military authority of the Island, so that there
would no longer be any such friction as had prevailed between Luzan and
Quinones. Tejada was speedily commissioned by the King to make plans for
the fortification of Cuba and also of the other important islands of the
Spanish West Indies. He was accordingly accompanied on his coming to
Cuba by one of the most distinguished Italian engineers of that age,
Juan Bautista Antonelli. Together they surveyed the port of Havana, the
port of San Juan in Porto Rico, and that of Carthagena in Colombia and
planned powerful defenses for them all. There fortifications were in
fact constructed under the direction of Antonelli and to this day bear
impressive testimony to his skill.

His first attention was paid, most properly, to Havana. Already there
had been constructed temporary fortifications at La Punta and El Morro,
and also a camp more of observation than of defense at San Lazaro Cove,
probably where the Queen's battery stood in later years. Both
Captain-General Tejada and Antonelli were quick to see the importance of
the Punta and Morro fortifications and to approve those headlands as the
sites of the most powerful fortifications of Havana. Plans were
accordingly made for extensive masonry forts at both those places, and
these were approved and very prompt execution ordered by the King. Funds
for the work were obtained from Mexico, from which source also
appropriations were received for the maintenance of La Fuerza with its
garrison of 300 men.

The work of Antonelli in Cuba was by no means confined, however, to
military engineering. He laid out and constructed a number of roads,
including some which are to this day principal streets of Havana and its
suburbs. He also constructed a dam across the Chorrera River and an
aqueduct by means of which an ample water supply was conveyed to Havana
and distributed through the city. For by this time it must be understood
Havana was rapidly growing into a populous and prosperous community and
was already the assured metropolis of the Island and indeed one of the
three or four chief centres of Spanish civilization and authority in the
western world. It was during the administration of Tejada that the
technical legal title of "City" was conferred upon Havana, and the place
received the grant of a coat-of-arms. Its escutcheon bore the emblems of
a crown, underneath it in a blue field three silver fortresses,
emblematic of La Fuerza, La Punta an