"Looking back as I do at this moment, I feel that all this suffering, all this misery and heart-ache, are Spain's just reward. The great man of Genoa, Christopher Columbus, who explored these Western seas in the fifteenth century, would have passed by the lovely shores of this gorgeous island and refused to annex it for his adopted king and queen, if he had foreseen the future.
"In those days a race of comely men and women, the Carib Indians, inhabited the land, and their descendants might be here to-day had not the lust for gold and riches led Spanish adventurers to disembark in the hopes of satisfying their greed. As might have been expected, trouble followed, and the better armed invaders hunted the Indians till they were exterminated. That unnecessary bloodshed has cost Spain dear. She occupied the island, and made it the headquarters of the African slave trade. Little by little other people and races were attracted here, till at the present moment the population amounts to about a million and a half. Of these a third are negroes, and the remainder anything you please to call them. You can pick from amongst the populace distinctive races, whose color ranges from negro black to almost pure white. Of the latter there are but few in the island, for even the proud old Castilian families which came here years ago, and throve and made money by the sweat of these imported negroes, are now no longer Spanish. Scarcely one of their descendants but has some trace of African blood.
"Of white inhabitants there are few, I said, and these are only temporary residents. They come across the seas to Cuba with one object in view, namely, to make money and return home at the earliest possible date. They are mainly the military and officials, and it is from this greed of theirs, from the careless, thoughtless rule which has allowed matters to go anyhow, and from the gradual fall from bad to worse, that the present trouble arises. Greed and the craving to be rich beyond the dreams of avarice, obtained for Spain this lovely island, to the misfortune of thousands of harmless Caribs; and the same vice has cost her dear already in lives and treasure, and will demand much more, even the loss of the land itself.
"What can you expect? Put a puppet in command, far from observation, and over a race which in his pride he deems utterly inferior to himself, and he becomes a jack in office and an oppressor. I do not say, mind you, Hal, that all rulers here have been unscrupulous; but many have, while others who have been honest in their dealings have failed to bring content to the people through sheer incompetence. You cannot satisfactorily rule a conquered people unless you study their prejudices. Give them some liberty, respect their customs if possible, and their religion, if not harmful and barbarous, and you will make them willing and contented subjects.
"But you have the facts; the Cubans have been misgoverned. They have been fleeced and ground down by their rulers, both civil and military, and, as a natural consequence, they have become rebellious.
"That was the position in 1850, when, following the example set by Mexico, Chili, and Peru, and other western colonies of Spain which had successfully revolted, the colored inhabitants of the island raised the standard of revolution. They attacked their white masters, and galled them by sudden and ugly rushes. When fighting in the forests and swamps which are to be found everywhere, they poured a scathing fire into bands of soldiers brought against them, and disappeared like ghosts, only to return and harass the foe at the next opportune moment.
"How long this particular revolt lasted it would be difficult to say, but no doubt it dragged on for many months, subsiding here only to burst forth elsewhere with redoubled fury. But end it did at length, and the island enjoyed peace for a time.
"Then once more the natives took up arms, and, while Spain strove to put down a rebellion at home, had things much their own way, for the mother country had her hands full. For ten long weary years that rebellion lasted, and many a conscript from the fair land stretching from Pyrenees to Mediterranean bit the dust in this far-away Spanish possession.
"It is, perhaps, a coincidence that America in those days came into conflict with Spain, so that war very nearly resulted, the cause of quarrel being then, as now, aggravated and brought to a climax by an act of peculiar cruelty. For in those days the condition of the poor natives aroused the sympathy of Americans, many of whom, moreover, had already settled in the island. Their pity took the form of substantial help, for they dispatched various filibustering expeditions to Cuba, and thus supplied the natives with arms and ammunition. Unhappily, a certain ship known as the Virginius was discovered attempting to land her cargo, and failed to make good her escape. Capture was inevitable, but before being taken by the Spanish gunboat, the Americans on board managed to get rid of all their warlike stores. It made no difference, however, for once landed at Santiago, little time was given for friends to intervene. All were condemned to death; and as a preliminary, a number of Cubans who formed part of the expedition were shot, their heads being severed from their bodies by the mob, and paraded round the town. Fourteen were executed on the following day, and others on the next, including the commander of the expedition and other Americans. Then the butchery was put a stop to by telegraphic orders.
"But the mischief was done, and I ask you to think how you would have felt had such a deed been perpetrated nowadays. I can assure you that America cried loudly for retaliation, and war was only narrowly averted.