The changes which the island underwent during this time were
far-reaching. The British occupation had established a direct contact
with the world outside of Spain, which was bound to broaden the narrowly
provincial viewpoint of the residents of the colony. For the nobles to
whom large tracts of land had been granted in the earlier days of the
colony had never permanently resided there but only came over for a
short time to occupy their winter residence in Havana and for another
brief season to show themselves in all their old-world aristocratic
splendor on their haciendas. The great majority of the people,
descendants of the adventurers and the poor immigrants of the pioneer
period, had acquired the habits of country people so engrossed in their
fields, their live stock and the daily labors required to make these
possessions profitable, that they had lost any desire to seek the
stimulating influence of city life. The cities themselves, Havana not
excepted, had a provincial aspect and offered little attraction to the
foreign traveler who did not come there exclusively on business.
Nevertheless they left a pleasant memory with many a casual visitor. A
Frenchman, who spent some time in Havana about the year 1745, set down
his impressions, which with other letters and memoirs of travel were
edited by Pierre Jean Baptiste Nougaret and published in Paris in 1783
under the title: "Voyages interessans dans differentes Colonies
francaises, espagnoles, anglaises, etc." In these reminiscences of
Havana some twenty years before the British occupation, he draws a
picture of the city, which it is interesting to compare with what other
writers have to say of the Havana of 1762. He writes:
[Illustration: HAVANA, FROM CABANAS
"Beautiful for situation" indeed is the Cuban capital, whether it be
used as a point from which to view the sea and land, or be itself looked
upon from some neighboring or distant height. This view, from the
grounds of the great Cabanas fortress, shows the central portion of the
city, with the notable public buildings clearly discernible, and nearer
at hand the waters of the inner harbor, where occurred in 1898 the
memorable and mysterious tragedy of the _Maine_.]
"It is a very spacious city, well enough built and among the best
fortified in America. In size it compares about with la Rochelle, but it
is far more populated. It is graced with a large number of public
buildings, churches, convents and you see there usually more negro
slaves than in any other city of Spanish domination. Its harbor
especially is one of the largest and most beautiful in America, and they
build there warships for the construction of which the king of Spain
employs a prodigious number of laborers, an arsenal and an immense
workshop. It is the Catholic king's custom to pay one thousand piastres
a cannon; so a vessel of eight cannon costs him eight thousand piastres.
There are always on the docks five or six vessels at once; it is a
company called the Company of Biscay which attends to the business.
Havana is rather regular in plan; the streets are surveyed by the line,
although some of them are not absolutely straight; all houses are of two
or three floors, built of masonry and have balconies mostly of wood; the
lower part of most houses is terrace-like as in European Spain and
altogether they make a respectable impression.
"The city is protected by a numerous garrison of about four thousand
regular troops, extremely well kept, who make Havana impregnable in a
country where one cannot attack, except with considerable forces. The
city which is one of the best located seems an oval; the entrance to her
port is advantageously protected by different forts, of which one, the
first, is called Morro or port of entrance; the second is opposite; a
third has been erected toward the side of the city; it is so large that
it seems rather a citadel than a fort. There is besides before the
principal section of the city before the palace of the governor which is
magnificent, a battery of big guns and of considerable calibre; so one
can say that Havana is the best defended of all places in America, the
vessels that want to enter being obliged to pass so close to the forts
that it would be easy to sink them.
"The customs of the Spanish are here about the same as in Spain,
differing from other colonies of the nation, where frankness,
righteousness and probity seem to have been exiled. The Havanese are
quite frank, extremely gay, more so than suits the ordinary Spanish
gravity which is probably due to the great number of strangers which
come there from all parts. The climate is rather good; the sex very
handsome and enjoying much more liberty than in the rest of Spanish
America.
"Armed cruisers are entertained to keep away strangers from the coast,
which does not prevent all the fraudulent operations in which the
commandant often shares. Nevertheless life is agreeable for the rich,
everything being abundant in Havana; and the residents are far more
neatly habited than elsewhere. One does not drink but cistern water,
much superior to that of the only fountain which is in the center of a
large square; and which serves only as watering trough for animals. You
see in Havana many rolling chairs, most of which are rented, which gives
the city an air resembling European towns."
Appreciative as this description sounds, which had for its author a M.
Sr. Villiet d'Arignon, the Havana of the time of the British calls forth
even more appreciative language from the Spanish historians of Cuba.
They dwell much on the beauty of its location and of the city itself
say:
The streets were not large or well leveled, especially those running
from north to south, which caused the town to be so great in length;
over three thousand houses occupied an expanse of nine hundred fathoms
in length and five hundred in width; they were of hewn stone, of
graceful form and as a whole afforded a very beautiful appearance. To
the beauty of the city contributed eleven churches and convents and two
large hospitals; the churches were rich and magnificent, especially
those of Recoletos, Santa Clara, San Agustino and San Juan de Dios.
Their interior was adorned with altars, lamps and candelabra of gold and
silver of an exquisite taste. There were three principal squares: The
Plaza des Armas, which still retains its name, encompassed by houses of
uniform frontage with the metropolitan church. A magnificent aspect was
added to this square by the castille de la Fuerza, where resided the
Captain-Generals, and the pyramid encompassed by three luxuriant
five-leaved silk cotton trees planted there in memory of the tradition,
that the first mass and town meeting were held in the shadow of a robust
tree of that kind; that of San Francisco adorned with two fountains was
considered the best place in the city and on it were the houses of the
Ayuntamento and the public jail, whose two-story façade with arched
entrance contrasted with the severe architecture of the convent after
which the square is named; and there was still another, the new square,
because it had been opened after the former, with a fountain in the
center and all encompassed with porticos for the convenience of the
public, serving also as market-place, where the inhabitants, according
to Arrate, provided themselves "copiously" with all they wanted.
Native writers also dwell upon the good manners of the Havanese, calling
them the most polite and social people of Spanish America, much given
to imitating the French customs and manners, which were then in vogue at
the Spanish court of Madrid, both in their dress and their conversation,
as also in the furnishings of their houses and the good table they set
their guests. These descriptions of Cuba and Cuban life tally well with
those of the foreigners quoted by the author, and indicate the progress
made by the island, and especially by Havana, in the sixth and seventh
decades of the century.
The economic conditions of the island underwent a great change during
the sixth decade of the century. Up to this time, the majority of the
people had been engaged in agriculture and led a more or less simple,
rustic life. The products of her soil were consumed on the spot. Her
mines were neglected because the gold and silver which had been
discovered in the earlier part of Cuba's history and which had roused
the jealousy of other countries were not sufficient in quantity to
justify the labor needed for working them. With the increasing number of
negro slaves, the possibilities of exploiting all the rich natural
resources of the island were multiplied. Among the products that came
into prominence was sugar. Not ordinarily consumed, it brought forty
three cents a pound. John Atkins, the British surgeon and author of that
interesting book of travel in Spanish America referred to in a previous
chapter, had declared the sugar of Cuba the best in the world; and it
was indeed so considered in the market. It became soon one of the most
important articles of Cuba's commerce. The cheapened labor encouraged
enterprises which the Spanish would have been physically unable to carry
through.
The commerce of Havana had in this epoch increased considerably and the
greatest part of it came from the ports of the island itself. Besides
supplying with goods the towns of the interior and the littoral, Havana
exported great amounts of hides, much esteemed for their excellent
quality, and also sugar, tobacco and other articles. The trade was
carried on by vessels registered from Cadiz and the Canaries besides
those of Spanish merchants who were allowed to trade with the
Spanish-American continent. Especially favored were those that returned
to Spain from Cartagena, Porto Bello and Vera Cruz and entered Havana to
renew their supply of provisions and water, and enjoy the advantage of
going out with the convoy which in the month of September returned to
the Peninsula with galleons loaded with the riches of Peru and Chile,
and the fleet freighted with the treasures of New Spain. This periodical
assembly of a great number of merchant and war vessels in Havana had
introduced the custom of holding fairs, during which great animation
prevailed in the city. For while they facilitated commercial
transactions, they also furnished diversion and entertainment to the
sailors and others who were waiting for the sailing of the convoy. At
that time an order was published prohibiting on penalty of death any
person belonging to the squadron to remain on land over night, and all
had to retire on board at the report of a gun. Provisions were then, as
also M. d'Arignon reported at his time, very dear. The monopoly which
was exercised by the company had unreasonably raised the cost of living.
The flour brought from foreign smugglers at five or six piasters a
barrel, was sold at his time at thirty-five and more! Besides the
ordinary wages of men hired by the day every male slave day-laborer was
paid in excess four pesos a day and every female two pesos.
The description of the defenses of the city during the British invasion
suggest that the surrender to the enemy may after all not have been
entirely the fault of the procrastination and unconcern of the Cuban
governor, as some zealous patriots alleged at the time. The entrance of
the port was in the eastern part, defended by the strong fort of el
Morro, situated upon an elevated rock of irregular, somewhat triangular
form, in the walls and bulwarks of which were forty mounted cannon. It
was protected also by the battery of Doce Apostoles, so called for
having a dozen mounted cannon, situated toward the interior of the port
in the lower parts of the Morro bulwark, which looked to the southeast
and were almost at sea-level. There was also the Divina Pastora with
fourteen cannon, on a level with the sea at a point a little higher than
the former facing the gate of la Punta. Toward the west in the same
entrance of the port and about two hundred yards from it with four
bulwarks well-mounted with artillery, was la Fuerza with twenty-two
cannon. Although not of as solid construction as the others, it served
as storehouse for the treasures of the King and was also the residence
of the governor. Between these fortresses there were erected along the
bay a number of other bulwarks well supplied with artillery. The walls
from la Punta to the arsenal were protected by bulwarks with parapets
and a ditch. From the first to the second gate there was considerable
territory converted at that time into gardens, and pasture land, and
covered with palmettos. In front of the Punta de Tierra was a ravelin.
Nevertheless those fortifications had serious defects of position,
because the city as well as the forts were dominated by many hills easy
of access. East of the port was Cabanas, where there was a citadel built
later, dominating a great part of el Morro and the northeastern part of
the city. West of the town was a suburb, called Guadeloupe, the church
of which was situated on an eminence half a mile from the gate of
Tierra, and on the same level with it, the highest of all fortifications
in that direction. From the northern side of this elevation the gate of
Punta could be flanked and from the southeast the shipyard was
dominated. The zanja real, or royal trench, in the northern part,
descended not far from the Punta de Tierra and then ran into the
shipyard where its water was employed in running a mill. Half a mile
from said church was the Chavez bridge, built over a rivulet flowing
into the bay, which served to unite the central road of the island with
that of Baracoa; and from the bridge to the Lazareto was a stretch of
two miles with an intermediate hill. A trench between these two points
could easily cut the communication of Havana with the rest of the
island. From this close description it can be seen that in spite of the
imposing impression its fortifications made upon foreigners, Havana was
by no means an impregnable fortress at the time of the British invasion,
which was brought out at the trial of Governor Prado. But whatever may
have been the cause of its capitulation to the British, the period of
their occupation at the end benefited Cuba, for it opened the eyes of
the government to the needs of the island, and prepared a new era,
political, social and economic.