It was thus left for Rojas, on becoming governor in succession to Guzman, to take up again the work from which he had been recalled by his predecessor. This he did to much effect at the end of 1532. He sent a strong force against the mountain fastness of Guama, the foremost chieftain of the Cimarrons, and completely defeated him, putting him to flight and almost extirpating his band. Shortly after this victory of Rojas"s, Guama was killed by one of his own few remaining followers.
Rojas then sent his troops to disperse Cimarron bands near Bayamo, and Baracoa, which they did with much success, so that peace and security were pretty well restored throughout the island.
This left unsettled, however, the other and in some respects more important and more trying phase of the Indian question, namely, the treatment and disposal of the "tame" Indians, who for years had been in a state of practical slavery under the repartimiento system. It will be recalled that at the beginning they were placed under the protection of the Jeronimite Order of monks; a protection which did not effectively protect. In fact, within a dozen years of the foundation of the system the Jeronimites were more oppressors than protectors, and were chiefly engaged in making what pecuniary profit they could out of their hapless wards. On this account their nominal protectorate was formally abolished by the crown, in 1526, and Gonzalo de Guzman was made repartidor with powers equal to those which Velasquez had exercised. Indeed, his powers were even more absolute than those of Velasquez, since the supreme court of Hispaniola was deprived of jurisdiction over him in his administration of Indian affairs. Later the Bishop, Ramirez, was made co-repartidor with him.
There then arose a protracted and bitter rivalry between the governor and Bishop on the one side and the munic.i.p.al alcaldes on the other, for the exercise of powers of inspection of and supervision over the labor of the natives. Both sides appointed inspectors, whose functions clashed. Appeal was made to the crown, with the result that the dispute was decided in favor of the alcaldes, who were authorized to appoint inspectors, which the governor and Bishop were forbidden to do. As is usual in such cases, the objects of the contention were the chief sufferers. Indeed, so wretched became their plight that some inkling of the truth reached the ears of the King, who thereupon commissioned a Provincial of the Franciscan Order to go from Hispaniola to Cuba, to investigate charges of cruelty, and to punish severely all who were found guilty. The King also directed that he should arrange for the liberation of the natives to the fullest extent for which they seemed to be fitted.
Learning of this before the arrival of this commissioner, Guzman and his friends set energetically to work to defeat his mission in advance. A vast ma.s.s of "evidence" was cooked up, pretending to demonstrate the unfitness of the Indians for any greater measure of liberty than they were already enjoying, which was practically none at all. It was declared that the Indians were at that very time largely armed and threatening the Spaniards with ma.s.sacre and extermination, and that any further privileges granted to them would certainly provoke a tragic catastrophe. The Indians would exterminate the Spanish colonists and of course revert to heathen idolatry, and it would be necessary to conquer and to convert the island over again. This perjured stuff, responsibility for which must be regarded as the worst stain upon Gonzalo de Guzman"s fame, was presented to the King in the name of the government and people of Cuba.
But King Charles was no fool. Thousands of miles away though he was, and absorbed in important problems of other parts of his vast empire, he took pains to find out the truth about Cuba. Learning it, he threw the stuff which Guzman had sent him into the waste basket, gave his Franciscan commissioner stronger orders, declared that he wanted the Indians to be treated as free men and not as slaves, and promulgated a set of new laws concerning them. In connection with these laws, as a statement of the need of them, the King delivered himself of a scathing indictment of the Cuban government and people for ill-treatment of the natives and for causing depopulation of the island. (The original population of the island at the time of the first Spanish settlements is unknown, but has reasonably been estimated at several hundred thousand.
By the end of Guzman"s administration the number of surviving Indians was reckoned at not more than five thousand!)
These new laws, issued in the latter part of 1526, forbade further compulsion of the Indians as laborers in the mines. But in the course of a few weeks some modifications of them--to the disadvantage of the Indians--were obtained through false representations at court, with the result that conditions became almost as bad as before. The King next directed Sebastian Ramirez, who was Bishop of Hispaniola and president of the supreme court, to report to him on the desirability of retaining or abolishing the repartimiento system; and that functionary reported in favor of retaining it. Then Miguel Ramirez was made Bishop of Cuba and Protector of the Indians; and he, as we have seen, fell completely under the influence of Guzman. The result was that no reforms were effected, and the state of the Indians went from bad to worse.
The King learned of this, and was profoundly dissatisfied. In the latter part of 1529 he demanded to know why reforms had not been effected, and especially why there had not been made the experiment of granting the natives entire freedom. Equivocal replies were made, and it was not until the spring of 1531 that Guzman undertook the experiment. At that time one of the colonists, who had held some 120 slaves, died, and Guzman directed that they be set at liberty and be given a chance to show what they could do as farmers. Every conceivable condition was imposed upon them which would tend to make the experiment the failure which Guzman intended that it should be. In the midst of the experiment, which was to last a year, Guzman was removed from office.
Vadillo, who succeeded him for sixty days, had no authority to do anything in the premises, and so the completion of the ill-begun business was left for Manuel de Rojas.
Then began one of the most deplorable pa.s.sages in all the early history of Cuba, in which good intentions were frustrated, benevolent purposes defeated, and the remnants of a race undeservedly doomed to destruction.
Manuel de Rojas should be credited with having been of all men of this time one of the most honest and able, and most sincere in his desire to do justice to the native Indians. He saw through the web of trickery and malign conditions in which they had been enmeshed by those who were predetermined that the experiment of emanc.i.p.ation should fail, and he unsparingly denounced it all. The Indians who had been "selected" for the experiment had in fact not been selected at all, but had been taken at haphazard, without regard to their fitness; if indeed they had not been taken largely because of their unfitness. They had, moreover, been subjected to the instruction and direction of those who seemed more interested in extorting profit from them than in a.s.sisting them to independence.
Rojas demanded that these abuses should be corrected, and that the natives should have at least a fair, unhampered chance to show themselves fit for freedom and Cuban citizenship. As a result of his own painstaking investigation, he reported to the King that the tales of Indian insurrections, actual or threatened, which his predecessor had circulated, were chiefly false; obviously invented for the purpose of discrediting the Indians. It was the old story: "Give a dog a bad name, and hang him." The Indians were to be slandered, and represented as incorrigible criminals, and then doomed to slavery. Moreover, in the few cases in which revolts or attempted revolts had occurred, the blame should rest upon the Spaniards more than upon the Indians, for the former had goaded the latter to desperation by inhuman cruelties, in resisting which the Indians were manifesting not savagery but manhood.
In support of this view of the situation, Rojas was able to cite many specific and perfectly well authenticated instances of cruelty and injustice. To correct these evils he recommended that whenever it was proved that a mine-owner, farmer or other employer of native labor, had deliberately treated his Indians cruelly or unjustly, the men should be taken away from him and either set at liberty or be a.s.signed to a more humane employer. The danger of thus being deprived of their workmen would, he plausibly believed, restrain employers from brutality. He also insisted that the professional "slave catchers," who made a profitable business of running down and returning to their employers fugitive Indians, and who notoriously treated such captives with gross cruelty, should be forbidden longer to ply their nefarious trade.
This wise and humane policy was approved by the crown, and Rojas sincerely and perseveringly strove to make it effective throughout the island; devoting to it for a couple of years the greater part of his time and attention. But unfortunately he found the people, the civil officials, and to a large extent the clergy, arrayed against him. The _auri sacra fames_ possessed the people. Slave labor was profitable; therefore they resented and opposed anything which would deprive them of it. Especially did they oppose the provision that men should be deprived of their workmen because they had treated them cruelly. Fines or other penalties for excessive brutality might be well enough, but to take a man"s slaves away from him was, in their opinion, going too far. He was not thus deprived of his horses and cattle. Why should he be deprived of his Indians?
Yet in the face of such opposition Rojas bravely persevered. He seems to have been animated by two motives, both creditable and honorable. One was that of humanity and justice. It revolted him to see his fellow human beings treated as badly as beasts. The other was that of patriotic policy. He believed that it was bad for Cuba, that it corrupted the present and compromised the future, to maintain this abominable system of human slavery. So he flung himself into the work of emanc.i.p.ation and reform with all the resolution and energy of which he was capable. He travelled over the island, personally inspecting the conditions of labor at all points, and personally listening to all complaints, pet.i.tions, suggestions and what not that were offered. Particularly was he interested in the "experimental village" near Bayamo, where natives were trying to work out their own salvation on farms of their own. He corrected as far as possible the unfavorable conditions which had been imposed upon them, and encouraged them to their best efforts.
Unfortunately the royal government had been misled into sanctioning the imposition upon these people of burdens "almost too heavy to be borne."
Regardless of the fact that as inexpert beginners in agriculture they were not likely in the first year or two to make large profits from their labor, they were weighed down with far heavier taxation than that to which Spanish colonists were subjected. They were required to pay a large tribute in cash as "va.s.sals." They were also required to pay large salaries to various functionaries who were saddled upon them without their desire or need. One was an ecclesiastic, who was charged with protecting their spiritual welfare. Another was a layman, who was supposed to be their political guide, philosopher and friend. These overseers probably did them much more harm than good, though Rojas seems to have selected for those places the best men he could find. But the result of these impositions was that many of the Indians became discouraged and indicated a preference for returning to serfdom or slavery. As free men in the experimental village they had to support themselves and in addition to pay practically all their earnings to the tax-gatherer. It would be better to give all their labor to an employer who in return would at least provide them with the necessaries of existence.
On this ground many of the villagers indicated a desire to abandon the experiment and return to the old system. It is probable that some of them were really convinced that this would be best. They were driven to despair by being thrown upon their own resources and then being oppressed with unjust taxes. But there is also reason to suspect that other influences were brought to bear upon many of them. They were threatened with all manner of punishment and persecution if they did not renounce the experiment and ask to be returned to slavery. Similar tactics were certainly employed against those outside of the villages.
Wherever Rojas went on his tours of inspection and investigation, he heard of natives who had complaints to make, or pet.i.tions to offer, or who wished to be released from serfdom and to enter the free village.
But when he reached the spot and sought for these Indians, they had disappeared, or had changed their minds. He had little doubt of foul play, that they were smuggled out of sight, or were coerced into action and speech contrary to their real desires; but he was seldom able to prove it, so general was the conspiracy against emanc.i.p.ation.
The result was inevitable. Rojas lost heart. It is possible that he still clung to his beliefs, but realized that the obstacles to his policy were too great for him to overcome. It may be, on the other hand, that he became convinced that he had erred, that the Indians were not as fit for freedom as he had supposed, and that their general emanc.i.p.ation was impracticable. In any case, he gave up the struggle. "Before G.o.d and his conscience," he said, he was convinced that little if any good had come of the experiment of freedom, and that it would be best to abandon it and to return the Indians to the control of well-disposed Spaniards; with a proviso that any who wished for freedom and showed fitness for it should be emanc.i.p.ated. A tone of sadness but of sincerity pervaded the report in which he made this recommendation. The King accepted it and approved it, doubtless with the same reluctance and regret which Rojas must have had in making it; and that chapter of Cuban history was ended.
Not one of all the early governors of Cuba deserves more grateful memory than Rojas. Not one of them surpa.s.sed him in ability, in statesmanship, in executive efficiency, in breadth and penetration of vision in discerning the needs and the possibilities of the island. Not one, certainly, surpa.s.sed if indeed any rivalled him in integrity, benevolence, and self-sacrificing devotion to duty. Velasquez, indeed, occupied the governorship for a longer period, and was a.s.sociated with more striking events; naturally, being the first and the founder of the line. But not even he had as true a public spirit or as just a conception of the ways and means by which a substantial and prosperous commonwealth was to be developed, as had Manuel de Rojas.
Yet no other governor in those times was more shabbily and ungratefully treated than he, both during and after his administration. A wise, just judge, an indefatigable administrator, above all an honest man, he devoted himself to the task of promoting the interests of the island, of its people, with a sincerity and a whole-heartedness unfortunately uncommon in those days or in any days. It is true that he failed to solve the problem of saving the Indian natives, and some others which confronted him. But that was not for lack of n.o.ble effort or high purpose. It was because he was either honestly misled by those upon whom it was necessary for him to rely, or because he found himself confronted with difficulties too great for a man to overcome alone, and at the same time abandoned if not actually betrayed and antagonized by those who should have aided him and with whose aid he might have been triumphant.
He labored at the cost of great self-sacrifice. The salary which was paid to him by the Crown was insufficient, and his personal fortune was not large. He was, moreover, too busy with public affairs to engage in gainful occupations of any kind while governor, and he was too honest to enrich himself in any devious ways. He spent his own private means freely for public purposes, not only in official tours of the island, but in paying the expenses of suppressing Indian outbreaks and apprehending criminals. The result was that he found himself becoming impoverished. Nor did he have so much as the consolation of appreciation. Doubtless the King did appreciate, theoretically, his loyalty, efficiency and integrity; but he altogether neglected to manifest his appreciation in a practical manner by giving Rojas the encouragement and support which he deserved and which he greatly needed.
So far as the people of Cuba were concerned, they showed still less regard for him, while the majority of their political and social leaders were openly hostile to him. Guzman and his relatives and friends, who were numerous and powerful, in particular neglected no opportunity to thwart, annoy or discredit him.
In these circ.u.mstances it was not to be wondered at that Rojas grew weary of his discouraging and ungrateful task, in which he had not even the satisfaction of feeling that he was accomplishing something, and consequently begged to be relieved of it. He had too high a sense of duty to abandon his place without the permission of the King, and that for some time was withheld. But at last his increasingly importunate appeals had their effect. In October, 1535, the King accepted his resignation, and, it is pleasant to record, paid him a tribute which was unique and which must have been peculiarly gratifying to Rojas. That was, that the examination of his accounts should be of an altogether perfunctory and formal character. There was to be no such inquest as all other governors had been compelled to endure. There was really no need of any, but in order to maintain the custom one must be held. But there were no charges, no investigations, no trials. This was the more noteworthy because of the hostility of so many of the people, and above all of Rojas"s successor.
But this exemption from inquest was his sole reward. He had asked to be relieved not merely of the governorship of Cuba but also of all public duties, in order that he might give his undivided attention to his own personal and private interests. But this was denied him. The King accepted his resignation of the governorship, but refused to grant him permission to join his brother in Peru, where he had hoped to recoup his fortunes. Instead, he sent him to Jamaica, as a royal auditor of accounts, an arduous and somewhat invidious duty, which Rojas accepted doubtless with much reluctance. Still more distasteful was the task which followed it, which was to return to Cuba to conduct a judicial investigation into the conduct of the royal officials there, including the governor himself, and to try those who seemed deserving of prosecution. To some this would have been a welcome undertaking, since it involved the prosecution for serious misdemeanors of those politicians who had been most hostile to him and had given him the greatest annoyance; and even bringing his arch-enemy, the governor, Guzman, under scrutiny. But it was a repugnant task to Rojas, who had no vindictiveness in his nature, and who wished above all to get away and remain away from the scenes of his unsuccessful labors and agonizing ordeals. He bore himself, however, with the same firmness, integrity and high spirit that had marked his former services, and at the end departed, with the royal permission, from Cuba, not to visit it again.
CHAPTER XII
The successor of Rojas was Gonzalo de Guzman, who thus returned for a second term of the governorship. That adroit, masterful and often unscrupulous politician had spent his time in Spain to good advantage.
In various ways and through various methods, not altogether dissociated from the golden treasure which he carried thither from the mines of Cuba, he ingratiated himself with a number of influential courtiers, and through them with the royal court itself. Before long he was able to secure a revision of the sentence which Vadillo had pa.s.sed upon him, and a reversal of its most harsh decrees and a mitigation of others. Thus he was largely vindicated, and was enabled to plume himself upon having received the royal favor. At the same time he conducted, through his faithful retainers, a campaign of intrigue in Hispaniola, with the result that the Admiral, or Vicereine, the widow of Diego Columbus, appointed him back to his old place as governor of Cuba. The appointment was not to be effective, however, until ratified by the King, and such ratification the King for some time delayed to grant.
Guzman was confident, however, of receiving the royal ratification, and so, without waiting for it, he proceeded to Cuba as governor-elect, and began elaborate preparations for resuming office. That was in the midsummer of 1534, more than a year before Rojas was permitted to retire. Indeed, we may well believe that it was the presence and conduct of Guzman that made the island intolerable to Rojas. For Guzman established himself in a fine house, with a retinue of servants, and attracted to himself most of the practical politicians of Cuba, especially those who were inclined to "welcome the coming, speed the parting, guest." They all knew that Rojas was to retire, and that Guzman was to succeed him; wherefore they paid all possible deference to the former and treated the latter with neglect if not with contempt.
The actual change came, as we have already seen, in October, 1535. Rojas relinquished the governorship, and Guzman resumed it; and a most grievous decline of Cuba began. Guzman promptly set about serving his own personal interests, rewarding his friends, and punishing all of his opponents who were still within reach. Few of them were within reach, however; all who could do so having fled the island, for Jamaica or elsewhere. Cuba was thus deprived of some of its most useful citizens, while its important public offices were filled with self-seeking politicians.
Happily, this unworthy and detrimental administration was short lived; and it was ended through what was nothing less than a peaceful revolution in the political status of Cuba. For some time there had been controversy and litigation between the heirs of Columbus and the Spanish crown, concerning the rights, powers and privileges of the former in the West Indies. The suits came to an end in the spring of 1537, when a settlement was effected, one of the bases of which was the complete renunciation, by the heirs of Columbus, of all right, t.i.tle or jurisdiction of any kind whatever over the island of Cuba. That of course completely separated Cuba from the jurisdiction of Hispaniola, and made it directly responsible to and dependent upon Spain. It was no longer an adjunct to Hispaniola, but a colony of Spain.
Now thitherto the governor and most of the other officials in Cuba had received their commissions from the Admiral or Vicereine in Hispaniola, or from the Supreme Court there. Such was the case with Guzman, though his Hispaniolan commission had received the ratification of the King. It was therefore logically held that all commissions thus given in Cuba by the Hispaniola government became null and void with the emanc.i.p.ation of Cuba from dependence upon the other and smaller island. In consequence, Guzman"s second term in the governorship came to an end in March, 1537.
An interregnum ensued. The King was contemplating further reorganization of his American domains, and consequently forebore for some time to appoint a successor to Guzman, or indeed to any of the important officials whose terms of office had been involuntarily ended. There had just been, as we have seen, widespread investigations and trials of royal functionaries for frauds, and the King was solicitous to find someone who was indubitably trustworthy, before making further appointments. The result was that the affairs of the island, which had been gravely disturbed and damaged by Guzman, went rapidly from bad to worse, and threatened to plunge into utter chaos.
Nor was the solution of this crisis for the advantage of the island. On the contrary, it was to its still further detriment. Once before, in the time of Velasquez, Cuba had been made to suffer greatly because of the development of Mexico and the exodus of many enterprising Cubans to that country. That experience was now to be repeated even more disastrously, in the attempted development of Florida. That country had long been known. It was placed upon the maps as early as 1502, and it was in 1513, at the time when Velasquez was making his first settlements in Cuba, that Juan Ponce de Leon obtained a royal charter to discover and to settle the Island of Bimini, as it was called, on which there was reputed to be a fountain of extraordinary curative powers, capable of restoring to the aged all the vigor of youth. Actual colonization of Florida was not undertaken, however, until 1521, in which enterprise Ponce de Leon himself was wounded in a fight with Indians, and came to Cuba to die. Again in 1527 Panfilo de Narvaez led a large expedition from Cuba to Florida, in which he and all but four of his six hundred men were lost in Indian fighting and in a great Gulf storm.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HERNANDO DE SOTO]
There next came upon the scene a far more formidable personage than any of these, or indeed than any who had visited Cuba since Columbus with the exception of Cortez. This was none other than Hernando de Soto. Like many another famous Spanish conquistador, he was an impoverished n.o.bleman of Estremadura, who had been in youth a protege of the infamous Pedrarias d"Avila, the constructive murderer of Balboa and the scourge of Darien. Through the bounty of d"Avila he had pa.s.sed through a university; he had gone to Darien with his patron in 1519; and in 1532 he had gone with reenforcements to Pizarro in Peru. There he played a great part, personally seizing the Inca monarch, Atahualpa, and discovering the mountain pa.s.s which led to the treasure city of Cuzco.
Incidentally he seized for himself a vast fortune, with which he returned to Spain, where he married the daughter of d"Avila and for a time settled down in splendid state.
When, however, Cabeza de Vaca, one of the four survivors of the last expedition of Narvaez, reached Spain with stories of the marvellous wealth of Florida, de Soto"s adventurous spirit, or his cupidity, was again aroused. He disposed of part of his estates, purchased and armed four ships, recruited a force of 620 foot soldiers and 120 hors.e.m.e.n, and sought from the King a commission to explore, conquer and colonize Florida. In him the King apparently saw, as he imagined, the solution of the problem, what to do about Cuba. He accordingly joined Florida and Cuba together, politically, making de Soto Adelantado of the former and governor of the latter. With this commission de Soto sailed from Spain in April, 1538, bound first for Cuba and thence for Florida. The expedition called for a time at the Canary Islands, where its members were richly entertained by the Governor of Gomera. There De Soto"s wife, the Lady Isabel, engaged the beautiful daughter of the Governor to accompany her as her chief lady-in-waiting, a choice which led to some interesting personal complications, actually affecting the progress of the expedition.
It was on June 7, 1538, that De Soto arrived at Santiago with probably the most imposing fleet that had ever yet visited that port or the waters of Cuba. It comprised more than a score of vessels, carrying more than a thousand soldiers. This armada comprised the galleons _San Cristobal_, _Buena Fortuna_, _Magdalena_, _Conception_, _San Juan_, _San Antonio_, and _Santa Barbara_; one caravel (a three-masted vessel), two light brigs (two masted), and about a dozen smaller craft. Juan de Anasco was chief pilot of the expedition, and the captains were Nunez Tobar, Luis Morosco de Alvarado, Andres de Vasconcelas, Arias Tinoco, Alfonso Robo de Cardenosa, Diego Garcia, and Pedro Calderon. Among the commanders of the troops were Carlos Enriques, Micer de Espinola, Dionisio de Paris, Rodrigo Gallego, Francisco del Poso, and Diego Banuelos. Nor was the propagation of the True Faith neglected. It was entrusted to a mission comprising four priests and a number of Dominican friars, under the leadership of the friar Luis de Soto, a cousin of the generalissimo of the expedition. Santiago was naturally selected for the entry to Cuba seeing that it was still the official capital and that De Soto was already commissioned Governor. There was a narrow escape from shipwreck in entering the narrow and somewhat tortuous mouth of the great harbor, after which the Governor was received by the munic.i.p.al functionaries with all the pomp and dignity of which the capital was capable. Tidings of the coming of the new Governor had spread throughout the Island and people of consequence from all parts had flocked to Santiago to welcome him, to seek to ingratiate themselves with him and to celebrate what they fondly hoped would prove to be the beginning of a new and splendid era in the history of Cuba. It is recorded that the gentlemen of the town sent down to the boat landing a fine roan horse for De Soto to ride and a richly caparisoned mule for Dona Isabel. He and all his company were lodged in the most luxurious quarters the town could afford and were hospitably entertained without cost to themselves. Santiago had at this time about eighty houses which were described as s.p.a.cious and well appointed. About half of them were of masonry and tile and the remainder of boards and thatch. There were also many attractive country estates surrounding the city.
The day following his landing De Soto formally a.s.sumed his authority as Governor, and Bartolome de Ortiz became Alcalde mayor of Santiago.
Scarcely had he done this, however, when news came that a French corsair had attacked Havana, ransacked the church, and burned a number of houses; after which he had sailed away. De Soto at once sent Mateo Aceituna to the scene, with a company of soldiers and artisans, with instructions to rebuild the houses and then to begin the construction of a fort which would serve as an adequate defence for the town. Having done this, he sent Lady Isabel, escorted by his nephew Don Carlos, to Havana by sea, with a strong squadron, while he himself with the remainder of his company set out on horseback for a tour of the islands.
He first went to Bayamo, and thence to Trinidad, and Puerto Principe.
From the latter place he went in a canoe to the great country estate of Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa at Camaguey, there to get news of Lady Isabel"s arrival at Havana. Thence he proceeded to Sancti Spiritus, which at that time was a place of only about thirty houses. Half of his company landed there, and half went on to Trinidad, which was a still smaller place of not more than twenty houses, though it contained a hospital for the poor, the only such inst.i.tution on the whole Island.
Thence he proceeded to Havana without finding another town or settlement of any kind on the entire road.
During his stay in Havana De Soto deprived Nunez Tobar of his rank as Captain-General and gave it instead to Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, because Tobar had made love to Dona Isabel"s lady-in-waiting, the daughter of the Governor of Gomera, and indeed had seduced her. In spite, or perhaps because of this punishment Tobar thereupon married the girl and afterward joined De Soto"s expedition to Florida in a subordinate capacity.
There can be no question that Hernando de Soto came to Cuba with a prestige far surpa.s.sing that of any of his predecessors. He was in the prime of manhood and at the height of his fame. He had been the hero of great adventures and of marvellous achievements, and was possessed of great wealth. He was not only governor of Cuba but also Adelantado of Florida, which meant all the lands at the north of the Gulf, from the Atlantic to Mexico, and thus, it was confidently a.s.sumed, Cuba would become the chief province and Santiago the capital city, of an empire exceeding in extent and wealth both Mexico and Peru.
These brilliant antic.i.p.ations were, however, doomed to speedy and most crushing disappointment. It soon became clear that de Soto regarded Cuba as a mere stepping stone to Florida, and that he was not merely willing to sacrifice the island"s interests to the gratification of his continental ambitions, but had from the first been intent upon so doing.
He paid little attention to the representations which were made to him in behalf of Cuba, or indeed to the duties of his office as governor.
Instead, all his thought seemed to be given and all his efforts directed, to preparations for proceeding on his way to the alluring regions beyond the Gulf. Moreover, he tempted into joining him in that enterprise many of the richest and most forceful men of Cuba. Among these was Vasco de Figueroa, who had been a comrade of Velasquez. He had settled in Camaguey as early as 1514, and had grown very rich. We may say, indeed, that he was the richest and most influential man in all that part of Cuba. He eagerly accepted an invitation to join the expedition, as de Soto"s first lieutenant, and he drew along with him many other substantial men from Camaguey and other parts of the island.
Nor was the island thus to suffer for the sake of Florida, merely as a whole. The capital, Santiago, was specially to suffer. Its traditions and its long-established interests were nothing to De Soto, who looked for nothing but to promote his Florida venture. Manifestly, Santiago was no place to serve as a base of operations to the northward, so he presently transferred his headquarters to Havana. That city had been founded in 1514 on the south coast, near what is now Batabano, but a few years later had been transferred by migration of populace and name to its present commanding site at the north. In 1537 it had been raided and partly destroyed by fire, by buccaneers, but at the time of de Soto"s coming was rapidly being rebuilt and restored to greater importance than before.
So a few weeks after his arrival at Santiago, in the early part of August, 1538, de Soto ruthlessly closed his mansion at Santiago and removed his whole household to Havana. His household and his foot soldiers were sent thither in his vessels, of which he now had five. He himself with his hors.e.m.e.n travelled overland, Vasco de Figueroa acting as guide. The beauty and riches of the island seem not greatly to have impressed the great adventurer; certainly not enough to withhold him for one moment from his quest. Mountain and plain were alike to him merely the road toward Florida.
It was late in December before all members of the expedition were a.s.sembled at Havana. There it was necessary to remain a while, to refit the vessels, gather provisions, and prepare for an adventure into an unknown and potentially hostile wilderness. Additional ships were sought, and more men; and recruits came flocking thither eagerly from all parts of the island. Meanwhile, a scouting party of fifty, with one vessel, was sent to the Florida coast, to discover a desirable spot for the landing of the whole expedition. It returned in February, 1539, with the report that no suitable place could be found, and with a recommendation against undertaking the venture. This incensed de Soto, and he made the men hasten back to Florida and not return until they had found that which was the object of their quest. Their second expedition lasted three months. At the end of that time they reappeared at Havana, disembarked, fell upon their knees, and on their knees made their way from the wharf to the church, where they offered thanks for their deliverance. This was their fulfilment of a vow which they had made when they were in imminent danger of death; and they would not so much as speak to the governor or to anyone until the pious act was completed.
They then reported to de Soto that amid great perils they had found a place which would be suitable for his purpose. They had named it the Bay of Espiritu Santo, as it is to this day called, on the West Coast of Florida. To this place accordingly de Soto hastened, at the end of May, 1539, with nine vessels, more than 500 men beside sailors, and half as many horses; leaving his wife at Havana as acting governor in his absence, with Juan de Rojas as her chief a.s.sistant. Vasco de Figueroa soon returned, disgusted with Florida, which he described as a land of interminable swamps, but he left his son with de Soto to serve as lieutenant in his stead. Then Gomez Arias, brother of Lady Isabel de Soto, also returned, with glowing reports of the beauty and wealth of Florida, and it was proclaimed throughout all Cuba that the expedition was succeeding beyond all expectation, and that Florida was the garden of the world. The effect was to excite the Spaniards of Cuba with eagerness to leave their homes in quest of fortunes in this new land.