The History of Cuba, vol. 1Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 1
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
In the meantime, early in 1582, the King became dissatisfied with the
fast and loose game which was being played at Havana, and chiefly at La
Fuerza, and determined to take matters into his own hand. He did so by
appointing a Captain-General to be Commander of the Fortress, who should
be independent of the Governor of Cuba. This involved some awkward
complications. The Governor, Luzan, had been regularly commissioned as
Captain-General as well as Governor. And the King naturally hesitated
for a time over the question of appointing another man to the same
place. He would have preferred that the Governor and Captain-General
should have continued to be one and the same man. But that seemed no
longer practicable, unless indeed he should dismiss Luzan altogether,
which he was not yet prepared to do. He therefore consulted with the
Council for the Indies, and in conjunction with that body finally
decided to make a new appointment. Luzan was to continue to bear the
nominal title of Captain-General, so as to give him rank comparable with
that of the military and naval commanders who might visit Havana with
the fleets of Spain. But the same title with real authority over the
fortifications and defenses of Havana, and indeed a measure of authority
over the fortifications and defenses of the entire Island, was to be
given to another man.
The man selected for the new Captain-Generalship was a practical soldier
of experience named Diego Hernandez de Quinones. He took office in July,
1582, and found La Fuerza substantially complete, save for the
construction of a moat, and containing a garrison of 120 men, the
majority of whom were always more or less sick because of the dampness
and unsanitary conditions of the place. The fortress had been completed,
however, in some respects in a highly unsatisfactory way. Thus there was
no stairway inside the building connecting the lower and upper stories.
There was a stairway on the outside of the building, constructed of wood
and it was obvious that in case of attack that stairway might easily be
destroyed by cannon shot and thus communications between the two stories
of the fortress be cut off. The moat had not yet been constructed, and
numerous wooden and even some masonry houses had been constructed close
to the fort, which might give sheltered approach to an attacking party.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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