SOME CHAPTERS OF HISTORY. 
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royal decree in 1665, consisted of three castles ~of silver on a 
blue field, and a golden key. The castles were La Fuerza, 
El Morro, and La Punta, guarding the harbor; and the 
key was significant of Havana’s commercial and strategic position as 
the Key of the West Indies. The whole was surmounted by a crown, 
and the border was the necklace of the Golden Fleece. By a royal 
cedula dated May 24, 1634, Havana was formally given recognition under 
the title, Llave del Nuevo Mundo y Antemural de las Indias Occidentales 
—Key of the New World and Bulwark of the West Indies. 
IV.—Ships and Slaves. 
The most important episode of Plavana’s history in the eighteenth 
century was the taking of the city by the British, after a siege of 
which the story has already been told. The two momentous and 
far-reaching results of the British occupation were the encouragement 
of the slave trade, by which the agricultural resources of the island 
were developed, and the opening of the port to the commerce of the 
world. For nearly three centuries Cuba had suffered by reason of the 
trade restrictions imposed by the Crown. So long as Santiago had 
been the capital of Cuba, trade between the island and the home ports 
had been restricted to that city. When Havana was made the capital 
in 1552, it then became the only city of Cuba which could trade with 
any other port, and the only port to which it could send its ships was 
first Seville and afterward Cadiz. So determined was Spain to enforce 
these restrictions, that trading vessels were gathered into fleets 
(flotas) at Havana and convoyed thence by warships, to make sure 
that Havana cargoes went to Seville or Cadiz and to no other port. 
Trade with foreigners was prohibited under pain of death, and the 
confiscation of the goods involved. Under such oppressive con¬ 
ditions, commerce had been stifled for three centuries; but when the 
British came into possession, they threw the port open to the world. 
The harbor of Havana, which before had known only Spanish sailor 
oaths, now heard the polyglot of all seas. A thousand vessels entered 
the port in that year, and tens of thousands of African slaves were 
brought in to carry on the extensive agricultural operations set on 
foot by British enterprise. So powerful was the stimulus of the 
slave trade, that in the sixty years following, more than 400,000 slaves 
were brought to the island. When Spain regained Havana, the trade 
restrictions were restored, but they did not last. The impetus given 
to agriculture and commerce by the British was so radical and so pow¬ 
erful and far-reaching that the spirit of it prevailed against such re¬ 
actionary measures, and to this day the progress of Cuba’s develop¬ 
ment and growth and expanding resources may be traced back to the 
