Nudity of children and slaves--The street of the merchants--The
currency of Cuba--The Spanish army in the island--Enrolment of
blacks--Courage of Spanish troops--Treatment by the government--The
garrote--A military execution--The market-men and their wares--The
milk-man and his mode of supply--Glass windows--Curtains for
doors--The Campo Santo, or burial-place of Havana--Treatment of the
dead--The prison--The fish-market of the capital.
One peculiarity which is certain to strike the stranger from the first
hour he lands upon the island, whether in public or private houses, in
the stores or in the streets, is that the young slaves, of both sexes,
under the age of eight or ten years, are permitted to go about in a
state of perfect nudity; while the men of the same class, who labor in
the streets, wear only a short pair of pantaloons, without any other
covering to the body, thus displaying their brawny muscles at every
movement. This causes rather a shock to the ideas of propriety
entertained by an American; but it is thought nothing of by the
"natives." On the plantations inland, the slaves of either sex wear but
just enough clothes to appear decently. The almost intolerable heat when
exposed to field-labor is the excuse for this, a broad palm-leaf hat
being the only article that the negroes seem to desire to wear in the
field.
The Calle de Mercaderes, or the street of the merchants, is the Broadway
and Washington Street of Havana, and contains many fine stores for the
sale of dry goods, china, jewelry, glass-ware, etc. The merchant here
does not designate his store by placing his own name on his sign, but,
on the contrary, adopts some fancy title, such as the "America," the
"Star," the "Bomb," "Virtue," and the like; which titles are paraded in
golden letters over the doors. These tradesmen are, generally speaking,
thorough Jews in their mode of dealing, and no one thinks of paying the
first price asked by them for an article, as they usually make
allowances for being beaten down at least one half. The ladies commonly
make their purchases in the after part of the day, stopping in their
volantes at the doors of the shops, from which the articles they desire
to examine are brought to them by the shopmen. No lady enters a shop to
make a purchase, any more than she would be found walking in the
streets.
There is no paper money known on the island, so that all transactions at
these stores must be consummated in specie. The coin generally in use is
the Spanish and Mexican dollar, half and quarter dollars, pesetas, or
twenty-cent pieces, and reals de plata, equal to our twelve-and-a-half
cent pieces, or York shillings. The gold coin is the doubloon and its
fractions. Silver is always scarce, and held at a premium in Havana,
say from two to five per cent. As Cuba has no regular bank, the merchant
draws on his foreign credit altogether, each mercantile house becoming
its own sub-treasury, supplied with the largest and best of iron safes.
The want of some legitimate banking system is severely felt here, and is
a prominent subject of complaint with all foreign merchants.
The Spanish government supports a large army on the island, which is
under the most rigid discipline, and in a state of considerable
efficiency. It is the policy of the home government to fill the ranks
with natives of old Spain, in order that no undue sympathy may be felt
for the Creoles, or islanders, in case of insurrection or attempted
revolution. An order has recently been issued by Pezuela, the present
governor-general, for the enrolment of free blacks and mulattoes in the
ranks of the army, and the devotion of these people to Spain is loudly
vaunted in the captain-general's proclamation. The enlistment of people
of color in the ranks is a deadly insult offered to the white population
of a slave-holding country,--a sort of shadowing forth of the menace,
more than once thrown out by Spain, to the effect that if the colonists
should ever attempt a revolution, she would free and arm the blacks,
and Cuba, made to repeat the tragic tale of St. Domingo, should be
useless to the Creoles if lost to Spain. But we think Spain
overestimates the loyalty of the free people of color whom she would
now enroll beneath her banner. They cannot forget the days of O'Donnell
(governor-general), when he avenged the opposition of certain Cubans to
the illicit and infamous slave-trade by which he was enriching himself,
by charging them with an abolition conspiracy in conjunction with the
free blacks and mulattoes, and put many of the latter to the torture to
make them confess imaginary crimes; while others, condemned without a
trial, were mowed down by the fire of platoons. Assuredly the people of
color have no reason for attachment to the _paternal_ government of
Spain. And in this connection we may also remark that this attempt at
the enrolment of the blacks has already proved, according to the
admission of Spanish authority, a partial failure, for they cannot
readily learn the drill, and officers dislike to take command of
companies.
We have remarked that the Spanish troops are in a state of rigid
discipline, and exhibit much efficiency. They are to the eye firm and
serviceable troops,--the very best, doubtless, that Spain can produce;
but it must be remembered that Spanish valor is but a feeble shadow of
what it was in the days of the Cid and the middle ages. A square of
Spanish infantry was once as impregnable as the Macedonian phalanx; but
they have sadly degenerated. The actual value of the Spanish troops in
Cuba may be estimated by their behavior in the Lopez invasion. They were
then called upon, not to cope with a well-appointed and equal force, but
with an irregular, undisciplined band of less than one-fourth their
number, armed with wretched muskets, entirely ignorant of the simplest
tactics, thrown on a strange shore, and taken by surprise. Yet nearly a
full regiment of infantry, perfectly drilled and equipped, flank
companies, commanded by a general who was styled the Napoleon of Cuba,
were driven from the field by a few irregular volleys from their
opponents. And when again the same commanding officer brought a yet
greater force of every arm,--cavalry, rifles, infantry and
artillery,--against the same body of insurgents, fatigued and reduced in
numbers and arms, they were again disgracefully routed. What dependence
can be placed upon such troops? They are only capable of overawing an
unarmed population.
The Cubans seem to fear very little from the power or efforts of the
Spanish troops in connection with the idea of any well-organized
revolutionary attempt, and even count (as they have good reason to do)
upon their abandoning the Spanish flag the moment there is a doubt of
its success. They say that the troops are enlisted in Spain either by
glowing pictures of the luxury and ease of a military life in Cuba, or
to escape the severity of justice for the commission of some crime. They
no sooner arrive in the island than the deception of the recruiting
sergeants becomes glaringly apparent. They see themselves isolated
completely from the people, treated with the utmost cruelty in the
course of their drills, and oppressed by the weight of regulations that
reduce them to the condition of machines, without any enjoyments to
alleviate the wretchedness of their situation. Men thus treated are not
to be relied upon in time of emergency; they can _think_, if they are
not permitted to act, and will have opinions of their own.
Soldiers thus ruled naturally come to hate those in authority over them,
finding no redress for their wrongs, and no sympathy for their troubles.
Their immediate officers and those higher in station are equally
inaccessible to them, and deaf to their complaints; and when, in the
hour of danger, they are called upon to sustain the government which so
cruelly oppresses them, and proclamations, abounding in Spanish
hyperbole, speak of the honor and glory of the Spanish army and its
attachment to the crown, they know perfectly well that these
declarations and flatteries proceed from the lips of men who entertain
no such sentiments in their hearts, and who only come to Cuba to oppress
a people belonging to the same Spanish family as themselves. Thus the
despotic system of the Spanish officers, combined with the complete
isolation of the troops from the Creole population, has an effect
directly contrary to that contemplated, and only creates a readiness on
the part of the troops to sympathize with the people they are brought to
oppress. The constant presence of a large military force increases the
discontent and indignation of the Creoles. They know perfectly well its
object, and regard it as a perpetual insult, a bitter, ironical
commentary on the epithet of "ever faithful" with which the home
government always addresses its western vassal. The loyalty of Cuba is
indeed a royal fiction. As well might a highwayman praise the generosity
of a rich traveller who surrenders his purse, watch and diamonds, at the
muzzle of the pistol. Cuban loyalty is evinced in an annual tribute of
some twenty-four millions of hard money; the freedom of the gift is
proved by the perpetual presence of twenty-five to thirty thousand men,
armed to the teeth![25]
The complete military force of Cuba must embrace at the present time
very nearly thirty thousand troops,--artillery, dragoons and
infantry,--nearly twenty thousand of which force is in and about Havana.
To keep such a body of soldiers in order, when governed by the
principles we have described, the utmost rigor is necessary, and
military executions are very frequent. The _garrote_ is the principal
instrument of capital punishment used in the island,--a machine
contrived to choke the victim to death without suspending him in the
air. The criminal is placed in a chair, leaning his head back upon a
support prepared for it, when a neck-yoke or collar of iron is drawn up
close to the throat. At the appointed moment, a screw is turned behind,
producing instantaneous death, the spinal cord being crushed where it
unites with the brain. This, though a repulsive idea, is far more
merciful than hanging, it would seem, whereby life is destroyed by the
lingering process of suffocation. The most common mode of execution,
however, in the army, is the legitimate death of a soldier; and, when he
is condemned, he always falls by the hands of his comrades.
The writer witnessed one of these military executions in the rear of the
barracks that make the seaward side of the _Plaza de Armas_, one fine
summer's morning. It was a fearful sight, and one that chilled the blood
even in a tropical summer day! A Spanish soldier of the line was to be
shot for some act of insubordination against the stringent army rules
and regulations; and, in order that the punishment might have a salutary
effect upon his regiment, the whole were drawn up to witness the scene.
The immediate file of twelve men to which the prisoner had belonged when
in the ranks, were supplied with muskets by their officer, and I was
told that _one_ musket was left without _ball_, so that each one might
hope that his was not the hand to slay his former comrade, and yet a
sense of mercy would cause them all to aim at the heart. The order was
given; the bright morning sun shone like living fire along the polished
barrels of the guns, as the fatal muzzles all ranged in point at the
heart of the condemned. "_Fuego!_" (fire) said the commanding officer. A
report followed, accompanied by a cloud of smoke, which the sea breeze
soon dispersed, showing us the still upright form of the victim. Though
wounded in many places, no vital part was touched, nor did he fall until
his sergeant, advancing quickly, with a single reserved shot blew his
brains over the surrounding green-sward! His body was immediately
removed, the troops were formed into companies, the band struck up a
lively air, and thus was a human being launched into eternity.
A very common sight in the cities or large towns of Cuba early in the
morning, is to meet a Montero from the country, riding his donkey, to
the tail of which another donkey is tied, and to this second one's tail
a third, and so on, up to a dozen, or less. These animals are loaded
with large panniers, filled with various articles of produce; some
bearing cornstalks for food for city animals; some hay, or straw; others
oranges, or bananas, or cocoanuts, etc.; some with _bunches_ of live
fowls hanging by the feet over the donkey's back. The people live, to
use a common phrase, "from hand to mouth,"--that is, they lay in no
stores whatever, and trust to the coming day to supply its own
necessities. Hay, cornstalks, or grain, are purchased only in sufficient
quantity for the day's consumption. So with meats, so with fruits, so
with everything. When it is necessary to send to the market, the steward
or stewardess of the house, always a negro man or woman, is freely
entrusted with the required sum, and purchases according to his or her
judgment and taste. The cash system is universally adopted, and all
articles are regularly paid for when purchased. The Monteros, who thus
bring their produce to market, wear broad palm-leaf hats, and striped
shirts over brown pantaloons, with a sword by their side, and heavy
spurs upon their heels. Their load once disposed of, with a strong cigar
lighted in their mouths, they trot back to the country again to pile up
the panniers, and on the morrow once more to supply the wants of the
town. They are an industrious and manly race of yeomanry.
Few matters strike the observant stranger with a stronger sense of their
peculiarity than the Cuban milk-man's mode of supplying that necessary
aliment to his town or city customers. He has no cart filled with
shining cans, and they in turn filled with milk (or what purports to be
milk, but which is apt strongly to savor of Cochituate or Croton), so
there can be no deception as to the genuine character of the article
which he supplies. Driving his sober kine from door to door, he
deliberately milks just the quantity required by each customer, delivers
it, and drives on to the next. The patient animal becomes as conversant
with the residence of her master's customers as he is himself, and stops
unbidden at regular intervals before the proper houses, often followed
by a pretty little calf which amuses itself by gazing at the process,
while it wears a leather muzzle to prevent its interference with the
supply of milk intended for another quarter. There are doubtless two
good reasons for this mode of delivering milk in Havana and the large
towns of Cuba. First, there can be no diluting of the article, and
second, it is sure to be sweet and fresh, this latter a particular
desideratum in a climate where milk without ice can be kept only a brief
period without spoiling. Of course, the effect upon the animal is by no
means salutary, and a Cuban cow gives but about one third as much milk
as our own. Goats are driven about and milked in the same manner.
Glass windows are scarcely known even in the cities. The finest as well
as the humblest town houses have the broad projecting window, secured
only by heavy iron bars (most prison-like in aspect), through which, as
one passes along the narrow streets, it is nearly impossible to avoid
glancing upon domestic scenes that exhibit the female portion of the
family engaged in sewing, chatting, or some simple occupation. Sometimes
a curtain intervenes, but even this is unusual, the freest circulation
of air being always courted in every way.[26] Once inside of the
dwelling houses there are few doors, curtains alone, shutting off the
communication between chambers and private rooms, and from the corridor
upon which they invariably open. Of course, the curtain when down is
quite sufficient to keep out persons of the household or strangers, but
the little naked negro slave children (always petted at this age), male
and female, creep under this _ad libitum_, and the monkeys, parrots,
pigeons, and fowls generally make common store of every nook and corner.
Doors might keep these out of your room, but curtains do not. One
reason why the Cubans, of both sexes, possess such fine expansive
chests, is doubtless the fact that their lungs thus find full and
unrestrained action, living, as it were, ever in the open air. The
effect of this upon the stranger is at once visible in a sense of
physical exhilaration, fine spirits and good appetite. It would be
scarcely possible to inhabit a house built after our close, secure
style, if it were placed in the city of Havana, or even on an inland
plantation of the island. The town houses are always accessible upon the
roofs, where during the day the laundress takes possession, but at
evening they are frequently the family resort, where the evening cigar
is enjoyed, and the gossip of the day discussed, in the enjoyment of the
sea breeze that sweeps in from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Just outside the city walls of Havana, and on the immediate sea-coast,
lies the Campo Santo, or public cemetery, not far from the city prison.
It is approached by a long street of dilapidated and miserable
dwellings, and is not attractive to the eye, though the immediate
entrance is through cultivated shrubbery. A broad, thick wall encloses
the cemetery, in which oven-like niches are prepared for the reception
of the coffins, containing the better or more wealthy classes, while the
poor are thrown into shallow graves, sometimes several together, not
unfrequently negroes and whites, without a coffin, quicklime being
freely used to promote decomposition. In short, the whole idea, and
every association of the Campo Santo, is of a repulsive and disagreeable
character.
This irreverent treatment of the dead, and the neglected condition of
their place of sepulture, is a sad feature in a Christian country,
contrasting strongly with the honors paid to the memory of the departed
by semi-civilized and even savage nations. We all know the sacredness
that is attached by the Turks to their burial grounds, how the mournful
cypresses are taught to rise among the turbaned tombstones, and how the
survivors are wont to sit upon the graves of the departed, musing for
hours over the loved and lost, and seeming to hold communion with their
liberated spirits. How different is it here with the Campo Santo! The
bitterest pang that an Indian endures when compelled to leave his native
hunting grounds, is that he must abandon the place where the ashes of
his ancestors repose. The enlightened spirit which removes cemeteries
from the centre of dense population is worthy of all commendation--the
taste that adorns them with trees and flowers, beautifying the spot
where the "last of earth" reposes, is a proof of high-toned feeling and
a high civilization. Nothing of this spirit is manifested at Havana. The
establishment of the cemetery without the walls of the city was a
sanitary measure, dictated by obvious necessity, but there the march of
improvement stopped. No effort has been made to follow the laudable
example of other countries; no, the Spanish character, arrogant and
self-sufficient, will not bend to be taught by others, and will not
admit a possibility of error, and they are as closely wedded to national
prejudices as the Chinese. Spain is, at this moment, the most
old-fashioned country of Christendom, and it is only when pressed upon
by absolute necessity that she reluctantly admits of innovation.
Tacon, during his rule in the island, erected outside the city walls,
and near the gate of La Punta, on the shore, a spacious prison, capable
of accommodating five thousand prisoners. It is quadrangular, each side
being some three hundred feet long and fifty high, enclosing a central
square, planted with shrubbery and watered by a cooling and graceful
fountain. The fresh breeze circulates freely through its walls, and it
is considered one of the healthiest spots in the vicinity of the
capital, while it certainly presents a strong contrast to the neglected
precincts of the Campo Santo, hard by.
The fish-market of Havana affords probably the best variety of this
article of any city in the world. The long marble counters display the
most novel and tempting array that one can well imagine; every hue of
the rainbow is represented, and a great variety of shapes. But a curse
hangs over this species of food, plenty and fine as it is, for it is
made a government monopoly, and none but its agents are permitted to
sell or to catch it in the vicinity of the city. This singular law,
established under Tacon, is of peculiar origin, and we cannot perhaps do
better than tell the story, as gathered on the spot, for the amusement
of the reader.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] "Can it be for the interest of Spain to cling to a possession that
can only be maintained by a garrison of twenty-five thousand or thirty
thousand troops, a powerful naval force, and an annual expenditure, for
both arms of the service, of at least twelve million dollars?
Cuba, at this moment, costs more to Spain than the entire naval and
military establishment of the United States costs the federal
government."--_Edward Everett, on the tripartite treaty proposition._
[26] "Doors and windows are all open. The eye penetrates the whole
interior of domestic life, from the flowers in the well-watered court to
the daughter's bed, with its white muslin curtains tied with
rose-colored ribbons."--_Countess Merlin's Letters._