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(While King Philip V. the Brave reigned in Spain and the Brigadier Don Dioniosio Martinez de la Vega was Governor of this place and the island of Cuba, there were built three vaults, stores, terraces and a wall as far as Telma, were finished the wall and bastions from El Angel unto the Colateral of the Gate of Tierra, and from the corner of the tenaillo unto the other collateral; was set up in good condition the artillery; was constructed the high road and were built in the royal dockyard war vessels and three packet-boats and minor ships; and this was continued in March, 1730, with 200 slaves of his Majesty, who deigned to have them placed in the royal shops.)
Accounts of foreigners that traveled in the West Indies and visited Cuba during this period give glimpses of the cities and the life therein which are interesting reading. John Campbell, the author of "The Spanish Empire in America" and "A Concise History of Spanish America," published in London in the year 1747, says in the latter book, in the description of Havana:
"The Buildings are fair, but not high, built of Stone and make a very good appearance, though it is said they are but meanly furnished. There are eleven Churches and Monasteries and two handsome hospitals. The Churches are rich and magnificent; that dedicated to St. Clara having seven Altars, all adorned with Plate to a great Value; And the Monastery adjoining contains a hundred Nuns with their Servants, all habited in Blue. It is not, as some have reported, a Bishop's see, though the Bishop generally resides there. But the Cathedral is at St. Jago, and the Revenue of this Prelate not less than fifty thousand Pieces of Eight per Annum. Authors differ exceedingly as to the Number of Inhabitants in this City. A Spanish Writer, who was there in 1700 and who had Reason to be well acquainted with the Place, computed them at twenty-six thousand, and we may well suppose that they are increased since. They are a more polite and sociable People than the Inhabitants of any of the Ports on the Continent, and of late imitate the French both in their Dress and their Manner."
The Spanish historian, Emilio Blanchet, also limns a picture of life in Havana about this time. Always inclined to express their feelings of joy or of sorrow in a rather demonstrative manner, every national event of some importance gave occasion for festivities that lasted sometimes several days, and in one instance almost a whole month. This extraordinary example of Cuban delight in great public celebrations occurred in the year 1735 in Villaclara. The recent victories of Spain in Italy and the ascension of Carlos to the Neapolitan crown were celebrated in that town from the first to the twenty-second of February. Of course, the national sport of bull-fights figured largely in the program of this month of festivities; but there were also equestrian contests, military games, processions and cavalcades, and for the first time in Cuban history, dramatic performances. Besides such unusual occasions as the celebration of a victory, the numerous church festivals also encouraged the people's love of more or less ceremonial display and solemn public functions. The eyes of the people loved to feast upon the processions on foot or on horseback which took place on various saints' days, especially on the days of St. John, St. Peter, St. James and St. Anna.
The British writer quoted above was right in saying that the Cubans emulated the example and followed the models of the French in the dress of the period. For Blanchet gives a description of the dress of the Cuban women of that time, which evokes before the reader visions of the elaborate costumes inseparable from the period of Louis XIV. The Spanish historian dwells at some detail upon the gorgeous dresses of the wealthy women of Cuba. There were gowns with long, sweeping trains, the material of which was mostly a heavy brocade silk, interwoven with threads of gold or silver, trimmed with taffeta in sky blue or crimson. Other material was trimmed with gold or silver braids. The belt generally of rose taffeta joined the waist to the skirt. The hair was adorned with a large silver or gold pin which held the folds of a richly trimmed mantilla, also either of brocade or some lighter tissue, gracefully falling back over the shoulders. The undergarments were of silk taffeta, all of these materials being flowered or checkered and interwoven with threads of gold. Velvet was also used in the fashioning of vestees and jackets. Cloaks, capes and redingotes were either of camelot or barocan, or of some other fine cloth. Pink was the favorite color. Laces and embroideries were used on the dress of both men and women. No cavalier was without a frill. The use of powder for the face and hair was quite common, and the powdered queue was as indispensable to the costume of a cavalier as the buckled shoe.
CHAPTER II
When Governor Martinez de la Vega was promoted to the post of President and Captain-General of Panama, there was appointed in his place, as the thirty-sixth governor of Cuba, Fieldmarshal D. Juan Francisco Guemez y Horcasitas, a native of Oviedo and son of Baron de Guemez. Valdes remarks that during his administration was born his son D. Juan, who seems to have been also actively engaged in public life. Guemez was governor of Cuba long enough to occupy a prominent place in the chronicles of the island. He was inaugurated on the eighteenth of March, 1734, and continued in office until the twenty-eighth of April, 1746. Guemez entered upon the political and military administration simultaneously with the Franciscan padre D. Juan Lasso de la Vega, who assumed the spiritual leadership of the people as successor to Bishop Valdez. During his governorship, the Municipio of Havana was organized, and Santiago de Cuba being for the first time subordinated to his authority, Havana became virtually the capital of the island, and one of the most important of Spanish America. In that civic corporation, a very prominent member was the Habanero D. Jose Martin Felix de Arrate, who wrote a valuable history of Havana under the title "Llave del Nuevo Mundo, Antemural de las Indias Occidentales, la Habana descriptiva: Noticias de su fundacion, aumentos y Estado."
Governor Guemez introduced some measures of reform which tended to appease the discontent occasioned by previous abuses of municipal power. One of these was the rigid enforcement of the royal decree which forbade the ayuntamentos to trade in land. He also improved the functioning of the primary courts called Justicias ordinarias; for a great deal of disorder was caused by the fact that their decisions were rarely promptly obeyed. He associated with them the tenentes a guerra, military lieutenants, whose authority was more likely to be respected. One of these, the Captain of militia D. Jose Antonio Gomez, was sent to the salt works of Punta Hicacos and Cayo Sal, where much confusion had reigned, to regulate the salt production, and insure an efficient functioning of the organization concerned in it. He became later known as a famous guerillero, a civilian serving in guerilla warfare, and was familiarly called by the people Pepe Antonio.
During this administration some very important work was done towards sanitation. Guemez succeeded in having the harbor thoroughly dredged; by urgent appeals to the residents he secured the removal from the streets of all encumbrances of traffic and insisted upon having them regularly cleaned. It can be justly said that, if the standard of public health in Cuba was raised at this period, it was undoubtedly due to his efforts. Nor was he indifferent to the extortion practiced upon the poorer inhabitants by unscrupulous landlords and shopkeepers, one of his ordinances to that effect regulating the prices at which provisions were to be sold by the grocers and thus insuring a proper and sufficient supply of these necessities to the population which otherwise would have been underfed. He was also the first governor of Cuba who paid attention to the island's forests and curbed the operations of the thieves that ravaged them. Of course such measures were bound to be resented by those elements who had previously profited from the freedom with which they could carry on their trade regardless of human equity and public welfare; and although the administration of Guemez was one of great material prosperity for the people, he did not escape the fate that befell so many of his predecessors, that of being made the target of slanderous accusations. But the government had profited from previous experiences of this character, that of the Marquis de Casa-Torres being still remembered; it was no longer inclined to lend so ready an ear to charges raised against the governors, and paid no attention to the attempts made by his enemies to discredit Guemez in Madrid.
The colonial government was then in charge of D. Jose del Campillo, an official of great knowledge and sagacity and of wide experience in economic and financial