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.
CHAPTER VII
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