ower--History of
Cuba--The rovers of the Gulf--Havana fortified--The tyrant
Velasquez--Office of captain-general--Loyalty of the Cubans--Power
of the captain-general--Cupidity of the government--The
slave-trade--The British take Havana--General Don Luis de las
Casas--Don Francisco de Arranjo--Improvement, moral and physical, of
Cuba.

The island of Cuba, one of the earliest discoveries of the great
admiral, has been known to Europe since 1492, and has borne,
successively, the names of Juana,[1] Fernandina, Santiago and Ave Maria,
having found refuge at last in the aboriginal appellation. Soon after
its discovery by Columbus, it was colonized by Spaniards from St.
Domingo, but was considered mainly in the light of a military depot, by
the home government, in its famous operations at that period in Mexico.
The fact that it was destined to prove the richest jewel in the
Castilian crown, and a mine of wealth to the Spanish treasury, was not
dreamed of at this stage of its history. Even the enthusiastic followers
of Cortez, who sought that fabulous El Dorado of the New World, had no
golden promise to hold forth for this gem of the Caribbean Sea.

The Spanish colonists from St. Domingo found the island inhabited by a
most peculiar native race, hospitable, inoffensive, timid, fond of the
dance and the rude music of their own people, yet naturally indolent and
lazy, from the character of the climate they inhabited. They had some
definite idea of God and heaven; and were governed by patriarchs, or
kings, whose word was law, and whose age gave them precedence. They had
few weapons of offence or defence, and knew not the use of the bow and
arrow. Of course, they were at once subjected by the new comers, who
reduced them to a state of slavery; and, proving hard taskmasters, the
poor, over-worked natives died in scores, until they had nearly
disappeared, when the home government granted permission to import a
cargo of negroes from the coast of Africa to labor upon the ground, and
to seek for gold, which was thought to exist in the river-courses.[2]
Thus early commenced the slave-trade of Cuba, a subject to which we
shall have occasion more fully to refer.

Cuba became the head-quarters of the Spanish power in the west, forming
the point of departure for those military expeditions which, though
inconsiderable in numbers, were so formidable in the energy of the
leaders, and in the arms, discipline, courage