Baracoa, the First Capital. -- West Indian Buccaneers. --
Military Despotism. -- A Perpetual State of Siege. -- A
Patriotic Son of Cuba. -- Political Condition of the Island.
-- Education of Cuban Youths. -- Attempts at Revolution. --
Fate of General Narciso Lopez. -- The Late Civil War and its
Leader. -- Terrible Slaughter of Spanish Troops. --
Stronghold of the Insurgents. -- Guerrillas. -- Want of
Self-Reliance. -- Spanish Art, Literature, and Conquest. --
What Spain was. -- What Spain is. -- Rise and Fall of an
Empire.
Baracoa lies one hundred miles northeast from Santiago, and was the
capital of the island as first established by Velasquez. Here Leo X.
erected in 1518 the first cathedral in Cuba. The town is situated on
the north coast, near the eastern extremity of the island, having a
small but deep harbor, and a considerable trade in the shipping of
sugar and fruits to this country. The population at present numbers
about six thousand. Five years after the settlement of Baracoa, the
capital was moved to Santiago de Cuba, where it remained until 1589,
when Havana was formally declared to be the capital of the island, its
first Captain-General being Juan de Tejada. The city was captured and
partially destroyed by a French pirate in 1638, and afterwards
suffered a like catastrophe at the hands of the buccaneers of combined
nationality, embracing some disaffected Spaniards. So late as 1760
Havana was captured and held by the English, under the Duke of
Albemarle, but was restored to Spain, after a brief occupancy, in
1763. The first grand impulse to the material prosperity of the city,
anomalous though it may seem, was given through its capture by the
British. It is true that the victors seized everything by force, but
they also taught the listless people how to repair their losses, and
how to multiply prosperity. The port of Havana, accustomed heretofore
to receive the visits of half a score of European vessels annually,
suddenly became the rendezvous of a thousand ships in the same period
of time, much to the surprise of the inhabitants. Bourbon in nature as
the Spaniards were and still are, they could not but profit by the
brilliant example of their enemies, and from that time forward the
city grew rapidly in commercial importance, and has continued to do
so, notwithstanding the rivalry of Matanzas, Santiago, Cienfuegos, and
other ports, as well as the drawbacks of civil war and business
stagnation.
These buccaneers of the West Indies, to whom we have so often alluded,
were composed mostly of English, French, and Dutch adventurers, whose
bitter hatred the Spaniards early incurred. They were for a long time
their terror and scourge, being the real masters of the ocean in these
latitudes. They feared no enemy and spared none, while by shocking
acts of needless cruelty they proved themselves fiends in human shape.
Among these rovers there were often found men particularly fitted for
the adventurous career they had adopted, men who combined remarkable
executive ability with a spirit of daring bravery and a total
disregard of all laws, human and divine. By a few such leaders the
bands of freebooters were held in hand, and preserved their
organization for many years; obedience to the word of their chief,
after he was once chosen as such, being the one inviolable law of
their union. The romance of the sea owes its most startling chapters
to the career of these pirates. Sometimes their principal rendezvous
was at the Isle of Pines; at others further north among the Bahamas,
Nassau being one of their favorite resorts.
In the mean time, under numerous and often changed Captains-General,
the island of Cuba increased in population by free emigration from
Spain, and by the constant importations of slaves from Africa. It may
be said to have been governed by a military despotism from the very
outset to the present time; and nothing short of such an arbitrary
rule could maintain the connection between the island and so exacting
a mother country, more than three thousand miles across the ocean.
Accordingly we find the Captain-General invested with unlimited power.
He is in fact a viceroy appointed by the crown of Spain, and
accountable only to the reigning sovereign for his administration of
the colony. His rule is absolute. He has the power of life and death
in his hands. He can by his arbitrary will send into exile any person
who resides in the island whom he considers inimical to the interests
of the home government. Of the exercise of this power instances are
constantly occurring, as in the case of the editor of the "Revista
Economica," already recorded. He can at will suspend the operation of
the laws and ordinances, can destroy or confiscate property, and in
short, the island may be said to be in a perpetual state of siege.
Such is the infirmity of human nature that few individuals can be
safely trusted with despotic power; accordingly we find no
Captain-General whose administration will bear the test of rigid
examination. Indeed, the venality of a majority of these officials
has been so gross as to have passed into a proverb. It is not to be
expected that officers from Spain should consult the true interests of
the Cubans; they are not sent hither for that purpose, but merely to
look after the revenue of the crown, and to swell it to the very
uttermost. The office of Governor-General is of course a brilliant
prize, for which there are plenty of aspirants eagerly struggling,
while the means by which a candidate is most likely to succeed in
obtaining the appointment presupposes a character of an inferior
order. This official knows that he cannot count on a long term of
office, and hence he makes no effort to study the interests or gain
the good-will of the people over whom he presides. He has a twofold
object only in view: namely, to keep the revenue well up to the mark,
and to enrich himself as speedily as possible. The princely salary he
receives--fifty thousand dollars per annum, with a palace and
household attendants supplied--is but a portion of the income which,
by a system of peculation, he is enabled to divert to his private
coffers. As a rule, the Captain-General comes out to Cuba a poor man,
and returns a rich one, however brief his term of office.
Occasionally during the lapse of years a true and patriotic man has
filled this important post, when the remarkable elements of prosperity
contained within the limits of this peerless land were rapidly
developed and advanced. Such an one was Don Luis de las Casas, whose
name is cherished by all patriotic Cubans, as also is that of Don
Francisco de Arrango, an accomplished statesman and a native of
Havana. He was educated in Spain, and designed to follow the law as a
profession. This man, being thoroughly acquainted with the
possibilities of the island and the condition and wants of his
countrymen, succeeded in procuring the amelioration of some of the
most flagrant abuses of the colonial system. In his argument for
reform before the home government, he told them that serious dissent
permeated every class of the community, and was bid in return to
employ a still more stringent system of rule. To this Arrango replied
that force was not remedy, and that to effectually reform the
rebellious they must first reform the laws. His earnest reason carried
conviction, and finally won concession. By his exertions the staple
productions of the island were so much increased that the revenue, in
place of falling short of the expenses of the government as his
enemies had predicted, soon yielded a large surplus. He early raised
his voice against the iniquitous slave trade, and suggested the
introduction of white labor, though he admitted that the immediate and
wholesale abolition of slavery was impracticable. This was the rock on
which he split, as it regarded his influence with the Spaniards in
Cuba, that is, with the planters and rich property holders. Slavery
with them was a sine qua non. Many of them owned a thousand Africans
each, and the institution, as an arbitrary power as well as the means
of wealth, was ever dear to the Spanish heart. Former and subsequent
Captains-General not only secretly encouraged the clandestine
importation of slaves, after issuing an edict prohibiting it, but
profited pecuniarily by the business. It was owing to his exertions
that the duty on coffee, spirits, and cotton was remitted for a period
of ten years, and that machinery for the sugar plantations was allowed
to be imported into Cuba from the United States free of all duty.
The patriotic services of Arrango were appreciated by the court of
Madrid, although he was at times the inflexible opponent of its
selfish schemes. The Cross of Charles III. showed the esteem in which
he was held by that monarch. With a modesty which did him honor he
declined to accept a title of nobility which was afterwards tendered
to him by his king. This patriotic son of Cuba was at heart a
republican, and declared that the king could make noblemen, but God
only could make gentlemen. In 1813, when, by the adoption of the
Constitution of 1812, Cuba became entitled to representation in the
general Cortes,--a privilege but briefly enjoyed,--he went to Madrid
as a deputy, and there achieved the crowning glory of his useful life:
namely, the opening of the ports of the island to foreign trade. In
1817 he returned to his native land with the rank of Counselor of
State and Financial Intendant of Cuba, also possessing the Grand Cross
of the Order of Isabella. He died in 1837, at the age of seventy-two,
after a long and eminently useful life, bequeathing large sums of
money for various public purposes in his native isle.
When the invasion of Spain, which took place in 1808, produced the
Constitution of 1812, Cuba was considered entitled, as we have stated,
to enjoy its benefits, and it was so announced by royal statute; but
political revolution at home and a manifest restiveness upon the
island finally led in 1836 to the revoking of this royal statute,
which had never been practically operative, and the old Constitution
was proclaimed.
Up to this period of time the various political events at home had
disturbed but slightly the tranquillity of this rich province of
Spain. The Cubans, although sensible of the progress of public
intelligence and wealth under the protection of a few enlightened
governors and through the influence of some distinguished and
patriotic individuals, still felt that these advances were slow,
partial, and limited. The most intelligent realized that there was no
regular system; that the public interests were sure to suffer,
confided to officials entrusted with unlimited power. They frequently
saw themselves betrayed by a cupidity which impelled the authorities
to enrich themselves in every possible way at the expense of general
suffering. Added to these sources of discontent was the powerful
influence exerted by the spectacle of the rapidly increasing greatness
of the United States, where a portion of the Cuban youths were wont to
receive their education. No matter in what political faith these
youths had left home, they were sure to return republicans.
There also were the examples of Mexico and Spanish South America,
which had recently conquered with their blood their emancipation from
monarchy. Liberal ideas were naturally diffused by Cubans who had
traveled either in Europe or North America, there imbibing the spirit
of modern civilization. But with a fatuity and obstinacy which has
always characterized her, the mother country resolved to ignore all
causes of discontent, and their significant influence as manifested by
the people of the island. In place of yielding to the popular current
and introducing a liberal and mild system of government, she drew the
reins yet tighter, curtailing many former privileges. Thus it was that
blind persistence in the fatal principle of despotic domination
relaxed the natural bonds uniting Cuba and the mother country, and
infused gall into the hearts of the governed. Obedience still
continued, but it was the dangerous obedience of terror, not the
secure and instinctive spirit of loyalty.
This severity on the part of the home government has naturally given
rise to several attempts to cast off the Spanish yoke. The first
occurred in 1823, when Simon Bolivar offered to aid the disaffected
party by throwing an invading force into the island. Another was made
in 1826, and a third in 1828. In 1848 a conspiracy was formed at
Cienfuegos and Trinidad to establish Cuban independence, under the
leadership of General Narciso Lopez; but finding that his plans were
premature, he escaped to this country, and here arranged a descent
upon the island, which he led in person: this was in 1850. General
Lopez, however, was not seconded by the timid natives, though they had
freely pledged themselves to do so, and his expedition, after winning
one decisive battle and several important skirmishes, was at last
overpowered and its leader promptly executed. General Lopez was an
adopted citizen of Cuba, and was married to one of her daughters. He
was executed at the age of fifty-two.
The Lopez expedition would seem to have been the most serious and best
organized attempt at revolution in Cuba by invasion, though there have
been formidable attempts since. From 1868 to 1876 Cuba may be said to
have been in a state of chronic civil war. This outbreak was led by
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, an able lawyer and wealthy planter of
Bayamo, in the eastern department of the island. He raised the
standard of independence on his estate, Demajagua, supported at the
outset by less than fifty men. This was in October, 1868, and by the
middle of November he had an organized army of twelve thousand men;
poorly armed, it must be admitted, but united in purpose and of
determined will. That portion of the island contiguous to Santiago,
and between that city and Cienfuegos, was for a long period almost
entirely in possession of the patriot forces. Here many sanguinary
battles were fought with varying fortune, at terrible sacrifice of
life, especially on the part of the government troops, over one
hundred thousand of whom, first and last, are known to have perished
in that district. Spain actually sent one hundred and forty-five
thousand enlisted men to Cuba during the eight years of active
warfare. Of this number those who finally returned to the European
peninsula were but a few hundreds! It was publicly stated in the
Cortes of Madrid that not enough of that immense force ever returned
to fill a single regiment! The climate was far more fatal to these
soldiers than were patriot bullets. The warfare was conducted by the
native Cubans mostly on the guerrilla plan, and was ten times more
destructive to the imported soldiers than to themselves. Discipline
counted for little or nothing in contending with men who fought
single-handed and from ambush, decimating the ranks of an invading
column, who in turn could only fire at random.
Exhaustion and promised concessions, which were, as usual with the
Spanish government, never fulfilled, finally brought this struggle to
an end; but it cost Spain many millions of dollars and the lives of
over a hundred and fifty thousand men, saying nothing of the
destruction of an enormous amount of property on the island, belonging
to loyal Spaniards. Miles upon miles of thrifty plantations, with all
their buildings and machinery, were laid waste, and remain so to this
day.
Since 1876 there have been roving bands of insurgents in existence,
causing the authorities more or less serious trouble, leading them at
times to make serious attempts at their entire suppression. But the
mountains and half-inaccessible forests of the eastern department
still serve to secrete many armed and disaffected people, whose
frequent outbreaks are made public by the slow process of oral
information. The press is forbidden to publish any news of this
character. Thus it will be seen that, although the spirit of liberty
may slumber in the island, it is by no means dead, nor is the intense
hatred which exists between the home-born Spaniard and the native
Cuban growing less from year to year. Indeed, the insurrection of
Trinidad and Cienfuegos (1868) still smoulders, and any extreme
political exigency would be liable to cause it to blaze forth with
renewed force. The region where the insurgents have always made their
rendezvous, and which they have virtually held for years, is nearest
to Guantanamo and Santiago. This mountainous district is the resort of
all runaway slaves, escaped criminals, and those designated as
insurgents. These together form at the present time a roving community
of several hundred desperate men. These refugees, divided into small
bands, make predatory raids upon travelers and loyal planters, as we
have described, to keep themselves supplied with the necessities of
life other than those afforded by the prolific hand of Nature.
Occasionally they are organized by some fresh leader, some daring
native, stimulated by a spirit of patriotism, and possessing some
executive ability; then follows a systematic outbreak of just
sufficient importance to harass the government, and to form, perhaps,
an excuse for demanding a fresh regiment of victims from the European
peninsula. Such a guerrilla contest engages the worst passions of the
combatants, and quarter is neither asked nor given when they come face
to face. The bloodthirsty acts of both sides, as related to the author
during his late visit to the spot, are too horrible to record in these
pages. It is not legitimate warfare, but rather wholesale murder,
which characterizes these occasions, and there is no expedient of
destruction not resorted to by both the refugees and the pursuing
soldiers. The nature of the country favors the revolutionists, and
determines their mode of conflict. Thus far, when the irregular bands
have been strong enough to meet these detachments of regulars sent
into their neighborhood to capture them, they have nearly always
beaten them gallantly, and this has served to perpetuate their hopes,
desperate as is a cause which only outlaws, escaped criminals, and
slaves dare to fight for. These people appear to be well supplied with
arms and ammunition, which it is said are smuggled to them from
sympathizers in this country, particularly from Florida. Though their
ranks are supposed to embrace but small numbers, still they form a
nucleus at all times, about which discontented spirits may gather.
Thus it is found necessary to quarter a foreign army of thirty
thousand soldiers upon the people at the present time, while half the
navy of Spain lies anchored in the ports of the island.
One great drawback and defect in the character of the native Cubans
is a want of self-reliance. The remedy for the outrageous oppression
under which they have so long struggled lies within themselves; "for
they can conquer who believe they can." In the consciousness of
strength is strength, but the Creole republicans have never yet
evinced the necessary degree of true manhood to challenge general
outside sympathy, or to command the respect of other nationalities.
The numerous revolutionary outbreaks upon the island--so frequent in
the last half century as to be chronic--have all been of the most
insignificant character, compared with the importance of the occasion
and the object in view. These efforts have mostly been made from
without, almost entirely unsupported from within the borders of Cuba,
with the exception of that of 1868. It appears incredible that an
intelligent people, within so short a distance of our Southern coast,
constantly visited by the citizens of a free republic, and having the
example of successful revolt set them by the men of the same race,
both in the North and the South, weighed down by oppression almost
without parallel, should never have aimed an effectual blow at their
oppressors. It would seem that the softness of the unrivaled climate
of those skies, beneath which it is luxury only to exist, has unnerved
this people, and that the effeminate spirit of the original
inhabitants had descended in retribution to the posterity of their
conquerors.
In closing these brief chapters relating to the early history of the
island of Cuba, and in bringing the record up to our own period, some
natural reflections suggest themselves as to the present condition of
the mother country. We follow with more than passing interest the
condition of Spain, whose history is so closely interwoven with our
own. From the close of the fifteenth century our paths have run on in
parallel lines, but while we have gone on increasing in power and
wealth, she has sunk in the scale of decadence with a rapidity no less
surprising than has been the speed of our own progress. At the
commencement of the sixteenth century Spain threatened to become the
mistress of the world, as Rome had been before her. She may be said to
have at that period dominated Europe. In art she was in the very
foremost position: Murillo, Velasquez, Ribera, and other famous
painters were her honored sons. In literature she was also
distinguished: both Cervantes and Lope de Vega contributed to her
greatness and lasting fame. While, in discoverers and conquerors, she
sent forth Columbus, Cortez, and Pizarro. The banners of Castile and
Aragon floated alike on the Pacific and the margin of the Indian
Ocean. Her ships sailed in every sea, and brought home freights of
fabulous value from all the regions of the earth. Her manufacturers
produced the richest silks and velvets; her soil yielded corn and
wine; her warriors were adventurous and brave; her soldiers inherited
the gallantry of the followers of Charles V.; her cities were the
splendid abodes of luxury, refinement, and elegance. She was the court
of Europe, the acknowledged leader of chivalry and of grandeur.
This is the picture of what Spain was at no remote period of time, but
in her instance we have an example showing us that states are no more
exempt than individuals from the mutability of fate. So was it with
Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, and Rome, though in their case we look far
back into the vista of history to recall the change, whereas in the
instance of Spain we are contemporary witnesses. From a first-class
power, how rapidly she has sunk into comparative insignificance! She
has been shorn of her wealthy colonies, one after another, in the East
and in the West, holding with feeble grasp a few inconsiderable
islands only besides this gem of the Antilles, the choicest jewel of
her crown. Extremely poor and deeply indebted, she has managed for
years to extort by means of the most outrageous system of taxation a
large share of her entire revenue from the island of Cuba, her home
population having long since become exhausted by over-burdensome
imposts. Her nobles of to-day are an effeminate, soulless, and
imbecile race, while the common people, with some excellent qualities,
are yet ignorant, cruel, and passionate. The whole country is divided
against itself, the tottering throne being with difficulty upheld.
Even the elements have of late seemed to combine against her,
decimating whole cities of her southern possessions by earthquakes,
and smiting her people with pestilence.
This simple statement of her present situation is patent to all who
read and observe. It is not an overdrawn picture. In it the moralist
beholds the retributive justice of providence. As Spain in the
plenitude of her power was ambitious, cruel, and perfidious, so has
the measure which she meted out to others been in return accorded to
herself. As with fire and sword she swept the Aztec and the Incas from
Mexico and Peru, so was she at last driven from these genial countries
by their revolted inhabitants. The spoiler has been despoiled, the
victor has been vanquished, and thus has Spain met the just fate
clearly menaced by the Scriptures to those who smite with the sword.