d,
though not in any large quantities. He was thus encouraged to continue
his search for that precious metal, while at the same time he was
admonished not to look too much to it for the prosperity of the Island,
but to pay attention to the development of its other resources, and
particularly its obvious agricultural potentialities.

Accordingly in the spring of 1514 he sent a vessel to Hispaniola for
horses and cattle with which to stock Cuba, and for supplies of grain
and other seeds, and agricultural implements. In the cargo which it
brought back to him lay the germ of the subsequent agricultural
greatness of Cuba. At about the same time, also, he founded Cuban
commerce by the establishment of regular communication between the
island and Jamaica, Darien and other Spanish settlements at the south.
In this latter enterprise the King was especially interested, and his
directions to Velasquez were that he should develop it to the largest
possible extent. He did not expect Cuba ever to rival Darien and other
regions in mineral wealth, but that island could, he thought, surpass
them in agriculture, and thus could serve as a source of supply to them,
and as a base of operations.

It was, indeed, in pursuance of this policy of commerce with the
countries at the south and west of the Caribbean that Santiago de Cuba
was founded as the seventh of the seven cities among which the island
was partitioned, and that it was made the insular capital. The site was,
as already stated, the only one at which gold was not found. It was
selected partly because of the secure and commodious harbor, one of the
finest anywhere on the shores of the Caribbean, and partly because its
situation on the south coast made it particularly accessible to and from
Jamaica, Darien and the other regions in which the Spanish crown was
interested. As soon as it was founded, the seat of civil, military and
ecclesiastical authority was transferred thither from Baracoa, and
Santiago de Cuba became the second capital of the island. Meantime
Narvaez, at the north, had founded Havana, which was destined to be the
third and final capital.

Each city or town was made, however, a capital unto itself. The
principle of local autonomy or home rule had long been cherished by the
Spanish people in the Iberian Kingdom, and it was transplanted by them
in an increased degree to their Antillean colonies. In accord with that
principle, these first seven cities were planned and