MORE LABORERS REQUIRED--HENRY SHOOTS WILD DOGS--MILITARY
RULE--EXTORTION.
The first year crept slowly by. We fought a brave fight against odds;
sometimes sick at heart and almost discouraged, as petty annoyances
rose here and there, thick about us. Our slight knowledge of the
language, our utter ignorance of the habits and ways of the country
people; the strangeness of the negroes, who feared and distrusted us;
the trickery and untruthfulness of the white men we had to employ;
the grand _hidalgo_ airs and graces, and hollow professions of
friendship, of our few visitors--made us suspicious and timid, bold
and self-asserting, by turns. We realized, all the first year, that
we were strangers in a strange land, misunderstood and unappreciated.
People who said “yes” when they meant “no,” could not understand us who
meant what we said. Their _mañana_ (to-morrow) never came, never was
intended to come; our _mañana_ came, the bill was paid, the business
transacted, or the pledge fulfilled, just as surely as the morrow’s sun
rose. The beginning of the second year found us unscathed by the fires
of suspicion and distrust, while the mists of doubts and fears slowly
vanished from our own minds, for “truth is mighty and will prevail.”
Lamo soon found that the pressing need of more laborers compelled him
to visit Havana, in order to secure the only kind available--Chinese
coolies.
In his absence, Henry went up the mountain (which we called a steep
hill back of the house) to shoot wild dogs, that had been raiding old
Cinto’s chicken preserves.
Vegetation is so vigorous and rank, through cane-fields as well
as uncultivated land, that animals wandering into the thicket any
considerable distance become bewildered. Cane sprouting year after
year from the same joint, sends up, with fantastic irregularity, bent
and crooked stalks, whose interlacing leaves cover the furrows, so
that they are almost obliterated, while the forest-trees are draped
with luxuriant vines reaching from tree to tree, and the undergrowth
forms an almost impenetrable barrier to human footsteps. Cur-dogs, that
abound all over the island, wander into these seclusions, making their
beds and rearing their young. In time the woods become infested with
these semi-wild animals, that rarely venture outside the fastnesses,
except when driven by hunger to the hen-roosts of the clearings. We
heard firing here and there for a few hours, and Henry returned, all
aglow with the sport, to say that those he did not kill were scared to
the woods, and old African Cinto would not have cause to complain again.
Before night there was a visit from _el capitan_--our district captain,
who was stationed at the nearest village. We always knew, when he came
clattering up the avenue, armed to the teeth, with a whole staff at
his heels, that he “meant business,” which, so far as our experience
extended, was the collection of a fine, or fee. In those days (twenty
years ago) Cuba was in the merciless grasp of the military. The civil
guard, as it was called, promenaded the rural districts in pairs,
dressed in striped blue linen with scarlet trimmings. Year in and year
out, in fact week in and week out, for I am sure at least four times a
month, two _guardia civiles_ crossed our fields in some direction, with
no apparent purpose; but they walked past with wonderful regularity,
rarely pausing for even a drink of water, or speaking unless spoken
to. What they were after, what good they ever did, what good they
could have done, I do not know. At every railroad-station--and between
us and Havana, stations were almost in sight of each other--when the
train halted, a couple of _guardia civiles_ walked through; there was
a fiction that their business was to examine the _cedulas_ (passes) of
strangers and suspiciously appearing persons--a document that every
soul in Cuba was required to procure, and have renewed yearly, paying
a round sum every time--but in all my journeyings I never saw the
_guardias_ speak to any one, much less ask for a paper. Our _capitan_
had nothing to do with the _guardia civiles_; his was another branch of
the service, whose ramifications, like the octopus, spread and squeezed
the life out of the people, and drove them at last to desperation
and a sickly revolt. The rural captains were advisers, counselors,
exponents of the law, registrars, judges, and executioners, besides
being military commanders. Their power was almost absolute; but the pay
was so small (I believe it was only two _onzas_--thirty-four dollars--a
month) it could not house and feed the man, much less his wife and
children, mother and mother-in-law, sisters and sisters-in-law, and a
stray cousin or aunt; for it was not only a disgrace for a woman to
earn her own bread, but a stinging reproach upon every male relative,
collateral or otherwise she had. It is apparent, therefore, that these
poorly paid men had a hard time make ends meet; and they resorted to
many devices that in any other country, or with any other people, would
have been a disgrace far beyond allowing an able-bodied woman to make
her own living. I presume the home government believed, or pretended to
believe, that a captain’s salary was all he needed and all he received,
but everybody knew that the wealthy planters were black-mailed and
unjustly fined to an outrageous extent; and there existed a system
of extortion and oppression that no honest government would have
countenanced, and to which none but an ignorant, down-trodden people
would have submitted.
To resume: before night our _capitan_ came clattering up. Leaving his
mounted staff at the door, he entered, and, after depositing sword and
pistols very ostentatiously on the parlor table, proceeded to business.
“There was firing on this plantation to-day.”--“Yes, Henry shot some
wild dogs on the outskirts of the field.” We were then informed, by
a recent decree (they had a recent decree every day, and for every
emergency under the sun), that no private individual was allowed a gun
or pistol. To my startled question, “But, in case of self-defense?” the
reply came, “They can have a sword or knife.”--“One can’t hunt wild
dogs, that threaten to overrun us, with swords and knives!” He was
inexorable: we must deliver to him all the fire-arms on the plantation,
to be sent to headquarters at Matanzas. I had a feeling that Mr.
Captain’s pretended mission was not his true purpose; but, being
disgusted with his way of doing business, womanlike, I acted with more
haste than discretion.
Henry stood on the veranda with tearful eyes, and watched the
procession gallop down the avenue. “What will papa say when he finds
all the guns are gone?” he asked. I was too exasperated to care.