e made prisoners by the
Cubans.

Though Governor Ledesma had in this instance yielded to the pressure
exercised by the British, he was by no means convinced of the honesty
and sincerity of the Governor of Jamaica. He had reasons to believe that
in spite of peace between the two countries the governor of Jamaica was
secretly in league with the pirates that had molested Cuba, and that
while pretending to persecute the outlaws, he had really encouraged them
in their raids upon the Spanish colonies. Governor Ledesma collected
evidence to that effect and presented it at the court of Spain. But his
appeal arrived at a time when Spain's European losses had alarmingly
decreased her prestige and when even her national wealth showed a
perceptible shrinkage. So the court at Madrid did nothing but deliberate
at length upon the ever present problem of insuring the safety of the
colonies and limited its practical assistance to the sending over of a
few ships with instructions to organize an armada which was to patrol
the coasts and force the outlaws to respect Spanish possessions. The
island itself armed a few vessels and the garrisons were slightly
increased.

The great earthquake of the year 1675 added to the sufferings of the
people of Cuba and caused loss of life and property. Three years later a
violent hurricane swept over the island and worked great havoc. It not
only robbed great numbers of the inhabitants of their homes, and did
serious damage to commerce and traffic, but it also destroyed the
recently finished cathedral. Though such catastrophes were of no rare
occurrence in that climate, they invariably left the people's spirits
depressed and indirectly affected their initiative and enterprise. Thus
the copper mines were abandoned about this time, because their
production seemed out of proportion to the labor and expense of working
them. But the real reason was probably the ignorance and inefficiency of
the forces in charge of the work and the lack of energy and courage
which frequently manifested itself in the wake of great disasters.

A change in the ecclesiastical affairs of Cuba caused considerable
commotion during the administration of Governor Ledesma. Bishop Saenz de
Manosca was promoted to the bishopric of Guatemala. The Trinitarian (in
Mexico a member of a society hired to carry the corpse in the funeral
procession) who had temporarily succeeded him was shortly after
appointed Bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo. Thus the