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in order, therefore, he prepared to set sail for Spain, and was just on the point of doing so when death supervened. He died on June 12, 1524, and was interred, according to his wish, in the cathedral of Santiago de Cuba.

      The King, who had so recently both humiliated him and honored him, was profoundly affected by the loss of one who had added much lustre to the crown of Spain, and wrote for his tomb an epitaph in Latin, eloquently setting forth his merits and his services. This was not, however, inscribed above his remains, and soon was forgotten. Instead, there was popularly circulated and remembered an epigram upon him coined by some adversary whose identity is unknown. This declared Velasquez to have been "Covetous of honor, but more covetous of gain."

      This we must regard as unjust. Velasquez had his faults, and some of them were grave. He was at times arbitrary and ruthless, as most empire-builders of all lands have been. He was not always grateful to those who served him faithfully, nor was he impartial in his dealings with men. These faults were, however, common in those times, and they were no more marked in Velasquez than in his contemporaries. On the other hand he unquestionably had great virtues. He had courage, vision, enterprise, and statesmanlike views for the development of his domain. His work in Cuba was over-shadowed by that of Cortez in Mexico and of Pizarro in Peru, but it was in essence not less meritorious than theirs, for which indeed it prepared and opened the way. It is one of the tragedies of history that his very tomb should have been forgotten and lost, and his name remembered as a name and nothing more. For in the early history of Cuba there is no other name which stands for so much in conquest and colonization, and in the foundation, organization and development of the State, as that of the first Cuban Governor, Diego de Velasquez.

CHAPTER IX

       Table of Contents

      Velasquez had been Governor—technically Lieutenant-Governor under the Admiral, Diego Columbus, at Hispaniola—for more than thirteen years; save for the abortive and illegal administration of Zuazo. But after him gubernatorial terms were destined to be of much shorter duration, and marked with many vicissitudes. His nominal successor was appointed some time before his death. Whether in anticipation of his decease, or with the design of ousting him, is not clear. At any rate, at the middle of May, probably on May 20, 1524, Juan Altamarino was named by the King to be the next governor, for a term of two years and no more. He appears not to have been in any way identified with the island, though probably he had been associated with Diego Columbus in Hispaniola; and at the time of his appointment he was in peninsular Spain. He made no haste to go to Cuba and assume his office, wherefore it was necessary, upon the death of Velasquez a few weeks later, that some stop-gap governor should be named. Diego Columbus, who as Admiral might have made such temporary appointment, was also in Spain. In consequence, the Audiencia or supreme court of Hispaniola acted in his stead, and appointed Manuel de Rojas.

      This forceful and patriotic man was a cousin of Velasquez, who had been sent by the latter to Spain in July, 1521, as his advocate before the King in the controversy with Cortez over Mexico. He had served for some time as Alcalde of Baracoa; he was a loyal friend of Velasquez, and a man of approved ability and integrity. He was also the first Cuban governor of Cuba. By that I mean that he was the first to regard Cuba as a separate entity, apart from Hispaniola and Mexico and even from Spain itself. Velasquez, vast as were his services, was never able to dissociate the interests of Cuba from those of Spain, or even from those of Mexico and other Spanish lands in this hemisphere, insular and continental; and had actually compromised the welfare of Cuba in grasping at the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Zuazo, if he is to be reckoned in the line of governors at all, was quite alien to Cuba. But Rojas was an insular patriot. He was of course entirely loyal to Spain. But that fact did not restrain him from developing an intense local patriotism. He regarded Cuba as a great enough country to command his entire attention and devotion. His policy was, Cuba for the Cubans; and he was the first of a line of Governors, not always unbroken, committed to that enlightened policy.

      The island at this time, indeed, well merited such regard. It had been extensively settled, and its resources were beginning to be developed. Gold mining was profitably practised. Agriculture and cattle-raising had made great progress. Juan Mosquera, as the envoy or representative of the Cuban municipalities in Spain, had in February, 1523, secured from the King the first recognition of and encouragement for the sugar industry, which had already been established in Hispaniola, and which far-sighted men perceived to be capable of great things in Cuba. He had also, a year earlier, secured from the King grants of free trade between Cuba and all other Spanish colonies around the Caribbean, insular or continental; together with some reforms of the royalty system in gold mining and a comprehensive and orderly scheme of taxation for the building of roads and bridges and other necessary public works. In fact, Cuba was beginning to "find herself" and to show herself worthy of the affection and patriotism of her people.

      The administration of Rojas was for the time, however, cut short. It had been ordered legally enough, but with the understanding that it was only temporary, pending the coming of Altamarino. Unfortunately the Hispaniola audiencia went too far. It also appointed Rojas to succeed Velasquez as repartidor of the natives, which it had no right to do, the power to make that appointment being reserved exclusively for the King himself. It does not appear that he misused his power, or even indeed that he exercised it at all as repartidor; though it is likely that his illegal appointment to that office caused some quite unmerited prejudice against him at Madrid. His administration of the governorship, which was legal, was brief. Altamarino entered Santiago de Cuba on March 14, 1525, and at once assumed office, and Rojas retired without demur and without reproach.

      Altamarino had been commissioned as juez de residencia, to investigate the administration and conduct of Velasquez. That commission came of course from the King, but there is reason for suspecting that Diego Columbus had something to do with it. If he did not instigate it, he certainly heartily approved it. Now Velasquez had, at the time of Altamarino's appointment, been living and in office. But at the time when Altamarino actually assumed the powers and duties of the governorship and those of the juez de residencia, Velasquez had been dead and buried in the cathedral of Santiago for nine months. No such trifling circumstance as that was, however, to be permitted to cause any deviation of the course of Spanish official procedure; particularly when the latter was urged on by personal animus. Diego Columbus had desired and the King had commanded Velasquez to be investigated, and investigated he must be, alive or dead. His remains were not, it is true, to be disinterred and placed at the bar. But his name and reputation were made the target for all manner of attack. A proclamation was issued, inviting everybody who had anything against the former governor to make it known, publicly, fully and fearlessly, being assured of immunity for anything they might say.

      In response there was a mighty flood of insinuations, complaints, accusations, calumnies. Nor did Altamarino content himself with this. He ransacked the archives of Cuba for all complaints, protests and what not that had ever been made, and if the makers of them could be found, as most of them could, he summoned them before his tribunal and required them to testify everything they could to the discredit of Velasquez. A similar inquisition was conducted into the affairs of all the chief office-holders and administrators under Velasquez. The result was what might have been expected, seeing that there was no opportunity for Velasquez to reply to the charges or to cross-examine the witnesses against him, or to produce other testimony in rebuttal. The founder of the Cuban State was charged with the acceptance of gifts, including a horse and a mule; with having levied and collected taxes without special authority from the King, though these were admittedly for road-building and other useful public purposes; with having participated in gambling games, though Rojas pointed out that his fellow gamblers were among the foremost members of the community; with having failed to check and punish blasphemous utterances; with having neglected to pay for some of the supplies which were taken for his Mexican expeditions; and with having administered justice without due regard to the letter of the statute law, which was not strange, seeing that he was not a lawyer. In his mortuary absence, he was found guilty, by default, and was condemned to pay heavy fines; which were collected from his heirs.

      The dead lion was not, however, without his vengeance upon the jackals that would defile his sepulchre. The inquisition went too

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