rnor thought that the Bishop ought to reside at
Santiago, where were his official residence and also the Cathedral.
Castillo refused to do so, on the nominal ground that he considered
Santiago an unhealthful spot. There is reason to suspect, however, that
he preferred Bayamo because of certain very rich legacies which had been
left years before for the erection of a masonry church and parochial
school at that place. The provisions of these wills had not been carried
out, and the strenuous Bishop set himself to the task of finding out why
the church and school had not been built, and of getting possession of
the legacies and administering them himself. In the litigation which
ensued he quarrelled with Montalvo so bitterly that he excommunicated
him; an act which the governor did not take greatly to heart. The strife
between the two accentuated, however, the antagonism between church and
state which was even at that early time beginning to prevail.

[Illustration: SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH

One of the most ancient of the many ecclesiastical edifices in Havana,
built in 1575 and rebuilt in 1731, and presenting a singularly perfect
and characteristic example of ancient Spanish architecture. In late
years it was used by the Government for a custom house, and post office.
The illustration presents it in its earlier aspect with its former
surroundings restored.]

CHAPTER XIX

It would be easy for the reflective historian to engage in many
interesting and pertinent observations concerning the time in which
Captain Francisco Carreno became governor of Cuba. It was the year 1577.
That was the year in which the sixth religious war in France began, a
struggle which made inevitable the still greater religious wars which
followed, in which not merely two factions in France but the two great
powers of Spain and England were the chief belligerents. That was the
year, too, in which Sir Francis Drake began his voyage around the world,
which was perhaps the most momentous since that of Columbus in 1492,
since it led directly to the strife between Spain and England in
America, the English conquest of Cuba, the foundation of the English
colonies in North America, and the subsequent development of the United
States; all having the most direct and important bearing upon the
fortunes of Cuba.

Albeit he was a native of that city of Cadiz in the harbor of which
Drake performed one of his most daring and most famous feats, Carreno
proba