In fact the whole southeastern part of the Cuban coast was the resort of contraband traders, who brought thither silks and linens, wines, and sometimes cargoes of slaves, to exchange without paying tariff duties for hides and the valuable woods with which Cuba abounded. No attempt was made, at least with any efficiency, by the governor or the royal officials at Havana to stop this lawless trade. Now and then, however, the Supreme Court at Hispaniola interfered, arrested citizens of Bayamo, Manzanillo, and Santiago itself, and fined them heavily. Then the government at Havana, which had done nothing to enforce the law, remonstrated and protested against so much money being taken from Cuba to Hispaniola. The island was, nevertheless, making some progress; appropriately enough through a reversal of the conditions which had formerly involved it in disaster. The Mexican adventure of Cortez had drawn away from Cuba men and resources almost to the exhaustion of the island. But now that country began sending men and means back to Cuba. Cortez had long been dead, but under his successors the wealth of Mexico was being wondrously developed, as was indeed that of Peru and other South American countries. Some of the commerce between South America and Spain went by other routes, though a considerable portion of it passed by the shores of Cuba and utilized that island as a stopping place, to its material benefit. But all the Mexican traffic followed the Cuban route, the most of it passing along the north coast and making Havana a port of call or of refuge. Florida, too, which had likewise drawn much from Cuba, was now sending men and supplies back to the island. By 1575 Havana was the commercial metropolis of the West Indies, and it had for some years been the practical capital of the island, though Santiago continued nominally to enjoy that distinction until 1589. Vessels from Vera Cruz, bearing the treasures of New Spain, and from Nombre de Dios, laden with the wealth of Castilla del Oro and of Peru, thronged the harbor, and contributed to the trade of the city. To meet the requirements of the thousands of transient visitors, houses in the city were multiplied in number, and plantations in the suburbs extended their borders. The people began to realize how profitable a business was to be conducted in providing supplies of food for the ships' companies. And while the southeastern part of the island was, as we have seen, in a backward condition, the northwestern part entered upon an era of progress and prosperity. CHAPTER XVIII