But in the year 1721 the vegueros once more revolted; they resented the dictatorial manner in which the Visitador D. Manuel Leon exercised his functions as inspector and supervisor. The Bishop and D. Jose Bayona Chacon who filled the office of provisor (a sort of ecclesiastical judiciary), managed by earnest exhortations and promise of watching over their welfare to pacify the insurgents and prevent blood-shed, a service for which Bayona was later rewarded by the rank and title of a count. But the arguments of the two prelates had no effect upon the Visitador who continued his unwarranted severity. The result was a revolt in 1723 of the vegueros of San Miguel, Guanabacoa and Jesus del Monte, who numbered five hundred men with arms and horses. They proceeded to destroy the tobacco fields of the cultivators of Santiago and Bejucal who had agreed to sell their tobacco at the price proposed by the Visitador. Governor Guazo was obliged to send a company of mounted soldiers under the command of D. Ignacio Barrutia to parley with the rebels. But at the suggestion of submission they replied with musket-shot and Barrutia was forced to fire upon them. Several were killed and wounded, and twelve were taken prisoners. These unfortunates were hanged at Jesus del Monte on that same day.
As soon as this matter was disposed of, Governor Guazo directed his attention to the military affairs of the island. Florida had at this time been annexed to the government of Cuba and Guazo reorganized the army of both colonies, and called into being a number of new militia companies in different parts of the island. He replaced the old pike or lance and the antiquated musket or blunderbus by the bayonet and rifle. The garrison of the capital was raised to eight hundred and sixty-five men, all properly armed and equipped. At the same time the salaries in the army were increased. The soldiers received eleven pesos a month, the salaries of the Teniente de Rey—the King's Lieutenant—and of the governors of el Morro and la Punta were raised and the Captain-General was paid ten thousand pesos a year. An important measure for the promotion of West Indian commerce was inaugurated by Patino, the Minister of the Treasury, who, in order to increase the imports of goods from Spain, conceded to the merchants the same rights as those given to the merchants of Seville and Cadiz.
Guazo had warned British privateers to desist from raids upon the Spanish possessions and in the year 1719 had to address the same warning to the French. For the rupture of diplomatic relations between France and Spain had once more increased the insecurity of the Spanish-American coasts. The privateers fitted out by the Cuban government and authorized to retaliate upon the French and British vessels they would meet, were under the command of men of tried valor, like Gonzalez, Mendreta, Cornego and others. They succeeded in capturing a number of bilanders (small one-mast vessels), which carried cargoes of over one hundred thousand pesos in value. On one of these expeditions the soldiers and sailors attempted to revolt against the customary discipline, but Count Bayona suppressed the incipient mutiny before it had the time to develop.
As soon as war had been declared between France and Spain the promoters of the French colonization schemes that had modestly begun to materialize along southern coast of the American continent, embraced this opportunity to attack the Spanish settlements in Florida. On the fourteenth of May, 1718, Bienville, the brother and successor of the famous d'Iberville, arrived at Pensacola and in the name of the French king demanded the capitulation of the town. Unprepared for such an eventuality and unable to resist superior forces, D. Juan Pedro Metamores, the governor of Pensacola, surrendered and the garrison left with all honors of war. They were transported in French vessels to Havana. But already on this involuntary voyage Metamores was considering measures of retaliation. When the French vessels Toulouse and Mareschal de Villars reached Cuba and landed the prisoners, they were seized by the Governor of Havana, who on learning of the disaster at Pensacola decided upon its recapture. A fleet consisting of one Spanish warship, nine brigantines and the two French vessels was quickly made ready and Metamores with his captured troops embarked for Pensacola. On the sixth of August he entered the harbor with the French vessels flying the French colors as decoys. The French commander refused to surrender and a cannonade began. Then the French demanded an armistice which was followed by the exchange of more shots and finally the garrison of one hundred men marched out, also with honors of war, under the command of Chateaugue. They were sent to Havana and were to be transported to Spain, but in the meantime were imprisoned in Morro castle. Metamores resumed his governorship of Pensacola.
But in September Bienville, the brother of Chateaugue, assisted by a French fleet under Champmeslin, with a large force of Canadians and Indians, attacked Pensacola once more. Metamores was defeated and with some of his Spanish troops sent to Havana to be exchanged for the French prisoners held there since August. The remaining Spaniards were sent to France as prisoners of war. It seems from the records of the historian Blanchet that Governor Guazo in the following year made an attempt to reconquer Pensacola. He sent an expedition of fourteen ships and nine hundred men under the command of D. Esteban de Berroa, who succeeded in taking the place. But in the further course of the engagement between the two forces, the French regained possession and defeated the Cubans, many of whom were made prisoners and sent to Spain.
Of Governor Guazo's efforts to improve the fortifications of Havana, an inscription on the inner side of the gate of Tierra bears witness. It reads:
Reynando La Majesdad Catolica del Senor Felipe V. Rey de las Espanas y Siendo Gobernador de Esta Ciudad, E Isla de Cuba El Brigadier de los Reales Exercitos D. Gregorio Guazo Calderon Fernandez de la Vega, Caballero del Orden de Santiago. Ano De 1721.
In the reign of His Catholic Majesty Philip V. King of the Spains, and when the Governor of this town and island of Cuba was the Brigadier of the royal armies D. Gregorio Guazo Calderon Fernandez de la Vega, Knight of the Order of Saint James. In the year 1721.
CHAPTER XXVII
The wonderful impetus which the discoverers and explorers of Spain gave to the spirit of adventure by opening to the world the gates of a new and strange world, promptly began to bear fruit among those nations who had always been daring navigators. Young men with no ties, either of family or profession, to hold them, were suddenly fired with the desire to see the new continent which the genius of Columbus and his associates had brought within their reach, and set out in quest of what promised to be a precious new experience. Most of these men were fairly well educated and sensed the importance of all these enterprises. They set out as eager observers and they did not fail to record their observations and impressions in the frank and unadorned manner of unsophisticated onlookers. Some kept a daily record of their experiences, others jotted down what seemed to them the most striking incidents; still others embodied their reflections on what they had seen and heard in letters that were sent home whenever an occasion presented itself.
Out of this great mass of personal records of travel in the New World a number stand out as deserving of more than passing notice, and though a careful perusal of these books shows a tendency on the part of some authors to repeat what they had heard or read in the reports of their predecessors, there is something worth noting in every individual volume. Among the writers who were evidently the source from which many authors drew to corroborate and complete their personal observations is Tordesillas Herrera, his Spanish Majesty's Chief Chronicler, traces of whose "Description of the West Indies," which was translated into Dutch, English, French and other languages are found in many books. The writings of that worthy prelate and Champion of the Indians, Bartolomeo de Las Casas, have also been drawn upon by many writers. Almost amusing in the light of later day events, is a copiously illustrated little book in which a pious German translator dwells with unctuous self-righteousness on the cruelties practised by the Spaniards upon the natives of the islands.
Herrera thus relates the story of the first settlement of Cuba in the second volume of "A Description of the West Indies," which was translated into Dutch, English, French and other languages and appeared in English in the year 1625:
"This same year 1511, the Admiral Don James Columbus, resolved to make settlements in Cuba, knowing it to be an island, the soil good, populous and abounding in provisions. To this purpose he made use of James Velasquez, being the wealthiest and best belov'd of all the first Spanish inhabitants in Hispaniola.