The History of Cuba Volume II Part 11

CHAPTER XII

The French Revolution set the pace for the world's movements in the last decade of the eighteenth century and spread the seeds of many more in the century to come. Pamphlets, books and proclamations coming to Spain from France opened the eyes of the people to evils, which in their loyalty to the throne and to the traditions of the country they had never dared to perceive. The corruption of her court, the ruin of her finances, the incompetency of her statesmen and her generals were revealed to the population and stirred sullen resentment. Demoralization seemed to have set in and threatened to dismember the once all-powerful kingdom. To the profligate G.o.doy was in a great measure attributed the degradation of the country and an atmosphere of conspiracy pervaded even the royal palace, from which patriotic plotters, resentful of Spain's humiliation, hoped soon to chase the favorite of the queen, who with supreme unconcern continued to fill his pockets from the royal treasury and to live in his wonted extravagance and dissipation. The forces of the French Republic had occupied the frontier forts and seemed to find little or no resistance. The fate of the royal Bourbons of France struck terror in the souls of the royal Bourbons of Spain, and the flight of the king and his family from Madrid was daily expected.

Even to the overseas possessions of France and Spain had the influence of the liberating movement extended and awakened the indolent and indifferent creoles to the realization of wrongs they had suffered at the hands of their mother countries. Moreover, the gospel of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity had reached the ears of those who had for centuries silently borne oppression and had been made to believe that serfdom was to be their fate forever. Already in 1791 the news of the outbreak of the Revolution had been acclaimed by the slaves in Santo Domingo and followed by revolt and violence against the life and the property of their masters. When in 1794 the Convention declared the abolition of slavery in the colonies of the Republic, the floodgates of insurrection were opened. For Old Hispaniola, divided between two foreign powers, populated by races antagonistic to one another, was a fertile soil for any revolutionary propaganda. As early as 1762 there were three negroes to one Frenchman in the northern part of the island; and these negroes whom a Jesuit priest of the time declared to be fit only for slavery, hated all other races and castes: the whites, the free negroes and the mulattoes.

But even among this ignorant and superst.i.tious race there were individuals that rose far above the average in intelligence and had by a.s.sociation with the more advanced and privileged castes and races acquired certain achievements. They were men who had done some thinking of their own and perhaps by their relation of servant to master learned to know the faults and weaknesses of the latter far better than they knew their own. When these men caught the ring of the magic three words, a world of possibilities opened before them, and they embraced the message they conveyed with the eagerness of people desperate from and resentful of iniquities, real and imaginary. Their brains were afire with hatred and revenge and it needed only a great leader to organize this powerful army of malcontents into a horde of fiends. That leader came to them in the person of the ex-coachman, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a man of exceptional gifts and abilities, who with the one-track mind of the idealist-fanatic had but one aim and pursued but one goal: the liberation of his race.

The war between the French republic and Spain had naturally called forth hostilities between the two parts of the island inhabited on one side by French, on the other by Spaniards. The negro insurgents saw their opportunity and did not let it go by without exploiting it for their purposes. The unfortunate jealousies between the President and Captain-General of Santo Domingo and the General of the Navy, Aristizabel, who had captured Bayaja, had weakened the Spanish forces, and when they attempted to take Guarico, they had to retire at Yazique before a force of five hundred undisciplined negroes. This encouraged the negro commanders and in quick succession they captured San Rafael and Las Caobas, and had the satisfaction to see San Miguel, Bonica and Incha evacuated before they even reached these places. Bayaja was strongly fortified and garrisoned; but the climate of that place being very unhealthy, the Spanish troops were decimated by sickness, until they numbered only about four hundred men. The negro general Juan Francisco on the other hand could increase his troops at will. In order to enforce the Spanish it was proposed to send them a regiment of white Frenchmen. Seven legions of these men arrived at Bayaja on the morning of the seventh of July, 1794. But Juan Francisco surprised the place half an hour before, and placing artillery in the princ.i.p.al streets and squares, informed the commandant that all white Frenchmen were to leave Bayaja before three o'clock that afternoon. When the commandant remonstrated saying that the time was too short to provide barges for their transportation, the negro leader left the government house and gave the signal for the ma.s.sacre of all Frenchmen in the place. The terrible slaughter lasted until far into the afternoon, when the governor and the venerable priest of the place so urgently implored the negro troops to have mercy, that they moderated their savage rage.

While this wholesale murder, which cost the lives of seven hundred and forty-two Frenchmen, not counting those who were drowned in flight, was going on in the streets, military conferences were held at which, after some irresolute wrangling, it was decided to withdraw to Fuerte Dolfin, about five hundred varas (rods) distant from Bayaja, in order to save the garrison from being at the mercy of a negro mob, intoxicated with the victory won over their adversaries. They succeeded in holding Fuerte Dolfin, until Bayaja itself was evacuated by Juan Francisco on the thirteenth of July. The loss of the Spanish troops, including deserters and those that died from privations, was about three thousand men. The national treasury suffered during the revolt a defalcation of some fifty thousand pesos. The negroes were at first charged with the embezzlement of that sum, but there were rumors to the contrary, which in view of the only too well-known turpitude of many colonial officials, were quite plausible.

The peace concluded between Spain and the French republic at Basilea (Basle) on the twenty-second of July, 1795, and published in Madrid on the sixth of November, terminated Spanish rule on the island, Spain ceding her part of Santo Domingo to the French Republic. The people of Spain welcomed this peace, as they would have hailed any other. To the part played in the negotiations by Manuel G.o.doy was due his t.i.tle "Prince of Peace." In the elation of the moment the court even remembered Aranda, Florida Blanca, Cabarrus and Jovellanos, the able statesmen and faithful patriots who had been imprisoned or exiled, and granted them full amnesty. Yet this treaty of Basilea was the official admission of the decline of Spain's power. It heralded the gradual disintegration of her colonial possessions, where, as some authorities a.s.sert, British intrigue sowed the seeds of discord and discontent. When two years later, in February, 1797, the Spanish fleet, although superior in vessels and artillery, was defeated by the British in the battle of Cape St. Vincent off the south point of Portugal, the ruin of the kingdom was complete. The total income between 1793 and 1796 was twenty-four hundred and forty-five millions of reals; the total expenses, thirty-seven hundred and fourteen millions; the debt amounted to more than twelve hundred millions. The annual deficit was eight hundred millions. The paper money in circulation amounted to nineteen hundred and eighty millions. Such was the financial status of the royal bankrupt.

If the peace of Basilea had temporarily brought satisfaction and lightened the burden of anxiety, the defeat at Cape St. Vincent sufficed once more to cloud the horizon. The capture of Rome by the French in 1798 and the proclamation of a republic in place of the papal sovereignty, plunged Spain into a state of panic. Cabinet ministers succeeded one another with bewildering rapidity. Even Jovellanos, who had been recalled to restore order in the disorganized department of justice, was unable to cope with the chaotic situation. Enormous sums were being continually wasted. Of eighteen hundred and thirty-three millions spent in 1799, the royal court alone had used one hundred and five, the department of war nine hundred and thirty-five, finance four hundred and twenty-eight, foreign affairs forty-six, and the department of justice only seven! Every branch of the administration was filled with the minions of G.o.doy, who was now related to the royal house, having espoused the daughter of the Infante Don Luis. His annual revenues amounted to one million reals. The elements themselves seemed to be in conspiracy against what had once been the greatest power in Europe. The failure of crops, famine, epidemics and earthquakes filled the minds of the superst.i.tious with vague terrors.

Cuba was at that time too much engrossed in the attempt to continue on the path of progress to be seriously affected by the fate of Spain. The insurrection of Santo Domingo had brought the eventuality of internal trouble so close to her door, that she did not dare to look across the ocean for more sources of apprehension. Yet the revolt of the neighboring island had also its advantages for Cuba. At the first outbreak of hostilities against the French, many French refugees had fled to Cuba. They were followed by others and after the ma.s.sacre of Bayaja even by Spaniards and by colored women. This French element which settled in Santiago and Havana became a valuable factor in the population of the island. A French traveler and writer, Vicomte Gustave d'Hespel d'Harponville, says about it in his book "La Reine des Antilles":

"They brought to Cuba the remnants of their wealth, some slaves, but especially their knowledge, their experience and their activity. From that moment the two great Antilles changed roles: San Domingo lapsed into barbarism, Cuba placed her foot in the chariot of fortune."

The French settlers were industrious laborers and skilled artisans and as such were highly valued by economists who had been anxious to increase Cuba's insufficient labor supply by the introduction of white labor. Even the women among them were workers, in strange contrast to the Cuban women, who were given to tropical indolence. Many of these French "Dominicans" established themselves as nurses, laundresses and seamstresses. In education, too, these newcomers were far above the average Havanese; a difference which foreign travelers were quick to detect and to comment upon. The French settlements southeast of Havana, in the environs of Matanzas, Santiago and Baracoa, became such centers of activity, industrial and otherwise, that the Spanish, who had persisted in their habitual indolence and indifference, became jealous, which in time resulted in some friction and unpleasant disturbances.

The definite loss of Santo Domingo to Spain caused also a great change in ecclesiastical affairs. The archbishopric was removed to Santiago de Cuba. Havana and Puerto Rico remained "suffragans," i.e. subject to the other. About that time there was established a territorial tribunal in Puerto Principe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOMAS ROMAY

One of the foremost figures in the great Cuban awakening at the close of the eighteenth century was Dr. Tomas Romay, physician and scientist, who was born in Havana on December 21, 1764, and died on March 30, 1849. He greatly aided the two good Governors, Las Casas and Someruelos, in their labors for the betterment of Cuba; with the help of Bishop Espada he introduced vaccination into the island; he was prominent in the Society of Friends of Peace, and did much for education, agriculture, and other interests of the Cuban people. Among his writings was a monograph on yellow fever which attracted world-wide attention. His earnest patriotism involved him in violent controversies in the troublous times of 1820-1823, from which he emerged in triumph and in universal honor.]

Everything seemed to combine at that period to promote the growth and a.s.sure the future welfare of Cuba. The government of Las Casas, with its wonderful awakening among the citizens of a sense of civic responsibility and opportunity, was one of those epochs which seem to form a pivot around which past and future revolve. It was impossible to consider it in its full value and significance without comparing it with the past out of which it had developed, and taking note of the progress it signalized. Nor was it possible to forecast the future, without projecting into it the lines of evolution along which the work of Las Casas and his a.s.sociates seemed to have prepared the progress of the island. Compared with the pa.s.sive inertia which had all through the history of the Spanish West Indies r.e.t.a.r.ded individual and communal advancement, it was like a sudden birth of aspirations and endeavors all directed towards a lofty goal, perhaps still vague to the mult.i.tude, but clearly and strongly defined in the minds of the men who with a singular unity of purpose, forgetting for once all the petty jealousies that had clouded so many big issues in previous periods, combined for concerted action for the common good.

They were men who had at heart the interests of the island, who had inquired into the causes for its backwardness and who had thought deeply about the measures that might provide a means to rouse the whole population to the realization of the gigantic task before them. They were men of extraordinary intelligence, of thorough knowledge, of unblemished character and of wide experience. Never before had Cuba been able at any one period to point to such a galaxy of names as Las Casas, Arango, Romay, Montalvo, Pedro Espinola, Caballero, and others. Never before had it at any one time a like number of men combining all the qualifications that seemed to destine them to be the leaders in a great movement of revival and reconstruction. For the task they accomplished was not only that of rousing the inhabitants, who had lingered for several generations in apathy and indolence, but to reconstruct the whole decadent edifice of provincial management, in order to start anew on a solid foundation.

Individually considered almost every one of those men stood for some achievement, some work the benefits of which the future was to reap.

Towering above them all, Arango seemed to combine all these efforts, seemed to be the center from which radiated all the plans that had for their ultimate aim the happiness of all. As one looks back upon that brilliant epoch, this man of n.o.ble birth, of rare gifts and of considerable means, seemed to dominate them all. Surely no other could have accomplished what he did; for his youth, his affability, his distinguished manners, these invaluable social qualities impressed and attracted those in the highest positions at the Spanish court and won for him a hearing, which would have been refused to many others. Once this was gained, his general learning, and his special knowledge of the economic and financial problems of his native island, backed by an array of conclusive statistics and conveyed to his listeners with forcible logic and convincing oratory, compelled the attention even of the most recalcitrant conservatives that had steadily opposed reforms in the colonies. By this rare combination of qualities Arango had succeeded in obtaining from the royal government greater concessions for Cuba than it had ever made to any of her colonial possessions. The effect of Arango's work, though at intervals clouded by periodical relapses of the government into the old evil ways, was felt during more than a generation, and his name remained identified in the memory of the people with the great strides that the island was henceforth to make in agriculture, industry and commerce, as no less in matters of education.

Among his a.s.sociates, the name of Dr. D. Thomas Romay was to be remembered by future generations for the great blessing which his medical skill and foresight secured for the island. He had been identified with many measures promoting public health, when Dr. Maria Bustamente of la Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, brought to Havana the first consignment of vaccine. Following the example of Dr. Bustamente, who had vaccinated his little son and two mulatto servants, Dr. Romay at once introduced vaccination in Havana and gradually checked the ravages which small-pox epidemics had caused. The Count de Montalvo was forever to be remembered for his wise and humane adjustment of judicial conflicts in connection with the tribunal of commerce. Pedro Espinola's memory was to be cherished by all those concerned with the cause of education. Nicolas Calvo's efforts at introducing timely innovations in the sugar industry could never be forgotten in the island. Lastly there was Governor Las Casas himself, who, had he been a man of smaller calibre, could have clogged the wheels of progress by administrative red tape and obfuscated the larger issues of his time by petty official considerations. But, unlike some of his predecessors, who did not suffer any citizens in the community to rise to such eminence as to rival them, he had appreciated the spirit of those men and to further their aims had brought to bear all the weight of his official position.

Rarely in the history of any country did so many fortuitous circ.u.mstances combine at one and the same period to call out what was best in the latent forces of the population, as in Cuba during the administration of Governor Las Casas. The future never seemed to smile so brightly upon that island, so richly endowed by nature and so long indifferently treated by men. Setbacks and even relapses into previous errors might occur, but it seemed unthinkable that the work accomplished by Las Casas and his a.s.sociates, individually and collectively, could ever be undone.

Such periods of extraordinary growth are infallibly followed by a standstill during which individuals as communities seem to gather strength for new efforts. Nor is it likely that a country will successively produce men of such marked individuality and forceful character. The governor that followed Las Casas could not reasonably be expected to come up to the high standard of his predecessor. The Lieutenant-Governor Conde de Santa Clara, who was inaugurated on the sixteenth of December, 1796, was a man of generous character and agreeable manners towards all cla.s.ses of society, but he was not a man of that broad culture which distinguished Las Casas and his a.s.sociates in the famous Sociedad. D. Juan Procopio Barsicourt de Santa Clara was a native of Barcelona, and had come to Havana at a critical moment. The colonies of the West Indies and the Gulf coast were deeply worried about the slave revolt of Santo Domingo. The Cuban forces that had taken part in the attempt to quell the uprising, and the French and Spanish immigrants that had fled to Cuba from the terrors of the insurrection had brought with them tales of the doings of the insurgents which filled with vague apprehensions all territories that contained a numerous slave population. Moreover, the favorite of the queen of Spain, Manuel G.o.doy, had by his blunders involved Spain in a new war with Great Britain, and Spanish America was once more threatened by her old enemy.

This menace forced the new Governor to turn his attention first towards the defenses of the island. He constructed between San Lazaro and la Chorrera the battery known as Santa Clara, and took other measures for the protection of Havana as well as Santiago. Among the munic.i.p.al improvements which he effected the most important for Havana was his removal of the princ.i.p.al matadero (slaughterhouse), from the city to a place outside of its walls. The existence of this establishment had long been considered a public nuisance; for the foul smells which it spread in the neighborhood and which the wind sometimes carried over the whole town were a menace to the health of the inhabitants, and the frequent commotion caused by bulls that escaped from the enclosures was also a feature that made a most unfavorable impression. Both the suburb of Jesus Maria and el Horcon being without any direct water supply, Santa Clara had a fountain constructed in each place.

Santa Clara was a man of generous instincts. The Casa del Beneficencia, the fortunes of which had been declining, owed him many a rich supply of provisions and some large donations. Both he and his wife, who was said to be a perfect model of womanly virtues, were interested in the hospital of San Paula. They also gave material aid to the hospital of San Francisco, which had progressed very slowly since its foundation.

Within one year after Santa Clara's arrival, the number of beds was raised from thirty-two to seventy-eight. The governor's lady also succeeded in enlisting the cooperation of the clergy and many other wealthy and influential people in the San Antonio Hospital, which was increased to a capacity of one hundred and nine beds. Though the more ambitious cultural work which had been begun under the previous administration was not promoted by him, Santa Clara proved himself possessed of no little executive power and tact.

This last quality was especially needed at the time when Havana was honored by the visit of three French notables, the Dukes of Orleans and Montpensier, and Count de Beaujolais. Santa Clara received them most courteously and an opulent lady of Havana, Dona Leonor Herrera de Contreras, gave up to them her home, placed at their disposal her servants and defrayed all their expenses. Refugees from their country, which was suffering from the terrors of the Revolution, they remained in Havana and enjoyed this sumptuous hospitality for almost four months, when even the famous "Prince of Peace," G.o.doy, in order to avoid further disagreements with the French Republic, indicated to them the propriety of removing to other dominions.

In the meantime the British had declared war and made an auspicious beginning by the capture of Trinidad. They had demanded the surrender of the vessels commanded by D. Sebastian Ruiz de Apodoca, a high-spirited mariner, but he preferred reducing them to ashes before giving them up to the enemy. This first loss was, however, amply retrieved at San Juan of Porto Rico. The city had been attacked by over ten thousand trained soldiers under the command of Gen. Abercrombie, but the attack was repulsed and the British lost over one thousand men and two thousand prisoners, besides a stock of provisions and equipment. At Santa Cruz de Teneriffe the Spaniards defeated even the celebrated Nelson and seized a number of vessels that tried to take other points. But there was more trouble in sight for the Spanish colonies. For the South American revolutionist Miranda who had emigrated to London by clever intrigues induced the British government to stir up insurrections in the Spanish-American possessions. These intrigues resulted in revolts that broke out in Puerto Cabello, Caracas, Panama and Maracaibo. Their prompt suppression was due to the firmness and energy of the Captain-General of Caracas, D. Manuel de Guevara y Basconcelos.

These disquieting occurrences made the Spanish government fear for the safety of Cuba and decided the court to give the island a governor more capable of coping with the eventuality of invasion. The Field Marshal D.

Salvador de Muro y Salazar, Marques de Someruelos was appointed on the second of March, 1799, and ordered secretly and immediately to repair to the place of his destination. Accordingly there appeared in Havana on the thirteenth of May a distinguished stranger who delivered to the governor important messages from the court and proved to be no less than the new governor. Santa Clara immediately retired in favor of his successor and Someruelos entered upon the functions of his office. The Intendente Valiente was promoted to the position of Counselor of the Indies and his place was taken by D. Luis Viyuri. Colonel D. Sebastian de Kindelan was appointed to the governorship of Santiago.

The administration of Someruelos beginning on the threshold of a new century, it seems meet to cast a backward look upon the condition of the island and the great changes which had taken place during the hundred years just closing. The great need for reform was urged upon the government immediately after the British occupation of Havana, which had opened the eyes of the authorities to mistakes made not only in the political and military, but especially in the economic management of the colony. Revenues had to be created in order to meet the increased expenses of the administration and defray the cost of much needed improvements. Hence upon the proposal of Count Ricla the king had ordered a thorough reorganization of the administration and especially of the treasury department. In the attempt of solving the problem of taxation, Spain had followed a suggestion of M. Choiseul, minister of foreign affairs in France, which was conceived with little knowledge of colonial conditions and legislation and hastily accepted by the supreme government. This change in the tax system then in force in the Indies produced great commotion in the island of Cuba and other Spanish possessions in America.

Guiteras reports that many real estate owners of Puerto Principe and the southern territory designated in the island by the name of la Vuelta de Abajo were especially bitter in complaining against the innovation, but neither the intendant nor the Brigadier Cisneros could modify dispositions decreed by the supreme government. Discontent increased and some men were so exasperated that they preferred to destroy their own products rather than pay the tax which was to go to the public treasury.

By the influence of D. Pedro Calvo de la Puerta, D. Penalver and other land-owners, some of the people were pacified, before disorder ensued.

But others rose in open revolt and had to be dispersed by the militia hastily mobilized for their repression. Although hardly any blood was shed, the opposition which the authorities had met gave them cause for anxiety, and upon their urgent appeal the supreme government renounced the enforcement of the new taxes.

After the establishment of the Intendencia and the creation of a weekly Junta, D. Juan de Alda drew up a budget of expenditure for the year 1768, which amounted to 1,681,452 pesos. Of this sum the army consumed only 665,655 pesos. Approved by the supreme government and taken as a basis for figuring the annual expenditure, 1,200,000 pesos were consigned to the treasury of Mexico with the a.s.sumption that the public revenues would cover the eventual difference. According to Ramon de la Sagra, the general revenues of the island from 1764 to 1794 amounted to 20,286,173 pesos, and the sums which besides came to the treasury under the name of situados (duties a.s.signed upon certain goods or effects) and other cla.s.sifications amounted from 1766 to 1788 to 101,735,350 pesos.

The revenues of the island for the same period were, according to Alcazar, 50,000,000 pesos, but he adds that the decree of the seventeenth of August, 1790, by which farmers and merchants were allowed to pay with promissory notes, resulted in some loss to the import duties. On the other hand, the system of tax collection was open to dishonest practices, which were checked during the administration of Someruelos.

The objections which had been raised against the new taxation having chiefly come from people engaged in agriculture, the government found on investigation that the existing commercial laws were at fault. Inclined as was the court of Spain during the rule of Carlos III. to yield in favor of the people, the new measures only mitigated but did not remove the evils complained of, which were founded on inst.i.tutions and ordinances so thoroughly antiquated as no longer to be of any benefit to the population. The commerce of Cuba had since the year 1740 been carried on by the Real Compania of Havana. Although its inst.i.tution was based upon the old and faulty principle of monopoly and privilege, and discriminated against foreign goods that came to Cuba via Spanish ports, the exportations of the island which at the beginning of the eighteenth century were confined to timber, hides and a small amount of cattle, soon began to include other products, such as sugar, honey, brandy and wax.

After the founding of the Intendencia there was opened by way of experiment a small commerce with the princ.i.p.al ports of Spain; but the regulations required the collection in the Peninsula of two custom duties on manufactures embarked at Cuba and destined for Spain, one being called entry, the other exit duty, to which was later added a consumer's duty. These extraordinary charges destroyed the profits hoped for by the extension of commerce, and were the source of more discontent, until in the year 1767 the king authorized the abolition of the Compania of Havana "in case of urgent necessity for Cuba" and at the same time inaugurated some franchises which tended to relieve the much restricted commerce of the island. As has been recorded at the time, it was not until the twelfth of October, 1778, that the king issued an order calling for free commerce and abolishing the monopolies of the larger ports.

The effects of this measure made themselves felt in a sudden revival of commercial activities which led to such an expansion of Cuba's commerce, that the island was forced to ask concessions and obtained from the court more favors than any other of Spain's American possessions. When the War of Independence paralyzed the commerce of the British colonies with the island, the king granted still greater franchises and a new decree opened the entry of the Port of Havana to the flags of all nations, provided their ships introduced provisions only. But while these new decrees favored the commerce of the colony, they reacted unfavorably upon the commerce of Spain, the merchant navy of which had been annihilated during the many wars, until there were not enough vessels to transport the goods the colonies needed. The imports of foreign products which the monopoly permitted Spain to make were in value superior to the exports from America. Direct commerce with friendly nations was more convenient inasmuch as the foreigners could in turn export all the fruits of the country. The only remedy for the evils confronting Spanish commerce would have been the reestablishment of the merchant fleet; but in their short-sightedness Spanish merchants turned back to the old monopoly and at the foot of the throne begged for return to the old system. Under such pressure were exacted from the king the decrees of the twentieth of January and the fifteenth of April, 1784, which once more closed the ports of Spanish America to the friendly nations, carrying the prohibition to the extreme of denying merchant vessels entry, even if they were foundering!

Owing to this confusing and irritating condition of commercial legislation the growth and progress of the colonies received another setback, and probably caused the decrease in population which the Countess de Merlin mentions. It also seriously affected the agriculture of the island. For Spain had not enough inhabitants on her own soil to colonize her vast overseas territories; and even if her legislation in respect to commerce had been more liberal, her constant opposition to the admittance of foreigners to her provinces discouraged white immigration. Even during the reign of Carlos III., which seemed to inaugurate a new and more enlightened era, the distrust of the government towards foreigners is manifested in the new and abridged version of the law of the Indies, published in the year 1778, which decrees that in no port nor part of the West Indies, either the islands or the continent to the north and south, shall any kind of traffic with foreigners be admitted, even by way of barter or any other mode of commerce, those violating this order being liable to forfeit life and property.

The slave trade was therefore the means Cuba was forced to adopt to supply the lack of white laborers and artisans. It was subject to the same restrictions as all maritime commerce, with the important difference that it could not be carried on without a special permission from the king, which usually fixed the number of years in which a certain number of slaves should be granted certain individuals, companies or corporations. These permissions were called licenses, later a.s.sientos, and finally contracts and privileges, until in the year 1789 they entirely ceased to exist. A British concern, called the South Sea Company, had been the first to receive such a privilege, when in 1713 it was allowed to introduce into the colonies of Latin America, with absolute exclusion of Spaniards and foreigners, four thousand eight hundred negroes in the course of thirty years. Next came the permiso obtained by the Compania Mercantil of Havana in the year 1740, of which use was made until 1766. Then came the contract concluded with the Marquis de Casa Enrile, which lasted from 1773 to 1779; and finally the permission granted in the year 1780 on account of the war with England, that most Spaniards in America could have recourse to the French colonies for their supply of slaves.

The manner in which this trade in human flesh was carried on reflects sadly upon those engaged in this traffic. Loaded into vessels that were hardly considered fit for carrying freight, thousands were known to have perished in shipwrecks. Crowded into the dark, unventilated holds of these rotten hulks, more thousands succ.u.mbed to disease and were thrown overboard. Of the trades a.s.sociated with cruel exploitation and inhuman abuses, that of the slavetrader ranked first, for the sufferings to which the poor victims were subjected in the transit from their native home to the foreign land defied description. There were captains of slave ships who loathed their task. One is quoted in a book by the Jesuit Sandeval as confessing his misgivings about the business; he had just suffered a shipwreck in which only thirty out of nine hundred on board escaped!

On their arrival in Cuba the poor wretches who survived the ordeal began to fare better. E. M. Ma.s.se, a French traveler and writer, in his work "L'Isle de Cuba et la Havane" describes the quarters in which they were lodged. They were the _baracones_, the famous barracks originally destined for the troops which were to take Pensacola, and that had cost four million pesos, though they could have been put up for a few thousand. At the time of his visit to Havana, some of the contractors who had made this handsome profit on the buildings were still in jail.

He goes on to say that immediately on landing the negroes were taken to these barracks, waiting to be sold. They contained one immense room, covered with straw and divided into three compartments. The first was for the employees or jailers; the second for the women slaves, the third for the men. There was a s.p.a.cious court or yard with a kitchen in one corner. In this yard they spent their days, shielded from the sun and the rain by tents. They were permitted to bathe in the sea. The writer looked at the spectacle with an artist's eye. For he remarks that he had always considered the pose of the Venus of Milo unnatural, until by observing these women slaves at their bath in the surf, he found that the identical pose was frequently a.s.sumed by them, and hence must have been natural. The only garment obligatory as long as a slave was not sold, was a kerchief; if somebody made them a gift of another kerchief, they made of it a turban or wore it like a sash.

The freedom which they enjoyed in this brief interval between landing in Havana and being sold, may in the lives of the majority have been the only freedom they were to know. Being merchandise, it was of course in the interest of the slave traders to have them appear well when put on the market. Hence the food they received was wholesome. They were also encouraged to indulge in their wonted amus.e.m.e.nts and could be seen marching or dancing around in the yard, as they raised their voices in song. The African who had just arrived and spoke only his native tongue, was called _bosale_; the slave who was born in Africa, but spoke Spanish and knew the trade he was destined for, was called _ladino_.

Children of African or European origin born in Spanish America, were called _criolles_, from which the French derived the term in use today: creole.

Miscegenation was not favored in Cuba. When the immigration from Santo Domingo brought into the island a great number of mulattoes, quadroons and octoroons, the color line was severely drawn. A woman of colored origin with a perfectly white and very beautiful daughter was known to have denied her child in order to make it possible for her to marry a Havanese. Many of these women were far better educated than the native Cubans; M. Ma.s.se says that the art of conversation, unknown in Havana society, flourished only in their homes. But they were rigidly barred from the drawing-rooms of the wealthy Havanese.

According to the data available, the number of slaves introduced into the island from the beginning of its colonization until the year 1789 was probably not below 100,000. It is estimated that in the two hundred years between 1550 and 1750 the annual importations of the a.s.sientists into Spanish America averaged at least three thousand a year. In the census taken by Governor la Torre about 1772 Cuba was found to have 45,633 slaves. In 1775 their number had risen to forty-six thousand and that of free colored people to about thirty thousand. The relaxation of the commercial restrictions gave a strong impulse to all sorts of enterprises, mercantile and otherwise, and especially to building, and the laboring forces employed on all the new constructions were mostly slaves. By the year 1775 their proportion to the free colored population was four and sixth tenths to three. As the value of slave labor began to be recognized in that period of internal improvements and general progress, the number of slave importations steadily increased. According to Blanchet, Cuba acquired in the years 1783 and 1784 one thousand and five hundred negroes through contracts between the government and various French and Spanish firms, as also the British house of Baker and Dawson and the private shipowners D. Vicente Espon and Col. D. Gonzalo O'Farrel. Armas y Cespedes gives the number of slaves for the year 1774 as 44,333; for the year 1792 as 84,590. In the enormous number of negroes imported between 1791 and 1816 there were counted 132,000 imported legitimately, 168,000 by contraband means.

A more systematized and conclusive estimate of the number of negroes gradually introduced in Cuba was made by D. Francisco de Arango, the high-minded patriot of the period of Governor Las Casas. It covers the time from the beginning of the sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century. D. Jose Antonio Saco, author of "Collecion de papeles cientifices, historicos, politicos y de etros ramos sobre la isle de Cuba, ya publicados ya ineditos," and "Historia de la Esclavitud," did the same for the eastern part of the island from 1764 to 1789. These estimates furnish the following figures:

Imported on the whole island from 1523 to 1763 60,000 By the Compania de la Habana in 1764, 1765, 1766 4,957 By the Marquis de Casa Enrile from 1773 to 1779 14,132 By the permiso of 1780 authorizing the supply of negroes from French colonies during the war ending 1783 6,593 By the house of Baker & Dawson from 1786 to 1789 8,318 From the eastern part of the island, 1764 to 1789 6,000 ------- Total 100,000

Humboldt remarks in his "Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial regions of America during the years 1799-1809, "that the British West Indies then contained seven hundred thousand negroes and mulattoes, free and slave, while the custom-house registers proved that from 1680 to 1786 two million one hundred and thirty thousand negroes had been imported from Africa, which suggests a rather high mortality.

In Cuba the annual death rate of the recently imported negroes was seven per cent. Hence the current a.s.sumption that the African negro was particularly adapted for and could stand the climate of Cuba, does not seem to be well founded.

About this time the social conscience of mankind seemed to be suddenly awakened and philanthropic ideas began to modify the general conception of slavery. Nations whose political organization made the government dependent upon public opinion, had already begun to yield to the demand of abolishing slave trade. The United States had auspiciously inaugurated that movement. The state of Virginia had closed her ports to the traffic in 1778; Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Ma.s.sachusetts followed in 1780, 1787 and 1788. The Third Congress of the American Republic proclaimed negro traffic as contrary to the civilization of Christian peoples and condemned it before the end of the eighteenth century. At the same time the Convention of the French Republic declared its abolition in the colonies of France, and the events in Santo Domingo, like a seismic disturbance made all slave-owning nations tremble. Stimulated by the example of America and stirred by the n.o.ble words of her own great humanitarians, Howard and Wilberforce, England, too, began from 1787 on to discuss that problem.

In the course of the serious debates that took place in the British parliament in May, 1788, it was said that a decree abolishing the traffic would in a short time paralyze the commerce carried on by British merchants with Africa. In her isolation from the current tides of thought in Europe and other countries, Cuba had so far been untouched by the humanitarian aspect of the question and looked upon it merely from her utilitarian viewpoint. Fearing that the house of Baker & Dawson, which had been her main source of supply for negro labor, would no longer be able to furnish her the hands she needed in her deserted fields, she hastened through her representative in the Ayuntamiento to solicit from the king permission to continue the traffic. Hence on the twenty-eighth of February, 1788, a royal decree permitted the Spaniards, and foreigners in general for the term of two years, to introduce negroes, exempt from duties, in Cuba, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico and in the province of Caracas.