surrounding sea enjoyed freedom from
the menace that had hung over them and disturbed their tranquillity for
so many years.

But in spite of these successes Cabrera was unpopular. By permitting a
cargo of negroes to be sold in Havana he had called forth heated
discussion in official circles and among the people. Not a few voices
were heard to question his honesty. Other charges, some of a grave
nature, were raised against him and an investigation was demanded. In
response to the island's urgent request the Court of Madrid sent Don
Francisco de Praga, prosecutor of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, to
Cuba, with instructions to inquire into the state of things. The charges
being proved, Cabrera was removed from office on the seventh of October,
1630, and taken to Spain for trial. He died in Seville in a dungeon. De
Praga acted as provisional political governor, and the Alcalde of the
Morro, Cristobal de Arranda, as military governor until the successor of
Cabrera arrived from Spain.

CHAPTER XXIV

Spain was at this time gradually working her defection, political and
economic. Philip III. had died in 1621 and, as he had thrown the
responsibilities of the government upon the shoulders of the Duke of
Lerma, so his successor, Philip IV., left them to his favorite Olivares.
Olivares immediately renewed the war with the United Provinces, which
were still a thorn in the flesh of Spain, for, on being freed from the
Spanish yoke, they had plunged into feverish activity which portended
their development into a maritime and mercantile power bound in due time
to rival and surpass Spain.

The Dutch were by the nature of their country obliged to seek their
means of subsistence upon the sea and in far-off regions. Their famous
son, Hugo Grotius, had been the first to proclaim the freedom of the
seas as an indispensable condition to the growth and progress of the
world's civilization. Since Lisbon had closed her ports to the
Netherlands and Spain was imposing a series of unreasonable restrictions
upon the navigators of other countries, the Dutch had for some time past
been determined to discover a passage by which their ships could
penetrate the seas of Asia. Dutch mariners who had been in the employ of
the Spaniards and Portuguese and had shared in their voyages of
discovery, had brought home tales of the strange lands and stranger
peoples, which stirred the imagination of the ambitious and capable
nation. The unknown contin