Upon the departure of the Marquis de Casa-Torres the affairs of the island were once more in the hands of a provisional government. The ayuntamento (municipal government) entrusted D. Luis Chacon with the military governorship and in default of an auditor the political was given to two alcaldes, D. Augustin de Arriola and D. Pedro Hobruitinier. But by royal order of the year 1712 D. Luis Chacon resumed the superior authority, both civil and military. At the end of the year, when the re-election of the alcaldes took place, violent disputes arose, which necessitated the intervention of Chacon and the Bishop Valdes. The court was called to inquire into the matter and settled the quarrel which had threatened to disturb the peace of the community.
In the year 1712 the official circles of Cuba were greatly agitated by a sensational occurrence. It was the affair between the acting governor of Cuba, Don Luis Sanudo, and the royal Ensign, who was also Alcalde of Bayamo. The governor had ordered the Ensign to imprison two Indian chiefs who were accused of theft, but the Ensign, interpreting differently a certain royal decree and the municipal ordinances, made no move to obey the command. Governor Sanudo accordingly betook himself to Bayamo, and as the Ensign failed to present himself, went to his house. There he upbraided him, and as was reported by some at the time, slapped his face. Boiling with wrath at this insult and outrage, the Ensign killed him on the spot. The court before which he was tried condemned him to death and ordered his home to be razed. The office was for the time abolished, but later re-established.
The Casa-Torres affair had been in the meantime thoroughly aired before the Court of Spain and the king had found the charges against the Marquis unfounded. So he restored him to office on the fifth of July, 1712, and in February of the following year he re-entered upon his duties as Captain-General of Cuba. During the three years of this his second term, Governor Torres actively promoted the armament of corsairs which were sent out to counteract the manœuvres of the enemy pirates cruising along the Spanish-American coasts. Among the men entrusted with this venturesome task one especially distinguished himself by his prowess: Don Juan del Hoye Solorzano. He was later appointed governor of Santiago de Cuba. About the same time Spain suffered the loss of a rich fleet, which, sailing from Vera Cruz under command of General Ubilla, with port at Habana, was on its way to the mother country. It was wrecked at el Palmar de Aiz, the place where the New Canal of Bahama was located. To the energetic efforts of the Marquis de Casa-Torres, who at once ordered divers to go to work, was due the recovery of more than four million pesos and some valuable merchandise.
The thirty-third governor duly appointed by decree of the Spanish court, dated December 15, 1715, was the Field-marshal Don Vicente Raja. He was inaugurated May 26, 1716, and although in office little more than a year succeeded in completely reorganizing the tobacco industry of the island. He was accompanied on his arrival from Spain by a commission of financial and industrial experts; the director of the bank of Spain, D. Salvador Olivares, the Visitador, a judge charged with conducting inquiries, D. Diego Daza, and the licentiate D. Pedro Morales, the chief of the revenue department. The historian Alcazar gives a clear account of the proceeding of this commission and the disturbances they created. He relates that the success of the first tobacco sales in the Peninsula had suggested the establishment of a factory in Seville. But Orri, the great landowner and planter, knew that the three million pounds of tobacco produced by Cuba would not suffice for consumption, and not wanting to have recourse to the inferior leaf produced in Brazil and Venezuela, decided to monopolize the tobacco industry of Spain. To realize this plan he proposed to increase the production of tobacco in Cuba by extending its cultivation over the whole island and guaranteeing the laborers full value of their harvest, but insisting that the product be submitted for examination to the committee presided over by Olivares.
This proposition, however just it seemed, produced serious disturbances. The commission favoring the government monopoly had ordered by decree on April 17, 1717, that there should be established in Havana a general agency for the purchase of tobacco with branch offices in Trinidad, Santiago and Bayamo. This decree in reality was of great advantage to the laborers who were thus certain of selling their crops and with advance payments could extend and improve their sembrados (tobacco fields). On the other hand it was opposed by the speculators, who had up to this time lived on the fat commissions which their operations had brought them. These men spread all sorts of rumors detrimental to the newly appointed commission and its work among the producers of tobacco. Deluded by this insidious propaganda, the men rebelled. Five hundred vegueros or stewards of the tobacco fields armed themselves and captured Jesus del Monte. Even in the capital there were public demonstrations against the commission and the municipal authorities so weakly supported the governor in his defense of the employees of the estance (monopoly) established by the royal government, that he resigned his office in favor of the royal tenente Maraveo (according to the historian Valdes he was expelled) and sailed for Spain in company of D. Olivares. The earnest exhortations of Bishop Valdes and the archbishop of Santo Domingo induced the rebels to cease their hostile activities and to withdraw to their homes and temporarily quiet was restored.
So much confusion had been created by frequent changes of governorship and the interim rule of provisional authorities, that the royal government at Madrid took steps to establish greater stability and insure an uninterrupted function of the administrative machine of Cuba. After the affair of Casa-Torres it became imperative to provide for the cases of absence or suspension from office. A royal decree dated December, 1715, ordered that in future, whenever the office of the Governor and Captain-General should become vacant, by default, absence or sickness, the political and military power should be held by the Tenente-Rey (or Royal Lieutenant), or in his default by the Castellan (warden or governor) of el Morro.
Upon the return of Vicente de Raja to Spain, Lieutenant-Colonel D. Gomez de Maraveo Ponce de Leon temporarily exercised the functions of governorship. Cuba was at that time in a peculiar state of political and social unrest. There were still some demonstrations of the tobacco-planters going on in different parts of the island. Maraveo, instead of being upheld in his authority, soon discovered that he was at the mercy of the magistrates and some of the wealthy citizens who seemed to back the rebellious elements. In the eastern part of the island the miners had joined the tobacco-planters in disturbances, intended to convey to the government their disapproval of its measures. It required all the persuasive power of Bishop Valdes and other spiritual leaders of the colony to pacify the turbulent agitation fermenting among the people.
The court of Spain realized the seriousness of the situation and was particularly circumspect in the choice of the new governor. A man was needed, firm of will, yet possessed of a sense of justice and of tact in the handling of the two hostile factions. After long and serious deliberation D. Gregorio Guazo Calderon Fernandez de la Vega, a native of Ossuna, Brigadier-General and Knight of the Order of Santiago was selected. D. Guazo had in his previous official activities proved his energy and bravery and soon after entering upon his office relieved the Spanish authorities of their worries concerning the state of affairs in Cuba. He took charge of his duties on the twenty-third of June, 1718, and immediately called a meeting of the Ayuntamento, the bishop and leading prelates. The men who by their participation in the recent disturbances compromised their reputation were filled with anxious apprehension. But the king wished to avoid internal unrest and discontent and had recommended a policy of reconciliation.
It was an auspicious beginning of D. Guazo's administration when he announced at this meeting that the King in his clemency would forget the past occurrences, if the mischief-makers would in future show loyal obedience to his orders. A proclamation which Governor Guazo issued the next day informed the people of the whole island that royal pardon had been granted to the chiefs of the recent mutiny, and quiet and order were soon restored. The tumultuous manifestations which a few greedy speculators had deliberately stirred up among the people associated with tobacco culture, ceased for the time being. He reorganized the tobacco-factory and reinstalled the former employees. The factory advanced funds to the vegueros, who, having no other creditors, could