As for hospitals and asylums, they scarcely existed. There was only one asylum for the insane in all the island, and that was wretchedly managed. This asylum was in Havana. Elsewhere, the insane were confined in the cells of jails.
The public debt of Spain was something enormous, and Cuba was forced to pay a part of the interest on this which was out of all proportion.
Perez Castaneda spoke of this in the Spanish Cortes in the following terms:
"The debt of Cuba was created in 1864 by a simple issue of three million dollars, and it now amounts to the fabulous sum of one hundred and seventy-five million dollars. What originated the Cuban debt? The wars of Santo Domingo, of Peru and of Mexico. But are not these matters for the Peninsula? Certainly they are matters for the whole of Spain. Why must Cuba pay that debt?"
Again, Senor Robledo, in a debate at Madrid, after speaking of the fearful abuses existent in the government of Havana, said:
"I do not intend to read the whole of the report; but I must put the House in possession of one fact. To what do these defalcations amount? They amount to twenty-two million, eight hundred and eleven thousand, five hundred and sixteen dollars. Did not the government know this? What has been done?"
In 1895 it was alleged that the custom house frauds in Cuba, since the end of the Ten Years War, amounted to over one hundred millions of dollars. It is enough to make one hold one's breath in horror. And, remember well, there was absolutely no redress for the suffering Cubans by peaceful means.
One more quotation. Rafael de Eslara of Havana, when speaking of the misery of the island, thus summed up the situation:
"Granted the correctness of the points which I have just presented, it seems to be self-evident that a curse is pressing upon Cuba, condemning her to witness her own disintegration, and converting her into a prey for the operation of those swarms of vampires that are so cruelly devouring us, deaf to the voice of conscience, if they have any; it will not be rash to venture the assertion that Cuba is undone; there is no salvation possible."
Taxation on all sides was enormous, the two chief products of the island, sugar and tobacco, suffering the most. While other countries gave encouragement to their colonies, Spain did everything she could to discourage her well-beloved "Ever Faithful Isle."