lay there, taking it away with them to the harbor
of Mariel, where there were several French ships. Ten days later the
entire French force entered the harbor of Havana and landed many men.
They did not, however, molest the Spanish residents nor destroy the new
buildings which they were beginning to erect, but seemed to regard them
with good humored tolerance, as too insignificant to merit attention.
Indeed, there were only a few dozen of the Spanish, all told, and they
were helpless and disheartened. The Frenchmen contented themselves with
going to several of the outlying farms and taking all the hides they
could find to add to the cargo which they were already carrying. They
remained there, on amicable terms with the Spanish, for more than a
fortnight, and then sailed away.

These things occurred at the time when Philip of Spain was marrying
Queen Mary of England and was taking possession of the Netherlands, and
when Spain vaunted herself as the foremost military power of the world.
It must not be wondered at that the people of Cuba, and particularly of
Havana, regarded themselves as grievously neglected by those who should
have been their protectors, and bitterly reproached not alone the
governor but even the King himself for not having afforded them more
ample protection. The explanation was, doubtless, that Spain regarded
Mexico, South America, and of course her European possessions, as of
far greater importance than the island whose gold mines were about
exhausted, which had failed to provide iron for Spanish artillery, and
which had served chiefly as a stepping stone to more valuable lands. It
was a strange irony of fate that the island which was thus slighted was
destined to be the most faithful and the longest held of all the
colonial possessions of Spain.

CHAPTER XVI

The disastrous events which have been related in the preceding chapter
suggested to the Spaniards in Cuba and also to the government at Seville
the desirability, if not the necessity, of establishing a more militant
administration of affairs if the island was not to be the prey of all
comers and perhaps ultimately be lost to the Spanish crown. Thitherto,
with the exception of Velasquez and the possible exception of De Soto,
every governor of the island had been a civilian and a lawyer. It seemed
an experiment worth making, then, to appoint a military man to the
office, in the hope that he would be better fitted to provide for the
prot