t most of his time there. Indeed,
he seems to have planned to make his home at Santiago, and to restore
that place to its former prestige. On coming to Cuba he landed at
Manzanillo instead of coming to Havana, and sent Diego de Soto to be his
representative, practically deputy governor, at the latter place. From
Manzanillo he went straight to Santiago, refurbished the governor's
house and the public buildings, and began planning an elaborate system
of harbor defences worthy of the capital of the island. He was naturally
received with great joy by the people of Santiago and of the eastern end
of the island generally, who saw in him, as they thought, a promise of
restoration of that region to its former importance.

From Santiago the governor set out on a tour of the eastern cities and
towns, and had got as far as Bayamo when there came a hurried and urgent
appeal for him to come to Havana. There was trouble in the city. Diego
de Soto, the deputy governor there, had made Gomez de Rojas commander of
La Fuerza--that reckless and truculent younger brother of Juan de Rojas
whom Governor Mazariegos had once exiled from the island for disorderly
if not criminal conduct. Now Gomez de Rojas was a land owner, and
therefore, under the law, ineligible thus to serve. But confiding in the
powerful influence of his family he ignored the law and held his place
in defiance of all protests and demands for his retirement. The town
council demanded his retirement, and the populace of Havana raged
against him, but he shut himself up in the unfinished fort, trained his
guns against the town, and prepared to resist with force any attempt
which might be made by force to compel his resignation.

Such was the emergency which sent a message post haste to the new
governor asking him to hasten to Havana. He came, and at his coming
Gomez de Rojas capitulated without a blow. Montalvo rebuked him severely
and imposed upon him a heavy fine, which was paid. But in this the
governor incurred the hostility of the Rojas family. The feud was taken
up by Juan Bautista de Rojas, who had succeeded his cousin Juan de
Ynestrosa, deceased, as royal treasurer. This official charged the
governor with conniving with smugglers and receivers of smuggled goods,
and also with those who exported goods to countries with which traffic
was prohibited, and on that account demanded for himself the right to
inspect vessels and their cargoes; a function which had been exercised