ve running all through the exploits of Columbus. He
emphasized the significance of his name, Christopher, Christ-Bearer,
sometimes signing himself X. Ferens. The same idea was expressed, as we
have already seen, in the names which he gave to the various lands which
he discovered. Nor were his successors in exploration and conquest
neglectful of the same spirit. Accordingly the first Spanish settlers in
Cuba took pains to plant there immediately the church of their faith,
and to seek to convert the natives to Christianity. Among the very
earliest to land upon the shores of the island were priests of the Roman
Catholic church, and the first church was built at the first point of
settlement, Baracoa.

Some obscurity invests the records of the early ecclesiastical
organization, but it seems altogether probable that the first Bishop was
Hernando de Mesa, a member of the Order of St. Dominic. There is no
available record of his appointment and consecration, but he appears to
have begun his episcopal work at Baracoa in 1513 and 1514. He built the
first Cuban cathedral at Baracoa, and secured from the Spanish
government in 1515 a system of tithes for the support and propagation of
the church. These tithes were to be paid not in coin but in
merchandise, and they were to be collected not by the priests or other
agents of the church, but by officers of the secular government. The
latter was, moreover, to retain one-third of them for the erection of
new church buildings, a task which it took upon itself as a measure of
public works. It was not infrequently remarked that these royal
tithe-gatherers were much more diligent, prompt and efficient in
collecting the tithes from the people than in turning the proceeds over
to the church.

Bishop De Mesa reigned over the diocese for about three years, and then
was succeeded by Juan de Ubite, concerning whom the records are much
more detailed and explicit. He seems to have been an aggressive and
fearless man, who did not hesitate to engage in controversy and even in
litigation with the royal government over the matter of the tithes. He
protested against the government's retaining and administering the
one-third of the tithes which was devoted to church-building, insisting
that it also should be turned over to the ecclesiastical authorities,
who were best fitted to know the needs and to direct the work of church
building. In this contention he was not successful, but he did manage to
secur