LITMIR.BIZ

      News came at last, to end in grief her agonizing vigil. It was near the end of 1543 that some three hundred weary and worn survivors of de Soto's expedition reached Panuco, on the Mexican coast, with tidings of their leader's death and the destruction of all the rest of the party. They had wandered through what is now the State of Georgia northward as far as the Tennessee Mountains, thence back to Mobile Bay, in Alabama, thence northwest to the Mississippi, and to the Ouachita, or Washita, in Arkansas. While thence descending the Mississippi, in June, 1542, de Soto had died, and his body had been sunk in the great river. The remainder of his company, led by Luis de Alvarado, had continued down the Mississippi River to the Gulf, and thence sailed along the coast to Panuco.

      Thus ended the career of one of the most famous of all the Spanish explorers; and thus ended another brief but disastrous chapter in Cuban history. The island had been drained of men, horses, supplies of all kinds; for its population was still so small that the loss of a few hundred of its best men and horses was a serious deprivation. Its own domestic interests had been neglected. Its government had become inefficient. The Indians, taking advantage of the weakness of the Spaniards, had begun to cherish hopes of regaining their old freedom, and in some places had risen forcibly to seek that end, with the effect of enraging the Spaniards against them even to the extreme of resolving upon either their complete enslavement or their extermination.

      Indeed, serious trouble arose with the Indians during de Soto's brief stay in the island. Shortly before his arrival there had been an outbreak of the natives at Baracoa, which resulted in the partial destruction of that town by burning. Towns built entirely of sun-dried thatch were easily burned. Hearing of this, de Soto in almost his first official utterance in Cuba authorized the sending of strong expeditions against the natives, to hunt them down and destroy them ruthlessly. The offending Indians were all Cimarrons, or "wild" Indians who had never been under the repartimiento system, and who expected and solicited the "tame" Indians to rise and join them. The latter not only refused to do this, however, but offered to go out and fight and subdue the Cimarrons, provided they were permitted to do so without being accompanied by Spanish troops; to which the authorities unfortunately would not agree.

      De Soto sent all available men out against the Indians, and suppressed them, for the time. But as soon as he left Santiago for Havana, taking with him all the fighting men in the eastern end of the island, the Cimarrons sprang to arms again behind him and became more menacing than ever. They again threatened Baracoa, and were active even in the suburbs of Santiago itself. The departure of Vasco de Figueroa from Camaguey was disastrous. He had been vigorous and unsparing in his suppression of even the slightest uprising, and in his absence the Indians were freed from the greatest restraining influence in that part of the island.

      The general confusion of affairs was further aggravated by the intrigues of two marplots. One of these was Gonzalo de Guzman, who had remained in the island after his removal from office, and who was never weary in mischief-making. He kept himself in frequent communication with the government in Spain, and made all sorts of complaints against de Soto and against the Florida enterprise. Doubtless he was right in saying that the taking of so many fighting men out of Cuba for Florida endangered the peace and safety of the island; though we must think that he exaggerated the condition of Cuba when he wrote to the Spanish government that two-thirds of the island had become depopulated, and all of the towns in the central part of it had been or were in imminent danger of being burned.

      The other trouble-maker was the new Bishop, Diego Sarmiento, who had succeeded Bishop Ramirez, deceased. He maintained a large establishment of slaves, and continued the political policy of his predecessor. He had arrived in Cuba almost simultaneously with de Soto, and inclined toward the policy of the latter in respect to Florida.

      A strong governor might have saved even this unfortunate and unpromising situation. But there was none. Lady Isabel died of grief a few months after learning of her husband's fate, and for a time thereafter there was no actual governor at all. De Soto had been empowered to appoint an alcalde mayor to serve as his substitute while he was out of the island, if he so desired. He did thus appoint Bartholomew Ortiz; a good enough man but aged and infirm, and quite unable to cope with the problems which confronted him. He found himself involved in a vigorous rivalry between Santiago and Havana in the matter of fortifications. De Soto had begun the construction of an earthwork fort at the entrance to Santiago. Then when he went across to Havana he ordered the building of a strong fort there of stone masonry. This of course aroused the jealousy of Santiago, whose indignant citizens pointed out that their city was and always would be the capital of the island, and was therefore at least as well entitled to a stone fort as Havana. The sacking and burning of Havana, and of Carthagena and other places on the continent, alarmed them, lest Santiago should suffer a like fate. Their insistence was finally rewarded in the building of a stone fort near the mouth of the harbor.

CHAPTER XIII

       Table of Contents

      Bartholomew Ortiz was at last, on his earnest entreaty, relieved of his duties as alcalde mayor in the fall of 1542, and for some time the insular government was again without a head. But in August, 1543, since nothing had been heard from or of de Soto for three years, the crown assumed that he was dead and that his office was vacant. It therefore appointed Juan de Avila to be not alcalde mayor but governor; permitting the title of Adelantado of Florida to fall into desuetude. The new governor was a young lawyer, whose chief recommendation was that he was a member of the de Avila family, a relative of Lady Isabel de Soto and of her father, the formidable Pedrarias d'Avila. He seems to have been doubtful of his own ability to administer the office successfully, and therefore reluctant to assume its duties. However, he finally came to Cuba, arriving at Santiago at the beginning of February, 1544, nearly six months after his appointment. He was, of course, regularly appointed and commissioned by the crown, with the full powers of governor, and for those reasons he was received at Santiago with grateful rejoicings. The people of that city and indeed of all Cuba had become tired of having an absentee governor and an alcalde mayor in his place.

      Juan de Avila's first official act of importance was to make the usual examination of his predecessor's affairs. This was a slight task, because of the short time in which de Soto had actually administered the governorship, and nothing wrong appears to have been found. The affairs of all other officials were likewise in good order. He then turned his attention to the question of the Indians; after which, the deluge.

      The royal government had for the time acquiesced in the ruthless policy of de Soto. At least it had not vetoed nor opposed it. But now it had reconsidered the matter, and had resumed its former and better policy, of treating the natives justly and kindly, and giving them their freedom. Perhaps it was moved to do this partly through horror at what Pedrarias d'Avila had done at Darien, in all but exterminating an entire race, and was minded to make atonement by requiring the young kinsman of that "Timour of the Indies" to do the opposite in Cuba. At any rate orders were sent to Cuba that there should be no more enslavement of the natives in gold mining. In fact, they were not to be employed in mining at all. Now as mining was practically the only work in which the Indians were engaged, the effect of that order, if enforced, would have been very marked. It would have stopped gold mining, and would have left the natives in idleness. In fact, it was not enforced. The governor received it, and transmitted it to the various local officials for promulgation and enforcement; and they ignored it. Presently the governor wanted to know why the order had not been obeyed, and was curtly told that it would have been disastrous to the industries and interests of the island. This he reported to the crown, asking for further directions.

      The reply was a reminder that the new Bishop, Sarmiento, was Protector of the Indians, and that the governor and he should cooperate

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