By the terms of the treaty signed at Versailles on the tenth of
February, 1763, Britain was to give back to Spain the city and territory
of Havana in the condition in which the British had found it and Spain
was to grant the British a term of eighteen months, so that those who
had established themselves upon the island could insure their interests
by transferring their property. To administrate the political and
military affairs of Cuba and carry out these stipulations, a new
governor was appointed in the person of the Lieutenant-General Conde de
Ricla, a relative of the famous Minister Aranda. Ricla arrived in Havana
on the thirteenth of June and prepared to enter upon his duties, while
the British authorities made preparations to wind up their affairs and
to embark. Spanish love of festive demonstrations of joy must have
culminated in a frenzy of exultation on the day when Admiral Keppel
solemnly and formally gave up Havana to the Tenente Rey, the King's
Lieutenant, who took possession of all military posts. It was the sixth
of July, 1763, ever since remembered as the glorious day when Cuba was
delivered from the British yoke. The new governor entered through one of
the iron gates of the city, driven in an open coach, and acclaimed by
the enthusiastic vivas of the population. On the same day the British
authorities set sail, and the city entered upon a celebration of the
event which lasted nine days. The Spanish colors fluttered from every
roof, the houses were draped in them, the doors were garlanded in green,
and when the evening came, lights shone in every window and sky rockets
were set off on every street corner, turning the tropical night into
day.
[Illustration: ATARES FORTRESS--(ERECTED 1763)]
The new governor was a man of rare character and was endowed by the
royal government with more power than any of his predecessors had
enjoyed. He received a salary of eighteen thousand pesos annually. The
task before him was one of reorganization and reconstruction. He was
charged and expected to inaugurate a new era in the administration of
the colony, to employ the most judicious means to prevent errors
committed by his predecessors and to insure a prompt and efficient
enforcement of the principles of colonial policy which the time
demanded. He was also to repair all the fortifications and defenses of
the island, rebuild whatever had been destroyed and add to them whatever
was needed as rapidly as possible, so they would be proof against any
possible coup-de-main on the part of any enemy. The reconstruction of
the Morro and of the arsenal destroyed by the British, and the erection
of the forts of Cabanas and Atares was entrusted to the able engineers
D. Silvestro Abarca and D. Agostino Crame, who later drew the plan for
that of Puerto Principe, intended to protect that place and prevent any
landing by la Chorrera. The records of the period show that six million
pesos were spent on those fortifications. New hospitals and other public
buildings were also erected. The work was greatly facilitated by the
number of negroes that had been added to the population since the
British domination of the city. The great activity of the building
trades stimulated the circulation of gold and gave a new impetus to all
business life.
That the antagonism between the Spanish and British was not confined to
Havana, which had suffered British occupation, is proved by the influx
of immigrants from Florida, when this province was ceded to England.
Unwilling to live under British dominion, many French and Spanish
families of that colony left their old homes for new ones in Cuba. A
great number of them settled in Matanzas and its environs, on land which
belonged to the famous Marquis Justiz de Santa Anna. The generosity of
this man in gratuitously ceding that land endeared him to these
immigrants. Their love for the place they came from induced them to give
to the towns into which their settlements were formed, names that
suggested the old home, as San Augustin de la Nueva Florida proves. As
soon as the enemy had left, the residents of Havana who had retired to
the interior of the island returned to the city and resumed their
occupations. Bishop Morell, who had been exiled to Florida by the
British, also returned. He brought with him the white-wax bee, which in
time became a new source of wealth for the island.
It was a period of reconstruction and readjustment during which not only
were old business relations renewed and reaffirmed, but many new steps
taken to insure the welfare of the community. Those elements of the
population which were particularly concerned with the honest and
efficient management of its affairs, had during the British occupation
become aware of some malpractices that had escaped their attention or to
which they had become so accustomed that they did not make any effort to
check them. There were always on the island rumors of corruption in this
or that department. Occasionally a fraudulent functionary was tried and
convicted, but the great majority of these dishonest officials escaped
without ever being brought to trial. The frequent change of governors
with the inevitable periods of interim administration gave unscrupulous
men ample opportunity to fill their pockets at the expense of the
government. Nor can it be doubted, that the governors sent over by the
Spanish court were invested with a farther reaching authority than was
advantageous for the colony. For they enjoyed not only a political power
almost absolute, but directed the economic affairs of the colony.
The governors of Cuba had in former times authority to handle the
revenues and in accord with the municipal councils were wont to elect
delegates to discharge these duties. In 1551 they had begun to exercise
these functions as ministers de capa y espada, which means literally of
cloak and sword. There were two of them for the island; they enjoyed
seat and vote in the town corporations and were considered royal
officials. They supervised the work of the Auditor and Treasurer and
together with the Governor were judges in cases of contraband. Later
there were appointed tenientes (lieutenants), one for each of the
following communities, Bayamo, Puerto Principe, Trinidad, Matanzas, San
Juan de los Remedios, Sancti Spiritus, and Guanabacoa, and two for
Santiago de Cuba. The new ministers of the Tribunal de Cuentes
(Exchequer) were provisionally endowed and the whole department hitherto
in charge of the royal officers was reorganized and managed under a new
system by the newly appointed Intendant. To him was probably due the new
classification of the revenue rates, which was as follows:
(1) Duties on imports and exports,
(2) of the fleet,
(3) of the armadilla,
(4) of the royal Fifths (i.e. a duty of 20% on prizes,
etc., paid to the Spanish government),
(5) the duty on anchoring,
(6) the duty on frucanga, i.e. beverages made of water
and molasses, which at a later time, when the use of wine,
beer, etc., became more general, went into oblivion.
These duties were from twenty-one to two and one half per cent.
according to the articles, the time and the place they came from. There
were also two per cent. duties on importations, on fruits of the country
brought to Havana in smaller vessels; on the gold and copper of the
mines of Jaguas, Holguin, etc., and there was also what was called the
extraordinario del Morro, which consisted in collecting four pesos for
each vessel sent to Spain and the American continent. The enforcement of
these custom regulations was entrusted to the Intendant referred to
above, who in October of the year 1764 was given the right to use a
special building for the offices of this department.
For the military reorganization of Havana had been appointed Marshal
Senor Conde D. Alexandre O'Reilly, who as Inspector-General devoted
himself to the organization of line troops and militia and was
materially assisted in his work by Aguiar. O'Reilly succeeded in getting
the veteran troops and militia of the island into good condition. By
studying the city, dividing it into districts, naming the
streets--simple requirements which according to Valdes had at that late
date not yet been established in Havana--O'Reilly learned that the city
alone could raise a battalion of disciplined militia of white men. After
organizing two such battalions in Havana and Guanabacoa, he realized
that this force was insufficient for the protection of the capital and
he raised two more battalions, composed of colored men. When on
examining the polls or registers of tax-payers he found that owing to
the poverty and also the ignorance of the majority of the people he
could not proceed with the draft system without including the married
and other classes, he decided to resort to conscription.
In 1764 there was created by royal decree a military and provincial
administration for Cuba in the manner of the peninsulas. D. Miguel de
Altavilla took charge of it in February, 1765. He established in Havana
an accountant's (auditor's) office, a treasury and custom-houses at
various points, subject to the department. This organization required
many employees, and increased the expenses of the administration. The
salaries of the officials amounted to one million two hundred thousand
pesos, while until the year 1761 they had been only four hundred and
fifty thousand pesos annually. As the Mexican assistant of the director
never arrived in time to help with the accounts, the Royal Hacienda, as
it was called, was not a sinecure. The revenues rose within a short time
to one million two hundred and fifty thousand pesos, but whether this
was due to the high duties or to the wise administration of the
Intendencia does not appear.
The tentative effort at establishing a mail service during a previous
administration was taken up in 1765, when the tax administrator D. José
de Armona established the internal and external mail service of the
island. It was found that every fortnight there was sent from Havana to
Santiago de Cuba the mail, touching at Villa-Clara, Sancti Spiritus,
Puerto Principe and Bayamo. According to royal decree of 1718 there
should have been sent annually to Spain eight avisos or ships of one
hundred tons, carrying letters from the Philippines and America, four of
them stopping for provisions and supplies at Havana. These avisos
(advice-boats, light vessels for carrying dispatches) sailed at the
beginning of January, the end of March, the middle of June, and the
first days of November. Most of the letters at that time were carried by
smugglers. Armona succeeded in establishing a weekly postal
communication between the towns mentioned above and also engaged
postillions to carry mail sacks of San Juan de los Remedies, Trinidad
and other towns not included in the other line. Every month except
September, _la Coruna_, a vessel with the mail of Cuba and Spanish
America, sailed from Havana for Spain. The work of Armona was
extraordinary in face of the great difficulties which he had to
overcome, both in regard to the lack of sufficient funds and to the lack
of efficient and reliable officials. When he retired from the department
the mail service of Cuba was neglected and even the line established
between Havana and other towns of the island reduced its operation to
one mail a month.
In the meantime the tragedy of the siege of Havana was being discussed
in Spain before the tribunal charged with the investigation of the
conduct of the men then at the head of the government in Havana and
supposed to be responsible for its defeat by the British. After many
months of tedious conferences, the Military Council, according to
Alcazar, condemned Ex-Governor Prado to degradation of rank and
banishment, Conde de Superanda and Tavares likewise, and the colonel of
engineers Ricaut to ten years' suspension from office. The Teniente-Rey
Soler, the colonels Caro and Arroyo and the artillery-commander Crel de
la Hoz escaped with severe admonitions. Thus was the curtain rung down
upon the epilogue to the tragedy of that siege.
After two years, during which he administered the affairs of the
government with great sagacity and introduced many valuable reforms,
Conde de Ricla asked permission to retire from his office and return to
Spain. The Court accepted his resignation and appointed as his successor
the Field Marshal D. Diego Manrique, who took charge of the government
on the thirtieth of June, 1765. But he was almost immediately taken sick
of yellow fever and died on the thirteenth of July, a few days after his
inauguration. The Municipio of Havana urgently requested Ricla to resume
the duties of governor, but he firmly refused and embarked for Spain.
There may have been reasons for his determination not to continue in
office, that are not mentioned by Valdes and Alcazar. For Blanchet
remarks that the Conde de Ricla, though a man of action and efficiency,
seems in the awarding of privileges and assignment of punishments not to
have conducted himself quite properly. Ricla is described as having been
a man of small stature, and grave but not unpleasant manner. He died in
1780 as minister of war in Spain.
There is a memorial to his services in carrying through the extensive
work on the fortifications of Havana in the chapel of Cabana, where on a
block is found this inscription:
"During the reign in Spain of His Catholic Majesty Senor D. Carlos III.
and the government in this island of the Count de Ricla, Grandee of
Spain and Lieutenant-General of the Royal Armies, was begun, in the year
1763, this fort of San Carlos, that of Atares in the Loma de Sota and
the rebuilding and enlargement of el Morro. The works of this fort were
continued and those of el Morro and Atares were finished during the
government of the Lieutenant-General of the Royal Army Senor Baylio D.
Antonio Maria Buccarelli, etc."
The provisional governorship of the Teniente de Rey, the King's
Lieutenant, D. Pascal Jiminez de Cisneros, lasted from the thirteenth of
July, 1765, to the nineteenth of March, 1766. He conscientiously
endeavored to continue to rule in the spirit of his predecessor and to
carry out the instructions given him by Ricla before he left for Spain.
Some disturbances took place during that time, caused by the
tobacco-planters and by the soldiers. The former began to object to
selling their entire harvest to the factory. The latter had become
dissatisfied on account of the irregularity with which they were paid.
The new governor appointed by the court of Madrid for Cuba was the Field
Marshal Senor Baylio D. Antonio Maria Buccarelli, a native of Sevilla.
He entered upon his office on the nineteenth of March, 1766, and was
evidently determined to continue and if possible improve upon the many
reforms and improvements that had been introduced by Ricla. Among them
were certain police regulations which tended to insure the safety of the
residents, as well as order and cleanliness on the streets. He also
resolved to abolish the abuses of the bar, by putting a stop to the
extortions practised by unscrupulous lawyers on ignorant clients. This
decidedly new departure from any precedent was outlined in a
proclamation of good government, which he published according to Valdes
on the seventh, according to Alcazar on the twelfth of April, 1766. In
this memorable address to the people, he announced that he would devote
two hours daily to giving hearing to complainants; at this hearing were
to be present attorneys and clerks to take down the depositions and
render advice, and the judgments there delivered were to be signed
without delay, except on holidays. By these verbal audiences he
succeeded in clearing up many cases before they went to the regular
courts, thus protecting the people against exploitation by the numerous
officials attached to the lower courts and avoiding expensive lawsuits.
This new reform in the judicial department of the island especially
benefited the slaves, whose rights he endeavored to protect and insure.
The extraordinary discretion with which he performed this function of
his office, preserving his dignity and affability in the most trying
situations, endeared him to the people.
The most difficult task before him, and one calling for unusual prudence
and tact, was the execution of the royal decree concerning the expulsion
of certain religious orders against whom drastic measures had been taken
in Europe. The movement began in Portugal in 1759, when the Jesuits were
expelled from that country. Two years later the society was dissolved
and its members banished from France. Then the opposition to them made
itself felt in Spain. King Carlos III. had always been their zealous
protector, but he suddenly turned against them after the curious
Sombrero-and-Manta revolution in Madrid in 1766. His favorite, the
Marquis Squilaci, a Neapolitan, had tried to inaugurate various reforms
in the city, among them the cleaning of the streets, which were in an
unspeakable state of filth, the regulation of the prices of food and the
installment of a lighting system. Simple and reasonable as were these
innovations, they met with furious opposition on the part of certain
classes of the people. This opposition was fanned into open revolt by
another ordinance which he issued. It was directed against the enormous
sombreros and voluminous mantas (cape cloaks) worn with preference by
individuals who could thus easily disguise themselves, hide their
identity and carry dangerous weapons which played a dismal part in the
numerous assassinations that had shocked the authorities. An organized
revolt against these measures took place in Madrid and led to
considerable bloodshed. The king was made to believe that the Jesuits
were the prime agents in that insurrection, and at midnight of the
seventeenth of February, 1767, Carlos III. signed a decree ordering
their immediate expulsion from Spain. In this decree, the execution of
which was entrusted to Count Aranda, the king gave as reason for this
step, the necessity to maintain among his subjects order, obedience,
quiet and justice. At the same time he ordered the temporal property of
the society of Jesuits in the dominions of Spain to be adjudged to the
treasury. The order was executed with a promptness and a quiet deserving
especial comment. On the same day were sent to all judges, governors,
regents and viceroys a secret message, accompanied by a circular letter
saying that the message containing royal instructions to be obeyed by
every one should not be opened before April 1. Those officials were
moreover warned not to communicate the contents of the message to any
one, and should the public by some chance obtain such knowledge, those
responsible were to be treated as though they had violated the secret
and were guilty of opposition to the Sovereign's orders. This measure
was so effectively executed that the padres of the order were taken by
surprise, and were speedily sent on their way out of the country without
the slightest disorder. On the day of this expulsion the king had
affixed a "pragmatica" on the doors of the palace and public buildings
in the principal streets, in which it was said among other things, that
the individual priests would be given seventy-two pesos annually for
their means of subsistence, and the lay brothers sixty-five, that their
pensions would be paid out of the property of the Society, and that it
was prohibited in the whole monarchy to receive any individual of the
Society in particular, or to admit them into any community, or any court
or tribunal, or to appeal in their behalf. It was also prohibited to
write or influence the minds of the people for or against this
pragmatica or to enter into any correspondence with the members of the
expelled order. This royal decree was carried into effect in all the
colonies of Spanish America, and in Cuba it was Buccarelli to whom
credit was due for the tact displayed in performing this extremely
difficult duty. The proceeds of the property of the Society, which
reverted to the state, were devoted by Buccarelli to the endowment of
three professorships at the university, two for law and one for
mathematics. The decision of the King met with no open opposition among
the residents, although the Jesuit College, since then called the
Seminario de San Carlos, and their church, actually the Cathedral, had
been a center of interest to the society of Havana, and the much
esteemed and beloved Senor D. Pedro Agostine Morell was reported to have
been responsible for the coming of the order to Havana. Senor Morell
died on the twenty-ninth of December, 1769, and was succeeded in his
diocese by D. José Echeverria.
Governor Buccarelli made strenuous efforts to abolish contraband trading
in the island. He tried also to promote coffee culture in Cuba, which
had so far yielded so little as to be not even sufficient for home
consumption. His Majesty granted an extension of customs for five years
at that time. A new step for the improvement of the maritime department
was taken in the year 1766, when the Apostadero was created a military
and naval station. To the administration of this office was appointed D.
Juan Antonio de la Colina, who during the siege of Havana in 1762 had
ordered the sinking of the three vessels for the purpose of closing to
the British the entry of the port. Colina was invested with the same
powers possessed in Spain by the Captain-General of the naval
department. In the shipyard of Havana there were built at this time
vessels of various sizes and purposes, among them the _Santissima
Trinidad_, a vessel of one hundred and twelve guns, and three smaller
but excellent ships. The _Santissima Trinidad_ was destined some years
later to be destroyed in the battle of Trafalgar.
Two great calamities caused much distress and loss of lives and property
during Buccarelli's administration. In July and August, 1766,
earthquakes destroyed a great portion of Santiago de Cuba. It was
estimated that more than one hundred persons perished. Among them was
the governor, Marquis de Casa-Cagigal, who was removed from the ruins of
his residence. The disaster called for such great funds for the
alleviation of the suffering and the hardships occasioned by this
catastrophe, that the Royal Treasury had to retard the payment of the
salaries to the officials of the island. The civilian population
contributed generously to the relief funds collected in the principal
towns of the island. Governor Buccarelli himself sent contributions to
two hundred presidarios and to two engineers that had been stricken in
the performance of their duties.
The losses and the sorrow caused by this calamity had barely been
repaired and mitigated, when another disaster called for sympathy and
active assistance on the part of those that were spared. This was the
tremendous hurricane which swept over Havana on the fifteenth of
October, 1768, and left the city a scene of desolation. The vessels in
the harbor were torn from their anchorage, and drifted into the sea
lashed into fury by the tempest; the trees in the orchards were
uprooted, the fields appeared as if they had been churned. Buildings
were carried away from their foundations and deposited in remote places.
It was difficult to estimate the damage done in the city and its
neighborhood. Again a call for relief was sounded and responded to
readily. To assist the sufferers a great sum came from the proceeds of
the Jesuit properties recently seized, which according to the valuation
of experts amounted to several million pesos.
Buccarelli was appointed Viceroy of Mexico, and retired on the fourth of
August, 1771. He had proved a worthy successor of the much esteemed
Count Ricla and left behind him an excellent reputation. It was said of
him that he had never once lacked that political prudence which should
ever guide the actions of an official in such a responsible position as
was the governorship of Cuba. He was praised for his cautious inquiries
into legal abuses and his judicious settlement of cases, some of which
had for forty years occupied the time of the courts and filled the
pockets of greedy attorneys. He was reported under the most exasperating
circumstances to have always conserved his affable disposition and to
have never lost his temper, however great may have been the provocation.
Upon the whole, he was looked upon as a man of rare nobility of
character and Cuba was loath to part with him. He was one of the few
governors that had never given cause for any complaint. This was
attested by the Minister of the Indies, then Baylio Knight Julian de
Arriaga, who wrote to him by order of His Majesty that not the slightest
complaint of his government had come to the court.