J FIRST ULXDIXQ OF T1IE SPANIARDS. 241 



mont of colonization has been from east to west; and 

 IUMV, as everywhere in the Spanish colonies, the places 

 )( > oj)led are now the most desert. The first establish- 

 of the whites was in 1511, when, according to the orders 

 of Don Diego Columbus, together with the conquistador 

 and paibl-ador Velasquez, he landed at Puerto de Palmas, near 

 Capo Maysi, then called Alfa y Omega, and subdued the 

 cacique Hatuey, who, an emigrant and fugitive fr6m Hayti. 

 had withdrawn to the eastern part of the island of Cuba, and 

 had become the chief of a confederation of petty native 

 princes. The building of the town of Baracoa was begun in 

 1512 ; and later, Puerto Principe, Trinidad, the Villa de 

 Santo Espiritu, Santiago de Cuba (1514), San Salvador de 

 Bavamo, and San Cristoval de la Havana. This last town 

 was originally founded in 1515, on the southern coast of the 

 island, in the Parfido of Guines, and transferred, four years 

 later, to Puerto de Carenas, the position of which at the 

 fiit rauce of the two channels of Bahama (el Viejo y el Nuevo) 

 appears to be much more favourable to commerce than the 

 coast on the south-west of Batabano.* The progress of 

 civilization since the sixteenth century, has had a powerful 

 inilueuce on the relations of the castes with each other; 

 these relations vary in the districts which contain only farms 

 tor cattle, and in those where the soil has been long cleared; 

 in the sea-ports and inland towns, in the spots where colonial 

 produce is cultivated, and in such as produce maize, vege- 

 tables, and forage. 



Until the latter part of the eighteenth century, the num- 

 ber of female slaves in the sugar plantations of Cuba was 

 extremely limited ; and what may appear surprising is, that 

 a prejudice, founded on religious scruples, opposed the intro- 

 duction of women, whose price at the Havannah was gene- 

 rally one-third less than that of men. The slaves were 

 foived to celibacy on the pretext of avoiding moral disorder. 

 The Jesuits and the Bethlemite monks alone renounced that 

 fatal prejudice, and encouraged negresses in their pianta- 



* A tree is still shewn at the Havannah, (at Puerto de Carenas), under 

 the shade of which the Spaniards celebrated their first mass. The island, 

 now c.illi-il officially "The ever-faithful island of Cuba," was after its dis 

 covery named successively Juana Fernandina, Isla de Santiago, and Ida 

 del Ave Maria. Its arms date from the year 1516. 



TOL. 111. 



