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 EL ADELANTADO DON DIEGO VELASQUEZ 
 
 Conqueror of Cuba 
 
FOUR CENTURIES 
 
 OF 
 
 Spanish Rule in Cuba; 
 
 OR, 
 
 Why We Went to War with Spain 
 
 A HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 BY 
 
 ITALO EMILIO CANINI 
 
 WITH 
 
 Illustrations from Old and Modern Authorities 
 
 And 
 
 The Latest Official Statistics about Cuba, Porto Rico, 
 and the Philippines , 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 Laird & Lee, Publishers 
 
 1898 
 
Entered according to Aci jV Congress in 
 
 the year 1898, 
 
 By William H. Lee; 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 K JVJH \ 
 
 1st COPY f 
 1093. 
 
 9 fr 
 
 J^cr<^i)wvv^23, >^ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. Page 
 
 I. The Discovery — Mistakes Made on Both Sides 
 
 — The Siboneyes 13 
 
 II. An Unpleasant Task — A Borrowed Glory — The 
 
 Conclusions of Dr. Coke 1 
 
 III. The Conquest — The Story of Hatuey — Los 
 
 Malos Tratamientos — Girolamo Benzoni, and 
 What He Saw — Father Montesino and Father 
 Las Casas — Exeunt the Siboneyes 18 
 
 IV. The Early Period — Adding Insult to Injury — 
 
 Governors for Revenue Only — Corsairs and 
 Pirates — The Storming of Havana by the 
 Combined English and American Colonial 
 Forces in 1762 — The Events in the Latter 
 Part of the 18th Century — The Dawn 32 
 
 V. Thomas Jefferson and the Island of Cuba — The 
 Designs of Napoleon — An Undeserved Com- 
 pliment Unthankfully Received 43 
 
 VI. The Secret Societies — Advances of Spain — The 
 Policy of John Quincy Adams — Tacon and 
 Lorenzo — The Decision of the Cortes — Why 
 Tacon was Recalled 47 
 
 VII. Narciso Lopez — The Expeditions of 1850-1851 — 
 The Martyrs at Fort Atares — El Garrote — As 
 You Sow, So Shall You Reap 55 
 
CONTENTS. 
 Chapter. Page 
 
 VIII. A Plea for Lopez— The Influences at Play in 
 1850— The Real State of Opinion in the 
 United States— The Message of President 
 Buchanan and the Little Reason of Senator 
 Brown — The Correspondence Between Sec- 
 retary Marcy and Ministers Soule and Bu- 
 chanan—Spanish Outrages— The Black War- 
 rior—The Ostend Manifest— How It all 
 Ended— The Wise and Honorable Conduct 
 of the United States 73 
 
 XI. The Ten Years' War in Cuba— Proclamation of 
 Independence — General Dulce and the Vol- 
 unteers—The Orders of Balmaseda — The 
 Battle of La Sacra— A Reign of Terror- 
 Pacification of the Island by General Mar- 
 tinez Campos— The Treaty of El Zanjon and 
 How Spain Observed Its Provisions 96 
 
 XI. The Ten Years' War in the United States— The 
 Sentiment in 1868— Cuban War News in 1869 
 —The Wishes of General Grant— Resolutions 
 That Were Not Adopted — The Filibustering 
 Expeditions — The brigs "Mary Lowell," 
 and the "Lizzie Major" — The Promises 
 of Spain — The "Virginius" Affair — How 
 Spain Abused the Patience and Forbearance 
 of the United States 109 
 
 XII. The Ten Years' War in Spain— Hopes That 
 Were in Vain — King Amadeus, His Influence 
 and His Abdication— A Modern Cicero — 
 Emilio Castelar and the Genius of Spain 128 
 
CONTENTS. 
 Chapter. Page 
 
 XII. The Golden Book of Cuba— The Execution of 
 Leon and Medina — The Treachery of Gen- 
 eral Mena — A Distinction With a Difference 
 — Two Cuban and One Italian Poets 135 
 
 XIII. Public Opinion Abroad — The Forests of Royal 
 
 Palms Between New York and Washington 
 — The Congressional Express — A Bouquet of 
 Flowers From the Paris Figaro — Ignorance 
 and Vitriol — How a Great Nation is Being 
 Deceived 144 
 
 XIV. The Situation in Cuba After the Peace of El 
 
 Zanjon — Outbreak of the Present Revolution 
 — Jose Marti, His Work, His Death and His 
 Burial — How Matters Stood in Cuba in 
 April, 1898— The Brilliant Ideas of General 
 Weyler — Why Autonomy is Not Acceptable. 156 
 
 XV. The Feeling at Home — Autonomy — The Situa- 
 tion in the Winter of 1897-98 173 
 
 XVI. The Maine — The Outcome of a Commercial In- 
 clination — Why Arbitration was not Re- 
 sorted To — A Different Interpretation of 
 Words — How Revolutions Should be Op- 
 posed — Freedom at Last — Why We Are At 
 War With Spain — The Genius of America — 
 The Future Destinies of Cuba 180 
 
 Notes Pages 197 to 209 
 
 Appendix 210 " 215 
 
 The Climate, from Official Reports " 216 •' 219 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This sketch of the events which have taken 
 place in the Island of Cuba since the discov- 
 ery to our days has not the pretension of being 
 an exhaustive history. It is an inquiry into the 
 causes which have determined the present state of 
 affairs, and into the reasons for which Spain, once 
 the dominant power in the new world has gradually 
 lost all her possessions, and has declined from her 
 position in the front rank of nations, where the 
 genius of Columbus had placed her, until now the 
 pearl of the Antilles, one of the few last gems in her 
 crown, and the most beautiful, is at the eve of being 
 wrenched from her. 
 
 A few weeks ago Mr. Carl Schurz wrote the 
 following lines: "If we go to war against Spain it 
 is of high interest to the American people that their 
 motives should be correctly understood by the civil- 
 ized world." The truth of these words of the dis- 
 tinguished German-American statesman and publi- 
 cist is apparent, and it becomes the duty of every 
 American citizen to make himself acquainted with 
 the circumstances which cause logic, reason and 
 right to be on our side in the present conflict, so 
 that he may, as far as it is in his power, be enabled 
 to convince his fellow-men that the American 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 people have gone into this war for motives that are 
 just and proper. With this end in view, in hope of 
 bringing a modest contribution to the good cause, 
 I have endeavored to ascertain what the policy of 
 the United States and the feeling of the people of 
 this country have been with regard to the Cuban 
 question since its inception to the present date, and 
 to relate the results of such a study truthfully and 
 impartially. 
 
 I am indebted, for the facts on which this inves- 
 tigation is based, to the following authorities: 
 Benzoni, Historia del Mondo Nuovo" — Southey, 
 "Chronological History of the West Indies" — S. 
 Doporto, in "Diccionario Enciclopedico Hispano- 
 Americano" — Coke, "History of the West Indies" 
 — Gomara, "Historia delle Indie Occidentali" — 
 Ballou, "Historv of Cuba" and "Due South" — Kim- 
 ball, "Cuba and the Cubans" — Murat Halstead, 
 "The Story of Cuba" — and others. As regards the 
 history of the last fifty years I have largely availed 
 myself of sucn documents, American and Euro- 
 pean periodicals and newspapers, and other publi- 
 cations as I have been able to find in the libraries 
 in this city. 
 
 ITALO EMILIO CANINI. 
 
 Chicago, May 25th, 1S9S. 
 
SPAIN. 
 
 A scarred old snarling lion, with scraggy tattered 
 
 inane, 
 His claws and teeth all broken, lies the ancient 
 
 realm of Spain; 
 With the thirst for blood still on him, and still 
 
 with hungry maw, 
 He rends poor bleeding Cuba, prostrate there 
 
 beneath his paw. 
 He's a fierce and famed man-eater, and from early 
 
 days of yore, 
 Has ravaged many an island, wasted many a teem- 
 ing shore. 
 And the victims number millions whom his strength 
 
 has overpowered, 
 Whom with ravening, bloody slaughter he has 
 
 mangled and devoured; 
 But his roar grows faint and hollow, and a hunter 
 
 from the West 
 
 Will snatch away fair Cuba, with her torn and 
 
 bleeding breast, 
 And send him howling, limping, reviled of gods 
 
 and men, 
 Back to growl midst bones and darkness in his 
 mediaeval den. 
 
 —From the Neto York Tribune. 
 
Part of the Map of Central America, Florida and the West Indies. 
 
 Engraved at Francfort in 1594, by Theodore De Bry, for the Latin Edition of 
 Girolarno Bonzoni's Historia del Mondo Moro. 
 
FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 SPANI 
 
 IN CUBA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 An Unpleasant Task — A Borrowed Glory— The Con- 
 clusions of Dr. Coke. 
 
 "History," said a great writer, "is a mixture of 
 good and of evil, with here and there a glorious 
 page."* 1 ) But he who would undertake the study 
 of the methods which Spain adopted in conquering 
 the Island of Cuba, and in retaining its possession 
 for four hundred years, with the expectation of 
 finding such a page, would commit a grave error, 
 for he will meet with the story of no deed on which 
 he may dwell with satisfaction, and which may, per- 
 haps, even cause him in a moment of thoughtless and 
 quickly repressed enthusiasm, to congratulate him- 
 self that he is a member of the human race. The his- 
 
 (i) This sentiment, or one very much like it, has, I think, been 
 expressed by F. D. GuerrazM. 
 
10 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 tory of Cuba is not pleasant. It makes one feel as 
 if man were an animal very much inferior to a dog, 
 and very little better than a tiger. It is, almost 
 since the instant the foot of a white man first trod 
 its soil until the present day, a tale of cruelty and 
 corruption, of oppression and ferocity, which, for 
 its continuity and its long duration, stands un- 
 equalled in the annals of the world, a monument of 
 shame to the Spanish race, a blot on the conscience 
 of humanity. It shows us that most of the evils 
 of which that unfortunate island suffers at the end 
 of the nineteenth century at the hands of its rulers, 
 are the same under which it was groaning at the 
 close of the sixteenth century, and that its lords 
 have persisted from generation to generation in the 
 same mismanagement and maladminstratidn, with 
 the same blindness and obstinacy, learning no lesson 
 from the past, seeking no improvement for the 
 future. 
 
 "Spain," says Coke, in his "History of the West 
 Indies," "has had the honor of discovering the new 
 world, and the disgrace of murdering its inhab- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 11 
 
 itants. The former of these deeds she effected 
 through the genius of a daring and enlightened 
 foreigner, but the latter through her own native 
 spirit, trammelled by intellectual fetters, and ac- 
 customed to human blood;" and he concludes that 
 "Spain has borrowed her glory and merited the 
 detestation of mankind." Strong words these, but 
 which, written, as they were, in 1808, have proved 
 true to this day. Born four centuries ago in the 
 blood of the native Siboneyes, Spanish rule in Cuba 
 dies to-day in the blood of the reconcentrados; the 
 former were burnt at the stake, the latter were 
 starved to death. 
 
 She has exploited the seemingly inexhaustible re- 
 sources of the island with the same greediness with 
 which she exploited the gold mines in other parts of 
 her American possessions, when in her anxiety to 
 secure the coveted metal she cared nothing for the 
 life of the miserable Indians who perished by the 
 thousands under the burdens and the hard tabor 
 which she imposed on them during the course of 
 the work. 
 
12 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Let us, at once, give Spain credit for what she has 
 done. She has abolished slavery. She has not 
 clone it until a few years ago, it is true, and she was 
 the last one of the civilized nations to do it, but — 
 no matter how, or when, or why — she has done it. 
 When this has been told, the only word that can 
 relieve the story has been spoken. (1) 
 
 (!) See note 2, page 199. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Discovery — Mistakes Made on Both Sides — The 
 Siboneyes. 
 
 The island which the Spaniards were to surname 
 "the ever faithful," but which might better have 
 been designated as the ever unhappy, was sighted 
 by Columbus on the 27th of October 1492, and he 
 effected a landing on it the following day. He gave 
 it the name of Juana, and later it was called Ferdin- 
 anda, or Fernandina, then Santiago, and Ave Maria, 
 but none of these names met with favor. The natives 
 called it Cuba,^ and it was under the Indian name 
 that it came to be known generally. 
 
 On the first of November, Martin Alonzo Pinzon, 
 who had been sent to investigate the surroundings 
 of the landing place, reported that he understood 
 that Cuba was a City, and the land a terra firma, 
 and Columbus agreed with the captain of the Pinta 
 in thinking that they had found the continent of 
 India, and that they were about one hundred miles 
 
 (!) The Spanish pronunciation is "Kooba." with the b sounding 
 almost like a v. 
 
 (13) 
 
14 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 from its capital where he supposed that the Great 
 Khan, or Emperor, resided. He sent three dele^ 
 gates to visit the' interior of the country; they went 
 a distance of twelve miles, then returned and re- 
 ported that they had found a village containing 
 fifty houses and one thousand inhabitants; the latter 
 had received them with great joy, as being de- 
 scended from heaven. 
 
 That joy was destined to be short-lived, and the 
 opinion of the natives as to the origin of the visitors 
 underwent, beyond doubt, a material change within 
 a very brief period of time. 
 
 The race which Columbus found in Cuba appears 
 to have been composed of the descendants of two 
 nations that immigrated there before, the Christian 
 era, both coming from the southern portion of the 
 North American continent. Part of the immi- 
 grants were called Nahcas, and were a branch of 
 the Apalaches; others gave themselves the name of 
 Caribs, and belonged originally to the Cofache 
 nation. These immigrants displaced a prehistoric 
 race which they found there, being probably a 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 15 
 
 branch of the Mayas, of Yucatan, or perhaps 
 blended with it. At the time of the discovery the 
 natives of Cuba called themselves Siboneyes. 
 
 While the Caribs, who then inhabited the Wind- 
 ward Islands were a fierce, warlike and ferocious 
 people, practicing cannibalism, the Cubans, or 
 Siboneyes, were on the contrary, a mild, gentle and 
 docile race. The island was governed by nine 
 Caciques, or Chiefs. Their religion was a belief in 
 the immortality of the soul, and in the existence of 
 one kind and beneficent God. Their priests, how- 
 ever, are said to have been cunning and fanatical, 
 and given to exciting superstition among the 
 people, in order to prey upon them. The "Historia 
 Generale delle Indie Occidentali," written in Span- 
 ish by Francisco Lopez de Gomara, the Secretary to 
 Hernan Cortez, and published in Italian in Rome 
 in 1556, gives us some curious details about the 
 wedding ceremonies of the Siboneyes. When the 
 bridegroom was a cacique the Droit du Seigneur 
 was exercised by all the caciques who had been in- 
 vited to the bridal feast, or by all the merchants 
 
16 . FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 when he was a merchant, and by the cacique and 
 some of the priests when he was a peasant; after this, 
 says Gomara, "the bride was held in very high 
 esteem and consideration." 
 
 In May 1494, Columbus, on his second trip, tried 
 to ascertain whether Cuba was an island or not, 
 but after coasting it for 335 leagues he became 
 convinced that it was a continent, and ordered 
 Fernan Perez de Luna, and four witnesses, to de- 
 clare upon oath that it was the beginning of India, 
 and the land which he had intended to find. It 
 was only in 1508 that the mistake of Columbus was 
 discovered, after a voyage of circumnavigation 
 which lasted eight months, by Sebastiande Ocampo, 
 whom the King of Spain had sent to investigate the 
 matter. Vincent Yanez Pinzon also sailed around 
 Cuba in the year 1510, 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 17 
 
 Father Bartholomew L,as Casas. 
 (See not© 3, page 199,) 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Conquest — The Story of Hatuey — Los Malos Tra- 
 tamientos — Girolamo Benzoni, and What He Saw — 
 Father Montesino and Father Las Casas — Exeunt 
 the Siboneyes. 
 
 'The lordeDiego Colon being Admirall and chiefe 
 Governour of the new India sent one Iaymes Ve- 
 lasques to conquer the Ilande of Cuba in the yeare 
 1511, and gave unto him armour and other thinges 
 necessarie," so we are informed by the "Pleasant 
 Historie of the Conquest of the New India, now 
 called New Spayne," translated from the Spanish 
 of Gomara and published in London in 1578. Velas- 
 quez sailed from San Domingo with three hundred 
 volunteers and seventy regulars, in four vessels. 
 Father Bartholomew Las Casas, the apostle of the 
 Indies, and Hernan Cortes, the future conqueror of 
 Mexico, went with him. By that time the native 
 Cubans had had an opportunity of becoming ac- 
 quainted with the real character and disposition of 
 the newcomers. Hatuey, a Cacique in whose do- 
 
 (18> 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 19 
 
 
20 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 minions Velasquez landed, was originally from His- 
 paniola (Hayti) whence he had been compelled to 
 flee in order to save his life, from the slaughter 
 which had been made of the natives by the Span- 
 iards. When he heard that the latter were approach- 
 ing his newly adopted country, he ordered his sub- 
 jects to gather in haste all the gold they could 
 find, to worship it as the God of the white men, 
 and to throw it in the sea. He hoped, by this, that 
 the Spaniards, not finding the metal that they were 
 so anxious for, would not remain but would sail 
 away at once. However he was mistaken, and this 
 time he could not escape his fate. He was taken 
 and burnt alive. At the stake, a Franciscan monk 
 exhorted him to conversion, promising him the 
 happiness of Paradise. Hatuey asked if any Span- 
 iards were to be found there. "Only the good 
 ones," said the monk. The best are good for noth- 
 ing," cried the Cacique. "I will not go where there 
 is a chance of meeting one of them." 
 
 It has been said, in extenuation of the conduct 
 of the Spaniards towards the Indians, that the spirit 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 21 
 
 of the age was harsh and intolerant, and that there 
 are many instances of cruelty to the natives com- 
 mitted by other nations in the course of their con- 
 quests in the new world. While there is undoubt- 
 edly much truth in these statements, it is equally 
 true that the instances referred to were isolated 
 and individual cases, and that no such systematical 
 wholesale extermination and wanton butchery of an 
 inoffensive people, as were the natives of Cuba, 
 (leaving out of the question the Indians of Central 
 and South America) was ever committed by any 
 other colonizing nation. 
 
 The number of natives, or Siboneyes, existing in 
 Cuba in 1511 is variously estimated at from two 
 hundred thousand to one million. Twenty years 
 later only five thousand of them remained. 
 
 Severiano Doporto, in the "Diccionario Enciclo- 
 pedico Hispano-Americano," in trying to excuse h ; s 
 countrymen, says that terrible accusations have been 
 made against Spain for the disappearance of that 
 race, without calculating that the phenomenon re- 
 peats itself in our sight, without the possibility of 
 cruelty or oppression being alleged; and that the 
 
22 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 natives were destined to perish by virtue of the 
 same mysterious law which causes the disappear- 
 ance of the Maoris, the Kanucks. and other peoples, 
 among which the. North American Indians. He 
 acknowledges however that the mortality was be- 
 yond doubt increased by the labors to which they 
 were subjected, by slavery, and, he adds, rather 
 naively, by los malos tratamicntos — bad treatment. 
 There is no mystery in the reason of the sud- 
 den vanishing of the Cuban natives, the facts are 
 clear and easily understood, and we shall soon see 
 what the bad treatment consisted of in reality. 
 "Many Indians, besides," adds the Spanish writer, 
 "took their own life." 
 
 Why did they do so? He does not say, but 
 the answer to this question is given us in the "His- 
 toria del Mondo Nuovo" by Gerolamo Benzoni, of 
 Milan, who in a spirit of adventure and, as he says, 
 to see the new world, left Italy at the age of twenty- 
 two, in 1541, and joined the Spanish expeditions. 
 He writes as follows in his book, published in 
 Venice in 1512. "They went in the woods in de- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 23 
 
24 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 spair, and hanged themselves, having previously 
 killed their children, saying that it was better for 
 them to die than to live so miserably, serving such 
 wicked and ferocious robbers and tyrants." 
 
 History records with honor the name of Father 
 Antonio Montesino, a Dominican monk, who pro- 
 tested against the atrocities which were being com- 
 mitted by his companions. In consequence of his 
 efforts, an edict was published, in 1511, by which 
 the Indians were declared free, and it was ordered 
 that they should be treated as such; they were not 
 to be flogged, or forced to carry burdens, or to 
 work on Sunday. Spain was thus beginning, at 
 that early date, that series of promises to the natives 
 of the island which were to be forgotten almost as 
 soon as made. 
 
 Father Bartholomew Las Casas, who perhaps 
 owed his humane instincts to the French blood 
 which was coursing through his veins, for his father, 
 Francois Cazans, had been a Frenchman, declared 
 in 1515 that the Spaniards had destroyed the 
 Indians with great cruelty. "His writings," says 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 25 
 
 Raynal, "have branded his countrymen with a dis- 
 grace which time has not and will never efface." 
 The Spaniards, said Las Casas, to whom later was 
 given the title of "Protector General of the In- 
 dians," laid wagers which could with one thrust of 
 a sword rip open an Indian's bowels, or cut off his 
 head with the greatest dexterity; they burnt them 
 at the stake thirteen at a time, in an infamous repre- 
 sentation of the Christ and the twelve apostles, fill- 
 ing with bullets the mouths of the victims to pre- 
 vent their cries. 
 
 It must be conceded that these are indeed malos 
 tratamientos, and, in the face of these undeniable 
 facts it is quite amusing to read the intensely patri- 
 otic, but altogether erratic, manifest recently issued 
 by Governor Augusti of the Philippine Islands, in 
 which, according to the report published in the 
 "New York Plerald" of April 28th, he says, refer- 
 ring to the people of the United States, "they (the 
 Americans) have exterminated the natives of North 
 America instead of giving them civilization and 
 progress." These words, in the mouth of a Span- 
 
26 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 iard, constitute an exhibition of impudence that is 
 sublime. 
 
 The protests of Las Casas moved the King of 
 Spain to send in 1516 three fathers of the Order of 
 St. Jerome to Cuba, to remedy abuses and to pro- 
 tect the Indians. The Caciques were told that they 
 were free, and several excellent regulations were 
 made for their welfare, but the promises, of course, 
 came to naught. The three lathers did not accom- 
 plish much good, and seem to have developed an 
 antagonism against Las Casas shortly after their 
 arrival on the Island. Again, in 1528, the King 
 repeated his orders that the Indians should be con- 
 sidered as free men; in 1532 it was ordered that no 
 Indian should be marked in the face with irons; a 
 few years later another edict was issued providing 
 that no Indian should be made a slave, but that 
 they should be treated as royal vassals to the crown 
 of Castille; the Indians in Cuba were not to pay any 
 tribute. 
 
 Bancroft, in his "History of Central America," 
 quotes a number of laws which were made by the 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 27 
 
28 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Spanish kings in favor of the Indians, and he infers 
 from them that "writers may possibly color their 
 assertions, but by following the royal decrees we 
 have what cannot be controverted;" he says that 
 Isabella and her successors "stood manfully for the 
 rights of the savages," but he admits, however, that 
 "there were many ways the Spaniards had of evad- 
 ing the just and humane laws of their monarchs," 
 and that "the evil proclivities of their subjects in the 
 new world were of home, engendering," due to the 
 examples set by the monarchs themselves. We can- 
 not agree with him when he says that the monarchs 
 "protected earnestly, honestly, at the length of cen- 
 turies," the natives of their colonies; more likely 
 their orders were due to the intention of relieving 
 themselves of the importunities of a few generous 
 men like Montesino and Las Casas, and without any 
 serious desire of compelling their subjects who, as 
 Bancroft says, "went their way and executed their 
 will with the natives," to observe the decrees; for 
 it cannot be doubted that had they really intended 
 to enforce the just and humane laws referred to 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
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30 - FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 above, ways and means of punishing the trans- 
 gressors would not have been lacking. But Spain 
 kept on signing edicts in favor of the Indians 
 with one hand, and cutting their throats with the 
 other. 
 
 We may surmise how, in fact, those laws were 
 observed from the writings of the Italian Benzoni, 
 who, as Southey, quoting from Humboldt, says, 
 "relates the cruelties of which he was a witness with 
 a sense of horror not to-be found in the Spanish his- 
 torians of that time." During the course of the 
 expeditions in which he took part, in 1542, he saw 
 the natives dragged to New Cadiz, to be marked on 
 the forehead and arms, and to be played for at dice 
 by the Spanish soldiers. 
 
 Sometimes the worm turned. The Indians took 
 some of that gold which was the cause of all their 
 sufferings, the desire for which had brought to their 
 country the men who tortured and murdered them; 
 they melted it and poured it red hot down the throat 
 of some of their tormentors. This, however, did 
 not liappen in Cuba, for the natives there were too 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 31 
 
 mild a race, and tame and incapable of resistance. 
 Thus the unfortunate Siboneyes disappeared from 
 the face of the earth, slaughtered almost like sheep 
 by the strangers whom they had hailed as messen- 
 gers of God. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Early Period — Adding Insult to Injury — Governors 
 for Revenue Only — Corsairs and Pirates — The 
 Storming of Havana by the Combined English and 
 American Colonial Forces in 1762 — The Events in 
 the Latter Part of the 18th Century — The Dawn. 
 
 The first settlement made by Velasquez, in 1512, 
 was at Baracoa; Santiago, Havana, Bayamo, Puerto 
 Principe and Sancti Spiritus were also founded at 
 that time. The development of the Colonies, how- 
 ever, was hampered by the enmity which had come 
 to exist between Velasquez and Cortes, and also be- 
 cause agriculture, which had been the basis of col- 
 onization, lacked hands and was reduced to naught. 
 In 1523 the indigenous population was so dimin- 
 ished already that the importation of negroes began, 
 three hundred slaves being brought to Cuba by 
 advice of Las Casas, who thought he could save the 
 Indian race by relieving the natives of the slavery 
 and hard labors to which they had been subjected. 
 This was the origin of the negro population of Cuba, 
 
 (32) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 33 
 
 Herman Cortes. 
 
 From an Engraving in Henera's Historia General. 
 (Edition of 1728.) 
 
34 . FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 which was to increase to such large proportions in 
 the future. 
 
 The Spaniards lived in continual discord. De 
 Soto moved from Cuba, in 1539, to the conquest of 
 Florida, and his expedition further depopulated the 
 country. In 1536 the first Corsair had made his 
 appearance in the waters of Havana; he was a 
 Frenchman, and he raised seven hundred ducats 
 from the inhabitants who were frightened by his 
 threat of burning the town. The next day he was 
 chased by three Spanish vessels, but captured all 
 three, and returning to Havana compelled the in- 
 habitants to pay him seven hundred ducats more. 
 In 1543 the residence of the Governor was estab- 
 lished at Havana. 
 
 It is admitted by Spanish writers that the disorder 
 which reigned in the administration of the Island, 
 the corruption and cruelty of the Colons, the fanat- 
 icism and bigotry of the bishops, during the whole 
 of the 10th centurv, could not have been greater. 
 'The history of the. Spanish administration of that 
 time," says Doporto, "is shameful." 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 35 
 
 An examination of the accounts of Velasquez was 
 ordered, or, as the Spanish expression is to denote 
 the investigation of the conduct of a public official, 
 he was "residenciado" by Zuazo, who' replaced him 
 as governor of the Colony, and was himself "resi- 
 denciado" a few years later by Diego Colon, a son 
 of the discoverer. The next governor, Juan Alta- 
 mira.no, came in 1525 to investigate the preceding 
 administrations, and the same measure was adopted 
 towards him when Guzman was sent to take his 
 place. The latter being himself "residenciado" and 
 substituted by Juan Vadillo. And so on; governor 
 after governor succeeded each other, having been 
 sent from Spain to inquire into the misdeeds of his 
 predecessor, but the "residenciador," after having 
 found out the methods and system of peculation 
 Which the former governor had carried on, instead 
 of remedying the evils, simply used the information 
 for his own benefit, adopting most likely such im- 
 provements in his own way of stealing and of im- 
 posing on the people as were suggested to him by 
 the knowledge which he had acquired of the ex- 
 
36 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 The La Cosa Vignette. 
 
 The only reproduction of the features of Columbus, drawn during his life. 
 
 (See note 1, page 197.) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 37 
 
 perience of others, until he was himself "residen- 
 ciado," by another man, who did the same. Several 
 of these governors, among others one Gasparo de 
 Torres, are acknowledged by Spanish writers to 
 have been real bandits. 
 
 French corsairs continued to infest the island, 
 one of them sacked Havana in 1543, in spite of the 
 fortifications which had been erected. Drake pre- 
 sented himself before Havana in 1586, but the Eng- 
 lish fleet was defeated, shortly after, near the Isla 
 de Pinos. At that time the construction of the 
 Castles of Morro and of La Punta was begun. 
 Santiago was fortified in 1630. 
 
 The population of Cuba was increased by fugi- 
 tives from Jamaica after the latter had been con- 
 quered by the English, and reached 30,000 inhab- 
 itants, about 1650. In 1658, Puerto Principe and 
 Santiago were sacked by pirates, also, shortly after, 
 Puerto Principe for the second time, and Sancti 
 Spiritus. During the whole of the 17th century 
 contraband and piracy reigned supreme, and with 
 almost absolute impunity; but the various govern- 
 
38 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 ors who succeeded each other at the beginning of 
 the 18th century erected stronger fortifications, and 
 finally routed the corsairs and exterminated piracy. 
 Shortly after, the spirit of revolt of the Cubans of 
 Spanish blood against the mother country asserted 
 itself for the first time; riots broke out in Havana 
 and Santiago, caused by several oppressive regula- 
 tions of the government. Ogier, an English officer, 
 threatened a landing in Havana, at that time, but 
 finally desisted from his purpose. Hostilities having 
 begun again between England and Spain, an Eng- 
 lish fleet under Admiral Vernon attempted the seiz- 
 ure of Santiago in 1741, but was repulsed. In 1762, 
 however, the English, under Admiral Pococke and 
 Lord Albemarle, stormed Havana, which capitu- 
 lated on the 13th of August. Victory, perhaps, 
 would not have been favorable to the English 
 forces, or at any rate could only have been gained 
 by them with much more difficulty, had it not been 
 for the timely help given them by the reinforce- 
 ments which they received at the end of July, con- 
 sistingof about 2,300 men from New York, Connect- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 39 
 
 
40 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 icut and New Jersey, under the command of Gen>- 
 eral Lyman of Connecticut, and of Colonel Israel 
 Putnam of New York. 
 
 The losses of the English during the siege which 
 had begun early in June, were 1,790 men killed in 
 battle, besides 700' who died of fever. All the terri- 
 tory conquered by England in the Island of Cuba 
 was restored to Spain by virtue of Article 19 of the 
 Treaty of Peace dated February 10th, 1763, between 
 the kings of Britain, of France and of Spain. 
 
 After the conclusion of the peace with England 
 the Spanish army in Cuba was reorganized by an 
 Irishman named O'Reilly. At that time a regular 
 mail service was established between Spain and her 
 colonies, calling at Havana every three months. 
 The taxes and tributes were considerably increased, 
 causing disturbances which, however, were soon 
 quelled, among the planters of Camaguey and of the 
 Vuelta Abajo. In 1774, a census was taken of the 
 population of the Island, and it was found to consist 
 of 101,610 inhabitants, of whom 96,530 were whites 
 and 71,180negroes, including about 45,000 slaves. In 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 41 
 
 1792, another census was made, showing that the 
 total population had increased to 272,000. Three 
 years later the cession of Hayti to France caused 
 the emigration of about 12,000 families from that 
 Island to Cuba, and from that moment dates the 
 beginning of the sugar industry in Cuba. 
 
 Although, as we have seen, riots and disturbances 
 had taken place before, the real beginning of the 
 bitter strife between the Spaniards and the native 
 Cuban population may be assigned to the end of the 
 18th century, when the dissatisfaction of the native 
 colonists against their rulers began to manifest itself 
 in political and social contests, notwithstanding the 
 fact that the administration of Luis de las Casas 
 (1790) was the most tolerable that Cuba had ever 
 had. But the spirit of the revolt of the thirteen 
 colonies against the domination of England was 
 abroad; its influence and that of the French Revo- 
 lution were, felt throughout the world, and caused 
 the hearts of the oppressed to throb and their minds 
 to awaken to new desires and hopes. The Cubans, 
 then, began to show their opposition to many acts 
 
42 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 of the government, and to discuss and criticise the 
 actions of the authorities. Even women took a 
 lively part in the struggle, and those who were 
 opposed to Spanish domination adopted the custom 
 of cutting their hair, a curious way of showing 
 their disaffection, but which served the purpose ot 
 distinguishing them from the women of the oppo- 
 site party. 
 
 Thus it was that, in the last days of the dying 
 century, a faint ray of light dawned above the dark- 
 ness which had enveloped Cuba for wellnigh three 
 hundred years, and by this gleam the precursors of 
 "Cuba libre" read in the future the promise of a 
 better day. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson and the Island of Cuba— The De- 
 signs of Napoleon — An Undeserved Compliment 
 Unthankfully Received. 
 
 The first evidence of the interest which the 
 United States have ever since taken in the destinies 
 of the neighboring island may be said to date from 
 the time at which the purchase of Louisiana was 
 proposed. It was at about that time, or shortly 
 after, that Thomas Jefferson (1) thinking that Spain 
 might be induced to cede Cuba as France agreed to 
 cede Louisiana, wrote that Napoleon would cer- 
 tainly give his consent to our receiving the Floridas, 
 and with some difficulty possibly Cuba. "I would," 
 wrote Jefferson, "immediately erect a column in the 
 southernmost limit of Cuba, and inscribe on it Ne 
 plus ultra, as to us, in that direction. We should 
 then have only to include the North in our con- 
 federacy, which would be, of course, after the first 
 war, and we should have such an empire for Liberty 
 
 P) Murat Halstead, "The Story of Cuba," page 28 and 29, 
 
 (43) 
 
44 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 as She has never surveyed since the creation; and 
 I am persuaded nc constitution was ever before so 
 well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self- 
 government." 
 
 The fortifications of Cuba had been increased at 
 the end of the 18th century by Governor Santa 
 Clara, who feared an attack by England, but during 
 the governorship of Somaruelos several coast towns 
 were nevertheless assaulted and sacked by English 
 corsairs. Somaruelos in arming the natives and 
 encouraging them to resistance proclaimed that 
 Englishmen being "no christians" were to be con- 
 sidered as enemies of mankind; which shows us 
 that Augusti had some predecessors among his 
 compatriots in the matter of making wild and extra- 
 ordinary statements. 
 
 In 1808 news was brought to Havana by Juan 
 de Aguilar of the movement initiated in Spain 
 against the French. "Juntas," or Committees were 
 organized for eventual defense; 6,000 unnaturalized 
 Frenchmen were expelled from the island, not a few 
 murdered, and many houses and plantations be- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 45 
 
 longing to them or their sympathizers were de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 These excesses were undoubtedly committed by 
 the "Peninsulars," as the inhabitants of Cuba who 
 are natives of Spain are called, to distinguish them 
 from the natives of the Island, to whom the name 
 of "Jnsulars" is given. It was among that same 
 class, the Peninsulars, which at the present time is 
 said to comprise about one-fifth of the white popu- 
 lation, that the notoiious Volunteers of the future 
 Cuban revolutions were to be recruited. What the 
 attitude of the real Cubans, the Insulars, was at 
 that time, I have not been able to ascertain, but 
 although the Cuban provincial council resolved that 
 the island should remain devoted to the Bourbons, 
 after they had been deposed by Napoleon, and 
 although it recognized, in the same Resolution, 
 Ferdinand VII. as king, I believe that the great 
 mass of the genuine Cuban, the Insular, population 
 merely remained passive. Perhaps the rather more 
 liberal administration of Don Luis de las Casas had 
 had an effect in that direction, but more likely the 
 Cubans were simply indifferent before a prospective 
 
46 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Change of masters, although Heaven knows that 
 they could not have fared worse. 
 
 The freedom of commerce was obtained through 
 the exertions of Francisco de Arranjo', the most 
 illustrious name, says Ballou, in Cuban history. 
 
 In 1810 Napoleon being anxious that Cuba 
 should arise against Spain sent an emissary, Jose 
 Aleman, to promote a revolution, but his man was 
 captured and promptly hanged. After this, Spain 
 decorated the island with the title of "the ever 
 faithful," thinking, undoubtedly, that its bestowal 
 was ample compensation for all past and future 
 grievances. Cuba has ever since borne the new 
 affliction with resignation, feeling much as a man 
 would who being confined to a prison cell by four 
 stone walls and a few iron bars hears himseli 
 praised for his good home-staying qualities. In 
 1814, possibly as a reward for her faithfulness, all 
 such liberal concessions as she had enjoyed under 
 the administration of Don Luis de las Casas, were 
 suppressed by Ruiz de Apodaca, whom the "Bour- 
 bonesque" reaction sent as governor to the island 
 in that year. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Secret Societies — Advances of Spain — The Policy 
 of John Quincy Adams — Tacon and Lorenzo — The 
 Decision of the Cortes — Why Tacon was Recalled. 
 
 In 1820, we find the troops in Havana revolting 
 against Governor Cagical and compelling him to 
 proclaim the constitution of 1812; but its benefits 
 did not last long and soon the reactionary party 
 had everything its own way again. At about that 
 time, and notably in 1823, a number of secret soci- 
 eties were formed, such as the "Soles de Bolivar," 
 the "Society of the Black Eagle," and many others. 
 Some of the authorities on Cuban history state that 
 the former of these associations, and others, were 
 merely established for the sake of amusement and of 
 friendly intercourse among their members, but the 
 opinion of other historians that they were intended 
 for no suc'h innocent purpose, and that all of them 
 were organized in order to conspire for the inde- 
 pendence of the islands is much more likely to be in 
 accordance with the truth. 
 
 (47) 
 
48 . FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Spain, in 1825, offered some commercial advan- 
 tages to the United States, on "condition that the 
 latter should guarantee the possession of Cuba to 
 her, but the Spanish offers were refused. It was 
 feared by the Spaniards that the people of the con- 
 tinent who had arisen against their domination 
 would assist the Cubans by sending troops to the 
 island in order to overthrow the power of the 
 mother country; but the scheme of invasion of Cuba 
 and Porto Rico by the combined forces of Mexico 
 and Colombia was defeated by the opposition of the 
 United States, who feared that Cuba instead of 
 gaining its liberty would fall into the hands of 
 another European power, a change which could, of 
 course, on no account be permitted. John Quincy 
 Adams, then President of the United States, said in 
 a message that all our efforts would, for that reason, 
 be directed "to preserve the existing state of 
 things." 
 
 But another sentiment, besides the one contained 
 in the recently proclaimed Monroe Doctrine, was 
 at the bottom of that opposition. The policy of the 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 49 
 
 United States at that time was influenced, we must 
 acknowledge it to our sorrow, by the fear that if 
 Cuba should be liberated, or if any other power 
 should get possession of it, the slaves might be set 
 free, an event which the Southern States of this 
 country considered as dangerous for the continu- 
 ance of slavery in the United States. This ungen- 
 erous feeling, entirely contrary to the principles 
 which have created this nation and made it what it 
 is, was however in accordance with the prevalent 
 desires of a part of the country at that time. 
 
 'The proximity of Cuba," says Henry Wilson, (1 ) 
 "to the mouth of the Mississippi river, and its com- 
 manding position in the Gulf of Mexico, made that 
 island a matter of interest and importance to the 
 people of the United States, whether it was held by 
 Spain, or was independent or free. Here, however, 
 as everywhere else, the interests of slavery were 
 made paramount, and the Slave power controlled 
 the action of the government — a fact detrimental 
 alike to the well-being and the honor of the Re- 
 public. 
 
 (i) Henry Wilson— "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America." 
 
50 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 "When the Spanish Colonies in America became 
 independent they abolished slavery. Apprehensive 
 that the Republics of Mexico and Colombia would 
 be anxious to wrest Cuba and Porto Rico from 
 Spain, secure their independence and introduce into 
 the islands the idea, if they did not establish the 
 fact, of freedom, the Slave-masters at once sought 
 to guard against what they deemed so calamitous 
 an event." 
 
 'Thus clearly and unequivocally," adds Wilson, 
 "did this Republic step forth the champion of slav- 
 ery and boldly insist that those islands should re- 
 main under the hateful despotism of Spain rather 
 than gain their independence by means that should 
 inure to the detriment of its cherished system. In- 
 deed, it would fight to fasten more securely the 
 bondage on Cuba and the slave. Such was the pur- 
 pose of the hour, and such the animating spirit of 
 the national administration." 
 
 The same policy was continued during the ad- 
 ministration of General Jackson, when representa- 
 tions were made by Mr. Van Buren against the sud- 
 den emancipation of a numerous slave population. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 51 
 
 General Vives then suppressed the conspirations 
 which had been formed in Puerto Principe and 
 elsewhere, and crushed the insurrection which had 
 been projected by the Societies. Several of these 
 were composed of negroes, and in this, perhaps, 
 lay the root of the fears which had been manifested 
 in the United States. 
 
 The g-overnment of the Island passed at that time 
 into the hands of Gene.raITacon,the Eastern Depart- 
 ment being commanded by General Lorenzo. The 
 latter, in 1836, was in Santiago, and on receiving 
 notice that the Queen Regent of Spain had taken 
 oath to the Constitution of 1812, he, without wait- 
 ing for the orders of his chief, immediately pro- 
 claimed through his Department that the benefits 
 of the Constitution would be extended to the Island, 
 and granted a national militia, the liberty of the 
 press, and other free institutions. 
 
 Tacon, who bitterly opposed the innovations, was 
 furious at Lorenzo's action and moved against him 
 with his troops. Lorenzo did not fight, but re- 
 turned to Spain. The governor then established a 
 
52 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 military commission which persecuted cruelly all 
 those who had obeyed the example of Lorenzo and 
 had taken oath to the Constitution; some were im- 
 prisoned, others banished, even the soldiers who 
 had merely obeyed the order of their officers in 
 
 ■e 
 
 swearing to the Constitution were punished, 500 of 
 them being condemned to work in the streets of 
 Havana with their feet shackled. Tacon, fully sat- 
 isfied with his work, -enjoyed his triumph in the 
 cause of tyranny, and awaited the decision of 
 the home government in the quarrel between him- 
 self and Lorenzo. 
 
 This is how Spain settled the matter: "The 
 Cortes/'^ 1 ) said the resolutions which they adopted — 
 'The Cortes using the power which is conceded 
 them by the Constitution, have decreed: not being 
 in a position to apply the Constitution which has 
 been adopted for the Peninsula and adjacencies to 
 the Ultra-Marine provinces of America and Asia, 
 these shall be ruled and administered by special 
 laws appropriate to their respective situations and 
 
 (i) Murat Halstead— "The Story of Cuba," page 61. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 53 
 
 circumstances, and proper to cause their happiness, 
 consequently the deputies for the designated prov- 
 inces are not to take their seats in the present 
 Cortes." 
 
 And thus it has been ever since, and is now at 
 the present time; the "special laws" for the Colonies 
 of Spain, "proper to cause their happiness" were 
 then Tacon's own sweet will, and have been since 
 the will of Balmaseda, of Weyler and of others 
 of that ilk; for under the Commissions which the 
 governors received from Spain, Cuba has practi- 
 cally been in a continual state of siege. By a 
 strange fatality, whenever Spain has enjoyed a more 
 liberal administration at home she has never felt as 
 "being in a position" to extend its benefits to her 
 dependencies. 
 
 Tacon, after his victory, continued for a time in 
 the government of the Island. It is on record that 
 he built the finest theatre that Havana had ever had 
 and which bears his name to this day; its splen- 
 dors, however, do not seem to have caused the 
 Cubans to forget their troubles. Incidentally, he 
 
U FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 did not fail to follow the example set by a long 
 line of predecessors and to fill his own exchequer 
 at the expense of that of Spain and of the pockets 
 of the inhabitants of Cuba, both Insular and Penin- 
 sular. In fact he went at it so fast and so furiously, 
 that at last he came to grief. 
 
 Spain had never intended that the governors she 
 sent to Cuba should administer the Island for the 
 benefit of the Cubans; they were sent to raise rev- 
 enue for the crown, and as a reward for political or 
 other service, merely as an opportunity to enrich 
 themselves at the expense of the colonists, and with 
 the understanding that they might squeeze them for 
 that purpose. Tacon entered into the execution of 
 the second part of this programme with such an 
 enthusiasm that perhaps he forgot the first one 
 entirely. Governor after governor had grown 
 wealthy in Cuba, but this particular Captain General 
 kept such a pace and acted with such a disregard 
 of conventionalities that Spain probably feared that 
 after he got through there would not be anything 
 worth having left in the Island for anyone else. 
 Tacon was recalled. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Narciso Lopez — The Expeditions of 1850-1851 — The 
 Martyrs of Fort Atares — ElGarrote — As You Sow, 
 So Shall You Reap. 
 
 General O'Donnell, in 1839, discovered a con- 
 spiration, the object of which was, it is said, to 
 liberate the slaves, and he repressed it. The separ- 
 atist group, however, — or secessionists — had come, 
 as a natural result of Tacon's tyranny and robbery, 
 to constitute, a strong and well-organized party, and 
 it was beginning to find favor and sympathy in the 
 United States; still the governor and the govern- 
 ment showed themselves disinclined to grant any 
 reforms. Outbreaks among the negroes occurred 
 in 1844 at Matanzas, and again in 1848. But it 
 was not till two years later that the first well de- 
 fined, open and organized attempt at revolt against 
 the Spanish yoke was made; at its head was Nar- 
 ciso Lopez, a man who was to become the first 
 martyr for the independence of his country, and 
 whose memory all Cuban patriots, and all lovers of 
 
 (55) 
 
56 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Narciso Lopez. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 57 
 
 liberty, to whatever nationality they may belong, 
 should respect and revere. 
 
 Narciso Lopez was born in the year 1798, or 
 1799, in Venezuela, then a colony belonging to 
 Spain. His father was a wealthy landed proprietor, 
 owning large estates on the "llanos," or plains, of 
 that country. According to the usual life of the 
 llanos, Narciso passed almost from the cradle to 
 the saddle, or rather to the unsaddled back of a wild 
 horse. 
 
 When he reached the age of fifteen, an event 
 occurred which caused him to enter the military 
 profession, although, it is said, much against his 
 previous wishes and inclinations. Civil war was 
 then desolating the Spanish South-American prov- 
 inces, and through its operations his father had 
 been deprived of nearly his entire property, or hact 
 seenitrenderedunproductive anduseless. With such 
 means as he was able to realize Lopez established 
 himself in business in Caracas, and his son, although 
 a mere boy, assisted him by managing a branch 
 located in the town of Valencia, in the interior of 
 
58 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 the country. It was then, in the year 1814, that 
 Bolivar, the celebrated liberator of Colombia, fought 
 and lost the great battle of La Puerta; in order to 
 protect his own retreat he induced the inhabitants 
 and the garrison of Valencia to make a desperate 
 resistance against the Spanish forces, by promising 
 that he would come to their rescue, a promise which 
 however he failed to keep. The place fell into the 
 hands of the Spaniards after a siege of three weeks' 
 duration. It is said that Narciso, though so very 
 young, showed the metal of which he was made, for 
 he not only took an active part in the fight, in the 
 ranks of the Valencians, but he even came to be 
 recognized by soldiers and citizens as their leader 
 de facto among the men who had collected at the 
 particular point which he was defending. 
 
 The two Lopezes managed to escape from the hor- 
 rible slaughter which, of course, followed the Span- 
 ish victory, but Narciso in indignation and disgust 
 at Bolivar's action — unworthy, indeed, of the great 
 patriot — and having lost all lie possessed, joined as 
 a private the. Spanish army under the command of 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 59 
 
 General Moralez; so that by force of circumstances 
 he was thrown on the Spanish side of that civil war, 
 and in doing so he was fully justified by the whole 
 population of Valencia, or by such part of it as 
 remained, which naturally felt very bitterly towards 
 Bolivar and would undoubtedly have shot him if 
 he had fallen into their hands. 
 
 At the end of the war, after the evacuation of 
 Caracas, in 1823, Lopez who had during its course 
 given many proofs of courage, and had highly dis- 
 tinguished himself on several occasions, had reached 
 the rank of Colonel. It may be noted to his honor 
 that he was influential in causing the Spanish Gen- 
 eral to desist from his purpose of protracting the 
 fight against the South Americans, and in conse- 
 quence of his services in that direction he was in- 
 vited by the patriot government to enter its service 
 with the same rank which he held in the Spanish 
 army. However he did not accept the offer and 
 retired to Cuba in 1823. There, after abandoning 
 the service, he married, and established himself, and 
 thenceforward he was a Cuban. During the gov- 
 
60 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 ernorship of General Tacon he was accused of con- 
 spiring for the independence of the Colony, for the 
 reason, chiefly, that during a dinner he had pro- 
 posed a toast to that sentiment; he was subjected to 
 a trial, but was acquitted. 
 
 Several years later, he happened to be at Madrid 
 at the time that the Royal or Absolutist party, 
 composed of the friends of Don Carlos, was threat- 
 ening to upset the liberal government of Queen 
 Christina, and he took an active part in the execu- 
 tion of the measures which were adopted by the 
 Queen in disarming the Royalists of the Capital, 
 leading bodies of the people in the operations to 
 that effect. He was then induced to re-enter the 
 army and to join the Liberal party in its fight 
 against the Carlists ; at the close of the war he found 
 himself a General. 
 
 During the popular insurrection which took 
 place afterwards, and which resulted in the expul- 
 sion of Queen Christina, General Lopez by the 
 desire of the people assumed the command of the 
 capital, as Governor of Madrid, and also became 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 61 
 
 the chief of the National guard; afterwards he rilled 
 other offices, among them that of Senator. 
 
 In the course of these events, however, Lopez 
 never forgot his affection for Cuba, his adopted 
 country, and, secretly fondling the resolution of be- 
 coming its liberator, he finally resigned from the 
 Senate in order to return to the Island. It was 
 with great difficulty that the government gave him 
 the permission of doing so, as his influence there 
 was feared, but he finally obtained it through his 
 friendship with Espartero/ 1 ) and he returned to 
 Cuba in 1839. 
 
 Lopez did not immediately begin to carry his 
 schemes into execution, as he was bound by ties of 
 intimate friendship with Valdes, then Captain Gen- 
 eral of the Island; but after the latter had been re- 
 called, he at once began to make preparations in 
 order to educate the Cuban people up to the ideas 
 of liberty and independence which he cherished. 
 
 With that purpose in view and by undertaking the 
 working of an abandoned copper mine, he mixed 
 
 (*) A Spanish general and statesman, prominent in the history of 
 ais country during that period, 
 
62 . FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 with the peasants, the "Guajiros," as they were 
 called. He dispensed medical advice and medi- 
 cines, being guided by a French manual of prac- 
 tice which he had read; in fact, he became one of 
 them, dressed in their own costume, and in many 
 ways succeeded in making himself familiar among 
 them. Having gradually inspired them with hishopes 
 and aspirations, he became confident that the entire 
 region would rise against the Spanish oppressors 
 at the call of his voice. In 1848, he judged that the 
 proper time had arrived but was induced to await 
 the. result of some communications which had been 
 entered into with an American officer who was then 
 in Mexico. (1 ) The delay led, through an accident, 
 to the discovery of his plan by the government. 
 His friends were arrested, but he succeeded in mak- 
 ing his escape by embarking on a vessel called the 
 Neptune, which landed him at Bristol, R. I. His 
 plan, from the first, had always been independence, 
 and then annexation to the United States. 
 
 (!) Probably W. S. Crittpnden, a graduate of West Point, who 
 too a prominent part in the Mexican war, although he was then 
 only 28 yearsfold. Afterwards ho was shot by the Spaniards at Fort 
 Atares. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 63 
 
 Such was the man who became the initiator of 
 that struggle for Cuban liberty which, though now 
 and then interrupted, or baffled, may be said to have 
 continued until the present time. 
 
 Lopez sailed from a port in the United States in 
 the steamer "Creole" in the spring of 1850. The 
 "Creole" was cleared for the Island of Mugeres 
 off the coast of Yucatan, where Lopez arrived on 
 the 15th of May, and he concentrated there three 
 divisions, comprising in all 609 men. Thence he 
 moved on Cardenas, and captured the town; but the 
 Spanish government, through its extensive system 
 of espionage in the United States, had been in- 
 formed of all his movements before he left this 
 country. Lopez had to withdraw in front of the 
 large number of troops which he found ready to 
 meet his expedition and was compelled to abandon 
 Cardenas. With what was left of his forces he re- 
 embarked on the Creole, and left the town, with the 
 Spanish man-of-war Pizarro in close pursuit. The 
 latter, however, was not able to catch him, and he 
 arrived safely in this country. 
 
64 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 He was arrested at Savannah on the 27th of 
 May, but the District Judge before whom he was 
 brought with many other members of the expedition 
 refused to grant the time which the prosecution 
 asked for in order to produce evidence against him, 
 and he was discharged amidst the cheers of the 
 people. He was re-arrested on the 15th of July on 
 the charge of violating the Act of 1818, which forbid 
 the fitting out or arming in our ports of ships to be 
 used against any "foreign Prince, Colony, District or 
 people" with whom we were at peace. (1) He was 
 tried with a number of his companions, but the 
 prosecution was finally abandoned. 
 
 The funeral oration on this expedition was pro- 
 nounced by Queen Isabella in her speech from the 
 throne at the opening of the Spanish Cortes, on the 
 31st of October, 1850. "Tranquillity," said the 
 Queen, "was for a moment disturbed in Cuba by a 
 set of foreign pirates who fled before the loyalty of 
 the people and the bravery of the troops." 
 
 The "foreign pirates" were the brave American 
 
 (i) The qualifying words had been introduced into that Act for the 
 specific purpose of including the Spanish Colonies in South America, 
 then in revolt against Spain. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 65 
 
 citizens who had generously offered their blood for 
 the redemption of Cuba. 
 
 An insurrection headed by a patriot named 
 Aguero took place in Camaguey early in 1851, but 
 was defeated, and its leaders were put to death. 
 
 Fort Atares, in Havana Harbor. 
 
 A second expedition was undertaken by Lopez 
 in the summer of 1851. He started for Cuba from 
 New Orleans, with about 500 men, in the steamer 
 Pampero, and landed at Morrillo, in Bahia Honda; 
 but this unfortunate enterprise was doomed to fail- 
 
66 . FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 ure since its inception, for here again the Spanish 
 spies had faithfully performed their task. Long 
 before Lopez sailed the Governor General of Cuba 
 had had timely notice of every movement he was 
 to make; letters were sent to him bearing the forged 
 signatures of several Cuban patriots, arranging for 
 a landing just at Morrillo, so that on his arrival 
 there he found the Spanish forces waiting for him; 
 thus he was betrayed and trapped. 
 
 After the inevitable defeat which followed his 
 fight with the troops which, as a Spanish writer 
 says, General Concha moved against him "with an 
 admirable activity," Lopez, wandering on foot, at- 
 tenuated by fatigue and hunger, was captured 
 through the operations of a Spanish spy named 
 Castaneda, at Los Pinos de Rangel, on the 29th of 
 August, 1851. 
 
 Fifty of his companions, among them the Amer- 
 ican officer Crittenden, were shot at Port Atares, in 
 Havana harbor; scores of others were loaded with 
 chains and sent to prisons in Spain. Among the 
 prisoners were, besides the Americans, many Eng- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 67 
 
 lishmen and Germans. The English Consul 
 showed the utmost kindness to his compatriots and 
 comforted them to the best of his ability; the officers 
 of a German society of Havana did the same for 
 their countrymen. As to the American consul he 
 told the American prisoners that they had placed 
 themselves outside the pale of the law, and that he 
 could do nothing for them. 
 
 It was true; they were outside the pale of the 
 law, such as it was — And still ... we are at 
 liberty to believe that had a man of the stamp of 
 Colonel Fitzhugh Lee been the consul of the United 
 States in Havana at that time, the unkind and un- 
 generous words would not have been spoken. 
 
 Lopez, who on landing at Morrillo had stooped 
 and kissed the earth of his country, asked for the 
 death of a soldier, "los cuatro golpes" — the four 
 shots, but even this was refused him, and he died 
 by the garrote, at Havana, on the 1st of September. 
 The last words of this hero were "I die for my be- 
 loved Cuba." 
 
 The garrote is an instrument of execution the 
 
68 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 use of which is especial to Spain. We give here 
 two engravings on which it is shown. W One of the 
 engravings is a top view of the iron work of the 
 garrote. It is attached to the upper part of a post 
 about three feet in height. The principal feature 
 
 "El Garrote vil." 
 
 is a peculiarly threaded screw; one-half is left 
 handed, the other is right handed. The front half 
 of the screw passes through the post and turns in a 
 nut fixed in the latter. About an inch from the 
 end there is a curved piece to fit the back of the 
 
 (!) Both the engravings and the description which follows are 
 taken from "Harper's Weekly" for May 8th, 1869. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 69 
 
 neck. The end of the screw is somewhat rounded. 
 , To the back half of the screw a cross bar is fitted; 
 from the ends of this two rods pass through holes 
 in the post. To the end of one a semi-circular 
 cravat of iron is hinged so that it can be closed upon 
 the end of the other rod and pinned to it. A half 
 turn of the screw will draw back the cravat by means 
 of the left hand screw, cross bar and rods, while at 
 the same time the point and curved piece will be 
 thrown forward an equal distance. There is a seat 
 attached to the post which is so adjusted that the 
 point of the screw will come against a particular 
 portion of the spine. When the culprit (1) is seated 
 the cravat is closed and pinned, and at a given sig- 
 nal the executioner gives a quick turn to the screw. 
 The spine is broken, and death follows. 
 
 The sentence of the court is usually death by "El 
 Garrote vil." (2) By the old law if a nobleman is to 
 be executed the sentence must be by the "Garrote 
 noble." The only difference is that in the first case 
 the platform is not sheltered or its floor covered, 
 
 (i) Culprit is the word used by the Editor of Harper's Weekly.— In 
 most cases victim or martyr would be a more appropriate one. 
 ( 2 ) The jow, or cowardly, garrote. 
 
70 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 while the nobleman can demand to have a roof over 
 him and his feet rest on a carpet, t 1 ) There is but 
 one garrote in each Department, and when required 
 at any place it is sent under an escort of soldiers, 
 together with the executioner/ 2 ) 
 
 Lopez who gave up fortune, position and honors 
 for his ideal of liberty; Lopez entitled by the nobil- 
 ity of his actions to be placed on the roll of those 
 who sacrificed their lives for their country, was not 
 entitled by nobility of birth to a nobleman's privi- 
 lege, and therefore he died by the "garrote vil." 
 
 "History," says Molmenti,( 3) "is made by means 
 of comparisons." 
 
 Mark the wise and generous policy adopted at the 
 end of the struggle by the victors towards the van- 
 quished, both towards the leaders and the privates 
 in the ranks of the long and terrible civil war which 
 only thirty-five years ago desolated this country. 
 Contrast it with the conduct of a nation which by 
 
 (i) This is not due to a proper regard for the health of the occu- 
 pant of the chair, but is in deference to the peculiar sense of dignity 
 and honor which forms part of the Spanish character. 
 
 (2) The Editor of "Harper's Weekly" wrote this in May 1869, but 
 undoubtedly since that time the rush of business must have caused 
 an increase in the number both of garrotes and of executioners. 
 
 ( 3 ) Pompeo Molmenti— "History of Venice in private life." 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 71 
 
 its barbarism in this nineteenth century dishonors 
 the old and glorious Latin Race, and observe the 
 results. Here, a people compact, united, insepar- 
 able, strong in the faith of its future destinies ; there 
 another, drowning in a sea of blood, horror and 
 abomination which it has itself created, and which 
 as far as it extends to this hemisphere, at least, 
 can be wiped out of existence, only by the interfer- 
 ence of the powerful arm of the North American 
 Republic. 
 
 It is said that a Spanish diplomat, at the outset 
 of the present conflict, stated that he entertained 
 great hopes that by fomenting the old enmity of 
 the Southern States of this Union against the 
 Northern, much advantage would be obtained for 
 the cause of Spain. What an utter, undescribable 
 ignorance this statement which was ridiculed East 
 and West, North and South, from Maine to Oregon, 
 from the land of the Dacotas to the land of the 
 Seminoles, shows of the true feelings of the Amer- 
 ican people and of the real state of affairs in the 
 American Union! Grant and his advisers sowed 
 
72 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 generosity and mercy, and reaped gratefulness and 
 forgetfulness of all past differences. Spain for four 
 centuries sowed death, ruin and desolation, and she 
 is now reaping desolation, ruin and death. 
 
VIII. 
 
 A Plea for Lopez — The Influences at Play in 1850— > 
 The Real State of Opinion in the United States — ■ 
 The Message of President Buchanan and the Little 
 Reason of Senator Brown— The Correspondence Be- 
 tween Secretary Marcy and Ministers Soule and 
 Buchanan— Spanish Outrages— The Black Warrior 
 —The Ostend Manifest— How It all Ended— The 
 Wise and Honorable Conduct of the United States. 
 
 The two expeditions of Lopez met with failure 
 first because he was betrayed by the spies of Spain 
 who infested this country at that time, have infested 
 it ever since and infest it to-day more than ever, 
 and for this still more potent reason that the times 
 were not ripe. 
 
 The most interesting work which was published 
 about two years ago by Murat Halstead under the 
 title of "The Story of Cuba," contains the following 
 passage: "Reference is had in Wilson's History to 
 the ill-fated Lopez expedition, which was of course 
 in the interest of the formation of more Slave States 
 in the United States, and it was that influence that 
 made the most of the tragedy." In another part of 
 
 (73) 
 
74 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 the same work the author says: "The Cuban fili- 
 bustering expeditions of a former generation, at- 
 tended as they were with the loss of valued lives 
 and the transmission of an inheritance of excite- 
 ments and hatreds, were distinctly to provide for the 
 admission of more Slave States in the American 
 Union." 
 
 This is not a fair way of stating the case, because 
 it casts on Lopez a shadow which his memory does 
 not deserve. Wilson himself describes Lopez as "a 
 Cuban adventurer," but he was blinded by his 
 righteous indignation against slavery and the 
 power that tried to enforce its continuation, to the 
 point of committing an injustice against a man 
 whose whole life is the best proof that his motives 
 were pure and dictated by the most disinterested 
 patriotism. A man who had thrown up such a 
 position as Lopez had held in Spain in order to 
 devote himself to the work which he undertook, 
 can hardly be called an adventurer. 
 
 As to the intentions of those who helped him 
 by furnishing him with the means of undertaking 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 75 
 
 his expeditions, they were probably — in many cases 
 — the outcome of a sincere and honest desire of 
 helping Cuba because her cause was just, and in 
 other instances based, most likely, upon reasons not 
 so generous. For it is unquestionable that here 
 again the hydra of the slave power raised one of its 
 many heads. The motives of many of those who 
 furnished the filibustering expeditions of that time 
 with arms, ammunition, etc. were as unworthy as 
 those of the Southern Representatives who during 
 the administration of John Quincy Adams had pro- 
 tested in Congress against the suppression of the 
 Spanish domination in Cuba. From the adminis- 
 tration of President Polk to the administration of 
 President Buchanan, including the latter, the same 
 policy in favor of the continuance of slavery pre- 
 vailed which had influenced the actions of the gov- 
 ernment of this country from twenty to thirty-five 
 years before, with this difference, that (1) ''while 
 under President Adams, Cuba had been an object 
 of dread, it became at a later period an object of 
 vehement desire." 
 
 (i) Henry Wilson, "Rise and Fall of tho Slave Power in America," 
 2nd vol. page 610, 
 
76 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 In 1846, an American Company had been 
 formed for the purpose of purchasing Cuba for 
 two hundred million dollars. In the same year 
 fifteen hundred men commanded by Colonel White 
 were, on the verge of leaving for Cuba on a filibus- 
 tering expedition, but were stopped by the Amer- 
 ican government. In 1848 Polk had authorized the 
 American Minisfer at Madrid to offer one hundred 
 million dollars for the island, but the offer had been 
 at once rejected. In 1852, advances were made by 
 England and France to the government of this 
 country leading to a common action of the three gov- 
 ernments in guaranteeing to Spain the possession 
 of Cuba, but the proposition was declined. Among 
 the reasons assigned by Mr. Everett, our Secretary 
 of State, for that declination was one "in which 
 slavery though not specifically mentioned was un- 
 doubtedly meant, and the apprehended danger 
 thereto from the proposed arrangement was urged 
 as one consideration why it should not be con- 
 summated." (1) 
 
 fi) Henry Wilson, "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," 
 2nd vol. page 611, 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 77 
 
 The administrations of that time were strongly 
 under the influence of Southern interests, (1) and 
 evidently the story of the endeavors made during 
 all that period to secure the release of Cuba from the 
 Spanish rule does not constitute one of the glorious 
 pages of American history; nevertheless whatever 
 the intentions of the different administrations may 
 have been, or of part of those who helped in vari- 
 ous ways the expeditions undertaken at that time, 
 there can be no doubt that much of the feeling man- 
 ifested in favor of the Cubans by the people was due 
 to a clean and genuine sense of sympathy for their 
 sufferings and to a desire for their relief. 
 
 But if it is certain that the policy of the various 
 administrations which have been referred to was 
 directed towards the increase of the vote favorable 
 to the maintenance of slavery through the acquisi- 
 tion of one or more slave states, it is by no means 
 equally true that public opinion in the United 
 States, or even within the Democratic party, was 
 unanimous in favoring the annexation of Cuba, for 
 even in the South the opinion was divided as to 
 
 C 1 ) See note 4, page 203. 
 
78 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 that annexation, or at least as to the time at which 
 it might have become desirable. 
 
 I have before me the number for January, 1852, 
 of the "Southern Quarterly Review," published in 
 Charleston by W. Gilmore Sims. The editor begins 
 by making a furious onslaught against Lopez and 
 his companions, whom he calls "a .small band of 
 desperate adventurers." He says that they had 
 deceived the public of this country, that the Cubans 
 did notwant tobe separated fromSpain,and that this 
 was proved by the failure of the two expeditions. 
 "To the States of the North," continues the editor, 
 referring to the annexation, "the institution of slav- 
 ery in Cuba would have occasioned new difficulties," 
 while "to the people of our Southern States what 
 motive could there be in bringing the State of Cuba 
 under the control of a power from which we are 
 almost prepared to shake ourselves free. * * * 
 Surely it will be time enough to think of adding 
 Cuba to our domain when we ourselves are ren- 
 dered secure, no matter by what means, from the 
 perpetual annoyance of abolition." 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 79 
 
 Further on he states that "Lopez was a mono- 
 maniac," — this is the truth, since he was possessed 
 of the same sublime mania which impelled the ac- 
 tions of Washington, Garibaldi and a few others; 
 only he lacked the means of carrying his aberrations 
 of mind to a successful issue — "And," adds the 
 editor, "the passion for the liberation of Cuba from 
 foreign (not from Spanish) rule was probably just 
 tinctured with another passion 'not altogether appar- 
 ent to himself by which the acquisition 'and the 
 retention' of Cuban liberty was to be enjoyed 
 through his administration." The italics are mine; 
 it is impossible to insinuate more gracefully an 
 accusation to the support of which no proof can 
 be brought. The editor tries to prove that Lopez 
 was directed by a desire of personal domination 
 over the Island, and only succeeds in showing that 
 he had a noble ambition of being useful to his 
 country. But the mainstay of the charges brought 
 by the Review against Lopez was ..... 
 Cuban bonds! Truly, there is nothing new under 
 the sun. 
 
80 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Here we have a perfect illustration of the words 
 of the famous Aria in Rossini's - "Barber of Seville:" 
 
 " La calunnia e un venticello" 
 which may be translated as follows in English 
 rhyme of the same value as that usually found in 
 the translations of operatic librettos: 
 
 Slander is a zephyr mild 
 'Tis a very gentle breeze 
 Which insensibly one day 
 Murmurs, whispers, softly whispers, 
 Thus insinuates its way. 
 
 And then it goes crescendo, until it bursts out 
 
 "come un colpo di cannone," with the noise of a 
 
 cannon shot — and no one knows how the rumor 
 
 started. 
 
 On such flimsy charges the accusations against 
 Lopez have been based. 
 
 In the, midst of that lot of rubbish there is in 
 the Review a statement which under an unpolished 
 surface conceals a gem of truth. "There is," says 
 the editor, "there is a third class among our people 
 scattered over all the Southern States, but particu- 
 larly active in the Northern, whose sympathies are 
 forever at work in behalf of all the world's discon- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 81 
 
 tents. They are those who believe with the impu- 
 dent Frenchman who expressed the opinion that 
 had he been consulted at the Creation he could 
 have suggested a great many improvements in the 
 plans of Providence." 
 
 The exaggeration here is evident, and the sarcasm 
 would turn into a Ouixotic sentiment, a most noble 
 feeling of sympathy for the oppressed; but those 
 words, coming from a source which cannot be sus- 
 pected of favoring the plans of the. annexationists, are 
 of some value in demonstrating that the attitude of 
 the United States at that time has been painted, for 
 party reasons, in blacker colors than it really de- 
 served, and that the agitation was not entirely due 
 to the furtherance of the cause of slavery, for there 
 was a "third class" — and it was a large one — which 
 was prompted by more worthy motives. 
 
 Nevertheless it cannot be doubted that, in the 
 main, what the party then in power was seeking 
 was a political balance against the increase of free 
 States, and the addition of the white population of 
 Cuba to' the Democratic vote. 
 
82 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 The Democratic National Conventions of 1856 and 
 1860 expressed themselves as being "in favor of the 
 acquisition of Cuba," and their motive was hardly 
 disguised. The administration of Mr. Buchanan 
 made energetical efforts in that direction. In 1858 
 the President complained, in his annual message, 
 of the unsatisfactory condition of the relations of 
 the country with Spain. (1) Referring to the partici- 
 pation of Cuba in the African slave trade he 
 affirmed his belief that the last relic of that traffic 
 would disappear if Cuba were annexed. A bill was 
 introduced in, the Senate shortly after, placing 
 thirty million dollars in the hands of the President 
 towards the purchase of the Island, and was favor- 
 ably reported on by the Committee on Foreign 
 Affairs, but the matter did not come to an issue. 
 
 If the philanthropy of the motives of President 
 Buchanan is extremely questionable, there can on 
 the other hand be no difficulty in understanding or 
 interpreting the, words which Senator Brown spoke 
 soon after the adjournment of Congress. "Cuba 
 
 (i) Henry Wilson, "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," 
 2nd vol. page 612. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 83 
 
 must and shall be ours," said the Senator in a 
 speech in New York. (*> * * * It may be 
 
 asked, what do we want of Cuba? We want it for 
 territorial expansion, we want it to extend our com- 
 merce. Then I have a little reason of my own. I 
 want Cuba for the extension of slavery. I have 
 freely spoken the sentiments of my own heart and 
 of a vast majority of the Democracy throughout 
 the Union. The Democratic party is going into 
 the next Presidential canvass upon this and other 
 questions, and we intend to meet Seward face to 
 face upon it." 
 
 We have, however, to go back to the Administra- 
 tion of President Pierce in order to find the most 
 interesting episodes in the relations of that period 
 between the United States and Spain in regard to 
 the Cuban question. 
 
 On the 3d of March, 1855, President Pierce trans- 
 mitted to the House of Representatives the corre- 
 spondence between Secretary Marcy and Ministers 
 Soule and Buchanan, who represented the United 
 
 (i) Henry Wilson, "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," 
 2nd vol. page 612. 
 
84 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 States, respectively, at the Courts of Madrid and 
 Paris. This correspondence showed that on July 
 23d, 1853, Mr. Marcy had written to Soule that 
 the Island of Cuba was very difficult for Spain to 
 retain "in its present state of dependence," and that 
 it was "confidently believed" that she could not 
 "long sustain, unaided, her present connection with 
 the Island." The United States, stated the Sec- 
 retary, would resist at all hazards the transference 
 of Cuba to any other European nation, but while 
 Spain remained "in fact as well as in name" the 
 sovereign of Cuba she could depend upon our 
 "maintaining our duty as a neutral nation towards 
 her, however difficult it might be." Our govern- 
 ment could not be suspected of conniving at the 
 participation of our citizens in past disturbances in 
 the Island. It was insisted that neutrality laws had 
 been observed "and could not be made more re- 
 strictive without violating the Constitutional rights 
 of our citizens." The offer of purchase made under 
 President Polk was referred to, and it was stated 
 that, however, there had been no intention of pur- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 85 
 
 chasing the Island "unless its inhabitants were very 
 generally disposed to concur in the transfer." Mr. 
 Soule was directed to find out what arrangements 
 had been made by Spain with Great Britain and 
 France in regard to sustaining her dominion over 
 Cuba, and how far they, or either of them, were 
 urging a change in the internal condition of the 
 Island, "particularly in regard to the slaves now 
 there or to the present system of labor." Another 
 offer of purchase, was not advised, as it was not 
 believed that Spain would accept it. The belief was 
 expressed that Spain was under obligations to Great 
 Britain and France not to transfer the Island to the 
 United States, and it was thought that Spain would 
 "pertinaciously hold on to Cuba and that the sepa- 
 ration, whenever it will take place, will be the work 
 of violence." The suggestion was made that "Spain 
 might in a manner consistent with her national 
 honor and advantageous to her interests * * * 
 give birth to an independent nation of her own race, 
 retaining at the same time a commercial intercourse 
 with it as profitable as she can have in a connection 
 
86 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 prolonged by force." "Our flag," wrote Mr. Marcy, 
 "must be respected and our commerce relieved from 
 embarrassment by the Cuban authorities. The 
 United States will not submit to have their mer- 
 chant vessels searched or detained in their lawful 
 voyages." Complaints in this regard, said the 
 Secretary, had never received attention. 
 
 In February, 1854, an event occurred which, 
 though now almost forgotten, caused great excite- 
 ment in this country at that time and came near 
 putting an end to the apparent friendly relations 
 between the United States and Spain. 
 
 The steamer Black Warrior, a packet-ship of the 
 New York and Alabama Line, commanded by 
 Captain Bullock, plying between Mobile and New 
 York and calling on every trip at Havana, was 
 seized under a futile pretense, and in defiance of 
 all precedents, by the authorities in the latter port. 
 The Black Warrior came from Mobile and had on 
 board a cargo of 900 bales of cotton, destined to 
 New York. It had been the habit both of the 
 Black Warrior and of other vessels engaged in the 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 87 
 
 same traffic, when calling at Havana in transit with- 
 out unloading any portion of the cargo, to enter the 
 vessel as being in ballast. This, Captain Bullock 
 had done on thirty-six previous occasions, and the 
 steamers of other lines had done it over three hun- 
 dred times; although the proceeding was irregular, 
 no objection had ever been made by the Spanish 
 authorities, but on this particular trip the vessel was 
 seized and a fine of $6,000 imposed on Captain 
 Bullock. He hauled down the flag and left the 
 Spanish authorities in possession of the vessel. 
 Captain Watson, of the United States Steamer 
 Fulton, who was then in port, on hearing of the 
 outrage, intended to haul his vessel alongside the 
 Black Warrior, drive out the Spaniards and take 
 her out of the harbor, but finally our Consul, and 
 Captain Bullock himself, prevailed on him to desist 
 from his purpose. 
 
 A protest was sent by the American citizens re- 
 siding at Havana to Secretary Marcy, and the 
 latter in directing Minister Soule, on March 11, 
 1854, to call the attention of the government of 
 
88 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Spain to the seizure, complained of the dilatory 
 tactics of that country in other matters of the same 
 kind which had been the subject of previous corre- 
 spondence. In another letter, dated March 17, the 
 Secretary instructed Soule to demand a sum of $300,- 
 000 as compensation to the owners of the Black War- 
 rior and of the cargo, stating that the course of Spain 
 had usually been an evasion of our claims but 
 that it would not do in this case. The President in 
 his message to Congress of March 15th, trans- 
 mitted the report of the Secretary complaining of 
 aggression upon our commerce, violation of our 
 rights and insults to the national flag by the Span- 
 ish authorities in Cuba. 
 
 Soule presented the claim on the 11th of April, 
 and pressed it forcibly in several letters; finally he 
 obtained an answer in which the Spanish Minister 
 of State asked for more time, and complained of the 
 "harsh and imperious" expressions of the American 
 Minister. Soule answered that the records of the 
 Legation were loaded with reclamations bearing on 
 grievances most flagrant, which had never been 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 89 
 
 attended to, and were met with just such dilatory 
 excuses, and he added: "If there be cases in which 
 it may become a great nation to show itself mag- 
 nanimous, even under the infliction of most unwar- 
 rantable injuries, it can never be when such injuries 
 are coupled with so barefaced a disregard of what 
 is due to a friendly power, as that which was ex- 
 hibited towards the United States in the detention 
 of the Black Warrior, and in the confiscation of 
 her cargo." The correspondence was continued 
 between Soule and Spanish Minister Calderon de 
 la Barca, in the same bitter tones and with the 
 same unsatisfactory results. In a letter dated April 
 20th, Soule referred to no less than twelve griev- 
 ances and claims for seizures, detentions and other 
 acts against American citizens, stating that these 
 cases were only a few of those appearing in the 
 archives of the Legation. 
 
 On the 3d of April, Marcy wrote to Soule that the 
 President gave him full power to enter a convention 
 or treaty for the purchase of Cuba, stating dis- 
 tinctly, however, that "in any conceivable arrange- 
 
90 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 ments of this kind the people of Cuba must neces^ 
 sarily be a party to them." Soule in writing to the 
 Secretary on the 3d of May advised that a lesson be 
 given to Spain. 
 
 On the 16th of August of the same year, Secre- 
 tary Marcy wrote to Soule that he was directed 
 by the President to suggest to him "a particular 
 step from which he anticipates much advantage in 
 the negotiations on the subject of Cuba." Fur- 
 ther details as to this particular step were withheld 
 from Congress, and do not appear in the corre- 
 spondence as transmitted by President Pierce. 
 "Much may be done," added Mr. Marcy, "at Lon- 
 don and Paris to promote directly the object in 
 view, or to clear away impediments to its success- 
 ful consummation," and he advises him to meet 
 Buchanan and Mason (the latter being Minister to 
 London), suggesting that a conference be held at 
 Paris. 
 
 The conference between the three ministers was 
 held at Ostend in October, 1854, and gave rise to 
 the famous document known as the Ostend mani- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 91 
 
 fest. This lengthyand extraordinary paper stated, in 
 substance, that Cuba should be obtained from Spain 
 peaceablybypurchase,if possible, but byforceofarms 
 if necessary, and if its suggestions had been adopted 
 the United States would have entered into a war of 
 conquest, entirely against the nature of our prin- 
 ciples and institutions. The truculent spirit of the 
 manifest was probably due to the influence of Soule, 
 who' was impatient of restraint and was urging the 
 Administration not to delay the solution and to take 
 advantage of the Crimean war in which all the 
 strength and energies of the European powers were 
 then engaged in order to wage war against Spain 
 without fear of European interference; he after- 
 wards resigned from his post because his sugges- 
 tions were not carried out. 
 
 Fortunately, however, for the honor of the 
 United States, Soule's policy was not adopted; Mr. 
 Marcy wrote to him, under date of November 13, 
 1854, that if the "cession of Cuba" had "to be 
 hopelessly abandoned for the present" the United 
 States would still ask "and pertinaciously insist 
 
92 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 upon some security against the further misconduct 
 of the Spanish authorities at Cuba;" but the claim 
 in regard to the Black Warrior was finally allowed 
 to drop, the vessel having been released on the 
 payment of the fine of $6,000 which had been im- 
 posed on the Captain; Spain through her dilatory 
 tactics had fully succeeded in her purpose of evading 
 our demands. 
 
 Thus, from what precedes may be seen that 
 while the party then in power in this country was 
 largely influenced in its conduct towards Spain by 
 the partisans of the system of slavery, it is not cor- 
 rect to say that the filibustering expeditions of that 
 time were distinctly to provide for the maintenance 
 and extension of that system, for there was un- 
 doubtedly among the people a strong sense of sym- 
 pathy for the Cubans on account of the wrongs 
 which they were suffering, and the United States 
 had beyond question many just causes of complaint 
 against Spain for the manner in which she inter- 
 fered with our commerce and disregarded the re- 
 spect due to our flag. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 93 
 
 Let us revert to the maxim which has been so 
 justly and correctly set forth by Molmenti. 
 
 Can it be thought that had any European nation 
 been in the same position towards Spain in which 
 the United States were at that time it would have re- 
 sisted the pressure exerted by the dominant power 
 in its politics, and refrained from attacking - a weaker 
 nation which would have been hopelessly alone in 
 the contest? Any one of the claims which the 
 United States had against Spain might have fur- 
 nished a better pretense for a war than the reason, 
 for instance, for which France and Germany went 
 to war in 1870. But the policy of the United States, 
 whatever may have been the unworthy influences 
 which sought to direct it in a wrong channel, was 
 and has always been honorable and above board. 
 It was not found possible to acquire Cuba by a pur- 
 chase, and with the consent of the people of the 
 Island, therefore the matter was dropped; no war 
 of conquest was undertaken. 
 
 The spirit of the nation had triumphed over the 
 spirit of a party; it is fop this reason, because above 
 
94 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 the party cliques, the rings and the unavowable 
 schemes towers the genius of the Constitution, that 
 the principles of the fathers of this Republic will 
 forever guide it in the path of virtue, of right and 
 of progress; and we may hopefully believe that, not- 
 withstanding present appearances to the contrary, it 
 will yet be this nation which will logically and 
 peacefully point the way to those social reforms 
 which have become as necessary to our civilization 
 as political liberties were to our elders, and are still 
 to us. 
 
 Every American citizen is not a saint. It is easy 
 enough for some men after a short stay in this 
 country to scatter broadcast their hastily gathered 
 and mistaken impressions, or for others who would 
 abolish the sun because it is darkened by a few 
 spots to rake up all the undesirable elements of 
 American politics, but the liberal minded man who 
 studies the history of this country cannot fail to 
 admire this great nation. The slanderers forget that 
 for every one of them, to whatever nationality he 
 may belong", there are one hundred thousand ox 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 95 
 
 more of his countrymen who have made this coun- 
 try their home, and who with few exceptions, what- 
 ever may have been their personal success in life, 
 have become sufficiently attached to it to adopt it 
 as their own. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Ten Years' War in Cuba — Proclamation of Inde- 
 pendence — General Dulce and the Volunteers — The 
 Orders of Balmaseda — The Battle of La Sacra — A 
 Reign of Terror — Pacification of the' Island by Gen- 
 eral Martinez Campos — The Treaty of El Zanjon 
 and How Spain Observed Its Provisions. 
 
 While the events which have been related in the 
 preceding chapter were taking place several gov- 
 ernors had succeeded each other in the administra- 
 tion of Cuba. In 1854 the Cuban Junta in New 
 York had made preparations for an expedition; 
 Captain-General Jose de la Concha threatened to 
 Africanize the Island; he armed the negroes and the 
 Peninsulars, and disarmed the white native Cubans. 
 A conspiration was discovered; two patriots, Pinto 
 and Estrampes were garroted, and one hundred 
 others were sent to prisons in Spain. The pro- 
 posed expedition was given up, and de la Concha 
 was created Marquis of Havana as a reward 
 for his services. General Serrano, who succeeded 
 Concha, and after him General Dulce, were in- 
 
 (96) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 97 
 
 clined to a policy of conciliation with the Cubans, 
 but were strongly opposed by the Ultra-Con- 
 servative Spanish party of the Island. The 
 treasury had been considerably depleted by Con- 
 cha's dishonesty, and economical conditions went 
 from bad to worse, till in 1866 the deficit was enor- 
 .mous. Lersundi, who succeeded Dulce, was a gov- 
 ernor after the heart of the Conservatives; he re- 
 established the Military Commissions, as had ex- 
 isted in Tacon's time, and the vexations and oppres- 
 sions of these Commissions, together with the im- 
 position of still heavier taxes increased the dissat- 
 isfaction among the native population. Scandalous 
 frauds were being committed by the officials in 
 charge of the collection of taxes. Undoubtedly the 
 execution of Maximilian in Mexico served to en- 
 courage the hopes of the Cuban patriots, as it testi- 
 fied to the decline of European influence in Amer- 
 ica. At about that time, and in the middle of all 
 these troubles a bitter quarrel between the Captain- 
 General and the Bishop of Havana occurred, and in- 
 creased the disorder among the Conservatives; it 
 
98 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 arose from the grave and important question of 
 whether the bells of the churches should ring at the 
 entrance of the Captain General into a city, as a 
 mark of respect, which the representative of the 
 military authority claimed was due him. 
 
 The debt of the Island in 1868 was about 
 400,000,000 Reales; (1) the deficit reached nearly 
 355,000,000, and still the government was draw- 
 ing to the amount of 50,000,000 Reales yearly 
 against the resources of the Island, while the people 
 were groaning under the weight of the taxes which 
 were imposed solely for the benefit of the mother 
 country. The crimes and errors of Spain had 
 reached a culminating point, and were to result in 
 the long and bloody civil war which followed. 
 
 On the 18th of November, 1868, an outbreak 
 occurred among the negroes in Porto Rico-, at the 
 
 cry of "Viva la libertad!" and with the object of 
 gaining independence from Spain. The Cuban lib- 
 erals who had in vain been striving to obtain ad- 
 ministrative reforms, the freedom of the press, the 
 assimilation of Cubans to the Spaniards in regard 
 
 (!) A real is worth five cents or a little less. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 99 
 
 to political and civil rights, the right of assembly, 
 the reduction of taxation, etc., broke out into open 
 hostilities on hearing the news. The insurrection 
 still lacked a leader, but this was soon found in the 
 person of Carlos Emanuel Cespedes. 
 
 Cespedes was born at Bayamo in 1819; he grad- 
 uated from the University of Havana and subse- 
 quently went to Spain and obtained the degree of 
 "Licenciado" of the law (Doctor of law) from the 
 University of Barcelona, in 1812; while in that 
 country he became friendly with General Prim and 
 took part in the attempt of the latter at establishing 
 a Republican form of government, but the attempt 
 having failed he was banished, and went to France. 
 Thence, in 1814, he returned to Cuba where he 
 practiced law in his native town of Bayamo. He 
 had always been devoted to the cause of his native 
 Island and in 1852 he was arrested and held for 
 five months in Morro Castle because he had, at a 
 banquet, spoken words in favor of the liberation 
 of Cuba from the Spanish rule. 
 
 On the 10th of October, 1868, Cespedes pro- 
 
100 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Carlos Manuel Cespedes. 
 
 Captain-General Caballero De Rodas. Antonio Maceo. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 101 
 
 claimed from a sugar plantation in the neighbor- 
 hood of Yara, the independence of the Island. He 
 issued a manifest, in which the oppressive Spanish 
 rule, the immorality of the functionaries, the ex- 
 cessive taxes arbitrarily collected, and other evils 
 were bitterly complained of, and he announced the 
 principles of the secessionists to be the gradual 
 emancipation of the slaves tnrough indemnization 
 to the owners, equal rights for all, respect to life and 
 property, universal suffrage, and free trade. On 
 issuing this proclamation he affirmed his sincerity 
 by granting absolute and unconditional liberty to 
 his own slaves. Subsequently, during the course 
 of the Revolution, Cespedes was killed by the Span- 
 iards on the 27th of February, 1874, having been 
 betrayed by a negro who revealed the hiding place 
 of his chief in order to save his own life. 
 
 From Yara, the insurrection spread into the 
 other provinces, and the insurgents took possession 
 of Bayamo, and successively of Camaguey, without 
 meeting serious opposition. A mixed Committee 
 composed of both Spaniards and Cubans begged 
 
102 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Governor Lersundi to inaugurate a policy of re- 
 form, and only succeeded in being treated as rebels. 
 Bodies of Volunteers were organized, composed of 
 men who were virtually aliens in Cuba, as they 
 belonged entirely to the Peninsular class, and these 
 organizations became responsible for a large share 
 of the outrages which were committed by the Span- 
 iards during the course of that war which was to last 
 no less than ten years. 
 
 Finally the Madrid Government recalled Ler- 
 sundi, and superseded him by General Dulce who 
 was somewhat more liberally inclined, and offered 
 certain administrative- reforms; but the offer came 
 too late and was refused by the insurgents who had 
 gained possession of a large portion of the Island, 
 and encouraged by their success refused to treat 
 unless on a basis of absolute independence. Dulce 
 was also hampered in his efforts at conciliation by 
 the Volunteers who now constituted an armed and 
 ferocious mob, committing numerous acts of cruelty 
 and absolute murder, and who for a long time held 
 full sway over the Island in defiance alike of the 
 government of Spain and of the Insular Cubans. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 103 
 
 General Balmaseda, after several encounters of 
 small importance with the insurgents, marched on 
 Bayamo which was abandoned by the Cubans, but 
 not before they had completely destroyed it. Their 
 number continued to increase; Dulce now called 
 new reinforcements from Spain and changed his 
 policy to one of severe repression. Still this was not 
 sufficient to please the Conservatives, or as they 
 were called the "Unconditional, " the party among 
 which the Volunteers were recruited. Even his 
 orders that all property belonging to the insurgents 
 should be seized failed to satisfy them, and they 
 became so powerful and so desperate in their greed 
 for the blood of the Insulars, which Dulce, how- 
 ever severe, did not shed in quantities sufficient to 
 appease their wrath, that they finally drove the gov- 
 ernor away from the Island, in June, 1870. There 
 were at that time 110,000 Spanish soldiers in Cuba. 
 
 The Madrid government sent General Caballero 
 de Rodas to take Dulce's place. 
 
 A house of Representatives of the Cuban Repub- 
 lic, consisting of fifteen men had met at Guaimaro, 
 
104 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 and voted a constitution. Cespedes, in succession 
 of Cisneros whom the Cubans had at first placed at 
 the head of the Civil Government, was elected Pres- 
 ident, and Manuel Quesada named Commander-in- 
 Chief. The latter's place was afterwards taken by 
 Thomas Jordan, an American, a graduate of West 
 Point, and ex-Confederate officer. It may be inter- 
 esting to note that General Jordan, on his return to 
 the United States, stated that with a nucleus of 
 hardy and disciplined American soldiers he could 
 gather an efficient army, which, properly armed, 
 would drive the Spaniards into the sea in ninety 
 days. 
 
 The war continued with varied success; at one 
 time fortune having of late been unfavorable to the 
 insurrection, de Rodas thought that he had sup- 
 pressed it, and returned to Spain. General Bal- 
 maseda was then given full command of the army, 
 and this time the Volunteers had indeed found a 
 man who was ready to give them complete satis- 
 faction, for it was Balmaseda, who already since 
 the 4th of April, 1869, had issued the famous proc- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 105 
 
 lamation that every male over fifteen years of age 
 found in the country away from his home without 
 plausible reason should be shot, every house on 
 which a white flag was not displayed should beburnt, 
 and all women and children found alone on their 
 farms should be removed by force to Bayamo or 
 Jiguany. The Cubans retaliated in kind, and no 
 quarter was given on either side. 
 
 The mistake made by De Rodas was soon 
 found out for the insurgents kept up a persistent 
 guerrilla warfare, headed by Agramonte, Maximo 
 Gomez, Sanguilly, Garcia, Maceo and others, until 
 in 1873 they had regained all the territory which had 
 been previously lost by them. In November of that 
 year a real battle was fought at La Sacra, resulting 
 in the defeat of the Spanish troops. Shortly after 
 Maximo Gomez having routed a Spanish force 
 composed of a thousand cavalry, eight battalions of 
 infantry and several pieces of artillery advanced 
 under Puerto Principe, and the cause of the insur- 
 gents gained thereby considerable credit and ad- 
 vantage. 
 
106 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 In 1874 General Jovellar whom the Spanish Re- 
 public had sent as Captain General continued the 
 reign of terror of his predecessors. All men be* 
 tween twenty and forty-five years of age were 
 forced into the militia, also one-tenth of those over 
 •forty-five, and one slave out of every thousand was 
 claimed for military labor. The Volunteers de- 
 clared that the vigorous system would crush the 
 Revolution in six months, while the insurgents 
 felt equally sure and insisted that they would cap- 
 ture Puerto Principe in six days; both were in 
 error. At different times, a number of Spanish sol- 
 diers deserted to the Cuban forces, and their fate 
 whenever they happened to be captured was not 
 doubtful. In 1875 the Captain General concen- 
 trated all the troops which he disposed against 
 Gomez and defeated him in several encounters. 
 
 In order to meet the deficient budget and to pro- 
 vide for the exigencies of the war the Authorities 
 of Havana had, in October 1872, made a large in- 
 crease of taxation. Every slave hired out had been 
 taxed $24; the export duties and the war tax on 
 Real Estate had been doubled, and the war tax on 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 107 
 
 bankers and merchants, as well as the war tax on 
 imported goods increased from ten to twenty-five 
 per cent. In 1876 the Spanish government con- 
 cluded a convention with Spanish Capitalists for an 
 advance of five million dollars. 
 
 General Martinez Campos was sent from Spain 
 to take part in the operations in Cuba as Comman- 
 der-in-Chief of the Army, in October, 1876. Later 
 Jovellar was recalled and Martinez Campos placed 
 in supreme military and civil command. 
 
 Since 1877, the fortunes of the Insurgents had 
 declined. Martinez Campos who, it is said, had 
 been privately instructed by King Alfonso to make 
 peace on any terms, adopted a more conciliatory 
 policy towards the insurgents. He held out prom- 
 ises of reform and of improvement in the economical 
 and political conditions of the Island. Several in- 
 fluential chiefs surrendered;, finally Gomez him- 
 self laid down his arms, and peace was restored by 
 the treaty of El Zanjon, in 1878. In August of that 
 year, however, a new revolt broke out, as soon as 
 the number of the Spanish troops had been de- 
 creased. As it Was confined entirely to the colored 
 
108 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 population, and the whites held apart, it was soon 
 defeated. 
 
 The Spanish promises proved illusory. Constit- 
 utional reform was the base. on which the insurgents 
 had capitulated, and in fact Cuba was authorized to 
 send Deputies to the Cortes, and Provincial Assem- 
 blies were provided for, but the system of election 
 and the regulations which were subsequently pro- 
 mulgated by the Spanish government in that con- 
 nection were such that, in substance, the Governor 
 General still retained full power in his own hands. 
 The Deputies to the Cortes could accomplish noth- 
 ing, and Spain continued to control absolutely and 
 for her own advantage, without regard for the in- 
 terests or desires of the Cubans, the tariff, the taxes 
 and in general the mode of raising and expending 
 the revenue of the Island. The abolition of slavery 
 was completed in 1886, but the political and econ- 
 omical difficulties continued. As usual, Spain had 
 not profited by her own experience or by that of 
 other colonizing nations, and continued the same 
 policy of injustice and spoliation towards the 
 Cubans. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Ten Years' War in the United States— The Sentiment in 
 1868— Cuban War News in 1869— The Wishes of General 
 Grant— Resolutions That Were Not Adopted — The Fili' 
 bustering Expeditions — The Brigs "Mary Lowell," 
 and the "Lizzie Major" — The Promises of Spain -The 
 "Virginius" Affair— How Spain Abused the Patience and 
 Forbearance of the United States, 
 
 The beginning of the ten years' war had found 
 the general condition of things in the United States 
 very different from what it had been at the time of 
 the expeditions of Lopez and during the period 
 which immediately followed it. An internal strife 
 of great length and severity had taken place; the 
 government of the country had passed into the 
 hands of another party; slavery had been eliminated 
 from our social system and the sympathy which the 
 people of the American Union continued to feel, and 
 manifested more clearly than ever, for the cause of 
 Cuban liberty had been considerably purified from 
 suspicious motives and influences. The general 
 sentiment in this country when Cespedes took the 
 
 (109) 
 
HO FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 field was that Cuba should be delivered from all 
 Spanish dominion; as to what was to become of it 
 after it was freed, the sentiment was divided. It 
 was held by some that it should be given existence 
 as an independent state, and by others that it 
 should be annexed to this country. The Editor of 
 "Harper's Weekly" said, in the number for April 
 10th, 1869, of that periodical, that there were at 
 that time two Cuban parties in this country; "one 
 wishing that Cuba might get its liberty, the other 
 that we might get Cuban sugar. One, the party 
 of Cuban independence, the other, of Cuban annex- 
 ation;" but it should be remembered that that mag- 
 azine was then and has been ever since, and even 
 recently, persistently opposed to the annexation of 
 Cuba to the United States, and although it has time 
 and again felt compelled to protest vigorously 
 against the outrages which were being committed 
 in the Island, it has alwavs insisted on our main- 
 taining a strict neutrality in the contest. 
 
 New York was then, as well as recently, the head- 
 quarters of the Cuban patriots, most of those who 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. Ill 
 
 emigrated from Cuba since 1850 having sought 
 refuge in this country. In fact the emigration to 
 New York disturbed the authorities of Cuba to such 
 an extent that, in 1869, they spread the rumor that 
 New York was infested with small-pox in order to 
 discourage further travel to that city. The reports 
 which reached here from the seat of the revolution 
 were often very puzzling to the public mind. The 
 same periodical quoted above said, under date of 
 May 15th, 1869: "The situation in Cuba at the 
 present moment is one which it is almost impos- 
 sible to comprehend. On the one side, taking the 
 Cuban accounts, it would appear that the enthusi- 
 asm of the rebels was never greater than it is now; 
 while the Spanish statements which we read make 
 the cause of the insurgents seem absolutely hope- 
 less." These words have a strangely familiar 
 sound to our ears, for they describe the same dis- 
 crepancies in the news of the fight to which we have 
 been accustomed during the present Cuban Revo- 
 lution, and which Mr. Halstead with an extremely 
 happy expression has called "an irrepressible con- 
 flict of testimony." 
 
112 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Among the wild rumors which were set afloat in 
 the United States for partisan reasons during the 
 course of the ten years' war, was one to- the effect 
 that this country was to go to war agains't Spain in 
 the interests of a third term for President Grant, for 
 such a war would have been extremely popular and 
 would have, increased the vote in his favor. 
 
 General Grant was really very much inclined to 
 favor the aspirations of the Cubans, but certainly 
 not for the nonsensical reason which was for a 
 moment absurdly .given in explanation of his views. 
 He shared the traditions of the army, and as soon 
 as the revolution broke out at Yara he wished to 
 acknowledge the belligerency of the Insurgents and 
 recognize the independence of the Island. General 
 Rawlings, the Secretary of War, encouraged him in 
 that direction, but he was opposed by Mr. Fish, 
 then Secretary of State, and the influence of the 
 latter finally prevailed in shaping the course of the 
 President's policy, although his sympathies were not 
 affected by it, for in 1875 Secretary Fish wrote to 
 Mr. dishing, American Minister at Madrid, that 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. m 
 
 the President regarded "independence and emanci- 
 pation as the only certain and even necessary solu- 
 tion of the Cuban question." In a message, in 1870, 
 President Grant stated that he had made represen- 
 tations to the Spanish government "for securing to 
 the people of Cuba the blessings and the right of 
 self-government." Again, in another message, in 
 1876, he said that there was "no good reason either 
 for acknowledging the independence of the insur- 
 gents or their belligerency," but he added that the 
 interests of the United States and of humanity de- 
 manded the cessation of the strife. When Balma- 
 seda issued his famous edict, Secretary Fish, in a 
 letter to the American Minister at Madrid, pro- 
 tested against "the infamous order of General, the 
 Count of Balmaseda." 
 
 Resolutions were many .times introduced in 
 Congress in favor of the insurgents. In June, 
 1870, General Banks and General Logan, in ardent 
 appeals in behalf of the recognition of the Cubans 
 as belligerents, declared that we were guilty of 
 their slaughter and of the sacrifice of liberty 
 
114 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 in America if we did not interfere. General 
 Banks said that the prayers of the people of this 
 country for the success of the 'Cubans were well 
 nigh universal. Mr. Sumner also offered resolu- 
 tions declaring "the sympathy of the people of the 
 United States with their fellow-Americans in Cuba/' 
 and deploring the ferocity of Cuban warfare on 
 both sides. Mr. Cox, of New York, in January, 
 1872, introduced in the House of Representatives a 
 resolution recognizing the independence of the 
 Island, in consequence of eight students at Havana 
 having been shot for a mere boyish freak; again, 
 on December 27, 1873, he offered a resolution 
 acknowledging the belligerency of the revolution- 
 ists, but the House refused to consider it by a vote 
 of 153 to 44. In fact all such resolutions always 
 failed to pass either one or the other branch of 
 Congress, or both, and very properly, since the 
 independence of a country and the belligerency of 
 those who endeavor to establish it are not to be 
 acknowledged by other countries merely because it 
 is a matter of right; the power to enforce that right 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 115 
 
 must be shown, and the possession of an organiza- 
 tion capable, not only nominally but in reality, of 
 conducting effectively all the civil functions of a 
 government must be proved to complete satisfac- 
 tion. This the Cuban insurgents never could do, 
 and consequently, notwithstanding our desire of 
 helping their cause, their belligerency and the inde- 
 pendence of the Island were never acknowledged. 
 
 In the year 1873, an event occurred which be- 
 cause of the interest which it excited in this country 
 and of the results which it threatened to have de- 
 serves to be related at some length. 
 
 The government of this country having decided 
 to remain neutral in the contest between Spain and 
 her Colony made then, as it had during a previous 
 period, and has since during the present revolution, 
 all the efforts in its power to enforce the laws of 
 neutrality, and these efforts were loyally and sin- 
 cerely made, although Spain has never been capable 
 of appreciating such loyalty and sincerity (1) and of 
 understanding that any further action would have 
 been contrary to the rights which the citizens of this 
 
 (!) See note 5, page 203. 
 
116 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 country enjoy under its Constitution. However, it 
 could not be expected — it was against the nature 
 of things — that the American citizen, born to liberty 
 and possessing an innate feeling of revolt against 
 anything that may savor of political oppression, 
 should view with indifference the unfair, unequal 
 struggle which was taking place at the very doors 
 of his land between a few thousand hungry and 
 ragged men trying to secure their own rights and a 
 nation possessing the resources, the wealth and the 
 trained and well-armed forces of which Spain then 
 disposed. The result was that notwithstanding the 
 vigilance which the Administration exerted during 
 the periods of all the different Cuban revolutions, it 
 always found it impossible to prevent some of the 
 citizens of this Union from giving now and then in 
 their private capacity a substantial proof of their 
 friendship for the Cuban rebels by furnishing them 
 with recruits as well as with articles of clothing, 
 food, arms, ammunition, etc. Besides, the Cuban 
 refugees in this country were naturally active, as 
 they had been in Lopez' time, and as they have been 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 117 
 
 recently, in organizing such assistance in the shape 
 of filibustering expeditions. 
 
 Many vessels were occasionally engaged in se- 
 cretly taking men and merchandise to appropriate 
 spots on the Cuban coast and had been the source 
 of much trouble between the United States and 
 Spain, on account of the arbitrary action of the 
 Spanish authorities. In 1869, the "Mary Lowell," an 
 American brig loaded with arms put into a port 
 in the Bahamas and while there was seized by a 
 Spanish man-of-war and taken to Havana, in spite 
 of the protests of the British authorities in that port 
 who were, at that time, unable to enforce such pro- 
 tests and prevent the outrage. Again, on another 
 occasion, passengers were taken from an American 
 vessel, the brig "Lizzie Major," and -impris- 
 oned. Secretary Fish told the Spanish Minister in 
 Washington that the prisoners should be released 
 and an apology and indemnity and ample reparation 
 of every kind offered, and the Minister answered 
 that Spain would undoubtedly give satisfaction. 
 There was some delay in hearing from the Spanish 
 
118 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 government; Mr. Fish having sent again for the 
 Minister, suggested to him that such delay was 
 very dangerous, and it was onjy on being almost 
 forced to the wall that Spain acceded to our de- 
 mands. General Dulce had issued a proclamation 
 that all vessels with arms and ammunition on board 
 should be treated as pirates; Mr. Fish told the 
 Spanish Minister that this order was a violation of 
 recognized international right, and upon represen- 
 tations to Madrid the Spanish government disa- 
 vowed the proclamation, but how sincere and effec- 
 tive was that disavowal will soon be seen. 
 
 In October, 1873, the "Virginius," a little, 
 wooden, side-wheeled steamer, with a crew of fifty- 
 two men sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, bound for 
 Lemon Bay. Twelve of the crew were of American 
 citizenship, the others being subjects of England 
 and of other countries. Captain Joseph Fry, who 
 was in command of the vessel, was a son of Major 
 Fry of the United States Army, who died in Flor- 
 ida during the Seminole Indian war; he had gradu- 
 ated as a passed midshipman from the school at 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 119 
 
 Annapolis in 1842. In 1847 he had fought a duel 
 with Midshipman Brown of Mississippi, but after 
 drawing his antagonist's fire he had generously re- 
 fused to return it. He had served for many years 
 before the war, and when Louisiana seceded he had 
 thrown up his lieutenant's commission and entered 
 the Confederate Army. The record of his whole 
 life was good. 
 
 The owner of the Virginius was Joseph W. Pat- 
 terson of New Orleans, who is said to have been an 
 agent of the Cuban insurgents, and had been able 
 to obtain papers for his vessel from that port. Be- 
 sides the crew, the vessel carried 113 passengers, 
 many but not all of whom were citizens of this 
 country, and it was stated on good authority that 
 many of them were, bound on a business or pleasure 
 trip and were entirely ignorant of the fact that the 
 Virginius was or had been engaged in carrying 
 arms and ammunition to the revolutionists in Cuba. 
 While the vessel was on the high seas, on the 1st 
 of November, it was seized by the Spanish gunboat 
 Tornado, and taken to Santiago. It is interesting 
 
»»-»^ ,>. ...-r.* 
 
 120 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 to note that both the Virginius and the Tornado 
 had been built by the same firm of ship builders for 
 blockade runners, but the Tornado proved much the 
 better boat at the time of the capture, for the hull and 
 machinery of the Virginius were extremely dirty and 
 in otherwise poor condition. The action of the Span- 
 ish authorities was in many ways illegal, one of the 
 reasons for which it was unwarranted by interna- 
 tional laws being that the seizure was executed 
 outside of the three mile from shore limit pre- 
 scribed in such cases. It took four days for the 
 Tornado to bring its prize into the harbor of San- 
 tiago and the distance at which the Virginius was 
 from the Cuban coast when it was captured may be 
 guessed from this; but the Spanish authorities en- 
 tirely disregarded the fact that in time of peace a 
 vessel of any nation is subject, on the high seas, 
 only to the police jurisdiction of the power from 
 which it receives its papers. It is not denied that 
 the Virginius had arms on board; but none were 
 found on it at the time that she was captured as they 
 had been thrown overboard when the cruiser had 
 been sighted. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 121 
 
 On November 4th, as soon as both vessels had 
 arrived at Santiago, the prisoners were given the 
 mockery of a trial before a drum head court mar- 
 tial. All treaty obligations, all regulations were set 
 aside and ignored; there was no evidence against 
 the prisoners, still they were all found guilty and 
 sentenced to death. 
 
 This did not happen under a Monarch or a 
 crowned despot, it happened under a Republic, for 
 the Captain General then represented in Cuba the 
 Spanish Republic of which Emilio Castelar became 
 President. It was rumored that the execution had 
 been countermanded, and the Volunteers declared 
 in their organ, published in Havana, that "the Cap- 
 tain General would not dare to issue such an absurd 
 order as an arrest of the Santiago executions." 
 
 On the same day on which that travesty on a trial 
 had taken place, the day on which the Tornado 
 and Virginius had arrived at Santiago, the 4th of 
 November, those of the prisoners who were of 
 Cuban birth, and one of the Americans, were killed. 
 General Burriel, who directed the proceedings, in 
 
122 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 a letter of that date to the Captain General in- 
 formed him that the persons whom he named in the 
 letter had been shot "for being traitors to their 
 country, and for being insurgent chiefs." 
 
 On the 7th of the same month, the Captain and 
 crew of the Virginius were taken to the shooting- 
 place, which was very appropriately named "the 
 slaughter-house," and they were shot. Fry before 
 the execution wrote a letter to his wife, a most 
 touching and pathetic document, in which he said 
 "There is to be a fearful sacrifice of life on the 
 Virginius, and as I think, a needless one, as the 
 poor people are unconscious of crime, and even of 
 their fate up to now. I hope God will forgive me if 
 I am to blame for it." It has been said that some 
 of the crew of the Virginius had been forced on 
 board against their will. Fifty-three men were 
 killed in all in the two executions. Fry was mag- 
 nanimously given the privilege of walking down the 
 lines of his companions and bidding them adieu, 
 before he was himself shot. 
 
 There still remained under sentence of death 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 123 
 
124 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 ninety-three men belonging to the passenger list of 
 the Virginius, but at this juncture matters took an 
 unexpected and unwelcome turn for the Spaniards. 
 Commodore de Horsey, in charge of the British 
 Navy in the West Indies, was at Port Royal, and 
 on hearing of the outrage he immediately dis- 
 patched the "Niobe," a British steamer then at 
 Jamaica, under the command of Captain Sir Lamp- 
 ton Lorraine to Santiago. The Niobe started at 
 full speed and on arriving in that harbor the Captain, 
 who was landed even before his ship was anchored, 
 demanded that the wholesale assassination which 
 was taking place should be stopped, and his firmness 
 and energy prevented the accomplishment of the 
 other murders which had been contemplated. The 
 American warship "Wyoming" soon after steamed 
 into Santiago, and later the "Juniata," and the guns 
 of both the English and the American vessels in- 
 spired the Spanish with such respect that they de- 
 sisted from their purpose. 
 
 On hearing of the executions, Secretary Fish 
 cabled to General Sickles, American Minister at 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 125 
 
 Madrid, to protest "in the name of this government 
 and of civilization and humanity against the act as 
 brutal, barbarous and an outrage upon the age," 
 and to ask for amp'le reparation. Sickles, in ac- 
 knowledging receipt of the cablegram, stated that 
 having presented the protest to the Spanish minister 
 of state the latter had rejected it by an ill-tempered 
 note saying that "Spain would nevertheless consider 
 and decide questions according to law and her dig- 
 nity." Afterwards the Spanish Minister claimed that 
 as soon as he had received the news from Cuba he 
 had cabled to stop the executions, but we have seen 
 the real reason which caused their discontinuance. 
 On November 23d, General Sickles was on the 
 verge of closing the Legation and leaving the prop- 
 erty in charge of the Italian Minister, but the Span- 
 ish diplomats succeeded in quieting matters. The 
 Virginius and the surviving passengers were turned 
 over to the United States, but the correspondence 
 in regard 'to the reparation dragged on for years. 
 Spain accused the vessel of being a pirate, claiming 
 that her papers were fraudulent, and her American 
 
126 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 nationality not established; President Grant stated 
 in a message to Congress, in January 1874, that if 
 her papers were irregular the Virginius had com- 
 mitted an offense against the United States, who 
 alone had the right to interfere and to punish. 
 Finally a settlement was made by which Spain 
 agreed to give a salute to our flag unless she could 
 prove to our satisfaction that the American flag was 
 improperly borne by the Virginius; this had all 
 along been the contention of Spain, but our answer 
 to it was that even if such were the case and admit- 
 ting that the American papers of the Virginius 
 were fraudulent, the only authority competent to 
 judge of the validity of such papers was the one from 
 which they claimed to emanate. General Sickles 
 stated that the Spanish government had agreed to 
 accept a declaration made by him as proof of the 
 American nationality of the vessel. Nevertheless 
 the salute to the American flag was not given, al- 
 though Spain could never satisfy us of the truth 
 of her version, and she got out of the difficulty by 
 the payment of a paltry sum of $80,000 to the heirs 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 127 
 
 of the victims, which had been agreed upon. She 
 promised to prosecute Burriel, but never did it. (1) 
 Mr. Cox, of New York, declared in the House of 
 Representatives that Congress was "pusillanimous 
 and without the courage to kill a mouse, and that 
 the diplomacy of the government had draggled the 
 flag of the country in the dust," but he was rebuked 
 by Mr. Beck of Kentucky and by General Hawley 
 who sustained the Administration. The greatest 
 excitement prevailed among the people against Sec- 
 retary Fish, and meetings against him were held in 
 New York. 
 
 Thus, Spanish diplomacy had obtained another 
 triumph over the patience and forbearance of the 
 United States, but if the case of the Black Warrior 
 had been forgotten, the murder of the crew of the 
 Virginius left in the ashes of the past some smol- 
 dering embers, which Spain might eventually find 
 exceedingly dangerous to fan into new life. 
 
 C 1 ) As late as the 23d of April 1877, it was said in the British House 
 of Commons that Spain had promised to try General Burriel, of the 
 Virginius massacre notoriety, but that the trial had been delayed "on 
 account of the non-receipt of papers from Cuba," 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Ten Years' War in. Spain — Hopes That Were in 
 Vain — King 1 Amadeus, His Influence and His 
 Abdication — A Modern Gicero — Emilio Castelar 
 and the Genius cf Spain. 
 
 When the government of Isabella had been upset, 
 the hope was manifested in this country that while 
 the old Spanish rule had been tyrannical, since it 
 had been thrown off Spain, the new rule would prove 
 less harsh. It was confidently expected that the 
 humane and generous spirit which Castelar was sup- 
 posed to' represent would not continue to* oppress 
 the Cubans, or prolong the ferocities of past Span- 
 ish warfare. 
 
 Subsequent events, however, have given plentiful 
 evidence that Spanish governments may come and 
 go but the tyranny in Cuba will go on forever — until 
 it is stopped by an iron hand. 
 
 The only faint ray of light in the Spanish political 
 sky appeared during the reign of King Amadeus. 
 Had he been able to bring Spanish public opinion to 
 his own views, which were the outcome of a differ- 
 
 (128) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 129 
 
 ^OL gjg^ 
 
 I fMffM^^^^tfiM 
 
130 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 ent way of thinking, befitting the people and the 
 family to which he belonged, in that case most likely 
 the situation of the Cubans would have improved; 
 but he could not do it; it would have required a 
 reformation of the whole, Spanish character. After a 
 short trial, during the course of which he came near 
 losing his life, he gave up the job and the throne in 
 indignation and disgust. The son of Victor Eman- 
 uel, of a man possessed of an honesty and a good, 
 sound common sense rarely to be found in a king/ 1 * 
 himself a member of a nation which is such a leader 
 in civilization that a few years later it was to strike 
 out the death penalty from its statute-books, Ama- 
 deus perforce felt out of place amid such surround- 
 ings. 
 
 It was, however, through his influence that the 
 only genuine reform that Spain ever granted Cuba 
 was effected. A code of rules enforcing the aboli- 
 tion of slavery in Cuba and Porto Rico was pub- 
 lished by a decree of King Amadeus in 1872. The 
 Cortes had indeed passed as early as 1869 an ordi- 
 nance making preparations for the emancipation of 
 
 (i) See note 6, pago 203. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 131 
 
 the slaves in the Spanish Colonies, but it may safely 
 be asserted that had it not been for the pressure ex- 
 erted by that Italian the good measure would have 
 gone the way of all other Spanish promises of re- 
 form, that is, it would have fallen into "innocuous 
 desuetude." For the second time in her history 
 Spain had become indebted to Italy. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that Amadeus was ably 
 seconded in his efforts in that direction by Emilio 
 Castelar. 
 
 In a speech in the Cortes, before the abdication 
 of Amadeus, on the abolition of slavery in Cuba and 
 Porto Rico, Castelar insisted on the "indissolubil- 
 ity of the union between Spain and her Colonies," 
 but he added these most eloquent words: "To-day 
 is the last day of old Spain, crushing in her fall the 
 fetters of the slave, and the birthday of that other 
 Spain that by means of her ideas unites herself in- 
 dissolubly with the America of freedom, of democ- 
 racy and of right." 
 
 His speech was a poem, an ode. to progress and 
 liberty. 
 
132 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 "If Spain, gentlemen," Castelar cried, "if Spain 
 is to be made up of arbitrary generals, greedy bu- 
 reaucrats, selfish tax-gatherers, censors who stifle 
 human thought, unbridled hosts massacring chil- 
 dren, the slave-trafficker's bark, the Babylon of the 
 plantation, and to crown all this the bazaar and the 
 slave-market — ah! then, arise with me and cry: 
 Accursed be the genius of our country!" 
 
 Is it possible that the man whose voice mani- 
 fested such noble sentiments, to which the har- 
 monious Castillian language gave added enchant- 
 ment, should now be cursing the genius of a coun- 
 try which will soon accomplish all the reforms 
 which he was begging the Spanish people to be- 
 stow? Can this be the same Castelar who twenty- 
 five years after wrote that the Spanish government 
 "could not learn from outsiders its faults in govern- 
 ing the Antilles, or submit to a mediator"? Alas! 
 the principle of the indissolubility of the union be- 
 tween Spain and her Colonies had stifled in him the 
 higher principles which lie had expressed in 1873. 
 The new Spain was never born, or else it was a 
 still-birth, and the Republic which was established 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 133 
 
 after the abdication of Amadeus did not accomplish 
 the good which had been expected of it. Spain 
 instead of uniting herself to the America of freedom, 
 of democracy and of right, persisted in her attach- 
 ment to the Cuba of tyranny, of despotism and of 
 wrong. 
 
 Here is a sample of the comfort which the Cubans 
 derived from the establishment of the Republic in 
 Spain: "The Spanish government sends salutations 
 to Cuba and Porto Rico, and assures them that the 
 integrity of Spanish territory is .to be maintained." 
 
 This message proved undoubtedly highly pleas- 
 ing to the Peninsulars and the Volunteers, but with 
 what enthusiasm the Insular Cubans received the 
 greetings and the magnanimous assurance which 
 they contained, history does not say. 
 
 The genius of Spain, of which Castelar spoke in 
 1873, has had the good luck of being led by the 
 genius of a Genoese sailor to the discovery of a new 
 world; it has slaughtered the people that it found 
 there, then instead of being satisfied with the indi- 
 rect profits which might reasonably have accrued 
 from a proper administration of Colonial posses- 
 
134 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 sions, it has killed the hen that laid the golden eggs. 
 
 The genius of Spain is still the genius of Philip 
 II. and of the Duke of Alva; which gave to the 
 world Torquemada and the Inquisition, which laid 
 bare the Low Countries, and tortured and murdered 
 their noble citizens. 
 
 The genius of Spain has exercised a most demor- 
 alizing influence over that portion of Italy to which 
 it has chiefly extended its operations. (1 > 
 
 The genius of Spain has practically annihilated 
 
 one of the most beautiful spots in the world; the 
 
 Cubans were begging for bread, it has answered 
 
 their supplications by giving them a stone; it has 
 
 garroted or otherwise murdered with the semblance 
 
 of a legal process, during the space of five years 
 
 only, four thousand six hundred and seventy-two 
 
 of the inhabitants of Cuba, the offspring of Spanish 
 blood. 
 
 And it may be suggested that it is now time for 
 the genius of Spain to take a back seat. 
 
 It is reported that ex-Premier Crispi, of Italy, 
 said that the present war is the end of Spain, and 
 if he did, he spoke the truth, 
 
 (i) See note 7A, page 205. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Golden Book of Cuba — The Execution of Leon and 
 Medina — The Treachery of General Mena — A Dis- 
 tinction With a Difference — Two Cuban and One 
 Italian Poets. 
 
 For an idea of what the crimes of Spain 
 have been during the period of the ten years' war 
 we must take up the examination of a book to which 
 reference is made by Mr. Halstead in his "Story of 
 Cuba." It is called the "Book of Blood" and was 
 published in 1873, after the war which began in 
 1868 had run only one-half of its course. It is a 
 record, not indeed of all the Cuban patriots who 
 have been murdered by Spain, which it were im- 
 possible to establish, but merely of those who have 
 been "executed," during those five years, after the 
 humbug of a trial and with a pretense of legality. 
 "We do not claim," says the preface, "we do not 
 claim to give a table of the crimes committed in 
 Havana and elsewhere, such for example as those 
 at the theatre of Villanueva, the coffee-house of the 
 
 (135) 
 
136 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Louvre * * * the butchery of Cohner Green- 
 wald and many like cases; or the transcendentally 
 treacherous killing of Augusto Arango under a flag 
 of truce. Neither shall we attempt to catalogue the 
 murders committed by the brutal soldiery in the 
 country, the indiscriminate slaughter of defenceless 
 men, women and children, the rapes, the obscene 
 mutilations and the cruelties of every kind perpe- 
 trated in our unhappy country by the scourge of 
 America; those are personal crimes which we do not 
 deem just to charge upon a whole people.'' 
 
 The "Book of Blood" shows that during the gov 
 ernments of General Lersundi, Dulce, De Rodaa 
 Ceballos, Pieltain and Jovellar, the last three repre 
 senting the Spanish Republic, four thousand si? 
 hundred and seventy-two' political prisoners havo 
 been killed by the "garrote vil" or by shooting. 
 The names of the victims, as far as it has been pos- 
 sible to ascertain them, are given, also the date of 
 arrest, and the date and place of execution. Here 
 are a few of the entries in that book of Spanish in^ 
 famv, taken at random. 
 
* 
 
 SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 137 
 
 1870-Dec. 17-Porto Principe— Capt. Francisco Betan- 1,934 
 court, Emilio Estrada , Carlos Torres, 
 Jose Molina, Francisco Benavides, 
 Mannel Montojo y Caballero, Janvier 
 B. Varona, Martin Loynazy Miranda, 8-Died Jan. 1, 71 
 
 1871-Feb. 26-Juan Sanchez— M. Perdomo and S. Mila, 
 A. Paredes, E. Rivero, J. B. Agra- 
 monte, J. Martinez, P. Ibarra, B. 
 Leiva, and F. Echmendia, . . . 9-Died Mar. 12. 
 
 1871-Feb. 21-La Vega— Jose Manuel Quesada (75 years 
 old) for the crime of Leing uncle to 
 General Quesada, 1-Died April 1. 
 
 1873-Nov. 8-Santiago — Arturo Loret Mola, Augus- 
 tin Varona, Oscar Varona, Guil- 
 lermo Vals, Jose Boitel, Salvador 
 Penedo, Enrique Castellanos, Augus- 
 tin Santa Rosa, Justo Consuegra, 
 Francisco Porras Pita, Jose Otero, 
 Herminio Quesada, 12-Died Nov. 15. 
 
 One item gives • the names of fifty-five victims, 
 among them Cespedes and Manuel Quesada; an- 
 other one gives nineteen names. 
 
 The "Book of Blood" will become in future years 
 the Golden Book of Cuba; a roll of honor, which 
 the American citizen of the State of Santiago or of 
 Pinar del Rio will anxiously scan for the names of 
 his ancestors who distinguished themselves in the 
 fight for liberty; he may not find them, perhaps, for 
 he will come across items like these: 
 
 1870-Dec. 1-Gibara— One who smelt as a rebel, . . 1-Died Dec. 18. 
 
 1870-Nov. 27-Siguanea— Alejo Contero, Felix Yuru- 
 
 bide, and thirteen more, .... 15-Died Dec. 18. 
 
138 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 1870- Dec. 31-Guanaja— Seven prisoners captured with 
 
 the wife of President Sespedes, . 7-Died Jan. 14. 
 
 1871-Feb. 15-Ciego— A rebel, 1-Died Mar. 1. 
 
 1871-Feb. 19-Sancti Espiritu— A postman, .... 1-Died Mar. 1. 
 1871-Feb. 23- Guaramen a -Seventeen rebels, . . . 17-DiedMar.l7. 
 
 Among the victims at Havana in 1869 were two 
 men, one named Leon, the other Medina, who had 
 been sentenced to death for secreting arms. There 
 was an immense crowd to witness the execution, 
 and many among it sympathized with the patriot 
 cause. When Leon reached the scaffold lie deter- 
 mined to speak, in spite of an attempt made by the 
 priest to dissuade him. In order to gain a hearing 
 he cried out "Viva Espaiia!" (Hurrah for Spain!) 
 which was responded by the huzzas of the Volun- 
 teers. He then went on to denounce in a few brief 
 words the tyranny which had condemned him, and 
 finished his speech with enthusiastic "Vivas" for 
 Cuba, independence and Cespedes! The drummers 
 were so astonished that they forgot to drown the 
 remarks with the noise of their drums, as they had 
 been ordered to do in case seditious words were 
 spoken. The soldiers had answered with cheers 
 the first words of the prisoner, but his last ones 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 139 
 
 
 — , — , — - — 
 
140 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 called forth a tumultuous response from the Cubans. 
 In their wrath the Volunteers turned upon the 
 crowd and fired, killing or wounding many people. 
 Mr. Hall, the American Consul, had made efforts 
 to prevent the execution, but had been unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 In January, 1869, General Augusto Arango went 
 as a parliamentary under the protection of a flag of 
 truce into the Spanish lines. The Spanish general, 
 Mena, caused him to be shot, then had the body 
 cut to pieces and the fragments paraded through 
 the streets of Puerto Principe. 
 
 Heine C 1 )- 
 
 "* * * * a German poet 
 Of goodly German fame," 
 
 as he took pride in being, once in a fit of misan- 
 thropy laid down the following maxim: "Yes, we 
 ought to forgive our enemies — but not until they 
 are hanged." 
 
 The American soldiers and statesmen have done 
 better, and have acted more in accordance with the 
 true and original principles of Christianity; they 
 
 (i) See note 7, page 204. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 141 
 
 have pardoned without hanging. The Spanish 
 have done, worse; they have hanged without par- 
 doning, for they have butchered the bodies of their 
 enemies after life was extinct. Heine said that he 
 would, before their death, forgive his enemies the 
 injuries they had done him during their lives, but 
 Spain did not forgive her enemies even after death, 
 and this did not happen in the fifteenth or sixteenth 
 century, but in our present enlightened age, within 
 the sight of some of us who are not very old yet. 
 The trouble with her is that she has not yet under- 
 stood that the people whom she has misgoverned 
 may wish to renounce her authority without being 
 necessarily worse than Judas Iscariot. In her eyes, 
 one of her colonists who refuses to acknowledge 
 her dominion is guilty of a crime deserving the most 
 painful death which the body can suffer, in this 
 world, and the eternal burning of the soul in hell, 
 in the next. 
 
 Among the Cuban patriots whose life was de- 
 stroyed by Spain during the course of the ten years' 
 war was one of the most noted American poets of 
 
142 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Spanish lineage. Marco Antonio Canini— the 
 father of the writer of this study — in his work 
 "II Libro dell'Amore"— The Book of Love— (1 >(a 
 collection of love poetry of all nations and all times, 
 translated by him from the originals in nearly one 
 hundred and fifty languages into Italian verse) 
 wrote asfoilovvs in the critical and philological essay 
 preceding the third volume of that work, pub- 
 lished in Venice in 1888: "Among the other 
 Hispano-American songs I recommend above all, 
 those of the Cuban Zenea, whose life has been ex- 
 tinguished by Spain, who is as unforeseeing and 
 unjust in the administration of her Colonies as she 
 is cruel in repressing the attempts at independence. 
 Placido Valdes was another Cuban poet murdered 
 by Spain and I will give some of his verses else- 
 where; the first one of those unhappy men ad- 
 dressed his last verses to his wife, the second to his 
 mother." 
 
 (i) See note 8, page 205. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 143 
 
 The King and Queen Regent of Spain. 
 
 See note 11, page 207. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Public Opinion Abroad — The Forests of Boyal Palms 
 Between New York and Washington — The Congres- 
 sional Express — A Bouquet of Flowers Prom the 
 Paris Figaro— Ignorance and Vitriol — -How a Great 
 Nation is Being Deceived. 
 
 Those words of the old Italian patriot and poet 
 have been reported here not only on account of the 
 interesting information which they contain in con- 
 nection with the scope of this study, but also for 
 the purpose of pointing out that public opinion in 
 most European countries is not, as many suppose, 
 against us in our present conflict; England and 
 Italy/ X) for instance, would not seem to be easily able 
 to find in their history any reason for being particu- 
 larly friendly to Spain, and there can be only one 
 opinion among liberal-minded and well-informed 
 people the world over as to the justice of our 
 cause, only one hope as to the result, and that for 
 its inevitable success. The holders of Spanish 
 bonds and their advocates are, of course, excluded 
 from the limits of this assertion. 
 
 (i) See note 12, page 208. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 145 
 
 But the trouble, is that a large number of people 
 in Europe entertain some extraordinary ideas in 
 regard to our customs, our habits and things in 
 general in this country, and through lack of proper 
 information about the condition of affairs in the 
 United States, and especially in respect to the 
 Cuban question, are induced to direct their sym- 
 pathies into the wrong channel. 
 
 A short while ag'o there appeared in the Paris 
 "Figaro," a prominent but hardly respected news- 
 paper, noted for its famous canards, what pur- 
 ported to be "The Impressions of a Parisian in the 
 United States." This particular bird began its 
 flight on the 30th of March, continued it on the 1st 
 of April, and concluded it on the 5th of that month. 
 Whether it was intended by the "Figaro" as a 
 present to its readers with the compliments of the 
 season, I do not know, but in that case the pere- 
 grination through three issues of the paper was a 
 little too long. The writer spent two weeks in the 
 United States; he went from New York to Wash- 
 ington for the purpose of interviewing President 
 
146 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 McKinley, and we will allow him to speak for him- 
 self. 
 
 "I leave New York on an icy cold morning, and 
 little by little the temperature becomes milder, the 
 thermometer rises — it is spring, soon it is summer, 
 At first forests of pines, then forests of. palm trees. 
 — In Washington the thermometer showed 96 in the 
 shade. — Wonderful landscapes where practical life 
 never loses its rights. Here and there suspended 
 from the palm trees, along the road, large sign- 
 boards with advertisements of the best soap or 
 of the best shoe-blacking." 
 
 On arriving in Washington he feels disappointed: 
 "At the depot in Washington, instead of the grace- 
 ful American girls whom I expected to see, my 
 sight meets only fat and horrible negresses, attired 
 in bloomers, lazily leaning on their wheel." 
 
 This is the impression which he will take back to 
 Paris of the Capital of the United States: 
 
 "A queer city * * * the impression that we 
 are in the tropics becomes stronger at the sight of 
 so many negroes; they form here the majority of the 
 population." 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 147 
 
 But he hurries to the White House: 
 "I go in as in a public square, and I see neither 
 guardians nor servants — not even a janitor. In 
 the vestibule a sign-board with this mention, end the 
 drawing of a hand pointing in the proper direction, 
 'Entrance to the Parlor.' " 
 
 When he reaches the President he has a very 
 pleasant conversation with him. The President is 
 at first a little restive about talking on the Cuban 
 question, but finally he becomes more communica- 
 tive. He may, for all we know, have been on the 
 point of asking that bright young man for his 
 opinion and advice, but the reporter is compelled to 
 leave in haste, which is extremely unfortunate for 
 us, as he might have been of great assistance to 
 the President in guiding him through the difficulties 
 which were soon to follow. His hurry was caused 
 by the fact that he had been successful in obtaining 
 a "special permit" which allowed him to take the 
 "Congressional Express," and he did not want to 
 miss it. The Congressional Express, we are in- 
 formed, is a train which takes back to New York 
 
148 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 the members of Congress after the day is over, for 
 very few of them live in Washington. 
 
 That enterprisingrepresentative of a still more en- 
 terprising newspaper had probably picked up some- 
 where on the boulevards an advertisement of the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad, but he did not know that 
 the. only permit required in order to travel on the 
 Congressional Express is the possession of one of 
 those little slips of green paper which are so care- 
 fully marked with a V or an X at the Department 
 of the Treasury in that same city of Washington 
 which he claims to have visited; and while those 
 permits are entirely too scarce to suit most of us 
 they are not particularly "special." 
 
 When he got back to New York "bands of ex- 
 cited individuals" were running through the streets 
 yelling, "Death to the Spaniards!" "It was enough 
 for any one to state that he was a Cuban citizen 
 in order to be walked about from saloon to saloon, 
 and compelled to swallow cocktails without num- 
 ber." By such indications New York will soon be 
 empty of New Yorkers, only Cubans will be found 
 in that city. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. U9 
 
 The whole' thing was evidently intended for a 
 hoax, and it was a display of cheap wit. The re- 
 porters of the "Figaro" did not always find the ves- 
 tibule to the White House entirely deserted, for that 
 paper stated — and this time quite seriously — that 
 the Officer who took to the President the report of 
 the Board of Inquiry on the Maine had, on enter- 
 ing the White House, to make his way, "revolver 
 in hand, through a crowd of idlers." C 1 ) 
 
 It was the "Figaro," if I am not mistaken, which 
 years ago, when the Republican party was divided 
 into two camps, the Stalwarts and the Half Breeds, 
 explained to its readers that the latter were "the 
 great cattle-raisers of the West," having most likely 
 been misled by a literal application of the word 
 "breeding." 
 
 But the blunders of the "Figaro" and other Euro- 
 pean newspapers are not always so innocent. Here 
 are some samples of the literature on which intelli- 
 gent people in Europe are expected to base their 
 opinion with regard to the attitude of the United 
 
 * (i) Le Figaro, March 27, 1898. 
 
150 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 States on the Cuban question; the four that follow 
 are taken from different issues of the same paper. 
 
 "The Spaniards are wise, they have proved it, 
 and nothing shows that they will play into the hands 
 of unscrupulous men who speculate on their chival- 
 rous sentiments." 
 
 "One may conceive a war aiming at the triumph 
 of intangible principles, or of commercial interests 
 of the greatest importance, but it cannot be con- 
 ceived in order to facilitate speculations on the sale 
 
 of tobacco, of sugar or of poor American news- 
 papers." 
 
 "The American jingoes — Senators engaged in 
 speculations in sugar and in tobacco, Representa- 
 tives who wish to flatter the unconscious mob, mem- 
 bers of Cuban insurrectional committees composed 
 of buyers at a trifling price of lands devastated by 
 the civil war, continue in Washington and New 
 York their campaign of excitation and of slander." 
 
 "It is the entire archipelago of the West Indies 
 that they are hungry for.'^ 1 ) 
 
 Another prominent Parisian newspaper, "La 
 
 (i) See note 8, page 206. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 151 
 
 Paix"— "The Peace'— under date of April 30th, 
 has an article which begins by praising Cuba for 
 "struggling desperately against the tyrannical dom- 
 ination of bigoted and retrograde Spain." "Europe," 
 says the editor, "should have intervened long ago 
 in behalf of Cuba agonizing under the bloody rule 
 of Spain. But it seems that under the same pretext 
 of respect for international law, or I know not what 
 stupid protocol, the powers have been content to 
 witness that barbarous struggle between Spain and 
 Cuba." Here, however, the talented editor turns 
 the search-light of his investigation on this be- 
 nighted country: "As to one point there can be no 
 doubt," continues the writer in "La Paix," "the 
 intervention of the United States in Cuban affairs 
 is justified by no international code.' , 
 
 In other words, Europe (3,000 miles away or over) 
 should have intervened in Cuba and would have 
 been justified by international law, for it was only 
 under a pretext of respect for it that she has not 
 done it. In the case of the United States (100 miles 
 from the Cuban coast or thereabouts), however, in- 
 
152 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 tervention is decidedly contrary to that same law. 
 Europe is to be blamed for not interfering on ac- 
 count of some stupid protocol, but that same stupid 
 protocol should inspire us with veneration and with 
 awe. The why and wherefore of all this constitute 
 a problem which my mind cannot solve, and the 
 reader may, if he likes, figure it out for himself; but 
 from a superficial examination it would seem that 
 'The Peace" is at war — with common sense. 
 
 Our friend, the editor of "La Paix," then con- 
 tinues to pay his respects to the United States, and 
 delivers himself of the following tirade, which the 
 Chicago "Inter-Ocean" of May 8th, where it is re- 
 ported, properly characterizes as ignorant and vit- 
 riolic: "If civilized Europe had been mindful of 
 her duty and her dignity, if she had been moved by 
 conscience and self-interest, she would long ago 
 have forced the United States to take her ships 
 from Cuban ports and would have imposed peace 
 on the combatants. As for the United States no 
 scruples of conscience embarrass that nation of 
 brigands. The Yankees care nothing for the inter- 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 153 
 
 est and dignity of civilization. It amuses them to 
 talk of Christian civilization, but the prime motive 
 behind their declaration of war is the desire to ac- 
 quire Cuba and become the foremost producers of 
 sugar. The least discerning have been struck by 
 the mixture of hypocrisy and brutality which char- 
 acterizes the diplomatic and military action of the 
 United States/' 
 
 The least discerning would be struck by the 
 fact that to characterize the noble and dignified 
 efforts of President McKinley to maintain the peace 
 as hypocrisy, and the firm action which necessarily 
 followed their failure, as brutality, is to make a re- 
 markable display of asininity. The editor of "La 
 Paix" is mistaken; it does not amuse the Yankees 
 to talk of Christian civilization; what amuses them 
 to the point of extravagant hilarity is to listen to the 
 aberrant and discrepant jabber of a man who knows 
 as much about their affairs and their history as 
 Christopher Columbus knew about those of the 
 Great Khan of the Indies, whose acquaintance he 
 expected to make when he first landed in Cuba. 
 
154 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 That is, it would amuse them, were it not for the 
 fact that it is on such rot that the opinion of an in- 
 telligent, a great and generous people like the 
 French nation, is being formed, and that that nation 
 is thus induced to attribute to us motives and pur- 
 poses which are as far removed from our minds as 
 the shores of France are geographically distant 
 from those of Columbia. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 155 
 
 Ex'mo Sr. Don Praxedes Mateo Sagasta, 
 
 President of the Spanish Cabinet. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Situation in Cuba After the Peace of El Zanjon — 
 Outbreak of the Present Revolution— Jose Marti, 
 His Work, His Death and His Burial — How Matters 
 Stood in Cuba in April, 1898 — The Brilliant Ideas 
 of General Weyler — Why Autonomy is Wot Accept- 
 able. 
 
 The reforms which had been granted by the 
 Treaty of El Zanjon had, as we have seen, proved 
 entirely delusive. The same state of affairs pre- 
 vailed in Cuba after Gomez and the other leaders of 
 the ten years' war had been induced to capitulate, 
 as had existed for four hundred years previously, 
 with the single exception of the condition of slavery. 
 The despotic policy called the policy of the 
 "Realidad national" was continued; the representa- 
 tion of Cuba in the Cortes was useless, because the 
 votes of the Cuban deputies were not allowed to 
 count in matters of importance, besides the Penin- 
 sulars were able to control the polls, and all but a 
 few of the deputies were natives of Spain; the gov- 
 ernors still enjoyed the same absolute power. In- 
 
 (156) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 157 
 
 dustry was discouraged, for it would have interfered 
 with the interests of the Spanish manufacturing cit- 
 ies. The. taxes were as heavy, or heavier, than ever 
 and they were still applied to the benefit of the 
 mother country. No intention was shown of giving 
 the Cubans the part that properly belonged to them 
 in the administration of their island; that admin- 
 istration continued to be as corrupt as it had. ever 
 been and the secret exactions of its officials were 
 still based on the idea of making as much money 
 as possible before returning to Spain. As an ex- 
 ample of its operations I will quote the following 
 lines from the Introduction by Mr. John Fiske to 
 Mr. Grover Flint's book "Marching with Gomez:" 
 "A planter's estate is entered upon the assessor's 
 lists as worth $50,000; the collector comes along 
 and demands a tax based upon an assumed value of 
 $70,000; the planter demurs, but presently thinks it 
 prudent to compromise upon a basis of $00,000. 
 No change is made in the published lists, but the 
 collector slips into his own pocket the tax upon 
 $1.0,000 and goes away rejoicing. Thus the planter 
 
158 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 is robbed while the government is cheated. And 
 this is a fair specimen of what goes on throughout 
 all departments of administration. From end to 
 end the whole system is honeycombed with 
 fraud." 
 
 It is related by Mathurin M. Ballou in his book 
 "Due South," published in 1885, that within recent 
 years an issue of Cuban currency having been 
 authorized by the Madrid government to be printed 
 in an establishment in the United States, the Cuban 
 officials had notes to the extent of fourteen million 
 dollars printed over and above, the authorized 
 amount, and shared that sum among themselves. 
 It is not surprising to hear thai the Captain-Gen- 
 eral, a worthy successor of ihe r< sidenciado gov- 
 ernors of the sixteenth century and of General 
 Tacon, who was a poor man when he landed in 
 Cuba, returned to Spain several times a millionaire. 
 
 Such conditions, and those produced by the un- 
 fair laws regulating foreign commerce, could not 
 fail to result in the utter ruination of the economical 
 interests of the Island. In fact, the insurrection 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 159 
 
 which was shortly to follow may be said to be due 
 principally to a necessity for economic relief, rather 
 than to the desire for political liberty which accom- 
 panied it. In 1890,' addresses were sent to the 
 home government by the majority of the agricul- 
 tural and other associations of the island, stating- 
 their grievances and asking for certain remedies; 
 later a delegation was sent to Madrid, but all the 
 efforts made, by the Insular Cubans to obtain an 
 amelioration of their condition came to nothing- 
 Spain continued to turn a deaf ear to their pro- 
 tests; in fact the evils were rather aggravated than 
 otherwise. 
 
 Thus, the Insulars were, brought to rebel another 
 time against their iniquitous mother country, and 
 took up again the arms which they had been in- 
 duced to lay down in 1878 by her lying promises. 
 
 The cry of "Cuba libre!" (free Cuba) was raised 
 by a band of about thirty men under the leadership 
 of Antonio Lopez Coloma, in the neighborhood of 
 Ibarra, province of Matanzas, on the 24th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1895, and on the same day an uprising took 
 
160 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 place in Baires and in Jiguany, near Santiago. The 
 revolution into which these two outbreaks devel- 
 oped was due principally to the influence of Josi 
 Marti, who has been called its father. He was a born 
 conspirator, and since childhood had been devoted 
 to the cause of the independence of his country; he 
 had organized "Juntas" among the Cubans in al- 
 most every city in the United States in order to help 
 the insurrection which he had for years been med- 
 itating. Several patriots of the ten years' war 
 landed at Baracoa on March 31st, among them An- 
 tonio and Jose Maceo. On April 11th, Maximo 
 Gomez and Marti himself landed on the same spot. 
 Marti was killed in battle on the 19th of Mav. His 
 body was taken to Santiago by the Spaniards, and 
 the words which were spoken over his remains at 
 the burial by the Spanish Colonel Sandoval mani- 
 fest sentiments so exceptionally different from those 
 which have almost invariably inspired the actions 
 of Spain, that they cause the student of the history 
 of Cuba to feel as refreshed as a man who meets 
 with an oasis in traveling through a desert, and 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 161 
 
 they deserve to be reported here to the honor of 
 that officer/ 1 ) 
 
 "Gentlemen: — In presence of the corpse of him 
 who in life was Jose Marti, and in the absence of any 
 relative or friend who might speak over his remains 
 such words as are customary, I request you not to 
 consider these remains to be those of an enemy any 
 more, but simply those of a man carried by political 
 discords to face Spanish soldiers. From the mo- 
 ment the spirits have freed themselves of matter, 
 they are sheltered and magnanimously pardoned 
 by the Almighty, and the abandoned matter is left 
 in our care, for us to dispel all rancorous feelings, 
 and give the corpse such Christian burial as is due 
 to the dead." 
 
 Gomez invaded the province of Puerto Principe, 
 his old battle ground; subsequently he directed the 
 movements in the East, and Maceo those in the 
 West. Calixto Garcia, another veteran of the ten 
 years' war was and is still another prominent 
 leader. His forehead bears to this day the scar of the 
 wound which he inflicted upon himself when, dur- 
 
 0) The speech is taken from Halstead's Story of Cuba, page 266. 
 
162 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Cuban General 
 Kius liivera. 
 
 Cuban General 
 Quintin Bandera. 
 
 Cuban Cabecilla (Chief) 
 Jesus Kabi. 
 
 Cuban Sentry. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 163 
 
 ing the course of that war, he attempted to take his 
 own life, because, like the Siboneyes of old, he pre- 
 ferred to die rather than to fall into the hands of 
 the Spaniards; however, he did not succeed, and 
 although his life was spared by the enemies, he 
 was made acquainted with the horrors of a Span- 
 ish prison. Antonio Macro was killed in 1896. He 
 was a colored man, and had been the last one of the 
 leaders of the previous revolution to lay down his 
 arms; it is said that his father, who afterwards was 
 killed during the war of 1868-1878, after his farm 
 had been burned by the Spaniards, at that time had 
 made his children sweat on its ruins that they would 
 consecrate their lives to the liberation ot their coun- 
 try. After Maceo's death Maximo Gomez assumed 
 supreme command of the revolutionary army. 
 
 It would be necessary to go beyond the limits 
 set to this study in order to follow in detail all the 
 events of this revolution, and to pick out of the 
 confusing multitude of contradictory news which 
 was received of this war such of it as was wheat and 
 such as was chaff; it will be enough for our pur- 
 
164 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 pose to say that Senator Proctor who made lately 
 a personal investigation of the condition of affairs 
 in the Island ascertained that out of the 200,000 
 soldiers which Spain sent to Cuba since the begin- 
 ning of the rebellion in 1895, only 60,000 remained 
 fit for duty at the time of his visit. On the other 
 hand it is stated, on good authority, that out of the 
 1,500,000 inhabitants which the Island contained in 
 1895 only 900,000 are left alive. The prisoners 
 made by the Spaniards are invariably shot; the 
 revolutionists at first spared the lives of the pris- 
 oners who fell into their hands, but later have done 
 the same as their enemies; disease and starvation 
 do the rest. The rebels burn the canefields so that 
 no export duty may be collected on the sugar pro- 
 duced by the Island to increase the resources of the 
 enemy, and so that no money from its sale may 
 come into Cuba and find its way to Spain in pay- 
 ment for purchases of Spanish manufactures; they 
 destrov farms and wreck villages. 
 
 The Spaniards ruin and burn everything that is 
 left in order to deprive the insurgents of the means 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 165 
 
 of obtaining a subsistence. Spain has conclusively 
 shown that she is unable to put an end to the in- 
 surrection, and had the United States allowed the 
 situation to be prolonged indefinitely the story of 
 the Kilkenny cats, which was recalled in this con- 
 nection by a correspondent of the "London Times," 
 would have been particularly appropriate in de- 
 scribing the situation, since neither a Spaniard nor 
 a Cuban w r ould have been left to tell the tale, and 
 the Island would have consisted of a mound of 
 skeletons on a mass of ruins. 
 
 Soon after the revolution broke out, Spain sent 
 Marshal Martinez Campos to subdue it, but the 
 Cubans had grown suspicious of Spaniards who 
 came to them with an offer of presents, and besides, 
 here again as formerly in the case of General Dulce, 
 the Peninsulars and the Volunteers were dissatis- 
 fied with the Marshal's comparative lack of sever- 
 ity, and they still controlled the situation. After a 
 short time, Campos was recalled and General Wey- 
 ler was sent to take, his place, with a commission 
 which gave him absolute authority over the Island. 
 
166 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 V H 4 
 
 }A <* if.' W. "ihh v 
 
 V.V >//? <i* 
 
 Hernando De Soto. 
 
 From an engraving in Herrera's 
 Historia General, (edition of 1728). 
 
 'f 
 
 General Valeriano Weyler. 
 
 *V- 
 
 General Martinez Campos. 
 
 Spanish General Pando. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 167 
 
 The atrocities perpetrated by Don Valeriano 
 Weyler, a Spaniard of Austrian descent, who will 
 go down to posterity under the surname of "the 
 butcher,"* 1 ^ are in everyone's memory. This Austro- 
 Spaniard, in whom seem to have descended the 
 cruel instincts both of a Radetzky and of a Duke of 
 Alva, had an idea which, had he been born in an- 
 other age, might have been considered a stroke of 
 genius; it was the idea of tearing thousands upon 
 thousands of peaceful men, women and children 
 from their homes in the. fields, of dragging them into 
 the cities, and of leaving them there to starve, so 
 that they might not give any comfort to the cause 
 of the enemy he was fighting. Unfortunately for 
 Weyler, he was born too late, such talent is not 
 appreciated in our times, save perhaps, in his own 
 country; in every other part of the civilized world 
 it is regarded with feelings of abhorrence. 
 
 The man who could not conquer Cuba with one 
 hundred thousand soldiers or more, now boasts that 
 he can conquer the United States with fifty thou- 
 
 (!) Weyler inherited this title from the General Count of Bal- 
 maseda, to whom it was given during the ten years' war— See also 
 note 9, page 206. 
 
168 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 sand, and the surprise with which we are listening 
 to his utterances is somewhat similar to that which 
 was once experienced by Balaam. 
 
 Weyler arrived in Havana February 10, 1896; he 
 at once issued a proclamation announcing that the 
 utmost severity would be the ruling spirit of his ad- 
 ministration; by his orders military tribunals took 
 the place of civil courts, and a few days after his ar- 
 rival, he inaugurated his reign by causing a number 
 of political prisoners in Cabanas to be shot. It was 
 then that Gomez and Maceo proclaimed that if 
 Weyler would kiil prisoners they would retaliate by 
 killing every Spanish soldier who might fall into 
 their hands. 
 
 Another idea in which Weyler placed great con- 
 fidence besides that of reconcentrating into the 
 cities, Pacificos, or countrymen, who were non- 
 combatants, was that of the famous Trocha. This 
 is a system of military roads extending in several 
 directions in the Island and supposed to form a 
 barrier which the insurgents would be entirely un- 
 able to pass. Gomez, during the ten years' war 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 169 
 
 passed it seven times and, on one occasion, even 
 took his wife and his children along. Balmaseda 
 had a poor opinion of the Trocha, and said that he 
 would not have it even for a gift, but Campos and 
 especially Weyler, who largely extended it, greatly 
 relied on this obsolete strategic device, which has 
 been justly compared to a China wall in point of 
 utility. The Trocha was crossed several times by 
 the Cuban leaders. In spite of it Gomez invaded 
 Matanzas and Havana provinces; Maceo marched 
 into Pinar del Rio; then for a time both generals 
 disappeared, and Weyler published a bulletin de- 
 claring the Provinces of Havana and Pinar del Rio 
 free of insurgents. Immediately Maceo returned, 
 sacked and burned the port of Batabano, to the 
 south of Havana, and began a second invasion of 
 Pinar del Rio; within six weeks he had entered or 
 destroyed nearly every town, city and village in 
 the province. 
 
 When a commission was sent to Havana to 
 solicit from General Wevler some o-overmncnt aid 
 for the destitute people who were starving in the 
 
170 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 cities where he had driven the Reconcentrados, his 
 answer was: "Nothing, the people must bow their 
 heads." In an interview with a lady representing 
 an American newspaper, Mrs. Masterson, he was 
 asked whether the stories that had been published 
 of his cruelty could be denied, and he merely 
 shrugged his shoulders and said that "such things 
 were not important." 
 
 Despite the small importance which he gave 
 to the life of his fellow-beings, Weyler could accom- 
 plish nothing, and Spain finally decided to recall 
 him and to send a milder man in his place. It was 
 too late. General Blanco became Captain-General 
 and Weyler returned home declaring that the Span- 
 ish government had yielded in a cowardly manner 
 to the insolent demands of the United States. Later, 
 a scheme of Autonomy for Cuba was formed by 
 Spain, and it was sought to put it into practice. 
 Had such a reform been granted thirty, or even 
 twenty years ago, and had Spain faithfully observed 
 its provisions, the problem would most likely have 
 been satisfactorily solved. But the time for such a 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 171 
 
 thing had passed; the Cubans had come to distrust 
 Spain more than ever in consequence of her actions 
 after the peace of El Zanjon, and their leaders, among 
 whom there are of course some excellent scholars, 
 remembered the old saying, "Timeo Danaos et dona 
 ferentes," (1) and applied its philosophy to the scheme 
 of Autonomy as they had applied it to the bland- 
 ishments of Martinez Campos on his second visit 
 to the Island; and so the destruction, the ruin and 
 the death still went merrilv on on both sides. 
 
 C 1 ) This verse from Virgil's iEneid has been translated as follows : 
 "The Greeks I fear, and most when gifts they bring." 
 
172 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 General Blanco, 
 
 Probably the last of the Spanish 
 Captain-Generals in Cuba. 
 
 Admiral Segismundo Bermejo, 
 
 Spanish Ex-Minister of Marine. 
 
 Don Segismundo Moret y 
 Frendergast, 
 
 Spanish Ex-Minister of the Colonies. 
 
 Don Alberto Aguilera y 
 Vela sco, 
 
 Civil Governor of Madrid. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Feeling at Home- Autonomy— The Situation in 
 the Winter of 1897-98. 
 
 The representatives of the American people mani- 
 fested several times since the present revolution 
 broke out the universal feeling in the United States 
 in regard to the Cuban question by introducing 
 and discussing in Congress many resolutions pro- 
 claiming the sentiment of this nation that Cuba 
 had the right to shake off the infamous and de- 
 tested Spanish yoke. Thus, during the first session 
 of the Fifty-fourth Congress concurrent resolutions 
 were passed suggesting to the President the advis- 
 ability of recognizing the insurgents as belligerent 
 forces and also advising him to negotiate with 
 Spain towards securing the independence of the 
 Island. The Foreign Relations Committee of the 
 Senate adopted resolutions acknowledging inde- 
 pendence, and they were reported by Senator Cam- 
 eron on the 21st of December, 1896. Later, the 
 Senate passed by a vote of 41 to 14 a joint resolu- 
 
 (173) 
 
174 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 tion, declaring that war existed in Cuba, and that 
 the government should accord the rights of bellig- 
 erents to the insurgents, but the twobranches of Con- 
 gress did not come together as to the terms in 
 which such a resolution should be passed. Both 
 Mr. Cleveland and Mr. McKinley, however, fol- 
 lowed in this regard the precedent left by the 
 Administration of President Grant during the 
 ten years' war, and constantly refused' to 
 acknowledge either the belligerency of the insur- 
 gents or the independence of the State which the 
 latter claimed to have organized, for the same 
 reasons that directed the policy of the United States 
 during that war. The revolutionists had, it is true, 
 an appearance of civil government, witn a House 
 of Representatives and an Administration, Salvador 
 Cisneros being President and Bartolome Maso, 
 Vice-President, the latter afterwards succeeding- 
 Cisneros in the Presidency, and the capital was 
 said to be at Cubitas, but it was evident that the so- 
 called government had no power to enforce its 
 decisions, and was rather the expression of a desire 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 175 
 
 for such a government than a government in reality. 
 
 With the loyalty which has always characterized 
 the action of the United States in the Cuban ques- 
 tion the President issued, in June, 1896, a procla- 
 mation of neutrality, warning the citizens of this 
 country that they should not aid the insurgents; 
 and, for this, General Weyler soon after returned 
 thanks by assuming to abrogate the contracts of 
 Cubans with Americans and by claiming the right 
 to imprison American citizens, and even put them 
 to death. 
 
 Notwithstanding the President's proclamation, 
 the Administration found it extremely difficult, as 
 it had on previous occasions to prevent the organi- 
 zation of filibustering expeditions, and although it 
 exerted its powers to their full extent in that direc- 
 tion many such expeditions were, nevertheless, or- 
 ganized in this country; for as Mr. Bayard had 
 written in 1885 to Minister Valera, "this govern- 
 ment does not and cannot undertake, as I have 
 shown, to control the workings of opinion; sym- 
 pathy and affiliation of sentiments and the expres- 
 
176 • FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 sion thereof are not punishable in this country by 
 law," and it was that affiliation of sentiments which 
 found an expression in the getting up of expedi- 
 tions in aid of the revolutionists, and in dealing 
 leniently with the violators of the law whenever they 
 were caught. Many complications followed on this 
 account, and in this connection may be mentioned 
 the case of the bark "Competitor," which came 
 near being a repetition of the "Virginius" affair. 
 
 At last Spain formulated a plan of Autonomy 
 for the Island, and sought to put it in operation; 
 but it was unacceptable to the Insular Cubans for 
 the reasons which have been told in the preceding 
 chapter; the insurgents considered the offer as a 
 mere device of Spain to induce them to lay down 
 their arms. Nevertheless President McKinley en- 
 deavored to persuade the Cubans to give the plan 
 a trial, and he insisted in his message of December, 
 1897, that the new liberal government of Spain 
 should have an opportunity of trying the effect, in 
 the island, of a new and more humane policy, which 
 Captain-General Blanco was supposed to represent; 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 177 
 
178 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 but the President emphatically asserted the right 
 of this country to intervene in case the insurrection 
 should be prolonged, notwithstanding the reforms 
 promised by the Spaniards. 
 
 And while the President of the United States 
 was making these most generous efforts to maintain 
 the peace, and restrain the impatience of his people, 
 giving in these circumstances a proof of such states- 
 manship as must entitle him to the respect and 
 approval of even his political enemies, the orgy of 
 Death was going on in the fair Island at our doors. 
 
 The Cuban mothers were raising their hands in 
 prayer to God, and fervently hoping in the United 
 States for the execution of His will. (1) Spain was 
 talking of her honor and of her dignity. Part of 
 Europe was looking on, unconscious; another part 
 was softly murmuring its sympathy, but was keep- 
 ing its hands in its pockets; another still, was 
 praising the chivalry of Spain, remembering her old 
 traditions, asserting her rights. Here and there, 
 in the dark, Spanish bonds were lurking. 
 
 ( x ) "Men and women existed in dull unceasing- dread, praying that 
 Mr. Cleveland, who could do anything, would interfere to help them." 
 — Grover Flint— "Marching with Gomez," page 100. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 179 
 
 In this country, the case was different. Here the 
 people — the mass of the American people — cared 
 nothing for the more or less disinterested talk of 
 sensational newspapers, cared still less for the in- 
 terests of Wall street speculators, for those of the 
 Sugar Trust, or for those of the holders of either 
 Spanish or Cuban bonds. Their one, single, ob- 
 stinate idea was that a carousal of blood was going 
 on within one hundred miles of their land of liberty; 
 that a brave people preferred their own extermina- 
 tion to giving up the same inalienable rights which 
 have created this nation, and that no hope, no trust 
 was to be placed in Spain for sincerity and truthful- 
 ness. The danger to peace was great; a very small 
 spark might have given rise to a great conflagra- 
 tion; but the spark did not come. 
 
 There came, instead, a thunderbolt. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Maine — The Outcome of a Commercial Inclination 
 — Why Arbitration was not Resorted To — A Differ- 
 ent Interpretation of Words — How Revolutions 
 Should be Opposed — Freedom at Last — Why We Are 
 At War With Spain — The Genius of America — The 
 Future Destinies of Cuba. 
 
 The destruction of the ship which, as the "Illus- 
 tration Espaiiola" rather ironically said, "was sent 
 to us in an evil hour by the courtesy of the North 
 American people," broke the last vestige of patience 
 which Uncle Sam had left. 
 
 In the same spirit of fairness and impartiality which 
 causes us to say that we must give his dues even to 
 the Prince of Darkness we are not prepared to assert 
 at the present time that the terrible event of the 15th 
 of February, 1898 — happened with the connivance 
 of the Spanish officials, for before such an assertion 
 is made undoubted proofs thereof should be se- 
 cured, which, so far, has not been done; perhaps it 
 never will, so that the real cause of the explosion of 
 the "Maine" is likely to remain a mystery forever. 
 
 (180) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 
 
 181 
 
 H 
 
 a 
 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 Ms 
 
 a 
 
 s 
 
 s 
 
 M 
 
 00 
 
 oo 
 
182 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 But whether it happened through the guilt of 
 Spain, or was the action of one or more fanatics 
 acting independently and without the knowledge of 
 the Spanish authorities, the fact remains that Spain 
 has been negligent or powerless in not preventing 
 the outrage. If she has been negligent she deserves 
 punishment, if powerless, then authority in Cuba 
 should be placed in more competent hands. Spain 
 has been clamorously protesting and expressing 
 her indignation at the suspicions which were di- 
 rected against her, and these protests, which have, 
 it must be said, all the appearance of being sincere, 
 are entitled to consideration; but at the same time 
 it must be remembered that history shows us that 
 Spain is naturally cruel and given to not observing 
 her compacts, and for that reason those of us who 
 listen to her shrieks with a little incredulity may 
 properly be excused for so doing. As to the sup- 
 position that the explosion may have been alto- 
 gether accidental, it is entirely excluded by the 
 report of our Board of Inquiry, which was com- 
 posed of competent men who investigated the sub- 
 ject thoroughly. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 183 
 
 However it may be, it is certain that the exasper- 
 ation provoked in the American people by that 
 horrible loss and the cruel death of about two hun- 
 dred and sixty-six brave men precipitated matters 
 and determined an intervention justified in every 
 way by the circumstances; at any rate, the "New 
 York Herald" has lately made this interesting cal- 
 culation, which the Spaniards will not fail to at- 
 tribute to the commercial spirit of this nation: 
 
 Total cost of Spanish men-of-war de- 
 stroyed at Manila, May 1, 1898... $8,400,000 
 
 Total cost of the Maine 4,689,000 
 
 Balance in our favor, $3,711,000 
 
 And it is most likely that when the final settlement 
 is made, at the end of the war, the ledger will show 
 a still handsomer balance to our advantage. 
 
 It has been said that we should have allowed 
 the question of the "Maine" to be settled by ar- 
 bitration. Perhaps. Mr. Fish in a cablegram to 
 Minister Sickles at the time of the "Virginius" 
 affair stated that when the subject is one of national 
 
184 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 honor the question is not one for arbitration; the 
 same view lately prevented the ratification by the 
 U. S. Senate of an Arbitration Treaty between this 
 country and Great Britain. It is a mistaken view: 
 arbitration is the proper way to settle any question, 
 no matter of what importance or whatever may be 
 the subject involved; indeed, the graver the ques- 
 tion, the greater the call for arbitration, and this 
 will, let us hope, come to be acknowledged at no very 
 distant time by all civilized nations. We do not, in 
 this country, consider duels as a means of settling 
 quarrels involving a matter of honor among in- 
 dividuals; we think, in fact, that we have gone a 
 step further in civilization than most other nations 
 because we do not so recognize it. Why, then, 
 should we claim that it is the only way of settling 
 such questions among people? But we have be- 
 hind us the history of four centuries which says 
 that the course which it would have been proper to 
 follow had our quarrel been with England, France, 
 Germany or any other nation, was extremely diffi- 
 cult, not to say impossible, in the case of Spain. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 185 
 
 Spain promised the Indians that she would stop 
 slaughtering them, but she continued to butcher 
 them, and while she was doing so, she was talking 
 of her honor and dignity. (1) 
 
 Spain delayed answering and evaded our just and 
 reasonable claims in the case of the "Black War- 
 rior," and a hundred others of the same kind during 
 that period, till she obtained her object of not giv- 
 ing the United States the satisfaction she owed 
 
 them. 
 
 Spain promised and assured us that General 
 Duke's order would be revoked, and that the par- 
 ticipants in filibustering expeditions would not be 
 treated as pirates; and still fifty-three of the crew 
 of the "Virginius" were wickedly murdered, and 
 one hundred more would have been killed had it 
 not been for the timely interference of English and 
 American cannons. 
 
 Spain undertook the obligation of giving us a 
 reparation by saluting our flag, and of otherwise 
 giving us some satisfaction for the "Virginius" out- 
 
 (i) See note 10, page 207. 
 
186 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 rage, but she succeeded in beating us out of every- 
 thing except the payment of a paltry sum of money, 
 and she laughed in her sleeve while she still talked 
 of her honor and dignity. 
 
 Spain promised the. Cubans, in 1878, ample re- 
 forms and thus obtained that they should give 
 up their fight against her. She gave them the re- 
 forms, but they had a string attached to them. 
 Spain, while she stood on her honor and dignity, 
 pulled that string, and, presto! the reforms dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 What guarantee would we have had, that Spain, 
 had we submitted the question of the "Maine" to a 
 Tribunal of Arbitration, would have faithfully 
 abided by the decision of that Tribunal and not 
 tried to evade it in some way? What assurance 
 could Spain give us that she was more sincere in 
 offering a scheme of Autonomy to Cuba than she 
 had been twenty years ago at El Zanjon? 
 
 Honor and Dignity! Spain has had for centuries 
 her mouth full of those words, and she has been 
 acting all along with regard to Cuba and the United 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 187 
 
 States, savagely and unfaithfully; there is such a 
 vast distance between the value which is placed on 
 them by the American people and the manner 
 in which they have been understood by the various 
 governments of Spain that it were a hopeless task 
 to endeavor to fill it. 
 
 And here, I wish to introduce to the reader a 
 good, old Italian proverb: "Le cose che vanno per 
 le lunghe diventano serpi" — "Things that are de- 
 layed and long drawn out end by becoming snakes." 
 No good can come of them. Whenever questions 
 have arisen between Spain and the. United States 
 she has delayed, and postponed, and evaded, until 
 the results, as far as the United States are con- 
 cerned, have invariably been — "snakes." 
 
 But we could not allow the question of the 
 "Maine" to assume that aspect; no other nation 
 would have done it, and none could reasonably 
 have expected the United States to do it; neither 
 could we allow the devastation and wholesale mur- 
 der in Cuba to go on indefinitely, and these are the 
 reasons for which we are at present at war with 
 
188 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 Spain, since she refused to acknowledge her errors 
 and to see what all the rest of the entire world has 
 clearly perceived, that in the nineteenth century 
 there is no place in this hemisphere for the remnant 
 of a system which would have disgraced the middle 
 ages. 
 
 Sixty or seventy years ago, an Italian statesman, 
 Cesare Alfieri, said that "revolutions must be op- 
 posed by reform — ample reform." t 1 ) The wisdom 
 of that principle has not been recognized by Spain; 
 she has persistently refused to grant any reform 
 until after having been dragged to do it by force, 
 thinking that it was below her dignity to grant it 
 of her own free will; then her promises, grudgingly 
 given, have been unfaithfully kept, and besides, even 
 supposing that her intentions were sincere, the new 
 colonial scheme came too late to be of any avail. 
 It is to this mistaken sense of honor and dignity, 
 to this blind obstinacy, that Spain largely owes her 
 present plight. 
 
 On the 18th of April, 1898, the memorable day on 
 
 C 1 ) From late indications it would seem that this principle might 
 be profitably applied in the country where it originated. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 189 
 
 which the Congiess of the United States proclaimed 
 "that the Cuban people, are, and of right ought to 
 be, free and independent," the death-knell of Span- 
 ish domination in America was tolled. Will 
 Cuba attain true liberty and establish sound and 
 lasting republican institutions, such as we possess, 
 and which may give her freedom, happiness and 
 prosperity if she decides to form a separate nation, 
 with a separate government of her own after the 
 last Spanish soldier has been driven from the 
 Island? 
 
 Our own American nation is a composite body, 
 formed chiefly by the very best elements of old Eu- 
 rope. On the positive, practical and daring spirit of 
 the Anglo-Saxon have been grafted the perseve] 
 ance of the Teuton and of the Scandinavian, the fier 
 inclination of the Celt, and, more recently, 
 idealistic and artistic tendencies of the Italian; from 
 the blending of these various elements, which bal- 
 ance and complete each other, a type has been 
 formed, and is still in course of formation, whi h 
 will continue to improve with time, after some 
 
193 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 asperities have been rounded, and after it becomes 
 still more homogeneous. 
 
 Not so with the Cubans; they are of one and the 
 same European blood, it is that of their oppressors, 
 and the large infusion of the blood of an ignorant 
 and inferior race like the negro has certainly not 
 done anything toward improvement. By the nat- 
 ural law of heredity, the Cuban inherits the good 
 qualities of the Spaniard — courage and patriotism — 
 but he must also reflect his imperfections; if the 
 truth is to be told, it must be acknowledged that 
 cruelty has not existed only on the Spanish side 
 during the horrible contest. 
 
 License and anarchy, not true liberty, is the 
 state of things which prevails in most of the smaller 
 countries of Central and South America, which can 
 hardly be called Republics, but rather caricatures 
 of a Republic, rent as they continually are by revo- 
 lutions, torn by factions and arbitrarily ruled by 
 whoever may have the force of obtaining the power, 
 while the will of the majority peacefully expressed 
 and implicitly obeyed, on which are based such 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 191 
 
 • 
 
 free institutions as the ones which we enjoy, is 
 totally disregarded. Such is the condition of affairs 
 which would in all certainty prevail in Cuba, should 
 she conclude to establish a separate government for 
 herself. The large proportion of the negroes in the 
 population of the Island should also be considered. 
 The fear was once expressed that by becoming Afri- 
 canized, Cuba would be a source of danger to the 
 United States; the causes which gave rise to that fear 
 do not exist any more, still the ends of humanity and 
 the cause of civilization would not be served by the 
 creation of a second Hayti, and we may for the wel- 
 fare of the Island itself properly feel some apprehen- 
 sion in that respect; left to herself it would probably 
 continue to be an eye-sore to the civilized world in 
 general, and to the United States in particular. 
 
 The lone star of Cuba has been Gravitating for a 
 long time towards the pleiades on our national em- 
 blem; it should find its place on it by the ^ide of 
 what was once the lone star of Texas, and it should 
 reach it by a more direct route. 
 
 We cannot be accused of having gone into this 
 
192 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 war for want of more territory. The fair Hawaiian 
 Islands have been begging us for years to take them 
 into our family, and we have not made up our mind 
 yet whether we will accept them or not. Slavery 
 died long ago; the conditions which it created have 
 ceased to exist; most of us are not particularly 
 anxious for Cuban sugar; some interests in this 
 country might obtain an advantage through the an- 
 nexation of the Island, but others would just as 
 surely be injured. In a general way the only advan- 
 tage which we may find either in the independence 
 or annexation of Cuba is the restoration of our 
 legitimate commerce with it which has been utterly 
 ruined by the long and ferocious conflict; a very im- 
 portant objection has been raised in this country to 
 the annexation on the ground that an undesirable 
 element would be introduced in the population of 
 the United States. This, however, in my opinion, 
 although it may have been true long ago, should 
 not be feared at the present time, because the food 
 which would kill a child may properly be assim- 
 ilated by the body of a man, and because it has 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 193 
 
 been sufficiently demonstrated that white and Afri- 
 can blood will not mix to any extent in this 
 country. 
 
 Thus, whatever there may be of unworthiness in 
 American politics it did not inspire this war, in spite 
 of the assertions of a few ignorant or prejudiced 
 foreign newspapers. It was inspired by the same 
 genius which prompted the thirteen colonies to de- 
 clare themselves free from the mother country, the 
 genius which, as Thomas Jefferson had prophesied 
 nearly one hundred years ago, built "such an em- 
 pire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the 
 creation;" the genius which abolished slavery; it 
 is the same genius which preserved the peace in 
 1854 which has broken it in 1898, the genius of that 
 America which Castelar in his prime called ''the 
 America of freedom, of democracy and of right." 
 
 To would-bewitticisms,to idiotic slander and base 
 insinuations the American people can answer by 
 pointing with pride to these words which were writ- 
 ten in 1853 by the Secretary of State of the United 
 States, Mr. Marcv, to the American Minister at 
 
194 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 X 
 
 
 ft 
 
 P 
 
 © 
 
 a 
 
 eS 
 - 
 02 
 
 — 
 
 d 
 
 S3 
 
 O 
 > 
 
 •H 
 P3 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 195 
 
 Paris, Mr. Buchanan; it forms part of the corre- 
 spondence between the Administration of this 
 country at that time and one of its agents; it is not 
 hypocrisy, for, when written, the lines were not in- 
 tended for the sight of the public: 
 
 "It is true that we have in the last half-century 
 greatly enlarged our territory, and so have Great 
 Britain and France enlarged theirs, but we have 
 done it in a manner that may proudly challenge the 
 most rigid scrutiny of mankind. In our territorial 
 expansion, international law has been observed, the 
 rights of others rigorously respected; nothing in 
 short has been done to justify the slightest suspi- 
 cion of rapacity. The Government of the United 
 States is not unwilling to submit its whole public 
 conduct in this, or indeed in all other respects, to 
 the most scrupulous examination." 
 
 These nob'e words, true in 1853, are still true in 
 1898, and the unanimity with which the represen- 
 tatives of this nation have, irrespective of the differ- 
 ent interests of the various regions whence they had 
 been sent to Congress, voted, for the measure which 
 
196 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 determined the present hostilities, should alone be 
 sufficient to convince the most obdurate doubter 
 that the motives of the American nation are honor- 
 able and honest. 
 
 We are not bent on a war of conquest; we dis- 
 claim all intention of selfish interest; we do not 
 need and are not seeking any expansion of territory. 
 We will give the Cubans entire freedom in the 
 choice of their future destinies; but if they are wise, 
 after gaining their liberty they will decide to pre- 
 serve it by joining our Union. And if they are prac- 
 tically unanimous in their desire of doing so, we 
 shall not deny them that privilege. 
 
 Then, and then only, will the "Queen of the 
 Antilles" know again the peace and the rest which 
 she has not known since her simple and primitive 
 inhabitants first greeted the strangers who came to 
 her in their search for gold. 
 
NOTES. 
 1 
 
 Seventy-seven different portraits of Columbus were 
 gathered at the Columbian Historical Exposition, which 
 was held in Madrid in 1892-93, and none of them bore any- 
 material resemblance to the others. Mr. Wm. E. Curtis, 
 assistant to the Commissioner-General for the United 
 States at that Exposition, who was in charge of the his- 
 torical section, said in his report that "there is no evi- 
 dence that the features of Columbus have ever been 
 painted or engraved by anyone during his life," and that 
 "the date of the earliest picture that pretended to repre- 
 sent him was six years later than his death. His portrait 
 has been painted, like that of the Madonna and the 
 Saints, by many famous artists each dependent upon the 
 verbal description given of the man by contemporaneous 
 writers and each conveying to the canvas his own con- 
 ception of what the great seaman's face must have been; 
 but it may not be said that any of the portraits are gen- 
 uine and it is believed that all of them are more or less 
 fanciful." * * * 
 
 "The only portrait which is positively known to have 
 
 been drawn during the life of the discoverer was a cari- 
 
 (197) 
 
198 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 cature, the sketch of La Cosa, the pilot, and is known as 
 
 "The La Cosa Vignette." Juan de la Cosa was the pilot 
 
 of Columbus, and made the first chart of the West Indies. 
 
 It was drawn on an oxhide and is inscribed "Juan de la 
 
 Cosa la fijo en el Puerto de Sta. Maria, en el ano de 
 
 1500" (made it in the Port of Santa Maria in the year 1500). 
 
 At the top, in the center, is a rude vignette drawn with 
 
 an ordinary pen and an awkward hand, representing St. 
 
 Christopher bearing the Christ child across a stream, and 
 
 meant to be symbolic of Columbus carrying Christianity 
 
 to the new world. It was one of the legends of the day 
 
 that La Cosa intended to give St. Christopher the features 
 
 of Columbus. Baron von Humboldt, who had heard of 
 
 the chart, found it in Paris in 1832, in the library of Herr 
 
 Valcknaer, from whom it was purchased by the Spanish 
 
 government, and it now hangs in the Naval Museum at 
 
 Madrid." 
 
 {Executive Documents of the House of Representatives 
 ■ 
 for the Third Session of the Fifth-third Congress, 1894-95, 
 
 Vol. 31st.) 
 
 "The upholders of the movement to procure the canon- 
 ization of Columbus, like De Lorgues, have claimed that 
 La Cosa represented the features of Columbus in the face 
 of St. Christopher." (Justin Winsor, History of Amer- 
 ica, Vol. 2d, page 71.) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 199 
 
 2 
 
 Individually, in private life and in social intercourse, the 
 Spaniards are charming people, or at least many or most 
 of them are, and no prejudice should be entertained against 
 them in that regard, for there are among them many 
 kind, distinguished and highly cultured men. I wish to 
 remember particularly here in this respect Don Jose 
 Blanco and Don Juliano Principe, the former Consul, the 
 latter Vice Consul for Spain at Philadelphia, in 1878; both 
 are long since dead, and were among the most accom- 
 plished gentlemen whom it has ever been my fortune to 
 meet. But the spirit of the Nation is cruel and way 
 behind the times. 
 
 3 
 
 Bartholomew de Las Casas was born at Seville in 1474 
 and went to the Indies with Columbus in 1498, returning 
 to Cadiz in 1500. He re-embarked with him in 1502. and 
 was ordained Priest by the Bishop of Hispaniola in 15 10, 
 being the first ecclesiastic ordained in the so-called Indies 
 to say there his virgin mass. In his writings he called 
 himself the "Clerigo" (the clergyman) and soon won the 
 title of Universal Protector of the Indians. He returne 1 to 
 Spain in 1515, but went back to the new world in the 
 following year; he also made a number of other trips 
 back and forth, finally returning to Spain in 1547. 
 
200 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 His principal work bears, in English, the following 
 title: "A Relation of the first Voyage and Discoveries 
 made by the Spaniards in America — With an account of 
 the Unparalleled Cruelties on the Indians in the Destruc- 
 tion of above Forty Millions of people — together with the 
 Propositions offered to the King of Spain to prevent the 
 further Ruin of the West Indies, By Don Bartholomew 
 de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, who was an eye-witness 
 of their cruelties." It was finished at Valencia in 1542, 
 near the beginning of the reign of Philip II. to whom it 
 was dedicated. In the thirty "Propositions" which he 
 laid before the King he claimed that the Kings of Spain 
 held the right of sovereignty in the Indies from the Pope, 
 who "derived from Christ authority and power extending 
 over all men, believers or infidels, in matters pertaining 
 to salvation and eternal life," and who in order to propo- 
 gate the gospel must avail himself of the help of Christian 
 princes. "The means for establishing the Faith in the 
 Indies," said Las Casas in the 22d Proposition, "should 
 be the same as those by which Christ introduced his re- 
 ligion into the world, mild, peaceable and charitable," 
 and he held that if the kings of Spain did not use the 
 authority thus received from the Pope over the Indies for 
 the purpose and in the manner which he stated, then 
 they had no right to exercise such authority. In the 28th 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 201 
 
 Proposition he said that "The Devil could not have done 
 more mischief than the Spaniards have done in spoiling 
 the countries with their rapacity and tyranny; subjecting 
 the natives to cruel tasks, treating them like beasts, and 
 persecuting those especially who apply to the monks for 
 instructions." 
 
 Las Casas described the Indians of Cuba as lambs who 
 had encountered tigers, wolves and lions. Occasionally, 
 he tells us, a maddened Indian would kill a Spaniard, and 
 then his death would be followed by the massacre of a 
 score or a hundred natives. The more generous the pres- 
 ents in treasures which were made by some timid Cacique 
 to his despoilers, the more brutally was he dealt with in 
 hope of extorting what he was suspected of having con- 
 cealed. Las Casas stakes his veracity on this assertion: 
 "I saw with my own eyes above six thousand children die 
 in three or four months." 
 
 He had, of course, a large number of enemies, who 
 were interested in preventing any interference in the con- 
 duct of affairs in the new world, and one of their prin- 
 cipal arguments was that his statements were greatly 
 exaggerated; but it is well established that although Las 
 Casas may possibly have exaggerated somewhat the num- 
 ber of the victims, for he made it amount in some of his 
 writings to even fifty millions, his tale was nevertheless 
 
202 FOUR. CENTURIES OF 
 
 entirely correct as to the cruelty of the conquerors. In 
 one of his works he quoted a protest from the Bishop of 
 Santa Martha, written in 1541, to the King of Spain, in 
 which the Bishop said: "The Spaniards live there like dev- 
 ils, rather than Christians, violating all the laws of God and 
 man." Herrera, who in his Historia General, published in 
 Madrid in 1601, was the first of the historians of the new 
 world to use documentary proofs to any extent, says that 
 Las Casas was worthy of all confidence and in no par- 
 ticulars has failed to tell the truth. Even Torquemada, of 
 infamous inquisitorial name, sustained the truth of his 
 assertions. 
 
 His principal enemies were Oviedo, who had held high 
 offices in the new world, and Juan Ginez de Sepulveda, a 
 theologian and historian. The latter made two points or 
 "Conclusions" against the "Clerigo," first, that the Span- 
 iards had a right to subjugate and require the submission 
 of the Indians because of their own superior wisdom and 
 prudence, and second, that if the Indians should refuse to 
 submit they might justly be constrained by force of arms. 
 
 Las Casas wrote a large number of memorials or argu- 
 mentative treaties in refutation of the doctrines of his 
 opponents. 
 
 •His biographer, Llorente, said that he was blameless, 
 and that there was no stain upon his great virtues. He 
 died in Madrid in July, 1569. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 203 
 
 * 
 
 (This notice on Las Casas is condensed from the exten- 
 sive account of his life and works in the 2d vol. of Justin 
 Winsor's History of America.) 
 
 4 
 
 On the 4th of December, i860, President Buchanan sent 
 a message to Congress in which he said that he had 
 arrived at the conclusion that Congress had no power to 
 coerce into submission "a state which is attempting to 
 withdraw, or has actually withdrawn from the Con- 
 federacy." 
 
 5 
 
 Mr. Soule in a letter from Madrid to Secretary Marcy, 
 dated June 24, 1854, referring to the proclamation of Presi- 
 dent Pierce against the filibusters, said: "It is con- 
 sidered by many as a disingeneous mode of masking de- 
 signs which they suppose it were a scandal to lay bare to 
 the gaze of the world," and he called that impression 
 "strange and discrepant." 
 
 6 
 
 "Otho (the King of Greece in 1861) was a man whom 
 the Greek people had no further use for. He had prom- 
 ised Victor Emanuel to organize a National Guard in 
 Greece and he had failed to keep his word. I showed the 
 King of Italy that the inevitable fall of Otho was to hap- 
 
204 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 pen soon. 'Yes,' he said, 'all kings who do not carry out 
 the will of their people must fall; and that one also,' he 
 added striking with an energetical gesture the table with 
 his fist, 'that one also will shortly fall' 
 
 "Will a day ever come when it will be necessary to re- 
 mind, I will not say Victor Emanuel, but some one of his 
 successors, of these beautiful words?" 
 
 (Marco Antonio Canini, "Vingt ans d'Exil," Paris, 
 1869.) 
 
 Amadeus was a son of Victor Emanuel, and a brother of 
 Humbert, the present King of Italy. 
 
 Heinrich Heine said of himself: 
 
 "I am a German poet, 
 
 Of goodly German fame;" 
 
 but he lived most of his life in France, and his fame is 
 world-wide. 
 
 The maxim quoted here is contained in a passage of his 
 writings which, not to speak of its grim humor, originality 
 and the sudden and unexpected transition from a calm 
 and pastoral style to one of intense force combine to 
 render one of the most remarkable things ever written in 
 any language. Here it is such as I find it translated by 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 205 
 
 Richard Burton, in the "Library of the World's Best 
 Literature:" — 
 
 "I have the most peaceful disposition. My desires are 
 a modest cottage with thatched roof, but a good bed, good 
 fare, fresh milk and butter, flowers by my window, and a 
 few pine trees before the door, and if the Lord wished to 
 fill my cup of happiness, he would grant me the pleasure 
 of seeing some six or seven of my enemies hanged on 
 those trees. With a heart moved to pity, I would before 
 their death forgive the injury they had done me during 
 their lives. Yes, we ought to forgive our enemies — but 
 not until they are hanged." 
 
 It has been said of Heine that "he was mortified by 
 physical infirmity and moral disappointment into a harsh 
 and sometimes cruel satirist." 
 
 "In the midst of the overbearing lordship of Spain, 
 which was a shame to our country, and which from the 
 treaty of Chateau-Cambrai lasted for almost a century and 
 a half, Venice knew how to keep herself independent. To 
 the silly Spanish bragging the aristocracy still was finding 
 the strength of answering with a severe pride, and from 
 the interdict of Paul V. to the war for the succession of 
 Mantua the government of Saint Mark still had the cour- 
 
206 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 age of showing itself, alone in Italy, constantly and openly 
 
 anti-Spanish." 
 
 (Pompeo Molmenti, History of Venice in private life, 
 
 page 327.) 
 
 8 
 
 Since this has been written I find in Le Figaro of 
 April 23d an excellent article in which the writer, who 
 signs himself simply "An American," makes an appeal for 
 a proper understanding of the situation, and states our 
 position with great clearness and correction. He ends 
 by saying that what France has done for the United 
 States at the time of the Revolution — when she generously 
 gave her blood and her gold — is exactly what we are 
 doing now for the Cubans. The editor prefaces the ar- 
 ticle with a statement in which he says that the writer is 
 one of the most eminent American statesmen, but that 
 Spain has "positive right" on her side and that the sym- 
 pathies of the paper will remain for her. 
 
 The eminent American statesman will not convince the 
 "Figaro," for the reason that "il n'y a pas de pire sourd 
 que celui qui ne veut pas entendre" (there is no greater 
 deafness than that of the man who does not wish to hear). 
 
 9 
 
 The title of "the butcher" was also applied fifty years 
 ago to the Austrian Marshal, Haynau, famous for the 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 207 
 
 cruelties which he committed in Hungary. During a visit 
 
 which he paid in September, 1850, to the great brewery 
 
 of Barclay & Perkins, in Southwark, London, he was 
 
 assaulted by several hundreds of the working men in that 
 
 establishment. The indignant Britons threw at him 
 
 trusses of straw, grain and missiles of every kind that 
 
 came to hand, shouting "Down with the Austrian 
 
 butcher!" 
 
 10 
 
 Justin Winsor, in his History of America, referring to 
 the efforts made by Las Casas in his various trips to Spain 
 in order to secure the passage of laws favorable to the 
 Indians, says "Perhaps the same vessel or fleet which car- 
 ried him to the Islands with orders intended to advance 
 his influence would bear fellow-passengers with documents 
 or means to thwart all his reinforced mission." 
 
 A clearer case of duplicity was never shown. 
 
 11 
 
 Maria Cristina, Archduchess of Austria, was born on 
 
 the 21st of July, 1858. She married King Alfonso XII. 
 of Spain on the 29th of November, 1879. King Alfonso 
 died November 25th, 1885, and six months after his death 
 Maria Cristina gave birth to a son who was named 
 Alfonso, Leon, Ferdinand, Maria, James. Isidor, etc. 
 On the day of his birth the little fellow was proclaimed 
 King under the Regency of his mother. 
 
208 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 12 
 
 Dr. F. F. Falco arrived in New York May 22, 1898. 
 He is on his way to Cuba as a Delegate of the "Central 
 Italian Committee for the liberation of Cuba," and he 
 bears to President Masso the Resolutions of the Italians 
 who are friendly to the Cuban cause. 
 
 The Resolutions are signed by several members of the 
 Italian Chamber of Deputies, and by other Italian nota- 
 bilities, among them Mrs. Adele Albani in behalf of a 
 committee of ladies. The text of the document is as 
 follows: 
 
 "Whereas the Cuban Committee of Rome is convinced 
 that the revolution of Cuba has commended itself to the 
 civilized world by the heroism of the insurgents against 
 the long continued cruelty of their oppressors, and 
 
 "Whereas that revolution deserves the praise and ap- 
 proval of Rome, expressed through a decree of the 
 People, therefor be it 
 
 "Resolved, that Cuba after having proclaimed her in- 
 dependence should be allowed to determine on the polit- 
 ical form of her new existence by a popular vote, and be it 
 further 
 
 "Resolved, that Dr. Francesco Frederic Falco, a member 
 of this Committee, be directed to bear to the Cuban 
 government a copy of these Resolutions." 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 209 
 
 Dr. Falco is also the bearer of similar resolutions which 
 have been adopted by political associations in every part 
 of Italy. They express sentiments of sympathy for the 
 Cubans and for all nations and governments which may 
 help them, and they appeal to all men to faithfully assist 
 those who are fighting for their liberty, and "to be on 
 their guard against the schemes of a treasonous press, 
 which in helping Spain at the present time is forgetful of 
 its mission of civilization." Dr. Falco says that the young 
 men of Italy would be glad to have an opportunity of 
 shedding, their blood for the liberation of Cuba. 
 
 When the murder of Maceo occurred, the Italian Par- 
 liament was the only one of the Parliaments of Europe 
 in which a protest was made against it. 
 
 (From the newspaper "II Progresso Italo-Americano," 
 New York, May 25th, 1898.) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Latest Official Statistics of the Spanish. Colonies. 
 
 (From the Statesman's Year Book for 1897.) 
 
 CUBA. 
 
 Cuba is divided into six provinces, each with a capital 
 of the same name. The Governor-General is assisted by 
 a Council of Administration, nominated by royal decree, 
 and the Island is represented in the Spanish Parliament by 
 16 senators and 30 deputies. The pretended Autonomist 
 system, recently introduced, modifies somewhat the con- 
 stitutional intercourse between the Island and the 
 mother-country. Ten per cent, of the area is cul- 
 tivated, 7 per cent, is unreclaimed, and 4 per cent, is 
 under forests. There are large tracts of country still un- 
 explored. The population of the Island in 1894 was given 
 as 1,631,696, of which 65 per cent, was white, the remainder 
 being negro. A law passed in 1886 abolished slavery ab- 
 solutely. The capital, Havana, has (December, 1887) 
 198,271 inhabitants, and the other most important towns 
 are Santiago de Cuba, 71,307; Matanzas (1892), 27,000; 
 Cienfuegos (1892), 27,430; Puerto Principe, 46,641; Hol- 
 
 guin, 34,767; Sancti Spiritu, 32,608; Cardenas (1892) 23,- 
 
 (210) 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 211 
 
 680. Education was made obligatory in 1880. There are 
 843 public schools in the Island, and Havana has a univer- 
 sity. 
 
 The estimated revenue for 1893-94, was 24,440,759 pesos, 
 of which 11,375,000 was from customs; expenditure, 25,- 
 984,239 pesos, of which 12,574,485 pesos was for the debt, 
 5,904,084 pesos for the Ministry of War, and 4,015,034 
 pesos for the Ministry of the Interior. The debt, which is 
 rapidly increasing, is put at about 200,000,000 pesos. (The 
 value of the gold "peso" is 93 cents American money.) 
 
 The number of landed estates on the island in 1892 was 
 estimated at 90,960 of the value of 220,000,000 pesos, and 
 rental of 17,000,000 pesos. The live stock consisted of 
 584,725 horses and mules, 2,485,766 cattle, 78,494 sheep, and 
 570,194 pigs. The chief .produce is sugar and tobacco. 
 The quantity of sugar produced in the year 1892-93. was 
 815,894 tons; in 1893-94, i>054,2i4 tons; 1894-95, 1,004.264 
 tons. Of 832,431 tons of sugar exported in 1895, 769,962 
 tons went to the United States. The insurrection and 
 incendiarism in the island ruined the prospects of sugar 
 cultivation since 1896. The export of tobacco in 1892 was 
 241,291 bales; 1893, 227,865 bales. The number of Havana 
 cigars exported in 1892 was 154,931.133; in 1893, 147.365,- 
 000; in 1894, 134,210,000; in 1895, 156,513,000. Cigarettes 
 exported in 1895, /»8,i63,846 packets. Nearly all the tobacco 
 
212 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 and nearly half of the cigars go to the United States. 
 Mahogany and other timbers are exported, as are also 
 honey, wax, and fruits. The total exports from Cuba in 
 1892 amounted to 89,652,514 pesos, of which 84,964,685 
 pesos was for vegetable, 871,625 pesos for animal, and 
 3,485,924. pesos for mineral produce. The import value 
 was put at 56,265,315 pesos, of which 18,553,307 pesos was 
 from Spain, 16,245, 880 pesos from the United States, and 
 13.051,384 from Great Britain. The chief imports are rice, 
 jerked beef, and flour. The Spanish official returns state 
 the value of the imports from Cuba into Spain for 1894 
 to be 37,643,110 Spanish pesetas, and the exports from 
 Spain to Cuba 117,061,881 pesetas. 
 
 In the district of Santiago de Cuba, at the end of 1891, 
 the total number of mining titles issued was 296, with an 
 extent of 13,727 hectares. Of the mines reported and 
 claimed, 138 were iron, 88 manganese, and 53 copper. In 
 1895 the port of Havana was visited by 1,179 vessels of 
 1,691,325 tons; Cienfuegos and Cardenas by 490 of 
 645,184 tons, and Santiago de Cuba by 338 of 
 462,888 tons. In Cuba there are about 1,000 miles 
 of railway belonging to companies, and the larger 
 sugar estates have private lines connecting them with the 
 main lines. There are 2,300 miles of telegraph line with 
 153 offices. Messages in 1893, 342,331. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 213 
 
 PORTO RICO. 
 
 Porto Rico is described as "the healthiest of all the 
 Antilles." The population, December 31, 1887, was 813,- 
 937. The negro population is estimated at over 300,000. 
 Slavery was abolished in 1873. Chief town, San Juan, 
 23,414 inhabitants; Ponce 37,545; San German, 30,146. The 
 Porto Rico budget for 1893-94 gave an estimated expendi- 
 ture of 3,879,813 pesos, of which the Ministry of Finance 
 absorbed 250,045 pesos, and the Ministry of War 
 1,050,000 pesos, and an estimated income of 3,903,- 
 655 pesos, of which the customs were estimated 
 to produce 2,300,000 pesos, and direct and indirect 
 taxes 1,358,800 pesos. The principal articles of ex- 
 ports in 1895 were coffee, 16,884 tons (value $5,779,655); 
 sugar, 54,861 tons ($3,560,655); tobacco, 1,807 tons ($763,- 
 610). The total exports in 1893 amounted to $16,745,390, 
 and imports to $17,320450. The value of the imports from 
 Porto Rico into Spain in 1894 was 21,580,125 Spanish 
 pesetas (a peseta equals 19 cents American money), and 
 the exports from Spain to Porto Rico 28,678,899 
 pesetas. In 1893, 1,034 vessels of 1,008.581 tons 
 entered, and 999 vessels of 902,095 tons, cleared Porto 
 Rico. 
 
 In Porto Rico there are 470 miles of telegraph and 137 
 miles of railway, besides over 170 miles under construction. 
 
 In Porto Rico, the coin in use is the 5-pesetas piece. 
 
214 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 The coinage of Spanish dollars of similar value, to take 
 their place, has been decreed. 
 
 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 
 
 These islands extend almost due north and south from 
 Formosa to Borneo and the Moluccas, embracing an 
 extent of 16 degrees of latitude and 9 degrees of longitude. 
 They are over 400 in number; the two largest are Luzon 
 (area 40,024 square miles) and Mindanao. The capital of 
 the Philippines, Manila, has 154,062 inhabitants (1887); 
 other towns are Laog, 30,642; Lipa, 43,4o8; Banang, 35,598; 
 Batangas, 35,587. There is a small resident Spanish popu- 
 lation, but a large number of Chinese. The native inhab- 
 itants are mostly of the Malayan race, but there are some 
 tribes of Negritos. The Government is administered by a 
 governor-general and a captain-general, and the 43 prov- 
 inces are ruled by governors, alcaldes, or commandants, 
 according to their importance and position. 
 
 The estimated revenue of the Philippine Islands in 1894- 
 95 was $13,600,000 and expenditure $13,200,000. There is an 
 export duty on tobacco, and almost every article of for- 
 eign production is heavily taxed on being imported. On 
 muslins and petroleum the duty is about 100 per cent, of 
 the cost. 
 
 The chief products are hemp, sugar, coffee, copra, 
 tobacco-leaf, cigars, indigo. Gold mining is being carried 
 on in Luzon with favorable prospects, and coal mining in 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA. 215 
 
 Cebu, where, when arrangements for carriage are com- 
 pleted, the output is expected to be about 5,000 tons per 
 month. 
 
 In 1894, the total imports were valued at 28,530.000 
 dollars; and exports at 33,250,000 dollars. In 1895, the 
 chief exports were: hemp, 832.322 bales (1 bale equals 
 about 2Y2 cwt), valued at $8,325,000: sugar, 230,083 tons, 
 valued at $6,025,000; copra, 61,438 piculs, valued at $1,405,- 
 000; tobacco-leaf, 207,371 quintals; cigars, 164,430,000; 
 coffee, 194 tons. Owing to disease the production of 
 coffee is falling off. The chief imports are rice, flour, 
 wines, dress, petroleum, coal. In 1895, 177,620 piculs of 
 rice were imported from Hong Kong, Saigon, and Singa- 
 pore; 61,391 tons of coal from Australia and Japan; 357,- 
 538 cases of petroleum. On an average about 34 per cent, 
 of the import value is from the United Kingdom, 21 per 
 cent, from Hong Kong and Amoy, 13 per cent, from 
 Spain, and 10 per cent, from Singapore and British India. 
 Imports into Spain from the Philippine Islands in 1894, 
 17,994,838 pesetas; exports to Philippine Islands, 28,584,- 
 122 pesetas. In 1895 304 vessels of 125,025 tons cleared 
 the ports of Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu. There are 720 
 miles of telegraph in the islands, and 70 miles of railway. 
 
 The coin in use is the Mexican dollar with locally 
 coined fractional money. The import of foreign money is 
 illegal, but that of Mexican dollars is permitted. 
 
216 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 WEATHER OF CUBA. 
 
 Temperature. — The average annual temperature of Ha- 
 vana, as determined from the observations at Belen College, 
 Havana, made during the decennium 1888-1897, may be stated 
 in round numbers as 77° F. In this decennium the highest 
 annual temperature was 77.2°, and this occurred upon three 
 occasions; and the lowest annual temperature was 76.1°, and 
 happened upon only one occasion, showing in the ten years 
 an extreme range in annual averages of but 1.1° F. It would 
 therefore, seem probable that the mean temperature for the 
 decennial period 1888-1897 is about a true average for Havana 
 for any long period. The warmest month at Havana is July, 
 with an average temperature of 82.4° F. The warmest July 
 in this decennium had an average temperature of 83.5° F., and 
 the coolest July a temperature of 81.7° F. The warmest single 
 month in the decennial period was August, 1888, when the 
 average temperature was 84.2° F. The coldest month is Jan- 
 uary, with an average temperature of 70.3° F., and the warmest 
 and coldest Januaries in this decennium were, respectively, 
 73.4° F. and 67.5° F. The highest temperature recorded was 
 100.6° F. in July, 1891, and the lowest, 49.6° F. in February, 
 1896. 
 
 For Matanzas, on the coast about 50 miles east of Havana, 
 there is a record for two years, beginning in August, 1832, and 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA 217 
 
 ending in July, 1833, and again beginning in January, 1835, 
 and ending with December of the same year. From this record 
 the mean annual temperature at Matanzas appears to be about 
 78°. The highest temperature is recorded as 93°, and the 
 lowest as 51°. 
 
 At Santiago, on the extreme southeast coast, the tempera- 
 ture is apparently higher than on the northern and western 
 coasts, and from the meager data available appears to be about 
 80°, with an average difference between the warmest and coldest 
 months of about 6° F. 
 
 ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE. 
 
 Relative Humidity . — The relative humidity of the atmos- 
 phere appears to be fairly constant, as far as can be determined 
 from the observations available. It averages about 75 per cent, 
 of saturation. The mean relative humidity of the different 
 months differs hardly enough to characterize one month as 
 being drier or damper than another. 
 
 From observations made at Havana at different hours of 
 the day, it appears that the diurnal range of the relative 
 humidity is considerable, varying from a maximum of about 
 88 per cent, in the morning to a minimum of about 64 per cent, 
 at noon. 
 
 Absolute Humidity . — The absolute humidity is very great. 
 At Havana the average is about 7.5 grains of vapor to the cubic 
 foot of air. The absolute humidity varies from 6.2 grains per 
 cubic foot in January to 8.9 grains in September. 
 
218 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 RAINFALL. 
 
 The rainfall shows to a greater degree than the temperature 
 the influence of locality and season of the year. The average 
 rainfall for Havana is about 52 inches for the year. 
 
 Observations have probably been taken continuously at 
 Belen College Observatory since 1859, but the records on file 
 in the Library of the Weather Bureau show a hiatus from 
 1876 to 1884, inclusive. In the combined periods, 1859-75 and 
 1885-97, the greatest annual rainfall was 71.40 inches in 1867, 
 and the smallest fall was 40.59 inches in 1861. The average 
 rainfall for the thirty years was 51.73 inches. 
 
 The rainy season at Havana begins in the latter part of May 
 and the first of June and ends with October. Relatively the 
 greater bulk of the rain falls during the months from June to 
 October. The average rainfall for this period is 32.37 inches, 
 or 63 per cent, of the annual fall. 
 
 STORMS. 
 
 Thunderstorms, with much electrical display, are of frequent 
 
 ■ 
 
 or almost daily occurrence, but little damage results from them. 
 The West Indies are more or less subject during each summer 
 to one or more severe tropical storms or hurricanes. These 
 storms are more likely to occur in the months of August, Sep- 
 tember and October. 
 
SPANISH RULE IN CUBA 219 
 
 WEATHER OF MANILA. 
 
 Manila, the capital and chief port of the Philippine Islands, 
 is situated in latitude 14° 35' north, and in longitude 121° east 
 of Greenwich. 
 
 Meteorological observations have been made for many years 
 at the Observatorio Meteorologico de Manila. Observations of 
 rainfall for thirty-two consecutive years, and of other meteor- 
 ological elements for seventeen consecutive years, have been 
 published by the Observatory. 
 
 Temperature. — The average temperature of the year is 
 80° F. The months of April, May, and June are the hot- 
 test part of the year. May, with an average temperature 
 of 84° F., is the hottest of the three. December and January 
 are the coolest months, each with an average temperature of 
 77° F. The highest thermometer reading recorded is 100° F; 
 this was observed in May. The lowest reading recorded is 
 74°. and was observed in January. 
 
 Humidity. — The average relative humidity is 78 per cent. 
 That of the most humid month, which is September, is 85 per 
 cent., and that of the least humid month, which is April, is 70 
 per cent. The average absolute humidity is 8.75 grains in a 
 cubic foot. It is greatest in August and least in February. 
 
 Rainfall. — The average annual rainfall is 75.43 inches, of 
 which 43.09 inches, more than 57 per cent., fall during the 
 months of July, August and September, and 50.74 inches, 
 more than 80 per cent., fall from June to October, inclusive. 
 September has the largest average fall, 15.01 inches, and Feb- 
 
220 FOUR CENTURIES OF 
 
 ruary the smallest average fall, 0.47 inches. The heaviest rain- 
 fall in any one month was 61.43 inches in September, and 
 sometimes no rain at all has fallen in February, March, April 
 and May. 
 
 Departures from the average rainfall are in some instances 
 remarkable. For example, as much as 120.98 inches have 
 fallen in one year, and as little as 35.65 inches in another. 
 Still more remarkable was the fall of 61.43 inches in one 
 September, and that of only 2.00 inches in another September. 
 
JUN 27 1898 
 
888 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 ill 
 
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