Cuba Past and Present

by Richard Davey

The History of the Barbadoes states that Lord Howe became Governor in 1733, but fortunately for the Colony, he did not hold the office long, "for if he had remained a few years longer, he would have ruined Barbadoes by his introduction of luxury."

In every island, perpetual war was waged between the Governor and the people, and the people seem to have had good cause to protest, for almost without exception, it would appear, the Governors sent from the mother country were most tyrannical and cruel in their methods. This is proved by the continual protests and "Articles of Complaint" that were forwarded to England. Many of these temporary rulers seem to have conceived their sole mission to be to extort money for their own private pockets by every means in their power, legal or illegal. To rule the country fairly, and to keep it in a settled condition—a by no means easy matter in those times—appears to have been quite a secondary matter in their eyes. A notable instance is that of a Mr Lowther, who carried on the usual routine of extortion. He was sent out to Barbadoes in 1711, and in justice to others it must be said, that for downright wickedness, he far outstripped them. He "swallowed up the taxes as fast as they were raised, ships forced on the island by stress of weather were compelled to give him one half of their cargo to save the other; he seized rich ships without cause; and he suspended Mr Skeen, the Secretary, because he refused to allow him a pension of £400 per annum out of the fees in office. He kept a cause of Haggot v. King hanging up in Chancery all the time he was Governor, only because Mr Haggot would not consent to the marriage of a young lady under his guardianship to a person to whom Mr Lowther owned he had sold her for £15,000. Again, in order to accomplish his bargain, he was about taking her from Mr Haggot when she was married, and he did actually despoil him of the guardianship of her sister, declaring that no parent had a right to appoint a guardian to his child." When officially remonstrated with for some of his iniquities, Mr Lowther simply replied, "D—— n your laws, don't tell me of the laws. I will do it, and let me see who dares dispute it." Again, the Governor of the Bahamas in 1701-2—Mr Elias Haskett—was, we are informed, such an iniquitous personage, that "he seizes all the claret and brandy imported into our own port for his own use, and most unmercifully doth whip the parish beadle (this is enough, surely, to make the late Mr Bumble turn in his grave) and the tax collector." This gentleman's evil doings are related in a curious MSS. document of over twelve closely-printed pages, by one Captain Cole, who, it appears, was deputed, on his return to England, by the people of New Providence, to make an official complaint of their Governor.

A rare old pamphlet on the State of Jamaica, published early in the last century, contains a curious account of the arrival in that island, in 1687, of Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, on his appointment to the Governorship. He was the only son and heir of John Monk, who had helped to restore Charles II., and who had been rewarded with a dukedom, the Garter, and a princely fortune, which his successor completely dissipated, and reduced himself to beggary. To rid himself of his importunities, King James II. gave him the above-mentioned position in Jamaica, where he died, childless, soon after his arrival, and his honours became extinct. He seems, however, to have lived long enough to collect a considerable sum of money for his creditors. He entered into partnership with a Sir William Phipps, who, having discovered the wreck of a Spanish plate-ship, which had gone down in 1559, provided skilful divers to search for the sunken treasure, and the partners are reported to have recovered twenty-six tons of silver. When Albemarle arrived at Kingston, he behaved in a fashion as arbitrary as it was whimsical. He immediately called an assembly, which he dissolved as promptly, because one of the members, in a debate, repeated the adage "Salus Populi suprema lex." His Grace took this member into custody, and caused him to be fined 600 crowns for his offence. Evidently James II. had entertained some hope of converting the island of Jamaica to the Roman Catholic faith, for with Albemarle he sent out a missionary,—Father Thomas Churchill, but the Duke's death and the Revolution of 1688 upset the good Father's projects, and, after visiting Cuba, he returned to England. The Duchess, who accompanied her husband, was a very remarkable woman, and an exceedingly handsome one. The speaker of the assembly, in his first address, expatiated upon her presence in the following extraordinary strain of eloquence: "It is an honour," said he, "which the opulent Kingdoms of Mexico or Peru could never arrive at, to be visited by an English Duchess, and even Columbus' ghost would be appeased, could he but know that his own beloved soil was hallowed by such footsteps." In a very old private letter, included among the exhibits, was a singular account of the subsequent career of this Duchess. It seems that on the death of the Duke, she possessed herself of all the treasures he had rescued from the Spanish plate-ship, and refusing to part with a shilling, even to pay his legitimate debts, prepared to embark for England. But the creditors seized her person in the King's house, in Spanish Town, and attempted to carry her off. She contrived, however, to escape, and communicated her distress to the House of Assembly, who thereupon appointed a formidable committee of their ablest members to guard her day and night. After some delay, she was safely embarked for England, on one of the King's ships, and arrived in this country with all her fortune, on board the "Assistance" man-of-war, in the beginning of June 1688. For a year or so she made a great show in London society, gave her friends sumptuous entertainments, and herself, it would seem, incredible airs. At last the poor lady's mind gave way. She imagined herself destined to become the wife of the Emperor of China, who, having heard of her immense wealth, was hastening, she declared, to come to England, and pay her his addresses. She dwelt in Montague House, on the site of which the British Museum now stands, and she furnished the mansion sumptuously for the reception of her august suitor. She appears to have been a gentle and good-humoured person, even in her lunacy, and her attendants encouraged her in her delusions. They did more. They tried to turn her folly to good account by assisting a certain needy peer, the Duke of Montague, to personate his Chinese Majesty. "Here," continues the letter, "is the prettiest piece of business that has ever been. My Lord of Montague, disguised as the Chinese Emperor, has won the hand of that worthy, silly old woman the Duchess of Albemarle, and will, doubtless, soon confine her as a lunatic." She certainly was carefully enough guarded, but she seems to have been allowed to indulge her mania to her heart's content. She was wont to stride about her vast apartments, attired as a Chinese Empress, her attendants taking good care to kneel as she passed, and to address her in language befitting so transcendant a personage as the consort of the supreme ruler of the celestial Empire. Her Grace the Duchess of Albemarle and Empress of China survived her husband, the pretended Emperor, for many years, and died in 1734, at the vast age of ninety-eight. She was, it seems, served upon the knee to the end of her long career, and expired in the full belief that she was a Celestial Empress.

The Grenada Gazette, a curious old newspaper to which I have already alluded, throws considerable light on the manners and customs of the period between 1792 and 1799. The details of the French Revolution are recorded with great minuteness, and it was evidently a subject of deep interest to the Gazette's numerous readers. The editor can scarcely contain his indignation as he relates the sufferings of the unfortunate French king and queen, and he feels sure God will punish the French people "for their barbarity and utter godlessness." He is certain a judgment will fall upon them "for their iniquitous conduct, their cruelty, and their general viciousness." "Oh!" he exclaims, "I have scarce the power to tell the terrible news of this day: the French king and queen are in prison. The French, by their own madness and folly, have thereby prepared themselves and their heirs for the bitterest punishment of God." When at length he reaches the execution of Marie Antoinette, he is "prostrate with horror, and dumb with fear." He can no longer proceed: "his pen is dry from sheer terror, and refuses to write." The poor gentleman is "thrown into a consternation" as he thinks of the fate in store for the afflicted little Dauphin. The series of slave advertisements which disgrace every number of the Chronicle are curious in their way. Thus the cargo of the ship "Ellen," consisting of 203 Gold Coast negroes, and that of another ship containing 343 young slaves, are both offered for sale. "Both cargoes are in high health, and the terms of sale will be made as agreeable as possible to the purchaser." An estate in St Lucia, placed on the market, comprises amongst its stock "250 negroes, large and small, and six horses and five mules." "There are among the negroes twenty tradesmen of great value." One person wants "a complete washerwoman. Anyone having one to dispose of may hear of a purchaser." There are many advertisements for the recovery of runaway slaves, "for whom a genteel reward will be offered," to be recognized by their backs, still sore from recent whippings, their cropped ears and split noses. These horrors seem to make no impression on the editor—the humane gentleman who so deplores the imprisonment of the French royal couple. He is not ashamed to advertise "a pretty boy, nearly white, for sale, price, £20," nor to call attention to Madame Marchand's announcement that she is about to leave the colony, and wishes to dispose of her stock-in-trade, consisting of "hardware, haberdashery, dry goods, a complete collection of the works of the best French authors, an excellent washerwoman, and two bedsteads." However, men should be judged, to some extent at all events, according to their lights, and it must be remembered that although, in the year of grace 1792, slavery was held throughout the West Indies to be a right divine, the papers above alluded to contained constant appeals to slave-owners to treat their human property with kindness. And perhaps, after all, the bulk of the negroes were a good deal happier than many free men are to-day, for plenty of kindness was shown them. They were allowed three wives—many, perhaps, will think this was no very kind concession—and we read of parties given to the negroes, at which servants dressed up in their mistresses' finery, and danced to a most unreasonable hour of the night, to the sound of the sackbut and the tabor. I exhibited in the St Vincent Court of the Exhibition a delightful series of old engravings, representing negro festivities in the olden times. The darkies had all Sunday to themselves, and raised pandemonium in the principal streets of Spanish Town and Nassau, until the nuisance grew unendurable, and was put down. They used to sing, dance, and wrestle, at which last exercise they "were marvellously expert," to their hearts' content. When their behaviour in the streets became unbearable, they were prohibited from singing or dancing in the vicinity of churches or genteel folks' houses. Their food was good, and their huts were waterproof, at all events,—for it was to the interest of the owners, of course, to keep their slaves in perfect health. Nevertheless, the negroes always felt themselves an oppressed race, and many were their struggles for freedom. They concocted various plans for a general rising, which was to make them masters and the Christians slaves. But the plots were always discovered, and the ring-leaders tortured and put to death, as an example to the rest. At one time owners had great difficulty in preventing their slaves from hanging themselves, either out of fear of possible punishment for some small fault, or dread of vengeance threatened by masters or overseers. Consequently no owner ever delayed a punishment. The darkies all had a firm belief in a resurrection, and were convinced they would return after death to their own country and begin their lives anew. This conviction led them to endeavour to expedite their release from slavery. An owner who had lost several useful slaves in this manner, "caused one of their heads to be cut off and fixed on a pole 12 feet high, and obliged all his slaves to come forth and march round this head, to show the poor creatures that they were in error in thinking the dead returned to their own country, for this man's head was here, as they all plainly saw, and how was it possible the body could go without the head?" This simple theory was quite sufficient to convince them, and thenceforth that owner never lost another slave by suicide.

Sometimes there was a theatrical performance in one or other of the capitals of the various islands. Companies from England or France paid the principal cities a visit, and occasionally amateurs undertook to assist the professionals, or to supplement their efforts. The French theatre at St George's, Grenada, had a great reputation throughout the islands. It was opened about six times in the year, sometimes by an English and sometimes by a French troupe. We read in the Grenada Gazette that "on Saturday, 31st August 1792, 'Douglas' was performed, Lady Randolph by a lady—her first appearance on any stage—and old Norval by a gentleman." "No admittance," the announcement goes on to say, "on any account behind the scenes. The gentility is invited to send their negroes early (to retain seats), who are to sit in their places till five minutes before the curtain rises, when they are to give up their places to the proper owners." The managers also remind the audience to "bring their own candles." The negroes filled the galleries, and were renowned for their judicious criticism, the warmth of their applause, and the vehemence of their disapproval. Ladies of great quality were accommodated with seats on the stage. We note that on one occasion, in 1798, the French company gives "Nina Folle par Amour." This must be either Copolla's or Paesiello's opera, composed about that time.

Cock-fighting, we learn from the same journal, was a fashionable sport of the gentry. "On Saturday, the 31st September 1792, at 10 o'clock, a match of twenty cocks will be fought by ten gentlemen. N.B.—A genteel dinner will be provided." In the same day's issue is announced the appearance in England of "a new sect, called the Anti-Chartists," whom it describes as "another branch of those iniquitous wretches who are opposed to the slave-trade."

Jamaica, then said to be the "wickedest place on earth," is mentioned with great detail in The British Empire in America, or the History of the Discovery, etc., of the British Colonies (published in London, 1708). The island probably deserved its name, for, in point of fact, the inhabitants mainly gained their livelihood at that period by trading with pirates, an enormous number of whom infested the neighbouring seas, making raids upon the Spanish islands, and carrying off immense treasure to Jamaica, where it was spent in debauchery.

The same book gives some interesting details of the earthquake in Jamaica on 7th June 1692. In many of the streets of Port Royal there were several fathoms of water, "a great mountain split and fell into the level land, and covered several settlements and destroyed many people." One settler's plantation was carried half a mile from the place where it formerly stood. Part of the mountain, after having made several leaps, overwhelmed a whole family and great part of a plantation, lying a mile off; "and a large mountain is quite swallowed up, and in the place where it stood there is now a vast lake, four or five leagues over." About 2000 people perished by this catastrophe.

Owners would never consent to allow their slaves to become Christians, as will be seen by the following extract:—

"I took a great interest in a certain slave, Sambo, who wanted much to become a Christian, and spoke to the master of the plantation on his behalf. His answer was, that were Sambo once a Christian he could no longer be accounted a slave, and thus owners would lose hold on their slaves. Were he in this case to do so, such a gap would be opened that all the planters in the isle would curse him."