the
history of Cuba. It was at the beginning of October, 1545, that Antonio
Chaves was commissioned to be governor of Cuba, and it was at the
beginning of June in the following year that he arrived at Santiago and
entered upon the duties of his office. The first task was to investigate
his predecessor, and this he performed with a thoroughness which seemed
ferocious and which certainly suggests either some personal hatred of De
Avila or a natural desire to be cruel and ruthless. He charged De Avila
with having committed malfeasance of office for the furtherance of his
wife's interests; with having engaged in commercial and industrial
enterprises himself, to the detriment of public interests; with having
established monopolies for enriching himself or his wife; with having
both given and accepted bribes; with having intimidated local officials
and the people; and with having, largely at the instance of his wife,
neglected to enforce the order of the King for the emancipation of the
natives.

It is quite probable that De Avila was guilty of most of these charges,
particularly of those in which his wife was concerned. Certain it is
that Antonio Chaves set about trying to prove them with a strenuous zeal
which had never before been displayed. One of his first acts was to
seize and search the governor's house; not merely in its public or
semi-public offices but in its most private parts. The wardrobe of the
governor's wife was ransacked, the furniture examined, the walls and
floors sounded and even broken in quest of concealed treasure. To some
of these proceedings the governor, or ex-governor, and his wife, too,
attempted to offer physical resistance, but they were overpowered and
bound while the search went on. Their servants, or slaves, were
questioned and even, it is said, threatened with torture if they did
not tell all they knew. Under such compulsion they told of bars of gold
hidden underneath the floor of a country house; which were found.

Chaves went so far as to order De Avila to be chained fast to a post in
the market place, where fugitive slaves had formerly been chained, and
the former governor was actually subjected to this indignity, though he
had not yet been convicted and sentenced by a court of justice. But this
was carrying prosecution too far. It was regarded as not prosecution but
persecution. There was a reaction of popular sentiment in favor of De
Avila, and he was assisted to escape from his bonds