SOME CHAPTERS OF HAVANA HISTORY. 
I.—San Cristobal de la Habana. 
Columbus died before it had b.een determined whether Cuba was an 
island, or, as he suspected, a part of the continent of Asia, and not far 
removed from the dominion of the Great Chan. In 1508, two years 
after the death of Columbus, King Ferdinand commissioned Sebastian 
de Ocampo to explore the coast; and, sailing around Cuba, he estab¬ 
lished its island character. On the voyage he discovered this harbor, 
and put in here to careen his vessels and pitch them with the soft 
pitch such as is still found in the hills of Guanabacoa. From this cir¬ 
cumstance of careening his ships, he named the harbor the Puerto de 
Carenas, or Port of Careening. In 1518 Diego de Velazquez estab¬ 
lished at the mouth of the Guines river, on the south coast, at the 
place where Batabano now stands, a town which was called, in the 
form of that day, San Cristoval del Abana. The settlement was after¬ 
ward moved to the north coast, on the site now known as Chorrera, 
and thence it was again transferred and established at the Puerto de 
Carenas. From the records which have been preserved ©f the early 
days, we may assume that the beginning of the city was on the water 
front near the Plaza de Armas; as has been told in an earlier chapter, 
the memorial chapel El Templete marks the spot where the first mass 
was said. With all its migrations, the town was still within the orig¬ 
inal Indian district of Havana, and retained the name San Cristobal de 
la Habana. In time the simple name Habana was used, or, as we 
know it, Havana. As Cuba perpetuates the Indian name of the island, 
so in the name Havana we have a permanent memorial of the native 
Americans who peopled the land before the coming of the Europeans. 
II.—Enemies by Sea. 
From the first, the city was the prey of sea rovers and pirates. The 
seamen of. England and France and Holland made contemptuous mock 
of the King of Spain’s pretensions to exclusive dominion in the West 
Indies. The Spanish settlements were plundered and burned by them 
whenever .opportunity offered. The early history of Havana is for the 
most part a chronicle of how the city fared at the hands of these 
predatory sea rovers. In 1580 a special tax was imposed on the inhab¬ 
itants, called “la sisa de piragua,” to provide funds for maintaining 
guard-boats to withstand the pirates. : Something of the story has 
already been told in connection with the building of La Fuerza; here 
is a characteristic chapter from the history of those troubled times, 
as told by Ogilby: 
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