the latter in turn had in 1501 given way to Nicholas de Ovando. It does not appear that Ovando sought to colonize Cuba. But he did wish to determine its extent, and whether it was insular or continental, and in a memorial to the King of Spain he broached a proposal for at least its littoral exploration. Ferdinand gave him, however, no encouragement. On the contrary, he forbade him to spend any public money on so needless and useless an enterprise. Ovando then decided to undertake the exploit at his own charge, and, according to Las Casas, commissioned Sebastian de Ocampo to explore the coasts of the country and, if he found it to be an island, to circumnavigate it. This Ocampo did, returning to Hispaniola in the fall of 1508 with the report that he had sailed completely round Cuba. On the way, he said, he had made occasional landings, and had found the whole island to be inhabited by a kindly and intelligent people, well disposed toward Spain.
Immediately following this expedition, various efforts were made to colonize Cuba, and to enter into relations with the natives. Conspicuous among these efforts was one which had for its object the introduction of Christianity into Cuba, and of which an interesting account is given by Martin Ferdinand de Enciso in his "Suma de Geografia," the first book ever published about America. Enciso, it will be remembered, was a partner of Alonzo de Ojeda, that brilliant and gallant cavalier of Spain who in 1508 was Governor of Nueva Andalusia, a region which we now know as the Caribbean coast of Colombia. It was Enciso who in 1509 went to Uraba to the relief of Francisco Pizarro, who had been in command there but who had become discouraged, had suffered heavy losses from attacks by the natives, and who was about to abandon the place. It was on one of Enciso's ships, too, that his friend Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, concealed in a cask to avoid his creditors, escaped from Hispaniola and was conveyed to Darien, thus getting his opportunity to cross the isthmus and to discover the Pacific Ocean.
Enciso relates that a Spanish vessel, cruising off the southern coast of Cuba, somewhere near Cape de la Cruz, put ashore a young mariner who had fallen ill, so that he might have a better chance to recover from his illness than he would on shipboard. The identity of this young man is not assured, though it has been strongly suggested that he was no other than Ojeda himself. However that may be, he found himself in his convalescence the guest of a native chieftain or Cacique who professed Christianity. The chief had presumably been visited by Ocampo's expedition. He had been much impressed by the prowess and culture of the Spaniards, and had desired to become affiliated with the religion which they professed and to which he attributed their superiority to the natives of Cuba. Hearing from them that they had been sent thither by the Comendador Ovando—the Governor of Hispaniola was a Comendador of the Order of Knights of Alcantara—he chose that title for his own baptismal name, and was thenceforth known as the Cacique Comendador.
Pleased to find a Christian chief, and grateful for his own restoration to health, Ojeda—if it was indeed he—erected in Comendador's house an altar and placed thereon an image of the Holy Virgin, and instructed the people to bow before it every evening and to repeat the "Ave, Maria!" and "Salve, Regina!" This was pleasing to Comendador, but offensive to the neighboring Caciques, who worshipped an idol which they called Cemi. In consequence a primitive religious war arose among the natives, in which, according to Enciso, Comendador and his followers were pretty uniformly successful. His victories were attributed to the intervention and aid of "a beautiful woman, clad in white, and carrying a wand." Finally a test was agreed upon which reminds us of Elijah's Battle of the Gods on the scathed crest of Mount Carmel. A representative warrior of each party was to be bound securely, hand and foot, and be placed in an open field for the night, and if one of them was set free from his bonds, that would be proof of the superiority of his God. "The God who looses his servant's bonds, let him be the Lord!" This was done, and guards of both parties were placed about the field, to make sure that nobody should meddle with the experiment.
At midnight, says Enciso, Cemi came to unbind his follower. But before he could reach him or touch his bonds, the Holy Virgin appeared, clad in white and bearing a wand. At her approach, Cemi incontinently fled. At a touch of her wand the bonds fell from the limbs of the Christian champion, and were added to those already on the limbs of the other man. Despite the presence of the guards, the Caciques insisted that there had been trickery, and demanded another trial, to which Comendador, confident in his faith, agreed. The result was the same as before. Still they were unconvinced, and demanded a third trial, at which they themselves would be present as watchers and guards. This also was granted, and once more the same miracle was wrought. At that the Caciques all confessed their defeat and the defeat of Cemi, and declared that the Virgin was worthy to be worshipped.
This auspicious implanting of Christianity and of good relations between the natives and the Spaniards did not, unfortunately, endure. It was interfered with by the too common cause of trouble in those days, the auri sacra fames, the accursed lust for gold. We have seen that King Ferdinand was unwilling, in his niggardliness, for money to be spent from his treasury for the exploration of Cuba. But after that work had been done at Ovando's personal cost, Ferdinand desired to reap the gains, if any there were. The suggestion was revived that Cuba might be rich in gold. The King suspected that Ovando and others were deceiving him concerning the island, and were secretly planning to secure its riches for themselves. These suspicions were materially increased by the course of Diego Columbus which, while probably quite honest, was lacking in tact and worldly wisdom. For when Diego succeeded Ovando as Governor-General or Viceroy of the Indies, at Hispaniola, one of his first acts was to commission his uncle, Bartholomew Columbus, to lead an expedition for the exploration and settlement of Cuba. That was a legitimate and indeed praiseworthy enterprise. But unfortunately Diego did not secure in advance the King's authority for it, nor did he acquaint the King with his intentions. His enemies, however, of whom he had many, were quick to report the matter to the King, putting it in the light most unfavorable to both Diego and Bartholomew; and the result was that Ferdinand at once recalled Bartholomew Columbus to Spain, and compelled Diego to select another head for the expedition.
In 1510, then, the King directed Diego Columbus to send forth his proposed expedition to Cuba, to make a careful examination of the island, to ascertain the character of its resources, and above all to determine whether it contained gold. He took pains, moreover, to impress upon Diego and through him the actual members of the expedition, the eminent desirability of cultivating the most friendly and confidential relations with the natives, both as a matter of policy and for the sake of humanity and religion. The result was the sending, early in 1511, from Hispaniola, of an expedition in which were interested if not actually implicated a number of the most conspicuous men in the Indies, and which marked the actual and permanent opening of Cuba to Spanish settlement and civilization.
Diego Columbus was the son and heir of the Great Discoverer, who under the terms of the royal compact of 1492 was to inherit all his father's powers and dignities as Admiral and Viceroy of the Western Hemisphere. For a time Ferdinand on various pretexts refused to fulfil that compact and to recognize his rights, but appointed Ovando to rule in Hispaniola in his stead. But after Diego's marriage to Doña Maria de Toledo, the daughter of the Grand Commander of Leon and the niece of the King's favorite councillor and friend, the Duke of Alba, a combination of personal, social and political influence prevailed for the vindication of his claims, and he was invested with supreme authority in place of Ovando, who was provided for elsewhere. Diego seems to have been a man of integrity and engaging character, though perhaps more idealistic than practical, and not always a match in policy for the scheming politicians by whom he was surrounded.
Bartholomew Columbus was the brother of Christopher, was intimately associated with him in his great enterprises, and was named by him Adelantado, or Lieutenant Governor, of the Indies. He too was a man of character and fine parts, bold and enterprising, and possessed of more practical worldly wisdom than either his brother or his nephew.
These two stood alone, against a numerous company of personal and political enemies, both in Hispaniola and in Spain. Indeed, as Bartholomew was recalled to Spain and was kept there for some time, Diego was left solitary to contend with or to yield to his foes. It was therefore probably through necessity that he organized the Cuban expedition largely with men hostile to him.
Miguel Pasamonte was his chief foe. He had been the secretary of Queen Isabella, and had filled important Ambassadorships, but was now the royal treasurer in Hispaniola. He had been one of the bitterest enemies of Christopher Columbus, and had transferred a full measure of hostility to Diego; and it was he who reported to the King in its most unfavorable light Diego's plans for sending Bartholomew Columbus to Cuba. In his hostility to both Christopher and Diego Columbus he was greatly aided and abetted by Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Bishop of Seville; who had violently quarrelled with Christopher Columbus over the fitting out of his second voyage and who also had transferred his hatred to the Admiral's son.
DIEGO VELASQUEZ
Diego Velasquez was another of the faction hostile to the Columbuses, though at first he had been a friend and companion of the Admiral. It is probable that he had no personal enmity toward Diego Columbus, but joined himself to the other faction through motives not unconnected with personal pecuniary profit. He had gone from Spain to Hispaniola with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage, and had ever since been one of the most efficient administrators in that island and indeed in all the Indies. For a time he was a military leader in campaigns against hostile natives, and afterward he became Lieutenant Governor of the island. He was a man of high ability, of singularly handsome person, of engaging manners, of much popularity, and of abundant force of character for successful leadership and command of men. He was, however, not always scrupulous in his dealings, and it was not to his moral credit that he became the richest man in all the Indies. He was a close friend and partisan of Pasamonte, and associated with him in the same alliance were the royal secretary in Hispaniola, Conchillos, and also the royal accountant, Christopher de Cuellar, who was both the cousin and father-in-law of Velasquez.
Diego Columbus, then, either through policy or through compulsion, appointed Velasquez to be his lieutenant in Cuba, and commissioned him to organize and personally to lead the intended expedition to that island. He also promised that the King would refund whatever private expenditures Velasquez and his companions should make on account of it; a promise which was authorized by the King, but not fulfilled save in the indirect way of empowering the members of the expedition to recoup themselves at the expense of the people of the island; an arrangement decidedly at variance with Ferdinand's former solicitude for good treatment for the natives. Further than that, Diego had little or nothing to do with Cuba, and in a short time Velasquez was known not as Lieutenant but as Governor, as though he were entirely independent of the Viceroy in Hispaniola.
BARACOAEarly in 1511 Velasquez assembled a flotilla of three or four vessels on the northwest coast of Hispaniola, at or near the place where Columbus had landed when he discovered that island and first visited it from Cuba. In the adjacent region he recruited a company of about three hundred men, and with that force set out for the conquest and colonization of Cuba. The precise date of his expedition is not to be ascertained, but it was probably in February or at latest March of that year. The place of his landing in Cuba, however, is known. It was at Baracoa, where also Columbus had landed before him. Following the practice of Columbus and the other explorers he promptly gave the place a new name of his own selection, calling it the City of Our Lady of the Assumption. There he established his seat of government and base of further operations, giving to the place in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs the technical rank and dignity of a city. But, as also frequently happened, the new name was unable to supplant the old one in popular usage; and when, in 1514, the insular capital was transferred to Santiago de Cuba, and in 1522 the cathedral of the diocese was similarly transferred, the new name was permitted to lapse, and the place became again universally known as Baracoa. Despite its vicissitudes of fortune, therefore, and its loss of its former high estate, Baracoa is entitled to the triple distinction of having been the site of the first permanent European settlement in Cuba, of the first civilized government, and of the first cathedral church.
At Baracoa, immediately upon his arrival, Velasquez built a fort, the exact site of which is now matter of conjecture, and various other edifices. These were all constructed of wood, probably of bamboo and thatch, and no trace of them remains to-day. Search was also promptly made for gold, and some seems to have been found in the beds of streams, though in no large quantities, and the attempt to operate mines was soon abandoned. Attention was then turned to further explorations and conquests, and to the quest for gold in other parts of the island.
Still more unfortunate than the failure to find much gold, and largely because of that fruitless quest, was the rise of bitter hostilities between the Spaniards and the natives. This was also a sequel to and in part a consequence of the Spanish administration in Hispaniola and particularly of the part which Velasquez had played therein. Shortly before coming to Cuba, Velasquez had waged several strenuous and probably somewhat ruthless campaigns against the natives of Hispaniola, chiefly in that part of the island which lay nearest to Cuba and in which he recruited his Cuban expedition. His chief opponent there was a native chief named Hatuey, who, finding himself unable to cope with the Spaniards, fled to Cuba with many of his followers and settled in the country near Baracoa. These refugees were of course quick to report to the natives of Cuba the cause of their migration, and to portray the conduct and character of the Spaniards, and of Velasquez personally, in the most unfavorable light. The natural result was to predispose the Cuban natives to regard the Spaniards with distrust and aversion. And when Velasquez himself presently appeared among the very people who had been thus prejudiced against him, trouble inevitably arose.
The leader in the trouble was Hatuey, who had a large following both of his own tribe from Hispaniola and also of Cubans. He had maintained a system of spying and communication through which he kept himself perfectly informed of the doings of Velasquez, whom he considered his chief foe, not only politically but personally, and when he learned that he was coming to Cuba he busied himself with preparations to resist him. He was foremost in spreading among the Cuban natives all manner of evil reports concerning the Spaniards, all of which, whether true or false, found ready credence.
Thus on one occasion, as related by Herrera, he gathered many of the natives together with a promise to reveal to them the God of the Spaniards, whom they worshipped and to whom they made human sacrifices of Indians' lives. When they were assembled and their anticipation was whetted, he placed before them a small basket filled with gold. "That," said he, "is the God which the Spaniards worship, and in quest of which they are following us hither. Let us, therefore, ourselves pay this God reverence and implore him to bid his Spanish worshippers not to harm us when they come hither!" The natives performed a religious dance and other rites about the gold, until they were exhausted, and then Hatuey further counselled them to cast the gold into the river, where the Spaniards could not find it; since if they found it they would continue their search for more, even to cutting out the hearts of the people in quest of it.
Whether true or fabricated, the story indicates the attitude of Hatuey toward the Spaniards and explains the intensity of the bitterness which prevailed between him and Velasquez. Of course, when the Spaniards arrived and immediately began to hunt for gold, Hatuey's words about their God seemed to be confirmed. War began, which soon resulted in the defeat and capture of Hatuey, who was put to death. Tradition has it that he was burned at the stake, as was the common custom in those times, and that just before the fire was lighted he was invited to accept Christianity and be baptized, but refused on the ground that he did not want to meet any Spaniards in the other world. He was succeeded in command of the hostile natives by Caguax, who had been his comrade in Hispaniola and who had come to Cuba with him; and the hostilities were continued with the usual result of conflicts between a higher and a lower civilization. In a short time the province of Maysi was conquered and partly pacified, and that of Bayamo was invaded.
PANFILO DE NARVAEZ
At this time and in these operations there appeared in Cuba two more men of commanding importance in the early history of the island, who were sent thither from Hispaniola to assist Velasquez soon after the defeat and death of Hatuey. One of these was Panfilo de Narvaez, a soldier and the leader of a company of thirty expert crossbow-men who had been serving in Jamaica but were no longer needed by the governor of that island, Esquivel. Narvaez was a native of Valladolid, Spain, near which city Velasquez also had been born. It is possible, indeed, that the two men were related, since there was a marked physical resemblance between them; both being tall, handsome, and of a pronounced blond complexion. At any rate, they had long been friends, and Velasquez was glad to make Narvaez his chief lieutenant and right-hand man. Narvaez appears to have been a man of high intelligence, honorable character, and much personal charm. He was, however, too much inclined toward fighting, was sometimes reckless in his leadership, and was no more scrupulous in his conduct toward the natives than were many other conquerors of various lands in those days of adventure and violence. At the head of a force of more than a hundred and fifty men, including a score of horsemen, he led the way in the conquest, first of Bayamo and finally of all the rest of the island. In his campaign he enjoyed immense advantage from the awe and terror which were caused among the natives by the appearance of the horses, which were the first ever seen in Cuba.
BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS
The other and more famous of these two men was Bartholomew de Las Casas, known to the world as the "Protector of the Indians" and as the "Apostle to the Indies." As a youth he had accompanied his father on Columbus's third voyage to America, and he had come to the Antilles a second time and permanently with Ovando, the Governor of Hispaniola, in 1502. In 1510 he was ordained to be a priest, and it was in that clerical capacity that he was sent over to Cuba to assist Velasquez in the conquest, pacification and settlement of the island. He appears at first to have had no important religious scruples against oppression of the natives, but joined with Velasquez and Narvaez in their sometimes ruthless policy. When the island was divided among the conquerors under the system of repartimientos, or allotments of natives as practical slaves of the Spaniards, he received and accepted without demur his encomienda or commandery, and held it for some time in partnership with his friend Pedro de Renteria. But a little later, realizing the injustice and cruelties which the natives suffered under this system, he became, as he himself described it, "converted," and thereafter was an earnest, zealous and almost fanatical champion of their rights. He visited Spain several times, to secure commissions of inquiry and other measures for their relief. Also, thinking thus to redeem them from enforced servitude, he secured royal sanction for the introduction of Negro slavery and the importation of Negro slaves into Cuba; a policy which he afterward deeply regretted.
After a brief campaign in Bayamo, which was not particularly successful, beyond the killing of Caguax and the final dispersion of the force which Hatuey had organized, Narvaez formed an expedition of perhaps five hundred men for more extended enterprises, in which he had as his principal companions Las Casas and a young nephew of Velasquez, Juan de Grijalva. The precise route of this expedition cannot now be stated. It certainly, however, traversed the Bayamo region, and went as far west as Camaguey. It also visited the neighborhood of Cape Cruz and there passed through the town of Cueyba, as Las Casas called it, where, as hitherto related, a Spanish mariner, presumably Ojeda, had landed and had established a Christian shrine with a statue of the Holy Virgin. Here and at other places amicable relations were maintained between the Spaniards and the natives.
Unhappily that was not always the rule. At the large town of Caonao, probably near Manzanillo, a number of Spanish soldiers, as if suddenly stricken with madness, began a massacre of the natives, killed a great number, and drove the rest into flight. Narvaez does not seem to have ordered nor to have taken part in the slaughter, but neither did he exert himself to prevent it or to stop it. Whereupon Las Casas, righteously wrathful, bade him to go to the Devil, and thereafter devoted himself to ministering to the sufferers and to reassuring the survivors.
From Caonao the expedition moved westward, through the southern part of the Province of Camaguey, where the natives were so frightened that they fled to the little islands off the coast which Columbus had named the Queen's Gardens. Thence it went across the island to the north coast, and probably in the region of Sagua la Grande, in Santa Clara Province, found some small deposits of gold. After stopping there for some time, it continued its progress into Havana Province, where more gold was found and where, unhappily, serious trouble with the natives was renewed.
On the way across the island Narvaez had heard of three Spaniards, a man and two women, who had been shipwrecked on the coast and were living with the Indians somewhere in the west. He sent word of this report back to Velasquez, who returned him orders to search for the castaways even in preference to gold, and who also dispatched a ship along the north coast to meet Narvaez and his party in the region to which they were going. In Santa Clara the two women were found, unharmed and well, and they presently married members of the expedition. Finally, in Havana the man also was found. He too was unharmed and well, though he had become in speech and habits more like an Indian than a Spaniard. According to his story, he and the two women were the sole survivors of a company of twenty-six. They had fled from Ojeda's ill-starred settlement at Uraba, on the Gulf of Darien, and were trying to make their way back to Hispaniola, but had been driven out of their course around the north coast of Cuba. Not far from Cape San Antonio they had been shipwrecked and thence had made their way by land, along the north coast. Most of them had been killed by natives while trying to cross an arm of the sea, which has been assumed to have been the Bay of Matanzas, which was so named on that account.
On the Havana coast the expedition met the vessel which Velasquez had sent. But leaving it in port there the expedition went across the island again to Xagua, or Cienfuegos, there to meet Velasquez himself and another expedition which he was leading, and there to spend with him the Christmas season of 1513. At the beginning of 1514 Narvaez and a hundred men returned to Havana and thence marched westward into Pinar del Rio, the vessel keeping in touch with them along the coast. How far they went in that province is not now certainly known. Some accounts have it that they stopped at Bahia Honda and there took ship back for Baracoa, while others insist that they got as far as Nombre de Dios. All that is certain is that Narvaez and his comrades visited on this expedition all parts of the island, and thus completed the nominal exploration and occupation of Cuba in the early part of 1514.
The new Mexican expedition was entrusted by Velasquez to the leadership of the greatest of all the Spanish conquistadors, Hernando Cortez, then Alcalde of Santiago de Cuba. This famous man was then, in 1518, only thirty-three years of age.
HERNANDO CORTEZ He had been born in Estremadura, had survived a particularly weak and sickly childhood, and had studied law at the University of Salamanca. Leaving the University, he enlisted in the company of Nicolas de Ovando, also of Estremadura, for an expedition to America. But on the very eve of sailing he went to bid a tender farewell to his inamorata; while scaling the garden wall to reach her window he fell and had part of the wall topple upon him, and in consequence was laid abed for some time, while Ovando's expedition sailed without him. Recovering from this mishap, he passed a year or two in obscurity and poverty, and then secured passage, in 1504, for Hispaniola. His courage and prowess during a storm which threatened to swamp the vessel made him a conspicuous member of the company, and on landing at Hispaniola he was quickly taken into the good graces and the employ of both Velasquez and Ovando. Having overcome his early delicacy of constitution, he was now a stalwart, handsome youth, of engaging manners, fine education and much spirit and capacity in martial adventure; in brief, admirably fitted for the great career which he was already unconsciously confronting.
We have seen that a mishap in a love affair determined the time and circumstances of his leaving Spain for the New World. A sequel to that incident again determined his course. He had enlisted in the expedition of Diego de Nicuesa bound for Darien when from the old injury from his garden wall disaster there developed an abscess in his right knee, which again disabled him for a time and restrained him from going on that voyage. Had he gone on it, perhaps he might have become the conqueror of Peru, instead of his fellow Estremaduran, Pizarro, who was a member of Nicuesa's company, and the discoverer of the Pacific, instead of that other Estremaduran, Balboa, who went to Darien at a little later date. Instead, Cortez was detailed by Diego Columbus to go to Cuba as a secretary to Velasquez. In that capacity he acquitted himself so well that he received an extensive grant of land, together with a large number of natives as slaves, and for a time he settled down as a Cuban planter.