The palace of the Holy Office and its prisons, which stood close to the Church of San Domingo, were destroyed many years ago, and are now replaced by the old market-place of Cristina, once the scene of an unusual number of autos da fé—a favourite form of religious entertainment in South America, it would appear, for in a curious old book, dated 1683, which I picked up in Havana for a few pence, the author complains of the dull times, "nobody, not even a negro, having been burnt alive for nearly six months." A Havanese auto da fé, in the palmy days of Spanish supremacy, must have been quite a pretty sight, including, as it did, an allegorical procession to the place of execution, with children dressed in white as angels, and little nigger boys as devils, tails and horns complete, dancing before the condemned, who, of course, wore the traditional san benito, a sort of high mitre and shirt, embellished with demoniacal representations of Satan and his imps, capering amid flames and forked lightning. Then came the Governor and his court, the civil and military officials, the clergy, the monks, and the friars singing the seven penitential psalms—in a word, everything "muy grandiose y espectacolos."
The early years of the 18th century were exceedingly prosperous for Cuba. The buccaneers and pirates had almost entirely ceased from troubling. The sugar trade was at its zenith, and although the Spanish administration was vile, the governors rapacious, and the taxation preposterous, colossal fortunes were made by the Cuban planters, and the name of the island was synonymous with the idea of wealth and riotous living. The Havanese carnival was almost as brilliant in its way as that of Venice, and public and private gambling was tolerated on a scale which attracted adventurers from all parts of the southern hemisphere. Those were halcyon days, disturbed in 1762 by the rather unexpected appearance, in the port of Havana, of an English war squadron of 32 sail, with 170 transports, bearing a considerable body of troops under the command of his Grace of Albemarle and Sir George Picknell. This formidable armament, altogether the largest America had yet seen, laid siege to the city, which surrendered after an heroic defence of two months' duration. The British troops were landed and marched on Guanacaboa, from the heights of which place they fired down upon Morro Castle and the city proper. The Spaniards made a fatal mistake—blocking up the harbour by sinking two vessels at its mouth. This they did to exclude the English and prevent the destruction of the Spanish fleet. But though they did shut out the English they also imprisoned themselves, and the enemy, seeing it was impossible for the Dons to escape, even if they would, directed their whole attention to their land attack. After a gallant struggle, the Spaniards, who numbered some 27,600 men, surrendered, and were permitted to march out of the city with the honours of war, the spoil divided by the British amounting to £736,000. The English troops next took Matanzas, and remained in possession of this portion of the island of Cuba for nine months, when, by the Treaty of Paris, it was restored to Spain, in exchange for Florida. During the British occupation the trade of the country was greatly improved by the importation of slaves from other British possessions and by the newcomers' superior knowledge of agriculture; so that the invasion proved, on the whole, a distinct benefit to the country, opening out a new era of prosperity for the Spaniards and other colonists. It has been said, indeed, that the real prosperity of the islands dates from our occupation, which ended July 18, 1763.
About 1765 there was a remarkable emigration of Frenchmen, partly from Martinique and partly from the mother-country into Cuba. The new colonists brought improved agricultural implements, and not a few of them opened shops in the chief cities, and did a large trade in French goods. Some French missionaries also arrived about the same time. These were mostly Jesuits, who, when they had acquired the language, began to preach practical sermons, which were greatly relished by the inhabitants. The French introduced apiculture, a branch of industry which has flourished ever since, and which has enabled the Cubans to supply the neighbouring islands with wax candles at a much cheaper rate than those hitherto imported from Europe. It is curious to notice, in some of the old log-books still preserved, the numerous entries as to the importation of wax candles made at Havana, to Jamaica, Trinidad, and Nassau. In the log-book of the ship "Royal George," which was in the harbour of Havana on 16th June 1810, I find this entry—"Sent two men over to the town to purchase wax candles, which are very well made in this city, and also 20 bars of French bees-wax, and some soap for friends of mine in the Bahamas."
In 1763, France having ceded Luisiana to Spain, Don Antonio Alloa sailed for New Orleans, to take possession in the name of Their Catholic Majesties. He was so ill received as to be obliged to return forthwith to Havana, where Marshall O'Reilly, an exile of Irish origin, organized an expedition to Luisiana, and seized the capital, which, however, was not held for very long.
A very interesting incident took place in 1776. The United States were struggling for their independence, when their first embassy, headed by the famous Benjamin Franklin, arrived in Paris in the spring of that year, and solicited authorization from Louis XVI. to proceed to Madrid, to implore Don Carlos III. to grant them the aid and protection of Spain. Two members of the embassy, Messrs Arthur and Charles Lee, were allowed to present themselves at court, and the king accorded them a most gracious reception, and cordially promised them his support. His Majesty permitted Mr John Jay, a prominent representative of the American Congress, to remain in Madrid to continue negotiations, which resulted in Spain's affording the Americans truly practical assistance in the shape of money and men, the Spanish Minister for the Interior, Conde de Florida-Blanca, making them several grants of money out of the treasury. Permission was also given them to raise a corps of Spanish volunteers, who proceeded to Cuba, where they were reinforced by Cubans, and embarked thence for the States. These services were rewarded by the Americans with expressions of unbounded gratitude. "The people of America can never forget the immense benefit they have received from King Carlos III.," said Washington, and a few years later, in 1780, a messenger was sent from Congress to the Spanish King, carrying with him an illuminated address of thanks and a new bill for £100,000, which they begged him to accept, "in the name of an everlastingly grateful people." But even in those days there were doubts cast upon the "lasting gratitude" of the American people. The Conde d'Aranda, the Ambassador at Paris, wrote a letter to Florida-Blanca containing these significant words:—"This American Republic was born a dwarf, but one day she will become a giant. She will then forget the blessings she received from France and Spain, and only think of her own aggrandisement."
The administration of Don Luis Las Casas, who arrived as Captain-General in 1790, was one of the most brilliant epochs of Cuban history. With indefatigable industry he promoted a number of public works of the first importance, introduced the culture of indigo, extended the commercial importance of the island by removing, as far as his authority permitted, the trammels imposed upon it by the old system of ecclesiastical and aristocratic privileges, and has left a glorious name in the long list of Captains-General, only equalled by that of Tacon in our own century.
The great French Revolution produced a prodigious impression throughout the whole of the West Indies. In many of the neighbouring islands, especially in Jamaica and San Domingo, the negroes revolted, and the action of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who had started as a Royalist, but who, on the emancipation of the slaves in 1794, went over to the Republic, was a subject of common talk in Havana, where the Spaniards had great difficulty in suppressing a popular rising on the part of the Cubans, who were already heartily disgusted with their maladministration. On many of the plantations the more intelligent negroes, discovering that a decree for the emancipation of slavery had been passed in the French colonies, clamoured in vain for a like act of grace from the Spanish Government, and finally rebelled, escaping into the woods, where they formed themselves into bands, which soon became a dangerous nuisance, and were ruthlessly suppressed by the cruel methods which have ever characterised Spanish rule. Throughout the last quarter of the 18th century the Cubans, as distinguished from the Spanish, manifested a strong desire to free themselves from the oppression of the mother-country, and not a few ardent spirits were made to feel the power of the Holy Office, their patriotism being skilfully interpreted as heresy, and punished accordingly. I think I am correct in considering the year 1766 as the date of the commencement of the Cuban Independence movement, which has lately culminated in a breach of the prolonged peace of two continents. But this is a subject which will require another chapter, and this brief history of Cuba must close, for the present, on the threshold of the century which has only two more years to run—years destined, in all probability, to witness the opening of a new era, one, let us hope, of peace and prosperity for the Pearl of the Antilles.
CHAPTER IV.
The Beginnings of the Rebellion.
THE difficulties of governing a colony blessed with so heterogeneous a population as Cuba, are, as may well be conceived, great and manifold. The ordinary newspaper reader is apt to conclude that his favourite daily fully instructs him as to the Hispano-Cuban question, and takes the Spaniards for a set of damnable inquisitors, who harry, torture, and starve the angelic Cubans out of sheer devilry, precisely as the unlucky Abd'ul' Hamid is supposed to have given his personal supervision to the Armenian massacres. The Cuban business, like all other great political and social questions, is a very complex one, and, in order to gain even a general idea of its intricacies, some knowledge of its origin must be obtained.
Spain's greatest mistake has been the persistent obstinacy with which she has attempted to govern her colonies by the sword and the crozier—a combination of military and ecclesiastical methods which, successful as it may have been in the earlier periods of her history, has proved ominously fatal in our times, and especially so in Cuba, where, since the end of the last century, education has made considerable strides, and the better class of colonists have watched, with rising enthusiasm, the great revolutionary wave which has swept over Europe and America alike.