Cuba Past and Present

by Richard Davey

The youth of Cuba entered heartily into the spirit of the times. Yet, when the Great Revolution affected Spain, and spread to her colonies, which, for the most part, rose in open rebellion against her, Cuba remained faithful to the mother country,—in spite of her keen sympathy, expressed and actively testified, for the United States in their late struggle for independence. At the same time, Cubans were beginning to realise the fact that they themselves were none too well governed; and indeed for over a century and a half the Spanish islanders had been chafing against official exactions, and against the obsolete form of government established in the island. The famous colonial code, Las leyes de Indias, already mentioned, was still in force, and unmodified, as yet, to suit the exigencies of a newer civilization. In 1766 there had been a distinct movement against the then Captain-General,—so the Governor of the island was called,—who had taken upon himself to levy a tax on all slaves imported, which tax he was accused of applying to his own benefit. Then came the incident in the reign of Charles III., when Spain afforded active assistance to the American insurgents, and a number of Spanish and Cuban volunteers started from Havana, where they had assembled, to join the rebellion against Great Britain. The words "freedom and independence" were thus early rendered familiar to Cuban ears. A little later, following the example of the great Anglo-Saxon colony of the North, all the Spanish settlements in South America broke into open revolt, and clamoured for their liberty. The name of Bolivar was soon to set men's pulses beating under the Southern Cross, even as that of Washington had lately stirred all hearts in the Northern Hemisphere. The Spanish empire in the New World was tottering to its fall. One by one Spain's colonies were torn from her feeble grasp. The long-drawn revolution in Mexico, which, after fermenting for nearly half a century, tossed the unhappy country to and fro from 1810 to 1824, had a definite effect on the destiny of Cuba, which for over three centuries had been partially dependent on the government of that once opulent colony.

In a Catholic country, when priestly influence becomes apparently paramount, it is frequently opposed by an under-current of surreptitious free-thought. This condition of things began, in the case of Cuba, quite early in the present century. A number of secret societies were then formed, the majority of them affiliated to the great Masonic Brotherhood, which has worked so mightily to undermine Spanish dominion in the Southern Americas. For the Cuban lodges, like those of Italy and France, have always occupied themselves with the religious and political questions so rigorously avoided by English Masons. Their influence has always been opposed to that of the clergy, and therefore to that of a Government which has ever encouraged the interference of the Church in temporal matters. For many years, Cuba has been covered by a network of mysterious revolutionary associations, such as the Rationales Caballeros, Soles de Bolivar, Aguila Nigra, and a host of others, too numerous to mention. But these, for a considerable time, showed no prominent activity—a circumstance accounted for by a sudden change in the fortunes of the island. I have said that, until 1800, Cuba had been dependent upon the Vice-royalty of Mexico, which was bound to pay all the expenses of the maintenance of her public institutions, ports, and roads. As the Spanish power in Mexico declined, the island, as may be imagined, suffered; her ports soon fell into a deplorable condition, and, owing to absolute monopolies imposed upon her trade,—held partly by the Mexican Government, and partly by a chartered company established at Seville,—the visits of merchantmen to her harbours grew few and far between. The Revolution, which set a Bonaparte on the Spanish throne, temporarily removed this incubus, and in 1805 the Cuban ports were thrown open to general commerce, with the result that, whereas in 1804 less than a dozen ships, all belonging to the Seville company, passed the Morro Castle at Havana, in 1806 over a thousand vessels from all parts of the world cast anchor in the harbour. And further, the French emigrants who had fled, twenty years earlier, from the San Domingo massacres, had persuaded their Cuban hosts to devote their attention to the sugar trade. Cane planting had for some years increased, in all directions, and so rapidly, that travellers declared they scarcely recognised the country, once so beautiful with its scores of dainty green coffee plantations,—so exquisitely lovely when the star-like blossoms scent the air,—now replaced by far-stretching acres of unsightly cane. Be this as it may, sugar and tobacco were soon grown in great abundance, and Cuba, with her ports freed from all the mediæval trammels which had hitherto shackled her commercial capacities, was soon able to supply more than half the total amount of sugar then consumed in Europe. This commerce resulted in an era of exceptional prosperity, which lasted until 1825. Meanwhile the Cubans proved their passionate affection for their mother country by refusing to acknowledge the Napoleonic supremacy, and even by openly joining the enemies of their deposed sovereigns. Every member of the Cuban National Assembly took the oath to preserve his country for his former king. Such ardent patriotism won the island the proud title of "Cuba la sempre Fiel!"—"Cuba the ever Faithful."

The restoration of the Spanish monarchy, in 1814, was hailed with the utmost enthusiasm by the colonists. Nevertheless, even at this time, feuds between the Spaniards and the Cubans were frequent, the latter lampooning the former as Godas or Goths; and it is even said that when the Spanish ladies wore their hair long, the Cuban Senōras cropped theirs short—whence the name of pelonas (croppies) given them by their rivals to this day. Well would it have been for Spain had she availed herself of this outburst of loyalty in the richest corner still left to her of her once prodigious empire! But insensate counsels prevailed, and the mother country, by her ruthless abuse of Cuban confidence, gave fresh and lamentable proof of her incapacity for colonial government.

It must be admitted that, whether at home or abroad, the Spaniards have never been an easily governed people. The renowned Guicciardini, Florentine ambassador to Ferdinand the Catholic, reports a very interesting conversation with that monarch concerning his subjects.

"Ah!" said the father of our Katherine of Aragon, "the Spaniards were ever essentially a nation of warriors, and also most undisciplined! Everybody wants to be at the top of the tree, and nobody consents to obey. The soldiers are better than their officers. Every Spaniard knows how to fight, but none knows how to command either himself, or others." Whereupon the Florentine historian adds, by way of rider—"This, in all probability, is because discord is natural to the Spaniards,—an illustrious, but arrogant, irritable, and turbulent, though generous, race!"

If they were unmanageable in the days of their grandeur, when they had all the wealth of the Indies at command, we may easily conceive what they must be now, when they have fallen from the position of the richest, to that of the poorest, nation in Europe.

The Cubans, the descendants of Spaniards, have inherited the Spanish tendency to anarchy. When the army in Spain—as was of almost yearly occurrence, earlier in this present century—made a Pronunciamento, their Cuban brethren forthwith raised an insurrection, on some pretext or another, of their own; and, as M. Charles Benoit says in his deeply interesting work, L'Espagne, Cuba, et les Etats-Unis, "this natural tendency on the part of the Spanish population in Cuba has been, if anything, augmented by the influx of emigrants from all parts of the world, who have brought with them all kinds of ideas and theories on the subjects of morals and politics, and have thereby rendered the existing confusion tenfold greater than in the good old times, when there were only Cubans—that is to say, Spanish and negroes—on the island, and everybody thought more or less alike." For all this, deep in his heart the Cuban retains an intense love of the mother country,—a passionate affection, indeed, which, should the Americans be victorious in the present war, may eventually cause them considerable trouble.

In spite of the high sounding but empty title of "Faithful Cuba," bestowed on her generous island sons, Spain subtly reverted to her old methods, and used their country as a sort of conquered El Dorado, the quickly developed resources of which she was determined to turn to her selfish account, regardless of possible consequences. The Cubans, however, who had learnt many things since the opening of the century, soon showed a distinct disinclination to submit to this process. The era of prosperity already alluded to had attracted numbers of emigrants to the island, from every quarter of the world,—more especially from the United States; and constant contact with different races and varied religions, added to the influence of the secret societies previously mentioned (which had by this time become both wealthy and flourishing), soon made their impression upon the better educated and more intelligent classes, and therefore upon the masses, who, losing that extreme respect for religious authority, ordinarily so characteristic of the Spanish race, learnt to despise a feeble Government, which openly used its clergy for its own ends and purposes.

Fortunately for Spain, and also for her Cuban subjects, the island was administered, during the early years of the nineteenth century, by Tacon, a man of exceptional ability and energy, who recognised the immense capabilities of the country, and did his utmost to develop them. He passed many laws of a beneficent and useful nature, and, in a word, covered himself with honour, his name being even yet synonymous, throughout the island, with ideas of justice and good government. Even in his days some feeble attempts at insurrection were made, and a certain Lorenzo placed himself at the head of some 3000 rebels, mostly escaped negroes. Tacon had not much difficulty in routing him and his ill-disciplined troops. The Havana of that period was by no means a safe place of residence. It had become the gambling hell of the Americas, and it was dangerous to walk its darksome streets at night, without a considerable escort. Tacon availed himself of the opportunity created by the great fire of 1802 (April 25-26) to rebuild the quarter of the city then destroyed in a more regular style, and prohibited the future erection of wooden houses, as dangerous to the public safety. He lighted the city, suppressed the gambling saloons, prohibited the national game of Monte, and established a well-organized police force and a fire department. To sum it up, he proved, even in those far-off times, that under a firm hand and common-sense administration, Cuba can be as well and as easily governed as any other country under the sun. The great Governor was guilty, however, of one dark deed: he encouraged the slave trade. Hands were needed all over the Colony, on account of the marvellous impetus which had been given to the sugar industries, and the unfortunate Africans were used, so to speak, to pay the piper. In less than ten years, over a hundred thousand negroes were imported into Cuba; and as the masters never seriously attempted to civilize their field hands, the present descendants of these slaves have added not a little to the general anarchy now existing in the troubled island.

In 1812, the Cubans, still faithful to Spain, notwithstanding her many sins of omission and commission, assisted in putting down a revolt among the slaves in the neighbourhood of Bayamo, captured Aponte, the rebel chief, and hanged him, together with eight of his associates. Hundreds of negroes were massacred, or else driven into the forest, to die of want.