Washington's warning of entangling alliances comes to one's mind on
reading the curious results of the concerted action against Britain
decided upon by France and Spain in Europe, while the United States were
fighting the British in North America, and the Spanish colonies of Cuba
and Louisiana were attempting to wrest from them the Gulf coast. The
lure of Gibraltar had led to a state of blockade; but this was far from
satisfying to the insatiable ambition of the Spanish prime minister,
Florida Blanca, still bent upon making the world ring with the sonority
of his name. Ignoring all arguments to the contrary presented by the
French statesman Vergennes, and even by some of the Spanish authorities
familiar with the situation, he began to insist upon an immediate attack
on Britain and gradually persuaded the French allies. An expedition was
fitted out and in June, 1779, the fleet consisting of thirty-one French
ships of line and twenty Spanish warships sailed for the Channel.
It was the largest and best equipped force that had been seen on the
Atlantic in many years; for the Spanish shipbuilders had been busy
during the past years of unrest and threatening war clouds and had
turned out vessels far superior in construction to those of Britain. The
French were not over hopeful; even light-hearted Marie Antoinette was
conscious of the importance of the enterprise and the great risk it
involved; for she wrote in a private letter: "Everything depends on the
present moment. Our fleets being united, we have a great superiority.
They are in the Channel; and I cannot think without a shudder that,
from one moment to the next, our destiny will be decided." The French
staked their hope upon the reputation of the Spanish as fighters on sea.
Montmorin said: "I hope the Spanish marine will fight well; but I should
like it better if the British, frightened at their number, would retreat
to their own harbors without fighting." King Carlos alone was
optimistic; he imagined a rapid invasion, a prompt victory and the
humiliation of Britain, which he had so long wished for.
The unexpected was to happen for both French and Spaniards. The fleet
appeared at Plymouth on the sixteenth of August, but, without even an
attempt at attacking the town, for some unexplained reason was idle for
two whole days. Then a storm came up and drove it westward. When the
weather became more favorable, the vessels returned and the British
retired before them. There was no action to speak of; there was nothing
lost and nothing gained, and realizing the futility of the undertaking,
the chiefs decided to abandon it. The French returned to Brest, and the
Spanish to Cadiz. To the onlooking world the actions of the expedition
appeared nothing less than quixotic. The reasons for this
incomprehensible performance gradually became known; the expedition had
sailed under many chiefs, but it lacked the one chief, whose will and
word was to prevail and insure unity of purpose. Unable to agree upon
any one plan of action, they decided upon no action whatever. The
Spanish admiral, who had been fired with the spirit of Florida Blanca
and been eager to display the famous military prowess of his nation in a
big fight with the enemy, was so furious, that he vowed on his honor
after this experience rather to serve against France than Britain. Marie
Antoinette wrote to her mother: "The doing of nothing at all will have
cost us a great deal of money."
But while a legitimate engagement between the French and Spanish vessels
on the one and the British on the other side was for the time being
avoided, the three countries did not disdain to stoop to smaller means
to inflict damage upon the commerce and the navigation of one another.
Nor did they hesitate to attack the vessels of neutral countries, if
they suspected them of lending aid to the belligerent they were
opposing; and as this spirit began to spread, it led to a state of
anarchy upon the seas, which recalled the golden age of piracy. British
privateers and other vessels cruised about the ocean in quest of booty
and attacked and robbed indiscriminately whatever ships they suspected;
and very frequently this suspicion was only a pretext. Dutch commerce
and navigation especially suffered from these depredations, and as
French and Spanish vessels began to vie with the British in these
violations of neutrality, the council chambers of the European powers,
from Lisbon to Petrograd and from Naples to Christiania began to ring
with vociferous protests against these disgraceful conditions. When
Spain issued an order that all ships found by her vessels to be carrying
provisions and to be bound for Mediterranean ports, should be brought
into the harbor of Cadiz and their cargoes sold to the highest bidder,
even Britain was alarmed and indignant.
That was the moment which brought into prominence Sir George Rodney, the
British commander, whose naval exploits soon were to worry the Spanish
colonies, as did once those of British freebooters. Rodney sailed with
his squadron on the twenty-ninth of December, 1779, and by the eighth of
January had captured seven warships and fifteen merchantmen. At Cape St.
Vincent, where he arrived on the sixteenth, he destroyed a part of the
Spanish squadron under command of D. Languara. In the spring of the same
year he had several encounters with the French fleet, under command of
Admiral Guichen, with results so favorable for him that Britain soon
resounded with his praise. His progress had so far been almost
unobstructed, but in the summer it was temporarily checked, when the
Spanish squadron, commanded by D. Solano, joined that of the French.
However, the curious disparity of French and Spanish temperament once
more manifested itself in a manner which disastrously affected their
work. Unable to agree on important questions of action, their
cooperation threatened to come to naught. In the mean time an epidemic
of fever broke out in both fleets and D. Solano returned with his ships
to Havana, while Admiral Guichen sailed for France.
The new governor, who had succeeded Navarro in the administration of
Cuba, was Lieutenant-General D. Juan Manuel de Cagigal. Alcazar calls
his governorship a provisional one; Blanchet asserts that he received
his appointment in reward for the valuable services he had rendered
during the recent conquest of Pensacola, he having been the first to
enter through the breach which the Spanish had made in the
fortifications. Cagigal was a native of Cuba; he entered upon his office
on the twenty-ninth of May, 1781, and remained until December of the
same year. He contributed largely to the efficiency of the expedition
which was fitted out under the command of D. Solano, the General of the
Spanish fleet, consisting of twelve vessels with one thousand men on
board, and was to join the French fleet at Guarico. The object of the
expedition was to capture the island of Providence and eventually take
other island possessions of the British in the contiguous seas.
According to Alcazar, Providence was taken, but the defeat of the French
squadron by Rodney made the position of Cagigal critical and attention
had to be concentrated upon the defense of Havana.
According to Blanchet this joint expedition of the French and Spanish
forces, which had for its ultimate object the capture of Jamaica, had
elected for its chief D. José de Galvez, giving him for the duration of
the campaign authority over the Captain-General of Cuba and the
president of Santo Domingo. By order of Galvez, Cagigal had set out from
Havana in April, 1782, with forty-eight transports and two thousand men
to possess himself of the British island of Bahama, and in particular of
Providence. During his absence D. José Dahan exercised the authority of
the governor. Cagigal was not aware that a week before his sailing
Admiral Rodney had defeated the French squadron of Count de Grasse,
which he was to join in the attack on Jamaica. However, Providence was
taken and a sufficient garrison left there to make the conquest secure.
Blanchet indulges in some criticism of Cagigal that he had left Havana,
and taken all the troops with him at such a critical time. For when he
reached Matanzas after a heavy gale which had dispersed his ships, he
found the authorities no little alarmed since a British fleet had been
sighted.
Cagigal immediately hurried to the capital, fortified the approaches,
employing one thousand negroes in the work, and formed an intrenched
camp. He armed the militia, which was reenforced by many civilians,
eager to fight the enemy, and when on the fifth of August el Morro gave
notice of the presence of the British, everybody was prepared for the
defence. Sir George Rodney, now Admiral, had calculated upon taking
Havana by surprise. He brought with him a squadron composed of
twenty-six ships of the line, and carrying a large number of troops.
When he arrived and began to reconnoiter, he perceived the formidable
preparations that had been made for the defence of the place, and
deciding that it was imprudent to attack Havana by land, planned to
approach it from Jarico. In the meantime Cagigal had received
reenforcements which seemed to assure the safety of the capital. Daring
as was the gallant Britisher, he was not inclined to waste his material
in an enterprise so doubtful of success, and to the great relief of the
Cubans he sailed away.
In his administration Cagigal did not prove as efficient as in his
military operations. He was a born soldier. He had followed the military
profession in Portugal, Oran and at Gibraltar; he had participated in
the unfortunate expedition against Argel, had fought in Florida and had
been with D. Pedro Caballero at Buenos Aires. He disliked the atmosphere
of official bureaus and the complicated machinery of government. This
lack of interest in the indispensable functions of his office brought
him into serious trouble. He had counselors or asesores attend to
matters which did not immediately require his intervention, and as such
had employed the Venezuelan D. Francisco Miranda, who eventually became
prominent in the history of his own country. When Miranda returned from
a commission in Jamaica, he disembarked some contraband in Batabano. The
Intendente Urriza, who was informed of the matter, at once sent a
complaint to Cagigal, who, either from indifference or indolence, never
even stopped to examine the case, but simply resolved to suppress it. He
had, however, not taken into account the presence of the functionaries
of the royal Hacienda or Treasury, who communicated the incident to the
proper authorities in Spain. An urgent order for Cagigal's removal from
office was the result; and the Captain-General of Caracas, D. Luis de
Unzaga, was sent to take his place as governor of Cuba. Miranda fled.
Cagigal was sent to Guarico and later dispatched by D. José de Galvez to
Cadiz, where he was for four years a prisoner in Fort Santa Catalina.
During the proceedings against him it was found that he was in no way
implicated in the smuggling operation of Miranda. He was rehabilitated
during the reign of King Carlos IV. and in the war with the French
Republic had once more an opportunity to prove his military abilities.
He died as Captain General of Valencia.
The strong impulse towards progress which had been given to Cuba in that
period of peace when the administrations of Buccarelli and la Torre
devoted their main energies to internal improvements and to modest
attempts at laying the foundations of Cuban culture, had of course
subsided during the recent unrest and the predominance of military
interests. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the spark kindled a few
years before was not quite dead. A long-felt want had been the absence
of any periodical publication that would give the people of Cuba
information upon the current political events and also be a medium for
advertising purposes. According to some historians the first periodical
of this kind, the _Gazeta_, published under the direction of D. Diego de
la Barrera, made its appearance in the year 1780; others give as the
date of its foundation the year 1782.
Whatever the date of its publication may have been, the _Gazeta de la
Habana_ became a medium through which the people were kept informed of
the doings of the various administrative departments. The issue dated
April eleventh, 1783, contains some statistics concerning the silver
coins with milled edges cut away, which had been recently withdrawn from
circulation, which is of interest as it suggests the relative financial
rank of the different localities mentioned.
In the Treasury of the General Silver Reales
Administration: with milled edges Weight
cut away in ounces
Havana 311,625 23,340 10
Guanabacoa 2,808 151
Santa Maria del Rosario 21,870 1,117 12
Arroyo Arenas 7,049 380 14
Santa Clara 237,665 12,558
San Juan de Los Remedios 68,153 3,848
Trinidad 40,137 2,145
Sancti Spiritus 197,905 11,670 14
Puerto Principe 73,792 3,207
Bayamo 94,499 4,615 7
Holguin 31,013 1,701
Baracoa 6,396 1,465
-------- ------
1,092,940 66,231 5
The _Gazeta_ added to this report: "There have been collected from the
public over two million pesos (cut away), and in their exchange they
yielded a little over eighty thousand pesos fuertes (efficacious), and
although the loss is excessive as a whole it must be stated, that in
particular it was not very grave, the money being distributed in small
amounts among the public."
This was a critical period in the conflict which had gradually involved
the principal countries and was watched with apprehension by all the
sovereigns of Europe. Up to this date Florida Blanca, who, from a simple
lawyer in the provinces had risen to be prime minister of Spain, had not
attained the goal of his ambition and secured for Spain victories, the
glory of which should cast a halo about his name. On the contrary,
circumstances began so to complicate the task which he had imagined to
be comparatively easy, that he was puzzled and began to lose some of his
extraordinary self-assurance. Bancroft gives in his "History of the
United States" (Vol. VI. p. 441) a very interesting review of the
situation and of the relation of Spain to the Revolutionary War, which
was drawing towards its close. He says:
"The hatred of America as a self-existent state became every day more
intense in Spain from the desperate weakness of her authority in her
trans-atlantic possessions. Her rule was dreaded in them all; and, as
even her allies confessed, with good reason. The seeds of rebellion were
already sown in the vice-royalties of Buenes Ayres and Peru; and a union
of Creoles and Indians might prove at any moment fatal to metropolitan
dominion. French statesmen were of the opinion that England, by
emancipating South America, might indemnify itself for all loss from the
independence of a part of its own colonial empire; and they foresaw in
such a revolution the greatest benefit to the commerce of their own
country. Immense naval preparations had been made by the Bourbons for
the conquest of Jamaica; but now, from the fear of spreading the love of
change Florida Blanca suppressed every wish to acquire that nest of
hated contraband trade. When the French ambassador reported to him the
proposal of Vergennes to constitute its inhabitants an independent
republic, he seemed to hear the tocsin of insurrection sounding from the
La Plata to San Francisco, and from that time had nothing to propose for
the employment of the allied fleets in the West Indies. He was perplexed
beyond the power of extrication. One hope only remained. Minorca having
been wrested from the English, he concentrated all the force of Spain in
Europe on the one great object of recovering Gibraltar, and held France
to her promise not to make peace until that fortress should be given
up."
From that time began a series of secret manoeuvres in favor of a general
peace, and rumors of the signing of treaties that had then not even been
drafted, began to float across the ocean and agitate the colonies of
Spanish America. But naval operations in the waters of the West Indies
continued almost without cessation. The French fleet under de Grasse had
before its return to France restored to the Dutch St. Eustatius. It had
captured St. Christopher, Nevis and Montserrat. When in February, 1782,
Admiral Rodney appeared at Barbados with twelve new ships of line in
addition to his fleet, and was towards the end of the month joined by
the squadron under command of Hood at Antigua, it became necessary for
the French to look for a junction with the Spanish fleet. For this
purpose de Grasse left Port Royal to Martinique on the eighth of April
and hurriedly sailed for Hispaniola. After a small engagement at
Dominica, Admiral Rodney by a skillful ruse brought on a battle with the
French between Guadeloupe, Saintes and Marie Galante. The British had on
their side superiority in number and quality, having thirty six vessels,
all in good repair and manned by well-trained and disciplined sailors.
The French ships were better constructed, but inferior in number, and
their mariners were known to be less efficient and experienced. The
combat raged for eleven hours. Four of de Grasse's ships were captured,
one sunk. The British lost about one thousand men in killed and wounded,
the French about three times as many. This defeat of their ally tended
to depress the spirits of the Spanish people, both in the mother country
and the colonies, for they saw Britain once more exercising almost
undisputed authority over the seas.
By this time the belligerents were all becoming tired of the war and
were seriously hoping for peace. The situation in France had after this
new defeat become specially precarious. Her coffers had been depleted by
participating in a war in which she had nothing to gain. Hence her
statesmen were particularly anxious to end a conflict the ideal aim of
which had been attained by the recognition of the independence of the
United States from Britain. But she was bound by the alliance with
Spain; and Spain was inflexible in refusing to acknowledge that
independence and in insisting upon her demands, among them above all
others, in Europe, the return of Gibraltar, in America the territory
east of the Mississippi, including the right of navigation on that
river. Conferences between John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, the special
American emissaries, and the French minister Vergennes and his able
assistant Rayneval were constantly taking place. Couriers were speeding
back and forth between Paris and London. Rayneval attempted to bring the
subject of Gibraltar to the attention of the Earl of Shelburne, saying:
"Gibraltar is as dear to the king of Spain as his life," but he was told
that it was out of the question even to propose to the government to
cede it to Spain. He pleaded for Spain's claim of the Mississippi and
its eastern valley, and received an ambiguous reply, implying that
Britain might be induced to cede Jamaica. But the indirect offer was
ignored, just as had been that of Porto Rico some time before. The more
the negotiations progressed, the more did Spain, persisting in her
traditional conservatism, prove a stumbling block to peace. For as late
as September, 1782, in a meeting between Lafayette, Jay and Aranda, did
the latter, as representative of King Carlos III., refuse to
acknowledge the independence of the new republic.
In the mean time Spain was clamoring for action against Gibraltar, and
the French and Spanish fleets united in an attempt to reduce the fort
under the command of the Duke of Crillon. But three years of blockade,
with intervals of famine and privation, had not broken the spirit of the
British garrison. While the first question of the king of Spain on
awakening every morning was: "Is Gibraltar taken?" the British continued
to defend it with a stubbornness which threatened to prolong the
struggle interminably. Receiving constant supplies from the British
fleet under Lord Howe, General Eliot was able to hold his own and the
futility of this expedition soon became apparent. When the Spanish
batteries were blown up and General Eliot made his audacious sortie, the
hope of this victory had to be abandoned.
Spain at last realized the necessity of yielding to the inevitable. Her
debt had been increased by twenty millions sterling, her navy had been
almost annihilated and she had gained nothing but an island or two. King
Carlos III., who had so long withheld his recognition of the United
States and blocked the negotiations for peace, because the American
envoys justly demanded that recognition before they could deal with the
representatives of Spain, finally yielded to the pressure of the moment
and the preliminaries of peace were signed on the thirtieth of November,
1782. By the separate articles of this treaty, the claim of the United
States to all the country from the St. Croix to the southwestern
Mississippi, from the Lake of the Woods to the St. Mary's, was verified.
By a separate article the line of north boundary between West Florida
and the United States was defined, in case Great Britain at the
conclusion of the war should recover that province.
Thus was the republic, the consummation of which King Carlos III. had in
his loyalty to the old tradition of sovereignty so zealously tried to
prevent, established upon the very continent, which Columbus had
discovered, and to the greater part of which Spain had laid claim. If
the Spanish king and his cabinet were at all conscious of the analogy
presented by comparison of the commercial and other restrictions placed
upon both colonies by the kingdoms from which they had sprung, they had
reason to be filled with vague apprehensions at the rise of this new and
free power among the countries of the world. They could not help seeing
in the republic which by a long and tenacious fight had won her
independence from the mother country, a neighbor whose example offered a
dangerous precedent.
Perhaps it was with the intention of forestalling the development of
such events in Cuba, as had led to the Declaration of Independence by
the colonies to the north, that the Spanish King had some years before
begun to remove the restrictions which had for two centuries and more
hampered the growth of Cuban commerce and retarded her general
development. It was a proof of his own growth towards a more liberal
conception of the relations between a country and her colonies, that the
removal of these restrictions was effected within so short a time. He
opened the trade of Cuba and the other islands of his possessions in
America in 1765, and that of Louisiana in 1768 to eight Spanish ports
besides Cadiz; he gradually permitted direct trade from the Spanish
ports to his dependencies in South and Central America; and in 1782 even
allowed New Orleans and Pensacola to trade with French ports that had
Spanish consuls.
The breath of freedom which seemed to sweep across the world during
these last decades of the eighteenth century, might well have filled the
sovereigns of Europe with fear for their possessions and prerogatives.
Although Carlos III. was the most liberal monarch that Spain had had in
a long time, he still clung to a rigorous paternal regime in the
relations of the court to the colonies, the population of which began to
resent the rule of officials sent to them from Madrid, and rarely
concerned with their welfare. He had had more cause than other European
sovereigns to dread the consequences which the American Revolution might
bring in its wake. For an insurrection, headed by Tupac-Amaru, who
called himself an Inca, had broken out in Peru, and was directed against
the exactions of the corregidores; and though it was suppressed by the
year 1782, incipient revolt seemed everywhere to be ready to break out.
As Garcia Calderon says of that period in his book on Latin America:
"The revolution was not merely an economic pretext; it nourished
concrete social ambitions. An equalizing movement, it aimed at
destruction of privileges, of the arbitrary Spanish hierarchy, and
finally, when its levelling instinct was aroused and irritated, the
destruction of authority to the profit of anarchy. The Creoles, deprived
of all political function, revolted; in matters of economics they
condemned excessive taxation and monopoly; in matters of politics they
attacked slavery, the Inquisition, and moral tutelage. Charles III. had
recognized, in 1783, in spite of the counsels of his minister Aranda,
the independence of the United States, which were to serve his own
colonies as precedent, and he expelled the Jesuits from America, the
defense of the Indians against the oppression of Spanish governors. The
corruption of the courts, the sale of offices, and the tyranny of the
viceroys, all added to the causes of discontent, disturbance and
poverty."
The insurrection in Peru was but the tocsin sounding the alarm. It was
to be followed by a number of revolts that shook the very foundations of
Spain's colonial empire in America.
Cuba for some time to come remained untouched by the high tide of
insurrection. It enjoyed a period of peace, which promoted the welfare
of the people and insured their content. D. Luis de Unzaga, who entered
upon his office as governor of the island in December, 1783,
distinguished himself by his strenuous prosecution of officials, whose
honesty he had reason to doubt. One of these was the administrator of
the Factoria or tobacco factory, D. Manuel Garcia Barrieres, whose
disposal and trial he ordered. This factory, which monopolized the
tobacco crop of the island for the benefit of the royal government,
received a subvention from Spain which at this time was increased to
fifty thousand pesos annually. Unzaga also took steps to limit the
number of inexperienced and unscrupulous lawyers, against whom some of
his predecessors had already inaugurated a campaign, by refusing to
issue new diplomas to barristers, there being at that time two hundred
practicing in the island. A royal decree of the year 1784 was directed
towards the same evil, but lawyers still remained too numerous in
proportion to the population for in 1792 the island had one hundred and
six, and Havana seventy two. Governor Unzaga had also some trouble with
the governor of Santiago de Cuba, D. Nicolas Arredondo. D. Arredondo,
who is remembered in history of the island as the founder of the first
"Sociedad Patriotica," in which he had such fellow-members as D.
Francisco Lozo de la Torre, D. Pedro Valiente, and D. Francisco Grinan,
was accused of participating in contraband trade and was temporarily
deposed. Ultimately it was discovered that the real offenders were two
aldermen, the brothers Creaght. After a protracted trial the innocence
of Arredondo was established and he was reinstated in office.
The greater the natural wealth of a country, the more are its
inhabitants inclined to indulge in thoughtless or deliberate waste of
resources which would be carefully husbanded in country less favored by
nature. Cuba was wasteful of her forest wealth. The governors of the
island had so far paid little or no heed to the wanton destruction of
the forests by people who exploited them for their timber. In a
proclamation issued soon after he was inaugurated, Governor Unzaga made
a serious attempt at checking this criminal waste of the island's
wealth. He prohibited the use of cedar for building purposes; he
designated the land where the people could procure their supply of that
valuable wood, and ordered that for each log cut the arsenal should
receive two "knees." The state had for years looked with indifference
upon the devastation of the forests, and, conceding to private
individuals the absolute dominion over those that shaded favored
territory, wanted to monopolize them for the use of the Navy. Not only
the sugar refineries were using unreasonable quantities of that wood,
but especially the shipyard. This enterprise, which received an annual
subvention from the Spanish government of seven hundred thousand pesos,
and was more active than those of the mother country, because negro
labor was cheaper than white, used enormous quantities of cedar.
Thus the order of Governor Unzaga, while ultimately benefiting the
island, caused for the moment no little heated discussion and unpleasant
tension.
Among the foreigners of high rank that visited Cuba immediately after
peace had been signed was the son of George III., William of Lancaster,
who had served as midshipman in Rodney's squadron. According to Alcazar,
he was most graciously received, being sumptuously lodged by Governor
Unzaga, who in honor of his presence arranged many brilliant
festivities, in which the aristocracy of the island had opportunity to
show itself resplendent in all its wealth. So pleased seemed the prince
with his stay that he might have prolonged it, had not the admiral
reprimanded him, and insisting upon his immediate return on board,
threatened to leave without him. Knowing Rodney's severity, the prince
obeyed, although it must have been difficult for him to tear away from
that gay life. The visit cost the Cubans great sums of money, officials
and civilians having vied with one another in offering entertainment.
The mess at which the General of the Marine, D. Solano, had treated him,
is reported by Valdes to have cost four thousand pesos. A gold peso
being about the value of three dollars, it was a handsome sum to spend
on the son of the king who had been Spain's enemy in the war just
concluded.
One of the most serious mistakes which Spain had always made in the
administration of her American colonies was the appointment of men who
were mostly natives of the mother country and not as familiar with the
conditions and the needs of the territory they governed as those who had
been born in the colonies. The short period of some administrations also
greatly hindered a well-ordered systematic management of the different
departments of the government. Earlier periods of the history of Cuba
had such frequent changes of governorship; and the latter part of the
eighteenth century was to undergo the same experience. When Unzaga
retired on the eighth of February, 1785, he was succeeded by a man whose
previous career had given him a reputation which recommended him to the
Cubans; D. Bernardo Galvez, who had distinguished himself in the last
expedition against Pensacola, and as former governor of Louisiana was
thoroughly in touch with colonial life in Spanish America. Galvez was a
native of Malaga, Knight Commander of the order of Calatrava and endowed
with the title of Conde de Galvez. But the hopes of the island were much
disappointed when only two months later he was transferred to the
vice-regency of Mexico and was on the fifth of April temporarily
replaced by the King's Lieutenant-teniente de Rey, and Field Marshal D.
Bernardo Troncoso. He had been governor of Guatemala, and when he had
barely become acquainted with Cuban conditions, was appointed governor
of Vera Cruz. But during his brief administration he showed no little
initiative and firmness of purpose and among other things succeeded in
repressing the bakers' guild which had become very troublesome.
At this time the Spanish colonies of the continent, Louisiana and
Florida, became aware of the hostility with which they were regarded by
certain elements of the United States, that tried to foment disturbances
along their northern boundaries. In June of that year Troncoso received
news from Louisiana that a corps of two thousand three hundred Americans
were organizing in the state of Georgia for the purpose of taking the
fortifications of Natchez, which they alleged were on ground of their
demarcation. Troncoso accordingly dispatched from Havana a few pickets
of infantry and a company of dragoons, with the aid of which the
governor of Louisiana could mobilize a column of twelve hundred regular
troops to check the project.
With the inauguration of Brigadier D. José de Espoleto on the first of
December, 1785, a little more stability came into the government of the
island. One of the first official acts was the formation of the Regiment
of Cuba, in which he was ably assisted by the Inspector D. Domingo
Cabello. Espoleto entered upon the functions of his office in the spirit
of the Marques de la Torre, to whose wise administration Havana was
indebted for all the improvements and reforms that made her worthy of
being the metropolis of the Spanish West Indies. Espoleto continued the
work on the piers, hastened the completion of the buildings for the
government and the Intendencia, inaugurated a system of water supply and
street cleaning and established a public market for the convenience of
the producers in the outlying districts and the city dwellers relying
upon them for their supplies in dairy and garden products. He also
introduced some reforms in the police department of Havana. But what was
most important for that commonwealth was his settling upon it of a sum
which was to be devoted to the permanent lighting of the city.
In his administration Santiago de Cuba took a significant step towards
the more effective concentration of the literary activities of the
island. This was the foundation of the first Sociedad de Amigos, which
was approved of by the king and on the thirteenth of September, 1787,
received a royal grant. In his colonial administration Espoleto tried to
follow the example of Ricla and Buccarelli, ordering the publication of
the decrees which they had enacted and which in the course of time had
been forgotten, and did his best to enforce them. In this by no means
easy task he was backed by D. José Pablo Valiente, an oidor of the
Audiencia or judge of the Supreme Court, who had come to Havana in 1787
to start an inquiry into the disbursement of certain funds. By order of
the king he had to investigate how the enormous sums, which the
expeditions of the gallant Galvez had cost, had been invested; had to
examine the state of the royal revenues and suggest needed reforms,
watch the administration of justice and propose measures to raise the
standard of the bar. One of the high officials who had given a previous
administration trouble and was probably guilty of irregularities,
Urriza, was so resentful of this investigation of his office, which D.
Valiente was ordered to undertake, that he speedily resigned. He was
succeeded by D. Domingo Hernani.
Death reaped a rich harvest between 1786 and 1788, in removing men so
closely identified with the fate of the colonies and the mother country
that they were not soon to be adequately replaced. On the thirtieth of
November, 1786, D. Bernardo de Galvez died in Mexico, where he had
reigned as viceroy since he left Havana eleven months before. By his
rare executive talent and his extensive knowledge he had become one of
the most efficient colonial governors that Spanish America had known,
and to him was in a great measure due their progress and prosperity. A
few days later died in Madrid his uncle D. José de Galvez, the noted
minister of the Indies, whose name is also identified with colonial
reforms. But the greatest loss to the colonies and to Spain was the
death on the twenty-eighth of December, 1788, of King Carlos III. The
kind and prudent sovereign had in a reign of almost thirty years,
handicapped as he was by the Spanish tradition of absolutism, tried his
best to further the growth and the welfare of his country and its
dependencies, and inaugurated policies more liberal than any his
predecessors had followed. He had endeared himself to his people and was
sincerely mourned.
The accession of Carlos IV. to the throne of Spain was not calculated to
advance Spain and her colonies beyond the degree of development they had
attained during the long reign of his father. He was forty years of age
and by stature and physiognomy was singularly fitted to represent so
important a kingdom as Spain. But he was as unintelligent as ignorant,
and allowed himself to be guided by his wife, Maria Louise, princess of
Parma, who was as clever and scheming as he was dull and indolent. She
was an autocrat, who suffered nobody to share the reins with her, and
imperceptibly they slipped into her hands, until she was absolute
sovereign of the kingdom. Two years after the death of Carlos III.
Florida Blanca was forced to resign. Count Cabarrus, an ardent champion
of reform, and a man of considerable executive power, was arrested. D.
Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos, one of the most profound thinkers and
noblest patriots that Spain could claim in the eighteenth century, was
removed from the important position he held in Madrid and exiled.
Campomanes, too, fell into "disgrace" in 1791. All these men,
distinguished for their character and their ability, were replaced by
some feeble creatures with no idea or will of their own, puppets in the
hands of the queen, who transformed the court of Madrid into a den of
corruption.
The policies pursued by Spain during this time culminated in so much
confusion that Florida Blanca was recalled in 1792 and set about to make
an attempt at restoring order in a thoroughly disorganized government.
But he was deposed the same year, having been unable to obtain the favor
of the queen. Aranda, who during the previous reign had been the
representative of progress, peace and the liberal ideas that came to
Spain from France, followed him with no better luck. For he too was
dismissed within a year and his place was taken by the queen's favorite,
Manuel Godoy, who some years later was to turn up in Cuba. Godoy was a
handsome young officer; she made him a grandee of the first class with
the title of Duke of Alcudia, and entrusted him with the ministry of
foreign affairs. The proud old aristocracy of Spain grumbled at the rise
of the upstart; but it succumbed to the spirit of servility which
pervaded the atmosphere of the court, and sought the favorite's favor.
Such was the condition of the country which was exercising a paternal
authority over Spanish America. It was not calculated to tighten the
bonds existing between the mother country and the colonies. As
transportation increased and news began to spread more rapidly and to
circulate more freely, the eyes of the colonists were opened to the
iniquities they suffered, and they began to question institutions and
laws which they had formerly unconditionally accepted. The glamor of the
period of conquistadores had long faded; the excitement of the age of
piracy was slowly being forgotten. Cuba, like all Latin America, had
entered upon that period, which President Poincaré in his preface to
Garcia Calderon's book on "Latin America" calls "the colonial phase with
its disappointments, its illusions, its abuses and errors; the
domination of an oppressive theocracy, of crushing monopolies; the
insolence of privileged castes, and the indignities of Peninsular
agents." It needed strong and noble men to guide her through the period
of unrest which even at that moment was culminating in the French
Revolution.
The immediate echoes of this Revolution were heard in 1791 in
Hispaniola, where at the very first risings of the people in France, the
slaves had revolted, killing their masters and burning their property.
It was only the prelude to the greater insurrection, which broke out
later and in which Cuba became involved. In the mean time, this island
had come under another interim governorship, and was drifting along on
the tide of progress in some directions, while in others it had come to
a standstill, if it had not retrograded. The provisional government of
D. Domingo Caballo which began on the twentieth of April, 1789, and
ended on the eighth of July, 1790, was not noteworthy for any important
measures, unless it be another attempt at restricting the number and the
activities of lawyers. The royal decree of the nineteenth of November,
1789, which prohibited the admission of any more professors of
jurisprudence, native or foreign, to the bar of the island, was modified
to read thus: "To the profession of lawyer, only those shall be admitted
who studied in the greater universities of their countries and had
practiced in some of their capitals, where there existed a superior
tribunal certifying that they had practiced six years at the superior
courts of Spain."
During Caballo's interim rule there occurred the ecclesiastical division
of the island. The archbishopric of Santo Domingo was divided into two
suffragan dioceses, both the bishopric of Santiago de Cuba which had
existed since 1518 and the new bishopric of Havana being subject to the
metropolitan mitre of Santo Domingo. To the bishopric of Santiago was
appointed D. Antonio Feliu, a man of great piety and gentle
disposition, who rapidly won the esteem of the community and the love of
his flock. That of Havana, which also comprised Louisiana and Florida,
was entrusted to D. Felipe José de Tres Palacios.
In spite of the apparent prosperity, the island was still suffering from
centuries of restriction which had paralyzed the initiative of its
population. Maria de las Mercedes (Jaruco), Countess de Merlin, says of
that period in her work, "La Havana" (Paris, 1844):
"Owing to the long tyranny which had weighed upon the island, Cuba
needed hands to cultivate her fields. The products were devoured by a
monopoly; territorial property did not exist; for the proprietor could
not even cut a tree in his woods without the permission of the royal
marine; the population was reduced to 170,370 souls; the sugar
production had become so inferior in quality, that no more than 50,000
barrels of sugar annually left the port of Havana; finally, the island
was involved in debts and Mexico was obliged to aid it in the necessary
expenses of the administration and agriculture."
The author, a niece of the Conde de Casa Montalvo, who was identified
with the great revival of civic spirit during the administration of
Governor Las Casas, also limns a rather discouraging picture of the
state of education in the island, saying that in the year 1792, Havana
had only one grammar school, of which the mulatto Melendez was the
teacher, and that up to the year 1793 girls were forbidden to learn to
read. So thoroughly familiar was the author with the political and
economic conditions of Cuba, and closely associated with the men, whose
energy, integrity and patriotic ambition ushered in that wonderful era
of progress, that the three volumes of her work, consisting of letters
to Chateaubriand, George Sand, Baron Rothschild, and others are full of
valuable information presented in a most fascinating manner.
[Illustration: DON LUIS DE LAS CASAS]
The historian Valdes is not far from right, when he calls the history of
Cuba, as compared with that of other countries, _nuestra pequena
historia_--our little history. But that little history contains more
than one great epoch and its biography more than one figure that stands
out with something like sovereign impressiveness from the many names
which it records. The administration of D. Luis de Las Casas is such an
epoch, and he is such a man. Born in the village of Sapuerta in Viscaya,
his was a picturesque career. He had embraced the military profession
and been on the battlefields of Villaflor and Almeida; in Portugal he
attracted the attention of Count O'Reilly, who took him on the
expedition to Louisiana, where he was sergeant-mayor of New Orleans. On
his return to Spain, he solicited permission to go to Russia and served
under the flag of Marshal Romanzow, distinguishing himself in the
campaign waged by the empress. Then he studied the science of government
in Paris; but as soon as Spain was once more engaged in war, he joined
the expedition of O'Reilly against Argel. His conduct at the capture of
Minorca earned for him the title of Field Marshal and Commandant-General
of Oran. He also took a gallant part in the unfortunate attempt to
recover Gibraltar. On being appointed to the governorship of Cuba, he
arrived in Havana the eighth of July, 1796, and on the following day
took charge of his office.
One of his first official measures was to have a new census taken, for
when the results of the one taken by la Torre were published, many
questioned the correctness of the figures. It was said, not without some
justice, that, if the population of the island in the year of the
British invasion, 1762, was one hundred and forty thousand, it should
have been more in 1775 than one hundred and seventy-one thousand six
hundred and twenty, since the number of negroes that had been added to
the population was in itself enormous, and there were also the
immigrants from Florida that had settled on the island. Profiting by the
criticism of his predecessor's work, Las Casas took great pains so to
systematize the work of the census takers, that their investigations
would be unexceptionally thorough and conclusive. When the result became
known two years later, the population of the island was found to be two
hundred and seventy-two thousand five hundred and one inhabitants.
In the second year of his administration, Governor Las Casas had an
opportunity to show his generosity and his executive ability when Cuba
was visited by another typical West Indian hurricane. It broke upon the
island on the twenty-first of June and lasted fully twenty-four hours.
The terrible windstorm was accompanied by a deluge of rain, which caused
the overflow of the Almendares and its tributaries, uprooted the trees
in orchards and nurseries, inundated plantations and damaged houses to
such an extent, that great numbers of residents in the districts of
Wajay, San Antonio, Managua and others were rendered homeless and
reduced to poverty. The governor not only effectively organized the work
of relief, but spent freely of his private funds to alleviate the
suffering of the people. He showed the same spirit a year later, when
Trinidad was visited by a conflagration which consumed property valued
at six hundred thousand pesos. The establishment of the Real Casa de
Beneficiencia was another work that proved his sincere concern for the
welfare of the people, and especially those unfortunates who were
dependent upon public charity. The founding of this asylum for destitute
orphans of both sexes, including a school, in which they were to be
taught a trade to make them self-supporting on reaching maturity, was
first proposed by him in a meeting of citizens on the twenty-second of
March, 1792. So warm and rousing was his appeal, that large
subscriptions to defray its expenses were immediately signed. A royal
patent of the fifteenth of December conferred upon the plan official
approval. There was connected with the asylum a hospital, and both were
temporarily organized and began their work in a provisional building,
until on the eighth of December they were transferred to the structure
erected for them.
Cuba's commerce, though still laboring under difficulties due to
unreasonable trade laws of Spain, was gradually becoming so extensive
that it needed some central organization to protect and promote its
interests. The citizens had so far let things take their course as they
might; lack of initiative was perhaps natural with a people under the
strict paternal supervision which Spain exercised over colonies.
Governor Las Casas roused their latent energies and induced them to
organize for mutual profit and for the general progress of the island's
commerce. For this purpose was established the Tribunal of Commerce or
Consulado, which was also to act as a court of justice for mercantile
litigants and bankrupts. The Consulado was founded on the sixth of
June, 1795, and within a short time settled more than three hundred and
twenty such cases.
But the most important step towards the internal reform and improvement
of the island was taken by Las Casas when on the second of January,
1793, he presided at the foundation of the "Real Sociedad Patriotica o
Economica," which later changed its name to Junta de Fomento, or Society
of Progress. Among his associates in this most significant enterprise
were the marquises de Casa Calvo, Casa Penalver and San Felipe, the
counts de Casa Bayona, Lagunillas, Buenavista, O'Farrel and Jaurequi,
distinguished citizens like Romany, Sequeira and Caballero, and that
greatest patriot among them all, Sr. D. Francisco Arango y Pareno, to
whom credit is due for the inception of this organization. The different
sections, into which this society was divided, devoted themselves to the
development of agriculture, stockbreeding, industry, commerce, science
and art, and were of inestimable service to the people. Reports of the
meeting held on the twenty-first of December, 1796, showed a clearness
and seriousness of purpose which commanded respect and augured well for
the future of the undertaking.
In those first four years of its existence it was the medium through
which were established some much needed improvements for the
facilitation of traffic. Within a few months after its foundation it
invested some of its funds in the highway of Horcon which cost about
thirty thousand seven hundred pesos. Then it built the Guadalupe road
and finished the principal pier of that place. To introduce indigo
culture on the island, it lent to the administration three thousand five
hundred pesos without interest. When the royal professor of botany, D.
Martin Sese, suggested to take with him a young native of Havana to
study that science in its application to agriculture, the society again
defrayed the expenses. There was hardly a work of public utility that
was not materially assisted by this corporation.
Its efforts at promoting the cultural progress of the population were no
less remarkable. A number of its members united in editing the _Papel
Periodico_, which was published every Thursday and Sunday at a cost of
fourteen reales per month and was of the size of a half sheet of Spanish
paper. As the work of the society expanded, it gave to the press its
"Memorias," a collection of original writing and translations by the
members, covering a variety of subjects, among them contributions to
Cuban history which contain valuable data. Some forty years after its
foundation, it published at its expense the history of D. José Martin
Felix de Arrate, which is one of the earliest works on the history of
Cuba. But even more important were the constant and vigorous efforts of
the Society to reform and improve public education. It founded many
establishments of free instruction and offered special inducements to
teachers, who could show a certain number of children with a more solid
knowledge of grammar and the four fundamental principles of arithmetic
than the schools had so far produced. The university, too, was
encouraged in its work; the textbooks were improved and the curriculum
was enlarged so as to include courses in geography, physics, history and
Spanish literature.
The first director of the Society was Sr. D. Luis Penalver, bishop of
New Orleans, and later archbishop of Guatemala, a man who was closely
identified with the work of the Casa de la Benficiencia and other
institutions. But, although all members were men distinguished for their
gifts and their achievements, the soul and moving spirit was D.
Francisco Arango, of whom we shall hear much more in our later
narrative.
A worthy fellow-worker of Arango was D. José Pablo Valiente, who as
Intendente organized the Royal Exchequer, and with no little risk to
himself, permitted and encouraged commerce with neutral and friendly
nations, regardless of still existing restrictions. He assisted in the
establishment of the Consulado and the Sociedad Economica, made a gift
of seven thousand pesos to the Casa de Beneficencia, encouraged the
progress of public instruction and in many lawsuits brought before the
Consulado played the role of a noble conciliator. With such men as these
to assist him, the administration of Las Casas was soon regarded as the
most glorious in the history of the island. For though Havana was the
principal scene of the activities of these men, Las Casas did not fail
to extend the blessing of his reforms and improvements to other
communities. The towns of Santa Maria del Rosario, Santiago de las Vegas
and others soon showed considerable growth; in the districts of
Guanajey, Alquiza, Quivican, Managua and others, the territory under
cultivation was steadily expanding; the village of Casa Blanca and the
town of Manzanillo were founded, and the port of Nuevitas essentially
improved. An excellent cooperator of Governor Las Casas was D. Juan
Bautista Valiente, governor of Santiago de Cuba, who protected
agriculture, founded primary and Latin schools, introduced a system of
lighting in his city, started to pave its streets, and invested his
savings in an edifice, which served to house the Ayuntamiento, the
governor's and other offices and also contained the jail.
The first revolution in Santo Domingo in 1791 had warned Las Casas and
brought home to the administration of Cuba the necessity of looking once
more after the defences of the island. He was aided in this task by the
chief of the navy yard, D. Juan Araoz, who hastened the work of naval
constructions, and in a short time turned out six war vessels, four
frigates and a number of boats of lesser tonnage. They proved of great
usefulness in the operations against Santo Domingo and Guarico during
the second uprising when in order to protect Spanish interests and
inhabitants there were sent from Havana the regiment bearing the name of
the city and from Cuba a piquet of artillery. That revolt is so closely
associated with the problem of slavery, which had become the cause of
grave apprehension to the government that it will be referred to in the
following chapter. The massacre of French and other colonists in that
unfortunate island brought a multitude of refugees to Cuba and
materially increased its population.
An event in the last year of the administration of Las Casas gave rise
to festivities of a memorable character. When the war between Spain and
the French Republic broke out, General D. Gabriel Aristizabal, who
operated in Hayti, did not want the ashes of Columbus to be lost during
the ensuing disturbances. It seemed more appropriate, too, that they
should not remain in the place where he had been slandered and
persecuted and where the villain Bobadilla had put him in fetters, but
in the island that had always smiled upon him. On the fifteenth of
January, 1796, there entered into the port of Havana the warship _San
Lorenzo_, carrying the casket. It was received by Governor Las Casas and
General Araoz, the bishops Penalver and Tres Palacios, and between two
lines of soldiers was carried to the cathedral, where it was deposited
in a humble niche. Though the first city of the island did not then
raise a monument to Columbus it was done by a much smaller town,
Cardenas, which for this act alone deserves to be mentioned.
The inscription upon the stone, under which the remains of Columbus
found rest, reads:
D. O. M.
Clares Heros. Ligustin.
CHRISTOPHORUS COLUMBUS
A Se, Rei Nautic. Scient. Insign.
Niv. Orb. Detect.
Araque Castell. Et Legin. Regib. Subject.
Vallice. Occub.
XIII Kal. Jun. A.M. DVI
Cartusianor. Hispal. Cadav. Custod. Tradit.
Transfer. Nam. Ipse Praescrips.
IN HISPANIOLAE METROP. ECC.
Hinc Pace Sancit. Galliae Reipub. Cess
In Hanc V. Mar. Concept. Imm. Cath. Ossa Trans.
Maxim. Om. Frequent. Sepult. Mand.
XIV. Kal. Feb. A. Md. C. C. X. C. V. I.
HAVAN. CIVIT
Tant. Vir. Meritor. In Se Non Immen.
Pretros. Exux. In Optat Diem Tuitur.
Hocce Monum. Erex.
Praesul. Ill. D. D. Philippo Iph Trespalacios
Civic AC Militar. Rei. Gen. Praef. Exme
D.D. LUDOVICO DE LAS CASAS
When the administration of Las Casas came to an end, the municipality of
Havana called a testimonial meeting for the sixteenth of December, 1796,
which gave proof of the high esteem in which the extraordinary man was
held by the people. Four years after his retirement, on the nineteenth
of November, 1800, he died of poison. He had not escaped criticism by
those who saw in his enforcement of forgotten laws and in many of his
new ordinances the manifestation of an arbitrary spirit; but it was
universally conceded that during his government Cuba reached a
high-water mark in her development. Though the corruption and
degradation of the court at Madrid had a baneful influence upon the
Spanish colonies, the island which had enjoyed the blessings of his rule
and caught a breath of the spirit of such men as Arango and Montalvo
could never again be contented unquestioningly to accept the dictates of
that court. The flood of new liberal ideas which, coming from France,
swept over the whole world, could not be turned back at el Morro. They
found their way into the hearts and the minds of the people and slowly
but surely taught them to see where their ultimate salvation lay.