HISTORY

Francisco Manso de Contreras – 1598.

Around 1598 by order of the King of Spain Felipe III, and by the intervention of the Duke of Lerma is appointed Francisco Manso de Contreras, the Duke’s cousin to the highest command in Santo Domingo to intervene and protect the King’s interest.

After his role as the King appointed to impart justice, he visits Cuba in 1603 and falls in love with the island’s immense beauty, settling there.

As part of the duties imposed on him, he had the responsibility of seek and destroy piracy threat to the crown’s treasures that was being transported by sea at the time. As it was customary in those days, Francisco was granted a percentage of all confiscated gold and precious jewels from the pirates, as reward to him and the King would receive the remainder.

Before Francisco moved to the Caribbean he contracted matrimony in Granada Spain, but had no children.

Having found his final destination in the beautiful town of Remedios Cuba, he summons his brother Antonio Manso de Contreras and his entire family from Spain. In 1606 being the King Felipe III aware that Antonio was to leave to Cuba, he grants him a sealed letter where Don Antonio was to be treated as the monarch himself.