The History of Cuba, vol. 2

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

But the king of Spain had no thought save that of upholding the Spanish traditions, and, accepting the advice of the Duke de Alva, decided to crush the rebellion of Louisiana. He chose as his instrument the Conde Alexandre O'Reilly, who had gone to Cuba with de Ricla and had reorganized the army and militia of the island. Buccarelli was informed of the royal decision and assisted O'Reilly in fitting out an expedition which was to enable him to enforce Spanish rule and eradicate all traces of republican leanings in the French colony. The people of New Orleans had in the meantime once more sent a petition to France in the attempt to enlist the sympathy and aid of the mother country in their endeavor to remain French citizens. They also sent an appeal to the British at Pensacola but the governor was not inclined to offend any powers with which his king was at peace. So great was the dread of the Louisianans of being forced to bow to Spanish rule, that they spoke seriously of burning New Orleans rather than giving it up to the hated foreign authorities.

O'Reilly set sail from Havana with a squadron of twenty-four vessels, with three thousand well-trained troops on board. He arrived at the Balise at the end of July. For a time panic reigned in the city. Aubry tried to quiet the people, and advised them to submit and trust in the clemency of the king of Spain. A committee of three, Lafreniere, as representative of the council, Marquis of the colonists, and Milhet of the merchants, presented themselves at the Balise to pay their respects to the Spanish general and to appeal to his mercy. O'Reilly entertained them at dinner and they left assured of perfect amnesty. On the eighth of August the Spanish squadron anchored before the city itself, and the authorities took possession in the name of his Majesty, Carlos III. of Spain. The Spanish colors replaced those of France and it seemed as if with this ceremony and the installment of Spanish officials in the different departments of the colony's government the mission of O'Reilly was ended. But there was still the punishment to be meted out to the rebels who had dared to defy the authority of the Spanish king and had sworn unchanging allegiance to the sovereign of France. After having received from Aubry, who seemed to play traitor to his compatriots, a list of those who had taken part in the recent insurrection and had prepared the foundation of a republic with a protector and an elective council of forty, O'Reilly on the twenty-first of August invited to his home the most prominent citizens and asked the representatives of the people's council to pass, one by one, into his private apartment. In their unsuspecting innocence, they accepted this invitation as a mark of distinction, but they were sadly disillusioned, when O'Reilly entered with Aubry and three Spanish officers, and arrested them in the name of his Majesty the King of Spain.

According to Bancroft two months were spent in collecting evidence against the men. The defense asserted that they could not be tried and condemned by Spanish officials for acts done before the proper establishment of Spanish rule in the colony. The citizens begged for time to send a petition to the Spanish sovereign. But all attempts to divert O'Reilly from his purpose summarily to punish the men who had dared to defy Ulloa, as the representative of Spain, were futile. Twelve of the richest men of the colony had to see their estates confiscated; from the proceeds were paid the officers employed in the trial. Six others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, from six years to life. The five who had been most conspicuous in the revolt, Lafreniere, Marquis, Milhet, Caresse and Noyau, were sentenced to death. According to Bancroft they were shot in presence of the troops and the people on the twenty-fifth of October, 1769. According to Spanish historians they were hanged.

Whatever the fate of these French champions of the newly awakened desire for liberty may have been, the effects of O'Reilly's cruelty were felt far beyond the still ill defined boundaries of the colony. Though the king of Spain was reported to have expressed his approval of O'Reilly's summary procedure, even in Spain voices rose to condemn it. A pall spread over Louisiana. Business life was for a time paralyzed. Commerce came to an absolute standstill. In the country parishes of the colony, the Spanish authority was accepted with sullen silence. Many of the wealthy families, long identified with the history of the colony, abandoned their homes and emigrated to other parts of the continent. The government of the colony was reorganized on the pattern of all Spanish colonies. The restrictions which were placed upon commerce robbed the people of whatever initiative and enterprise they had possessed. A period of stagnation set in, contrasting sharply with the activity and the animation that had previously reigned in the city which claimed and was reported by travelers of that time to have been fairly well started on the road of becoming the Paris of America. It was an inauspicious beginning for the Spanish régime in Louisiana. But the successor of O'Reilly, D. Luis de Uznaga, made up for his predecessor's mistake by showing so much discretion and exercising his authority with such mildness, that he gradually succeeded in reconciling a part of the population to the Spanish rule. Only the families of the victims that had paid for their loyalty to France with their lives remained the implacable enemies of Spain, as long as the colony remained under her rule. Aubry, who immediately after the tragedy of the twenty-fifth of October had set sail for France, suffered shipwreck on his voyage and perished. The six men who had been committed to the dungeons of Havana were, according to Bancroft, later set free by the aid of France.

This tragic prelude to the Spanish rule in Louisiana, little as it has to do with Cuba, with which colony it was but loosely connected in an administrative way, was the herald of a new epoch dawning upon the horizon of the New World. The establishment of the little republic at the mouth of the Mississippi had been frustrated. But the establishment of the greater republic on the continent, under the protection of which Cuba was to come some centuries later, was even at this time approaching consummation.

CHAPTER IX

While the new Spanish possession annexed to Cuba by virtue of the Treaty of Paris, Louisiana, was passing through that painful state of transition which always follows the transfer of a nation belonging to a certain race speaking a certain language and cherishing customs deeply rooted in the national consciousness, to the rule of another nation, of a different race, speaking a different language and practising widely different customs, Cuba was enjoying a period of peace, prosperity and progress. When Buccarelli was appointed Viceroy of Mexico, D. Pascal Jiminez de Cisneros once more exercised superior authority as provisional governor of the island. But in November, 1771, the newly appointed governor arrived from Spain, the Captain-General D. Felipe Fons de Viela, Marquis de la Torre. He was a valiant soldier who in the wars of Spain with Italy and Portugal had distinguished himself by his conduct and his ability, and had risen to his high rank at the cost of his blood. He was a native of Zaragoza, a Knight of the military order of Santiago and Alderman in perpetuity, or prefect-governor of his native city. He came to Cuba with the reputation of an exceptionally worthy official and in the five years of his administration not only justified but far surpassed the hopes that his arrival awakened in the population of the colony. He entered upon his duties on the eighteenth of November, 1771.

Marquis de la Torre was without doubt one of the most efficient and successful governors that Cuba ever had. Havana was at that time growing in population and extent, and entering upon a new era in her economic development, due largely to the foresight of King Carlos III., who had granted her an exemption from certain taxes. The city had, however, suffered so much in previous times, first from the perpetual unrest arising from the fear of invasion by pirates, then from the siege, and lastly from the hurricane of 1768, that it needed a man, clear of purpose and strong of will, to inaugurate the many innovations which he introduced, in order to make the place worthy of being the metropolis of Spain's richest island-possession in America. While Ricla and Buccarelli, entering upon their governorships immediately after the occupation of Havana by the British, had of necessity devoted most of their energy towards insuring the safety of the place from a repetition of the events of 1762, and had therefore been primarily concerned with the fortifications and the military reorganization of the place, la Torre was able to direct his attention to improvements, which made for a higher standard of public health, and paved the way for a culture, which in spite of the wealth of the population, was still only in its beginnings. Coming as he did from the Spain of Carlos III., who during his long peaceful reign did so much for the cultural progress of his country by introducing measures of sanitation and other improvements unknown to his predecessors, it was the ambition of la Torre to make Havana worthy of comparison with the large cities of the mother country.

IN OLD HAVANA