e 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 prede