344 EARLY TOBACCO PLANTATIONS. 



Hispaniola, the vice-regal powers which had been intrusted to 

 him. Diego as portrayed by the historian " was a man as 

 noble as his father, and almost as gifted; and he had his 

 father's fate. Like his father, he had to bear all that Spanish 

 envy and Spanish malignity could inflict. In 1511, Diego 

 Columbus sent Diego Velasquez to conquer Cuba." From 

 historians Yelasquez gets a better character than most of the 

 Conquistador es> who in general were as ferocious as they 

 were audacious and fortunate. No serious opposition was or 

 could be offered. With the name of Yelasquez the prosper- 

 ity of Cuba is inseparably identified. As Governor of Cuba 

 he was a vigorous colonizer and civilizer. He founded 

 Havana, which he called the Key of the New World, and 

 which is said to rank as the eighth place in the hierarchy of 

 commercial cities. Havana, however had long been flourish- 

 ing before the seat of Government had been transferred to it 

 from Santiago. It was Yelasquez who introduced slavery 

 into Cuba ; and it was during his vice-royalty and under his 

 sanction that those memorable exploratory and conquering 

 expeditions began, the most astonishing of which was that to 

 Mexico, led by Cortez, the insubordinate lieutenant of Yelas- 

 quez, whose death is said to have been hastened by the 

 rebellious and ungrateful conduct of Cortez, and perhaps by 

 the spectacle of such immense and rapid success. The agri- 

 cultural, commercial, and general growth of the West India 

 islands at this period would have been much more rapid if 

 the Spaniards had not annihilated the native population, and 

 if they had not been exposed to incessant piratical attacks. 

 These were often of the most desolating kind. In 1688, the 

 city of Puerto Principe was plundered and destroyed. 

 From its strongly fortified position Havana set the bucca- 

 neers at defiance, and sometimes saved the whole island from 

 ruin. 



The exact period of the first cultivation of tobacco in St. 

 Domingo is not known, but we find that as early as 1535 the 

 negroes had habituated themselves to the use of it in the 

 plantations of their master. Soon however its cultivation 

 increased, and during the latter part of the Sixteenth Century. 



