Statistics of those days are scanty and not altogether trustworthy. It was the custom to report merely the number of householders or land-owners or heads of families in a place, leaving it to be estimated how many members each family contained. An exact census of the island in Angulo's time would astonish the reader of to-day with the meagreness of the settlements which had been effected in the course of forty years.
Of the seven cities which Velasquez had founded—they were called cities, and we must through courtesy retain the name—Santiago was still the largest, and was the capital. It probably contained at the period of which we are writing fewer than five hundred Spaniards and other Europeans. De Avila saw only two hundred assembled to welcome him on his arrival as Governor. The number of houses and other buildings was less than a hundred. The first town hall and church which were built there were structures of logs and thatch, which were burned by a fire which destroyed most of the place in 1528. Four years later the Franciscan monastery and other buildings shared a like fate. The Spanish government then urged the erection of buildings of stone with tiled roofs, and a few such were erected. At the end of Guzman's second administration there were perhaps a dozen such, of which Guzman himself owned two. The harbor boasted a single wharf or pier, of logs and earth, near which for protection two small cannon were placed behind an earthwork.
Such was the Cuban capital in 1550. Three years later, in 1553, a French privateer entered the harbor, silenced the two cannon, and landed a company of four hundred men, who outnumbered the entire population of the place. These freebooters took possession of Santiago and lived there at their ease, at the expense of the people, during the whole month of July. Then, having exacted from the inhabitants a ransom of what would be about $80,000 in modern currency, they departed, leaving the place uninjured save for the depletion of its people's purses. Following this visitation there was a numerous exodus of the inhabitants, to Bayamo and other places; some leaving the island altogether.
Havana was at this time the second city of the island, and was steadily rising toward first place. It had been the last of the seven cities to be founded by Velasquez, and was now occupying its third and final site. It was first planted in July, 1515, near the mouth of the Guines or Mayabeque River, on the south shore of Cuba; that shore then being the favorite part of the island for the sake of trade with Jamaica and the South American continent. But the location was unhealthful, the swarms of mosquitoes particularly being intolerable, and two years later the city was transferred almost directly across the island to the north shore. This second site was near the mouth of the Almendares River, near the present town of Vedado, and was found to be vastly preferable to the former one. It was impossible, however, that the superb harbor on which the city now fronts should be neglected. It had been discovered in 1508 by Sebastian de Ocampo, while circumnavigating the island, and had been called Carenas. Accordingly in 1519 the young city of Havana, bearing the Indian name of that province of the island, was transported thither.
Credible tradition has it that the first meeting of the Municipal Council was held under a huge ceiba tree, and that Mass was first celebrated at the same sylvan spot, the site of the tree now being marked by the building known as the Templete, in the heart of the great city. Two fine historical paintings by the artist Escobar, representing the two gatherings named, hang upon the walls of that building. In De Soto's time Havana became marked as the coming capital and metropolis of the island, partly because of its unsurpassed situation, and partly for a reason similar to that which caused it first to be founded on the south coast, namely, for the sake of trade with Mexico and Florida. De Soto during his brief sojourn there began the erection of the fortification known as La Fuerza, which has long been noted as the oldest inhabited building in the western hemisphere which was built by Europeans. By the time of Governor Angulo, Havana had grown into—or been reduced to—a community of about two hundred Europeans, and perhaps three hundred Indians and negro slaves.
Santa Maria del Puerto Principe was originally founded in 1515 on the north coast, but a dozen years later was removed inland for security against the rovers of the sea, and became known by its present name of Camaguey. For many years Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa was its chief man; a man of wealth and great force of character, who lived like a prince upon a vast estate with a great retinue of servants and slaves. All the rest of Camaguey was tributary to him; with a total population of fewer than five hundred souls.
Baracoa, originally Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, was the first permanent settlement in Cuba. Shut off from the rest of the island by a mountain wall, and visited by several disastrous epidemics, it was all but obliterated, and in the time of De Soto and Angulo contained fewer than a dozen European families. As for Trinidad, on the south coast, it fared even worse, for every Spanish or other European settler deserted it, chiefly for Sancti Spiritus, leaving there only a score of Indians. But that did not mean any great accession to Sancti Spiritus, which place had only about two hundred Europeans, and perhaps as many more Indians and negro slaves. Bayamo was another city which was moved inland from its original site. It had in Angulo's time fewer than a hundred Spaniards and perhaps twice as many Indians and negroes.
Thus after forty years of settlement and colonization, all Cuba had not more than 1,200 inhabitants of European origin, and perhaps twice that number of Indians and negroes. The great majority of the former were, of course, Spaniards. Even at this early date, however, there was a sprinkling of other nationalities. Some Portuguese came hither in the second quarter of the century, and engaged in vine growing and agriculture. Indeed, by the middle of the century most of the profitable and commercial agriculture of the island was in their hands. The value of such colonists was appreciated by the Spanish, who were glad to have others engage in the agriculture for which they themselves had little taste or aptitude. Accordingly Portuguese settlers were encouraged to come to Cuba, and legislation was enacted in their favor. Their naturalization as Spanish subjects was facilitated, and free homesteads were given to them, of choice agricultural lands.
Some Italians also came to Cuba in those early years, partly as soldiers of fortune, to enlist in the forces of the island or to seek further adventures of exploration and conquest, and partly to become horticulturists and agriculturists, after the manner of the Portuguese. Even a few Arabs and Moors visited the island, and some German artisans. French and English there were none, because of the generally prevailing hostilities between them and Spain.
The Spanish government was chiefly intent upon encouraging conquests in the great treasure-yielding lands of Mexico and Central and South America. Yet it was not blind to the potential value of Cuba, nor altogether neglectful of that island's interests. Various attempts were made to stimulate immigration and permanent settlement, and even to prevent settlers, once there, from leaving the island. Some of these measures were, indeed, so stringent as probably to react against their own purpose. Thus it was required that merchants and ship-masters sailing from Cuba for trade with other lands should give bonds for their return, while the death penalty, with confiscation of estate, was actually prescribed for many years for all persons leaving the island without permission from the authorities. The effect of this extraordinary measure was what might have been expected. Knowing that once in Cuba it would be difficult and perhaps impossible for them to get away again, prudent people were reluctant to go thither.