Consumption of tobacco--The universal cigar--Lady smokers--The
fruits of Cuba--Flour a prohibited article--The royal palm--West
Indian trees--Snakes, animals, etc.--The Cuba blood-hound--Mode of
training him--Remarkable instinct--Importation of slaves--Their
cost--Various African tribes--Superstitious
belief--Tattooing--Health of the negroes--Slave laws of the
island--Food of the negroes--Spanish law of emancipation--General
treatment of the slaves.
The consumption of tobacco,[47] in the form of cigars, is absolutely
enormous in the island. Every man, woman and child, seems to smoke; and
it strikes one as rather peculiar, to say the least of it, to see a lady
smoking her cigarito in the parlor, or on the verandah; but this is very
common. The men, of all degrees, smoke, and smoke everywhere; in the
houses, in the street, in the theatre, in the cafes, in the
counting-room; eating, drinking, and, truly, it would seem, sleeping,
they smoke, smoke, smoke. The slave and his master, the maid and her
mistress, boy and man,--all, all smoke; and it is really odd that
vessels don't scent Havana far out at sea before they heave in sight of
its headlands. No true Havanese ever moves a foot without his portable
armory of cigars, as indispensable to him as is his quiver to the wild
Indian, and he would feel equally lost without it. Some one has
facetiously said that the cigar ought to be the national emblem of Cuba.
The gentlemen consume from ten to twelve cigars per day, and many of the
women half that number, saying nothing of the juvenile portion of the
community. The consequence of this large and increasing consumption,
including the heavy export of the article, is to employ a vast number of
hands in the manufacture of cigars, and the little stores and stalls
where they are made are plentifully sprinkled all over the city, at
every corner and along the principal streets. It is true that the ladies
of the best classes in Havana have abandoned the practice of smoking, or
at least they have ostensibly done so, never indulging absolutely in
public; but the writer has seen a noted beauty whose teeth were much
discolored by the oil which is engendered in the use of the paper
cigars, thus showing that, although they no longer smoke in public, yet
the walls of their boudoirs are no strangers to the fumes of tobacco.
This is the only form in which the weed is commonly used here. You
rarely meet a snuff-taker, and few, if any, chew tobacco. It is
astonishing how passionately fond of smoking the negroes become; with
heavy pipes, well filled, they inhale the rich narcotic, driving it out
at the nostrils in a slow, heavy stream, and half dozing over the dreamy
and exhilarating process. They are fully indulged in this taste by
their masters, whether in town, or inland upon the plantations. The
postilions who wait for fare in the streets pass four-fifths of their
time in this way, and dream over their pipes of pure Havana.
We can have but a poor idea, at the north, of tropical fruits, for only
a portion of them are of a nature to admit of exportation, and those
must be gathered in an unripe condition in order to survive a short sea
voyage. The orange in Boston, and the orange in Havana, are vastly
different; the former has been picked green and ripened on ship-board,
the latter was on the tree a few hours before you purchased it, and
ripened upon its native stem. So of the bananas, one of the most
delightful of all West India fruits, and which grow everywhere in Cuba
with prodigal profuseness. The principal fruits of the island are the
banana, mango, pomegranate, orange, pine-apple,[48] zapota, tamarind,
citron, fig, cocoa, lemon, rose-apple and bread-fruit. Though any of
these are eaten freely of at all hours, yet the orange seems to be the
Creole's favorite, and he seldom rises from his bed in the morning until
he has drank his cup of strong coffee, and eaten three or four oranges,
brought fresh and prepared to him by a slave. The practice is one which
the visitor falls very naturally into, and finds most agreeable. They
have a saying that "the orange is gold in the morning, silver at noon,
and lead at night." The most singular of these varieties of fruits (by
no means embracing all) is the rose-apple, which, when eaten, has the
peculiar and very agreeable flavor of otto of rose, and this is so
strong that to eat more than one at a time is almost unpleasant. It has
a very sweet taste, and flavors some soups finely. Of these fruit trees,
the lemon is decidedly the most ornamental and pretty, for, though small
and dwarfish, like the American quince, yet it hangs with flowers, small
lemons, and ripe fruit, all together, reminding one of the eastern
_Alma_,[49] and forming an uncommon and beautiful sight. This agreeable
phenomenon will surprise you at every turn upon the coffee plantations.
But the article of food most required in the island is flour, while the
importation of it is made so unreasonably expensive as to amount to a
positive prohibition upon the article. On foreign flour there is a fixed
duty of _ten dollars_, to which if we add the one and a half per cent.,
with other regular charges, the duty will amount to about ten dollars
and fifty cents per barrel. This enormous tax on flour prevents its use
altogether in the island, except by the wealthier classes. True, there
is a home-made, Spanish article, far inferior, which costs somewhat
less, being imported from far-off Spain without the prohibitory clause.
The estimate of the consumption of flour in this country gives one and
a half barrel per head, per annum; but let us suppose that the free
population consume but one. The free population--that is, the whites
exclusively, not including the large number of free negroes--numbers
over six hundred thousand; if the island belonged to this country, there
would immediately arise a demand for six hundred thousand barrels of
flour per annum, for the duty would no longer exist as a prohibition
upon this necessary article. At four dollars and fifty cents per barrel,
this would make the sum of two million seven hundred thousand dollars;
and if we allow half a barrel each to the slaves and free blacks, which
would be the natural result, being not only the best but cheapest food,
we have an annual demand of from four to five hundred thousand barrels
more of the great staple production of the United States. This is an
item worth considering by political economists. At the present time, the
imports into this country from thence exceed our exports to Cuba to the
amount of nearly one million of dollars annually.
But we were writing of the vegetable productions of the island, when
this digression occurred.
The Royal Palm is the noblest tree of Cuba, rising from thirty to fifty
feet, and sometimes even twice this height, with a straight stem, while
from the top spring the broad and beautiful leaves, in a knot, like a
plume of ostrich feathers. The bark is equally divided by ornamental
ringlets encircling it, each one marking a year of its age. A
peculiarity of this tree is, that it has no substance in the interior of
the trunk,[50] yet the outside, to the thickness of an inch and more,
makes the finest of boards, and, when seasoned, will turn a board nail
with one stroke of the hammer. The top of the palm yields a vegetable
which is much used upon the table, and, when boiled, resembles in flavor
our cauliflower. The cocoanut tree very much resembles the palm, the
branches diverging, like the ribs of an umbrella, from one common
centre, among which the fruit hangs in tempting clusters far out of
reach from the ground. The plantain, with its profuse clusters of
finger-like fruit, grows low like the banana, which it vastly resembles,
and the entire trunk of both are renewed yearly; the old stock, after
yielding its crop, decaying rapidly, and forming the most nutritious
matter for the soil that can be had. Many of the hedges through the
plantations are formed of aloes, of a large and luxuriant growth, with
dagger-like points, and stiff, long leaves, bidding defiance to ingress
or egress, yet ever ornamented with a fragrant cup-like flower. Lime
hedges are also very abundant, with their clusters of white blossoms,
and there is a vast supply of mahogany and other precious woods, in the
extensive forests.
It is somewhat remarkable that there is not a poisonous reptile or
animal of any sort in Cuba. Snakes of various species abound, but are
said to be perfectly inoffensive, though sometimes destructive to
domestic fowls. During a pleasant trip between San Antonio and Alquizar,
in a volante with a planter, this subject happened to be under
discussion, when the writer discovered a snake, six feet long, and as
large at the middle as his arm, directly before the volante. On suddenly
exclaiming, and pointing it out, the planter merely replied by giving
its species, and declaring that a child might sleep with it unharmed. In
the meantime, it was a relief to see the _innocent_ creature hasten out
of the way and secrete itself in a neighboring hedge. Lizards,
tarantulas and chameleons, abound, but are considered harmless. The
writer has awakened in the morning and found several lizards creeping on
the walls of his apartment. Only one small quadruped is found in Cuba
that is supposed to be indigenous, and that is called the hutia, much
resembling a mouse, but without the tail.
The Cuban blood-hound, of which we hear so much, is not a native of the
island, but belongs to an imported breed, resembling the English
mastiff, though with longer nose and limbs. He is naturally a fierce,
blood-thirsty animal, but the particular qualities which fit him for
tracing the runaway slaves are wholly acquired by careful and expert
training. This training of the hounds to fit them for following and
securing the runaway negroes is generally entrusted to a class of men
who go about from one plantation to another, and who are usually
Monteros or French overseers out of employment. Each plantation keeps
more or less of these dogs, more as a precautionary measure, however,
than for actual use, for so certain is the slave that he will be
instantly followed as soon as he is missed, and easily traced by the
hounds, of whose instinct he is fully aware, that he rarely attempts to
escape from his master. In one respect this acts as a positive advantage
to the negroes themselves, for the master, feeling a confidence relative
to their possession and faithfulness, and well knowing the ease with
which they can at once be secured should they run away, is thus enabled
to leave them comparatively free to roam about the plantation, and they
undergo no surveillance except during working hours, when an overseer is
of course always somewhere about, looking after them, and prompting
those that are indolent.
The blood-hounds are taken when quite young, tied up securely, and a
negro boy is placed to tease and annoy them, occasionally administering
a slight castigation upon the animals, taking care to keep out of the
reach of their teeth. This whipping is generally administered under the
direction of the trainer, who takes good care that it shall not be
sufficiently severe to really hurt the dogs or crush their spirit of
resistance. As the dogs grow older, negro men, in place of boys, are
placed to fret and irritate them, occasionally administering, as before,
slight castigations upon the dogs, but under the same restrictions; and
they also resort to the most ingenious modes of vexing the animals to
the utmost, until the very sight of a negro will make them howl.
Finally, after a slave has worried them to the last degree, he is given
a good start, and the ground is marked beforehand, a tree being
selected, when the dogs are let loose after him. Of course they pursue
him with open jaws and the speed of the wind; but the slave climbs the
tree, and is secure from the vengeance of the animals.
This is the exact position in which the master desires them to place his
runaway slave--"tree him," and then set up a howl that soon brings up
the hunters. They are never set upon the slaves to bite or injure them,
but only placed upon their track to follow and hunt them. So perfect of
scent are these animals, that the master, when he is about to pursue a
runaway, will find some clothing, however slight, which the missing
slave has left behind him, and giving it to the hounds to smell, can
then rely upon them to follow the slave through whole plantations of his
class, none of whom they will molest, but, with their noses to the
ground, will lead straight to the woods, or wherever the slave has
sought shelter. On the plantations these dogs are always kept chained
when not in actual use, the negroes not being permitted to feed or to
play with them; they are scrupulously fed by the overseer or master, and
thus constitute the animal police of the plantation. In no wise can they
be brought to attack a white man, and it would be difficult for such to
provoke them to an expression of rage or anger, while their early and
systematic training makes them feel a natural enmity to the blacks,
which is of course most heartily reciprocated.
Cuba has been called the hot-bed of slavery; and it is in a certain
sense true. The largest plantations own from three to five hundred
negroes, which establishments require immense investments of capital
successfully to manage. A slave, when first landed, is worth, if sound,
from four to five hundred dollars, and more as he becomes acclimated and
instructed, their dull natures requiring a vast deal of watchful
training before they can be brought to any positive usefulness, in doing
which the overseers have found kindness go a vast deal farther than
roughness. Trifling rewards, repaying the first efforts at breaking in
of the newly imported negro, establishes a good understanding at once,
and thus they soon grow very tractable, though they do not for a long
time understand a single word of Spanish that is addressed to them.
These negroes are from various African tribes, and their characteristics
are visibly marked, so that their nationality is at once discernible,
even to a casual observer. Thus the Congos are small in stature, but
agile and good laborers; the Fantee are a larger race, revengeful, and
apt to prove uneasy; those from the Gold Coast are still more powerful,
and command higher prices, and when well treated make excellent domestic
servants. The Ebros are less black than the others, being almost
mulatto. There is a tribe known as the Ashantees, very rare in Cuba, as
they are powerful at home, and consequently are rarely conquered in
battle, or taken prisoners by the shore tribes in Africa, who sell them
to the slave factories on the coast. They are prized, like those from
the Gold Coast, for their strength. Another tribe, known as the
Carrobalees, are highly esteemed by the planters, but yet they are
avoided when first imported, from the fact that they have a belief and
hope, very powerful among them, that after death they will return to
their native land, and therefore, actuated by a love of home, these poor
exiles are prone to suicide. This superstition is also believed in by
some other tribes; and when a death thus occurs, the planter, as an
example to the rest, and to prevent a like occurrence among them, burns
the body, and scatters the ashes to the wind!
The tattooed faces, bodies and limbs, of the larger portion of the
slaves, especially those found inland upon the plantations, indicate
their African birth; those born upon the island seldom mark themselves
thus, and being more intelligent than their parents, from mingling with
civilization, are chosen generally for city labor, becoming postilions,
house-servants, draymen, laborers upon the wharves, and the like,
presenting physical developments that a white man cannot but envy on
beholding, and showing that for some philosophical reason the race thus
transplanted improves physically, at least. They are remarkably healthy;
indeed, all classes of slaves are so, except when an epidemic breaks
out among them, and then it rages more fearfully far than with the
whites. Thus the cholera and small-pox always sweep them off by hundreds
when these diseases get fairly introduced among them. If a negro is sick
he requires just twice as much medicine as a white man to affect him,
but for what reason is a mystery in the practice of the healing art. The
prevailing illness with them is bowel complaints, to which they are
always more or less addicted, and their food is therefore regulated to
obviate this trouble as far as possible, but they always eat freely of
the fruits about them, so ripe and inviting, and so plentiful, too, that
half the crop and more, usually rots upon the ground ungathered. The
swine are frequently let loose to help clear the ground of its
overburdened and ripened fruits.
The slaves upon the plantations in all outward circumstances seem quite
thoughtless and happy; the slave code of the island, which regulates
their government, is never widely departed from. The owners are obliged
to instruct them all in the Catholic faith, and they are each baptized
as soon as they can understand the signification of the ceremony. The
law also provides that the master shall give a certain quantity and
variety of food to his slaves; but on this score slaves rarely if ever
have cause of complaint, as it is plainly for the planter's interest to
keep them in good condition. There is one redeeming feature in Spanish
slavery, as contrasted with that of our southern country, and that is,
that the laws favor emancipation. If a slave by his industry is able to
accumulate money enough to pay his _first cost_ to his master, however
unwilling the planter may be to part with him, the law guarantees him
his freedom. This the industrious slave can accomplish at farthest in
seven years, with the liberty and convenience which all are allowed.
Each one, for instance, is permitted to keep a pig, and to cultivate a
small piece of land for his own purposes, by raising corn; the land
yielding two crops to the year, they can render a pig fat enough, and
the drovers pay fifty dollars apiece to the slaves for good ones. This
is a _redeeming_ feature, but it is a bitter pill at best.
There are doubtless instances of cruelty towards the slaves, but the
writer is forced to acknowledge that he never witnessed a single
evidence of this during his stay in the island,[51] and, while he would
be the last person to defend slavery as an institution, yet he is
satisfied that the practical evils of its operation are vastly overrated
by ignorant persons. It is so obviously for the planter's interest to
treat his slaves kindly, and to have due consideration for their health
and comfort--that he must be a very short-sighted being not to realize
this. What man would under-feed, ill-treat, or poorly care for a horse
that he expected to serve him, in return, promptly and well? We have
only to consider the subject in this light for a moment, to see how
impossible it is that a system of despotism, severity and cruelty, would
be exercised by a Cuban master towards his slaves. Let no ingenious
person distort these remarks into a pro-slavery argument. God forbid!
FOOTNOTES:
[47] The name _tobacco_ is said to have been that of the pipe used by
the native Indians to inhale the smoke with, consisting of a small tube,
with two branches intended to enter the nostrils.
[48] This highly-flavored and excellent fruit is so abundant in Cuba
that the best sell in the market at a cent apiece.
[49] "You never can cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there
either blossoms or fruit."--_Nieuhoff._
[50] It is remarkable that the palm tree, which grows so lofty, has not
a root as big as a finger of the human hand. Its roots are small,
thread-like, and almost innumerable.
[51] "I believe the lash is seldom applied; I have never seen it, nor
have I seen occasion for it."--_Rev. Abiel Abbot's Letters._