Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Is Vain To Seek To Destroy The Power
Most Firmly Established On Earth, Namely, The Testimony Of History.)
The War With The Cacique Hatuey Was Short And Was Confined To The Most
Eastern Part Of The Island.
Few complaints arose against the
administration of the two first Spanish governors, Diego Velasquez and
Pedro de Barba.
The oppression of the natives dates from the arrival
of the cruel Hernando de Soto about the year 1539. Supposing, with
Gomara, that fifteen years later, under the government of Diego de
Majariegos (1554 to 1564), there were no longer any Indians in Cuba,
we must necessarily admit that considerable remains of that people
saved themselves by means of canoes in Florida, believing, according
to ancient traditions, that they were returning to the country of
their ancestors. The mortality of the negro slaves, observed in our
days in the West Indies, can alone throw some light on these numerous
contradictions. To Columbus and Velasquez the island of Cuba must have
appeared well peopled,* if, for instance, it contained as many
inhabitants as were found there by the English in 1762. (* Columbus
relates that the island of Hayti was sometimes attacked by a race of
black men (gente negra), who lived more to the south or south-west. He
hoped to visit them in his third voyage because those black men
possessed a metal of which the admiral had procured some pieces in his
second voyage. These pieces were sent to Spain and found to be
composed of 0.63 of gold, 0.14 of silver and 0.19 of copper.
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