The History of Cuba, vol. 2

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

One afternoon, just at twilight, that fine hour for abduction, a lieutenant—probably in Tacon's pay—stepped into the store and demanded that Miralda go with him, by order of the Captain-General; which does look like the cloven hoof in the velvet glove, or something of the sort. But instead of taking Miralda to the Captain-General she was conveyed to the count's country estates, where she was kept a prisoner, although of course not harmed—in fiction the villain never harms the heroine before the hero arrives even if he is a bit late at the appointment. Pedro, by that wit and sagacity which had made him a master boatman, discovered the count's treachery. He disguised himself as a friar and went to the count's gate every day and slipped notes through the cracks to Miralda, thus cheering her exceedingly. Then entered the most high excellency, the Captain-General, that defender of those who loved liberty in Cuba, that builder of prisons and master genius in filling them, that despoiler of rich and poor alike, and thus the man most likely to help defenseless virtue. Pedro's excess of wit and sagacity led him straight to the spotless Captain-General. After trying three times to get an audience, for governing the island and putting down rebellions kept Tacon reasonably busy, Pedro succeeded in getting into the presence of the lord of Cuba. When he had told his story, and sworn to his honorable intentions toward his fiancee, Tacon sent his soldiers to the count's estate to bring him and Miralda into the sacred presence. When the Captain-General had demanded to know, and the count had assured him, that Miralda was "as pure as when she came beneath my roof," Tacon immediately produced a priest and married Miralda to the count, much to the astonishment and chagrin of the faithful Pedro. But Tacon the Just was not through. He was ever on the side of the oppressed, when his own interests leaned that way. The count was ordered to return to his own plantation, without his bride. While on the way he was shot in the back, after Tacon's most pleasant manner and by his orders. In one record it is hinted that his estates were pleasant picking for Tacon, but the story which is most current leaves out that interesting detail. Tacon's version is that he gave the count's estate to the widow; and at any rate Pedro and Miralda were married and lived happily ever afterward, and Tacon gave them his blessing with the high-sounding pronouncement: "No man nor woman on this island is so humble but that they may claim the justice of Tacon."

Tacon's rule, one of the worst that the long-suffering Cubans had to endure, finally came to an end, on April 16, 1838, when he was succeeded by Don Joaquin de Espeleta. The latter had been born in Cuba, and it is a mystery why he was ever appointed, for Spain was not wont to accord honors to Cubans, or to confer the high rank of Captain-General on one who might naturally be expected to have Cuban sympathies. He had been for some time connected with the government in a subordinate capacity, being inspector-general of the troops, and second cabo-subalterno. From all accounts Espeleta was an excellent governor, and must have afforded the harassed Cubans a much needed breathing spell after the misrule of Tacon. But he was not long allowed to rule Cuba. Spain began to suspect that the Cubans were being treated too well, and that trouble might follow. Indeed, Espeleta was reported to be conciliating the people, and holding out hopes of great reforms. This in itself seemed to justify his removal, and so, in 1840, he was succeeded by the Prince de Aglona.

During this administration the Royal Pretorial Audience, a high court of appeal to which all civil cases might be taken, was established. If this had been kept free from deleterious influences, it would have been a most beneficial thing for the oppressed Cubans, but the royal favorites dominated it, as they did pretty much everything else.

CHAPTER XXIV

General Geronimo Valdez, who succeeded the Prince de Aglona as Captain-General in 1840, probably endeavored to rule wisely, since he was by nature a rather gentle and just man; but he had absolutely no chance with the power of Spain against him. It was during his incumbency that the first of the alarming slave uprisings occurred, and the Spanish officials were so frightened that they counseled the most violent methods of subduing the offenders, to which as we shall see General Valdez at least shut his eyes. For he was weak and indecisive, and had not the power to rule insurgents or to keep his Spanish colleagues within bounds.

The British consul, David Turnbull, of whom we shall hear more later, was unpopular with the planters, who accused him of inciting their slaves to rebellion. Certainly he was an ardent advocate of emancipation, and a book which he wrote about this period was filled with denunciations of slavery. Valdez tried to placate both him and the planters, and between the two promptly fell down and won the enmity of both. His numerous grants of freedom to negroes were another cause for complaint. The planters combined and caused his downfall, and he yielded his office to one better suited to Spanish standards. Some years later they secured the recall of Turnbull. It is said of Valdez that he departed from Cuba no richer than when he had come, and if this is true,—it sounds almost impossible,—then he stands unique in an assembly of "grafters."

In 1843 George Leopold O'Donnell took office as Captain-General. No despot who had preceded him surpassed him in cruelty. He turned every possible happening to his personal advantage, and lined his pockets with Cuban money. It was during his tenure of office that the most wide-spread and most dangerous of the insurrections among the slaves happened. Of the methods used in subduing this we shall write in another chapter, but they were the most disgraceful that have blotted the pages of the history of any nation. General O'Donnell himself, his wife and daughter were said to have profited by the slave trade. The wife of the Captain-General, by the way, seems to have had a painfully itching palm. It is told of her that she had a number of loaves of bread left after a reception, and that she sent for the baker at three o'clock in the morning, to require him to take back the surplus. When he demurred, that he could only sell it for stale bread, and would thus lose money on it, she said: "Oh, I sent for you early because now you can mix it with the other bread, and sell it to the masses, and no one will know the difference." She is accused of having been engaged in all kinds of schemes by which she profited in an illegitimate way. She dabbled in the letting of contracts for the cleansing of sewers and for the removal of dirt and manure from the city streets, demanding her bonus from the one who secured the contract, and these municipal operations stained her hands with illgotten gains. It is said that O'Donnell, who had a large interest in marble quarries in the Isle of Pines, had his agents select able bodied laborers, and trump up charges of treason against them. They were then sentenced to deportation to work in the Captain-General's stone quarries, and thus solved the problem of low priced labor. O'Donnell was fertile also in inventing new taxes and new methods of extorting money, which of course brought him into high favor at court. So pleasing was his rule to his masters and to his aides that he was allowed to stay in office longer than usual, and was not succeeded until 1848.

One of the most ridiculous figures in Cuban history came next, in the person of General Frederico Roncali. Some 400 Americans had taken up their abode on an island far distant from Cuba. Rumors reached General Roncali that they intended to free Cuba from Spanish rule. He promptly marched 4,000 picked soldiers to garrisons in Cuba, and promised them double pay if they would fight bravely when the enemy landed. Of course, the enemy never came, and General Roncali presented a foolish figure. But after all there was a portent in this of the fear which the Spaniards were beginning to entertain, that the end of their rule in Cuba was at hand.

While the slave trade had been made illegal in 1820, it flourished with more or less vigor until the end of the Ten Years' War in the latter part of the century. Spain officially frowned upon it, but unofficially the Spanish crown is said to have been financially interested in the slave trading companies, and to have shared largely in their profits. To add to this incentive for the continuance of the trade, the Captain-General had his own reasons for not suppressing it. He was paid a fixed bonus for every slave imported. Indeed, the post of Captain-General of Cuba was one not to be despised by any soldier of fortune. The perquisites of the office are said to have been—of course, not from the slave trade alone—close to $500,000 a year. The Captain-General is said to have received "half an ounce of gold" for every "sack of charcoal," as they facetiously dubbed the negro, allowed to pass into the country.

Although no excuse of expediency can be urged for the enslavement of human beings, no matter what their color or race, it remains a fact that the sugar plantations of Cuba required laborers in great numbers for their development, and the easiest and most profitable way to obtain that labor was through the employment of black slaves. It would probably have been impossible to obtain a sufficient number of white men at that time to do the work required, especially since when an attempt was made to import white men for work on the plantations, the owners who were of Spanish birth brought every influence possible to bear on the government to make such laws and regulations for that kind of labor that, if it could be procured, its retention was well nigh impossible.