Under this treatment the natives died in great numbers. A few feeble attempts at armed resistance hastened the end. In an incredibly short time, if we are to accept the most reliable estimates of the number of the aboriginal population, the male Indians were completely exterminated. It is impossible to say with any degree of precision how many inhabitants the Island of Cuba contained at the time of its discovery. Las Casas and Peter Martyr are led into exaggeration by their righteous indignation at the cruelties of their countrymen. Their figures are highly improbable. If the native population at the time the Spaniards first settled in the country is estimated at half a million there is little likelihood of undershooting the mark. Oviado declares that in 1535--less than fifty years after the discovery--there were fewer than five hundred Indians left within the borders of the Island. Among this remnant females were largely in predominence. They had not been subjected to the same extremes of hardships and cruelty as had the males, and many of the Spaniards had taken native women under their protection as concubines. This condition led to the perpetuation of the Indian blood after the last of the pure bred aborigines had disappeared. To-day, one meets, on rare occasions, a Cuban peasant whose appearance suggests Indian ancestry, but the strain practically died out long ago, and has left no impression on the Cuban character or customs. Cases in which the aboriginal stock is suggested are more frequently encountered at the eastern end of the Island than elsewhere, and a plausible explanation might be found in the fact that its wild mountainous recesses would have afforded safe retreat to such of the Indians who may have fled there from the persecutions of the whites. In this way it is possible that a small number of the natives may have survived for a considerable period after official knowledge of their existence had ceased. Some years ago, at Holguin, a youth was pointed out to me, who exhibited in features, skull formation, and complexion, marked resemblance to an Indian type. The _padre_, who had drawn my attention to the young man, scoffed at my suggestion of accident, and declared his conviction that it was a pronounced case of atavism. The first permanent settlement of the Spaniards upon the Island of Cuba was made at Baracoa, in 1512. At its head was Captain Diego Velasquez, who, until his death in 1524, continued to rule Cuba, as _Adelantado_, under direct responsibility to the Governor and _Andencia_ of Hispaniola, or Santo Domingo. He had five successors in this office. The first governor, appointed by and immediately answerable to the Crown, was Hernando de Soto. The line of captains-general began with Don Gabriel de Lujan, who assumed the post in 1581.