Spain may best illustrate the certain decline of the Latin race and the rise of the Anglo-Saxon. When America was discovered, she was the leading maritime power of the world, but she was corrupt, rapacious, ferocious, and totally devoid of what is best expressed by the term "common sense." So lacking indeed was she in this prime requisite that she alienated, when it was just as easy to attract, the weaker nations and colonies with which she came in contact. It has been shown in the earlier chapters of this work that when her exploring expeditions into the interior of America were obliged to depend for their own existence upon the good-will of the natives, and when they could readily gain and retain that good-will, they roused the hatred of the simple-minded natives by their frightful cruelties. The chief amusement of the early Spaniards was killing Indians. They did it from the innate brutality of their nature, when they could have gained tenfold more by justice and kindness.
The treatment of those poor people was precisely what on a larger scale has been shown to her colonies. England wins and holds her dependencies through her liberality and justice; Spain repels hers through her treachery, falsehoods, and injustice. As a consequence, England has become one of the mightiest nations in the world, while Spain has steadily declined to a fourth-rate power. With the example of the results of her idiocy, to say nothing of its dishonor, ever before her, she has persisted in that idiocy, never learning from experience, but always selfish, short-sighted, cruel, treacherous, and unjust.
The steadiness with which Cuba clung to the mother country won for her the title of the "Ever Faithful Isle." Had she received any consideration at all, she still would have held fast. She poured princely revenues into the lap of Spain; when other colonies revolted, she refused to be moved. It required long years of outrage, robbery, and injustice to turn her affection into hate, but Spain persisted until the time came when human nature could stand no more. The crushed worm turned at last.
When Napoleon Bonaparte deposed the Bourbon King, Ferdinand VII., in 1808, and placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, Cuba declared her loyalty to the old dynasty, and the king made many promises of what he would do to prove his gratitude when he should come to his own. This took place five years later, whereupon the king violated every pledge he had made.
The truth gradually worked its way into the Cuban mind that the only thing a Spaniard could be depended upon to do is to violate his most solemn promises. Secret societies began assuming form in the island, whose plotting and aim were to wrest their country from Spain, on the ground of the non-fulfillment of the pledges made by Ferdinand VII. of what he would do when he came to the throne.
Preparations were made for a revolt, whose avowed object was the establishment of a Cuban republic. A certain night in 1823 was fixed upon for a general uprising, but there were traitors in the councils, who notified the authorities, and, before the date named, the leaders were arrested and the revolt quenched ere a blow could be struck.
These severe measures could not quell the spirit of liberty that was abroad. It was not long before the Black Eagle Society was formed. It included many hundred members, had its headquarters in Mexico, and boldly secured recruits in the United States. But again the cause was betrayed by its members, the leaders were arrested and imprisoned, and Spain was secure for a time in the control of the island.
As an illustration of that country's course against suspected citizens, it may be said that in 1844 a rumor spread that large numbers of the slaves on the plantations near Matanzas were making secret preparations to rise and slay their masters. Investigation failed to establish the truth of these charges, but many were put to the torture to compel them to confess, and nearly a hundred were condemned and shot in cold blood.
