Velasquez was for a number of years the dominant figure in Cuban
history, and he much more than any other man is to be credited with the
settlement of the island and its social, political and economical
organization. He was married at Baracoa in the early part of 1513 to
Donna Maria de Cuellar, daughter of Christopher de Cuellar, the royal
treasurer in the island, but within a week was left a widower. To find
solace for his grief in action, he threw himself with extraordinary
energy into the work of exploring, pacifying and colonizing the island.
After founding the town of San Salvador de Bayamo he went westward, as
already stated, to meet Narvaez and to spend Christmas at Xagua or
Cienfuegos. Less than a month later he founded La Villa de Trinidad, and
later in the year La Villa de Sancti Spiritus and, finally, Santiago de
Cuba. At all of these places excepting the last named gold was found,
though not in any large quantities. He was thus encouraged to continue
his search for that precious metal, while at the same time he was
admonished not to look too much to it for the prosperity of the Island,
but to pay attention to the development of its other resources, and
particularly its obvious agricultural potentialities.
Accordingly in the spring of 1514 he sent a vessel to Hispaniola for
horses and cattle with which to stock Cuba, and for supplies of grain
and other seeds, and agricultural implements. In the cargo which it
brought back to him lay the germ of the subsequent agricultural
greatness of Cuba. At about the same time, also, he founded Cuban
commerce by the establishment of regular communication between the
island and Jamaica, Darien and other Spanish settlements at the south.
In this latter enterprise the King was especially interested, and his
directions to Velasquez were that he should develop it to the largest
possible extent. He did not expect Cuba ever to rival Darien and other
regions in mineral wealth, but that island could, he thought, surpass
them in agriculture, and thus could serve as a source of supply to them,
and as a base of operations.
It was, indeed, in pursuance of this policy of commerce with the
countries at the south and west of the Caribbean that Santiago de Cuba
was founded as the seventh of the seven cities among which the island
was partitioned, and that it was made the insular capital. The site was,
as already stated, the only one at which gold was not found. It was
selected partly because of the secure and commodious harbor, one of the
finest anywhere on the shores of the Caribbean, and partly because its
situation on the south coast made it particularly accessible to and from
Jamaica, Darien and the other regions in which the Spanish crown was
interested. As soon as it was founded, the seat of civil, military and
ecclesiastical authority was transferred thither from Baracoa, and
Santiago de Cuba became the second capital of the island. Meantime
Narvaez, at the north, had founded Havana, which was destined to be the
third and final capital.
Each city or town was made, however, a capital unto itself. The
principle of local autonomy or home rule had long been cherished by the
Spanish people in the Iberian Kingdom, and it was transplanted by them
in an increased degree to their Antillean colonies. In accord with that
principle, these first seven cities were planned and arranged with a
view to civic self-sufficiency. The plan was uniform. Each place had its
central park or plaza, upon which fronted the town hall, the parish
church and the residence of the governor or the alcalde. The plan of
government was also uniform. In each place Velasquez appointed an
Alcalde, who was not a mayor but a judge of first instance; a Deputy
Alcalde, and three regidores or councillors; the Alcalde and the
regidores sitting together forming the Town Council. There were also a
procurador, or public prosecutor; an alguacil, or sheriff; and one or
more escribanos, or notaries public.
There was also at this time established throughout the island a social
and economic system borrowed from Hispaniola, where it had not been in
operation long enough for its evil effects to be demonstrated. Its
intention was unquestionably benevolent, and, given a sufficiently
altruistic quality of human nature, its results might have been good.
With human nature what it was, it became almost unrelievedly evil. This
was known as the system of Repartimiento, or Encomienda. First of all,
the whole territory of the island was partitioned among the seven
cities. Then in each there were appointed persons whom we might describe
as land-holders and slave-holders. The former, known as vecinos, were
the representatives of the king in ownership of the land, all of which
was regarded as the property of the crown, to be apportioned for working
to suitable loyal subjects. The latter were called encomenderos, and to
them were apportioned the native population, in tutelage and servitude.
Now the fundamental evil of the system lay in the appropriation of the
land. It was all taken for the crown, and the natives who had been
occupying it were _ipso facto_ transformed into squatters, or
trespassers. But as the king claimed the whole area of the island, there
was no other land for them to occupy; wherefore they must remain on the
king's land. But if they did that, they must become his serfs. They were
therefore apportioned among the land-holders; to remain in their homes
and to be educated, fed and clothed and generally cared for by the
latter; and in return to do a certain amount of useful work. Thus they
would become civilized and Christianized, and perhaps themselves fitted
to become land-holders.
It was an excellent plan, in theory; and it seemed the more likely to
succeed because the Spanish colonists manifested no such caste prejudice
against the natives as those of some other lands did. Thus it was an
unusual thing for a French settler in North America, and a still more
unusual thing for a British settler, to marry an Indian woman, and such
unions, when they did occur, were generally regarded as debasing. But
there was no such feeling among the Spanish, and intermarriages between
the races, of an entirely legal and honorable character, were not
uncommon and were not regarded with disfavor. Nevertheless, the
repartimiento system soon lapsed into utter evil, as such a relationship
between a superior and an inferior race seems certain to do. In brief,
it became slavery, pure and simple.
The benevolent and statesmanlike spirit of Velasquez was shown, in
contrast to that of most other conquistadors of that time, in the
circumstance that he ordered the natives to be thus impressed into work
for a period of only a single month, to be paid for their labor at a
prescribed rate, and to be engaged as largely as possible in
agricultural pursuits. He did not prohibit the employment of them at
gold mining, but he strove earnestly to extend agricultural enterprise.
This was partly, no doubt, in pursuance of the king's order, that he
should make Cuba a source of food supplies for the supposedly less
favored regions at Darien and elsewhere, but was partly, too, because
Velasquez recognized the agricultural possibilities of Cuba and was
determined to make it self-supporting. He exercised this authority, not
merely as Governor General of the island, but also as Repartidor, or
Partitioner of the Natives, to which office he was expressly appointed
by the king, with responsibility to nobody but the king himself. He
apportioned the natives in lots of from not fewer than forty to not more
than three hundred, according to the land held by the vecino, and
ordered that they be well treated, and of course be not sold nor
transferred from one master to another.
There was, unfortunately, another class of native servitors, to wit,
those taken as captives in battle in the occasional hostilities between
the two races. These were by royal decree made outright and life-long
slaves, subject to be bought and sold and even branded with their
owners' names, like cattle. The number of these being few after the
collapse of Hatuey's short-lived resistance, the practice arose of
adding to their number natives from Mexico, Darien and elsewhere, who
were seized and brought to Cuba as slaves. All this was declared to be
illegal and was ordered abolished by a royal decree which was
promulgated in Cuba in November, 1531. But long before that time the
evil system had become widespread, and had involved in absolute slavery
encomendado natives as well as the captives. The bad results of the
system were reflected upon the masters if possible more than upon the
slaves, and were felt for many years after the native population had so
nearly vanished as to be no longer a factor in Cuban affairs worthy of
consideration.
[Illustration: PONCE DE LEON]
Following the establishment of these political and industrial systems,
Cuban colonization made extraordinarily rapid progress. The island which
for years had been neglected and all but ignored became the chief centre
of Antillean interest. It drew from Hispaniola, Darien and other lands,
both insular and continental, many of their best colonists, including
some who afterward became famous for their achievements elsewhere. Thus,
Hernando Cortez was alcalde of Santiago de Cuba. Bernal Diaz, whose
honest soul revolted against the infamies of Pedrarias Davila at Darien,
settled for a time at Sancti Spiritus before following Cortez to Mexico.
Vasco de Figueroa was a great plantation owner at Camaguey. Las Casas
was at Trinidad until he returned to Spain to begin his propaganda for
the welfare of the Indians. Ponce de Leon also spent some time in Cuba,
and so did La Salle. Velasquez himself was of course settled at Santiago
de Cuba, with Christopher de Cuellar, the royal treasurer, and Hurtado
de Isunsolo and Amador de Lares, fiscal agents of the King. At Santiago
was established the royal assay office and refining works for the output
of the gold mines of the island.
In brief, the island prospered greatly in all respects. The mines were
rich, the plantations fertile and productive, and live stock greatly
thrived. The island, according to Oviedo, became "much populated with
both Christians and Indians." It appears to have been at the instance of
Velasquez that its name was changed in 1515 from Juana to Fernandina, in
honor of the king; an incident which added to the high regard which that
monarch cherished for Velasquez, of whom he said that "no man could more
wisely administer the affairs of the island." This tribute was probably
deserved. But it cannot be said that Velasquez served his King for
naught, or that he promoted the interests of the island to the neglect
of his own, since he himself so greatly prospered that he became the
richest man in all Cuba and probably in all the Antilles, and was so
secure in his place that he could feel quite independent of even the
Admiral himself, Diego Columbus, at Hispaniola.
A noteworthy tribute to Velasquez was paid, also, in a series of cedulas
issued by the King. The first, dated December 12, 1512, thanked him for
his pacification of Cuba and his tactful and humane treatment of the
natives. Another, on April 8, 1513, was much to the same effect, adding
the exhortation: "Because I much desire that all diligence possible be
used to convert the natives of the island, I direct that you undertake
this with all means possible. In nothing can you do me greater service."
Five days later a third cedula formally appointed Velasquez Governor of
the town and fortress of Baracoa, with a salary of 20,000 maravedis a
year. After the complete organization of the insular government and
industrial system, as already described, the King in a cedula of
February 28, 1515, commended all that had been done, adding: "The chief
recommendation I would make to you is that you have all possible care
for the conversion and good treatment of the Indians of the island, and
that you endeavor in every way to have them taught and indoctrinated in
our Holy Catholic Faith and to have them remain in it; so that we may be
without burden on our conscience regarding them and so that you may free
yourself of all the obligation which you have assumed for their
welfare."
It was impossible that Velasquez should, however, escape the attacks of
envy and malice. Suggestions were made to the King that he was growing
too rich, and that he was manipulating the affairs of the island in his
own interest rather than in the interest of the royal treasury. But
these were without effect, save to confirm Velasquez in royal confidence
and favor. To the suggestion that a residencia or investigation be made
of the administration of Velasquez and his lieutenants, the King
returned an emphatic negative. In a cedula of July 7, 1515, he expressly
ordered that no residencia be taken, since he was entirely satisfied
with the administration of the island. This was of material advantage to
Velasquez, and was also a most unusual honor; the more unusual and
noteworthy when we remember that Ferdinand had developed a particularly
selfish and suspicious disposition and was little inclined to give full
confidence to any man.
Nor was the royal favor short lived or confined to the reign of
Ferdinand. In November, 1518, another royal decree from Ferdinand's
successor, Charles I, appointed Velasquez Adelantado of all lands which
he personally or through his agents might discover, and endowed him with
one-fifteenth part of all the revenues which might be obtained from
them. At this time Velasquez was already busy with enterprises of
exploration, and his efforts were redoubled under this incentive. But in
so doing he suffered the same fate that he himself had inflicted upon
Diego Columbus. For he sent Hernando Cortez, who had been alcalde of
Santiago de Cuba, upon the expedition which resulted in the conquest of
Mexico; upon achieving which transcendent exploit, Cortez repudiated him
and his authority, much as Velasquez had repudiated the authority of
Columbus in Hispaniola.
The year 1515 marked a turning-point in the early history of Cuba. In
that year Las Casas began his great crusade in behalf of the natives. At
first, as we have seen, he accepted and approved the repartimiento
system, and himself with his partner and close friend Pedro de Renteria
took several hundred Indians as his wards and servants on the land which
had been allotted to him at Trinidad. But when he became "converted," as
he himself described it, he was convinced that the system, which had
degenerated into little else than slavery, was wholly evil and could be
nothing else, putting all who practised it in imminent danger of hell
fire. To this conviction he was brought through consideration of what he
had heard Dominican friars preach in Hispaniola.
At this time his partner, Renteria, was absent, in Jamaica, and Las
Casas was ignorant of his views on the subject. Moreover, he realized
that the natives whom he had in his possession belonged to Renteria as
much as to him, and he could not properly do anything which would be
injurious to the interests of his partner. Accordingly he went to
Velasquez and told him that his conscience would no longer permit him to
hold slaves, and he must therefore release them; but he wished the
matter held in abeyance and confidence until the return of Renteria, in
order that the latter might protect his own interests as he saw fit. In
addition, he passionately adjured Velasquez, for the sake of his own
soul, to free all the natives and to abolish the repartimiento system.
Velasquez did not follow this advice, but he continued to hold Las Casas
in the highest esteem and to show him all possible favors.
Las Casas then at once began publicly preaching against the sin of
slavery, and proclaiming the right of the natives to equal freedom with
the Spaniards; a course which gave great offense to many in the island
but in which Velasquez protected him. Then he determined to hasten at
once to Spain and to lay the matter before the King, who in his various
cedulas and messages to Velasquez had expressed so much concern for the
welfare of the Indians. He accordingly wrote to Renteria, in Jamaica,
that he was called to Spain on imperatively urgent business, and that
unless he, Renteria, could return to Cuba at once, he would have to go
without seeing him first, which he would regret to do. Upon receiving
this letter, Renteria immediately hastened back to Cuba; and then was
disclosed one of the most extraordinary coincidences in history.
The meeting of the two friends was in the presence of Velasquez and
others, and nothing was said by Las Casas concerning his plans, nor did
Renteria say anything about his own affairs. But as soon as they were
alone together, Renteria announced that he was planning himself to go to
Spain, and that he would therefore accompany Las Casas. He then
explained that while in Jamaica he had gone for a time into "retreat" at
a Franciscan monastery, and while thus engaged in pious meditation had
become convinced that the Indians of Cuba were being very badly treated,
and had resolved to go to Spain and there to plead their cause before
the King, especially asking for the foundation of schools and colleges
in which the Indian youth could be educated. The astonishment and
delight of Las Casas at hearing this was equalled only by the similar
feelings of Renteria when in turn Las Casas told him the purpose of his
proposed mission to Spain. Hundreds of miles apart, and entirely unknown
to each other, the two friends at precisely the same time had been
cherishing the same noble purposes. It was quickly agreed between them
that Las Casas alone should undertake the mission, that their native
wards should be surrendered at once to Velasquez, and that their land
and other property should be sold, if necessary, to provide Las Casas
with the money needed for his journey. In his departure from Cuba and
his journey to Spain, Las Casas was also greatly assisted by Pedro de
Cordova, the head of the Dominican Order in Hispaniola.
Simultaneously with the departure of Las Casas another and very
different mission was dispatched to the same goal. This was one
consisting of Narvaez and Antonio Velasquez--not the Governor, Diego
Velasquez--bearing a petition to the King to the effect that the
repartimiento system should be transformed into one of absolute and
perpetual slavery; so that the land-owners might hold their Indians
permanently, and bequeath them to their heirs like any other property.
That this was sent simultaneously with Las Casas's going is not to be
regarded as a coincidence, however. It is altogether probable that the
action was inspired by knowledge of the purpose of Las Casas and by a
determination to forestall him or to defeat him.
How Ferdinand would have decided between the two, whether the
impassioned eloquence of Las Casas or the gold which Narvaez and Antonio
Velasquez bore with their petition, would have been the more potent,
must ever remain matter of uncertainty; for he was never called upon to
make the decision. Before the issue could be put to him, on January 23,
1516, he died. In the interregnum, before the arrival of the new King,
Charles I, from Flanders, Cardinal Ximenes was Regent, and it was to him
that Las Casas addressed himself; after he had first been scornfully
received and his mission ridiculed by Bishop Fonseca, of Burgos. The
great Cardinal had long been an advocate of humane treatment of the
Indians, and was quite ready to listen to Las Casas, calling into
council for the purpose several other prelates and statesmen. Early in
the hearings, in order to make sure of his ground, Ximenes bade the
clerk to read the full text of the laws relating to the Indians, and
that functionary, being a partisan of the advocates of slavery,
purposely misread one important clause. Las Casas cried out, "That is
not the law!" Ximenes bade the clerk to read it again. He did so, with
the same perversion; and again Las Casas exclaimed, "The law says no
such thing!" Annoyed, Ximenes rebuked Las Casas and threatened him with
a penalty if he interrupted again. "Your Lordship is welcome to send my
head to the block," retorted the undaunted Las Casas, "if what the clerk
has read is in the law!" Other members of the Council thereupon snatched
the laws from the clerk's hand, and found that Las Casas was right,
whereupon the clerk wished that he had never been born, while Las Casas,
as he himself modestly records, "lost nothing of the regard which the
Cardinal had for him or of the credit which he gave to him."
The result of the conferences was that Ximenes authorized Las Casas,
Palacios Rubios and Antonio Montesino to prepare the draft of a plan for
emancipating the Indians and providing for their just government and
education. When the plan was completed and adopted there was some
question as to whom it should be entrusted for execution. Ximenes
invited Las Casas to nominate a commission, but the latter declined
because his long absence from Spain had left him unfamiliar with men
there and their qualifications. The Cardinal therefore decided to select
a commission from among the monks of the Order of St. Jerome. That Order
was selected because, while the Dominicans and Franciscans were already
settled in Hispaniola and Jamaica and had committed themselves to a
certain policy toward the Indian question, the Jeronimites had not yet
gone thither and were quite without bias or predisposition.
This was on July 8, 1516. The following Sunday the Cardinal and other
members of the council, and also Las Casas, went to the Jeronimite
monastery, near Madrid, to attend mass and to make a selection of three
Commissioners or judges from among the twelve who had been nominated by
the head of the Order. There Las Casas was received with much
distinction by the monks and by the Cardinal, to the chagrin of his
enemy the Bishop of Burgos, who was present in the congregation. After
some consideration, Ximenes then announced that Las Casas should be
provided with money and letters of credit to the General of the Order at
Seville, and should himself go thither and select the three
Commissioners. This was immediately done, and the result was the
selection of Luis de Figueroa, Prior of La Mejorada; Alonzo de Santo
Domingo, Prior of Ortega; and Bernardino Manzanedo. These three were
thereupon commissioned by Ximenes to proceed to Hispaniola, to take away
all the Indians held by members of the Council, judges and other
officers, and hold a court of impeachment upon all colonial officers,
who were charged as having "lived, like Moors, without a king." They
were then to consult with both the colonists and the chief men among the
Indians as to the condition of the Indians and the ways and means of
bettering it; so that the Indians, who had become Christians, should be
set free and enabled to govern themselves. They were to assure the
Indians it was the will of the Cardinal that they should be treated as
free men and Christians. That Ximenes was sincere in giving these orders
there can be no question. On more than one occasion he vehemently
declared that the Indians were as a matter of right and should and must
be as a matter of fact free men.
But all this was too late to save the Indians. Immediately upon Las
Casas's departure from Cuba, treatment of the Indians there and
elsewhere in the Indies became more harsh and oppressive, actually
tending toward extinction of the race. Moreover, when the bearers of the
petition of Narvaez and Antonio Velasquez finally got a hearing before
Ximenes, they were referred to the three Commissioners, who were about
to leave Spain for Hispaniola. They therefore went to see them, and
succeeded, apparently, to some degree in alienating them from Las Casas
and his colleagues and in prejudicing them against the Indians; to such
an extent that before their departure for Hispaniola Las Casas had begun
to doubt whether much real good would come from their mission. He and
the three Commissioners travelled to Hispaniola on separate ships, and
on their arrival in that island the three were more ready to confer with
others, even with his opponents, than with him.
It is true that Cardinal Ximenes gave detailed and generally admirable
directions to the Jeronimite Fathers as to the course which they were to
pursue; not only toward the natives of Cuba but also toward those of the
other islands and the continent. These provided that the natives were to
be well treated. They were to be formed into autonomous communities of
their own, under their own chiefs and owning their own land and cattle.
They were to be provided with churches, schools and hospitals, and were
to be converted to Christianity and educated. They were, however, to be
required to work for a part of the time in the gold mines of the
Spaniards, for which service they would be paid a percentage of the gold
obtained. In compensation for thus being deprived of what was fast
becoming the slave labor of the native islanders, the Spanish settlers
of Cuba were permitted each to hold as outright slaves four or five
Caribs from other islands, Negroes from Africa, or, in time, Red Indians
from the North American continent. The net result was that for a time
the Cuban natives were fairly well treated, though their fate was simply
postponed for a few years. At the same time there was generally
established in Cuba, as in most other lands of the world at that time,
the hateful institution of human slavery.