The History of Cuba, vol. 2

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

Governor Buccarelli made strenuous efforts to abolish contraband trading in the island. He tried also to promote coffee culture in Cuba, which had so far yielded so little as to be not even sufficient for home consumption. His Majesty granted an extension of customs for five years at that time. A new step for the improvement of the maritime department was taken in the year 1766, when the Apostadero was created a military and naval station. To the administration of this office was appointed D. Juan Antonio de la Colina, who during the siege of Havana in 1762 had ordered the sinking of the three vessels for the purpose of closing to the British the entry of the port. Colina was invested with the same powers possessed in Spain by the Captain-General of the naval department. In the shipyard of Havana there were built at this time vessels of various sizes and purposes, among them the Santissima Trinidad, a vessel of one hundred and twelve guns, and three smaller but excellent ships. The Santissima Trinidad was destined some years later to be destroyed in the battle of Trafalgar.

Two great calamities caused much distress and loss of lives and property during Buccarelli's administration. In July and August, 1766, earthquakes destroyed a great portion of Santiago de Cuba. It was estimated that more than one hundred persons perished. Among them was the governor, Marquis de Casa-Cagigal, who was removed from the ruins of his residence. The disaster called for such great funds for the alleviation of the suffering and the hardships occasioned by this catastrophe, that the Royal Treasury had to retard the payment of the salaries to the officials of the island. The civilian population contributed generously to the relief funds collected in the principal towns of the island. Governor Buccarelli himself sent contributions to two hundred presidarios and to two engineers that had been stricken in the performance of their duties.

The losses and the sorrow caused by this calamity had barely been repaired and mitigated, when another disaster called for sympathy and active assistance on the part of those that were spared. This was the tremendous hurricane which swept over Havana on the fifteenth of October, 1768, and left the city a scene of desolation. The vessels in the harbor were torn from their anchorage, and drifted into the sea lashed into fury by the tempest; the trees in the orchards were uprooted, the fields appeared as if they had been churned. Buildings were carried away from their foundations and deposited in remote places. It was difficult to estimate the damage done in the city and its neighborhood. Again a call for relief was sounded and responded to readily. To assist the sufferers a great sum came from the proceeds of the Jesuit properties recently seized, which according to the valuation of experts amounted to several million pesos.

Buccarelli was appointed Viceroy of Mexico, and retired on the fourth of August, 1771. He had proved a worthy successor of the much esteemed Count Ricla and left behind him an excellent reputation. It was said of him that he had never once lacked that political prudence which should ever guide the actions of an official in such a responsible position as was the governorship of Cuba. He was praised for his cautious inquiries into legal abuses and his judicious settlement of cases, some of which had for forty years occupied the time of the courts and filled the pockets of greedy attorneys. He was reported under the most exasperating circumstances to have always conserved his affable disposition and to have never lost his temper, however great may have been the provocation. Upon the whole, he was looked upon as a man of rare nobility of character and Cuba was loath to part with him. He was one of the few governors that had never given cause for any complaint. This was attested by the Minister of the Indies, then Baylio Knight Julian de Arriaga, who wrote to him by order of His Majesty that not the slightest complaint of his government had come to the court.

CHAPTER VIII

While Cuba was enjoying the peace and prosperity which had followed its return to Spain, Louisiana, which by the Treaty of Paris had been ceded to Spain by Louis XV. of France, to indemnify her for the Floridas and the government of which was annexed to that of Cuba, was going through a most harassing period of anxiety. For this agreement, which transferred the French inhabitants of Louisiana to Spain, was a violation of that human right which at this very time was beginning to dawn in the awakening political consciousness of mankind, and was to be a source of serious conflicts between the French of Louisiana and the authorities that came to establish upon her soil the rule of the king of Spain.

Bancroft gives an interesting account of the events that occurred. He writes in his "History of the United States" (Vol. IV, p. 122):

"The Treaty of Paris left two European powers sole sovereigns of the continent of North America. Spain, accepting Louisiana without hesitation, lost France as her bulwark, and assumed new expenses and dangers, to keep the territory from England. Its inhabitants loved the land of their ancestry; by every law of nature and human freedom, they had the right to protest against the transfer of their allegiance."

The spirit which found ultimate expression in the formula: "no government without the consent of the governed" had been awakened in the people of the North American continent. As soon as the news reached Louisiana, that the territory was to be transferred under the rule of the Spanish king, the call for an assembly was issued and every parish in the colony sent representatives to voice their protest and deliberate upon measures preventing the execution of that transfer. Under the leadership of Lafreniere the people unanimously decided to address a petition to the king of France, entreating him not to abandon them to foreign rule. The loyalty with which the colony had so far adhered to the kings of the mother country seemed to call for redress of the wrong which was about to be inflicted upon them.

The wealthiest merchant of New Orleans, Jean Milhet, went to Paris as the spokesman of the colony. He met Bienville, the pioneer founder of the city which enjoyed at that time the reputation of being an American Paris, and the octogenarian lent his aid in an attempt to appeal to the French minister, Choiseul. But Choiseul gave them no encouragement. His answer was, briefly: "It cannot be; France cannot bear the charge of supporting the colony's precarious existence." On the tenth of July, 1765, the Brigadier D. Antonio de Ulloa, who was appointed by Governor Buccarelli of Cuba to take possession of the territory ceded to Spain, sent a letter from Havana to the superior council of the colony at New Orleans announcing that he had orders to take possession of that city for the Catholic king. But the French authorities did not remove the flag of France and Acadian exiles continued to pour into the colony from the north. Ulloa finally sailed from Havana and on the fifth of March, 1766, he arrived in the bay.