JFIEST LANDING OF THE SPANIARDS. 
241 
Govern cDt of colonization has been from east to west ; and 
that here, as everywhere in the Spanish colonies, the places 
fipst peopled are now the most desert. The first estahlish- 
Rient of the whites was in 1511, when, according to the orders 
Don Diego Columbus, together with the conquistador 
‘ind yoWatfor Velasquez, he huided at Puerto de Palmas, near 
Cape Maysi, then called Alfa y Omeya, and subdued the 
^acique Ilatuey, who, an emigrant and fugitive from Hayti, 
had withdrawn to the eastern part of tlie island of Cuba, and 
had become the chief of a confederation of petty native 
princes. The building of the town of Earacoa was begun in 
1512 ; and later, Puerto Principe, Trinidad, the Villa de 
^anto Espiritu, Santiago de Cuba (1514), San Salvador de 
“ayamo, and San Cristoval de la Havana. This last town 
)''as originally founded in 1515, on the southern coast of the 
’sland, in the Partido of Guines, and transferred, four years 
later, to Puerto de Carenas, the position of which at the 
entrance of the two channels of Bahama (el Viejo y el Nue vo) 
appears to be much more favourable to commerce than the 
coast on the south-west of Batabano.* The progress of 
pivilization since the sixteenth century, has had a pow'erful 
influence on the relations of the castes with each other; 
Ibeae relations vary in the districts which contain only farms 
for cattle, and in those where the soil has been long cleared ; 
m 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- 
cor of female slaves in the sugar plantations of Cuba was 
extremely limited ; and what may appear surprising is, that 
^ prejudice, founded on religious scruples, opposed the intro- 
duction of women, whose price at the Havaunah was gene- 
rally one-third less than that of men. The slaves were 
loreed to celibacy on the pretext of avoiding moral disorder, 
^be Jesuits and the Bethlemite monks alone renounced that 
fatal prejudice, and encouraged negresses in their planta- 
* A tree is still shewn at the Havannah, (at Puerto de Carenas), under 
^te shade of which the Spaniards celebrated their first mass. The island, 
ftow called officially “The ever-faithful island of Cuba,” was after its dis 
®overy named successively Juana Fernandina, Tsla de Santiago, and Isla 
Ave Maria, Its arms date from the year 151 G. 
"^OL. in, B 
