The History of Cuba Volume II Part 21

Tacon caused the Governor's palace to be rebuilt, at great profit to himself and his favorites in the way of perquisites and bribes; he caused a military road to be constructed; and he had a s.p.a.cious theatre erected, cynically saying, that "it would keep the people amused, and keep their minds off of matters which did not concern them." He also caused a large parade ground to be opened just outside the city. But in none of his improvements was he free from suspicion of having enriched his own purse, and having in some manner pulled the wool over the sadly strained eyes of the Cuban patriots.

A story which reads like a romance is told of Tacon's inst.i.tution of the fish market. In those days pirates infested the waters around Cuba, and indeed were a menace to American and French vessels, as we have seen.

The most daring pirate and smuggler of them all was said to be a man named Marti, of whom many exciting tales are related. He was a bold leader of desperadoes, and since the Isle of Pines was where his band most frequently had their headquarters, he was known as the "King of the Isle of Pines." Now Tacon was eager to suppress smuggling and piracy, probably because they interfered with his own plans. The Spanish ships of war lay in the harbors of Cuba at anchor, while the officers indulged in dancing on board with Cuban ladies, or took long period of leave on sh.o.r.e. This did not please Tacon, and he accordingly issued commands that they suppress the smugglers at all costs. But the smugglers carried on their operations from small coves and inlets, in little crafts which did not draw much water, and the clumsy and half-hearted efforts of the Spanish sailors to apprehend them filled their leaders with mirth. There are many tales of the impudent daring with which these outlaws operated under the very noses of those who were sent out to capture them.

At last Tacon, who had an abounding belief that every man had his price, and perhaps had heard enough of the character of the men he was hunting to gauge it correctly, offered a reward for anyone who would desert and inform the government of the pirates. A much larger and more tempting sum was offered for the delivery of Marti, dead or alive. These offers were posted throughout the country.

For some time nothing happened, and then one dark night, when it was raining copiously, a man evaded the sentinels before the main entrance to the governor's palace in Havana. He stole through the entrance, and hid himself among the pillars in the inner court. Next this man silently crept up the staircase to the governor's apartments. Here he met a guard, but he saluted, and pa.s.sed on with such nonchalance that he was not challenged, and entering the reception room of the governor, found himself in the semi-royal presence. Tacon was alone, busily writing. He promptly inquired who his visitor might be, and was informed that he was one who had valuable information for the Captain-General.

"I am the Captain-General," said Tacon.

"Your excellency is desirous of apprehending the pirates who infest the coasts of the island?"

"You must have been reading the proclamations," jocosely suggested Tacon.

"And you wish to take Marti, dead or alive?"

Tacon signified that such was his purpose. His strange visitor then exacted the Captain-General's promise that he would be granted a free pardon in return for the valuable information which he was about to divulge. When this promise was given he said:

"I will lead you to the strongholds of the smugglers."

"You?" cried Tacon. "Who are you?"

"I am Marti!" was the reply.

Marti, who so calmly and unscrupulously betrayed his followers, was of course a welcome visitor to the Captain-General, and one worthy of his warmest co-operation and friendship. He was placed under surveillance, and was obliged to remain in the palace for the night, but the Captain-General refrained from telling anyone his ident.i.ty. On the next day he acted as pilot for one of the Captain-General's boats, and after the course of several weeks he had exposed every hiding place of his men. The amount of money and property thus secured and appropriated by the Captain-General cannot be estimated, but it was very great. A great deal of it never found its way into the treasury. Marti was a scoundrel so much to his liking that the Captain-General decided not only to give him a free pardon, but an order on the treasury for a large sum of money. However, Marti had his own ideas of what he desired. In place of the money he chose the absolute right to fish the waters surrounding Havana, to the exclusion of all fishermen who were not in his employ. He had in his wild career marked for his own all the best fishing grounds in the harbor. This concession granted, there must naturally be found a market for his fish, and thus the fish market project was born. Then fishing made Marti so wealthy that he now had time for more elegant occupations, and turned his mind to theatricals. He is said to have obtained some sort of monopoly from the government over theatrical performances in the island, and then the public theatre idea was formed.

Tacon had as many press agents as an opera singer, albeit they had no methods of getting their material into public print and disseminated it by word of mouth. His agents told many stories of him to ill.u.s.trate his love of justice, his wonderful generosity, and his many other admirable traits, for which he was in reality only negatively to be celebrated.

The one which follows is merely ill.u.s.trative of the others.

In the first year of his rule there was a young Creole girl, of surpa.s.sing beauty and modesty, of the name of Miralda Estalez. She was an orphan of seventeen, and kept a cigar store, which her beauty and grace made very popular with the young men of Havana. Miralda, like all proper heroines of fiction or fairy stories, was good as well as beautiful, and although many of the young bloods sighed for her, her glance fell with favor only on a handsome but, of course, poor and deserving young man, of the name of Pedro Mantenez. Pedro was a boatman, which is a most romantic and fitting occupation for an impoverished but righteous hero. He was more than this. By his wit and sagacity--which as we have seen failed to line his coffers, but if they had done so he would have been out of drawing in this affecting picture, since he would no longer have been poor but deserving--he was a leader among the other boatmen and beloved by all. The records of his n.o.ble and self-sacrificing deeds would have filled a volume as large as an unabridged dictionary. Miralda loved Pedro, and Pedro loved Miralda, and all was going as merry as a marriage bell, when entered the villain, a famous roue of the name of Count Almonte, who liked Miralda's cigars and cast melting glances at Miralda herself, but all in vain, because, as we have said, Miralda was good as well as beautiful. Finding that he would have to do something more substantial than make eyes, the worthy count offered Miralda a costly present which so affected her that she fainted, not with joy, but with horror. Then she ordered the count from her shop, but he refused to go and continued to hang around and buy her wares.

Next the fine count offered her money and lands and rich clothes and what not, but the pure-minded young girl righteously spurned his offer.

Acting quite in character the count then decided to kidnap her. His plans were ingenious, but in order to gain popularity for Tacon it was necessary that not far from this point he should get into the story.

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 a.s.sured 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 p.r.o.nouncement: "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 hara.s.sed 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 inc.u.mbency 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 emanc.i.p.ation, 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 a.s.sembly of "grafters."

In 1843 George Leopold O'Donnell took office as Captain-General. No despot who had preceded him surpa.s.sed 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 ma.s.ses, 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 munic.i.p.al 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 pa.s.s 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.

The blacks were naturally not satisfied with slavery. In their a.s.sociation with their masters they acquired just enough information and knowledge to make them dangerous. And at this time the blacks, free and slave, were a large majority of the population. The negro race in captivity was always difficult to manage. They were affectionate and responsive to good treatment but when their rage was aroused by hard and unjust treatment they reverted to habits of the jungle. The Spanish planters believed that the way to keep the negroes quiet was to keep them under with a strong hand and consequently overseers were frequently brutal.

There began to be a strong undercurrent of unrest among the negro population, and an equally strong fear of them among the whites.

Sporadic uprisings occurred, which were like the overflowing of a boiling caldron, not organized, and not well prepared, and therefore easily put down by the authorities. A description of a typical uprising of this character is contained in a work called "The Slaves in the Spanish Colonies" by the Countess Merlin, published about 1840. It relates the experiences of one Don Rafael with a mutiny of his slaves.

"The slaves lately imported from Africa were mostly of the Luccommee tribe, and therefore excellent workmen, but of a violent and unwieldly temper, and always ready to hang themselves at the slightest opposition to their way.

"It was just after the bell had struck five, and the dawn of morning was scarcely visible. Don Rafael had gone over to another of his estates, within half an hour before, leaving behind him, and still in tranquil slumbers, his four children and his wife, who was in a state of pregnancy. Of a sudden the latter awaked, terrified by hideous cries and the sound of hurried steps. She jumped affrighted from her bed, and observed that all the negroes of the estate were making their way to the house. She was instantly surrounded by her children, weeping and crying at her side. Being attended solely by slaves, she thought herself inevitably lost; but scarcely had she time to canva.s.s these ideas in her distracted mind, when one of her negro girls came in, saying, 'Child, your bounty need have no fears; we have fastened all the doors, and Michael is gone for the master.' Her companions placed themselves on all sides of their female owners, while the rebels advanced, tossing from hand to hand among themselves a b.l.o.o.d.y corpse, with cries as awful as the hissing of a serpent. The negro girls exclaimed, 'That's the overseer's body!' The rebels were already at the door, when Pepilla (this is the name of the lady) saw the carriage of her husband coming at full speed. That sweet soul, who, until that moment, had valiantly awaited death, was now overpowered at the sight of her husband coming unarmed toward the infuriated mob, and she fainted. In the mean time, Rafael descended from the vehicle, placed himself in front of them, and with only one severe look, and a single sign of the hand, designated the purging house for them to go to. The slaves suddenly became silent, abandoned the dead body of their overseer, and, with downcast faces, still holding their field-swords in their hands, they turned round and entered where they had been ordered. Well might it be said, that they beheld in the man who stood before them the exterminating angel.

"Although the movement had for a moment subsided, Rafael, who was not aware of its cause, and feared the results, selected the opportunity to hurry his family away from the danger. The _quitrin_ or vehicle of the country could not hold more than two persons, and it would have been imprudent to wait till more conveyances were in readiness. Pepilla and the children were placed in it in the best possible manner; and they were on the point of starting, when a man, covered with wounds, with a haggard, deathlike look, approached the wheels of the _quitrin_, as if he meant to climb in by them. In his pale face the marks of despair and the symptoms of death could be traced, and fear and bitter anguish were the feelings which agitated his soul in the last moments of his life. He was the white accountant, who had been nearly murdered by the blacks, and having escaped from their ferocious hold, was making the last efforts to save a mere breath of life. His cries, his prayers, were calculated to make the heart faint. Rafael found himself in the cruel alternative of being deaf to the request of a dying man, or throwing his b.l.o.o.d.y and expiring corpse over his children: his pity conquered; the accountant was placed in the carriage as well as might be, and it moved away from the spot.

"While this was pa.s.sing on the estate of Rafael, the Marquis of Cardenas, Pepilla's brother, whose plantations were two leagues off, who had been apprised through a slave of the danger with which his sister was threatened, hastened to her aid. On reaching the spot, he noticed a number of rebels who, impelled by a remnant of rage, or fear of punishment, were directing their course to the Savannas--large open plains, the last abodes resorted to by runaway slaves. The Marquis of Cardenas, whose sense of the danger of his sister had induced him to fly to her, had brought with him, in the hurry of the moment, no one to guard his person except a single slave. Scarcely had the fugitive band perceived a white man, when they went towards him. The marquis stopped his course and prepared to meet them; it was useless temerity in him against such odds. Turning his master's horse by the bridle, his own slave addressed him thus: 'My master, let your bounty get away from here; let me come to an understanding with them.' And he then whipped his master's horse, which went off at a gallop.

"The valiant Jose, for his name is worthy of being remembered as that of a hero, went on toward the savage mob, so as to gain time for his master to fly, and fell a victim to his devotedness, after receiving thirty-six sword-blows. This rising, which had not been premediated, had no other consequences. It had originated in a severe chastis.e.m.e.nt inflicted by the overseer, which had prompted the rebels to march toward the owner's dwelling to expound their complaint. They begged Rafael's pardon, which was granted, with the exception of two or three, who were delivered over to the tribunals."

This specimen of the fine writing of the period has hidden within it two truths which stand out in the history of the difficulties between the blacks and the whites on the island of Cuba. First, although we must discount a bit the Countess's account of Rafael's valor, and the ease with which he subdued the uprising, by taking into account the fact that he was her cousin, and that therefore she naturally looked at him with over-favorable eyes, nevertheless the fact remains that the blacks were usually amenable to the commands of their owners, unless aroused to an unusual pitch of ferocity, and were, through fear or respect, not difficult to reduce to control.

In the second place, it has been the history of the relations between the blacks and whites in every country that with anything like fair treatment those who worked about the house, or acted as body servants, became personally attached to their masters--to whom it is true there was often a tie of consanguinity--and showed the same spirit of loyalty which was displayed by Pepilla's women slaves.

Shortly after this insurrection, reported by the Countess Merlin, there was another near Aguacate, which was more formidable and more difficult to subdue. Meanwhile, the government was handling the matter of slave insurrections in a vacillating manner. Laws were made which granted the slaves a right to a.s.semble and to establish societies, even to form military bodies for the public defense; actually giving them greater rights than white laborers; and this went hand in hand with such cruel injustice as public whipping posts. The white population, on the other hand, even in localities where there was a great preponderance of blacks, could not form a militia.

Turnbull, the English consul, fancied that he saw in these slave insurrections a chance to advance the interests of his country. It is claimed that he also had visions of a republic in which the blacks ruled with himself as president. He was _persona non grata_ with the aristocracy of the island, and is supposed to have been actuated in part by a desire to avenge social slights. He was charged with planning to effect a huge black uprising, to seize and execute enough of the white population to cow the rest and then to set up his black republic. But it is impossible to determine the truth or falsity of these accusations.

Turnbull had many enemies who were only too glad to charge him with any crime.

In 1842 there was an insurrection in Martiaro, and it was with difficulty suppressed. Then evidence began to be seen everywhere of a systematic propaganda among the slaves on plantations scattered in widely separated parts of the island. A negro mason accidentally dropped an incendiary proclamation from his pocket, and it finally reached the hands of the captain of the district. The negro was tortured, but would not divulge the source of the paper. An itinerant monk went through the country ostensibly begging alms for the church, but in reality prophesying to the blacks that in July, 1842, they would, on St. John's Day, rise and obtain their freedom. The wholesale insurrection did not occur, but there were uprisings in July in various parts of the island, and the slaves of an estate near Bemba murdered their master and a neighbor, and were only subdued when the militia had been called. In January, 1843, an official of the government was murdered by the blacks.

A colored man secretly gave evidence against the slayers and in some manner fell under their suspicion, and soon after was a.s.sa.s.sinated by one of his own people, who afterward was tried for the crime, but committed suicide in jail, before he could pay the death penalty. In March, 1843, near Bemba five hundred negroes rose against their white masters, and it was only after considerable bloodshed that they were subdued. No sooner was this trouble quieted than there was another uprising on a plantation in the neighborhood, and still a third one the same year, the exact details of which are lacking. Then followed, at the close of 1843, the most serious trouble of all, when, in November, the negroes near Matanzas revolted and went on an orgy of murder and rape, ravishing and killing women, and murdering white men. Turnbull was accused of being the brains behind these troubles, but it was impossible to fix the guilt on him. If he was guilty he was not a good organizer, for none of the revolts had any national effect. They were all local in character, and all unsuccessful in attaining any lasting results.

After the insurrection of November, 1843, a meeting of planters was called in Matanzas, and the government was asked to take steps to make further revolts impossible. But in 1844, near Matanzas, occurred another serious insurrection, and it was reported that the negroes on all the plantations in the neighborhood were organized and were planning a wholesale revolt, which would bring about the realizations of Turnbull's dreams. It was then that the government decided to act ruthlessly, and methods which would have done credit to the old Spanish Inquisition were promptly introduced.

In March, 1844, the Captain-General, O'Donnell, addressed a letter to General Salas, who was the head of the military tribunal, in which he counseled drastic and violent measures against any insurgent blacks. He suggested that all blacks, slave or free, who were suspected of treason to their masters, should be apprehended, and if they refused to give information as to the extent of the organization and their a.s.sociations, the knowledge must be wrung from them by torture. The slaves were to be tried in the district where they were taken. The officer in charge of each district was promptly given full power to apprehend and punish the plotters as he saw fit. The Spanish officers were often cruel and brutal men, who exercised their authority in the most revolting manner. The hue and cry went from hut to cabin and no black man was safe at his own hearth. Opportunity was taken in some cases to work out a personal grudge and gain freedom from an enemy. No one, not even a white man, dared publicly to raise his voice to expostulate, for he was promptly dubbed an abolitionist and thrown into prison. If a negro had a little money saved to buy his freedom, or, if he was a freedman, to obtain a little business, he stood a better chance of his life. He might buy his tormentors off, but all too frequently when he had paid, he was murdered lest he might tell of the man whom he had bribed.

One tender hearted Spanish judge, Don Ramon Gonzales, is reported to have condemned his victims to be taken to a room, the walls of which were already dripping with the blood and shredded flesh of previous victims. There they were tied head down to a ladder, and flogged by two Africans until they were dead. To make their torture the more excruciating, the thongs with which they were scourged had on the ends small b.u.t.tons made of fine wire, which bit into the flesh. When several freedmen had been executed in this pleasant fashion, and when public opinion dared feebly to protest at such atrocities, death certificates were made out by unscrupulous physicians, reporting death from some simple disease, and under this authority the murdered negroes were quickly buried.

A second kind judge seized on some pretext a freeborn negro, an old man, who was gentle and inoffensive, but who had incurred the judicial displeasure, and had him tied to the ladder and flogged on three separate occasions, without even going to the trouble to bring an indictment against him or divulge the nature of his offense. Another free negro was taken by this same official, hung by his hands from the ceiling of the torture chamber, and left there all night, while he was at intervals whipped. At length this poor victim succ.u.mbed to the treatment and gave information of a comrade, who was promptly taken out and shot without a trial.

Another officer, Don Juan Costa, had a record of ninety-six negroes killed by the lash, of whom fifty-four were slaves and forty-two freedmen. The record shows the following entries, which gives an inkling of the colored man's powers of endurance and of what each must have suffered: "Lorenzo Sanchez, imprisoned on the first of April, died on the fourth. Joseph Cavallero, imprisoned on the fourth, died on the sixth. John Austin Molino, imprisoned on the ninth, died on the twelfth." There were similar laconic entries for the whole ninety-six.