Tales of Bolivar's triumphs in South America were not slow to penetrate
to the knowledge of the Cubans. Liberty, which had seemed only a dream,
now began to take on the aspect of a possible reality. Men expressed
their opinions and desires furtively in their own homes, to tried and
trusted friends. They began to assemble and exchange views. No one dared
to come out openly at first, and so propaganda was carried on through
veiled articles, by word of mouth, by the secret clasp or sign of union.
Under pretext of meeting for amusement and social pleasure clubs whose
members were all friends of liberty began to be formed, about 1820. The
Free Masons, whose principles were far from inimical to what now began
to become the aim of all Cubans who loved their country, organized
societies, which immediately became hot-beds of revolt, of the fiercest
kind of protest against Spanish rule, and the rendezvous of those who
planned to overthrow it.
Other clubs, all of them masking their real purpose under some pretext,
sprang into existence like magic. The best known of them all was called
the "Soles de Bolivar" in which the influence of Bolivar had bridged the
waters which separate Cuba from South America, and was leading the
Cubans, in the inception of their fight for liberty. What the members of
these societies most longed for was that the renowned "Liberator" would
come at the head of an army and overthrow the Spanish rule in Cuba;
though this was not to be.
Now if the Spanish rule was politically weak and tottering at this
time, the evidence of this fact was strongly repressed, and financially
the country was flourishing. At the head of the financial department was
the Count de Villanueva. He made many reformations in the methods of
collecting taxes--to enable Spain more readily to lay her hands on her
spoils. He changed the methods of keeping accounts, and of checking up
the books of the public treasury. His influence at the Spanish court was
greater than that of the Captain-General, and so he was able to have him
deposed as President of the Consulado and himself appointed in his
stead. He exercised a despotic control over the functions of that body,
and made them subservient to the improvement and development of Cuba for
the enrichment of Spain. He saw to it that everything that could be
taxed paid its share into the public treasury. As agriculture increased,
its products were more heavily taxed. The plight of the Cuban who
desired to own property and get on, was similar to that of a pieceworker
who, when he speeded up productions, found the piece work price cut to
take care of any surplus. The more the Cuban produced, the more he was
taxed, and his last state was about the same as his first; the only ones
who profited were the officials in Spain. Now for the first time taxes
were imposed without even consulting those taxed, to say nothing of
obtaining their consent. Villanueva was the friend of the
Captain-General and his co-conspirator against Cuba's happiness, in
spite of the fact that he wrested from him certain honors. He was
naturally most popular with the Spanish court, and was cordially hated
by all loyal Cubans.
Yet Villanueva did do some things for the improvement of Havana. He had
many roads in and near the city paved, and devices erected to clear the
anchorage of the harbor of the infiltrations of mud, and to preserve
the wharves. He had the waters of the Husille brought into the city by
an excellent method. He established a regular mail packet system between
Spain and Cuba, and it was under his administration that the Guines
railroad was built. This road ran from Havana to Guines, a distance of
forty-five miles, and was built under the direction of an American
engineer, Mr. Cruger. It was the nucleus of a system which in 1848
comprised 285 miles of rails in operation, and 85 more in process of
construction. These lines connected Havana with Guines, Batabano,
Cardenas and Matanzas; Cardenas with Juacaro, Matanzas with Sabanilla
and Colisco, Nuevitas with Puerto Principe, and Santiago de Cuba with
the copper mines. They represented an investment of between five and six
million dollars.
Villanueva, however, oppressed and robbed the people in order that he
might make frequent and munificent remittances to the treasury in Spain.
The more they gave, the more they were urged to give. Spain cared
nothing for the manner in which the money which she demanded was
accumulated, only that by fair means or foul it might be forthcoming.
Villanueva established the Bank of St. Ferdinand, but for all the good
it did Cuba at this time, it might have remained unestablished. Its
capital was seized by the crown as fast as it accumulated, and it proved
to be just a new method for the extortioners. Spain had no more
unscrupulous agent than her chief of the finance department.
The victims were not quiescent, except in appearance. The rack keys were
being too tightly turned. In the "Soles de Bolivar" and in other
assemblies patriots were crying out for vengeance. In vain Vives tried
to suppress the societies. Known members were arrested and thrown into
prison, and meetings were forbidden; but the movement was like a
conflagration which has gained start in many parts of a city. When
stamped out in one place--when one society was destroyed--it only made
its appearance in another. The principal headquarters were at Matanzas.
Very carefully and in secret the leaders laid their plans for a
widespread revolt, the date of which was set for August 16, 1823. But
Vives had secret agents in the societies, and there were traitors as
there frequently are in such movements. When the day of the revolt
dawned the leaders were seized and imprisoned. There were many eminent
Cubans among the patriots, the best known being the greatest of Cuban
poets, José Maria Heredia. Perhaps some appreciation not so much of this
man's courage as of his genius influenced the Captain-General. At any
rate, instead of being condemned to death, he was sent into perpetual
exile. A few of the members of the society learned of the betrayal
before they could be taken and made their escape from the island.
Those who were conspiring for the liberation of Cuba were not cowed,
however, but simply temporarily overcome. One of the first acts of Vives
under the royal decree of May 25, 1825, was to use every means possible
to suppress and to annihilate the secret societies, but he simply made
them more wary. The desire for liberty which had sprung up in the
breasts of so many Cuban patriots was destined never again to be
extinguished, and the history of the island from this time down to the
War of Independence, in the closing decade of the century, is that of
one long struggle for separation from Spain--sometimes open, more
frequently secret but always continuous.
When the uprising of 1823 failed so signally, a number of the refugees
who escaped prosecution fled to Mexico and Colombia. There was a
settlement of these people in Caracas. They turned to "The Liberator"
for support, and soon the invasion of Cuba, by a force composed of
Mexicans and Colombians, either under the personal leadership, or under
the direction of Bolivar, was planned. The leaders of this movement also
sought aid in the United States. Now the slaveholders of the South were
at this time opposed to the separation of Cuba from Spain, because under
the lead of Bolivar it would mean the doom of the slave trade, the
abolition of slavery, and such an achievement in Cuba would be inimical
to their own interests. So the attempt to procure assistance in the
United States was really the cause of the failure of the proposed
expedition. Spanish spies were quickly informed of the proposed plan,
and such strenuous efforts were openly made to make such an attempt
ineffective, that it was never made. Bolivar had all he could attend to
in South America, and he was too intelligent a leader to attempt the
impossible, and at the same time leave his plans for the liberation of
South America to meet certain defeat in his absence.
But Spain did not easily overlook the conspiracy, and she seized the
leaders in Cuba who were conspiring with those in Colombia and Mexico.
Two young men of fine families, Don Francisco de Aguero Velasco and Don
Bernabe Sanchez, were apprehended by the aides of the Captain-General,
imprisoned and most cruelly treated, and when their spirit was not
broken by torture and they refused to divulge the secrets of their
leaders, they were condemned to die for treason, and paid the penalty of
their patriotism with their lives.
Still the love of freedom grew and waxed stronger in Cuba. In 1828, a
secret society known as El Aguila Negra (The Black Eagle) was
inaugurated in Colombia and Mexico, by those patriots who were escaping
the vengeance of Spain by remaining in exile. This movement was
splendidly organized. It had branches, not only in Colombia and Mexico,
but also in the United States, where recruiting offices were openly
established, and in Cuba where its operations were secret. But the
organizers of The Black Eagle could not make a move which Spanish spies
did not report to their master, the Captain-General of Cuba. Every plan
was known to him as soon as it was formulated. He made no secret of his
determination to deal summarily with those who were plotting against the
power of Spain, but he waited in hope that he might be able to seize the
real brains of the expedition. Besides this, the declaration of Bolivar
for the freedom of the slaves as one of the principles for which he was
fighting, and the fact that he was so closely connected with these
revolutionary movements in Cuba, excited at this time the fears and
animosity not only of the slave owners in the United States, but also of
the most selfish, greedy and powerful of this class--particularly those
of Spanish birth and sympathies--in Cuba. Before the expedition could be
actually started, the leaders were apprehended and a farce of a trial
followed. The Captain-General was beginning to fear the new spirit which
was abroad in the land. Perhaps he had discovered that cruelty and
fierce opposition only fanned the flame. At any rate he commuted the
sentence of death, and imprisoned the conspirators.
Since Mexico had conspired against the Spanish occupation of Cuba,
General Vives retaliated by a military expedition against Mexico, in
1828. A force of three thousand and five hundred men was sent against
Mexico--not a large army, but General Vives expected that large numbers
of Mexicans would join his soldiers, once they set foot on Mexican soil.
A landing was made at Tampico, in August, 1828. Instead of being
received with acclamations by the people of Mexico, the movement met
with the most strenuous opposition. The expedition was surrounded by the
Mexican army, and its members were glad to surrender and to make terms
with the Mexicans by which they were allowed to return to Havana. In
March, 1829, the would-be conquerors of Mexico arrived in Havana with
none of the honors with which it had been planned to crown the victors.
Vives, while a stern governor, did not actually play the part of a
despot. He held his office until May 15, 1832, when he was succeeded by
Don Mariana Ricafort, a tyrant of the most pronounced type. His rule
left one continuous record of oppression and misgovernment. No better
person to encourage in the hearts of thinking Cubans an eagerness to be
rid of Spain could have been chosen, for he was thoroughly hated and
despised. His rule continued two years, and then, in 1834, the reins of
government were taken into the hands of General Don Miguel Tacon. The
eastern department of the island was commanded at this time by General
Lorenzo.
Tacon, one of the most famous of the nineteenth century
Captains-General, was a man of small mind and great stubbornness,
shortsighted, narrow and jealous. He was exceedingly vain, grasping for
power, and a tyrant of the most pronounced type. He took many privileges
from the wealthy inhabitants of the island, and he seized for himself
the power, which had theretofore been a municipal function, of naming
the under-commissaries of police in Havana.
Like all people of extremely arbitrary nature, Tacon was an arrant
coward at heart. He was perpetually in terror of being assassinated,
and upon the slightest pretext had anyone whom he considered dangerous
to his rule thrown into prison. The life of no Cuban who happened to
offend the Captain-General was safe at this time.
In 1836 there occurred in Spain the revolution of La Granja, when the
progressive triumphed over the moderate party, and the Queen Regent was
obliged to proclaim the old Constitution of 1812, granting Cuba
representation in the Spanish Cortes, and to summon deputies from Cuba.
The news of this triumph reached Santiago de Cuba before it did Havana,
whereupon General Lorenzo, in command there, immediately proclaimed the
Code of Cadiz, and ordered an election for deputies to the Cortes. He
reestablished the constitutional ayuntamiento, declared the press free,
reorganized the national militia and put his department on the same
footing that it had been in 1823.
Tacon was furious when knowledge of this action reached him. He had no
power to compel General Lorenzo to retract, but he summarily cut off all
communications with his department and laid his plans to invade that
territory, and by military force to restore his own absolute government
and do away with representation for Cuba in the Spanish Cortes. Perhaps
nothing that he could have done could have added more to his
unpopularity. He was hissed in the streets, and plots were made against
his life.
For himself, Tacon paid no attention to the royal mandate which
announced the reestablishment of the Constitution of 1812 and
foreshadowed orders for election of deputies to the Cortes. Under the
royal decree of 1825, which was still in force, Tacon had power to set
aside any instructions which came from Spain, if it seemed to him to
the best interests of Cuba. He did not hesitate to take advantage of
this authority, which gave him the same rights as a Spanish governor
over a city in a state of siege, allowed him to suspend any public
functionary no matter what his rank, and to banish any resident of the
island who opposed him, without trial, and even without the formal
preferring of accusations, as well as to suspend any law or regulation
emanating from Spain, should he see fit.
Under Tacon's orders, a column of soldiers, picked from the Spanish army
of occupation, and chosen--much against their will and inclination--from
the rural and provincial militia and cavalry, was placed under the
command of General Gascue, in the town of Guines. Meanwhile, Tacon's
secret agents were carrying on an active propaganda among the citizens
of Santiago de Cuba, and endeavoring to seduce public sentiment from
Lorenzo's to Tacon's side. They did not hesitate to tell the most
unblushing falsehoods, and to make the most dishonest promises to win
the people over, and by such means attained some degree of success.
If Tacon had had a different sort of opponent the story would have been
written along very different lines. A strong commander of the large
forces at Santiago de Cuba could easily have compelled him to withdraw
from his position, and could have assured for Cuba greater freedom, and
this course might in the long run at least have postponed her further
efforts for separation from Spain. But General Lorenzo though
well-meaning was fatally weak. Instead of resisting Tacon's tyranny he
left Cuba for Spain, in an effort to make sure of the support of the
Spanish crown, leaving Tacon to follow his own will, and to wreak his
vengeance on those who had opposed him. Tacon was of course delighted
with the success of his strategy. He sent some of the officers of his
companies to Santiago and established a military commission to try all
the people of prominence who under General Lorenzo had opposed him.
Moya, the commandant, was the presiding judge, and Miret, a lawyer and a
tool of Tacon's, acted as advocate. No greater travesty of justice has
ever been staged than the proceedings of this precious body.
Now all the Creoles of wealth, education and family had welcomed the
royal decree, and hastened to obey the commands of General Lorenzo and
to take oath to uphold a constitution which was so beneficial to their
interest. Their names were known to Tacon, and he seized not only such
people, but anyone of whom he had the slightest suspicion. Men of the
highest rank, or the best reputation for loyalty and honesty, of the
finest education and standing, were among the number who were summoned
before Tacon's tribunal. Even the church was not exempt, and several
clergymen, with liberal leanings, and of known revolutionary sentiments,
were arrested and imprisoned. This was an excellent time for Tacon to
find a pretext to separate the sheep from the goats, and to put those
who seemed likely to oppose him where he thought they belonged. Many of
these people were confined in dungeons which were as barbarous as those
of the middle ages, and were left there until they died of disease or of
starvation. They were cut off from communications with their families
and friends, and in darkness and filth suffered until death relieved
them. A few considered themselves fortunate to get off with sentences of
banishment, and those who had warning were glad to escape to another
country. Families were separated and homes were broken up. Tacon was
very thorough in his methods of putting down what he considered a
menace to his government. Even the soldiers under General Lorenzo's
command were made his victims. They had been guilty of no offence save
that of obeying their superior officer, but this made no difference to
Tacon. He decided to make an example of them. Over five hundred of them,
with ball and chain dragging, were condemned to work on the streets of
Havana like convicts.
The deputies to the Cortes whom Lorenzo had chosen, or who had been
chosen under his rule, were among those who escaped from the island.
They made their way to Spain, and, hoping that the Spanish crown would
recognize the regularity of their election, and the irregularity of
Tacon's action, presented their credentials to the Cortes. They were
referred to a special committee composed of Spaniards whose only
interest in Cuba was in what might be extracted from her, and who had no
sympathy with her struggles or concern for her welfare or the good of
her people. What few ideas they had of the best way to govern Cuba and
make her pay the highest returns to Spain were derived from such
intellects as those possessed by men of Tacon's ilk, and they were
stoutly ranged on Tacon's side of the controversy. The deputies were
refused seats in the Cortes, and it was decided that the Constitution of
1812 did not apply to Cuba. Cuba was thus placed under the despotic rule
of the Captains-General, who were given absolute power, even precedence,
over the will of the Spanish Cortes. The decree of the Cortes on this
matter was framed in the following language:
"The Cortes, using the power which is conceded to them by the
Constitution, have decreed: Not being in a position to apply the
Constitution which has been adopted for the peninsula and adjacent to
the ultramarine provinces of America and Asia, these shall be ruled and
administered by special laws appropriate to their respective situations
and circumstances, and proper to cause their happiness. Consequently,
the Deputies for the designated provinces are not to take their seats in
the present Cortes."
Tacon was exultant over this strengthening of his hand, and he began a
regime even more cruel than his previous record. His agents were
constantly busy stirring up strife and jealousy between the Spanish
residents of the island and the native Cubans. He dominated the civil
courts with his military officers, and justice became a mere chimera of
fancy. In order to keep the police in line, he insisted that a certain
number of arrests must be made within a given period. When there were
not enough real offenders to make up the quota, the police naturally
wreaked any little personal animosities which they might have against
private citizens; and it has even been said that frequently they were
paid by certain revengeful citizens who held grudges to prefer charges
against men who were absolutely innocent of any offence.
Of course societies, whether political or social, came under the
governmental ban. Citizens were not encouraged to assemble in groups for
any purpose, and they feared to do so openly, lest the entire group
might be apprehended and tried on some trumped up charge. All
associations for education or personal betterment were discouraged,
because if people came to know too much, they were harder to handle and
more apt to revolt. Besides this, any society or institution which did
not depend on the favor of the Captain-General might find means of
denouncing his rule, and one could never tell how royal favor might be
swayed. Tacon well knew it to be a very uncertain quantity, and meant
to keep the wind blowing in his quarter, if possible.
In connection with his management of the police force, the whole
attitude of justice was changed. No person was presumed innocent until
his guilt was proved, but on the contrary his guilt was presumed unless
he could beyond the shadow of a doubt prove his innocence; and if he had
been unfortunate enough to incur the displeasure of one of the legion of
sycophants from the court of Spain who hung around the palace of the
Captain-General, seeking their own aggrandizement, his chances of having
an opportunity to prove himself innocent were very small. Tacon
encouraged rather than discouraged his subordinates in acts of
injustice, and did not care to what lengths they went if they kept the
people quiet. He roared at his officers, and demanded that they be
vigilant against his enemies, and they were thoroughly cowed by him. To
satisfy him, they invented accusations and thrust just men into prison,
or had them condemned to death. A curious result of this regime, and one
which shows how some good will often work out of the basest evils, was
that thieves and banditti were much less active than under any other
Captain-General. The long arm of Tacon reached out to subdue them, to
fall upon the guilty as well as the innocent.
Tacon is said to have stated his own position in these words: "I am
here, not to promote the interests of the people of Cuba, but to serve
my master, the king." The press was muzzled, and the local ayuntamientos
were deprived of their rights, and became merely the means for the
collection and distribution of the funds of the municipalities. The
prisons were overcrowded with Tacon's victims, and it became necessary
to lodge some of the political prisoners in the dungeons of castles.
Nearly 600 people, against whom there was no formal accusation, and
about whom no treason could be proved, were lodged in cells and
dungeons. No private citizen was safe, and no one had any personal
liberty.
In spite of the lack of a free press, pamphlets denouncing the rule of
Tacon were constantly being written, printed and circulated. One,
entitled "_Cuba y su Gobierno,_" contained the following assertions:
"With the political passions of Spaniards and Cubans excited; the island
reduced from an integral part of the monarchy to the conditions of a
colony, and with no other political code than the royal order,
conferring unlimited power upon the chief authority; the country bowed
down under the weighty tyranny of military commissions established in
the capitals of the eastern and western departments; with the prisons
filled with distinguished patriots; deprived of representation in the
Cortes; the ayuntamientos prohibited the right of petition; the press
forbidden to enunciate the state of public opinions; closed the
administration of General Don Miguel Tacon in the island of Cuba, the
most calamitous, beyond a question, that this country has suffered since
its discovery by the Spaniards."
The party in Cuba which was struggling against her oppression decided
that since they dared not give expression of their views in the local
press, they would establish organs outside their distressed country. Two
papers were accordingly issued, one at Paris, called _El Correo de
Ultramar_, and one at Madrid called _El Observador_. These were both
edited by able Cubans who were in exile. Later, in 1848, _La Verdad_, a
paper devoted to Cuban interests, was started in New York and the copies
given free distribution.
Tacon, like other despots, sought to cover his misdeeds by public works,
with which he tried to placate those possible insurgents whom he had not
imprisoned, and to deceive the Spanish government; for cruel and
arbitrary as had been the Spanish attitude toward her colonies, it is
doubtful whether the Spanish Cortes, had all the facts been known, would
have countenanced some of the brutalities of which Tacon was guilty.
There is a curious irony, a sort of paradox, about one of the
improvements which Tacon made on the island. As we have seen, the
prisons had never before been so full, and there had never before been
such a demand for places to incarcerate political offenders. Tacon
consequently caused a prison to be built, which has ever since been
pointed to as a palliation of some of his misdeeds. It is situated near
the gate of La Punta, and not far distant from the sea coast. It is well
ventilated and airy, and open to the sea breezes. One point urged in its
favor was that "its unfortunate inmates were protected from those
pestilential fevers rising from crowded and ill-ventilated rooms." In
other words, they were torn from squalor to well ventilated
imprisonment. This would have been all very nice, were it not for the
fact that numbers of the prisoners were from the best homes on the
island, and had no need of a comfortable boarding house by the sea,
watched over by an inhuman jailor. The prison had a capacity of five
thousand prisoners, and very shortly after its erection it sheltered one
thousand. It was built by the labor of convicts, and poor, unhappy
political prisoners, and partly with funds which Tacon extracted from
some of the officers who served under his predecessors, claiming that
such funds had been by them unlawfully appropriated to their own use.
To give opportunities for "graft" to his followers, and work to their
hangers-on, Tacon constructed a wall, high, level and massive, and for
what purpose only he knew, right through the widest avenue of Havana.
The Cubans were taxed to pay for the work, and subsequently were retaxed
to pay for its removal. Tacon also established a public meat and fish
market, for which he won popular approbation--outside of Cuba. It was in
fact much to the detriment of the public and the public revenue, and
greatly to his own gain and that of his friends. Even the contract for
this market was not honestly let, but was given to the highest bidder
for Tacon's enrichment, while honest bidders were ignored. The grant was
obtained, whereupon the contractors came into their own, and commenced
extorting large and valuable fees to which they were not entitled.
Finally the matter became such a public scandal that even Tacon could
not avert its being investigated, but when this investigation was
completed, the record was taken possession of by Tacon, and mysteriously
never again was discovered. The scandal of Tacon's administration at
last became too great even for the Spanish court, which was supposed to
be inclined to stand for anything, and the voice of Don Juan Montalvo y
Castillo was raised in the Spanish Cortes in expostulation. But Tacon
wrote artful reports, dodged the real issues, and cheerfully lied, and
his utterances--perhaps better fitting the temper of the Cortes--found
credence and his rule was continued.
Tacon caused the Governor's palace to be rebuilt, at great profit to
himself and his favorites in the way of perquisites and bribes; he
caused a military road to be constructed; and he had a spacious theatre
erected, cynically saying, that "it would keep the people amused, and
keep their minds off of matters which did not concern them." He also
caused a large parade ground to be opened just outside the city. But in
none of his improvements was he free from suspicion of having enriched
his own purse, and having in some manner pulled the wool over the sadly
strained eyes of the Cuban patriots.
A story which reads like a romance is told of Tacon's institution of the
fish market. In those days pirates infested the waters around Cuba, and
indeed were a menace to American and French vessels, as we have seen.
The most daring pirate and smuggler of them all was said to be a man
named Marti, of whom many exciting tales are related. He was a bold
leader of desperadoes, and since the Isle of Pines was where his band
most frequently had their headquarters, he was known as the "King of the
Isle of Pines." Now Tacon was eager to suppress smuggling and piracy,
probably because they interfered with his own plans. The Spanish ships
of war lay in the harbors of Cuba at anchor, while the officers indulged
in dancing on board with Cuban ladies, or took long period of leave on
shore. This did not please Tacon, and he accordingly issued commands
that they suppress the smugglers at all costs. But the smugglers carried
on their operations from small coves and inlets, in little crafts which
did not draw much water, and the clumsy and half-hearted efforts of the
Spanish sailors to apprehend them filled their leaders with mirth. There
are many tales of the impudent daring with which these outlaws operated
under the very noses of those who were sent out to capture them.
At last Tacon, who had an abounding belief that every man had his price,
and perhaps had heard enough of the character of the men he was hunting
to gauge it correctly, offered a reward for anyone who would desert and
inform the government of the pirates. A much larger and more tempting
sum was offered for the delivery of Marti, dead or alive. These offers
were posted throughout the country.
For some time nothing happened, and then one dark night, when it was
raining copiously, a man evaded the sentinels before the main entrance
to the governor's palace in Havana. He stole through the entrance, and
hid himself among the pillars in the inner court. Next this man silently
crept up the staircase to the governor's apartments. Here he met a
guard, but he saluted, and passed on with such nonchalance that he was
not challenged, and entering the reception room of the governor, found
himself in the semi-royal presence. Tacon was alone, busily writing. He
promptly inquired who his visitor might be, and was informed that he was
one who had valuable information for the Captain-General.
"I am the Captain-General," said Tacon.
"Your excellency is desirous of apprehending the pirates who infest the
coasts of the island?"
"You must have been reading the proclamations," jocosely suggested
Tacon.
"And you wish to take Marti, dead or alive?"
Tacon signified that such was his purpose. His strange visitor then
exacted the Captain-General's promise that he would be granted a free
pardon in return for the valuable information which he was about to
divulge. When this promise was given he said:
"I will lead you to the strongholds of the smugglers."
"You?" cried Tacon. "Who are you?"
"I am Marti!" was the reply.
Marti, who so calmly and unscrupulously betrayed his followers, was of
course a welcome visitor to the Captain-General, and one worthy of his
warmest co-operation and friendship. He was placed under surveillance,
and was obliged to remain in the palace for the night, but the
Captain-General refrained from telling anyone his identity. On the next
day he acted as pilot for one of the Captain-General's boats, and after
the course of several weeks he had exposed every hiding place of his
men. The amount of money and property thus secured and appropriated by
the Captain-General cannot be estimated, but it was very great. A great
deal of it never found its way into the treasury. Marti was a scoundrel
so much to his liking that the Captain-General decided not only to give
him a free pardon, but an order on the treasury for a large sum of
money. However, Marti had his own ideas of what he desired. In place of
the money he chose the absolute right to fish the waters surrounding
Havana, to the exclusion of all fishermen who were not in his employ. He
had in his wild career marked for his own all the best fishing grounds
in the harbor. This concession granted, there must naturally be found a
market for his fish, and thus the fish market project was born. Then
fishing made Marti so wealthy that he now had time for more elegant
occupations, and turned his mind to theatricals. He is said to have
obtained some sort of monopoly from the government over theatrical
performances in the island, and then the public theatre idea was formed.
Tacon had as many press agents as an opera singer, albeit they had no
methods of getting their material into public print and disseminated it
by word of mouth. His agents told many stories of him to illustrate his
love of justice, his wonderful generosity, and his many other admirable
traits, for which he was in reality only negatively to be celebrated.
The one which follows is merely illustrative of the others.
In the first year of his rule there was a young Creole girl, of
surpassing beauty and modesty, of the name of Miralda Estalez. She was
an orphan of seventeen, and kept a cigar store, which her beauty and
grace made very popular with the young men of Havana. Miralda, like all
proper heroines of fiction or fairy stories, was good as well as
beautiful, and although many of the young bloods sighed for her, her
glance fell with favor only on a handsome but, of course, poor and
deserving young man, of the name of Pedro Mantenez. Pedro was a boatman,
which is a most romantic and fitting occupation for an impoverished but
righteous hero. He was more than this. By his wit and sagacity--which as
we have seen failed to line his coffers, but if they had done so he
would have been out of drawing in this affecting picture, since he would
no longer have been poor but deserving--he was a leader among the other
boatmen and beloved by all. The records of his noble and
self-sacrificing deeds would have filled a volume as large as an
unabridged dictionary. Miralda loved Pedro, and Pedro loved Miralda, and
all was going as merry as a marriage bell, when entered the villain, a
famous roué of the name of Count Almonte, who liked Miralda's cigars and
cast melting glances at Miralda herself, but all in vain, because, as we
have said, Miralda was good as well as beautiful. Finding that he would
have to do something more substantial than make eyes, the worthy count
offered Miralda a costly present which so affected her that she fainted,
not with joy, but with horror. Then she ordered the count from her shop,
but he refused to go and continued to hang around and buy her wares.
Next the fine count offered her money and lands and rich clothes and
what not, but the pure-minded young girl righteously spurned his offer.
Acting quite in character the count then decided to kidnap her. His
plans were ingenious, but in order to gain popularity for Tacon it was
necessary that not far from this point he should get into the story.
One afternoon, just at twilight, that fine hour for abduction, a
lieutenant--probably in Tacon's pay--stepped into the store and demanded
that Miralda go with him, by order of the Captain-General; which does
look like the cloven hoof in the velvet glove, or something of the sort.
But instead of taking Miralda to the Captain-General she was conveyed to
the count's country estates, where she was kept a prisoner, although of
course not harmed--in fiction the villain never harms the heroine before
the hero arrives even if he is a bit late at the appointment. Pedro, by
that wit and sagacity which had made him a master boatman, discovered
the count's treachery. He disguised himself as a friar and went to the
count's gate every day and slipped notes through the cracks to Miralda,
thus cheering her exceedingly. Then entered the most high excellency,
the Captain-General, that defender of those who loved liberty in Cuba,
that builder of prisons and master genius in filling them, that
despoiler of rich and poor alike, and thus the man most likely to help
defenseless virtue. Pedro's excess of wit and sagacity led him straight
to the spotless Captain-General. After trying three times to get an
audience, for governing the island and putting down rebellions kept
Tacon reasonably busy, Pedro succeeded in getting into the presence of
the lord of Cuba. When he had told his story, and sworn to his honorable
intentions toward his fiancee, Tacon sent his soldiers to the count's
estate to bring him and Miralda into the sacred presence. When the
Captain-General had demanded to know, and the count had assured him,
that Miralda was "as pure as when she came beneath my roof," Tacon
immediately produced a priest and married Miralda to the count, much to
the astonishment and chagrin of the faithful Pedro. But Tacon the Just
was not through. He was ever on the side of the oppressed, when his own
interests leaned that way. The count was ordered to return to his own
plantation, without his bride. While on the way he was shot in the back,
after Tacon's most pleasant manner and by his orders. In one record it
is hinted that his estates were pleasant picking for Tacon, but the
story which is most current leaves out that interesting detail. Tacon's
version is that he gave the count's estate to the widow; and at any rate
Pedro and Miralda were married and lived happily ever afterward, and
Tacon gave them his blessing with the high-sounding pronouncement: "No
man nor woman on this island is so humble but that they may claim the
justice of Tacon."
Tacon's rule, one of the worst that the long-suffering Cubans had to
endure, finally came to an end, on April 16, 1838, when he was succeeded
by Don Joaquin de Espeleta. The latter had been born in Cuba, and it is
a mystery why he was ever appointed, for Spain was not wont to accord
honors to Cubans, or to confer the high rank of Captain-General on one
who might naturally be expected to have Cuban sympathies. He had been
for some time connected with the government in a subordinate capacity,
being inspector-general of the troops, and second cabo-subalterno. From
all accounts Espeleta was an excellent governor, and must have afforded
the harassed Cubans a much needed breathing spell after the misrule of
Tacon. But he was not long allowed to rule Cuba. Spain began to suspect
that the Cubans were being treated too well, and that trouble might
follow. Indeed, Espeleta was reported to be conciliating the people,
and holding out hopes of great reforms. This in itself seemed to justify
his removal, and so, in 1840, he was succeeded by the Prince de Aglona.
During this administration the Royal Pretorial Audience, a high court of
appeal to which all civil cases might be taken, was established. If this
had been kept free from deleterious influences, it would have been a
most beneficial thing for the oppressed Cubans, but the royal favorites
dominated it, as they did pretty much everything else.