The History of Cuba, vol. 1

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

The Sieur Jean de Laët d'Anners, whose History of the New World bears the imprint of Bonaventure and Elzevir, Printers of the University of Leyden, also gives a description of Cuba as it was in the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. He says:

"There are few towns in proportion to the size of the island; Santiago ranks first, both for its age and name; it was built by Diego Velasco. At the south coast of the island about 20 degrees North Latitude, opposite Hispaniola, almost two miles from the sea, in the depth of a harbor which one may well pronounce the first among the large and safe harbors of the New World. For the ocean enters through a narrow inlet and is received by a large bay, like a gulf, with several little islands; it is so safe a port that one does not need to cast anchor. This city was once well populated, but now the population is reduced to a very small number. It has a cathedral church and a bishop Suffragans of the archbishopric of San Domingo and a monastery of the Minorite brothers. It is owned by the Lieutenant-Governor of the island. The chief articles of trade are ox-skins and sugar. Three miles from the town are rich mines of copper, which is now extracted from high mountains, called for that reason by the Spaniards Sierras de Cobre.

"Near this town to the East about thirty miles is the town of Baracoa, built by the same Velasco on the North Coast The forests near this town yield very good ebony and according to other reports Brazilian redwood.

"The third city is San Salvador or Bayamo from the name of the province, built by the same Velasco, thirty miles from Santiago, which surpasses all other towns of the island by good air, fertile soil and beautiful plains; it is in the center of the island, but merchandise is brought from the sea by the river Caute, which is opposite. Among the treasures of this island are certain stones of divers size, but all perfectly round, so they could serve as cannon balls; they are said to be so numerous on the shores of the river bearing the name of the town, that they seem to have rained from the sky. Oniedo says they are found in a marshy valley almost midway between this city and Santiago.

"Puerto de Principe ranks fourth; town and harbor, much esteemed by mariners, are to the north of the island, forty leagues from Santiago northwest. Not far are springs of bitumen, which Monardes mentions (and which the Indians use as remedy for chills). I believe they are the naptha of the ancients.

"Santi Spiritus of forty to fifty houses is more a village than a town and its harbor is good only for barges and sloops. But vessels stop there on their way from Santiago, Bayamo and Puerto Principe to Havana.

"Trinite-Trinidad—once populated by Indians, now almost deserted, has an inconvenient harbor and was the scene of some shipwrecks.

"Havana receives the sea by a narrow but deep inlet, enlarging into a wide bay, with coasts at first diverging and then meeting, capable of holding a thousand vessels as if in a safe bosom. All the Spanish fleets coming from the meridional continent, New Spain and the islands, loaded with a variety of merchandise and an abundance of gold and silver, stop there to take on water and necessary victuals, and when a sufficient number has collected, in September or later, they go out together or in two fleets through the straits of Bahama towards Spain: The city has besides the garrison (the number of which is uncertain, although the king sends the pay for a thousand soldiers and more) three hundred Spanish families, some Portuguese and a large number of slaves. The governor of the island and the other royal officers reside there. It surpasses not only the other cities of the island, but almost all of America by the size and safety of her port, her wealth and her commerce. The neighboring forests furnish a great abundance of excellent woods, which they use to build their ships, which is a very great convenience. They have also tried to work some copper mines not far from the town; but without success, either because the veins failed, or the laborers were too ignorant or the expense was greater than the profit."

Many of the writers of these books of travel dwell at length upon the wealth of precious woods found on the island. One of them makes a list which contains the following: l'acana, called vegetable iron, cedar, majagna (mahogany) frijolillo, a wood with shaded veins, granadillo, a wood light purple in color, ebony, yew and many others. Wood was so plentiful that it was even used instead of metal in machinery. Foreigners visiting the first sugar refinery in Cuba, which was in 1532 founded by Brigadier Gonzales de Velosa, associated with the veedor Cristobal de Tapia and his brother, found the machines made of hard wood. The variety of fruits is also commented upon by the travelers that visited Cuba in the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. They mention among the fruit trees abundant in Cuba the cocoa trees of Los Remedios, the ubiquitous banana, the orange, the West India chestnut, the fruit-bearing palms, guesima, garoubier, yaya and others.

François Coréal's "Relation des Voyages aux Indes Occidentales" also contains some interesting data and goes into the causes of the decline of Spanish power in the West Indies. Coréal, who seems to be of Spanish origin or at least citizenship, says among other things: