Gold mining in Cuba appears for some time to have been profitable. There
was not the vast opulence of the precious metal which a little later was
discovered in Peru and elsewhere on the South American continent, but
there was enough greatly to encourage an influx of colonists from Spain
and also from the other Antilles. Hispaniola itself was for a time
almost depopulated. Nor did this multitude of settlers consist
exclusively of gold-seekers. There were also many agriculturists,
artificers and tradesmen, who perceived that their activities would be
needed to complement the gold-mining industry.
From the same cause arose at this time an important development of the
political organization of the island. Nominally, all the provincial
capitals were of equal dignity. But the smelting works and assay office
were at Santiago, and thither, therefore, all gold miners had to repair
at intervals, to have their nuggets, dust and ore refined and its value
determined. They came in the spring, just before the beginning of the
rainy season. Naturally their coming thither attracted at the same time
tradesmen from all parts of the island, and Santiago thus became the
business and social metropolis.
Moreover, each of the other provincial capitals deemed it profitable to
send to Santiago at that time an official representative of its local
government. These procuradors, as they were called, came together at
Santiago to exchange experiences and advice and to confer for the
general welfare of their respective communities. Thus early in Cuban
history were the rudiments of a representative insular legislature
established; through the influence of which the various provinces were
drawn together in sympathy and made uniform in administration, and the
foundations of Cuban nationality were laid.
Soon, indeed, a regular organization was voluntarily formed, with the
Alcalde of Santiago as presiding officer and with rules of order and a
programme of procedure. As a result of each annual session of this
primitive insular council an address was prepared for transmission to
the King of Spain. This consisted of a report upon the condition,
progress and prospects of the island, and a request for the supplying of
its legislative, administrative or other needs. In the presentation of
this address the insular council performed a function practically
identical with that of the Spanish Cortes of that time; a body which had
no legislative or other authority, but merely the privilege of protest
and petition to the King. Usually a procurador representing the council
was despatched to Spain, to present the address in person to the King;
who was received with something of the attention and honor which were
paid to important foreign ambassadors.
The first such mission from Cuba to the King was that which has already
been mentioned as consisting of Panfilo de Narvaez and Antonio
Velasquez. It went to Spain in July, 1515, and it bore not alone the
address of the council but also the king's share of the gold that had
down to that time been mined in the island. The amount of that share was
more than 12,000 "pieces of eight," which we must believe was most
welcome to the money-loving King. As that was supposed to be twenty per
cent of the whole output of gold, but was certainly not more than that
proportion, it follows that in about three years more than 60,000 pesos
of gold had been taken. It is not to be wondered at that Ferdinand
welcomed them cordially, and promptly granted many of their requests;
those which required expenditure of cash being paid for out of the
insular tribute which the envoys had brought; and that he expressed
profound satisfaction, as already mentioned, with the existing
government of the island.
One of the requests which these envoys bore was not, however, granted.
That was, their request that the natives of Cuba be given to them in
perpetuity as slaves. In consequence of the refusal to grant this, the
Cuban gold-miners and planters suffered more and more from scarcity of
labor, and more and more engaged in slave-hunting elsewhere to supply
their needs. This pernicious traffic was resolutely opposed by Las
Casas, but not with entire success. But it brought with it in a measure
its own penalty. As a direct result of it there soon occurred an event
mischievous to Cuba, but of transcendent interest to Spain and to all
the world.
The slave-hunters naturally sought new islands, which had not yet been
depopulated, and where the Jeronimite Fathers had not yet established
themselves to interfere with the trade in human flesh. Accordingly in
1516 a squadron of vessels from Cuba visited the Guanajes Islands, as
they had been called by Columbus when he discovered them, off the coast
of Yucatan. There they took many captives, loading all the vessels with
them. Leaving twenty-five men to guard their landing place on the
island, the squadron returned to Cuba with the slaves. Havana was the
port to which they were taken; a port which from that time forward
increased rapidly in importance. Before they could all be landed, the
slaves on one vessel mutinied, overpowered the crew, took possession of
the vessel, and sailed back to the Yucatan islands. There the vessel was
run ashore and wrecked, but the slaves escaped from it and, going
ashore, exterminated the Spanish garrison which had been left there. A
relief expedition was hastily sent from Havana, but it arrived too late.
It found only the wreck of the ship, and no trace of the Spanish
garrison. However, it looted the islands and was thus enabled to carry
back to Cuba some 20,000 pesos in gold.
This had a revolutionary effect. Cubans who were becoming dissatisfied
with the scarcity of slave labor and with the waning production of gold
in the island, were roused by the promise of greater riches in the lands
to the westward, and began to plan further adventures in that direction.
In this movement the first important leader was Francisco Hernandez de
Cordova, a wealthy land-holder, planter and miner of Sancti Spiritus. He
with more than a hundred others equipped a squadron of three vessels, to
sail westward, not, however, for slaves but for gold. One of these
vessels appears to have belonged to Velasquez, the Governor, and in
return for the use of it he asked that the expedition should bring him
back a cargo of slaves. This Cordova indignantly refused, declaring that
the slave-trade was offensive to God and man. So, at least, says Bernal
Diaz del Castillo; though there are others who say that slave trading
was the real object of the expedition. However that may be, the
expedition set out from either Havana or Jaruco, near by, on February 8,
1517, piloted by Antonio Alaminos who, as a boy, had sailed with
Columbus on his fourth voyage on which he skirted the coast of Central
America. Columbus had believed that coast to be the Golden Chersonesus,
a land of fabulous riches, and it was with eagerness that Alaminos
guided the Cuban expedition thither.
The Mugeres Islands were the first land reached after leaving Cape San
Antonio, and two days later, on March 4, 1517, they landed at Punta
Catoche--a name said to have been given to it by them because of the
words "con escotoch" which the natives uttered on greeting them upon
their landing, words meaning "welcome to our home." All thoughts of
seizing slaves were quickly abandoned when they found the natives a well
clad, armed and civilized people, living in large cities, with houses
and temples built of fine masonry, comparable with those of the cities
of Spain. Hostilities, however, speedily arose. It does not appear
whether the Spanish or the natives of Yucatan were the aggressors, but
the upshot of it was that the Spanish were ambuscaded and several of
them were badly wounded. The explorers persisted in their enterprise,
however, and made their way along the northern coast and thence
southward along the shore of the Gulf of Campeche, as far as Champoton.
Hostilities with the natives increased, and nearly a third of the party
perished from wounds or thirst and fever before they got back to
Havana. Moreover, one ship was lost, and the other two were in so bad
condition that they with difficulty were beached for repairs at Havana,
while the survivors marched afoot across the island to Santiago, there
to report to Velasquez the results of their expedition. It is believed
that on their way back they were driven by a "norther" far out of their
course, and touched the southern extremity of Florida, or at least some
of its islands. Cordova himself had been so badly wounded that he was
unable to go to Santiago, but made his way to his home at Sancti
Spiritus, where he soon afterward died.
Immense interest was aroused in Cuba by the tales of Cordova's men, and
by the appearance of the two captive Mayas of Yucatan whom they brought
with them. The reports of large cities, built of stone dressed and
carved and laid in mortar,--reports which were, of course, entirely
true,--piqued curiosity as to the identity of the people who had built
them, and the belief became widespread that they were some of the Ten
Lost Tribes of Israel, or at least descendants of the Jews who were
driven into exile after Vespasian's conquest of Jerusalem. Velasquez
himself was foremost in interesting himself in the matter, perhaps
partly with a desire to recoup the loss of his ship; and he accordingly
sent his nephew Gonzalez de Guzman, of Santiago, as a messenger to the
King in Spain, to tell him of these discoveries and to ask that he,
Velasquez, be commissioned Adelantado of Yucatan and all other lands
which he might discover.
Now we have seen how high an opinion King Ferdinand had of Velasquez;
regarding him as the best possible Governor of Cuba, whose
administration should not be subject even to the balancing and auditing
of accounts which he elsewhere required. But Ferdinand was now dead, and
the new king, Charles, knew not Velasquez, or at least not so well.
Guzman pleaded the cause as strongly as he could, and so, we may assume,
did Narvaez, who was still in Spain, though Antonio Velasquez had
returned to Cuba. The king was not, however, to be so easily persuaded.
He was not unfavorable to the ambition of Velasquez, but neither was he
unhesitatingly favorable to it. Accordingly he temporized. Instead of
giving Velasquez the appointment, he sent two agents, procuradors, to
Hispaniola, to look into the whole matter with plenary authority. These
agents, the name of one of whom marks an epoch in Cuban and in American
history, were Diego de Orellano and Hernando Cortez.
Velasquez was disappointed but not deterred from prosecuting the great
enterprise which he had in mind. He would not wait for the report of the
procuradors and the action which the king might take upon it, but
hastened his preparations for another expedition to Yucatan, which he
regarded as by far the most important land of all that had thus far been
discovered by the Spanish in the Western Hemisphere. The leader of the
new venture was to be his nephew, Juan de Grijalva, who appears not to
have been well fitted for the task. Grijalva was commissioned in
January, 1518, and in the same month set out from Santiago de Cuba with
a flotilla of four vessels. Sailing eastward he rounded Cape Maysi and
thence proceeded north and west along the Cuban coast to what is now
Matanzas, where a stop was made for repairs and supplies. Thence he went
to Havana for further supplies and men, and tarried for some time, so
that it was not until some time in April--some say April 5, others a
much later date--that he finally set out from Cuba. He had four vessels,
carrying two hundred and fifty men, among whom were several of whom the
world was later to hear much; such as Bernal Diaz, and Pedro de
Alvarado, who was captain of one of the vessels. The chief pilot was
Antonio Alaminos, whose plan was to follow the same course that
Cordova's expedition had pursued.
Upon passing Cape San Antonio, however, the little squadron fell into
the grip of a "norther" which carried it somewhat out of its course, and
on May 3 it first sighted land at Cozumel Island, of which Grijalva was
thus the discoverer. Doubling back, the expedition followed the course
of its predecessor around Punta Catoche and along the Yucatan coast to
Champoton. Thence it continued westward, discovering the Tabasco and
other rivers, and the great bay near Vera Cruz which still bears the
name of Alvarado. How far up the Mexican coast it sailed is not
altogether clear, but it certainly passed Cabo Rojo, and probably
reached Tampico and the mouth of the Panuco River. Thus to two Cuban
expeditions must be credited the discovery of the vast empire thereafter
known as New Spain. De Solis and Pinzon had skirted a part of the coast
of Yucatan in 1506 but had made no landing. Indeed, Columbus himself on
his last voyage had visited some of the coastal islands, but had
apparently ignored the proximity of the mainland. Cordova was the first
to reach the actual coast of Yucatan and to explore a portion of that
country. Grijalva in turn was the first to discover and to land in
Mexico; of which country he formally claimed possession, in the name of
Velasquez, for the King of Spain, it was he, too, or some member of his
expedition, who gave to Mexico the name of New Spain.
In his commission Grijalva had been directed to discover and explore new
lands, and to take possession of them for the King of Spain, but he was
forbidden to undertake colonization of them or to make any permanent
settlements. To that prohibition must be ascribed the practical failure
of his expedition. He appears to have realized the desirability of
making permanent settlements, but felt himself restrained by his orders.
His men murmured and almost mutinied because they were not permitted to
build forts, take land, and establish colonies; but Grijalva, though
firm to resist them, dared not violate the orders of his uncle. However,
at midsummer he sent Alvarado back with two ships, carrying the sick and
wounded, and also much treasure in gold which had been obtained from the
natives in barter. He likewise wrote to Velasquez, asking and indeed
urging that his commission be so amended as to permit him to make
permanent settlements in the lands which he had discovered.
It does not appear that Velasquez made a favorable response to this
request, if indeed he made any at all. He had previously manifested his
impatience to learn what Grijalva was doing and what he had found, by
sending Christopher de Olid with one vessel to offer him reenforcements
and supplies, if needed, and to get a report of his achievements. Off
the Mexican coast, however, that expedition ran into a succession of
violent storms which so discouraged and dismayed Olid that he abandoned
his errand and scuttled incontinently back to Cuba without so much as
communicating with Grijalva. The latter, accordingly, after spending the
summer and early fall in Mexico, and despairing of receiving the
increased authority which he deemed essential to the further success of
his expedition, reembarked and returned to Cuba, arriving at Matanzas
early in October.
There he found Olid, who had reached that port only a few days before,
and who had not yet communicated with Velasquez the news of the failure
of his errand. Olid's report to Velasquez, which was then promptly
dispatched, contained therefore the news of Grijalva's return as well as
his own. As soon as he received this, Velasquez sent word to Grijalva to
come at once to Santiago and report to him in person, but to let his men
remain at Matanzas, or at Havana, since he wanted them to serve in
another Mexican expedition which he was already fitting out. Most of the
men were willing to do this, and were accordingly maintained there at
the cost of Velasquez, or of the Spanish Crown, until he was ready to
use them; though a certain number expressed themselves as having had
their fill of exploring and accordingly returned to their homes in
various parts of Cuba.
Grijalva repaired, as summoned, to Santiago, and there met what we must
regard as an unjust and unmerited fate. Velasquez expressed entire
dissatisfaction with his conduct, particularly in not having planted
permanent settlements in Mexico; the very thing which Grijalva had
wanted to do but was forbidden by Velasquez himself to do. This
extraordinary inconsistency on the part of Velasquez can probably be
explained on the ground that he himself had been forbidden by the
Jeronimite Fathers to plant such colonies, and did not venture to
disobey them, but had hoped that Grijalva would disobey them. He further
let his unhappy nephew know that, because of his failure to disobey
orders, he would have no further use for him. He was sending out another
expedition to Mexico, to plant permanent colonies there, but it would be
under other leadership, and Grijalva would have no part in it whatever.
As Grijalva had already alienated most of his men by refusing to break
his orders, he was thus left friendless, and he played no further part
in the history either of the Cuba which he had loyally served or of the
Mexico of which he was the discoverer and first explorer.