YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

LonilorbJ?ublishaL hy Xemamart, Orme, &¦ C? taiemwjter Jimv. 1840.

Rnprarui hr SJTalt ft,,.,. S^Mimmsbuiy

TRAVELS IN THE WEST.

CUBA;

NOTICES OF PORTO RICO,

SLAVE TRADE.

BY

DAVID TURNBULL, ESQ. M.A.
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY AT MADRID,
AND OF THE ROYAL PATRIOTIC AND ECONOMICAL SOCIETY
AT THE HAVANA.

Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn. Burns.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOB.
LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,
l'ATERNOSTEK-ROW. 1840.

London :
Printed by A. Sfottiswoode,
New- Street- Square.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE EARL OF CLARENDON, G, C. B,

&c. &c. &c.

My Lord, .
I have persuaded myself, and I am therefore
desirous of persuading others, that I have dis
covered the means of accomplishing an object
which your Lordship has very much at heart.
If the conclusion I have come to be sound and
practicable, it will, doubtless, make its way in spite
of its humble origin. It is not because I despair
of its ultimate success with the country or the
government, but simply in order to hasten the
event, that I desire to shed around it the lustre of
your Lordship's name.
But for the opportunities I enjoyed, during the
first years of your Lordship's memorable mission
to Madrid, of witnessing your unwearied efforts
for the abatement of " the greatest practical evil
A 2

IV

that ever afflicted mankind," I should have wanted
the primary motive for the performance of the
journey of which this volume is the fruit.
Deeply impressed with the necessity of finding
or creating a remedy more prompt, practicable,
and efficient than any thing heretofore suggested,
my whole thoughts were turned in this direction ;
and in the following pages I have endeavoured to
develope a plan, conceived in the midst of the
scenes of wretchedness this traffic has produced.
It was the treaty of 1835, which deprived the
miscreants of all nations, who freight their ships
with human misery, of the protection of the proud
Lion and Castle of Spain. They have found
shelter, for a time, under the mercenary banner of
Portugal ; and when deprived of that, as they
shortly shall be, it is to be feared that the Stars and
Stripes of the North American Union may be way-
wardly and gratuitously interposed for their pro
tection. Even without the shelter of any national
flag, their profits are great enough to tempt their
defiance of the naval power of England, backed
and supported though it were by the cordial co
operation of the rest of the civilised world.
As physical force is proved to be powerless
against a gain of cent per cent, I am for striking

at the root of the evil, and cutting off the profit at
its source.
Should your Lordship do me the honour of fol
lowing the train of reasoning, which has brought
me to this conclusion, it will probably recall one
of those familiar expressions so often replete with
force and meaning, peculiar to a language your
Lordship has studied profoundly : — Los que cabras
rro tienen y cabritos venden, de donde les vienen?
The Bozal negroes are the kids of the proverb ;
and I only ask for the court of mixed commission
the power to inquire from whence they came.
The British judges are on the spot. The wedge
is already entered. It needs but a well-aimed blow
to drive it home.
In your Lordship's hands the task would be
easy. The whole Spanish people are so thoroughly
convinced of the services you have rendered them,
in bringing about the pacification of their country,
and in defending their cause in your place in par
liament, that no minister would dare to deal with
you as with an ordinary ambassador. With a mere
diplomatist, months, nay years, might be consumed
in negotiating the addition I have ventured to
propose to the Clarendon treaty. Its illustrious
author will bring it to a close in a single sitting ;
and the glorious triumph which is to rescue millions
a 3

VI
of our fellow-mortals from the grasp of the op
pressor may be announced to the world with more
than Cassarean brevity.
Go, my Lord, and
" Read your history in a nation's eyes."
Return and receive the thanks and congratulations
of mankind.
I have the honour to be, with the highest re
spect,
My Lord, Your Lordship's obliged
and faithful Servant,
The Author.
paris, February, 1840.

PREFACE.

The present volume represents the fragment of a
tour of considerable extent on the western side of
the Atlantic, begun in 1837 and concluded towards
the close of 1839-
On my arrival in the West Indies the appren
ticeship system in the British Colonies was in full
operation, and the shortening of the term in favour
of the field labourers, so as to put them in possession
of their freedom on the 1st of August, 1838, had not
yet been seriously agitated. It was in British
Guiaria, the most windward of our possessions, that
I first landed, and having afterwards visited every
island in the neighbouring Archipelago, I had the
satisfaction to find in the course of my progress
to leeward that the members of the various local
legislatures were preparing with more or less re
luctance to submit to the abandonment of this rem
nant of slavery.
I had the good fortune to reach Jamaica in time
to witness the rejoicings occasioned among the ne
gro population by the disappearance of the last
link of their chain. The moderation with which
they entered on their new state of existence is
already matter of history. On this point the
ominous forebodings of the planters have been
a 4>

vm preface.
agreeably disappointed ; and from the large amount
of voluntary labour already obtained, it is not un
fair to presume that they may be equally at fault in
the rest of their sinister prognostications.
Disregarding my actual itinerary, I have resolved
on giving precedence to the publication of the
present volume, under a strong conviction that the
suggestions it will be found to contain on the sub
ject of the slave trade, if once sanctioned by public
opinion, and adopted by the government, would
lead to an easy, cheap, and almost immediate so
lution of the much-vexed question of its sup
pression. It is by the force of public opinion, and by the
great pecuniary sacrifice to which the people of
England have willingly submitted, that the practice
of negro slavery has been happily abolished through
out her Majesty's dominions. The national will
was so strongly expressed as to have become irre
sistible. But the practice of domestic slavery, how
ever deplorable, is not to be compared in magnitude
or importance with the horrors of the slave trade.
Public opinion is surely not to be powerless, the
national will is not to be mute, because its ob
jects can be accomplished without further sacrifice,
pecuniary or personal.
On this subject, also, the wishes and desires of
the entire British people have long been loudly ex
pressed. Asa nation, it is true, they have scarcely to
reproach themselves with any direct or actual share
in the abominable traffic ; and this consideration

PREFACE. IX
may possibly have some tendency to damp their
zeal in the cause.
Let it not be forgotten, however, that there are
men of large capital, at this hour resident in Lon
don, who in the full enjoyment of the rights and
franchises of Englishmen, do not scruple to enrich
themselves, under cover of a foreign partnership,
by supplying the actual slave-dealer with the means
of carrying on his ruthless war of extermination
against the African race; nor that many of our
manufacturers and merchants are accused, not alto
gether without cause, of reaping a disgraceful pro
fit from the fabrication and sale of articles of
exchange, exclusively employed in this trade in
human flesh.
These, it must be admitted, are grievous blots on
the national escutcheon. As long as a single vestige
of them remains, to justify either the taunts of our
enemies, or the honest regrets of our friends, we
can never afford to sit down with tranquillity
or composure under the disgraceful imputation.
Every man of us is bound to exert himself in the
cause, as if his personal reputation were at stake.
From all this pollution there is but' one way of
escape. It is by the suppression of the trade,
finally, absolutely, irretrievably.
Is that suppression so hopeless, so impossible,
that we ought to give up the attempt in despair ?
The means, on the contrary, are so easy, the
remedy is so near the surface, that it will presently
be a subject of wonder why it was not seen, pro-

PREFACE.

posed, and acted on years and years ago. There
is but little merit I confess in arriving at so obvious
a conclusion. It needed no profound cogitation,
no extraordinary research.
It lay in my path, and I found it.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The next volume will embrace the other foreign
Colonies beginning with Martinique.
The unavoidable absence of the author from
London, while this volume has been passing through
the press, is offered as an apology for the appearance
of such typographical errors as may have escaped
the vigilance of the professional reader of the
proofs. Such communications on the present state of
the British West Indies, or of British America, as
may be addressed to the Author, to the care of the
publishers, will be gladly received and gratefully
acknowledged.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Taking leave of Jamaica. — Santiago Hospitality. — The Volante. —
Cobre. — Copper Mines. — Preparations for Departure. — The
Dee. — Governor Lorenzo  Captain-General Tacon. Pagel.
CHAP. II.
Departure from Santiago. — Armament of the Dee. — The Bench
and the Bar. — The Grande Antilla. — British Authorities at
Havana. — Travelling in Old Spain. — Captain-General Espeleta.
— Commissary Judges. — Sjjperintendent of Africans. — French
Consul-General. — Letters oflntroduction. """ - - 24
CHAP. III.
State of Slavery. — Field Slaves. — Whipping Posts. — The Prison.
~  The TTarracoons. — Creoles and Bozals. — American Slaie
Trade. ... - - 47
CHAP. IV.
Arrival of Strangers. — Free People of Colour. — Black Soldiers in
the Receiving Ships. — Receiving Ships for liberated Africans. —
Mnral F.ffprtfl nf thpir Presence  Conditio" of the F.manriparlns.
— Concert among British Functionaries abroad. — Brazilian Judge
at Sierra Leone. — The Cruisers' Liability. — Code of Instruc
tions fpr Cruisers. — Comparative Rates of Premium. — De
ficiency of Cruisers. — War Contribution. - - 67
CHAP. V.
Circulating Medium. — Weights and Measures. — Bankruptcy
rare. — Laws of Bankruptcy. — Judiciary. — Bank of Ferdinand
VII. — Tariff of Customs. — Articles free of Duty. — CjowjaJter
venues.  Effect of differential Duties. — Public Wharfs. - 87

XIV CONTENTS.CHAP. VI.
Statistics. — Imports. — Exports. — Shipping. — Tonnage. — Dis
criminating Duties. — Increase of Trade. — State of Trade. —
Tariff. — War Contribution. — Price of Flour. — American Flour.
— Education. — Periodical Literature. — The SlayeJEiade. —
Causes of Prosperity. - - - - Page 112
CHAP. VII.
Freedom of Trade. — Contraband in Flour. — Differential Duties. —
Bonded Warehouses. — The Slave Trade. — Insurance. — Private
Underwriters. — Merchants. — Emigrants. — Emigration. —
Census of 1827- — Population. — Coartado System. — Slaves sent
to Texas. — Slave Population. — State of Slavery. — Slave Census.
— Slavery. — In^rease_o£~SUve_T_rade. — Distribution of Slave
Tax. ... - 1 36
CHAP. VIII.
The Slave Trade. — The Emancipados. — The Portuguese Flag. —
American Slave Trade. — Tacon's Administration. — Spanish
Policy. — Fear of Insurrection. — Desire of Independence. —
Means proposed. — Epigram. — American Aggrandisement. 158
CHAP. IX.
Coal Mines. — Steam in the West Indies. — Cuba Steamers. 
Steamers landing Slaves. — Havana Railroad. — A glorious
Inheritance. — Guines. — Labourers on the Railway. — Irish
Labourers. — Railway Loan. — United States' Rivalry  Railway
Tariff. — Produce of the Railway. — Branches  Cardenas Rail
way. - - - - - 175
CHAP. X.
The Havana. — The Harbour. — The Entrance. — Rules for
entering. — Dangers at the Entrance. — Population  Public
Establishments. — Fortifications. — The Cabaiios.  Casa de
Beneficencia. — Hospital of Incurables. — Leprosy. 198
CHAP. XI.
Matanzas  Slaves found asleep  Santiago. — Puerto Principe.
— Mode of granting Land  Nuevitas. — Proposed Railroad. 
System of Expropriation. — Population of Cuba. - - 217

CONTENTS. XV
CHAP. XII.
Geographical and relative Position of Cuba. — Coasts  Geological
Formation  Provinces and Districts. — Ayuntamiento. — Mu
nicipality of Havana. — Secular Tribunals  System of Trade 
Carriage of Produce. — Mineral Riches. — Silver and Copper. —
Mineral Waters. - - - . Page 239
CHAP. XIII.
White Labour. — Clearing Land. — Sugar-making. - - 258
CHAP. XIV.
Sugar Estates. — Treatment of Slaves. — Irish Hacendados 
Creole Grandees. — Sugar Cultivation  M. Bonhomme. - 277
CHAP. XV.
Coffee-growing. — Task-work. - - 293
CHAP. XVI.
Tobacco-growing. — Native Forests. — Fruits. — Cereals. — The
Plantain. — Indigo. — Cotton. — Cacao  Wax. — Domestic
Animals  Ornithology  The Turtle. — Fishmarket  Honey
and Wax. — The Jigger  The Mosquito. — The Ant. —
Seasons. - - - - - 317
CHAP. XVII.
Proposed Addition to Treaty. — Slave Policy of Spain. — Orders
and Counter Orders. — Portuguese System. — Portuguese Trade.
— Spanish Trade. — Points to be watched. — Trading Season. —
Hereditary Bondage. - - 340
CHAP. XVIII.
Mr. Buxton's Estimate of Cuba Slave-Trade. — Mr. M 'Queen's Es
timate. — Mr. Consul Tolme's Estimate. — Extent of the Trade 
The Middle Passage. — Means of Repression. — Head-Money 
Tonnage- Money. — Her Majesty's Packets. - - 36l
CHAP. XIX.
The Equipment Clause. — Mode of suppressing the Trade. —
Evasion of Equipment Clause. — Spanish Treaty of 1835. —
Case of the Vencedora. — Opinions of Mr. Buxton. — Case of the
Vigilante. - - - 379

XVI CONTENTS. CHAP. XX.
Effects of Head-Money. — Capture of the Veloz. — Brazilian Slavery
Associations. — African Slave Factories. — Question of Nation
ality. — A Slaver's Nationality. — Instructions to a Slave-Captain.
Directions to the Agent on the Coast. — Slaves sent on Freight. —
— Intercepted Letters. — Admiralty Licenses. — Number of
Licenses. — The Steamer and the Flag Ship. — Does landing in
a British Colony confer Freedom ? - - Page 397
CHAP. XXI.
American Consul at Havana. — Case of the Venus. — International
Independence. — Shipments of Shackles. — A French Slave-
Dealer. — French Consul-General. — Abuses of the American
Flag. — Case of the Amistad. ... 435
CHAP. XXII.
Historical Notices, A. D. 1492—1761. - 473
CHAP. XXIII.
Lord Albemarle's Expedition. - 498
CHAP. XXIV.
English Occupation. — Historical Notices, A. D. 1764 — 1832. 528
CHAP. XXV.
Porto Rico. — Crab Island. — French Slaves sent to Porto Rico 
Trade of Martinique with Porto Rico. — The Virgin Islands. —
Kidnapping from English Islands. — Compensation for stolen
Negroes. — System of Kidnapping. — Negotiation with Lopez
Bafios. — Need of a Consul at Porto Rico. — Penalties on Kidnap
ping. — Spanish Maroons  The Slave Trade. - 554

I learn with regret that I have been led into error in the
last paragraph of the 1st chapter of this volume, pp. 22 and
23., respecting the events at Santiago.
I have ascertained from undoubted authority that General
Lorenzo was received on board the British cruiser alluded
to, under a convention to which he was himself a party, the
terms of which were faithfully fulfilled in every particular,
as is farther proved by General Lorenzo's own subsequent
admission, published at Cadiz in 1837 ; and that the pub
lished statements which I found at the Havana of the
destruction of 500 persons, intended doubtless to damage
General Tacon, were wholly unwarranted by fact; as it
now appears there was no loss of life whatever consequent
on the events in question. It affords me satisfaction, also,
that I am able to remove the misstatements thus uninten
tionally made affecting the character of the British navy.
March 9. 1840.

TRAVELS IN THE WEST.

CUBA, ETC

CHAPTER I.
TAKING LEAVE OF JAMAICA. — SANTIAGO HOSPITALITY. 
THE VOLANTE.  COBRE.  COPPER MINES.  PREPA
RATIONS POR DEPARTURE.  THE DEE.  GOVERNOR
LORENZO.  CAPTAIN-GENERAL TACON.
At the time of my visit to Cuba, towards the
close of the year 1838, the means of communica
tion between the various districts of the island,
with the exception of the neighbourhood of the
Havana, were exceedingly imperfect.
My friend Mr. Cater, the chief of the Colonial
Bank in Jamaica, was good enough to write from
thence to his correspondents at Santiago de Cuba
and the Havana, to ascertain what means there
were of conveyance between these two points ; and
in answer he received the most distinct inform
ation, that, on a given day in the month of No
vember, the steamer the Royal Peacock, El Pavo
Real, would leave her moorings at Santiago at two
B

2 CUBA.
o'clock in the afternoon, and, touching at various
intermediate points, would proceed to Batabano,
the nearest place to the capital on the south side
of the island. Relying on the printed advertise
ments which were forwarded to Mr. Cater, I men
tioned the matter to Sir Lionel Smith, with whom
I was staying at the time, when his Excellency,
with his accustomed good-nature, was pleased to
suggest that, as Her Majesty's government con
templated a regular communication by steam be
tween Jamaica and the neighbouring islands of
Cuba and St. Domingo, it might be desirable to
ascertain the time that would be required for a
steamer to make the passage between Port Royal
and Santiago. Combining this public object with
the convenience of his guest, Sir Lionel lost no
time in writing to Commodore Douglass, in com
mand of the naval force at Port Royal, desiring
that the Dee, Captain Sherer, might be held in
readiness to sail on such a day as would best meet
the purpose I had in view, which was to inspect
the copper mines in the neighbourhood of Santiago,
and afterwards avail myself of the sailing of the
Peacock, which presented so favourable an op
portunity for seeing something of the southern
shores of the island.
Delighted with this arrangement, which was
most satisfactorily completed by the arrival of
the Commodore and Captain Sherer, at the
King's House in Spanish Town, I had the good
fortune, with the ready concurrence of Captain
Sherer, to prevail on the Chief Justice and Lady

TAKING LEAVE OF JAMAICA. 3
Rowe to accompany Mrs. Turnbull and myself on
the excursion ; to which they consented the more
readily, from the well-known hospitality of Captain
Sherer, and the rareness of the opportunity of se
curing their return from such a trip on a given day.
We had scarcely left the harbour, however, when,
to our great mortification, we discovered that the
coals, which had lain in the government stores at
Port Royal for several years, had suffered so much
from the climate, that it was found impossible to
keep up the steam ; so that the time we had calcu
lated on for making the passage was more than
doubled, and we did not pass the magnificent
entrance to the harbour of Santiago, until the
morning of the day that the Peacock was ad
vertised to sail. As the hour advertised was
two in the afternoon, and we saluted the Moro
Castle at six in the morning, I had reluctantly
made up my mind to relinquish my visit to the
Cobre, and to content myself with paying my
respects to the British Consul, Mr. Hardy, and to
the lieutenant-governor of the province.
I had just come to this resolution when a steamer
hove in sight in the narrowest part of the narrow
entrance, which proved to be the Pavo Real
herself, on which I had so much depended. In
stead of leaving her moorings at two in the after
noon, she must have started between five and six in
the morning. The current in this narrow passage
is so strong, and the navigation, even for steamers,
so difficult, that it was impossible in passing to do
more than intimate that we had passengers for the
b 2

4 CUBA.
Peacock on board, and to receive in return the
short and unwelcome answer, — No es possible,
Senores. To all appearance, therefore, there was nothing
for it but to return in the Dee to Jamaica; in
the meantime enjoy the agreeable society we had
brought with us, and throw ourselves at Kingston
on the chapter of accidents ; with the comfortable
assurance that we had not quite exhausted the
good will to serve us, which, during a three months'
stay in Jamaica, had been so frequently manifested
by the gallant and venerable occupant of Govern
ment House.
I have entered into these details for the sake of
warning the reader, wherever Spaniards are con
cerned, to be on his guard against their habitual want
of punctuality. On three different occasions I came
into town from my residence in the neighbourhood,
of the Havana, with the view of proceeding by one
of the steamers duly advertised for Matanzas ; and
in each of the three instances was disappointed.
The first time there had been some derangement
of the machinery ; the second it was blowing a
norte ; and the third the reason was not disclosed ;
but I afterwards learned that it was perfectly sa
tisfactory to the proprietors, who found it more
profitable to send the vessel out in the direction of
Mariel, there to meet a slaver announced from the
coast of Africa, and relieve her of her human cargo
with less risk of detention by some British cruiser,
than to fulfil their contract with the public. In
taking my departure from the island, I had oc
casion to complain of a still more serious violation

SANTIAGO HOSPITALITY. 5
of a rule, the observance of which is so essential to
men of business. The " Daniel Webster," an Ame
rican vessel in which I had engaged my passage
for Charleston, was detained for eight and forty
hours after she had cleared at the Custom House
and was ready for sea, because another passenger
had chosen to embark without a regular passport.
In the present instance, fortunately for us, a
counterbalancing accident had occurred to relieve
us from our embarrassment. We had scarcely
reached our anchorage when we ascertained that a
passenger ship called the Grande Antilla, from
Cadiz and Barcelona, Don Antonio Vicent y Vives,
commander, had arrived off the harbour, bound for
the Havana and Vera Cruz, but from adverse
winds had been unable to enter. As the same
wind continued to prevail for nearly a week, we
had ample opportunity of seeing all that we desired
to see in this district of the island, without any
other cause of regret than the great inconvenience
to which some seventy cabin passengers in the
Grande Antilla were exposed, nearly the half of
them being ladies, hanging off and on after a long
voyage, in the open sea, without knowing whether
they would be able to effect a landing.
Having sent our letters of introduction on shore,
we learned that the consul, Mr. Hardy, was absent
at the Copper Mines, of which he is one of the
principal proprietors ; but the attentions which our
knowledge of his character had led us to expect
from him were promptly and cordially supplied by
the resident partners of the leading English house
b 3

CUBA,

of Wright, Shelton, and Co. ; one of whom, Mr.
Brooks, was speedily on board, bringing carriages
to the wharf to carry us to the town residence of
Mr. Wright, his senior partner. There, although
on so short a notice, we found all sorts of English
comforts and accommodations for the whole of our
party, the captain and some of his officers included.
Nay, our excellent host would not afterwards hear
of our separating so as to give to some of the other
residents ; to whom we were recommended, a share
of the trouble of receiving us, until, as he said
himself, he was enabled to hand us over to his
friend and neighbour, the consul, who, he was
sure, would make his appearance as soon as he
heard of our arrival. In this conjecture he was
perfectly correct. On the following morning the
consul arrived, and insisted on carrying us without
delay to visit his family at their mountain abode,
within a mile or two of the Copper Mines.
The saddle, or the peculiar carriage of the island,
the volante, forms the only means of conveyance in
a country where the roads are so eminently exe
crable. No written description we had previously
read of the volante had been able to give us a satis
factory idea of it. Before seeing them our fellow
traveller, Sir Joshua Rowe, had formed the design
of purchasing one for his own use in Jamaica ; but
he was probably deterred by the grotesque appear
ance of the vehicle, or by the probable difficulty of
finding an experienced calesero, who, to all appear
ance, must be a person " to the manner born ;" so
that he finally abandoned the idea.

THE VOLANTE. J
The wheels of the volante are placed so wide
apart, that it is next to impossible to overturn it,
even in ruts where an ordinary carriage would dis
appear. The wheels themselves are always at least
six feet, and some that I have measured have
proved even seven feet in diameter. The shafts
are proportionably long; indeed so long, that a
second horse might be placed between the croupe
of the first and the body of the carriage. The
body is suspended on C springs, also very wide
apart ; and is hung so low between the shafts that
the heads of the travellers are always a foot or two
below the level of the upper section of the wheels.
In the city of the Havana there is a police re
gulation, directing that no more than one horse
shall be attached to these carriages, whether public
or private, within the walls ; but in the country,
of course, such a regulation would be impracticable.
One out-rigger is always added to the left, on which
the calesero is mounted, instead of riding the shaft
horse, as is the invariable custom in the Havana.
Where the roads are worse than usual, or where
more state is thought necessary, a second out-rigger
is attached on the right hand side. The quitrin is
a mere variety of the volante, the one having a
fixed and the other a moveable top. The calesero,
particularly in towns, is usually dressed in a very
smart livery, resembling, in some degree, the gayest
of the French postilions ; but, instead of his enor
mous boots, wearing long black gaiters, with silver
buckles to his shoes ; the buckles of the harness
being often of the same precious metal.
B 4<

CUBA.

This system of three horses abreast is that usually
adopted by the native gentry of the island of St.
Domingo. In that island, even in their heaviest
field waggons, a leader is never to be seen ; although
it is not uncommon in the plains of the Cui de Sac,
or Leogane, to find two horses or mules attached
to the pole of a two-wheeled waggon, with a
bar like that of a curricle across, and an out
rigger on either side, making in all four animals
abreast. Before ascending the mountain on which Mr.
Hardy's cottage is situated, we stopped at the
village of Cobre ; and changing our outward habili
ments for those provided by the captain of the
mine, we placed ourselves in the tiny railway car
riages, which pass into the interior, and prepared to
enter the principal tunnel, which has been driven
directly into the face of the mountain. Fortunately
for the proprietors, the present workings are so
situated, with reference to the external surface of
the ground, that it has not been necessary to resort
to the aid of shafts and pumping machinery for
the purpose of raising the mineral or carrying off
the water.
After all that we had heard of the value and
importance of these works, their actual extent did
not fail to surprise us. We learned from Mr. Hardy,
that the labourers employed were nearly nine hun
dred in number ; but to our great regret we found
that more than the half of them were slaves, some
the property of the Mining Company, and others
hired out, as is not uncustomary, from their owners

COBRE.

in the neighbourhood. A considerable proportion
of the residue consisted of Islenos or free emigrants
from the Canaries ; and a year before our arrival,
there had been two hundred Englishmen from Corn
wall ; but a single sickly season had carried off the
half of them, including two of the captains, the
brothers of the person who had kindly lent us the
necessary attire for entering the "bowels of the
land." In following the veins of copper we found that
the principal tunnel soon branched off into various
directions. On descending from our railway car
riage, at one of the cross roads, I had the misfor
tune to put my foot into a rift, or crevice of the
rock ; from which, however, I escaped without a
fracture, but with such a degree of lameness as
considerably to damp my courage in further ex
ploring the secrets of this crust of earth, of which,
after all our labour, so very little has yet been dis
closed. We were not suffered to leave the mines without
an ample supply of specimens of the ore, some of
them so rich as to afford not less than 53 per cent.
of pure metal. We were informed, however, that
the ordinary average produce is not more than 27
per cent. ; but even that proportion is so great as
to ensure enormous profits to the proprietors, in
competing with the produce of our native mines
of Cornwall, where 10, and even 8, per cent, are
considered sufficient to afford a remunerating re
turn. The competition with Cornwall, probably,

10 CUBA.
could not be maintained, if the produce of the
Cuba mines did not reach 18, or at least 16, per
cent., in consequence of the expense attending the
working of mines in a tropical climate, together
with the heavy charges of freight, commission, and
insurance. Still, if the general average be as high
as 27 per cent., the profits of the company must
be so great as to insure a rapid fortune to the part
ners, who consisted originally of only four indivi
duals. The recent history of this mine is somewhat re
markable. It was known that in the palmy days
of Spanish greatness, the neighbouring mountains
had been explored to a very considerable extent ;
and, indeed, the fact is sufficiently indicated by
the very name of the town of Cobre, which is cer
tainly not a place of modern origin. For more
than a hundred years, however, the workings had
been abandoned ; and it was by mere accident some
eight or ten years ago, that Mr. Hardy, the present
consul, was induced, on visiting the neighbourhood
for quite another purpose, to carry off some speci
mens of the refuse, thrown up from the old work
ings, in order to subject them to analysis. He
had, in fact, been employed by his father, a man
of large property, and now one of his partners in
the mine, to visit the island in order to ascertain
the probability of recovering a mortgage debt,
which he held over a neighbouring property.
Whether the debt was secured I did not inquire ;
but supposing it to have proved a total loss, the
creditor has doubtless been amply compensated by

COBRE. 11
the brilhant results of the experiments on which
the tact and penetration of his son had induced him
to enter.
In this ill-governed country, the happiest com
bination of capital, enterprise, and skill, is not
sufficient to insure success in any similar under
taking. It was necessary, of course, either to
effect a purchase of the soil, with its accessorial
rights, or to admit its proprietor into the secret,
and allow him a reasonable proportion of the
profits, arising from a discovery, which, even had
he known it, he probably had not the means
of fructifying. Another desideratum, not less in
dispensable, remained to be accomplished; and that
was to obtain the consent of the government to
exercise the privilege of mining, which, in the
dominions of Her Catholic Majesty, is not carried,
it seems, by the mere right of property in the soil.
For this purpose, a vast deal of influence is re
quired at head quarters ; so great as to have made
it necessary, or at least advisable, for the three
individuals who alone were directly, or substantially,
interested in the success of the undertaking — the
discoverer, the capitalist, and the proprietor of the
soil, — to admit a fourth person to an equal parti
cipation of the profits, from the mere fact of his
possessing the necessary degree of influence at
the Havana, or Madrid, to overcome the obsta
cles which would infallibly arise as soon as the
enterprise presented any reasonable prospect of
success. The best efforts of this fourth partner, Senor

12 CUBA.
Arrieta, could only suffice to procure a ten years'
licence, four of which had yet to run at the time
of our visit ; so that as its term approaches the
necessity of a fresh struggle, which will be arduous
in exact proportion to the previous success of the
undertaking, may reasonably be anticipated by the
parties concerned. Already the expected diffi
culties were beginning to show themselves ; at
tempts having been made on the part of the au
thorities at the Havana, in direct contravention of
their license, to compel the company to resort to
the ruinous expedient of smelting their ores on the
spot, instead of sending them for that purpose, as
heretofore, to Swansea. The ostensible object of
this proposal is to benefit the country, by com
pelling the company to expend more money than
they now do on the Spanish territory, and, in all
probability, to induce them to resort for their
supplies of fuel to the coal mines recently dis
covered in the neighbourhood of the Havana,
which are, at least, seven hundred miles distant.
The real purpose undoubtedly is, to extract from
the company as large a share of their profits as
they may be willing to forego, for the benefit of
those who may hereafter have the power of renew
ing or withholding their license.
Two powerful steam engines are at present
employed on the works, the chief duties of which
are to stamp the mineral into a sort of coarse
powder, when the richer part of the ore is sepa
rated from the refuse, as well as that can be done
by hand, with the aid of various mechanical con-

COBRE. 13
trivances. When in a state sufficiently pure for
exportation, the ore is. put into bags or baskets,
and carried by beasts of burden a distance of
twelve miles, to Santiago, at an average cost of
about a dollar a hundred weight. The mule, the
horse, and the camel, are the animals usually em
ployed in this laborious operation; and it would be
well for those of the nobler race, whether hybrid or
pure, if they possessed the prudence or the instinct
of the camel, which teaches it to lie down when
overloaded, and refuse to proceed until its burden
is so reduced as to make it compatible with its
strength. The poor horse, however, and even the
mule, stagger on to the last, under the excessive
burdens which are heaped upon them, the average
not being less than 224 English pounds.
This excessive labour, and the enormous expense
attending it, might, in a great measure, be avoided
by the construction of a wharf and warehouses at
the head of the noble bay of Santiago, which is
within six miles of the mouth of the mine, together
with a railway, or even a good macadamized road,
from the one point to the other. But the first
cost of such a supplementary undertaking is for the
present interdicted by two prudential considera
tions ; the one arising from the danger which is
common, I believe, to all copper mines, of coming
suddenly to the end of the rich vein of metal on
which the company have so fortunately fallen, and
the other from the increased difficulties of which
so bold a step would be prolific in the necessary
pursuit of the renewal of their license.

14 CUBA.
One of the members of the company, with or
without the consent of his partners, has been in
duced, by the obvious success of the undertaking,
and the desire of realising his proportion of the
capital, to divide his interest into shares, and to
bring it out in the London market, where, I un
derstand, it is now regularly quoted. The shares
are valued at 40/. each ; and as one entire share is
but a twelve thousandth part of the whole, the
estimate put on the mines is, of course, no less than
480,000/. sterling. To justify this large valuation,
I was told on the spot that 30,000/., being the
balance of the debt incurred by the company, had
been paid off in the single year which had just
terminated; and that, judging from the produce of
the mine during the same period, and from the
prices obtained in England, the monthly clear
profits were not then less than 12,000/., making
a princely revenue to such of the partners as had
not parted with any portion of their interest.
From personal observation, it was manifest that
the returns must be very considerable. In going
to Cobre, as on our return from it, we met, or
overtook, some four or five hundred horses and
mules on their daily journey to or from Santiago ;
and this, at the average of two hundred weight
a piece, would very soon bring up the quantity
to the amount of 2000 tons, which was stated
to exist at that moment in the warehouses at
Santiago, and to be waiting there for the means
of shipment to England. I am bound, however,
to add, on the authority of a fellow traveller, the

COPPER MINES. 15
son of an eminent Cornish miner, that the flatter
ing appearances we had witnessed, and the state
ments we had heard, are to be received with some
grains of allowance, as in such cases the balance
sheet does not always correspond with the external
display. In the neighbourhood of the town of Cobre,
encouraged by the success of the English company,
two other mines have been opened, on adjoining
properties, into which the same system of metallic
vein is understood to extend. In other districts of
the island, within these few years, more than one
undertaking of a similar nature has been begun on
scales of considerable magnitude. I refer more
particularly to a mining association, called Com
pania de Mineria Cubana, formed by two Ame
rican gentlemen, Mr. Thomas B. Smith, and Mr.
Hezekiah Bradford, in pursuance of the previous
discovery by Don Jose Escalante of the presence
of copper and silver on the south side of the island,
in the neighbourhood of the Hoyo de Manica
ragua, about twelve leagues from the bay and har
bour of Jagua, to which a cart road has already been
opened by the company. This new mine stands in
the judicial jurisdiction of Villa Clara, from the
seat of which it is also distant about twelve leagues,
on the farther side of the ridges of Escambray ; so
that it is nearly in the centre of the island, in a south
east direction from the town of Trinidad de Cuba.
Within a year after the formation of the Ame
rican company, they had expended upwards of
#150,000 in the acquisition of land, the erection of

10 CUBA.
buildings, the construction of roads, and the pur
chase of machinery ; but, as in the case of the new
establishments at Cobre adjoining those of the
English company, it is understood that this ex
penditure has not been laid out in the most pru-
¦ dent or economical manner. The returns of the
first year, however, were already 400 tons of
copper ore, the metallic produce of which has
been estimated as high as 25 per cent. Two
cargoes had been shipped from Jagua and Cien
fuegos for New York, and an equal quantity re
mained in the company's warehouses. Since my
return to Europe, I have heard that a considerable
quantity of copper ore has been shipped by this
company to Swansea. In the first years of the
enterprise, the American mine, to the infinite credit
of the company, was worked exclusively by free
men, of whom about 150 were employed ; and
it was proposed to establish a white colony in the
neighbourhood of the mine, into which natives or
foreigners were to be equally admissible. It will
be gratifying to the friends of freedom in all parts
of the world to learn that this system of colonisa
tion has been crowned with success.
The American company has obtained from the su
perintendent of public domains the same privilege
of working their mines, and importing their machi
nery for ten years free of duty, which the English
company enjoys ; but more recent experience ap
pears to indicate that the anticipations of Messrs.
Smith, Bradford, and Escalante were somewhat too
sanguine, and that the average produce of metal

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 17
from a given quantity of mineral, will scarcely be
sufficient, when the long land journey is taken into
account, to enable them to compete successfully
with the copper produced in other parts of the
world. In the course of a visit to the spot where the
people of Cuba pretend that Columbus first set his
foot in the New World, I was told that some other
American miners had discovered a rich vein of
silver, or, as it was called at Batabano, of inetalo
fino, in the neighbouring isle of Pines ; but the
story was either altogether fabulous, or else the
American discoverers must have succeeded in
keeping it a profound secret, as their intelligent
consul at the Havana had heard nothing at all of
it, and Captain Bushby, of H. M. S. Wanderer,
assured me that he had just been cruising all round
the Isle of Pines, looking out for slavers, and had
heard nothing whatever of the new discovery. The
copper boilers used in the island for sugar making
were formerly brought from Lima ; but for many
years back, English and American iron boilers have
been generally used in their stead.
When we had fully satisfied our curiosity at the
Cobre, Captain Sherer, as was his duty, began to
suggest that the limit allowed him by the higher
authorities at Jamaica was in danger of being
passed, and although there was little danger of any
outbreak among the newly emancipated negroes,
notwithstanding the turbulence, as it was the
fashion to call it, of the House of Assembly; still,
as his coals were so bad, and his time therefore in

18 CUBA.
greater danger of being exhausted, he felt it his
duty to put to sea without further delay. The
hospitality of the consul, however, was not to be
baffled by any such consideration. Representing
that the overland mail from the Havana was
nearly a week overdue, in consequence of the im
passable state of the roads and rivers, produced by
the heavy rains which had lately fallen, he said,
that, considering the important news then hourly
expected of the proceedings of "the French squa
dron on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico,
he would take it upon him, as her Majesty's con
sul, to assume the responsibility of detaining the
Dee for at least twenty-four hours, in order to
afford some additional chance of conveying to the
government at home and to the Commodore on
the Jamaica station such important political re
sults as might transpire through the expected mail
from the Havana.
In this the worthy consul discovered at once
his kindness and his sagacity. It turned out
in the sequel, that just about this time the Bri
tish admiral arrived on the North American sta
tion at Jamaica with a considerable squadron
under his command, the object of which was
to proceed to Vera Cruz, and, backing the inter
vention of Mr. Pakenham, produce a friendly
diversion in favour of the Mexicans. Unfortu
nately for the issue, the British squadron was re
tarded by unforeseen events. The admiral, on his
reaching the rendezvous of Port Royal, found
himself so seriously indisposed as to be unable to

THE DEE. 19
proceed; and the future command of the projected
operations devolved, therefore, on our excellent
friend Commodore Douglass, than whom, perhaps, no
officer in the service was- -better fitted to execute
the difficult and delicate task which, in conjunc
tion with the British plenipotentiary, it might have
become his duty to perform. Before his arrival
at Sacrificios, however, the blow had been struck,
and the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, which the
Mexicans had fondly imagined to be impregnable,
had fallen before a random shot, thrown from one
of the French guns d la Paixhaus, resembling, in
all respects, the principal gun on board our own
steamer, the Dee, which blew up the principal ma
gazine, and thus effected a breach, which, with
French intrepidity, became easily practicable.
These guns, which are now very generally
adopted in the British, as well as the French ser
vice, and since the period in question have also
been introduced into that of the United States, are,
perhaps, the most formidable warlike instruments
of modern invention. That on board the Dee,
we had ample opportunity of examining. Its
length, I think, was not less than fourteen feet ;
and its bore was so considerable as to admit of a
hollow shot, which, when charged, weighed eighty-
four pounds English, but which, had it been solid,
would have reached the extraordinary ponderosity
of 140 pounds. The weight of the whole machine,
with its carriage, and the powerful pivot on which
it turned, so as to traverse round nearly three
fourths of the circle, was equal, as we were assured,
c 2

20 CUBA.
to no less than eight tons. On board the Dee
it was placed in the after part of the ship, and was
provided with a circular railway, to diminish the
friction in turning it.
A few months before, at the time of my visit to
Fort Royal, Martinique, which has since been the
scene of such a lamentable catastrophe, the French
admiral, De la Bretonniere, was good enough to
invite me on board his crack frigate, La Didon,
carrying at that time, on two decks, 64 guns, of
various calibre, although rated only at 60, for the
purpose of pointing out to me the tremendous
power which his four guns, a la Paixhaus, could be
made to exercise. On board the Didon, these
guns were placed on the lower deck (but not turn
ing on a pivot as on board the Dee), two on
either side, as near as possible amidships; and as
the admiral explained to me, they were calculated,
although the experiment had not then been tried,
by the bursting of the shot or shell, after being
embedded in the side or wall of the enemy's ship,
to which it might be opposed, to make a hole be
tween wind and water, not less than three feet in
diameter. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the
power of these formidable projectiles, to be able
to form an opinion of the accuracy of Admiral de
la Bretonniere's calculation; but there can be very
little doubt that in the next naval war with which
mankind may be afflicted, its issue will, in a great
measure, depend on the application of the steam
engine to purposes of navigation, in combination
with this new and terrible invention.

GOVERNOR YARTO. 21
We could observe that it was with some little
reluctance the consul had been prevailed upon to
accompany us in paying our respects to the lieu
tenant-governor of the province, Don Tomas
Yarto. This gentleman had made himself exceed
ingly unpopular among the liberal portion of the
community, by the disposition he had evinced,
and the arbitrary steps he had taken a short time
before, on the occasion of one of those commotions
which from time to time occur in the island, as
often as intelligence arrives of the ascendency
which the Moderados, or the Exaltados, may have
obtained for the moment in the councils of her
Majesty at Madrid. From the large stake he holds
in the country, Mr. Hardy naturally feels a warm
interest in the ascendency of those principles on
which, in his opinion, it ought to be governed ;
and, unfortunately, when a lieutenant-governor
arrives, entertaining opposite views, it is not always
p'ossible to avoid some disagreeable collision. On
such occasions the opinions of the consul are iden
tified in the mind of the governor with those of
the country he represents ; and if an unfortunate
Englishman should be thrown on the shores of the
island, without a regular passport, he would, pro
bably, be put in prison, and detained there for
months, to gratify a petty feeling of revenge. Two
such cases had not long before occurred, one in the
time of Yarto, the other in that of his immediate
predecessor, Don Juan de Moya. In the one case,
Mr. Potts, while sailing in a pleasure boat, on the
shores of Jamaica, had been blown off the coast,
c 3

22 CUBA.
and sought shelter at Santiago. In the other, Mr.
Campbell had been shipwrecked on the Bahamas,
and from thence had been landed in Cuba, on his
way back to Jamaica. In both cases, the parties
were thrown into prison, and it required the inter
position of the British government at home to
obtain their liberation.
General Lorenzo, another of these lieutenant-
governors, had thrown himself so completely into
the hands of the ultra-liberal party, as, in the opin
ion of his superior officer at the Havana, the cele
brated Captain-General Tacon, to endanger not
only the immediate tranquillity of the island, but
to put in jeopardy its future connection with the
mother country. It may be doubted how far a
British officer was justified in lending himself to
the interests of either party in an emergency
which, excepting in the private opinion of General
Tacon, did not necessarily involve the allegiance of
the inhabitants of the island to the government of
the Queen, but extended only to the adoption or
rejection of those constitutional forms which of
late years have so often divided the opinions of
the people of the Peninsula. It so happened, how
ever, that the commander of a British cruiser,
whose name it is not necessary to publish, but
whose instructions, in all probability, did not ex
ceed the watching of the shores of the island
against the descent of slavers from the coast of
Africa, and which cannot, at all events, be sup
posed to have extended to any political interfer
ence with the affairs of the local government, was

CAPTAIN-GENERAL TACON. 23
prevailed upon to invite General Lorenzo on board
his ship, and, whether with his consent or without
it does not appear, to carry him, a guest or a pri
soner, to the Havana. The power over the person
of Lorenzo, thus obtained by General Tacon, ap
pears to have been used with comparative mode
ration. Instead of sending him ^ prisoner to
Europe, Lorenzo was suffered to leave the island
without molestation. It may fairly be doubted,
whether this appearance of moderation arose from
clemency or prudence on the part of the Captain-
General. It might not be wise to agitate the ques
tion of the constitution at the Havana, where all
had hitherto remained tranquil. At Santiago it is
said that not less than 500 of the Exaltado party
were exterminated on the occasion of this outbreak.
It was not long after these events that the power of
Tacon himself was undermined ; but into this it will
be more convenient to enter after we have carried
the reader to the capital.

c 4

24 CUBA.

CHAP. II.

DEPARTURE PROM SANTIAGO.  ARMAMENT OE THE DEE.
 THE BENCH AND THE BAR.  THE GRANDE ANTILLA.
 BRITISH AUTHORITIES AT HAVANA.  TRAVELLING IN
OLD SPAIN.  CAPTAIN-GENERAL ESPELETA.  COMMIS
SARY JUDGES.  SUPERINTENDENT OF AFRICANS.  FRENCH
CONSUL-GENERAL.  LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION.
Not content with the liberal exercise of his hospi
tality at his residence in the country, Mr. Hardy
insisted on devoting the day he had contrived to
gain for us to an entertainment which he caused
to be provided at his spacious mansion in the city
of Santiago. The social habits of the people in
this part of the island bear a stronger resemblance
to those of Port-au-Prince, and the other great
towns of St. Domingo, than to the system adopted
in the capital. The principal meal of the day,
by some called a dinner, and by others a break
fast, is usually served at twelve o'clock. At the
Havana, the peninsular custom prevails of dining
at three in the afternoon, and afterwards indulging
in the siesta. The old Spaniards, in fact, divide
their four-and-twenty hours into two little days,
which, as far as eating or sleeping is concerned,
are made to resemble each other as nearly as pos
sible. As soon as they awake in the morning,
they must have their crust of bread and their tiny

DEPARTURE FROM SANTIAGO. 25
cup of chocolate, which they find sufficient to sus
tain them till the hour of dinner, of which they
make a hearty meal. Here the first of the two
little days may be said to end ; and after the siesta
the crust of bread and the chocolate are repeated,
leaving another interval of abstinence from five
o'clock till midnight, when they eat a hearty sup
per, resembling in all respects their three o'clock
dinner, and go once more to bed, setting at open
defiance the old rhyming Latin maxim : —
" Ex magna, coena stomacho fit maxima poena,
Ut sis nocte levis, sit tibi coena brevis."
After dinner comes the paseo and the interchange
of visits, those of ceremony being reserved for the
saints' days of the first order, the Fiestas de dos
Cruces. When the ordinary resources of music,
dancing, and conversation, are found insufficient
to fill up the evening, the people of the Havana
have the same public funcions to go to as in the
great cities of the Peninsula, the theatre, the
opera, or the Corrida de Toros.
After the consul's farewell entertainment, to
which I believe every individual was invited whose
acquaintance we had made in the island, with the
exception always of Don Tomas Yarto, the wind
having fortunately veered round so as to admit of
the sailing of the Grande Antilla, we put ourselves
once more on board the Dee, so as to enjoy to the
last the society of the friends who had so kindly
accompanied us from Jamaica, and the steamer
having taken the boat in tow, which contained our
baggage, we took our final leave of Santiago with

26 CUBA.
flying colours, and very soon found ourselves in
stalled among the numerous party which Captain
Vicent y Vives had collected on board \m fragata,
as ships of that class are called among the Spa
niards, however peaceful their occupation.
We must not take our final leave of Captain
Sherer, without paying a parting tribute to his
gallantry and worth. His last achievement, which
gained for him his second epaulette, was one of the
most brilliant and remarkable which our long con
tinued struggle for the suppression of the slave
trade has produced, and had, no doubt, a large share
in teaching the slavers to seek safety in flight, and
however superior in weight of metal, or in numbers,
to trust no longer to the hopeless chance of a
violent resistance. The Monkey, which Lieute
nant Sherer formerly commanded, was one of the
smallest and least considerable of the cruisers em
ployed in this arduous service. She mounted but
one gun, of a kind called a Long Tom, having a
much more extensive range than is usual in the
armament of vessels of her diminutive size. Fall
ing in on a friendly shore with one of the largest of
the ships engaged in that nefarious traffic, Lieute
nant Sherer, with a force exceedingly dispropor
tionate, did not hesitate to attack the slaver,
although armed with fourteen guns, and provided
with a numerous crew of the most determined des
peradoes. Taking up a position where his long
gun told with deadly effect, while the shot of the
enemy fell short and harmless, Lieutenant Sherer
found means to keep the slaver engaged so long as

ARMAMENT OF THE DEE. iSJ
to enable him to send ashore for assistance, without
which it would have been impossible for him to
take possession of his prize. Until we had finally
parted with Captain Sherer, we had never had the
good fortune to hear of this incident in his history.
We first became acquainted with it on visiting some
of the other cruisers on the Havana station, the
commanders of which had ornamented their cabins
with an engraving descriptive of the event. On
board the Dee no copy of this engraving was to
be found, although to have seen it there could
scarcely have excited any thing like that sort of
feeling which is too often called forth in this
country, by the exhibition in our drawing-rooms of
some sorry portrait of the master of the house.
The armament of the Dee was not, perhaps,
in very just proportion to the dimensions of the
ship for tonnage, to the complement of her crew,
nor to the amount of the steam power with which
she was provided. Before she received on board the
monstrous piece of ordnance already described, she
was armed with three guns, — two Dicksons, and
a long pivot gun, — all three thirty- two pounders.
At the time I have been speaking of, the thirty-
two-pound pivot gun remained on board, being
placed in the bows of the ship, so as to give it a
wide field of action, not less perhaps than 270°,
but the two Dicksons had been replaced by the
eighty-four pounder. The flush deck of the Dee
is, perhaps, one of the most spacious in the service,
being 168 feet in length, and 38 feet wide, ex
clusive of the paddle boxes, this great superficial

28 CUBA.
extent being, doubtless, designed for the accom
modation of troops, in transporting them from one
colony to another. While at Barbadoes, I was
informed by Lieutenant-General Whittingham, the
commander of the forces throughout the British
West Indies, with the exception of Jamaica, that
he would willingly give up one of the regiments
under his command, in exchange for such a steamer
as the Dee, in consequence of the great advan
tage he would gain in point of mobility ; and at
Jamaica, this advantage having already been at
tained, Sir Lionel Smith informed me some three
months after the termination of the apprenticeship,
such was his confidence in the maintenance of
tranquillity among the emancipated negroes, that
he was about to write to the government, placing
two of the six regiments under his command at
their disposal. The registered tonnage of the
Dee is 703, her depth in the engine room,
sixteen feet four inches, and when she has her
full complement of coals, fresh water, and pro
visions on board, she draws thirteen feet ten inches
aft, and twelve feet six inches forward. She can
carry 230 tons of coals, 35 tons of fresh water,
and four months' provisions for a crew of 126 men.
On the last occasion of her crossing the Atlantic,
she was sent out as a sort of tender on the " Great
Western," as Lord Durham was familiarly called
at Quebec ; but from the shortness of his lordship's
stay, and the accidents which occurred in the
passage, the High Commissioner was compelled to
avail himself of the services of the John Bull, one

THE BENCH AND THE BAR. 29
of the best of the river, boats on the St. Law
rence. It is to the sagacity and penetration of another
noble lord, the most eccentric, if not the ablest of
our surviving ex-chancellors, that Jamaica is in
debted for the best chief justice that has perhaps
ever presided over any of our colonial tribunals.
The father of our fellow-traveller, Sir Joshua Rowe,
had occasion to retain Mr. Brougham not long
before his elevation to the Woolsack, as his counsel
in a cause of very great importance, and young
Rowe, who was then a student in one of the inns
of court, displayed so much industry, ability, and
research in cramming the distinguished senior
against the day of trial, that Mr. Brougham had
the best means of seeing what the young man was
made ofj and did not forget his young client when
the vast patronage of the head of the law came to
be placed at his disposal. With the exception of
Dr. Reddie at St. Lucia, who also owes his pro
motion to Lord Brougham, Sir Joshua Rowe was
perhaps one of the youngest men who has ever
been raised to the dignity of a chief justice; and I
speak from personal observation, having repeatedly
had the honour to sit beside him on the bench,
in declaring my conviction of his extreme aptitude,
from his talents, temper, and application, for the
fit discharge of the duties of the high office to
which he has been called.
In other colonies I have had the mortification to
meet with chief justices and other presidents of
tribunals who have shown themselves far inferior

30 CUBA.
in legal attainments to the leading counsel at their
bar ; and the natural consequence has been, that
while the advocate, presuming too much on his
superior knowledge, lays down the law to the
bench, the temper of the judge is often so severely
tried as to produce irreconcileable differences with
the bar, and to betray such want of temper as to
sink him still lower in their estimation. Such
scenes are of course more likely to occur in the
courts of the conquered colonies, where the basis
of the law is, perhaps, French, Dutch, or Spanish,
with an ill-defined superstructure of the English
law of evidence, or the addition of some equally
vague though more separate department, such as
the Lex Mercatoria of British jurisprudence.
To this disadvantage the Chief Justice of
Jamaica has not been exposed ; but, independ
ent of such considerations, there is in all our
trans-atlantic tribunals enough of that spirit of
discord which seems unhappily to prevail among
Englishmen, as often as they are removed to a
great distance from home, to make the task of
conciliating or controlling the bar sufficiently ar
duous. In these distant colonies, moreover, as, per
haps, in all young countries, the practical line of
distinction between the counsel and the attorney
has not been very clearly defined, so that the invi
dious duty of putting the solicitors of Jamaica in
their proper place remained to be performed so
lately as the arrival of Sir Joshua Rowe in the
island. This he has contrived to do so calmly and
so well, as to excite the very minimum of discontent

THE GRANDE ANTILLA. 31
among those who have suffered in their interests or
their social relations from the new arrangement.
Outside the Moro Castle we found the Grande
Antilla under sail, and ready to prosecute her voy
age. She had been built only a year before at
Malta, under the eye of her present commander ;
and in point of accommodation and equipment,
she would stand a favourable comparison with the
best of the old sailing packets between Liverpool
and New York. Unfortunately for us, the best
places were preoccupied by the seventy and odd
passengers we found already on board ; but, after
all, we had little reason to complain of the cabin
provided for us ; and if one must be confined in
a crowded ship where so many personal sacri
fices are always required, I should certainly prefer,
after a good deal of experience, to travel with
Spaniards than with the people of any other nation
on the face of the earth. I make this statement
advisedly, in spite of the considerable deduction
arising from the fact, which it would be unfair
to withhold, that every individual on board, man,
woman, and child, used tobacco incessantly, in
every form but the abominable one of chew
ing and its concomitant expectoration, an atro
city reserved for our brethren of North America.
The married ladies, several of them the wives
of officers of some rank in the army, smoked
openly and undisguisedly, preferring in general
that strong sort of tobacco which is made up into
cigars in the form called the Long Tom, some five
or six inches in length. The young ladies make

32 CUBA.
their maiden essay with the cigarillo, which consists
of a very small portion of the much cherished weed,
of the mildest possible flavour, wrapped up in paper
prepared for the purpose, by dipping it in a solution
of alum just strong enough to prevent it from burst
ing into flame, or wasting away faster than the semi-
pulverised tobacco contained in it. It is but fair
to add, that in the first circles at the Havana, as at
the court of her Catholic Majesty, ladies, young
or old, of the highest rank, are as free from this
indulgence as in other parts of the world.
The Mexican ladies are evidently more devoted
to this habit than their fair sisters of the Peninsula.
But although I have travelled over Old Spain, from
the one end of the country to the other, and, during
a residence there of some fifteen months, have
lived on terms of intimacy with many of the kind-
hearted inhabitants, I certainly never had the
chance to be involved in clouds of smoke so dense
as in the cabin of the good ship the Grande Antilla.
The fare on board was of course exclusively
Spanish, more decidedly so, indeed, than any thing
I had ever met with in Europe. Their favourite
condiment, the garlic, prevailed in almost every
dish, so that it required us to make interest with
the Cabo de Cocina, to avoid the daily pollution.
In the French West India colonies the lan
guage of navigation is exclusively English ; al
though, except in what relates to nautical affairs,
the seamen, white, black, or brown, speak no
language but their own. In former times, when
the proud Armadas of Spain were to be found in

THE GRANDE ANTILLA. 33
every sea, our sailors did not disdain to borrow
such words of the vocabulary of their most power
ful rivals as best suited their purpose. The word
avast ! for instance, is evidently a mere corruption
of the Spanish word basta, or vasta, which, when
repeated rapidly, produces the selfsame sound.
English words, of modern application to naval
affairs, are to be heard on board the ships of every
nation, such as the stop ! in taking the time from
the chronometer, so admirably suited, from the
sudden compression of the lips, to effect its purpose
promptly. The ship, upon the whole, was exceedingly well
navigated, so that it was with surprise, as well as
regret, that we heard before quitting the Havana,
that she had been stranded on the island of Sacri
ficios, the rendezvous of the French and English
squadrons on the coast of Mexico ; but whether
she had been previously deprived of her pilot, as
was the British packet the Express, within a
few days of the event, I was not able to learn. On
the return of the Express from Vera Cruz and
Tampico, I had occasion to pass a night on board
in the harbour of the Havana, with a friend, who
was going home in her a passenger, and had a good
deal of conversation on the subject with Lieutenant
Croke, before his indignation had had quite time
to cool. I could not help expressing to him, in
very strong terms, my own feelings on the subject,
which, I rejoice to find, have since been fully sus
tained by public opinion in England, and by
statesmen of high station in both houses of pari ia-

34

CUBA.

ment. It is, doubtless, to be regretted, that an
officer of the British navy should have submitted
so tamely to the indignity committed on his flag,
without even opposing the show of passive resist
ance to the princely aggression. His Royal
Highness did me afterwards the honour of inviting
me on board his ship, the Creole ; but although
he was exceedingly communicative on all other
subjects, even to the announcement of a French
attack on Mexico, on the side of the Pacific, which
has not yet taken place, he did not say a word of
his adventure with the Express.
From the terms of the apology afterwards offered
by Admiral Baudin to Commodore Douglass, it
seems as if he had it in charge to assume the
paternity of all the errors of his princely protegS,
since, if I rightly remember, the name of his Royal
Highness is not even mentioned in it. It is to be
hoped, however, that the gallant old admiral took
occasion to read such a private lecture to the
prince, as will deter him when he rises to a higher
station in the naval service of France, from falling,
on, perhaps, a larger scale, into similar blunders.
By the kindness of Lord Palmerston and Lord
Glenelg I was provided with the necessary intro
ductions to all the British authorities at the Ha
vana, Mr. Kennedy, her Majesty's commissary
judge, and Mr. Dalrymple, the arbitrator in the
court of mixed commission, Dr. Madden, the su
perintendent of liberated Africans, and the consul,
Mr. Tolme. From all these gentlemen I met with
the most marked attention during the whole pe-

BRITISH AUTHORITIES AT HAVANA. 35
riod of my stay; but to Dr. Madden I was in
debted not only for his unbTiundecThospitality at /
the Havana, but for his valuable assistance in the |
prosecution of my inquiries, and his agreeable com- j
pany in several of my excursions into the interior.
To Mr. Tolme I was obliged for much more than
official civility, in his supplying me with notes of
the information he had collected during his resi
dence in the island.
Even without the advantage of special letters of
recommendation, the access to the Spanish autho
rities was far from being difficult. The new cap-
tairbgeneral, Espeleta, is perhaps of too mild and
gentle a disposition to be well suited for the su
preme command of a colony where so large a pro
portion of its inhabitants, from the undiminished
prevalence of the slave trade, are in a state of the
most savage barbarism. It is doubtless to the
more amiable qualities of the new governor's mind
that we are indebted for the sneering pasquinade
which was in every body's mouth at the time of
our arrival : — " El General Tacon
Vale un doblon,
El General Espeleta
No vale una peseta."
The consul's introduction to the Captain-General
needed no extraneous support; but it so happened
that I was able, at my first audience, to make his
Excellency laugh at a little incident which befel
me a few years ago at Saragossa, where his elder
brother, the Conde de Espeleta, a grandee of Spain,
d 2

CUBA.

held also the office of captain-general. At the
period in question, a few weeks after the death of
Ferdinand VIL, a journey through the Spanish
territory was supposed to be an expedition of a
very hazardous nature ; and I therefore took the
precaution to mention my project to Lord Gran
ville, the British ambassador, in Paris, who, with
his accustomed kindness and consideration, pro
posed to make me the bearer of the semblance of
a despatch-bag, which would, probably, afford some
protection from the facciosos, who had already
begun to make their appearance on the frontier.
Before the day I had fixed for leaving Paris, some
event had arisen to make it necessary for the am
bassador to send real despatches to our minister in
Madrid ; and as I was willing in this part of the
journey to travel as fast as post horses could carry
me, I made no objection to his lordship's proposal,
that, in place of the sham bag, I should take charge
of the real one. Lest I should meet with la-
drones, as well as facciosos, on the road, I carried
no more money with me than what I was assured
would be quite sufficient to carry me to Madrid ;
but, having consulted the Consul at Bayonne, in
compliance with Lord Granville's instructions, as
to the safety of proceeding by way of Irun and
Vittoria, I was informed that a king's messenger
had been stopped only two days before, and that it
would be necessary for the safety of the despatches
that they should go round by Perpignan and Bar
celona. This change of route, and the high price
charged for post horses on a line of road not then

TRAVELLING IN OLD SPAIN. 37
much frequented, made it pretty clear by the time
of my reaching Saragossa, that I should arrive
much sooner at the bottom of my purse, than at
the capital of the monarchy. In this awkward
state of things I waited on a French banker, for
whom I had brought a simple letter of recommend
ation from his correspondent at Bayonne ; but in
consequence, as he alleged, of the disturbed state of
the country which had for some time interrupted
all commercial transactions, he declined to afford
me the assistance I required, even after I had
shown him my credentials, and had offered to give
him a draft for the money on Mr. Villiers, now
Lord Clarendon, the British minister in Madrid.
In this perplexity it occurred to me to make an
appeal to the highest authority on the spot, and to
represent to him that the despatches of which I was
the bearer were probably of quite as much im
portance to the government of his royal mistress
as to that of my own sovereign, and that it might
therefore be his duty to help me on my way. On
reaching the residence of the Viceroy of Arragon,
I found his Excellency surrounded by a brilliant
staff; but he readily listened to the statement I
made to him, in the course of which I mentioned
what had just occurred in my interview with the
French banker. His Excellency no sooner heard
of this than he ordered that a messenger should
be instantly sent for the poor Frenchman, who
quickly made his appearance in a very different
plight, and with quite another bearing to what he
had just displayed under his own roof to a waylaid
d 3

38 CUBA.
traveller. Addressing him in the tone of a captain-
general, his Excellency desired to know what he
meant by his refusal to furnish a stranger who
brought such undeniable credentials with the
means of prosecuting his journey. To this the
trembling Frenchman did not venture a reply ; but
anticipating what was wanted of him, he produced
on the instant the small sum I required, and left
me to express my thanks to the Captain- General
for the essential service he had rendered me.
This little anecdote is so perfectly Spanish in its
character, that I cannot resist its introduction,
although it has little other claim to a place in this
narrative, beyond the fact that its repetition to the
Captain-General of Cuba had some share in pro
curing for me many of the facilities I enjoyed
during my stay in the island, in arriving at accurate
and unprejudiced information.
Since my return to Europe, I have learned that
General Espeleta, after a short administration, is to
be replaced in the government by the Principe de
Anglona, who will doubtless be instructed tD^ursue
the same line of policy on the subject of the slave
trade which has heretofore been prescribed to
every captain-general in succession, since the first
indications have been manifested of a desire for in
dependence in Spanish America. The government
of the Prince of Anglona is not likely to be sig
nalised by that extreme rigour towards the Creoles
which marked the administration of General Tacon.
The prince has the reputation of possessing a kind
and benevolent disposition ; but he is supposed to

COMMISSARY JUDGES. 39
be indebted for this lucrative appointment much
more to the influence of his sister the Marquesa de
Santa Cruz over the mind of the Queen Regent,
than to any known talent on his part in the art of
governing. During the peninsular war, the prince
served for some time under the Duke of Wellington.
He is the uncle of the young Duque de Osuna, who
of late years has made himself so distinguished in
the gay circles of London and Paris.
At the Havana, the Conde de Villanueva, the
in ten dent-general of the island, is a person who,
from his immense wealth, and the nature of his
functions, in a country where finance and cor
ruption are supposed to go hand in hand, enjoys
a degree of influence and power very little inferior
to that of the viceroy. To this personage I had
also the advantage of a favourable introduction-
which procured for me the readiest access to the
public archives, and to other sources of official
information, not in general thrown open to the
most inquisitive strangers.
The Conde de Fernandina, her Catholic Ma
jesty's commissary judge, and Don Juan de Mon
talvo y O' Farrel, the arbitrator in the mixed
commission, were also persons whom I found equally
accessible in person as they are dignified in bearing,
and agreeable in manners. Noblemen of the highest
rank, who have scarcely ever left the island, they
are said to have accepted the onerous offices they
hold in the mixed commission, which they execute
gratuitously, in order to avoid the necessity which
would otherwise be pressed upon them of making
d 4

40 CUBA.
their appearance at court in these troublesome
times. In the whole framework of this commission, and
in the principles on which it is constituted, there is
something exceedingly farcical. The chief duty
of the tribunal is to adjudicate on the claims of the
commanders of her Majesty's cruisers, for the
condemnation of the prizes they have detained or
captured, in consequence of their infraction of the
existing treaties between Spain and Great Britain,
on the subject of the slave trade. In the first
instance the two commissary judges hear the evi
dence adduced in support of the claim of condem
nation, together with the exculpatory proof on the
part of the captain or owner of the prize ; but, as
might be expected from the materials of which the
court is composed, the commissary judges are very
rarely agreed in opinion as to the judgment which
ought to be pronounced; so that it becomes neces
sary, almost invariably, to call in one of the arbi
trators, to settle the difference in the capacity of
umpire. To admit the intervention of both would
lead to no practical result, as it has been found that
the Spanish arbitrator adopts the views of the
Spanish commissary, with the most edifying uni
formity; and the English functionaries are com
pelled in self-defence to follow the example.
In this state of things as often as the court is
divided in opinion, since it is by no means a matter
of indifference, on which of the arbitrators the
powers of an umpire shall devolve, the ingenious
expedient has been resorted to of appealing for the

COMMISSARY JUDGES. 41
choice to a power, which, according to the ancient
mythology, is represented as having one quality in
common with justice, that of being blind. The
dice box is produced ; the learned judges tirent d
la courte paille ; or Dame Fortune is appealed to
by some other form of lottery, to determine which
shall arbitrate — the Spaniard or the Englishman —
between their dissident chiefs, so that it may be
fairly said at the Havana, and perhaps also at the
other courts of Rio de Janeiro, Surinam, and Sierra
Leone, that the condemnation of a slaver depends
not nearly so much on fact, or .law, or the merits
of the case, as on the less fallible doctrine of
chances. The English commissary judge in the mixed
commission, Mr. Kennedy, is a gentleman who
will long be remembered as the only member re
presenting an English constituency in the British
House of Commons, who divided with Mr. O'Con-
nell in his celebrated motion for the repeal of the
Union. On the return of the present ministers to
power after the last short administration of the
Tories, the seat required for the noble Secretary
for Foreign Affairs was procured by the retirement
of Mr. Kennedy from Tiverton. He is supposed to
have stipulated for a high diplomatic appointment ;
but after some months' delay, the treaty was brought
to a conclusion by his acceptance of this judicial
office, at the Havana, which, besides the enjoyment
of a house rent free, is remunerated with a salary
of 1600/. a year. By a stipulation between the
two governments, the Spanish judges at Sierra

42 CUBA.
Leone are provided with dwelling houses at the
expense of England, and, in return, the English
judges at the Havana are similarly provided at the
expense of Spain. The practice at the Havana is
for a new judge on his arrival, to ascertain what
houses there may be to let that would suit him ;
and having made his selection, he signifies the fact
to the local authorities, who indemnify the land
lord, and so relieve the judge from all concern
about his rent.
The arbitrator, Mr. Dalrymple, had only lately
been promoted from a similar situation in the court
of mixed commission at Surinam, where his situation
was in all respects inferior, the climate being in
tolerable, and the salary 200/. less than it is at the
Havana. It must, therefore, have been a serious
punishment to his predecessor, Mr. Schenley, to be
moved, as he has been, from his comfortable quar
ters at the Havana to the pestiferous swamps of
Surinam. The office of superintendentof liberated Afri
cans is one of recent creation, arising out of the
necessity of providing for the present comfort and
future freedom of the negroes captured by our
cruisers, and brought with the slaver to the Havana,
preparatory to her condemnation ; and assuredly
this interesting office could not possibly have been
entrusted to a gentleman more sincerely or more
entirely devoted to its duties than its first and pre
sent incumbent, Dr. Madden. In connection with
this office, there has for some time been stationed
in the harbour of the Havana a British hulk or

SUPERINTENDENT OF AFRICANS. 43
ponton, under the command of a British officer,
Lieutenant Jenkins, of her Majesty's navy, whose
duty it is to receive on board and provide for the
liberated crews of the slavers, as soon as the mixed
commission has passed the necessary sentence of
condemnation. Mr. Tolme, in his consular capacity, is one of
the most efficient, intelligent, and courteous of the
numerous servants of her Majesty, whom it has
been my fortune to meet with in any part of the
world. Unfortunately for the public service, quite
as much as for himself, his salary is so limited, be
ing not more than 300/. a year, that he has been
compelled to engage in business as a merchant and
a planter, in order to enable him to occupy that
station in society which the nature of his office
imperatively requires. Now of all the stations
where it has been found necessary to place a con
sul for the protection of British interests, the Ha
vana is the very last where this necessity should
have place. It is impossible for any man, however
theoretically opposed to the practi£g of-slavery, to
become either planier_^rjnerchant in the island of
Cuba without giving his countenance directly or
indirectly to a system which has happily been for
ever abolished throughout the wide-spread domi
nions of the British crown. The concomitant evils,
also, are not unworthy of consideration. The Bri
tish authorities at the Havana ought clearly to be
acting as one man in discountenancing slavery, as
well as in the suppression of the slave trade. But
so long as the consul is compelled by the inade-

44 CUBA.
quacy of his official income to employ slaves on his
plantation, and as a merchant to import goods,
which may afterwards find their way to the coast
of Africa, it is impossible that there can be much
cordiality between him and the other British func
tionaries, whose duty, of course, it is to set their
faces against slavery in all its accursed forms.
The trade of France with the Havana, as may
be seen from the official returns, is greatly inferior
to that of England, and yet France is represented
by her consul-general with a salary of 60,000
francs a year. The American consul is paid by
fees ; but his income, from the great amount of the
trade, is probably more considerable than that of
the French consul-general. I was told at Wash
ington, by Mr. Van Buren, that the Havana
consulate was one of the most lucrative offices in
the gift of the government. This is fully borne
out by the official returns of both countries,
from which it is equally to be inferred that the in
come is sufficient and even ample ; although, pro
bably, not greater than is warranted by the nature
and extent of the duties to be performed, and the
station in society which the consul is expected to
fill, in a city where luxury abounds, and where the
most modest style of living is unusually expensive.
According to the report of Mr. Woodbury, the
secretary of the United States treasury, the imports
from Cuba for 1838, amounted to #11,694,812, and
the exports for the same year to #6,175,758. From
Porto Rico, the imports were #2,686,152, and the
exports #723,052.

LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION. 45
The letters I had brought to non-official re
sidents, to merchants in the city, and proprietors
of plantations, were also in their way exceedingly
useful ; and although it is the fashion among a
certain class of travellers, laying claim to an un
natural independence, to despise such adventitious
aids, and trust entirely for success in the pursuit of
instruction to their own personal resources, I do
not hesitate to confess, that by such means I have
generally been enabled to economise my time,
and to reach my object more easily and more
agreeably than I could possibly have done without
them. My very first step on shore afforded satisfactory
evidence of the advantage of being provided with
an adequate supply of such letters. Having pre
viously sent to the consul for his assistance under
a difficulty created by the carelessness of one of
the officers of the Grande Antilla, who had taken
my passport from me and mislaid it, I found
that he was out of town for tbe day, that there
was no vice-consul on the station, and that I was
therefore in danger of being detained on board for
some indefinite period. Nay, for aught I know to
the contrary, there may possibly have been some
danger of my being sent for a month or two to
prison, as was but lately the case with my country
men, Messrs. Campbell and Potts, at Santiago de
Cuba, for no other reason than that their passports
were not exactly en rigle. A most efficient
substitute, however, was promptly obtained by
means of the letters I had brought for the eminent

46 CUBA.
English house of Drake and Co. Mr. Morison of
that house not only did not hesitate to sign a bond
for my relief ; but, as in the course of my jour-
neyings among the islands of this Archipelago,
my baggage had increased, by the addition of
books, specimens, and other matters, to a most
inconvenient bulk, such was Mr. Morison's influ
ence with the presiding Aduanero, or such rather
the confidence his high character inspired, that the
form of passing my unopened packages through
the great lobby of the custom-house sufficed ; with
out subjecting them to the derangement of even a
slight examination.

STATE OF SLAVERY. 47

CHAP. III.
STATE OF SLAVERY.  FIELD SLAVES.  WHIPPING POST.
 THE PRISON.  THE BARRACOONS.  CREOLES AND
BOZALS.  AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE.
Between the planters of Cuba and those of the
British colonies, there is this remarkable difference,
that when an Englishman does not reside on his
estate, he is an absentee from the island altogether,
and is willing to remain in England, or at least in
Europe, until he has run so far ahead of his re
sources, that he is compelled to return to the
tropics for the sake of retrenchment. This state
of things has given rise to the race of planting
attorneys so admirably described in the work of my
friend, Dr. Madden, and has also made it necessary
to employ a superior class of overseers to those who
enjoy the corresponding station of Mayoral in the
island of Cuba. Unlike the British planter, the
Cuba, proprietor has no desire to return to the
mother country, between which and the colony the
ties_oT~affection are becoming daily more relaxed,
leaving nothing in their stead but the iron grasp of
power, which some unforeseen accident may burst
suddenly, at once and for ever.
The Spanish planter, although he does not leave
the island, scarcely ever resides on his estate ;
where there is rarely any mansion house fit for his

48 CUBA.
reception. The great majority of them live con
stantly at the Havana, and a few have taken up
their residence at Santiago and Matanzas, and the
minor cities of the island. They may possibly be
separated from their estates by a distance of hun
dreds of miles, without the advantage of any thing
in the shape of roads that are either safe or prac
ticable. Finding nothing on his plantation to repay
the fatigue of his journey, or supply the place of
the luxuries of the colonial capital, he visits it so
seldom that he may be considered quite as much
an absentee from his estate as the Jamaica planter
wTuTrias taken up his residence at Rome or Naples.
As the experience of years had taught me to
believe that the Spaniards are a kind and warm
hearted race, and as I had frequently been told that
the slave owners of the Havana were the most
indulgent masters in the world, I was not a little
surprised to find, as the result of personal inquiry
and minute observation, that in this last particular
I had been most miserably deceived, and that in no
quarter, unless, perhaps, in the Brazils, which I
have not visited, is the state of slavery so despe
rately wretched as it is at this moment on the
sugar plantations of the queen of the Indies, the
far-famed island of Cuba.
The error I had fallen into is so universal among
people who have never visited the island, and so
common even with those who have made some
stay at the Havana, but have never proceeded
into the interior that when I discovered it, I felt
that it deserved some little investigation. When

STATE OF SLAVERY. 49
a stranger visits the town residence of a Cuba
proprietor, he finds the family surrounded by a
little colony of slaves of every variety of com
plexion from ebony to alabaster. Most of them
have been born in the house, have grown with the
growth of the family, and are, perhaps, the foster
brothers or foster sisters of the master or his chil
dren. In such circumstances, it would be sur
prising if an uncivilised barbarian were to treat
them harshly ; and for a Spanish, and much more
for a Creole, master to do so, imbued as he is with ^
all the warmth of the social affections, is totally
out of the question. These long retinues of do
mestics are kept up by some from an idle love of
pageantry, but, by others, from the more honour
able desire of not parting with those born under
their roof, and for that reason, bearing their name ;
as it is the practice in Cuba, and in other slave
countries into which Africans are imported, for the
first proprietor, whether his title be acquired by
purchase or inheritance, to bestow his own pa
tronymic, together with a Christian name, on his
slave, whether an imported Bozal or an infant
Creole, at the time when the indispensable cere
mony of baptism is performed.
The distinction of ranks among the various
classes of society is as carefully kept up in Cuba
as in the most aristocratical countries of the Old ,
World. The first includes the resident grandees of
Spain, of whom there are about thirty, the Titulos
of Castile, resembling as nearly as possible the
anomalous rank of Baronet in England, and the
E

50 CUBA.
Hacendados, or landed gentry, of the island. Next
after them come the Empleados, or civil function
aries in the public offices, of whom, at the Havana
alone, there are said to be 1000; and on the same
level with these gentlemen may be placed the
officers of the army and navy. The merchants,
Spanish, Creole, or foreign, hold only the third
place in the order of precedency. After them
come their clerks, French, English, North Ame
rican, or German ; such of them as come from
Spain being chiefly Caditanos. Retail merchants
and shopkeepers hold a still lower station ; they
come in general from the Canaries, Catalonia,
Biscay, or North America. The Gallegos, like
our own Irish labourers, occupy the lowest place
in the social scale ; the coloured and negro race
being tabooed altogether. The emigrants from Old
Spain and the Canaries, but especially the Catalans
and Gallegos, with their descendants, may be con
sidered a permanent addition to the population ;
but foreigners, who generally come as clerks and
depart as merchants, take root but rarely.
It has often been remarked that even hired
servants have an interest directly opposed to that
of their masters. How much more true is the old
Latin proverb, " Quot servi, tot hostes" when ap
plied to the owner of a long retinue of slaves ? In
the course of time the numbers of the domestic
colony increase so much, that it becomes necessary
to employ them in other than household duties ; so
that, in one of the great houses of the Havana, you
may generally find a tailor and a shoemaker, and

FIELD SLAVES. 51
perhaps a mantua-maker or a milliner, attached to
the establishment. When in the course of years
the number of the domestic slaves has increased
beyond all bounds, the surplus are allowed to hire
themselves out as tradesmen or household servants,
on the condition of their bringing home to their
owner a fixed sum weekly or monthly frorn the
amount of their earnings ; and in justice to the
slave-masters of the Havana, it is but fair to add
that the exaction thus made is, in general, not so
exorbitant but that a prudent and industrious slave
might be able in a few years from his surplus
-earnings to purchase his entire emancipation from
bondage, step by step, according to the gradual
system prescribed by the Spanish colonial code.
When we get into the country and visit the
coffee, and especially the sugar plantations; where
I propose by and by to carry the reader, if he
has the patience or the heart to accompany me
through the revolting details, we shall see how
very differently the unhappy field negro is treated.
It is there we verify the words of the poet : —
" Sunt lachrymse rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt."
In fact, the most dreadful of all threats with which
one of the wealthy inhabitants of the Havana
contrives to terrify a delinquent domestic from the
errors to which he is prone, is to hint at the ne
cessity of sending him to rusticate for a season,
under the charge of the Mayoral, on his master's
estate in the country.
In our own sugar colonies, during the prevalence
E 2

52 CUBA.
of slavery, there was the same tendency to an un
reasonable increase of the planter's domestic esta
blishment, but as " the great house" was probably
situated within sight of the sugar mill, so that the
master became acquainted with the persons and
characters of his field negroes and their families,
by daily observation and intercourse, it was not
unusual to make exchanges from the house to the
field, or vice versd. These changes, although still
a punishment sufficiently severe for the one party,
] had nothing so terrible in their aspect, as the
/ banishment from a life of pampered luxury and
' ease in the Havana, to that worst of penal settle
ments, a Cuba sugar plantation. Under the tender
mercies of the Mayoral, he knows well before
leaving the Havana that he has nothing to expect
in the plantation but a wretched existence of over
labour and starvation, accompanied by the appli
cation, or at least the constant terror, of the lash
as an incentive, relieved only by the hope of that
dissolution, which sleepless nights and incessant
toils are so speedily and so surely to accomplish.
The change from the apprenticeship to perfect
freedom in the British colonies will not be im
mediately favourable to the supernumerary class of
domestics, as the planter can never afford to pay
wages to so many servants even in his own family,
as he has heretofore been accustomed to allow to
his overseer. I have seen, for instance, in the
house of an English overseer, whose salary might
not, perhaps, exceed some three hundred pounds
sterling a year, a most disproportionate array of

WHIPPING POST. 53
attendants, butlers, footmen, grooms, stable boys,
cooks, housemaids, and washerwomen, amounting
altogether to, perhaps, twenty in number, yet not
equal, after all, to the third of a great Havana
establishment. The state of things in the British
colonies to which we have referred, must now of
course be altered, and the overseer must be
content with an addition to his salary to com
pensate him for the defalcation in his household
arrangements. To those who are not wilfully blindfold, there are
not wanting even at the Havana, not to speak of
the sugar oreven of thecoffee plantations, a thousand
palpable indications of the misery which attends
the curse of slavery, independent altogether of the
superior horrors of the Slave Trade.
On the public Alameda, just outside the gates of
the fortified portion of the city, and therefore
within the limits of a dense population, there may
be seen a modest looking building protected from
public gaze by lofty wooden parapets, in the interior
of which are a series of whipping posts, to which
unwilling or disobedient slaves are sent to receive
their allotted quota' of punishment, as a saving of
time or labour, or perhaps to spare the too tender
feelings of their masters or mistresses. But, al
though by means of the parapets, the authorities
have succeeded in shutting out the inquisitive
glances of the passers by, excluding from public
view the streaming blood and lacerated flesh of the
sufferers, they have totally failed in shutting in their
piercing screams and piteous shrieks for mercy.
e 3

54 CUBA.
Those visitors at the Havana who are accustomed
to speak in terms of inconsiderate satisfaction of
the comforts and indulgences of the slaves, some
times sneeringly comparing them with the privations
to which an English or an Irish labourer is exposed,
have probably never heard of those family arrange
ments by which the spirit of a slave, who has first
been spoiled by over indulgence, is to be system
atically and periodically broken. The mistress of
many a great family in the Havana will not scruple
to tell you that such is the proneness of her people
to vice and idleness, she finds it necessary to send
one or more of them once a month to the whipping
post, not so much on account of any positive de
linquency, as because without these periodical
advertisements the whole family would become
unmanageable, and the master and mistress would
lose their authority.
The administration of Captain-General Tacon
has been at once more praised and more censured
than that of any of his predecessors. The vigorous
system of police he created, and the public works
he promoted, are the chief subjects of commend
ation ; the extreme tyranny of his government to
wards the Creole portion of the community the
great source of complaint. For many years before
his arrival, and particularly during the administra
tion of Ricafort, his immediate predecessor, the
streets of the Havana were not safe from the
robber and the assassin, either by night or by day.
The same vigour which so promptly cleared the
streets of malefactors was applied in restraining the

the prison. 55
slightest expression of political sentiment. It is
asserted, that not less than 200 individuals, some of
them distinguished for their literary attainments,
and almost all belonging to the respectable classes
of society, were sent out of the island without any
form of trial whatever. A considerable number
left in prison by Tacon at the time of his removal,
were immediately set at liberty on the accession of
Espeleta to the government ; and to this day it is
strenuously asserted, that nothing in the nature of
a conspiracy against the government had ever
existed, nor any thing beyond the well known
private conviction of the Creole inhabitants, that
the taxes levied and the government imposed on
them were a serious grievance.
Of the public works which remain to comme
morate the activity of Tacon's administration, the
new prison, erected outside the walls near the
fortress of the Punta, is by far the most important,
although its founder did not remain long enough
in the government to witness its completion. It
was far from being finished at the period of my
leaving the island in the beginning of 1839, and
yet it already contained upwards of a thousand
prisoners. It is built in the form of a parallelo
gram, 240 feet in front, by 300 feet deep, the
eastern front containing to the left the dwelling-
house of the Alcalde, and on the right the Cuerpo
de Guardia. The interior is so arranged as to ef
fect a complete separation between the white pri
soners and the people of colour, the dormitories for
the coloured prisoners being placed on the left of
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56 CUBA.
the entrance, and those for the whites on the right.
The superficial space allowed in the dormitories,
which are of great extent, is two square yards and
a half for each prisoner. During my stay in the
Havana, the habitable portion of the building was
constantly full, so that it became necessary to send
the surplus to the fortress of the Cabanas on the
other side of the bay.
So far as I could observe, there was no attempt
at a classification of prisoners, beyond the mere
division of the sexes, and the separation of colours.
There are indeed rooms called Las salas de distin-
cion, into which those prisoners are allowed to
enter indiscriminately who can afford to pay for
the accommodation, whether debtors, convicts, or
accused ; and it was asserted — with what truth I
had not the means of ascertaining — that white
prisoners of all classes were made to pay a daily fee
of a small amount for the privilege of not being
locked up in the gallery appropriated to people of
colour. The internal police is probably not so strict as it
was during Tacon's administration ; for in passing
the strongly barred gate of the negro gallery, I
expressed to the officer who accompanied me a wish
to enter, as I observed the prisoners were at dinner.
His answer was, that he could not think of it, as
most certainly I should not come out alive, and he
himself would be held responsible for my safety.
The better, I suppose, to reconcile me to the dis
appointment, he mentioned a circumstance which
had occurred only the day before. A person from

THE PRISON. 57
the interior of the island on his way to the Havana
to purchase a supply of slaves, had been attacked,
robbed, and murdered, about ten miles from the
city. He was attended by two of his domestic
slaves, one of whom had made his escape, while the
other had fallen with his master. On his report of
the catastrophe, the survivor, for safe keeping
merely, was sent to the Carcel, the better to secure
his testimony against the hour of trial ; but on
the day preceding my visit, the witness was found
dead in this negro gallery, having been murdered
by some of his fellow prisoners, who were supposed
to have been bribed with the fruits of the original
crime, for the purpose of destroying the evidence,
and securing impunity to the criminals.
In the time of Tacon, such an offence could
scarcely have occurred, and, if it had, would cer
tainly have been followed by an immediate and
most searching investigation.
The upper part of the building is to be fitted up
as a barrack for the accommodation of troops of the
line, and as it consists of but two stories, the prison
ers are all to be lodged on the rez de chaussSe.
Next to the prison, which Tacon's system of
coercion had rendered indispensable, the new paseo,
which serves to connect the suburban palace of the
Captain-General with the city, is the public work
for which his admirers have praised him the most.
It is certainly an ornament to the city, and a source
of recreation to such of the inhabitants as can afford
to ride in carriages ; but it is evidently not designed
for the convenience of the humble pedestrian, who,

58 CUBA.
from the absence of footpaths, or other means of
protection, is in constant danger of being crushed
to death between some furiously driven volante and
the wall. Such slight indications are often suf
ficient to tell the spirit with which the affairs of a
country are administered, — like the gibbet, which
informed the shipwrecked mariner that he had been
thrown on a civilised coast. Although inscribed
with the name of the Paseo Tacon, it bears in the
official reports that of the Camino Militar, in order
to justify the Captain-General in the employment
of troops and convicts in its construction ; nor did
he hesitate to inflict a serious and uncompensated
injury on the humble inhabitants of the street,
called the Calzada de San Luis Gonzaga, through
which it has been made to pass. As the street
happened to be a wide one, traversing a sort of
valley, the Paseo has been formed in the middle
of it, on a mound of earth, flanked on either side
by retaining walls, with arches underneath, from
distance to distance, to keep up the communica
tions of the cross streets, which would, otherwise
have been interrupted. A narrow longitudinal
section of the original street has been left on each
side of the paseo, to allow the inhabitants access to
their houses, but in other respects their rights have
been usurped and their interests neglected for
the benefit of the privileged few. In Paris, the
revolution of 1830, which gave rights to the middle
classes, and, to a certain extent, corresponding
advantages to the humblest citizen, was the signal
for the introduction of a system the very opposite

THE BARRACOONS. 5Q
of that which now prevails at the Havana, as the
formation of the trottoirs, the lighting of the streets,
and the lowering of the boulevards, sufficiently
testify. Adjoining the Paseo, General Tacon constructed
a sort of Champ de Mars for exercising the troops,
to which he gave the name of El Campo Militar,
the whole surrounded by a dwarf wall, and an
ornamental railing. On each side there is a mag
nificent gateway ; that on the west is called La
Puerta de Colon ; on the north, Puerta de Cortes;
on the south, Puerta de Pizarro ; and on the east,
facing the gate of the city, Puerta de Tacon. This
last inscription is spoken of among the Creoles as
a piece of unpardonable presumption.
As if to throw ridicule on the grave denials of
all knowledge of the slave trade, which are forced
from successive captains-general by the unwearied
denunciations of the British authorities, two ex
tensive depots for the reception and sale of newly
imported Africans have lately been erected at the
further end of the Paseo, just under the windows of
his Excellency's residence, the one capable of con
taining 1000, the other 1500, negroes ; and I may
add, that these were constantly full during the
greater part of the time that I remained at the
Havana. As the barracoon, or depot, serves the
purpose of a market place as well as a prison, these
two have, doubtless for the sake of readier access,
and to save the expense of advertising in the
journals, been placed at the point of greatest
attraction, where the Paseo ends, where the

60 CUBA.
grounds of the Captain-General begin, and where
passes the new railroad into the interior, from
the carriages on which, the passengers are horrified
at the unearthly shouts of the thoughtless in
mates ; who, in their eagerness and astonishment
at the passing train, push their arms and legs
through the bars of their windows with the cries,
the grimace, and gesticulation, which might be
expected from a horde of savages, placed in cir
cumstances, to them, so totally new and extra
ordinary. These barracoons appear to be considered by the
foreign residents as the lions of the place. On the
arrival of strangers, they are carried there as to a
sight which could not well be seen elsewhere. A
barracoon was one of the first objects the Prince de
Joinville was taken to see on his first visit to the
Havana. It was remarked that His Royal Highness
was much more popular among the Spaniards, on
the occasion of this first visit, than on his return
from Mexico, after the capture of San Juan de
Ulloa, and the attack on Vera Cruz.
On entering one of the barracoons, which are, of
course, as accessible as any other market place,
you do not find so much immediate misery as an
unreflecting visitor might expect. It is the policy
of the importer to restore as soon as possible, among
the survivors, the strength that has been wasted
and the health that has been lost during the
horrors of the middle passage. It is his interest,
also, to keep up the spirits of his victims, that they
may the sooner become marketable, and prevent

THE BARRACOONS. 6l
their sinking under that fatal home-sickness, which
carries off so many during the first months of their
captivity. With this view, during their stay in the
barracoon, they are well fed, sufficiently clothed,
very tolerably lodged ; they are even allowed the
luxury of tobacco, and are encouraged to amuse
themselves for the sake of exercise and health, in
the spacious patio, or inner court, of the building.
I have been assured, also, that after leaving the
barracoon, and arriving at the scene of their future
toils, the Mayoral finds it for the interest of his
master to treat them, for several months, with
a considerable degree of lenity, scarcely allowing
them, if possible, to hear the crack of the whip,
and breaking them in by slow degrees to the hours
and the weight of labour, which are destined to
break them down long before the period which
nature prescribes.
The inmates of these sad receptacles, from their
age, demeanour, and appearance, convey to the
visitor a lively idea of the well organised system of
kidnapping, to which the trade has been reduced,
in order to make provision in the interior of Africa
for the supply of the factories, and slave markets
on the coast. The well understood difficulty of
breaking in men and women of mature age to the
labours of the field has produced a demand at the
barracoons for younger victims, so that it is not,
as formerly, by going to war, but by the meaner
crimes of kidnapping and theft, and the still baser
relaxation of social ties and family relations, that
these human bazaars are supplied. The range of

62 CUBA.
years in the age of the captives appears to extend
from twelve to eighteen, and as the demand for
males is much greater than for females, the propor
tion between the sexes is nearly three to one, I had
almost said, in favour of the masculine gender. In
fact, this is pretty nearly the relative proportion
between the sexes on most of the estates through
out the island. The facilities still left for the prac
tice of the slave trade, and the consequent cheap
ness of young Bozals at the barracoons, make it
more for the interest of the planter to keep up the
numbers of his gang by purchase than by pro
creation. There are some so totally regardless of
every human sentiment, save the sordid sense of
their own pecuniary interests, that they people
their estates with one sex only, to the total exclu
sion of females, taking care to prevent the noc
turnal wanderings of the men, by locking them up
in their plantation prisons, called also barracoons,
as soon as their daily labour is concluded.
Another motive for the continuance of the slave
trade is to be found in the well-known fact, that
a state of hopeless servitude has the effect of ener
vating the slave, and reducing the physical power
of his descendants far below the average of his
African ancestors. At Demerara, Honduras, and
Trinidad, to which colonies the greater part of the
captives emancipated by the courts of mixed com
mission within the last few years, have ultimately
found their way, I was assured that the labour of
eight emancipated Africans was considered equal
to that of twelve of the apprenticed labourers born

CREOLES AND BOZALS. t)3
in the colony ; and on the same principle, a Bozal
African, fresh from one of the market places of the
Havana, commands an average price of twenty-four
ounces of gold when sold by retail ; whereas a
Creole of similar age is not worth more than twenty.
On this ground, the keeper of one of these market
barracoons with whom I chanced to enter into
conversation on the subject of his trade, concluded
an argument in favour of its perpetuity, by laying
it down as a proposition not less capable of mathe
matical demonstration than any of the problems of
Euclid, that the difference of four ounces between
the value of the Creole and the Bozal made the
suppression of the traffic a matter of hopeless, irre
mediable, and perpetual impossibility !
As applied to negroes, the terms Creole and
Bozal are pretty nearly antithetical. It is true that
when a horse is spoken of, the phrase un caballo Bo
zal means merely [that he has not been sufficiently
broken in ; but it is otherwise with the poor Afri
can, who is spoken of as a Bozal long after he has
lost all his natural spirit. The term Criollo, or
Creole, is applied in Cuba, as in the other islands of
the West Indies, not to men and women merely,
white, black, or brown, but to domestic animals in
genera], and even to plants and trees, natives of
the soil.
As soon as the period of seasoning and proba
tion has elapsed, the unhappy slave is made to feel
all the horrors of his condition. In Cuba and Porto
Rico, and probably also in the Brazils, that con
dition is unspeakably aggravated by the fact, that
simple slavery exists in these countries in connec-

64 CUBA.
tion with the slave trade. There the planters find
it more for their interest to import fresh slaves from
Africa, than to maintain or increase their numbers
in the ordinary course of nature, according to the
system so successfully practised in the Carolinas
and Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland. The se
verity of the penal enactments of the United States
against importation, has given rise to the domestic
slave trade of America, some of the features of
which are nearly- as~~disgusting, although not so
murderous, as the regular African traffic.
When I was at the Havana, the average price of
Bozal negroes, when purchased at wholesale by
the cargo, was at the rate of from 300 to 320 dol
lars a head, whereas I have had the misfortune to
witness the sale of slaves by auction, when three
times the price has been offered in the public
streets of Richmond, Virginia, and elsewhere in
that section of the Union. This practice of selling
men and women by auction in the public streets,
and the indecent personal examination to which it
gives rise, surpasses in shamelessness all the atroci
ties of the Havana, where the sales are made within
doors, and are comparatively private.
The purchasers at thesa slave auctions are mere
dealers or traders who are only not pirates under
the American law, because their transactions are
completed on shore. In all other respects they re
semble the Portuguese slaver, who buys his cargo
on the coast of Africa and sells it in the best
market he can find. The planters in Louisiana, and
along the banks of the Mississippi are pretty much

AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 65
on a par with those of Cuba and the Brazils ; with
this difference, that as the prime cost is greater
compared with the food and maintenance of the
slave, they cannot afford to work him to death in so
short a time. As to the men of Maryland and
Virginia, who push the auri sacra fames so far as to
raise negroes like other stock for the market, we
must go to the interior of Africa to find their
parallel. The people of the United States content them
selves with an endeavour to protect their own
shores from pollution, by declaring that their citizens
expose themselves to the pains of piracy by en
gaging in the African slave trade. Among their
own citizens, however, it is a matter of serious
doubt whether this extreme penalty is attended
with all the efficacy which it must have been the
intention of its authors to produce. It is said that
a difference of sixty-eight dollars a head, between
the value of the native negro and the imported
African, is sufficient at the Havana to determine
the perpetual continuance of the slave trade, in the
face of risks very little inferior to those arising from
the operation of a law, highly penal, indeed, but
not very sternly administered. It is not easy to
believe that the settlers along the shores of Florida,
Alabama, or Louisiana, who daily purchase men,
women, and children, just torn from the ties of
kindred and the bosom of their families, should
feel any very serious qualms of conscience at an ac
quisition which was to entail no greater misery on
the sufferers, and which was moreover to obtain for
v

66 CUBA.
the acquirer a saving not of 68, but of ten times,
nay, of fifteen times 68 dollars a head. I do not
mean to assert, with anything like confidence, that
the African slave trade is actually carried on in the
rivers or on the shores of the United States ; but
this I will say, that the temptation is strong ; that
the risk is not great ; and that from the acknow
ledged practice of the country, any moral con
sideration sufficiently powerful to prevent it is
wholly out of the question.

ARRIVAL OF STRANGERS. 67

CHAP. IV.
ARRIVAL OF STRANGERS.  FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR. —
BLACK SOLDIERS IN THE RECEIVING SHIPS.  RECEIVING
SHIPS FOR LIBERATED AFRICANS.  MORAL EFFECTS OF
THEIR PRESENCE. — CONDITION OF THE EMANCIPADOS. 
CONCERT AMONG BRITISH FUNCTIONARIES ABROAD. 
BRAZILIAN JUDGE AT SIERRA LEONE.  THE CRUISERS*
LIABILITY. — CODE OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR CRUISERS.
 COMPARATIVE RATES OF PREMIUM.  DEFICIENCY
OF CRUISERS.  WAR CONTRIBUTION.
The ordinary form of security required from
strangers landing in the island, is to the following
effect: — " I am responsible and become bound in
every case for the person and conduct of Mr. A. B.,
arrived from C. in the ship D., binding myself to
present him if called on by the government, and to
conduct him at my expense to any place that may
be pointed out." As it is thought to be desirable,
however, to encourage white people of all classes,
and especially manufacturers and mechanics, to
settle on the island, the nature of the security
offered is never severely scrutinised. Even the
proof required by law, that the person applying for
a letter of domicile possesses a respectable cha
racter, and professes the Roman Catholic religion,
is very easily evaded ; a simple declaration, as to
which no questions are asked, being generally ac
cepted as a substitute for mere formal evidence of
the purity of the stranger's habits and the ortho
doxy of his faith. f 2

68

CUBA.

To the establishment of white foreigners in the
island in any mercantile capacity, there is no legal
obstacle whatever. With regard to them, the law
is the same at the Havana as it would be at Cadiz
or Barcelona. Such as have been legally natu
ralised, according to the forms prescribed by the
laws of Spain, enjoy the same rights and are
subject to the same obligations as the natives of
the country. Even without the political privileges
conferred by the forms of naturalisation, and with
out applying for a legal domicile, a foreigner may
carry on business as a merchant in the island of
Cuba just as freely as in the territory of the
mother country, under the regulations recognised
in the existing treaties between the Spanish go
vernment and that of the country to which the
stranger belongs. Should no such conventional
regulations exist, the foreign merchant will still be
entitled to the same practical privileges as those
which are actually enjoyed by Spaniards under the
government to which the foreign merchant owes
allegiance. This principle of reciprocity has never
been enforced to the prejudice of any foreigner;
and, in point of fact, no inquiries are ever made
as to the privileges enjoyed by Spanish merchants
abroad. Following the example of the slave-holding states
of the North American Union, the authorities of
Cuba and Porto Rico have been in the habit of
committing to prison any unfortunate person who
should arrive in the island, pretending to freedom,
who, whatever his complexion, has the misfortune

FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR. 69
to be suspected, no matter how remotely, of an
African descent. It is this practice of the United
States which has induced the government of St. Do
mingo, in the tariff promulgated at the time of my
visit to that island, to impose discriminating duties
on American importations ; and it would not at all
surprise me to find the Haytian government retali
ating still more severely on the people of the United
States, by committing American citizens to prison,
arriving in the island, simply because they were
white. I have not heard that any remonstrance
has yet been addressed to the United States by the
English government on the subject ; although in
stances are not wanting where British subjects have
been thus maltreated, as the lieutenant-governor of
St.Vincent could testify. A white gentleman of that
island had occasion not long ago to pay a visit to
South Carolina ; but to his great surprise and
annoyance, on his arrival at Charleston, his coloured
servant was arrested and thrown into prison for no
other reason but that he was free, and not white.
One of the last acts of Lord Clarendon, before
leaving Madrid, was to address a strong remon
strance to the Spanish government against the
practice complained of, making a powerful appeal,
not only to the Spanish minister's sense of humanity,
but to that consideration which is due to the free
and industrious subjects of a friendly power; and he
asks whether it can be necessary, that men, who, in
their own country, enjoy every privilege to which
their fellow-citizens are entitled, should, on their
reaching the shores of Cuba, or Porto Rico, be so
f 3

70 CUBA.
treated as if they brought with them some physical
or moral pestilence. His lordship adds, that it had
become more especially incumbent on the British
government to make this application, now that
slavery has been abolished in the British colonies,
because it might be expected that many free
negroes as well as free men of colour would
be employed in navigating vessels trading from
island to island in the West Indies ; and thus the
practice complained of would every day become
more and more vexatious to British commerce.
By a royal order of the 12th of March, 1837, all
free persons of colour are prohibited from landing
"under the shadow of any pretext whatever;"
and so rigidly was this order enforced for some
time after its promulgation, that free coloured sea
men, on their arrival, were immediately taken out
of the ship in which they came, and detained in
prison till the period of her departure, when they
were again put on board, and compelled to leave
the island. Although conceived in general terms,
the true object of this royal order, which originated
with the late Captain-General Tacon, is supposed to
have been to afford a pretext for preventing the
negro soldiers on board the British receiving ship,
Romney, from landing on the island for the pur
pose of recreation and necessary exercise. It has
given rise to a great deal of discussion and corre
spondence between the British commissioners and
the Captain- General Espeleta, who seems more
disposed than his predecessor to relax the extreme
rigour of the regulation.

ARRIVAL OF STRANGERS. 71
In the mean time, the effect of the new regula
tion has been to discourage the trade of the island,
particularly with the United States, in whose vessels
there is often a considerable number of free coloured
seamen. In the southern ports of the North Ame
rican Union, we have seen that regulations of a
similar nature are rigidly enforced ; so that the
grievances of the Haytians in America are, in some
degree, redressed at the Havana. The entire crew
of a Haytian vessel, which had the misfortune to be
stranded not long ago on the coast of South Carolina,
were thrown into the prison of Charleston, and
were kept in close custody until the vessel was re
fitted and made ready for sea. This fact, combined
with the inhospitable reception which the son of
the prime minister, Inginac, met with a year or two
ago at New York, has had the effect of inspiring the
people of St. Domingo with the strongest feelings
of animosity against the citizens of tbe United
States, as well as against the government.
I observe by the printed returns, that, for the
first time since the revolution in St^Domingo, a
vessel from that island has been regularly entered
at the Custom House of the Havana. The cap
tain, officers, and crew must, in all probability,
have been of African descent ; but whether any
of them were suffered to land, I had not the means
of ascertaining. Under the mild admin^tration_of
Captain^General Espjlgta, tffeirifnprisonmentjaras,
of course, entirely ^lit^of thequ^sttonr"
ArtrTe" period of my visit to the Havana, the
detachment of black troops on board the Romney,
f 4

72 CUBA.
belonging to one of our West India regiments, had
never once been allowed to set foot on shore, in
consequence of an order which had been issued
from the seat of government during Tacon's ad
ministration. His successor, Espeleta, declared,
in answer to the application of the commissioners
for some indulgence to the troops, that he had no
power to grant it without the special consent of
the Peninsular government, because Tacon had
taken the precaution of transmitting the order he
had issued to Madrid for approval. This trifling
affair led, therefore, to a negotiation conducted
with all the dilatory forms of Spanish diplomacy.
By dint of great perseverance, however, the object
has at length been accomplished ; and before my
departure from the Havana, the fact was commu
nicated to the prisoners on board the Romney,
that they would be suffered, under a variety of
forms and restrictions, to take occasional exercise
on shore. Some further formalities had still to be
observed in the office of the Captain-General be
fore this poor boon could be practically extended
to them ; so that I had not the satisfaction of wit
nessing their first gambols on shore. It is not im
possible that they may be tempted, from mere
gaiete de cosur, to commit some prank which will
be too eagerly misconstrued, so as to lead to the
suppression or curtailment of this new-born privi
lege. It is rather extraordinary that, at the very time
when her Majesty's government were preparing
to send out a hulk to the harbour of Rio de

RECEIVING SHIPS FOR LIBERATED AFRICANS. 73
Janeiro, for the purpose of receiving the Africans
who might be emancipated by the judgments of
the British and Brazilian mixed commission, the
British Commissary Judge at the Havana should
be proposing to his government the removal of
the receiving ship, which had for some time been
stationed in that harbour for a similar purpose. It
is no doubt true that, in consequence of the trans
fer of the trade to the flag of Portugal, the Rom
ney has not been the means of protecting a great
number of Emancipados from a condition which
has been shown to be far worse than slavery ; but
if this were a good argument for the removal of the
ship, it would go further in its operation than the
Commissary Judge intended, since it would prove
that the court itself had nothing to do, that its
doors might be closed without inconvenience, and
that the whole establishment — judge, arbitrator,
superintendent, and clerk — might come home as
passengers in the Romney.
The moral effect of the presence of so remark
able an object in the harbour ought not to be over
looked, in estimating the cost which it necessarily
occasions. It operates as a standing protest, not
only against the trade itself, but against the viola
tion, on the part of the constituted authorities, of
the treaties known to be in force for its suppression.
Unhappily, this effect is seriously injured by a want
of that perfect cordiality, and strict unity of pur
pose, which ought to prevail among the whole of
the British functionaries who have thus been sta
tioned in the focus of the traffic, to bring about its

74 CUBA.
annihilation. If we may judge from the printed
correspondence, the same want of harmony which
has been noticed at the Havana prevails also at Rio
de Janeiro.
If a receiving ship should be sent out to that
harbour, it would seem to infer the necessity of a
superintendent of liberated Africans ; and if the
person appointed to that office should happily en
tertain the same decided views on the subject of
slavery which have been constantly and consistently
acted upon by the superintendent at the Havana,
it will not be possible for him to countenance the
course of conduct which seems to be pursued by
the British commissioners at Rio. If I read the
printed correspondence correctly, these gentlemen
seem both to admit the substantial truth of the ac
cusation brought against them, that their domestic
establishments are more or less composed of the
Africans who have been emancipated by the de
crees judicially pronounced by themselves or their
predecessors. Sir George Jackson, while he ad
mits the fact, in writing to Lord Palmerston, de
fends himself on the ground that the Africans in
question would have had a worse chance of hu
mane treatment, had he refused to receive them.
This statement, of course, is not to be doubted ;
but Sir George ought to have considered, while
making it, that in 'this uncharitable world the
purity of his motives were liable to suspicion, and
that his slave- trading neighbours might believe, or
pretend to believe, that the real object of the
British Commissary Judge was, like that of other

CONDITION OF THE EMANCIPADOS. 75
slave-holders, to avoid the payment of a reasonable
or sufficient consideration for the services obtained,
in the shape of wages.
It has elsewhere been shown, thai the condition
of fheJEmanch^adGS at the Havana is worse than
ordinary slavery, becauseThe term of their appren
ticeship is for seven years only, and because the
parties to whom they are bound have therefore no
interest in their existence after the period for which
their services have been purchased. Independent
of the notoriety of the fact, it is frankly admitted
by the very persons to whom the poor Emancipados
have been assigned. The Director of the Casa de
Beneficencia, whose revenues are partly derived
from an assignment of this kind, was good enough
to enter into a great many details, to prove the
fact, of which I had already been sufficiently con
vinced. The wages they earn are not paid to
them any more than if they were slaves, but belong
to the purchaser or other acquirer, as a matter of
course. The term of apprenticeship, which appears to be
sanctioned by the Brazilian authorities, is stated to
be fourteen years instead of seven ; and I have no
doubt that, during the early portion of that long
period, the Africans who are said to have been
liberated will, for that very reason, find themselves
in a better situation than their brethren in Cuba ;
but, as the term approaches, — not of freedom, but
of transfer to another master, — their condition
will probably be the same at Rio which it notori
ously has been at the Havana, — the poor wretches

76 CUBA.
will be worked to death, and their services for the
second cycle will not be worth the purchase.
When the Brazilians at Rio or the Spaniards at
the Havana see the British functionaries disagree
ing among themselves, on the very principles they
are sent there to enforce ; when they see one of
these English gentlemen purchasing slaves, a second
hiring them, a third obtaining the services of the
liberated African, without paying either a fair price
or adequate wages, and a fourth resisting the tempt
ation, and refusing, on any terms, to admit a bonds
man within his walls; — these gentlemen, the regular
slave-holders, are but too apt to conclude that the
opinions of the people of England are also divided,
and that their practice would be equally so, had
they the same opportunity. In the minds of many
of our countrymen enjoying such official appoint
ments in slave-holding countries, there is a strong
tendency to associate with the natives, from the
want of a becoming cordiality among themselves.
From the first false step, they come insensibly to
forget how strongly the mind of the English people
is made up on the subject of slavery ; they learn to
evade the known wishes of their government ; and,
adopting, more or less, that sort of public opinion
which exists among their new associates, they come
by degrees to adopt the habits as well as the opi
nions of their neighbours.
Without waiting till such habits and practices
are denounced to the government, — a circumstance
which cannot be expected, except in cases of a
very flagrant nature, from the reluctance which is

BRAZILIAN JUDGE AT SIERRA LEONE. 77
naturally felt to become an informer, — • I humbly
submit that it ought to be a positive instruction to
every British functionary appointed to reside in
those countries where slavery is tolerated, that
henceforth they could not be permitted to_cpjrnte-
nance the practice in_aliy]shapeIojijIegr^e-4H---their
own~~dofriestic establishments. Nay, more, the
personal opmionlTbf those gentlemen, on the sub
ject of slavery, who are to be sent to such destina
tions, ought to be strictly scrutinised and clearly
ascertained before they receive their appointments.
It is to be feared that the principle of patronage
disavowed by the Whigs on their first accession to
power, has become so practically necessary as to
forbid the hope of such a scrutiny being very rigor
ously entered upon.
The deportment of the British Commissary Judge
at Sierra Leone, Mr. Maeaulay, towards one of the
Brazilian commissioners, Sefior Gomes, affords
an agreeable illustration of what is becoming
in a British functionary, when placed in social
as well as official relations with gentlemen who do
not entertain the same sentiments with himself.
Senor Gomes having sailed from Rio in one of the
slave ships, had himself landed in the neighbour
hood of the British settlement ; and from the mo
ment of his arrival, he was seen to associate with
the captains and supercargoes of slave-vessels. On
several occasions, when Mr. Maeaulay called at the
house of his Brazilian colleague, he found himself
in the company of persons notoriously engaged in
the slave trade ; perhaps the masters of vessels

78 CUBA.
condemned for slave trading a short time before.
Instead of taking the course which would have
been allowable, had there been no official relations
between them, simply avoiding the society of Mr.
Gomes and cutting his acquaintance, Mr. Maeaulay
thought it better, in a friendly note, to tell him
frankly his reason for not continuing his visits. To
this note Senior Gomes returned an angry answer,
and a few days afterwards embarked for England.
The British commissioners could not withhold the
fact from Lord Palmerston, who caused it to be
represented to the Brazilian government, and Senor
Gomes was forthwith dismissed from the office to
which he had been so unworthily appointed.
When the commanders of cruisers have not been
guilty of any impropriety, they can, of course, have
nothing to fear from the fact, that the prize they
may have made has escaped condemnation. It
would be most unjust to make them liable for a
mere error of judgment on points where gentlemen
learned in the law, and judging after the event, are
often found to disagree. It is, nevertheless, most
desirable that they should be well informed on the
nature of their duties and the extent of their
powers ; and it humbly appears to me that a code
of instructions should be drawn up, and printed
expressly for their use.
Had such a code of instructions existed during
the last ten or twelve years, a numerous class of
vessels engaged in the slave trade would have been
exposed to at least double the risk they have
hitherto incurred ; and it is impossible to form an

THE CRUISERS LIABILITY. 79
idea of the number of cases where commanders of
cruisers have been deterred, by the fear of damages,
from the detention of vessels which were legally
subject to condemnation.
On the 9th of October, 1838, her Majesty's ship
Herald, Captain Joseph Nias, fell in with the
Brazilian brigantine Feliz Aurora, of 166 tons,
J. Caetano, master and owner, on her outward
voyage from Rio de Janeiro to the coast of Africa ;
and on being boarded, she was found to be com
pletely equipped as a slaver, with large brick-built
coppers, large water casks, and separate boxes on
deck for the captives. Her log-book was regu
larly written up from the day of her leaving Rio,
where she had, no doubt, been equipped. Captain
Nias was evidently labouring under the impression,
in common with many of his brother officers, that
he could not lawfully capture a Brazilian vessel on
a charge of slave trading, unless she had absolutely
her cargo on board. He took the precaution, how
ever, to circulate an extract from his boarding
book, a copy of which having found its way to the
hands of Mr. Ouseley, the British minister at Rio,
he lost no time in communicating it to her Ma
jesty's commissioners, who, in answer, expressed
their regret that the Feliz Aurora had not been
detained, as, in their opinion, she was liable to
condemnation under the treaty of 1826, on the
mere proof of equipment.
It is scarcely possible to believe that so im
portant a condition of an existing treaty should
have thus remained, for nearly thirteen years, in

80 CUBA.
abeyance. But here is the fact staring us broad in
the face. It was only after the British commis
sioners had communicated this opinion to Mr.
Ouseley, on the 12th of January, 1839, that Com
modore Sullivan, the commander-in-chief of her
Majesty's naval forces on the Brazilian station, was
made aware of the fact, that seizures of Brazilian
vessels, on the ground of equipment alone, could
be legally effected.
On this last point, the British commissioners at
Rio write to Lord Palmerston on the 22d of
January, 1839, that the greater part of the vessels
daily leaving that coast for Africa would be liable
to condemnation, because, under the treaty of
1826, the presence of slaves on board, at the
period of the capture, is not necessary to con
demnation. " The misfortune is, that we have so
few cruisers employed in this service, and that
when a vessel is taken, from the impunity with
which the trade is carried on, the case is con
sidered and denounced as one of individual hard
ship ; a cry in which the commercial community,
with scarce an exception, is ready to join." The
tone of this complaint is not exactly what is de
sirable in a British commissioner ; but it serves to
explain why vessels can be insured at Rio, for
thirteen per cent., leaving a profit to the under
writers, while, with premiums of thirty-five and
forty per cent., the two insurance companies at
the Havana have been compelled, by the fear of
loss, to abandon that branch of their business.
The deficiency of cruisers on the Brazilian

DEFICIENCY OF CRUISERS. 81
coast, and the want of correct information as to the
extent of their powers, sufficiently account for the
alarming amount of importation into the single
harbour of Rio, in the year 1838. According to
Mr. Ouseley's statement to Lord Palmei-ston, it
amounted to no less than 36,974* slaves, and would
have been still greater but for the fact that several
of the traders had ordered their vessels to discharge
their cargoes at other ports of the empire, where
also it has become customary to have them fitted
out. The system pursued at Rio seems, in many
respects, to correspond with what I have wit
nessed at the Havana. The receptacles for the
Bozal negroes, which serve the double purpose of
warehousing and exposing the human cargo to
sale, are open in both places to public inspection,
although perhaps not so closely under the win
dows of the imperial palace at Rio as they are
under those of the Captain-General's residence at
the Havana. Mr. Ouseley states that no less
than 6000 Africans have been exposed for sale at
one time in the barracoons at Rio ; but probably
not more than half that number have ever appeared
together in those of the Havana. The Brazilian
authorities, like those of Cuba, have a direct pecu
niary interest in promoting the traffic, by the exist
ence of a sort of capitation tax on the imports, which
is divided among the officers of the government.
The pacification of the Peninsula has taken place
at a time when it is not yet too late to maintain for
some years longer the connection of this import-
G

82 CUBA.
ant colony with the mother country. The taxes
imposed, under the name of a war contribution,
amounting to #2,500,000, had already provoked
the most serious discontents; and if the necessities
of the mother country had led to a demand for its
renewal, the curses of the Creoles, not loud but
deep, would, in all probability, have given open ex
pression to the latent, but long-cherished, desire of
independence. The Hacendados of Cuba are made to feel very
sensibly the rivalship of other producers in the
markets to which their sugar, their coffee, and their
tobacco are exported. The sugar of New Orleans,
the Brazils, and the Danish islands, the coffee of
St. Domingo, La Guaira, Java, the Brazils, and
Mocha, and the tobacco of Kentucky, and St.
Domingo meet them in the markets of New York
and Philadelphia, and similar produce from a still
greater variety of sources in those of St. Peters
burg. The Governments of these, and other coun
tries having no care of their prosperity, impose
such duties as are found most convenient for their
own citizens, or most suitable to the state of their
own finances.
The sudden abstraction of a large amount of
capital must, under any circumstances, be a subject
of serious consideration, but more especially so in
a country, where the ordinary rate of interest is
12 per cent, per annum, and where it sometimes
reaches, if we may believe the report of the junta
assembled at the Havana, under the presidency of
the Captain-General, to provide for this extraor-

WAR CONTRIBUTION. 83
dinary subsidy, to no less than 18, 24, and even
30 per cent. These rates of interest infer a great
scarcity of capital, which, from the bad system of
husbandry pursued in the island, has a tendency to
increase rather than diminish.
To apply manure to the soil, or to follow a ra
tional alternation, or rotation of crops, is very
rarely thought of. The richest virgin soil, under
such a system, cannot fail to be worked out, and
exhausted, by the constant return, year after year,
of so scourging a crop as the sugar cane. The
annual diminution of the produce on a given quan
tity of land, proceeds in a ratio, the rapidity of
which is perfectly understood by the intelligent
planters of Barbadoes or St. Vincent, Santa Cruz
or Martinique.
In Cuba, on the contrary, such a calculation is
seldom thought of. Ratoons after ratoons are
raised and cut down, until their value has ap
proached so nearly to zero, that it is no longer the
interest of the proprietor to prosecute this branch
of industry. If there happen to be other land on
his plantation still in a state of nature, he causes
it to be cleared and planted with canes, at the im
mediate charge of moving the sugar mill, or the
constantly recurring expense of carrying the sugar
canes from a greater distance than before. The
introduction of coffee cultivation was in this sense
a God-send to the sugar planter of former times.
The land, long exhausted by incessant crops of
sugar cane, and fit for nothing but the feeding of
cattle, became in the hands of the French emi-
g 2

84 . CUBA.
grants from St. Domingo a new source of wealth
and prosperity. The coffee tree thrived where the
cane could no longer raise its head, and thus be
came the means of saving the proprietor of the
soil from ruin.
In requiring the payment of the war contribu
tion, the Peninsular government had the discretion
not to fix on any specific term for its liquidation ;
but contented itself with making draughts from
time to time on the Intendant, some of which, if
we may believe the newspapers, and the reported
debates in the Cortes, have been occasionally sold,
at a very great sacrifice, in the money markets of
'London and Madrid. Thus the cash which is
drawn from the pockets of the planter does not all
reach the Peninsular treasury ; and when the bills
of the minister of finance are presented for pay
ment, it often happens that the Intendant is not
possessed of funds sufficient for their liquidation.
In that case, a second loss is sustained, the holders
of the bills being entitled to demand the exorbi
tant rate of interest which the law and practice of
the island have sanctioned, for submitting to a de
lay rendered necessary by the state of the colonial
treasury. The junta on the war contribution, finding the
greatest difficulty in providing funds to meet the
draughts of the Finance Minister, divided itself
into sub-committees, who undertook to perambu
late the city of the Havana, and collect subscrip
tions towards a loan for the relief of the Intend
ant ; but the very limited success which attended

WAR CONTRIBUTION. 85
this proceeding made it necessary for the junta to
make a more general call for assistance on those
classes of the inhabitants who had the reputation
of being in easy or opulent circumstances. This
measure had the effect of producing the advance
of rather more than #300,000, in the shape of a
voluntary loan, on which interest was to be paid at
the rate of 12 per cent, per annum. It soon be
came evident, however, that the subscription was
to go but a very short way towards meeting the
existing exigency. It had been pushed to the ut
most extremity, and the large sums required for
the importation, or purchase of slaves, not only to
meet the ordinary demand, occasioned by the never-
failing defalcation on sugar estates, but to fill up
the extraordinary chasm produced by the ravages
of the cholera in the four successive years 1&33+
1834, 1835, and . 1^836Jadexhausted the spare
capital of the proprietors, and in many cases had
so injured their credit, with the merchants, and
slave dealers, as to subject them for a time to
great pecuniary embarrassment.
If the mode of raising a temporary loan presented
difficulties of so serious a nature, the junta was
still more puzzled when they came to consider the
ways and means by which this heavy contribution
was to be definitively liquidated. A direct tax on
the proprietors, according to the extent of their
estates, the number of their slaves, or the amount
of their produce, was the first proposal submitted
to their consideration ; but on a very slight ex
amination it became evident that these data, how-
g 3

86 CUBA.
ever accurately obtained, could afford no just
or equitable criterion by which to levy a tax
either on property or income. A thousand con
siderations, such as the state of the roads, the local
situation of the property, and the relative ease or
difficulty of embarking the produce, were any one
of them sufficient, 'independent altogether of the in
quisitorial proceedings to which a direct tax would
give rise, to deter the junta from recommending
that mode of supply for the colonial treasury.
The American provinces of Spain have ever
since their discovery been constantly regarded as
integral portions of the ancient kingdom of Cas
tile, in which there has never been any catastro,
or, as the French call it, cadastre, like that which
is well known to exist in the kingdoms of Aragon
and Valencia, and the principality of Catalonia.
This catastro consists of a minute periodical valu-
ation of ill the real "property of the jc^mtry, so
arranged, that at any time it" can conveniently be
made the basis of a direct^ system of taxajtioLV The
mere attempt to establish a catastro would have
been treated as an open breach of the privileges
and fueros of the landed proprietors ; would have
inflamed the minds of the inhabitants at large ; and
would have led, in all probability, to a general con
flagration. For such reasons as these the idea of
direct taxation was prudently abandoned ; and the
junta finally resorted to an increase, and improved
classification, of the custom-house duties on imports

and exports for the means of raising thenecessary
supplies.

CIRCULATING MEDIUM. 87

CHAP. V.

CIRCULATING MEDIUM.  WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.  BANK
RUPTCY RARE.  LAWS OF BANKRUPTCY.  JUDICIARY.
 BANK OF FERDINAND VII.  TARIFF OF CUSTOMS. 
ARTICLES FREE OF DUTY. — CROWN REVENUES. — EFFECT
OF DIFFERENTIAL DUTIES.  PUBLIC WHARFS.

The circulating medium of Cuba, like that of
Old Spain, consists exclusively of the precious me
tals ; so that in passing between the island and the
neighbouring states of the North American Union
the contrast is not a little striking, and is cer
tainly all in favour of the hard dollar and the
doubloon. The Spanish pillar dollar, and the
dollars of Mexico and the new states of South
America, are worth 4*. 2d. sterling, and are a legal
tender at their numerical value. They are all
occasionally at a premium, with a view to ex
portation ; but the pillar dollar is more uniformly
so, reaching, when the supply is greatly inferior to
the demand, as high as 5 per cent. The real de
plata being the eighth part of a dollar, is used with
the four-real, the two-real, and the half-real piece
for small payments ; and they must be quite a
relief to the North American visitor who has been
accustomed to handle nothing in his own country
in the shape of change, but the filthy rags to which
g 4

88

CUBA.

they have given the agreeable name of " shin plas
ters." In the United States the traveller is constantly
exposed to loss and inconvenience by the insol
vency of banks ; and without positive insolvency,
by the discredit and the discount which attaches
to their notes, and increases in the direct ratio
of the distance they are carried from the place at
which they have been issued.
The onza de oro, or Spanish doubloon, at the or
dinary rate of exchange of 8^- per cent., is worth
in sterling money 3/. 10*. I0d., and is a legal ten
der in the island for 17 hard dollars. The sub
divisions of the doubloon, the half, the quarter, the
eighth, and the sixteenth are also in circulation,
the sixteenth being worth a dollar and half a real.
The Mexican, Colombian, and other South Ame
rican doubloons are a legal tender for sixteen hard
dollars, equal to 3/. 6s. 8d. sterling, and are some
times in demand for exportation at a premium.
Their subordinate divisions are worth eight, four,
two, and one dollar respectively.
In 1837, the exports of gold and silver from the
island in general, amounted to #2,114,298, or
422,860/. ; and the imports to #1^582^65, or
316,793/. The exports, in the same year, from
the Havana alone, amounted to #1,954,216, or
390,848/. ; and the imports to #908,778,^0? about
181,755/. Of the weights and measures in use in the
island, the arroba is equal to 25T7¥lbs. English,
and the quintal of 100 lbs. Spanish to lOlf lbs.

LAWS OF BANKRUPTCY. 89
English. Of superficial measures, 108 Spanish
varas are equal to 100 English yards ; and of
liquid measures the arroba is equal to 4T10- English
Winchester gallons. The fanega of 200 lbs. Spanish
is employed in the sale of grain, and is nearly
equal to three Winchester bushels.
I was informed at the Havana that bankruptcies
were exceedingly rare in the island, ariHThatT none
of anylioEe~Tiad occurreoTTliere for a great many
years. The commercial crisis in the United States,
in the years 1836 and 1837, had compelled several
respectable establishments at the Havana to sus
pend their payments ; but, by the indulgence of
their creditors, they were all enabled to continue
their business.
The laws of bankruptcy and the rules of ranking
and preference among creditors are the same in
Cuba as in the Peninsula ; and if recourse to them
were necessary, they would certainly be found
more efficient, for accomplishing the fair distri
bution of the property of the debtor, and protect
ing the interests of the creditor, than anything
practically known in the states of the North
American Union, where, by making a mock assign
ment of his property to some favoured individual, a
debtor, at the sacrifice of nothing but his reputa
tion, may retain the substantial enjoyment of it,
and laugh his creditors to scorn.
From what has been said, it will be understood
that the rigorous laws of Spain against fraudulent
bankrupts have very rarely been enforced in the
island. When insolvency takes place, it is gene-

90 CUBA.
rally arranged, either by the execution of a volun
tary trust deed or cesion de bienes, or by the
concurso voluntario y preventivo, which is a mea
sure resorted to by the creditors to interrupt and
prevent the further dilapidation of the property,
and secure its just distribution among themselves.
The cessio bonorum, whether voluntary or invo
luntary on the part of the debtor, is called, in
Spanish law, desamparamiento, and entitles the
insolvent to protection from arrest, on finding
security for the ultimate payment of his debts, at
intervals, and by instalments to be fixed by the
judge, provided the whole period does not exceed
five years. The security required is, in fact, only
nominal, being subject to the condition of the
insolvent's arriving at better fortune ; but, in the
mean time, the distribution of his present pro
perty is secured.
The insolvent who, within six months before his
bankruptcy, takes money or merchandise on credit,
is regarded, in the eye of the law, as a fraudulent
bankrupt, and becomes subject to the severe penal
ties of the Alzados. Under the rights conferred
by the desamparamiento, the personal creditor may
sue the debtor of his debtor, and the mortgagee
may sue the obligant in any note or bond, on be
half of his debtor. This cession, however, does
not include the property of the wife, which is not
bound for the debts of her husband ; nor is a mar
ried woman liable to arrest, in any case, to compel
the performance of a mere civil obligation.
The heir at law of an insolvent is protected by

LAWS OF BANKRUPTCY. 91
the Spanish law from many of the responsibilities
which attach to him under most of the codes
of modern Europe, having the civil law of ancient
Rome for their foundation. Thus, although he
should not have made any inventory of his insol
vent ancestor's estate, and should, nevertheless,
have entered into possession of it, he will not be
bound to make satisfaction for any deficiency out
of his own separate patrimony. Nor will the son
of an insolvent who succeeds to the inheritance
of his grandfather after the death of his father be
liable to impart any portion of that inheritance to
his father's creditors. Nevertheless, if the debtor
himself should have assigned any part of his pro
perty to a favoured creditor, on the express con
dition that it should not enter into the concurso,
or become liable to the ranking of the creditors in
general, as a portion of the common fund for the
liquidation of their debts, such condition shall not
be available, as being inconsistent with that bond
fides which a person who has contracted obligations
is bound to observe towards all who have any legal
claims upon him.
As to the ranking or preference of competing
creditors, they are distributed, according to the
ablest commentators on the laws of Spain, into
four distinct and separate classes. The creditor,
possessed of any written evidence of his debt,
however informal, is preferred to all that class of
competitors whose claims are founded on mere
verbal contracts. The mortgagee, in his turn,
who, by the necessary formalities, has acquired a

92 CUBA.
lien over some specific portion of his debtor's pro
perty, is preferred to the whole class of quiro-
grafarios, whose debts are proved, indeed, by
written evidence, but who have not stipulated for
such specific security at the dates when their debts
were originally contracted.
The whole class of mortgagees, however, who
have not realised their rights by entering into pos
session, are liable to be postponed to the creditor
who has adopted more active and energetic mea
sures, and has invested himself by the forms which
the law prescribes with a direct and absolute do
minion over the property forming the subject of
such mortgages. This dominion is presumed in
favour of the royal treasury, el Fisco ; but such
are the privileges of the Dote, or provision for the
wife in her marriage settlements, that she is placed
on the same footing with the fisc, taking pre
cedence or suffering postponement according to
priority, and, of course, pro tanto, disappointing
the ordinary mortgage creditors. As to these last,
in competing with each other, the chronological
order of precedence is observed, according to the
rule of the Roman law, qui prior est tempore,
potior est jure. Supposing the instruments of
equal date, the creditors are to be ranked pari
passu, and paid pro rata. But if the consideration
for the one mortgage be a former debt, and for the
other a present payment, the latter, although pos
terior, will be. preferred to the former. Suppose,
again, that there are three mortgage creditors, the
third is to be preferred to the second, if the money

LAWS OF B/NKRUPTCY. 93
advanced by him was employed in paying off the
debt of the first, even without a formal assignment
of the first preferable right.
The voluntary cessio bonorum has not the effect
of protecting the debtor's subsequent acquisitions
of property from judicial attachment at the suit
of his former creditors ; but after the compulsory
proceeding by concurso all the previous debts are
utterly extinguished. The interests of creditors
under the concurso are protected from hasty or
improvident sales of the debtor's property, by the
provision, that after a sale is completed by adjudi
cation, a higher offer from a new party is still open
to acceptance.
The debtor after the concurso has, of course,
no power of alienation, to the prejudice of his
creditors ; but if, while it is still pending, a suc
cession should open to him, he may renounce the
inheritance, because it is considered to be one
thing to alienate, and another not to acquire. Re
leases or discharges, however, by a debtor under
concurso, of debts due to him, to the prejudice of
his creditors, are not valid. If creditors of a
lower degree have been paid to the prejudice of
those of a higher degree, the latter may call upon
the former to refund the money. And if, in the
issue of the concurso, the funds realised from the
debtor's estate shall prove inadequate to the full
payment of his debts, then the sales he may have
made within the previous year, to the prejudice of
prior creditors, may still be set aside.
The judges and other judicial functionaries of

94 CUBA.
the island, from the president of the supreme court
of Puerto Principe to the alguazil and the door
keeper, are all paid by fees instead of salaries.
The fee of the judge is determined by his rank,
depending, however, in every case on the number
and length of his sittings : an admirable contrivance
for making justice not cheap and speedy, but as
dear and dilatory as possible. The Jiiez Letrado,
dr judge learned in the law, is paid ten reals an
hour for his attendance on any cause, besides four
reals for his signature ; and if required to leave the
town where his court is held, he receives ten dol
lars for every day, or part of a day, he may be occu
pied. The fee of the Juez no Letrado is eight reals
an hour, and if he goes out of town, six dollars
a day, with four reals as before for his signature.
Judicial proceedings, it is known, are wholly con
ducted in writing; viva voce pleading, like the
trial by jury, being totally unheard of. The lawyer
also is paid according to the number of pages to
which he can spin out his argument; and the assessor
who reads the pleadings, and makes his report on
them to the judge, is paid at the same rate with
the abogado, or two reals per folio, which makes
the fee of the assessor equal to the joint fees of the
lawyers on both sides. For interlocutory judg
ments he receives four dollars ; and for definitive
judgments eight." The assessors are paid also for
attendance at the same rate with the judges of the
highest class.
The Jueces Pedaneos, or itinerant judges, are
paid eight reals an hour, and four reals going as

JUDICIARY. 95
well as returning, for every league they may
travel. Witnesses, receive four reals an hour, and
four reals a league ; but if called upon to travel
one entire league from their own homes, they must
receive at least sixteen reals. The Alguazil Mayor,
for superintending an execution against a debtor's
effects, receives five per cent, for the first hundred
dollars recovered, and two and a half per cent, for
each subsequent hundred. For a caption, if within
the town where he lives, three dollars. The Al-
guaziles Minores, who exercise their functions by
commission without a royal cedula, are paid about
a fourth part less. The Alcaide, or gaoler, is paid
eight reals for the incarceration of a slave, and
fourteen reals if not a slave, provided the party re
main twenty-four hours in prison. Procuradores, or
attorneys, for signing and presenting a paper pre
pared by an abogado are paid four reals ; for attend
ance at court, the first hour eight reals, and every
other four. Interpreters are paid at the rate of
one dollar an hour, and two dollars for every page
of writing. Peritos or professional persons are paid
for any simple examination ten reals ; but if of a
higher class, the judge may increase the fee to
twenty. Land surveyors receive nine dollars a
day, besides four dollars for intervening dias de
fiesta. The public crier for each judicial an
nouncement receives two reals, besides a con
cluding fee of a dollar. The fees of the Escribanos
and of the Notarios Eclesiasticos are too numerous
and minute for specification. There is also an
officer called the Anotador de Hypotecas, who is

96 CUBA.
paid in like manner by fees ; and although slaves
are not properly the subject of mortgage, it is said
that these gentlemen very often contrive to make
the unfortunate proprietor, who is obliged to
borrow money on the security of his estate, pay
a fee for every salve upon it. The Tasador de
Costas is paid half a real for every page of the bill
of costs. The Canciller receives two dollars for
the application of the seal ; for registrations, four
reals the first folio, three the second, and two for
every other ; for an examination of the records,
two reals a year ; and for the diploma of an abo
gado, three dollars three reals. Relatores, or re
porters, are paid two reals for each page of their.
reports. Agentes fiscales are paid the same fees
as the Abogados and Relatores. The Portero re
ceives a real for each petition or application pre
sented to the court, besides fifteen dollars on the
admission of an abogado, and six on that of an
escribano or procurador.
The only incorporated banking establishment at
the Havana is that called the Royal Bank of Fer
dinand the Seventh, which was created in the year
1827, during the administration of Ballasteros at
Madrid, at the instance of Sefior Penillos, the pre
sent intendant at the Havana, since raised to the
dignity of Conde de Villanueva. The first di
rectors were the Conde de Santovenia, the Conde
de la Reunion de Cuba, and Don Joaquin Gomez.
The capital of this bank, amounting to a million of
dollars, was provided by the Spanish government.
Its business is confined to the discounting of pro-

BANK OF FERDINAND VII. 97
missory notes and bills of exchange ; and the
directors are prohibited from engaging in any other
speculation, however lucrative it may appear,
under the penalty of being held personally re
sponsible. The rate of discount is fixed at the
rate of 10 per cent, per annum ; the currency of
the notes or bills of exchange discounted is limited
to three months, and the directors are forbidden
to give credit to any one individual, or to any
single house of business, beyond the limit of
#10,000. Two signatures satisfactory to the ma
jority of the directors are declared to be indis
pensable ; and unusual precautions are taken for
the preservation of secrecy, in the event of rejec
tion. Should the bills or notes discounted remain
unpaid at maturity, the directors are authorised, if
the debtor be a merchant, to seize the goods which
may stand in his name at the custom-house, or in
the bonded warehouses of the government ; and if
he be a planter or hacendado, they are in like man
ner authorised, should sufficient produce not be
forthcoming, to confiscate his domestic slaves and
his household furniture ; and should these also
prove insufficient to extinguish the debt, then au
thority is given to attach the field slaves, the live
stock, and such other personal property as may be
found on the debtor's estates. After such confis
cation the directors are prohibited from inter
rupting the proceedings against the debtor, by the
acceptance of security for the debt, or on any
other ground but the actual payment of the money.
No new discount is to be given to an individual or
H

98 CUBA.
a house of business once guilty of irregularity in
their payments, for a period of three years at least,
however much their circumstances may in the mean
time have improved ; and individuals applying for
discount are to understand that they renounce in
favour of the bank all personal privileges and im
munities to which they may be entitled. Even the
dowry of the wife is declared to be liable for the
whole amount of the bank's claims against the
husband. The Colonial Minister of Finance is declared to
be the president of the bank, and the Colonial
Court of Exchequer is charged with the recovery
of its debts. The utmost promptitude is prescribed
in the proceedings of this tribunal, and only a
single day is allowed for advertising the sale of the
confiscated property. In the unexpected case of
the confiscation of the rural property of a hacen
dado, the civil judge of the district, or the military
commandant, is directed to proceed to the spot,
accompanied by an officer on horseback and four
policemen, and is to notify the proceeding to the
mayoral, mayordomo, dueno, or other dependant of
the debtor. On this being done, the field slaves
on the estate are to be assembled, and a selection
is to be made from among them to the amount of
the number specified in the order of the court.
The slaves so selected are to be carried to the
prison of the Casa Blanca, and are there to be de
livered over to the keeper, whose receipt is to be
taken for them, remaining in his custody till the
time of sale. In such a case, the probability of

BANK OF FERDINAND VII. 99
hesitation and delay on the part of the constituted
authorities, and of violent resistance on the part
of the debtor, appears to be anticipated ; and, to
meet such difficulties, the heaviest penalties are
enacted. The directors of the bank are held responsible
for their proceedings to the government to the
extent of #100,000 each. For this amount, hy
pothecs or mortgages over real property are to
be taken. The cashiers, book-keepers, clerks, and
servants of the bank are named by the directors,
by whom the salaries are fixed. Each director is
to keep one of the three keys of the strong box ;
and no payment is to be made without the pre
sence of at least one director, who may receive
and use the keys of his colleagues. The respon
sibility of the directors is limited to the case of
their granting discounts to persons not known to
be in the possession of property, and in the no
torious enjoyment of credit ; and to their infringe
ment of the rules of the bank, which, in this re
spect, are assimilated to the laws which govern the
administration of the national finances. An ac
count is to be presented to the President, weekly,
of the state of the funds ; and once a month he
is to assist, in person, at the verification of the
cash, which the directors are required to have
balanced. At the end of each year, a general
balance of the affairs of the bank is to be struck,
and after being examined by the Court of Ac
counts, and approved of by the President, it is to
be published for public information. The direc-
h 2

100 CUBA.
tors are authorised to appropriate 20 per cent.
of the profits during the year to the payment of
the salaries of the officers of the establishment
and the other expenses of management. The
business of the bank has hitherto been in a great
measure confined to the management of the
financial affairs of the colony. No notes are
issued ; but provision is made in the Reglamento,
or code of laws for its government, that in the
event of its becoming desirable to augment the
active capital, deposits may be received and in
terest paid thereon, at the rate of 7 per cent.
per annum. Should the property of foreigners be
so deposited, it is declared to be under the royal
protection, and not to be liable to confiscation
or attachment on account of war, or reprisals, or
under any other pretext whatever. These provi
sions of the code for the increase of the capital
have not, however, yet been acted on ; so that,
upon the whole, its capital is too small, and its
management too complicated to enable the institu
tion to be of much practical use to the public.
The two insurance companies at the Havana
having found that slave risks were unsafe, and that
the amount of legitimate insurance did not furnish
sufficient employment for their capital, have both
been applying themselves to the business of private
banking in the discount of bills, but not in the
issue of notes. The senior company is authorised
by its fundamental rules to employ its surplus
funds in such discounts, provided the bills sub
mitted to the directing committee have at least

TARIFF OF CUSTOMS. 101
two satisfactory signatures, and that they have not
more than six months to run. The committee is
prohibited from discounting to any one company
or individual to a greater amount than #20,000.
The junior company is, in like manner, authorised
to discount bills, with two satisfactory signatures,
and having not more than eight months to run ; but
no limit is imposed as to the amount to be ad
vanced to individual customers. The senior com
pany gives a salary o£#4000 a-year to the director,
besides 6 per cent, on the clear profits. The
director of the other company has a salary of
#3000 and an allowance of 5 per cent, on the
profits. The question has for some time been agitated
of establishing a branch of the English Colonial
Bank at the Havana. One of the agents of that
establishment, Mr. Miranda, whom I had the plea
sure of meeting at Barbadoes, had visited that
island for the purpose of instituting the necessary
inquiries ; when he found that it would not be
safe to commence operations without obtaining
such facilities in the recovery of debts as are al
ready possessed by the Bank of Ferdinand VIL
For this purpose I understand that a negotiation
has been opened at Madrid ; and if the Spanish
government understand their own interest, they
will of course take care to leave no difficulty in
the way. The English Company to obtain a
footing will probably be tempted to reduce the
rate of interest ; and the difference will be so
much profit to the owner and dealer in slaves.
h 3

102 CUBA.
Nay, as the names of members of the British
House of Commons are to be found on the list of
the directors of the Colonial Bank, it is to be
feared that a parliamentary interest will be created
in favour of this infamous traffic, since the wealthy
slave traders of the Havana will become the most
valuable customers of that branch of the new
banking establishment.
The greater part of that portion of the pub
lic revenue which is levied at the custom-house,
is derived from duties on importation. If the
goods imported be of foreign origin, and arrive
from Spain under the national flag, the duty is
fixed at 10^ per cent, ad valorem, and in some
cases \3\ per cent. If of foreign origin, and im
ported from a foreign country, but in Spanish ves
sels, the ad valorem duty is 14^ per cent., and in
some cases 18£. But if the goods be imported not
only from a foreign country, but under a foreign
flag, the duty ad valorem is 21^, and in some cases
27^ per cent. In each of these cases, there comes
to be added a supplementary duty of 3 per cent.
ad valorem on the goods, besides the duty called
the Balanza, of 1 per cent, on the gross amount
of the duties previously ascertained. If the goods
be of Spanish origin, and arrive direct from Spain,
under the national flag, they are liable only to a
duty of 6 \ per cent, ad volorem ; but if such
Spanish goods should be brought from Spain by
foreign vessels, then the duty would be 14^, and in
some cases 18£ per cent, ad valorem.
On exports of goods, the produce of the island,

TARIFF OF CUSTOMS. 103
the duty is fixed at 9.\ per cent, ad valorem, if their
destination be a Spanish port, and if the vessel, on
board of which they are embarked bear a Spanish
registry. If the vessel be Spanish, but a foreign
port the place of destination, the duty will be
4^ per cent, ad valorem. And if the vessel and
the place of destination be both foreign, then the
duty will be 6\ per cent, ad valorem. In each of
these cases, there is to be added the balance duty
of 1 per cent., determined by the amount of the
exportation duty.
In every case of importation, as well as export
ation, the value is fixed as far as that is possible by
the tariff ; but in many cases, the applicability of
the specified rate of duty to the specific articles
imported or exported must, of course, remain to
be determined by the custom-house officers.
The most material deviation from these rates of
duty is in the case of flour, which, independent
of the war contribution, if the produce of Spain,
and imported in Spanish vessels, is liable to a duty
of #2 per barrel ; but if imported in foreign ves
sels, the same flour is subject to a duty of #6 per
barrel. If the flour be the produce of a foreign
country, and be imported under the national flag,
the duty is #8^ per barrel ; but if the foreign flour
be imported under a foreign flag, the duty is #9^
per barrel. In each of these cases, also, the
balance duty of 1 per cent, on the amount of the
import duty must be added.
On the exportation /)f tobacco in foreign vessels
with a foreign destination, the duty is 12£ per
h 4

104 CUBA.
cent, ad valorem ; in Spanish vessels with a foreign
destination, 6\ per cent. ; and in Spanish vessels to
a Spanish port, 2\ per cent, ad valorem.
On the precious metals there is also an export
duty, if Spain be not the place of destination. On
gold it is \\, and on silver %\ per cent.
The export duty on sugar is only three reals per
box, if shipped in a Spanish, and four reals if in a
foreign vessel.
The other exceptions to the scale of ad valorem
duties are not numerous, and relate to articles of
little importance.
The list of articles admissible free of duty is so
short, that it may be given entire. It is confined
to ploughs of a particular construction, known by
the name of the Roville plough, to iron sugar ket
tles, and iron or copper clarifiers, steam engines,
and other machinery for sugar works ; and such
particular portions of such engines and machinery
as are required to facilitate needful repairs. To
these are added mills for cleaning rice, horses, ca
ballos padres, and mares.
The articles that may be exported free of duty
are, — green fruits of all sorts, such as oranges
and lemons, pine apples, bananas and plantains, lime
juice and syrup, of all which considerable quantities
find their way to the neighbouring continent. The
energy and enterprise applied to such small matters
by the people of North America, and especially by
the natives of New England, is almost beyond be
lief. In the course of last summer, on board a
steam-boat on the St. Lawrence, I met with a

CROWN REVENUES. 105
certain Colonel Thomas, of Vermont, who informed
me that he made it his business to supply the
people of Quebec and Montreal with the oranges
and pine apples of Cuba ; and in return he brought
back to Ballston and Saratoga, and other places of
fashionable resort, fresh salmon packed in ice from
the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. The only other
articles that can be legally exported free of duty
are gold and silver, in the shape of bars, household
utensils, or money; but the exemption is only avail
able in the event of their being entered for export
ation to the Peninsula.
The crown revenues of the Island may be divided
into the six following classes : —
1st. Rentas maritimas ; which include the duties
on imports, exports, and tonnage, and the local or
municipal duties which are levied at some of the
custom-houses of the island.
2d. Impuestos interiores ; such as the tax on
home manufactures, the consumption duty on but
chers' meat, the composition levied from hucksters
and hawkers, the sale of papal bulls and of stamped
paper, the profits derived from the lottery, and the
impost on cock-fights.
3d. Deductions from the Rentas ecclesiasticus,
particularly from those called the royal ninths, and
the consolidated fund, the sinking fund, the media
annata, and the annual and monthly revenues of
the clergy.
4th. Deducciones personales ; such as the con
tribution for exemption from military service, called
the Lanzas, the medias annatas seculares, the

106 CUBA.
deduction from the pay of invalids, and the tax on
pawnbrokers. 5th. Miscellaneous receipts ; such as the pro
duce of the sale of royal lands, the returns of the
old polit ax, the rents of vacant livings and of un
claimed estates, the produce of vendible offices, the
hospitalidades, and the penas de camera.
6th. Casual receipts ; such as deposits, confisca
tions, donations, and the recovery of arrears.
The average produce of the import, export, and
tonnage duties upon the five years ending with
1^8£7_was__#5,462,652_4. Before the year 1834
The export duties were equal to a ibiirth^ofthose_
on imports, but in that year large allowances were
made in consequence of the distress arising from
the prevalence of cholera. The export duty on
sugar, which was then reduced from twelve reals
to three, if exported in Spanish vessels, and to
four if in foreign vessels, has not since been re
established at its former rate ; so that the whole
export duties are now only about a sixth part of
those levied on imports.
The territorial revenues, and the produce of
the other taxes not exhibited in the official returns
of the Balanza, amount on the average of the
five years ending with 1837, to #3,485,928 6.
In 1833, they were #3,660,185 2; in 1834,
#3,847,446 1£; in 1835, #3,371,149 1 ; in 1836,
#3,523,472 5 ; and in 1837, #3,027,390 5^. So
that the whole revenues of the island, on the
average of the five years ending with 1837,
amounted to #8,948,581 2. Of this sum, the

EFFECT OF DIFFERENTIAL DUTIES. 107
maritime duties formed 61 per cent. ; the internal
taxes 22| per cent. ; the ecclesiastical deductions
1^ per cent. ; the personal deductions %\ per cent. ;
the miscellaneous revenues 2^ per cent. ; and the
casual revenues 10^ per cent.
To show the effect of the different duties to
which two vessels would be liable, the one a
Spaniard, the other a foreigner, let us suppose
them to arrive with equal burdens of 300 tons
each ; that they bring mixed cargoes of the same
description of goods, which they discharge at the
Havana ; and that they receive there mixed car
goes, in all respects similar to each other. In that
case, the foreign vessel would have to pay —
For tonnage dues, at 12 reals per ton, with the addition
of 1 per cent, of Balanza - "- - #4544
For the dredging machine at 1 £ real per ton - 47 3
For wharf dues, at 10 reals per 100 tons per day, sup
posing that eight days are necessary - - 30 0
For the custom-house charges on the visit of entry (if
the ship had been in ballast, this article would have
been reduced one half) - - --54
For assistance in discharging, at the rate of $B\ per
day - - - - - - 44 0
For an extract of the manifest - - - 1 0
For the custom-house clearance visit (if the ship had
sailed in ballast this would have been reduced one half) 5 4
For the cocket of the outward cargo - - 8 0
For the cocket stamp - - - - 8 2
For a translation of the manifest - - - 12 0
For custom-house officers' fees (if in ballast this charge
would be #3) - - - -50
For the captain of the port - - - 6 0
For lighthouse dues - - - - 4 0
631 1

108 CUBA.
Brought forward ... . #631 1
For government fees - - - - 4, 0
For bill of health - - 8 0
For the visit of the health officer - 2 0

#645 1

On the other hand, supposing the vessel to have
been Spanish, she would have had to pay —
For tonnage dues, at 5 reals per ton, with the addition
ofi per cent, of Balanza - - - #189 3
For wharf dues, at the rate of 6 reals per 100 tons per
day, supposing, as before, that 8 days are necessary 18 0
The charges for the dredging machine and the other
items are the same on Spanish as on foreign vessels,
amounting in the supposed case to - - 160 5
#368 0
As the charges on the foreign vessel amounted to - 645 1
It follows that the distinction in favour of the national 
flag amounts to - - - # 277 1

It is not here as in St. Domingo, where from
the highest to the lowest the custom-house officers
are notoriously open to the most barefaced cor
ruption. At the Havana at least the inspecting
officers, whose business it is to remain within the
walls of the custom-house, and examine the goods
as they pass, are considered in this respect as above
all suspicion ; but the inferior functionaries, whose
duties are performed out of doors, superintending
the discharge of lumber and of all such cargoes
as are received by the consignee direct from on
board, have not the reputation of being perfectly
immaculate. On the export of most of the staple productions

PUBLIC WHARFS. 109
the full amount of the duty imposed by the tariff
is not generally paid, the packages being always
larger, in fact, than the estimate made of them by
the custom-house officers ; and when not very
great, the excess is advisedly overlooked. With
regard to cigars, it is known that large parcels are
sent out, on the payment of the one half of the
regulated duty to the guards on the wharf.
No merchant in St. Domingo, however great his
wealth or extensive his transactions, has any scru
ple about engaging in the system of corruption
which there prevails universally. The affectation
of purity, and the refusal to pay a bribe, would, in
fact, exclude him from all power of competing
with his fellow merchants in the market. In Cuba,
however, or at least in the Havana, it is only the
captains of vessels, or the merchants of an inferior
class, who engage in the contraband trade ; at
least so I have been assured by the British Consul,
who, being a merchant himself, may possibly have
judged of others by the purity of his own practice;
for certainly it can neither be the masters of ves
sels, nor the huckstering dealers of the Havana,
who bring or receive from the United States
the large quantities of the bulky article of flour
which are constantly imported, as I have endea
voured to demonstrate, without the payment of
duty. Vessels arriving at the Havana, unless loaded
with any of those varieties of goods known in the
American timber trade by the name of lumber,
and unless they have gunpowder on board, are

110 CUBA.
discharged at the public wharf; but as soon as
that operation is accomplished, they are hauled out
into the stream from one to two hundred yards off,
and remain there at anchor until they receive their
outward cargo, by means of launches or lighters,
and are again ready for sea. Lumber-loaded ves
sels are discharged in the harbour, and gunpowder
at the public magazine.
At those seasons of the year when the northerly
gales, or " Nortes," are prevalent, the shipping is
sometimes liable by being sent adrift or by running
foul of each other, to be exposed to damage, or
even capsized ; but such accidents are exceedingly
rare, and can generally be avoided by ordinary
prudence in having the ships well moored, bal
lasted, and made snug before the stormy season
sets in. The "Nortes" are rarely heard of before
the end of October ; but they continue at irregular
intervals till the month of March. With this ex
ception, the harbour is considered by nautical men
to be remarkably safe, not being exposed to danger
from currents or other casualties, or from any wind
but the "Norte." The wharf is constructed of
piles and planks of acana and iron wood, and the
other hard woods of the country.
There is no port in the island which can be re
garded as a desirable place for the repairing or
careening of ships, or for obtaining supplies of
water, bread, beef, or provisions. The wages of
labour are high, and the prices of naval stores are
enhanced by the duties on importation. The price
of prime mess beef varies from ten to thirteen dol-

PUBLIC WHARFS. Ill
lars per barrel, that of prime mess pork from
twenty-one to twenty-four dollars, and of pilot
bread from five to six dollars per hundred weight.
Water is also an article of sale to merchant vessels,
but to her Majesty's ships it is supplied free of
charge by the local government.

112

CUBA.

CHAP. VI.
STATISTICS.  IMPORTS.  EXPORTS.— SHIPPING. — TONNAGE.
 DISCRIMINATING DUTIES.  INCREASE OF TRADE. 
STATE OF TRADE.  TARIFF.  WAR CONTRIBUTION. 
PRICE OF FLOUR. — AMERICAN FLOUR.  EDUCATION. 
PERIODICAL LITERATURE.— THE SLAVE TRADE. — CAUSES
OF PROSPERITY.
The statistical information, which is annually
published at the Havana with the sanction of the
colonial government, is exceedingly minute ; and
as there seems no reason to doubt its accuracy, it
must be also proportionally valuable. There are
separate returns for the Havana, and the whole
island respectively ; of the imports and exports,
the ships entered and the ships sailed, the duties
levied on importation and exportation, the goods
deposited in the bonding warehouses, distinguish
ing those afterwards exported and those admitted
to consumption. Comparative tables are also given
annually in these Balanzas Mercantiles and Ba-
lanzas Generates of the details relating to the year
just ended with those of the year immediately pre
ceding it ; and, by preserving a series of these
documents for a consecutive term of years, an in
teresting view is obtained of the agricultural and
commercial prosperity of the island.
The imports are subdivided into vivres, manu
factures, and miscellanies.

IMPORTS. 113
The vivres into liquids, salted meats, spices,
fruits, grain, oleaginous substances, fish, and mis
cellanies. Of liquids there was imported into the island,
in the year 1837 :— Oil, 106,966 arrobas ; brandy,
115,098 ; malt liquor, 80,257 ; gin, 80,901 ; cider,
21,204; vinegar, 5,511; white wine, 125,945;
red wine, 840,306 ; all in arrobas, and amounting
altogether in value to #1,827,764 2.
Of salted meats : 2475 barrels of pork ; 7540
barrels of beef; 2289 arrobas of smoked beef;
4516 arrobas of sausages ; 27,771 arrobas of ham ;
800,500 arrobas of jerked beef; 14,478 arrobas
of bacon ; the whole being of the value of
#1,425,497 6.
Of spices : 6556 lbs. of saffron ; 44,196 lbs. of
cinnamon; 2404 lbs. of cloves ; 1256 arrobas of
black pepper ; 7^70 arrobas of red pepper ; of the
value of #115,979 1.
Of fruits : 23,421 arrobas of olives ; 9102 of
almonds ; 5178 of nuts ; 3124 of prunes ; 10,336
of figs, and 36,534 of raisins ; of the value of
#187,586 3.
Of grain : 561,577 arrobas of rice ; 40,837 of
cocoa ; 34,894 of beans ; 42,980 of garbanzos ;
183,767 barrels of flour ; 1042 barrels of Indian
corn meal ; and 1642 arrobas of Indian corn; all
of the value of #3,302,849.
Of oleaginous substances : 44,265 arrobas of fish
oil; 301,724 arrobas of lard; 14,680 arrobas of
butter; 36,600 arrobas of cheese; 15,670 arrobas
of tallow ; 264,699 lbs. of spermaceti candles ;

114 CUBA.
45,988 arrobas of tallow candles ; all of the value
of #1,335,464 3.
Offish: 35,114 arrobas of herrings; 4145 of
tunny fish ; 408,308 of cod ; 23,587 of mackerel ;
14,491 of other salt fish ; 366 of salmon ; and
13,595 of Sardines ; all of the value of #437,907-
Of miscellaneous vivres : 968,640 strings of
onions ; 43,699 arrobas of vermicelli ; 14,373 ar
robas of macaroni ; 30,157 barrels of potatoes ;
1770 lbs. of tea ; which, with dried vegetables,
make a value of #293,697 7-
The manufactures are subdivided into cottons,
woollens, linens, articles of leather, silks, articles
of wood, and metals.
The cottons are valued at # 3,233,120 ; the wool
lens at #576,178 6 ; the linens at #2,881,999 1 ;
the articles of leather at # 504,432 4 ; the silks at
#516,484 1 ; the articles of wood at # 979,838 2;
and the metals at # 1,899,627 6.
The miscellaneous articles consist chiefly of mer
cery, haberdashery, and thread ; glass and earthen
ware, printed books and stationery, medicines,
perfumery, gunpowder, wearing apparel, and house
hold furniture ; all of the value of # 3,422,930.
Making the total value of the imports for the
year 1837, # 22,940,357-
The average of the five years ending with 1837
was # 20,567,766 1.
On this quinquennial period, the relative propor
tion of vivres imported was 41 per cent., of manu
factures 42, and of miscellaneous articles 17 per
cent.

exports. 115
The exports for the same year are subdivided into,
1 st, Productions of the island ; 2d, Precious fruits
and precious metals ; and, 3d, Ultramarine pro
ductions. The productions of the island are stated at 3450
pipes of rum, valued at # 69,010 ; 26,987 arrobas
of cotton # 33,733 6 ; 9,060,053 arrobas of sugar
#7^927^526 6; 2,133,567 arrobas of coffee
#2,133,567 4; 587 arrobas of cocoa #2,208 2;
42,598 cubic yards of mahogany # 128,906 2 ;
29,209 cubic yards of cedar #39,967 3 ; 39,264
arrobas of wax #171,800 1 ; 25,262 hides #35,943 ;
3109 arrobas of sweet meats #13,990 4; fruit,
quantity not specified, #81,562; 3380 hhds. of
honey #63,384 3; 114,975 hhds. of molasses
#718,598 2; 2892 horses and mules #51,997;
179,503 arrobas of leaf tobacco #560,948 3 ;
792,438 lbs. of cigars # 1,267,496 ; miscellaneous
articles #1,017,188; making the whole produe-
tions of the island exported in 1837, amount to
#14,317,865 5.
The precious fruits and precious metals exported
are valued as follows: — 82,890 lbs. of indigo at
# 82,890 ; 26,987 arrobas of grain # 163,549 5 ;
coined gold #731,391 4; and coined silver
# 1,382,906 5 ; making together # 2,360,737 6.
The ultramarine productions exported are thus
valued : — Cottons # 1,208,312 4 ; liquors
# 182,131 6 ; fruits and grain # 164,285 7 ; hard
ware # 174,337 2 ; woollens # 99,201 2 ; linens
#201,271 6; dye woods #48,284; articles of
leather #31,831 4; silks #125,421 4; sarsapa-
1 2

116

CUBA.

rilla # 7218 6 ; miscellanies #1,425,527 5 ; making
together # 3,667,823 6. So that the whole exports
for the year 1837 amounted to # 20,346,607 1.
Of the ships and vessels that entered the har
bours of the island in 1837, 753 were Spaniards,
1319 Americans, 7 Belgians, 29 from Bremen, 14
Danish ; 54 French, 1 St. Domingo, 10 from
Hamburgh, 30 Dutch, 201 English, 10 Mexican,
78 Portuguese, 1 Russian, 11 Sardinian, and 6
Swedish ; in all 2524.
Of the ships and vessels that sailed, 626 were
Spanish ; 1267 American ; 8 Belgian ; 40 Bremen ;
17 Danish ; 44 French : 1 Haytian ; 16 Ham
burgh ; 17 Dutch ; 202 English ; 8 Mexican ;
62 Portuguese ; 1 Russian ; 10 Sardinian ; and
7 Swedish : in all 2326.
The number of tons imported in 1837 amounted
to 367,014 ; the tonnage duties to #405,797 3,
and the custom-house duties to #4,591,982 5.
The number of tons exported were 342,981 ; the
export duties #811,995 2; and the whole duties
on tonnage, imports, and exports, amounted to
#5,809,775 2.
The port of the Havana commands a very large
proportion of the trade of the island. In 1837, its
imports were valued at #17,416,299 5, and its ex
ports at 13,605,699 2^. The imports of Santiago
de Cuba were #2,299,399 6^, and its exports
#2,182,001 4. The imports of Puerto Principe
#232,839 31 and its exports #116,256 6. The
imports of Matanzas were #1,458,812 41, and its
exports #3,065,802 6^. The imports of Trinidad

STATE OF TRADE. 117
de Cuba were #1,108,698 7, and its exports
#935,101 1. The imports of Baracoa were
#31,763 3, and its exports #39,021 S£. The
imports of Gibara were #115,101 1^, and its ex
ports #145,189 2. The imports of Cienfuegos
were #102,151 1, and its exports #110,538 1.
The imports of Manzanillo were #175,291, and its
exports # 146,796 7 '• making the total imports,
as before, #22,940,357; and the total exports
#20,346,407 l£-
On the average of the five years ending with
1837, the relative proportion of goods imported
and exported under the various flags was as fol
lows : — The Spanish flag, 43^ per cent. ; the
United States, 26 per cent. ; the other American
States, 7i per cent. ; England, 7^ per cent. ;
France, 4^ per cent. ; Germany, 2^ per cent. ;
the Low Countries, 1^ per cent. ; the Baltic, Italy,
and Portugal, 1 per cent. ; goods entered in bond,
and therefore not distinguished, 6^ per cent.
From the nature and amount of the discrimi
nating duties, the whole trade with the ports of
Spain is, of course, carried on under the national
flag. The imports in this branch amounted, in
1837, to #4,659,153 5^, and the exports to
#2,919,474 4. These duties give a large share
also of the foreign trade to the national shipping.
It amounted, in 1837, to #4,966,101 £ of imports,
and #1,294,282 6 of exports. The imports from
the Hanse Towns were #361,556 7^, and the
exports #1,582,667 4. The imports from Den
mark #28,341 7, and the exports #25.469 7-
1 3

118 CUBA.
From the States of America, formerly colonies of
Spain, the imports were #1,099,367 2, and the
exports #248,323 5. From the United States,
the imports were #6,548,957 6^, and the exports
#5,792,623. From France, the imports were
#861,360 H, and the exports #1,344,608. From
England, the imports were #1,373,964 ^, and the
exports #2,990,466 1. From Italy, the imports
were #71,941 4, and the exports #106,714 7.
From the Low Countries, the imports were
#203,491 7, and the exports #1,130,918 4. From
Portugal, the imports were #23,509 %h and the
exports #416,391 1. From Russia, Sweden, and
Turkey, there were no imports ; but the exports
to Russia were #555,701 4, to Sweden #60,050 7,
and to Turkey #2,796. The imports into the
bonded warehouses are given without distin
guishing the flag. They amounted, in 1837, to
#2,639,521 31, the exports to #1,469,141 5, and
the goods introduced out of bond into consump
tion on payment of duties to #406,777 2^.
From these tables it may be inferred, although
not of course stated officially, that the average
burden of the vessels engaged in the slave trade,
in 1837, did not exceed 125 tons.
In all departments of the trade of the island,
there was an increase in 1837, as compared with
1836. In imports, the increase amounted to
#456,770 4^. In exports, to no less than
#4,328,535 0^. In tonnage and custom-house
duties, to #142,646 5. In vessels entered, to 16.
In tonnage entered, to 28,321. In vessels sailed,

STATE OF TRADE. 119
to 102. In tonnage sailed, to 5869. In goods
bonded, it amounted to #1,629,749 5 ; and in
goods taken out of bond, to #742,976 2^.
The chief increase in imports took place in the
quantity and value of goods admitted into bond,
and the chief increase of exports was in the
articles of sugar, molasses, coffee,_waxi_and cigars.
On sugar the increase was 4,630 boxes. On mo
lasses, 5426 hogsheads ; on coffee, 87,188 bags ; on
wax, 160 tons ; and on cigars, 50,000 thousands.
It was estimated, at the time of my leaving the
Havana, (the official returns for the year not having
then been made up,) that the exports of sugar and
molasses, in 1838, would be much greater than in
any previous year, in consequence of the increase
of labour applied to the cultivation of the sugar
cane and the manufacture of the sugar, by the
withdrawal of labourers from coffee plantations,
and still more by the constant and increasing in
troduction of Bozal negroes from the coast of
Africa. It was supposed that the exportation of
coffee in 1838 would prove inferior to that of
1837, because the crops were generally indifferent;
and for the reason just stated in regard to the in
crease of sugar, the cultivation was on the decline.
The blockade of the ports of Mexico by the
French had interrupted the demand for wax ; but
it was not doubted that the re-opening of the
Mexican ports would become the signal for the
trade of bleaching to recommence with fresh acti
vity. The manufacture of cigars was also decidedly
on the increase. i 4

120

CUBA.

From the two ports of the Havana and Matanzas
the exports have increased in the following ratio.
In 1835 they were #491,570 ; in 1836, #500,153 ;
in 1837, #506,952 ; in 1838, #610,512 ; and even
on this last quantity an increase was anticipated
for 1839. The great augmentation towards the
end of this period is ascribed by the British com
missioners to the stimulus supposed to have been
given to the efforts of the planters from the ex
pectation of obtaining a high price for their sugar,
in consequence of a diminished production in the
British West Indies.
From the manner in which the official returns
are prepared, it is not possible to ascertain from
them, with anything approaching to accuracy, the
quantity or value of the importations from Eng
land, or from any given foreign country, however
much the information contained in the returns
may be depended on as often as it is given speci
fically. Thus many of the imports are given under
the heads of " Foreign Commerce imported in
Spanish vessels," which is all the specification re
quired for the guidance of the officers, in charging
or levying the duties of tonnage or of customs ;
and in the same way the origin of goods admitted
to the privilege of the entrepdt is not specified in
the returns ; but I have the authority of her
Majesty's consul in stating that, in regard to the
importation of British goods, within the last few
years, there has been no material variation on the
side either of diminution or improvement.
The ulterior destination of a considerable portion

DISCRIMINATING DUTIES. 121
of the produce of the island is also a matter of un
certainty, in consequence of the practice which
obtains, among the merchants of the country, of
directing the commanders of ships to call for orders
at some convenient point of the English coast, in
which case they are entered in the return of ex
ports from Cuba as for " Cowes and a market,"
although the Continent generally may have been
their original, and some particular continental port
their ultimate, destination.
The tariff of duties on importation remained un
altered from the commencement of the year 1835
till the end of the year 1838, when some additions
of no great moment took effect. With regard to
goods coming from North America, and other
neighbouring parts, the augmentation was levied
from the 15th of October, 1838 ; -but on arrivals
from Europe, South America, and similarly distant
regions, it did not come into operation till the 1st
of January, 1839- The previously existing duties,
charged ad valorem according as the goods im
ported were of Spanish or foreign origin, or as they
arrived under a Spanish or foreign flag, were 6\,
17i> 21^, 24^, and 30^ per cent. At the periods
referred to, they were increased one seventh,
making them thenceforward 7y» 19f, 24-f-, 27f,
and 34^ respectively.
On Spanish flour, which was previously subject
to a duty of #2 per barrel, an additional #1 was
imposed ; but the duty on foreign flour remained
at its previous high rate without augmentation.
The additions to the duties on exportation were

122 CUBA.
confined to the articles of sugar, coffee, molasses,
and tobacco. On each box of sugar, an additional
duty of four reals or half a dollar was imposed ;
on each arroba of coffee one eighth of a real,
on each hogshead of molasses two reals, on each
arroba of leaf tobacco one quarter of a real, and
on each thousand cigars one real.
It is expected that these additional duties will
produce about a million of dollars per annum, and
that the share of the war contribution imposed by
the Peninsular government on the island of Cuba
will thus be liquidated in about two years and a
half, or three years at farthest. According to the
budget of the Conde de Villanueva, these war
duties will bring in to the treasury from #375,000
to #400,000 on exports, and from #525,000 to
#600,000 on imports. The new duty of one
dollar per barrel on Spanish flour is expected of
itself to produce #100,000 ; but it may be doubted
whether the difference which will still remain of
six dollars and a half between the aggregate duty
on Spanish, and the unaltered duty on American
flour, will not be sufficient to encourage the con
traband importation to such an extent as materially
to interfere with the estimated produce of the war
tax. The duty of nine dollars and a half per
barrel on American flour is equal to more than one
hundred per cent, on its average value, after freight
and charges are added to it. Wheaten bread be
comes, therefore, an article of luxury, unknown
altogether to the negro population, and but rarely
enjoyed by the lower classes among the free in-

DISCRIMINATING DUTIES. 123
habitants of the island. Under ordinary circum
stances, it might have been inferred a priori that
the consumption of flour must have increased
pari passu with the increase of wealth and popu
lation. This, however, is so far from being shown
by the custom-house returns, that, during the five
years ending with 1830, the average annual im
portation of flour was 179,918 barrels ; whereas,
during the five years immediately subsequent to
1830, the average annual importation was only
162,523 barrels. The only possible way in which
this extraordinary diminution can be reasonably
accounted for is, by supposing the existence of
smuggling to a large extent from North America,
— a supposition which is fully borne out by the
opinions of the best informed merchants at the
Havana. It is true that the superior quality of
American flour, as compared with Spanish, gives
it a decided preference in the market ; so much
so, that there has occasionally been a difference
of three dollars per barrel in its price. The
cheapest year that has occurred for a long period
was 1833, when the price of Spanish flour varied
from ten and a half to eleven dollars per barrel,
and that of American flour from thirteen to four
teen dollars. In 1836, the price of Spanish flour
was from fourteen to fifteen dollars, and that of
American from seventeen to eighteen and a half
dollars. These prices include of course the im
port duty in both cases.
Until the year 1835, the flour of Old Spain,
coming chiefly from Santander, paid a duty of

124 CUBA.
three dollars, if introduced in Spanish bottoms,
and four dollars five and a half reals, if under
a foreign flag ; while American flour paid seven
dollars if imported in Spanish bottoms, and nine
dollars four reals if in foreign. Under this system
the national shipping was greatly favoured, and
had for many years been constantly on the increase.
In 1826, the^ total acknowledged importation of
flour was 147,995 barrels, of which 37,749^ were
Spanish. In the years 1828, 1829, and 1830 the
legal importation was on the increase; and in 1831
it amounted to 162,782§ barrels, of which 70,464
were Spanish. In 1832, the proportion of Spanish
flour fell to 51,595^ barrels. In consequence of
this falling off, the royal order of the 4th of July,
1834, was issued, declaring that Spanish flour
introduced under the Spanish flag should pay only
two dollars a barrel ; whereas, if introduced under
any foreign flag, it should pay six dollars, besides
a supplementary balance duty.
In consequence of the heavy discriminating
duties imposed by Spain on the importation of
goods under any foreign flag, the government of
the United States, who were the greatest sufferers,
resorted to a system of retaliation, and induced
Congress to enact that all Spanish vessels entering
any port of the Union, from Cuba or Porto Rico,
should pay a tonnage duty equivalent to the
amount which their cargoes would have paid, had
they been exported from either of these islands in
American vessels. This measure of reprisal was
felt by the Spaniards to be a serious blow to their

STATISTICS. 125
shipping interests ; but although there has of
late years been a considerable diminution in the
amount of tonnage engaged in the foreign trade,
in consequence of the number of vessels that have
been driven from it by these retaliatory duties,
there can be no doubt that the loss has in a great
measure been compensated, and that the number
of vessels employed in the coasting trade has in
creased with the growing wants of the island, and
a rapidly augmented production.
The census of 1827, prepared by a sort of mili
tary commission, under the eye of the Captain-Ge
neral of that period, Don Francisco Dionisio Vives,
is at least a very elaborate performance, and the
Memoir in which it is embodied contains a vast
variety of highly interesting details, independent of
the mere enumeration of the inhabitants; a parallel
to which it would be very desirable to possess in
our own colonies. The number of churches in the
island is stated to be 189 ; of chapels and hermit
ages, 108 ; of male convents, 19 ; of female con
vents, 5 ; of hospitals, 30 ; of barracks for troops,
50 ; of physicians and surgeons, 504 ; of apothe
caries' shops, 186 ; of primary schools, some of
them for both sexes, 141 ; of hucksters' shops and
taverns, 2943; of mercers' and haberdashers' shops,
618 ; of farriers, 66 ; of carpenters' shops, 459 ; of
shoemakers' shops, 769 ; of tailors' shops, 240 ; of
smithies, 226 ; of shops for small wares, 118 ; of
founderies, 16 ; of cooperages, 77 ; of gunsmiths'
shops, 40 ; of inns, eating houses, and coffee
houses, 195 ; of bakeries, 445 ; of houses built of

126

CUBA.

wood and plaster, and roofed with planks or shin
gles, 65,589 ; and of houses built of stone or brick,
and roofed with tiles, 22,167-
The number of acres under cultivation are stated
to be 3,020,027 j of cattle or pasture farms of the
first class, 1140; of inferior breeding establish
ments, 6190 ; of sugar mills, 1000; of coffee es
tates, 2067 ; of cocoa estates, 66 ; of cotton estates,
76 ; of dairies, 3098 ; of workshops, 13,947 ; of
tobacco plantations, 5534 ; of honey and wax
making establishments, 1686 ; of beehives, 31 1,553 ;
of tanneries, 50 ; of tile-kilns, 703 ; of distilleries,
300 ; of lime-kilns and plaster works, 231 ; of
houses of recreation in the country, 46 ; of volantes
and quitrins, both two-wheeled carriages, 5100 ; of
light carts and waggons, 15,344 ; of bulls and cows,
1,058,732 ; of oxen for labour and draught,
140,539 ; of horses and mares, 206,973 ; of asses
and mules, 19,642 ; of pigs, 893,538 ; and of
sheep and goats, 46,962.
The agricultural and industrial produce is stated
as follows : — Of white or clayed sugar, 8,091,837
arrobas of 25 lbs. each; of brown or muscovado
sugar, 81,545 ; of pipes of rum, 35,103 ; of hogs
heads of molasses, 81,173 ; of arrobas of coffee,
2,883,528; of arrobas of wax, 63,160 ; of arrobas
of honey, 76,404 ; of arrobas of cocoa, 23,806 ; of
arrobas of cotton, 38,142 ; of arrobas of indigo,
56 ; of arrobas of rice, 520,897 ; of arrobas of
beans, 134,185 ; of arrobas of garbanzos, a par
ticular sort of bean, 4505 ; of horse loads of plan-

EDUCATION. 127
tains, yucas, boniatos, malangas, and yams, a horse
load being equal to two hundred weight, 3,666,388 ;
of horse loads of green vegetables of all sorts,
384,857 ; of arrobas of onions, 9548 ; of arrobas
of garlic, 17,421 ; of fanegas of Indian corn,
1,617,806 ; of horse loads of Guinea grass and
other fodder, 2,793,308 ; of horse loads of leaf to
bacco, 61,898 ; and of horse loads of casava bread,
36,535. The state of education in the primary schools of
the island ol^Cu^aforms one of the three important
objects to which the attention of the Patriotic So
ciety of the Havana is directed. But although a
corporate body, armed with considerable powers, I
regret to say that, in this department of its duties,
the society is not verycordially or efficiently sup
ported. Of primary scliobls~^tirere_-are7Tn the
whole island, for white boys, 129; and for white
girls, 79 ; for coloured boys, 6 ; and for coloured
girls, 8. Of course, no slave is admitted into any
school in the island. The whole number of white
boys who attend these schools is 6025 ; of white
girls, 2417 ; of coloured boys, 460 ; and of co
loured girls, 180. In the entire province of Puerto
Principe, there is not a single school for free
coloured children of either sex ; and it is almost
needless to say that in the white schools they are
not admissible. Of those who pay for their own
education there are 3255 white boys, 1557 white
girls, 371 coloured boys, and 142 coloured girls.
Of those taught gratuitously by the masters, there

128

CUBA.

are 672 white boys, 363 white girls, 71 coloured
boys, and 28 coloured girls. Of those who have
the expense of their education defrayed by pa
triotic societies, there are 340 white boys, and 200
white girls. Of those educated by public subscrip
tion, or by local taxation, there are 1758 white
boys, 297 white girls, 18 coloured boys, and 10
coloured girls.
It is assumed that, there are in the island
99,599 free children, between the ages of five and
fifteen ; and the free population of the island, ac
cording to the last census, having amounted to
417,545, it follows that the number of free chil
dren is proportionally to the number at school as
9'97 are to 1, and that the total free population, as
compared with the numbers of the children at
school, is as 45*98 are to 1.
The province of the Havana is much better edu
cated than those of Puerto Principe or Santiago ;
and if a map of the island were coloured on the
principle adopted by M. Charles Dupin, to exhibit
at a glance the state of education in France, the
central district of Puerto Principe would show
very black indeed. There the proportion of the
free children is to those who are educated as 26'08
are to 1, and the general population to the numbers
of the children at school as 97*43 are to 1.
In the province of the Havana, the free children
are to the educated children as 7*34 are to 1, and
the free population to the children at school as
34-04 are to 1.
Between these extremes, in the province of San-

LITERATURE. 129
tiago, the number of free children fit for school is
to the number of children at school as 13-11 are
to 1, and the free population of the province to the
number of educated children as 51#71 are to 1.
The number of white children in that province,
between five and fifteen years of age, is 65,658,
and of coloured children 24,859, making together
90,517. The periodical literature of the island is more
considerable than might have been expected, under
the paralysing influence of an unsparing censor
ship. There are eight newspapers published in
Cuba, of which four are daily, viz., the Diario de
la Havana, and the Noticioso y Lucero both be
longing to the capital, the -Aurora, of Matanzas,
and the Redactor de Cuba, published at Santiago.
The other four are the Eco de Villaclara, the
Correo de Trinidad, the Gaceta de Puerta Prin
cipe, and the Fenix of Sancti- Spiritus. Besides
the newspapers, there are published at the Havana,
several literary periodicals, such as the Album, the
Mariposa, the Siempreviva, the Cartera, and the
Memorias de la Real Sociedad Patriotica.
During the constitutional crisis in Spain, when
the censorship was no longer in activity, a number
of journals with most extraordinary titles were
started at the Havana ; such as, El Sastre Con
stitucional ; Los Rugidos de un Leon Africano ;
Rasgos brillantes de Arbitriedad ; El Mosquito ;
La Mosca ; La Avispa ; El Esquifo ; &c. &c.
The circulation of the two existing Havana
papers is said to be considerable ; and from the
K

130 CUBA.
manner in which advertisements are crowded into
their columns, they are no doubt highly profitable
to the proprietors. To a European observer, the
constantly recurring notices of the sales of slaves
are at first the most striking. On looking over
the file I brought away with me, I frequently
find the intimation of such a sale as the following:
" Una negra " or " Una nodriza de dos meses de
parida, con su cria o sin ella ! " In fact, there
are thousands of advertisements of the sale of
male and female adults ; but never of young
children, except in such cases as the above. The
idea of selling the mother " with or without the
child " is truly horrifying ; but it is some satisfac
tion to be able to add, that such notices are not
now so frequent as formerly ; so that public
opinion, or a sense of pubhc decency, begins to
have some force at the Havana. There are other
matters in these Diarios which are equally absent
from our own West India newspapers ; such as
original poetry, scientific notices, and literary and
theatrical criticism.
Independent of the dry details of statistical
tables, the advance of the island towards a high
degree of agricultural and commercial prosperity,
is obvious at a glance, and need not, therefore, be
made a subject of discussion. The causes of that'
prosperity, however, deserve to be inquired into ;
and as it exists to an equal degree in no other tro
pical country, unless we except the sister island of
Porto Rico, and the vast empire of the Brazils, we
are irresistibly driven to the conclusion, that as, in

CAUSES OF PROSPERITY. 131
these countries alone, the slave trade is resorted to

as the sure means of obtaining cheaplabour, their
common prosperity mustnoe^eterred to a source
which they are still suffered to enjoy exclusively
and in common.
Although, therefore, the slave trade inferred no
outrage on the feelings, and no violation of the
rights of humanity, the sordid laws of self interest
ought of themselves to provoke the interposition of
all the other nations of the earth, producers of
sugar, in putting down a traffic so inconfpatible
with their interests. England, France, Holland,
Denmark, and the United States of America, have
all in this point of view a clear interest in its sup
pression. Nay, the countries into which, the pro
duction of sugar from the beet root is so rapidly
extending, have, if possible, a still more lively in
terest in putting down a competition, which, backed
and supported as it is by the bright sun of the
tropics, they can hardly be expected to be able
successfully to contend against. Let Russia and
Poland, therefore, where beet root sugar is manu
factured so extensively, let Austria, and Prussia,
whose chemists, and agriculturists, have lately
brought the process of sugar making to a high de
gree of perfection, and let Turkey, and the Italian
states, where privileges and monopolies have been
created in its favour, combine together to crush
and extirpate their hideous rival, and in the name
of self-interest, lend their united aid to combat and
destroy the bloodiest foe of the human race.
From this primary cause of prosperity, we h.tve
k 2

132 CUBA.
no deduction to make as in the British colonies for
the absenteeism of the landed proprietors. The
island of Cuba can count some thirty of the gran
dees of Spain among its constant residents, who
scarcely entertain a desire for even a temporary
enjoyment of the luxuries of Europe, and who, in
fact, are seldom to be found beyond the moderate
limits of an afternoon's drive from their magnificent
hotels in the Havana, or their princely Fincas in its
immediate vicinity. The revenues of these Hacen
dados are expended, therefore, in the island ; and
those who exceed their income are not less eager
to extend the cultivation, and increase the produce
of their old estates, than are the more prudent
class, who economise and accumulate, to seek for
the means of employing their surplus capital in the
formation of new ones.
In speaking of the prosperity of the island, one
of the first of the causes which presents itself for
consideration is the fertility^oflhe soil. In this re
spect, its rich alluvial districts are not surpassed by
the fruitful soils of the Guianas, and are only, if at
all, inferior to the corresponding regions of St. Do
mingo, and the Naparimas of our own Trinidad.
Butin Guiana, the advantage of water communica
tion between the cane field and the mill, and after
wards between the curing house and the place of
embarkation, places the Demerarians in a situation
little inferior to that of the planter in Cuba, with all
the benefit he derives from the cheapness_ofJabour.
The extent also to which labour is diminished in
all the British colonies, by the application of ma-

CAUSES OF PROSPERITY. 133
chinery to the making of sugar serves, in some
degree, to redress the balance which has been
affected by the influence of the slave trade. On
the other hand, the Cuba proprietors are regaining
their lost ground by the introduction of steam
boats, and the construction of railways ; and I
fear that those~~ot our capitalists who, tempted
by the high rate of interest, have lent their
money to the colonial government of the island
for the purpose of defraying the expense of
making the railway to Guines, have not sufficiently
reflected on the baneful consequences of their pro
ceeding. * Every shilling of English capital laid
out in the island, either in the extension of cul
tivation or the cheapening of produce, serves to
fetter some poor negro in the interior of Africa,
or to rivet the chains of those now toiling in the
cane-fields or the sugar houses of Cuba. * The
holders of shares in the Brazilian mining companies
are still more directly connected with the slave
trade. It is well known that the mines of that
country are worked by slave labour ; so that every
shareholder is not only a slave owner, but, by the
purchases of newly imported Africans which are
constantly made by the managers of the company,
becomes a most efficient promoter and encourager
of the slave trade. If those ladies and gentlemen
" who live at home at ease" -were only to witness
some portion of the enormities committed by means
of their money, and to promote their advantage,
they would spurn from them the contaminated gains
with loathing and disgust.
k 3

134 CUBA.
The district of Sagua la Grande is so highly
productive, that a caballeria of land, which is nearly
equal to thirty-three English acres, has been known
to produce 10,000 arrobas of the fair coloured
muscovado sugar of that country; a proportional
return which I never heard of in the Guianas, and
very rarely in any other British colony, being
nearly equal to four moderate sized hogsheads per
acre. The topographical conformation of the island is
also very much in its favour, as, although upwards
of 600 miles in length, it scarcely contains a spot
more than thirty miles distant from the sea. Its
agricultural and mineral productions can never,
therefore, be very far from a place of embarkation.
Cuba, moreover, is much less mountainous than
the neighbouring islands of Jamaica and St. Do
mingo, so that there are fewer impediments than
elsewhere to the formation of roads and other means
of internal communication.
The external commerce of Cuba, and especially
of the Havana, is of course essentially promoted
by its geographical position, in the very mouth of
the Gulf of MexicoPaTthe further side of which
there is a nation boasting eight millions of inhabit
ants, who, without much commercial enterprise,
will naturally be induced to seek for their foreign
supplies in the nearest and most convenient market.
In the trade with Mexico, New Orleans is the
only rival that the Havana has to fear ; and the
French and Anglo-American merchants of New
Orleans are not in a situation to compete success-

CAUSES OF PROSPERITY. 135
fully with the habaneros, who, from the effect
of old associations and established connections,
the similarity of tastes and habits, and the uni
formity of language, must always command a pre
ference in the eyes of a Mexican purchaser.

k 4

136

CUBA.

CHAP. VII.
FREEDOM OF TRADE.  CONTRABAND IN FLOUR.  DIF
FERENTIAL DUTIES.  BONDED WAREHOUSES.  THE
SLAVE TRADE.  INSURANCE.  PRIVATE UNDERWRITERS.
 MERCHANTS.  EMIGRANTS.  EMIGRATION.  CENSUS
OF 1827.  POPULATION.  COARTADO SYSTEM. 
SLAVES SENT TO TEXAS.  SLAVE POPULATION.  STATE
OF SLAVERY.  SLAVE CENSUS.  SLAVERY. — INCREASE
OF SLAVE TRADE.  DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVE TAX.
The mercantile interests of the island have been
greatly promQledrhy^the relaxation of those re
strictive regulations which under the old peninsular
systenTbourid down ah foreign commerce with the
colonies of Spain, and laid it prostrate at the feet
of the mother country. It cannot be said that
he sound principles of free trade, in any large or
extended sense of the term, have been recognised
or acted upon even at the single port of the Havana.
The discriminating duties imposed by the supreme
government of Madrid on the natural productions,
manufactures, and shipping of foreign countries,
in contradistinction to those of Spain, are so strin
gent and so onerous as altogether to exclude the
idea of anything approaching to commercial free
dom. There is no longer, it is true, any absolute
prohibition ; but in many cases the distinguishing
duties are so heavy as to defeat their own object,
and, in place of promoting the interests of the

CONTRABAND IN FLOUR. 137
mother country, have had little other effect than
the establishment of an extensive and ruinous con
traband. The landed proprietors of Old Spain are just as
eager as the aristocracy of England for the pro
tection of their peculiar interests. The English
corn laws are, in fact, not so unreasonable as the
Spanish duties on the introduction of American
flour into Cuba ; which as a source of revenue are
unproductive, and as an instrument of protection
are wholly inoperative. In spite of the bulk of
the article, the bread used in the island is made
for the most part of American flour ; but at the
time of my visit to the Havana the best flour had
reached the enormous price of #45 a barrel, and
the best bread, which was not even of tolerable
quality, the equally enormous price of eight-pence
a pound. The duty on Spanish flour is 13s. 6d. a
barrel, and on that of America 2/. 2*. Qd.
The other leading articles of importation, as
often as they threaten to compete with any Spanish
commodity, are treated with corresponding rigour
Thus an ad valorem duty of thirty-four and four
sevenths per cent, is imposed on the wines of
France, the hardware of England, and the linens
of Germany ; while similar articles, the produce of
Spain, are charged only seven and four sevenths
per cent.
The duties on shipping are equally discrimina
tory. Foreign vessels are charged 6s. 9d. a ton,
while those of Spain are admitted on payment of
2s. 9d. These tonnage duties are levied, although

138 CUBA.
the goods to which they are made to apply may
not be destined for the consumption of the island ;
but are merely landed and warehoused under the
government lock for the purposes of transit, and
deposit, in virtue of the privileges of the entrepdt,
or bonding system. These privileges have hitherto
been confined to the single city of the Havana,
and I am not aware that any demand has yet been
made for their extension to any of the other ports
of the island.
Goods allowed to be deposited in the govern
ment warehouses of the Casa Blanca may lie there
for an indefinite period, provided they have been
imported in vessels exceeding sixty tons burden,
if Spanish, and eighty tons if not Spanish ; and pro
vided they do not consist of provisions, or other
articles of a perishable nature, nor of articles of
unreasonable bulk. The only charges made for the
exercise of the privilege, are the ultimate payment
of the consumption duty in the event of the goods
being afterwards entered for consumption, and the
intermediate satisfaction of a deposit tax of two per
cent, per annum, in which the warehouse rent is
understood to be included. To this rule, in so far
as the unrestricted period is concerned, the article
of flour, whether Spanish or foreign, is an exception.
Although admissible for a time to the privileges of
the entrepot, it must either be entered for ex
portation or for consumption in the island, in the
latter case paying the duty corresponding to the
country of its origin, and in both within the " ter
mina improrogabte " of four months from the date

BONDED WAREHOUSES. 139
of its being bonded. By a recent regulation, olive
oil, beer, cider, vinegar, red and white wine, rice,
ropes, marble slabs, alabaster, and soap, have been
entitled to the privileges of the entrepfo. In
charging the duties, an allowance is made, at the
discretion of the surveying officer, on articles
subject to waste, to the extent of the actual de
ficiency, provided it does not in any case exceed a
tenth part of the quantity or value.
There has been no recent change in the code
of custom-house regulations ; but, as long as the
French blockade of the ports of Mexico continued,
a liberal extension was practically given to the
warehousing system, as a number of vessels bound
for Vera Cruz and Tampico, and warned off by
the blockading squadron, were allowed, on their
arrival at the Havana, to place their cargoes under
the lock of the entrepdt, except such portions of
them as were decidedly perishable.
I believe it is perfectly understood, that every
foreign merchant at the Havana, and at the other
sea-ports of the island, has an interest more or less
direct in the maintenance of the slave trade ; as if
striving to prove how nearly they could approach
the limit of the law without an actual infringement
of it : Quam prope ad crimen sine crimine. There
are some merchants, however, who unhappily do
not content themselves with that indirect interest
which arises from the ordinary commercial profit
on the goods they may sell, but who actually
agree to furnish an outward-bound slaver with sup
plies for the coast of Africa, on the condition of

140

CUBA.

receiving payment on the usual credit for the prime
cost of the goods, while his mercantile profit is
made to depend on the return of the ship, and
the success of the homeward voyage. In this way
the spirit of gaming which uniformly pervades these
slaving transactions may be safely indulged in, —
at least without any obvious pecuniary risk; andin
fact it is not difficult, from the vast variety of shapes
that the trade has assumed, for a person on the
spot either to steep himself to the eyes in the
abominations of the traffic, or stealthily draw off a
more moderate portion of the polluted stream. It
grieves me to the heart to be compelled to add
that some of our own countrymen are tempted by
the monstrous profits to enter more or less deeply
into those speculations. I think I shall never
forget the tell-tale countenance of a simple Irish
man at the Havana, when, perhaps for the first time,
his attention was drawn to the criminal nature of
the enterprise in which he had indirectly engaged.
Having made some money by keeping a retail shop
for the supply of the shipping in the harbour, he
had been induced to engage in a speculation of
this sort, by which he expected to double or treble
his ordinary profits. His answers to my inquiries
having produced an exclamation which was not,
perhaps, over courteous, he asked in a tone of alarm
— " Why, what harm is there in it ; what risk do
I run ? " To which the prompt reply was given
by a countryman of his, who happened to be with
me at the time, — "Only the risk of being hanged
if ever you set your foot in Ireland again."

THE SLAVE TRADE. 141
There is another class of our countrymen, how
ever, who have much more to answer for than this
poor Irish shopkeeper in their wholesale disregard
of the first principles of humanity. I fear it is not
to be doubted, that there are men of large capital
in the British metropolis who lay out their money
at the large interest which the slave trader can afford
to pay ; and it is within my knowledge, that certain
individuals of immense wealth, who, although bear
ing a foreign patronymic, are, to all intents and pur
poses, British subjects, who, not content with risking
their money to secure this high rate of interest,
have actually stipulated on becoming sleeping part
ners in one of the most notorious slaving-houses
at the Havana, the better to enable them, as they
fondly imagine, to bring their French and Spanish
partners to account. Even on the Spanish territory,
however, such transactions are no further obligatory
than the laws of honour prescribe ; and although
it has sometimes been said that there may be
honour among thieves, I believe it will be found,
in the case referred to, that there has not been
much among slavers.
The regular traders in slaves have also found
the means of protecting their interests, by the or
dinary principle of insurance. There are in fact two
regular associations at the Havana, the one entitled
" Compania de Seguros maritimos," the other "Es-
peculacion, " theoriginal objects ofboth of which were
almost exclusively the covering of slave risks. The
capital of the first company amounted to #250,000,
and that of the second to #600,000 ; but although

142

CUBA.

they exacted premiums which varied from 25 to 40
per cent., according to the sailing qualities of the
ship, or the character of the master for sagacity and
courage, and sometimes also for his mere good
luck, — yet the balance in the slave risks has proved
so unfavourable, that both companies have been
compelled to abandon them, and confine their at
tention to more legitimate transactions.
I have now copies before me of the balance sheets
of the two associations, from which, under the head
of Riesgos Estraordinarios, the modest title they
have given to their slave-trading speculations, I
perceive that the one company has sustained a
loss, and that the other has not secured any profit.
Since their abandonment of the slave risks, the
two companies have not confined themselves alto
gether to maritime insurance, but have employed
a portion of their capital in the discounting of bills,
and in other banking transactions. In fact, such is
their credit with the people of the United States,
or such, rather, is the discredit into which the Ame
rican insurance offices have fallen, that risks are
often sent to the Havana companies for acceptance
from Boston and New York, and the other maritime
cities of the Union.
The practice of life insurance, I understand, is
scarcely known at the Havana ; and insurance
against fire, on which such large sums are ex
pended in the British colonies, is here very rare.
Since the withdrawal of the regular companies
from the business of slave trade insurance, that
business has been taken up by private under-

MERCHANTS. 143
writers, who, without obtaining premiums any
greater in general than those formerly demanded
by the rival insurance companies, have never
theless, on the whole, been successful in their trans
actions ; on the principle, probably, that a private
individual looks more keenly after his personal in
terests than the manager or director of any large
association. In the great cities of the island, the business of
a merchant is often combined with that of a planter ;
and sometimes also the importing merchant keeps a
shop or store, as is customary in the British colonies,
and sells his goods by retail. The mercantile capital
as well as the proprietary wealth of the island may be
said to be concentrated in the hands of the Creoles.
At the Havana, there are several Creole merchants
supposed to be worth from 100,000/. to 200,000/.
sterling, and a very considerable number from
20,000/. to 50,000/. sterling. Those of inferior station
are chiefly Spaniards from Catalonia, Gallicia, and
Biscay, the Canaries or the Costa Firme, many of
whom, from their adventurous disposition, combined
with great industry, succeed in amassing consider
able wealth. It is to be feared that many of this
class are not particularly scrupulous about the
sources from whence their profits are derived, as
it is chiefly among them, when a slaver is held in
shares, that the profit or loss is divided. The
famihes of these Spanish adventurers are often in
duced to settle in the island, and thus permanently
to increase the numbers of the white Creole popu
lation, which is greater, perhaps, in Cuba alone than

144 CUBA.
in all the other islands of the Archipelago combined.
The foreign merchants, who are chiefly either En
glish or Americans, Germans, or French, can only
be regarded as transient visitors, not having gone
there, as the law says, animo remanendi, but merely
for the purpose of accumulating such a fortune as
will enable them to live with some degree of com
fort at home. Although not wealthy as a class, they
are almost all in the full enjoyment of credit, — a
state of things which naturally results from the
high degree of prosperity which every where pre
vails. In the ordinary course of things, the emigrant
from the peninsula begins the world in some in
ferior commercial capacity ; but, as he possesses
little of the activity or the enterprise of the natives
of North America, in place of persisting in his
mercantile pursuits, as soon as he has acquired a
little capital, he lays it out in forming a plantation,
which is probably destined in the course of time to
be peopled and extended by his descendants, of
whom the chief will assume the rank and station of
the Hacendado.
The year 1836 was more remarkable for the
amount of white emigration than any previous
year. According to the official returns it amounted
to 8061, of whom 1004 were from the United States,
347 from Mexico and other parts of America,
3769 from Spain, 2690 from the Canaries, 170 from
France, and 81 from England and other parts of
Europe. As a considerable number of these con
sisted of persons who had previously left the island,

CENSUS OF 1827. 145
the real increase of the white population within the
year cannot well be stated higher than 6500 ; and
even from this last number a large deduction must be
made, in consequence of the ravages committed by
the cholera, and the malignant fever of the country,
especially among the Irish labourers from the United
States, and the natives of the Canaries, who came
to work on the railroad. Of the 3769 from Spain,
IO78 were convicts and 866 recruits ; but such of
the Islenos as have survived are likely to become
permanent settlers. The ordinary price of a cabin
passage from England to the Havana is stated by
her Majesty's consul to be about twenty pounds,
and a steerage passage from eight to twelve pounds.
The numbers of the arrivals in the years 1837 and
1838 were not officially announced at the time of
my leaving the island, but they were understood
to be considerably less than those for the year
1836. There has been no regular census of the whole
population since the year 1827, when it amounted,
including whites, free negroes, free people of colour,
and slaves, and also including the troops, the crews
of vessels in the harbours, the followers of both, and
other transient persons, to 730,562. Of this number
the whites amounted to 311,051, the free negroes to
57,514, and the free people of colour not negroes
to 48,980 ; so that, in spite of the constant accessions
to the slave population by importation from the
coast of Africa, they are represented by the official
census as being greatly outnumbered, not merely by
the free classes taken collectively, but by the white

146 CUBA.
population alone. The number of slaves in the
island is given in the printed returns at 286,942, of
whom 183,290 are stated to be males, and 103,652
to be females. However great this discrepancy
between the sexes may appear, it is, in point of fact,
not nearly so great as that which is borne out by
my own personal observation and researches. In
fact I have very little confidence in this department
of the official returns, as , among the many estates
which I visited, I had not the good fortune to
meet with one where the proportion between the
sexes was so favourable as that given in the census
of 1827. It is notorious that there are individual
estates in the island with 600 or 700 negroes upon
them, from which the softer sex is entirely excluded.
In this respect I am bound to say that the Creole
proprietors evince much more regard for the laws of
humanity than the emigrant planters from Spain and
the United States. It is in fact but justice to others
to signalise the case of a certain Mr. Baker, from
the United States, who has established himself
in the neighbourhood of Cienfuegos on an estate
where he has congregated no less than 700 male
negroes, to the exclusion of a single female, locking
up the men, during the short period allowed for
needful rest, in a building called a barracoon, which
is in fact, to all intents and purposes, a prison.
Since 1827, the general population has undoubt
edly increased to a very considerable amount. As
far as regards the free inhabitants, this is proved
on the most cursory observation by the exorbitant
rents which are obtained for houses in towns, not-

POPULATION. 147
withstanding the vast numbers which have con
stantly been building. At the Havana it is not
unusual to pay as much as 300/. sterling a year for
a house of not more than five or six rooms ; and
even then the indispensable volante must stand in
the lobby or under the gateway, and not unfre
quently in the principal sitting-room, for the re
ception of visitors.
The increased amount of imports during the
last ten or twelve years, the formation of new
plantations, and the augmented production of the
island, as shown by the exports, are so many addi
tional adminicles of evidence in favour of a greatly
increased population. Taking that increase in a
ratio corresponding to the augmentation which is
shown to have taken place between the dates of
the two last census, that is between I8I7 and
1827, the white population at the time of my visit
in 1839 ought to have been about 400,000 souls.
Mr. Tolme, the British consul at the Havana, who
has applied himself to this subject with the intelli
gence and discrimination for which he is dis
tinguished, has given it as his opinion that within
the last twelve years there has been no great
increase in the numbers of the free negroes, or of
the free people of colour. It is true that, under
the operation of the law which entitles a slave to
have himself valued, and to purchase his freedom
by degrees, paying a sixth part of the estimate, that
he may be his own master one day in the week,
another sixth for a second day, and so on in
succession, until he has accomplished his complete
l 2

148 CUBA.
redemption ; it might have been expected that the
result would have been highly favourable to the
practical extension of freedom ; yet, in the opinion
of the consul, these coartados, as they are called, are
in the aggregate so numerically insignificant, as
not sensibly to affect the total amount of the black
and coloured population, which was previously
free. If the slave has been purchased, the price ori
ginally paid for him is all that he can be required
to pay for his redemption. When a portion of his
time is redeemed, the master can only exact from
him one real a day, for every hundred dollars of
the balance of his ascertained value. These con
ditions of the Spanish law are undoubtedly con
ceived in a liberal and merciful spirit, at once
satisfying the master, stimulating the energies of
the slave, and knocking off his chains, as it were,
link by link. Unhappily, in practice, they have
not proved very effective ; but it is perfectly un
derstood at the Havana, that the best domestic
servants are such as have thus accomplished, or
are in the course of working out, their own eman
cipation. It has been asserted that there has been, within
these few years, a large exportation of slaves from
the island of Cuba to the new republic of Texas,
on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico ; but
on this point the consular authorities at the Ha
vana are far from being agreed. Mr. Tolme is
of opinion that the number of slaves exported
is very inconsiderable ; while the Dutch consul-

SLAVE POPULATION. 149
general, Mr. Lobe, has stated it as high as 15,000
in a single year. Just before my departure for
the West Indies I happened to be resident in
Paris, where the Chevalier Lobe chanced to meet,
in my apartments, with the Conde de Campuzano,
then her Catholic Majesty's ambassador at the
court of the Tuileries. This accidental ren
contre gave rise to a very interesting discussion,
in the course of which the Dutch consul-general
made some very free remarks on the conduct of
the cabinet of Madrid with reference to the
slave trade, while his Excellency the Spanish am
bassador defended his government as earnestly
and as well as was possible under the circum
stances. Mr. Lobe having since made his state
ment public, there can be no breach of confidence
or delicacy in repeating the substance of this
conversation. At the same time I am more dis
posed to agree with the opinion of the British
consul than with that of his Dutch colleague, as to
the amount of the exportation to Texas ; although
there must always be a strong temptation to jus
tify Mr. Lobe's estimate, to some extent at least,
in the well-known fact, that the price of a slave
at Houston or Galveston is three or four times as
great as it ever is at the Havana, although the
capital of the new republic is within a few days'
sail of the island.
It is extremely difficult to arrive at any just
conclusion as to the recent increase of the slave
population. If we take the official returns as the
basis of our estimate, we shall find that the numbers
l 3

150 CUBA.
given in 1817 are 199,145, and 286,942 in 1827.
During this interval of ten years, it was estimated
by the British commissioners of that period, as may
be seen from the parliamentary papers, that the
number of slaves imported from Africa was 130,797>
showing an annual average of 13,079, which,
if I may judge from the events which occurred
under my own observation, I cannot consider an
exaggerated statement. If then we add the number
thus given, as imported, to the census of 1817, w
find a total of 329,942 which would show an excess
during the ten years of deaths over births of
43,000, which makes a loss of 13 per cent, on the
ten years. This loss, however, is very far indeed
from being equivalent to the average loss admitted
by the managers or mayorals on the numerous
estates which I made it my business to visit. On
sugar properties that average amounted to the
appalling proportion of ten per cent, per annum,
or cent, per cent, per decade, thus inferring the
necessity of a total renewal of the numbers by
importation in the course of the ten years.
If we proceed on the same principle, and apply
the same rule to the cycle of ten years immediately
subsequent to the census of 1827, we shall find
that the estimate of importation by the parlia
mentary commissioners amounts to 122,500, which,
added'to the numbers of the last census, would give
a total of 409,492 ; from which if we deduct 13
per cent., the excess formerly supposed of deaths
over births, we make the slave population of the
island, in 1837, to have amounted in round numbers

SLAVE CENSUS. 151
to 356,000. I am far from being satisfied, how
ever, with the accuracy of the old estimate of
mortality ; and if that should prove erroneous, it
would equally establish a fallacy in the estimated
amount of importation ; which is certainly much
greater than that here given, although probably
not so great as many of the sincere and honest
supporters of the cause of abolition have been led
to suppose.
Even on the supposition that the general and
local governments are earnest and sincere in their
endeavours to obtain correct returns of the slave
population, it is not to be denied that there are
many difficulties to be overcome, before any thing
like accuracy can be arrived at, in this department
of the census. Upon the whole, therefore, I am
disposed to adopt the conclusions of Mr. Consul
Tolme, who proposes that at the close of the year
1838, the white population should be taken at
400,000, the free people of colour of all shades, at
1 10,000, and the slaves at 360,000 ; making the
aggregate 870,000, or in round numbers, 900,000
souls. There are some Spanish authorities who
make the whole population amount to a million, of
whom 600,000 are supposed to be either free people
of colour, or slaves.
In the anxiety of the government to balance one
class of the population against another, we find in
the official documents connected with the census
of 1 827, some details which will probably be in
teresting to the general reader. Between the
white males, and the free male negroes, the pro-
L 4

152 CUBA.
portion is given as 601 are to 100, or 6*01 : 1.
Between the white males and the free male people
of colour, exclusive of negroes, 705 to 100, or
7 '05 : 1. Between the white males, and the
other freemen, whether of pure negro blood, or of
the mixed race, 324 to 100, or 3- 24 : 1. Between
the white males, and the whole of the male slaves,
of whatever shade, as 92 are to 100, or "92 : 1.
Between the white males, and the whole of the co
loured males, slaves or free, the negroes included,
as 71 are to 100, or, -71 : 1. Between the whole
white population, and the whole free coloured
population, free negroes included, the population
is stated at 292 to 100, or 2-92 : 1. Between the
whole white population, and the whole slave popu
lation, 108 to 100, or 1-08 : 1. Between the whole
white population and the rest of the community,
whether in servitude or free, as 79 are to 100, or
79 : 1.
The free male negroes, as compared with the free
men of mixed blood, are stated to be 117to 100, or
1*17 : 1. The free coloured males, whether ne
groes or mulattoes, are in proportion to the male
slaves, as 22 to 100, or '22 : 1, and the whole free
population to the whole slave population as 145 to
100, or 1-45 : 1.
There is another way of arriving at some idea of
the actual increase in the numbers of the labouring
population, which does not seem to have occur
red to any of the Spanish writers, official or non-
official, on the statistics of the island ; but which,
although it does not give a result that can be re-

SLAVERY. 153
ferred to as mathematically accurate, affords at least
a check on the errors of our other sources of in
formation. The agricultural and industrial produce of the
island, as shown by the authenticated returns,
may probably be. relied on, as less liable to sus
picion than any official statement of the amount of
the negro population. By comparing the amount
of the gross produce at two different periods, we
ought to arrive pretty nearly at the relative amount
of the labouring or slave population. As a further
check, a similar comparison may be instituted be
tween the imports of one period and those of
another, particularly in articles of the first necessity,
such as the tasajo or jerked beef, and the salted cod
fish, which enter so largely into the food of the la
bouring population.
Thus the sugar exported in 1837, the date of the
latest official return, amounted to 9,060, 053 arrobas
of twenty-five pounds each, whereas, in the year
1829, the earliest period for which I could find a
corresponding return, the exports of sugar did not
exceed 6,588,428 arrobas. In the same way, the
exports of coffee, which in 1837 were 2,133,567
arrobas, in 1829 did not exceed 1,736,257 arrobas,
so that the increase of the two principal staples ex
ported in the course of these eight years, has been
nearly thirty per cent.
If we compare the total value of the exports for
the two years in question, we shall find the differ
ence still more remarkable, having amounted in
1837, to # 20,346,407, and in 1829 to no more

154 CUBA.
than #13,952,405, showing an increase in value of
32 per cent.
The jerked beef imported in 1837 amounted to
800,500 arrobas, and the salted codfish to 408,308
arrobas ; whereas, in the year 1829, the imports of
tasajo amounted only to 536,678 arrobas, and of
bacalao or codfish to 323,696 arrobas, showing an
increase of upwards of 40 per cent., which either
proves that the labouring population are greatly in
creased in numbers, or that they are much better
fed than they were ten years ago. This last ame
lioration I can scarcely believe possible, if I
may judge from the minuteness of the rations of
animal food allowed to the negroes, on the most
liberally conducted of the estates which I had my
self an opportunity of visiting.
There is still another mode of estimating the
amount of the Bozal importation, which is by as
suming the number of vessels arriving under the
Portuguese flag, as stated in the official returns to
be correct, and then assigning the nearest average
we can find, when multiplied by that number, as
the sum total of the year's importation. The British
consul gives the average of each cargo at 300 souls
— only think of a cargo of souls ! — and as there were
seventy-eight acknowledged arrivals under the Por
tuguese flag in 1837, one of which only received or
discharged any lawful cargo, we obtain the number
of 23, 100. In that year, also, according to the report
of the British commissioners, three slavers arrived
under the Spanish flag, and assuming their load of
souls to be equal to that of the Portuguese, we reach

INCREASE OF SLAVE TRADE. 155
the astounding total of 24,000. Taking the whole
sale price at 300 dollars a head, which is twenty
dollars less than the average of the market during
my stay in the island, the capital engaged in the
traffic could not have fallen short of # 7,200,000,
or, in round numbers, 1,500,000/. sterling.
There cannot be a doubt that the slave trade is
on the increase, in spite of all the exertions that
are made to suppress it. The reports of the com
missioners at the Havana for the last slaving season,
from October 1838, to March 1839, are truly ap
palling. It is to be hoped that the reason assigned
by the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, for
the comparative inactivity of the squadron on the
coast of Africa, will be supported by such a harvest
of prizes during the present season, as to visit the
men who employ their capital in this traffic with "a
heavy blow, and a great discouragement." It
appears that the epidemic which originated at
Sierra Leone, and proved so fatal there in 1837,
had found its way on board the squadron, and
raged in almost every vessel, connected with it,
long after it had disappeared from the colony, inca
pacitating them from all active exertion, or driving
them from their cruising grounds to Ascension,
St. Helena, and the Cape.
In furtherance of the policy pursued by the pe
ninsular government for the maintenance of the
slave trade, as a growing check on the known
desire of the Creoles for independence, the captain-
general, and his subordinate functionaries all over
the island, have been authorised to levy a tax on

156 CUBA.
the importation of negroes, which, at the lowest
computation, must produce a very considerable re
venue. The sum levied from the importer is in
every case a doubloon, which is equal to 31. 10s. lOd.
sterling; but at the Havana there is a very pre
valent error, that the whole produce of the tax
goes into the pocket of the captain-general, which,
if true, would make his situation enormously lucra
tive. In point of fact, however, the ounce of gold is
divided into four equal portions, one of which only
is pocketed by the captain-general, while a second
goes to the captain of the Resguardia, or coast-guard,
a third to the harbour-master of the port or district
where the landing is effected, and a fourth to the
Administrador de Aduana, or local chief of the cus
toms ; so that the captain-general's interest is equal to
that of one whole class of these functionaries through
out his jurisdiction. It was not without difficulty that
I met with the necessary evidence of these details ;
but at length I obtained it from persons who had
themselves been engaged in the traffic, either indivi
dually on a large scale, or as Actionnaires, or sharers
in a common enterprise. In the remote districts
of the island, — as, for instance, at Cienfuegos, in the
neighbourhood of which some thirty or forty sugar
estates have been formed and peopled for the most
part with imported Africans, within the last three
or four years, — there is much less difficulty in the
way of arriving at authentic details, than either at
the Havana, or the older settled districts, where
the money is paid from habit, as a matter of course,
and as to its application "no questions are asked."

INCREASE OF SLAVE TRADE. 157
But although substantially a tax, inasmuch as it
would not be easy to evade its payment where so
many public functionaries, selected expressly for the
facilities they enjoy in watching over it, are directly
interested in its produce, it does not appear to be
authorised by any positive enactment of the Spanish
legislature, or even by a royal decree ; at least the
parties who pay it have never yet succeeded in ob
taining any thing in the nature of a receipt or
other written acknowledgment for the money.

158

CUBA.

CHAP. VIII.
THE SLAVE TRADE.  THE EMANCIPADOS.  THE PORTU
GUESE FLAG.  AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE.  TACON'S
ADMINISTRATION.  SPANISH POLICY.  FEAR OF INSUR
RECTION.  DESIRE OF INDEPENDENCE.  MEANS PRO
POSED.  EPIGRAM.  AMERICAN AGGRANDISEMENT.
In spite of the law lately passed by the British
parliament, subjecting the flag of Portugal to the
same liabilities and restrictions as had been con
sented to by treaty with other civilised nations, it
is greatly to be feared that, as long as such enor
mous profits are realised in the African slave trade,
that standing outrage on the laws of humanity
will remain as black a blot as before on the annals
of the nineteenth century. The stars and stripes of
the United States are probably destined to serve
as a cover to these dark transactions, until the
president of the Union, with the concurrence of
the senate, shall be shamed into a reluctant re
cognition of the philanthropic principles by which
the government of England, prompted and pushed
on by the unanimous voice of the people, has so
long been actuated. The refusal of the Americans
to sanction a mutual right of search, will make
it safer for a slaver to sail under their flag, than
under that of any of the governments — Spain, Por
tugal, or the Brazils — most deeply implicated in the
crime. It remains to be seen, how long the civi-

THE SLAVE TRADE. 159
lised world will submit to the sanction thus tacitly
afforded by this single power, to a practice so
strongly disavowed by all civilised nations, and so
revolting to humanity.
The commanders of British cruisers on the
coast of Africa, have doubtless been provided with
the necessary instructions, to justify them in cap
turing and bringing in for condemnation all such
vessels pretending to be Portuguese as they may
meet with, furnished with Portuguese papers, and
sailing under the Portuguese flag. It is well known
that these chppers, as they are called, are almost all
built at Baltimore, where the ship carpenters have
acquired no small reputation, for the sailing quali
ties of that class of vessels best suited to the slave
trade. It can scarcely be believed that this local in
terest is sufficient to induce the government of
the United States to refuse its accession to the
principles of the league, which the British govern
ment has been pressing so earnestly on the acceptance
of all the maritime powers of Christendom, for the
suppression of the trade ; and yet none of the
other great naval powers have thought of objecting
to it, on the score of its involving the slightest
national degradation.
On comparing the extent of coast on the con
tinent of Africa, within which the trading barba
rians find the means of purchasing cargoes from
the native savages, with the corresponding extent
of coast of those countries where the sales are ef
fected, it will be found that the line on which the
debarkations take place, comprising Cuba, Porto

160

CUBA.

Rico, and the Brazils alone, without including the
suspected coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and
Florida, is more considerable by at least 1500
or 2000 miles than that on which the shipments
are obtained. It is worthy of consideration, there
fore, whether the great object of suppression might
not be more effectually and more cheaply attained,
by confining the attention of our cruisers to the
coast of Africa, and there accumulating all the force
we can afford to maintain for the accomplishment
of an object so ardently and unanimously desired
by her Majesty's subjects in all parts of the world.
Until the total suppression is finally achieved, it
is not to be doubted that seizures will be made by
our cruisers, that sentences of condemnation will
be pronounced by the several courts of mixed
commission as well as by our own courts of admi
ralty, and that numerous captives will remain for
disposal, if not for prompt emancipation.
According to the old system, these unfortunate
captives, although nominally free, were instantly
hurried into an abyss of misery more deplorable
and more desperate than that of the regularly im
ported African ; who, if his lot be cast in Cuba, is
destined within ten years to die of excessive labour,
starvation, and the lash, that the people of Russia
and the United States, the chief purchasers of the
produce of that island, may drink their coffee, and
sweeten it more cheaply. If emancipated at the
Havana, the seat of one of the mixed commissions,
they were formerly handed over to the Spanish au
thorities who hired them out for seven years to the

THE EMANCIPADOS. l6l
best bidder. The necessary consequence was, that
the party who engaged their services had not even an
interest in keeping them alive after the lapse of that
period, and lay under no obligation, either legal or
conventional, to support them when disabled by
sickness or accident. The very name by which
the unhappy survivors are distinguished has thus
become a term of reproach ; and if you ask your
pampered household slave at the Havana who
some wretched creature may be that has appealed
to you for charity, he will answer you with a sneer,
that he is an English " Emancipado." All those
who outlived this first term of apprenticeship fell
back into the hands of the local authorities, who did
not scruple to hire them out for a second period of
seven years, in the course of which their condition
was as hopeless, and their daily and nightly toil as
totally unrequited, as before.
On the departure of Captain-General Tacon, he
caused a memoir to be published in defence of the
measures of his administration ; but as the strict
censorship of the press was interposed to prevent
the circulation of any answer to it, the laudatory
statements it contains are not entitled to much at
tention. Governor Tacon was accused of deriving
a rich revenue, not merely from the contraband im
portation of slaves, but from the disposal of the ser
vices of such as had been liberated under the judg
ments of the court of mixed commission. At first it
was understood that these Emancipados were not to
be sent out of the Havana, in order to afford them a
better chance of acquiring some of the elements of
M

162

CUBA.

civilisation during the period of their apprenticeship ;
and I have been assured that this rule was enforced
during the administration of Vives and Ricafort.
When Tacon assumed the administration, their
numbers had become so great, or the temptation of
profit was so powerful that the old rule was aban
doned, and the poor Emancipados were sold to the
highest bidder. The regular price obtained, as I
have been assured on good authority, was from three
to six ounces of gold for women, and from six to ten
ounces for men ; and these prices having acquired a
certain fixed character, although low when compared
with the value of the contraband article, it was found
to be at once a saving of time, and a source of patron
age to the captain-general, to transfer them in masses
to some favoured individual, who derived a hand
some profit by disposing of them in detail. These par
ticulars would no longer have any present interest,
and might be consigned to the care of the historian, if
it were not for the fact that the same monstrous abuse
of the word " emancipation" prevails to this day
at Rio de Janeiro, where the so-called apprentice
ship is made to extend to fourteen years in place of
seven. It would be still better for the poor Eman
cipado, if his apprenticeship were made to extend
to the term of his natural life ; or, as the Texians
manage it, to the more definite period of 100 years ;
as in either case his master would not have the same
interest in working him to death prematurely.
Mr. Young, the colonial secretary at Demerara,
was sent to the Havana by the late Sir James Car-
michael Smyth, on a special mission to ascertain the

THE EMANCIPADOS. 163
number and condition of these Emancipados, and, if
possible, to obtain their services as articled servants
for the important colony under his Excellency's
government. In his official report of the unsuc
cessful result of his mission, Mr. Young fell into
the mistake of supposing that a register of slaves
was kept in the island of Cuba, and under that im
pression, he made a very tolerable guess at the fate
of the Emancipados by supposing that when va
cancies occurred in the lists of predial slaves, the
Emancipados were made to supply their place.
In the communications of the successive cap
tains-general with the British commissioners, they
had been accustomed to complain of danger to the
tranquillity of the island, from the increasing num
bers of these people, thrown from time to time into
their hands, as often as a slaver with a cargo on
board was condemned as lawful prize by the court.
It was in consequence of these complaints, not al
ways very sincere, combined with the reports of her
Majesty's judge and arbitrator, as to the miserable
condition of the captives after their pretended liber
ation, that the British government was induced to
appoint an officer to reside at the Havana, whose
special duty it should be to watch over the interests
of this unfortunate class of persons, and provide for
their reception in one or other of her Majesty's co
lonies. It would have been idle, of course, to have
attempted to restore them to the family and the
home from which they had been torn ; and it was
not therefore easy to suggest a better arrangement
for their future welfare.
m 2

164 CUBA.
The choice of the government in filling this
office of superintendent of liberated Africans fell,
to the great credit of Lord Glenelg, on Dr. Richard
Robert Madden, a gentleman well known in the
literary world, who had distinguished himself for
his kindness to the African race while performing
the arduous duties of a special or stipendiary ma
gistrate in Jamaica. It would be well for the
British colonies, and for the British people in
general, if offices in the gift of the crown were
more frequently bestowed, as in this case, accord
ing to the moral fitness of the candidate, and with
less regard to the patronage or the parliamentary in
fluence by which he has been recommended.
The most windward position in the British
West Indies, Demerara, was the point I had
chosen for the commencement of my tour. I ar
rived there in the month of January 1838, and
found the governor making some head way against
the flood of opposition which he had to contend
with in the court of policy. Following the old
Dutch system, it is the practice in this colony for
the governor to preside at the meetings of the
legislative body, and it was in consequence of the
excitement produced at one of these meetings,
arising out of the opposition by the non-official
members of the court, to a grant of land which the
governor had been induced to make to Mr. Secre
tary Young, that his Excellency was seized with
congestion of the brain, of which he died after a
few hours' illness. A very short time before his
death, I had some communication with his Excel-

THE EMANCIPADOS. 165
lency on the subject of a renewal of the nego
tiation at the Havana, for a further supply of
labour for Demerara, where, for many reasons I
was persuaded that the Emancipados would enjoy
a prospect of being treated more liberally than in
any of our other colonies. The labour of sugar
making is every where severe ; and where deep
trenching and cleaning out canals is constantly re
quired, as in the swampy districts of British Guiana,
it may possibly be as heavy as that of cutting
down mahogany on our settlements in the bay of
Honduras, to which so many of these liberated
Africans have from time to time found their way.
In consequence, however, of the high wages which
the Demerara planters can afford to pay, this work
in the ditches was always cheerfully performed.
As may be seen from the relative value fixed by
the commissioners of compensation under the abo
lition act, those of Honduras and Demerara stood
the highest, thus proving that the demand for
labour was greater in these colonies than in any of
our other West India possessions, and the colonists
could therefore afford to pay higher wages and
make larger allowances than elsewhere to their
labourers, whether slaves, apprentices, or articled
servants. I was moreover assured that the fund
provided for the medical care and general main
tenance of the labourer, before the execution of
the indenture, was higher in British Guiana than
in our other colonies ; that the scale of food and
allowances was more advantageous ; that the in
denture, in case of ill treatment, was more readily
m 3

166

CUBA.

cancelled ; that while it remained in force the
wages were higher ; and that even after its expir
ation the demand for labour, and, consequently, its
remuneration, would, in all probability, be more
considerable than elsewhere.
On these grounds I was very much disposed to
favour the views of Sir James Carmichael Smyth,
but his excellency's death having occurred so sud
denly, before his plans and intentions were fully
matured, I found myself obliged to leave the
colony without waiting for the arrival of his suc
cessor. I did not, however, forget the subject on
my arrival at the Havana ; but in the mean time
the equipment clause in the treaty with Spain
having come into full operation, I found that the
trade had for some time been carried on almost
exclusively under the flag of Portugal; the de
linquents were no longer liable to the jurisdiction
of the mixed commission ; the condemnations had
consequently ceased, and no more liberated Africans
were placed at the disposal of the superintendent.
The effect of the law lately passed by the British
legislature, subjecting the Portuguese flag without
the consent of that government to the same penal
ties which had previously been agreed to by Spain,
under the equipment clause of the treaty, will
probably be in due time to relieve her Majesty's
commissioners and the other British functionaries
at the Havana from the state of listlessness and
inaction in which they have for some time been
placed. As the risk of capture and condemnation
will henceforth be equal, whether the flag and the

THE PORTUGUESE FLAG. 167
papers of the adventurers in this traffic be Spanish
Or Portuguese, it will be no longer for their in
terest to incur the expense and the loss of time of
proceeding in the first instance to some Portuguese
settlement, in order to effect a fictitious change in
their registry. Independent of this saving of time
and money, they will even be more safe with
Spanish than with Portuguese papers, as in the
one case, in the invariable event of a clashing of
opinion in the Spanish court of mixed commission,
they wrould have the benefit of that sort of lottery
which guides the court in the choice of its arbi
trator, and of course in its ultimate decision ;
whereas if the prize has been taken under a Portu
guese flag or with Portuguese papers, she would
probably be sent for adjudication to one of our
own courts of admiralty, where I have not yet
heard that the dice-box has been introduced or
judicially appealed to. In coming to this con
clusion, I take it for granted that the government
of the United States, from a mere sense of shame
if from no better motive, will be induced to put
an end to the abuse of their flag, which, as I have
elsewhere shown, has been made a cover and pro
tection to a large and increasing proportion of the
African slave-trade.
Competition between our various colonies for a
participation in the supply of labour, which under
the operation of the new law will be placed at the
disposal of the superintendent of liberated Africans,
can only have the effect of improving the condition
of the unfortunate captive. It will be the duty
m 4

168 CUBA.
not more surely than it will be the pleasure of
that officer to act as his friend, protector, and
advocate. Honduras, Demerara, and Trinidad,
the colonies where wages are highest and labour is
most in demand, will probably find it for their
respective interests to have permanent agents at
the Havana, instructed to offer such terms to the
superintendent in regard to wages, food, raiment,
lodging, medical attendance, the shortness of the
term of the indenture, and other advantages to the
labourer, as may seem best calculated to induce a
preference in favour of each individual colony.
The consequence will probably be a great and
progressive amelioration in the condition of a class
of persons, whose irreparable misfortunes call so
loudly for consideration and sympathy.
It was in the year 1835 that Don Miguel Tacon
assumed the functions of Captain-General and
Viceroy of the Island. At the end of the first year
of his administration, he published a sort of mani
festo, in which he took credit to himself for the
public works he had commenced, and for the im
provements already achieved by his vigorous system
of police. " Public tranquillity, good order, and
individual security," he says, " have been consoli
dated in a manner that partakes of the marvellous.
The mounted police doing duty on the highways,
and in the country towns of the island, meet no
longer with thieves to apprehend, nor with male
factors of any sort to place at the disposal of the
magistrate. Our fields and villages, which were
formerly the scenes of all sorts of crimes, and es-

tacon's adbiinistration. 169
pecially of robbery and murder, are now the de
lightful abode of tranquillity and peace." The
results he anticipates from this altered state of
things, to the full credit of which he is justly en
titled, are, that it would induce vast numbers of
foreigners to settle in the island; thus adding at
once to the public wealth, and to the numerical
force of the white population, on which alone their
personal security is supposed to depend ; and more
especially that it would bring back those wealthy
visiters from North America, who formerly came
in crowds to Cuba in quest of health or recrea
tion, but who had for some time been deterred by
the fear of the dagger of the assassin.
It has often been asked why the governments of
every form which have succeeded each other in the
Peninsula, the adherents of the Rey absoluto, the
advocates for the despotismo illustrado, the authors
of the estatuto real, and the admirers of the consti
tution in all its various forms, should with such in
variable uniformity, and without any very obvious
interest, have pertinaciously persevered, in defiance
of treaties, and in forgetfulness or disregard of the
vast sums of money they have received from Eng
land, as the price of abolition, in resisting the abate
ment of a nuisance in the eye of humanity, and the
extinction of the foulestblot that remains to disgrace
the civilised portion of our race.
The solution of this enigma is to be found in the
belief, which is far from being groundless, that the
Creole proprietors of the soil of Cuba are weary of
the yoke of the mother-country, from which they

170 CUBA.
receive no advantage or protection, in exchange for
the heavy contributions they are called on to pay.
They naturally look with envy On the happier con
dition of the proprietors in the neighbouring islands
under British dominion, who, so far from being
taxed for the benefit of a distant government, are
provided with troops sufficient for the security of a
white population, not numbering more than ten to
the hundred of the people of darker complexions.
In Cuba, on the contrary, the numbers of the two
classes are even now so nearly equal, that the whites
would have little to fear from a servile insurrection.
Proprietors of estates, with their full complement of
labourers, and with a fair proportion of women and
children, have, in fact, no sort of interest in the
maintenance of the slave-trade, or rather, I ought
to say that their interest lies all the other way, and
that they would greatly benefit by its instant and
perpetual suppression. On this subject I have had
the means of communicating much at large with
many of the most enlightened Creole proprietors,
and I believe myself in no danger of falling into
error, when I say, that I am now speaking their
sincere and genuine sentiments in declaring, that
the highest and the best of them desire, as devoutly
as ever did a Clarkson or a Wilberforce, the imme
diate, total, and immutable abolition of the slave-
trade. It is not my business in this place to inquire into
their motives, or compare them with those of our
own philanthropists. Pecuniary considerations in
the one case may have done what the love of dis-

DESIRE OF INDEPENDENCE. I7I
tinction and the interests of party may equally
have prompted in the other. It is quite certain
that the interests of the proprietor of a well-managed
and fully-peopled estate in the island of Cuba are
all in favour of the suppression of the slave-trade.
His land, his slaves, and his produce would in
stantly increase in value to an amount which it is
not easy to define. A slave at the Havana would
be at least equal in value to a slave at New Orleans,
and now the difference is as #300 are to #1500.
Suppose him to have 500 slaves, and their value
would instantly rise from #150,000 to #750,000.
But it is the policy of the court of Madrid to
keep the island of Cuba in her dependence ; and
this, it is supposed, can only be done effectually by
the salutary terror inspired by the presence of a
numerous, half-savage negro-population. The ex
istence of such a population seems at once to justify
and require the presence of a peninsular army,
which, under the command of a Captain-General
enjoying the confidence of the court, and zealously
aided by a numerous train of public functionaries
and empleados, produces such a pressure on Creole
interests, as to have hitherto deterred the native in
habitants from any open attempt to assert their inde
pendence. These public functionaries, with scarcely
an exception, are Europeans by birth, and there
fore decidedly opposed to a separation which would
instantly deprive them of all their emoluments.
The peninsular system, as it is called, engenders
discontent in various ways, and is rapidly preparing
the minds of the Creole population for the dissolu-

172 CUBA.
tion of a connection which entails on them so many
burdens without even the show of compensation.
They have long been looking about them for the
means of relief, and not knowing where to find it,
they continue reluctantly to toil under the yoke.
At one time they thought of connecting themselves
with one or other of the provinces of Spain on the
neighbouring continent, which have since success
fully asserted their independence ; and at another,
they proposed to offer themselves to the United
States of North America, with the view of being
admitted a member of the Union ; they would then
have shone as a star with its corresponding stripe,
in that spangled banner which the illustrious poet
of Hope, and defender of freedom, has immortalised
in one of the bitterest epigrams which the English
language has produced : —
" United States, your banner wears
Two emblems, one of fame ;
Alas I the other that it bears
Reminds us of your shame I
The white man's liberty in types
Stands blazon'd by your stars ;
But what's the meaning of the stripes ?
They mean your negroes' scars ! "
Their last, and best, and present desire, however,
is, when the time for separation arrives, that their
entire independence, as a separate state, should be
jointly guaranteed by France and England ; in
which case they flatter themselves, that while
their own liberties would be secured, they would
become the willing, though, perhaps, the passive,
instrument for bringing about the suppression of
a traffic at which humanity shudders.

AMERICAN AGGRANDISEMENT. 173
This, I dare say, is as far as the Cuba proprietors
are yet prepared to go. The time will come, how
ever, and is not perhaps far distant, when their
consent may be obtained to the gradual abolition
of slavery itself.
It is not to be doubted that brother Jonathan
has long been casting a wistful eye on this, the
richest gem in the Western Ocean. Since my
visit to the Havana, I have made a journey of some
ten thousand miles through his far-spread ter
ritory, and have every where perceived how sweet
a tooth he showed for this land of sugar-plums.
At the close of the last session of Congress I
spent a month in Washington ; and during the
outrageous debates on the boundary question,
which have never been fully or faithfully reported,
I was in daily attendance in the House of Re
presentatives, or the Senate, in order to witness
their proceedings ; and was often induced to
lengthen my stay for the purpose of observing to
what length of extravagance the members would
suffer themselves to go. In the more popular body
I heard one man, the representative of one of the
Carolinas, who is styled by courtesy a General, get
up in his place and say, that he was for open and
immediate war, without waiting for the running of
lines, or the issue of idle negotiations. And what
was he to do, think you, when he declared war
against England, or broke ground without any de
claration ? Why the first thing he was to do was, to
take possession of the island of Cuba ; the next was,
quietly to annex the young republic of Texas to the

174 CUBA.
Union ; and, in the third place, by way of seriously
commencing the struggle, he was to send an army,
with himself doubtless at its head, across the lakes
or the St. Lawrence, to drive out the British in
truders on the soil of his own continent, and con
vert it into one vast arena for the enjoyment of so
much liberty as is consistent with " the peculiar
institutions of the south." As this gentleman's
rhapsody was received with the most rapturous
applause, and as the two Houses were all but unani
mous in proclaiming their eagerness for a fresh
struggle with Great Britain on the boundary ques
tion, it is difficult to doubt that the first aspiration
of the Carolina representative is also the first wish of
the majority of his countrymen. It was not easy to
restrain a smile at the vehement tone of his oration,
¦ and the extravagant gestures with which it was en
forced ; but both would have been strangely damped,
had anyone whispered the word " Seminoles" in his
ear, and recalled to his recollection that, for several
years, within a few hours' sail of Cuba, the whole
military force 'of the Union has been fruitlessly em
ployed in the attempt to subdue a mere handful of
naked barbarians.

COAL MINES. 175

CHAP. IX.
COAL MINES.  STEAM IN THE WEST INDIES.  CUBA
STEAMERS.  STEAMERS LANDING SLAVES.  HAVANA
RAILROAD.  A GLORIOUS INHERITANCE. — GUINES. 
LABOURERS ON THE RAILWAY. — IRISH LABOURERS. 
RAILWAY LOAN.  UNITED STATES' RIVALRY.  RAILWAY
TARIFF.  PRODUCE OF THE RAILWAY. — BRANCHES. 
CARDENAS RAILWAY.
The discovery of coal within a few miles of the
Havana bears already the promise of results in
the highest degree advantageous to the future pros
perity of the island. I did not fail to visit one of
the mines that had been opened, and found the
supply so abundant, and so near the surface, that
I could not help expressing my surprise to the
proprietor, who was good enough to accompany
me, that the people of the Havana should have
such a treasure within their reach ; that it should
have remained so long undiscovered ; and that they
should now be so slow to avail themselves of the
advantages which it offered to their acceptance.
The construction of ten miles of road, practicable
for wheel carriages at all seasons of the year, is
almost all that is necessary. The coal is very
highly bituminous, affords a strong heat, and
on combustion leaves very little solid residue in
the form of ashes or cinders. The business in
which the proprietor is engaged, as a smith and
founder in the Havana, attracted his attention to

176 CUBA.
the subject, from the large quantities of fuel he
required and the great expense he incurred of
importing it from England. Although the means
of descending the pit were far from being commo
dious, I did not hesitate to get into a bucket and
explore the workings.
At the place where the shaft was sunk, the coal
was found at the depth of twenty feet, but for some
unexplained reason, the proprietor, instead of clear
ing away the superincumbent strata, and working
the mine like a quarry, as I ventured to recom
mend, had been induced to sink his shaft so deep,
that from the angle at which it lay with the horizon,
he was in a fair way of leaving it behind without
arriving at the desired knowledge of the amount of
the treasure he possessed. It was after descending
to the depth of 120 feet, that he was stopped by
other appearances, and from that point he began
to drive horizontal galleries round the bottom of
his shaft. On three sides he met with nothing but
coal, but on the fourth he found the black slate
like stone on which it rested. Concluding that
coal in the New World would present itself in the
same basin-like form in which it is found in the
Old, I suggested to the proprietor, from the angle
of inclination I had observed in the mine, that the
edge of the basin would probably be found within
a short distance exposed to the surface.
In traveUing along the neglected highway or
camino real, which passes through his property, I
thought I had observed at a particular spot some
indications of coal in the deep ruts which had been

COAL MINES. 177
formed by his waggons, during the previous rainy
season ; and on bringing some of his miners to the
spot, a few blows of the pickaxe soon verified my
hasty conjecture, and established beyond a doubt
that there exists within ten miles of the Havana a
quarry of coal at least a hundred feet deep, and how
much deeper no man can tell, which may be exca
vated with perfect ease from the surface. In such
circumstances, it is of course absurd for the miners
to go on working their present galleries at the
depth of 120 feet, bringing up, in all probability, an
inferior sort of coal from the edge of the mine,
while the material sought for presents itself in the
face of day, without requiring the aid of the very
imperfect machinery which has been erected for
raising it, and for drawing off the water which of
course accumulates at the bottom.
The specific gravity of the Cuba coal is not
nearly so great as the lightest Shields or Newcastle.
The fibres it presents are probably those of the
fern, which grows to the size of trees of the first
class within the tropics ; in the smaller islands of
the West Indies the varieties are even more nu
merous than on the continent, or in islands of
greater superficial extent. I was not so fortunate
as to meet with any good impression of these plants
on the "specimens of the schistose formation sub
jacent to the coal which I made it my business to
collect; but, with more leisure and attention, I have
no doubt they could be found in great variety and
with very little trouble. It would be not a little
interesting to have the means of establishing a
N

178 CUBA.
comparison between the living and fossil members
of this extensive family.
The pitch lake in our own island of Trinidad has
not yet been examined with any care. On many parts
of its surface the pitch, or asphaltum, approaches
often to the liquid state of petroleum, when the sun
is near the meridian, but never certainly to justify
the name of lake or lagoon, which has been given
to it, unless the pools of water which are formed
on its surface after rains deserve that appellation.
After numerous unsuccessful experiments, the pitch
of Trinidad was turned to excellent account at the
time of my visit to that island by an enterprising
sugar planter, M. LaPerouse, the lineal descendant
of the celebrated French discoverer. Finding it
extremely difficult in that damp climate to dry the
refuse of the sugar cane called megass or bagasse
sufficiently for the purposes of fuel, M. La Perouse
resorted to the expedient of mixing such a quantity
of the pitch with his damp bagasse as made
both burn together ; although it was extremely
difficult to provoke combustion in either, when at
tempted separately. The one substance seemed to
supply just what the other wanted. In the solid
pitch of Trinidad there is no appearance of fibrous
matter ; at least it is not by any means so well de
fined as in the coal of Cuba, as is obvious to any
one who compares the specimens of both in my
possession. The experiments which I witnessed
at the sugar works of M. La Perouse were per
fectly successful ; and I have very little doubt that
many of the intelligent planters of Trinidad have
ever since been following his example.

COAL MINES. 179
The coal of Cuba, and still more the pitch of
Trinidad, contain bituminous matter to excess, and
a small portion of either would in all probability
facilitate ignition, or the commencement of com
bustion, which the Americans find so difficult with
their anthracite coal.
The patriotic society of the Havana, as the very
nature of the subject required, have taken it up
warmly, and in the absence of funds with which to
promote the working of the coal mines, have done
as much as lay within their sphere by analysing
the mineral, and otherwise provoking investigation.
Under the eye of the learned presidents of the
agricultural and industrial sections of the society,
Don Juan Augustin de Ferrety and Doctor Don
Lucas de Ariza, experiments on a large scale were
made so long ago as the 14th of May, 1836, at
Mr. Lander's foundery in the Havana, in the
presence of a number of intelligent individuals,
some of them members of the society and others
strangers to that body. As constantly happens,
however, under a corrupt and despotic government,
whenever a new source of profit is discovered, the
idea of a monopoly was suggested ; and although
strenuously resisted by the enlightened members
of the society, the attempt to establish it proved
sufficient to paralyse the exertions of those who
were disinterestedly desirous to promote an object
of such vital importance to the interests of the
island. The sugar planters of Cuba have never yet suc
ceeded in supplying themselves sufficiently with
N 2

180 CUBA.
fuel from the refuse of the sugar-cane, as has long
been the case in all the British possessions in the
West Indies, even in Demerara, where, from the
extreme moisture of the climate, it is found so diffi
cult to dry the bagasse sufficiently to make it
easily combustible. In Barbadoes and Antigua, in
favourable seasons, there is often a considerable
surplus of bagasse, which the careful planter can
afford to sell to his neighbours, and in these long-
settled islands where there are no remains of the
primeval forests to attract the clouds overcharged
with moisture, it is never necessary to erect those
acres of sheds for drying and ventilating the ba
gasse, which are so characteristic of a Demerara
plantation. In Cuba, on the contrary, the sugar
planter is compelled either to employ his people in
cutting down timber for fuel, or, what is more
common as well as more economical, to purchase
firewood, or imported coals, at a high price, from
the regular dealers in these articles.
At a subsequent period fresh experiments were
made on the Cuba coal, at the forge of Mr. Clunes
in the Havana ; when the committee of the patri
otic society and other intelligent individuals were
again assembled to witness them. In their report
to the society they stated that the coal was light
and much charged with sulphur, which from the
violence of the flame it emitted in the process of
combustion made it unsuitable for the purposes of
the forge ; but that nevertheless its quality had
improved in proportion as the miners advanced
into the interior of the mass that had been dis-

COAL MINES. 181
covered. It was further stated in this report, that
the coal had been tried in one of the steam boats
which ply on the ferry, between the Havana and
the town of Regla, and that the engineers and other
parties concerned had expressed themselves satisfied
with the result. It was likewise mentioned, that
one of the larger steamers on the station between
the Havana and Matanzas had on a recent occasion
found it impossible to keep up the full force of their
steam, in consequence of the bad quality of the
English coal they had on board, and that they had
therefore made trial of the produce of the newly
discovered mine of Bajurayabo, which enabled
them to perform their passage without delay or in
convenience. Convinced by the success of their
repeated trials the committee farther reported,
that one of the steamers employed on the south
side of the island had ordered a supply of the
newly discovered coal for the like purpose. The
committee in consequence expressed it as their
opinion, that although it had been proved that the
coal submitted to experiment was not weU suited
for the purposes of the forge and other similar
uses, yet that its excellence was indisputable in
the generation of steam. It is nevertheless certain,
that three years after the performance of these
experiments and the date of the report upon them,
the coal in question continued to be used in the
forges, founderies, and smithies of the Havana,
but that it had never been successfully, practically,
or permanently introduced as a generator of steam
either on shipboard or on shore.
n 3

182 CUBA.
The locksmiths, farriers, and boiler makers, and
the other workers in iron who were present at
these experiments, seem all to have been of one
mind in depreciating the new discovery, declaring
that it gave more flame but less heat than the
English, and that to produce an equal degree of
heat a greater quantity of the native coal was ne
cessary. The president of the society required
that two bars of iron of equal dimensions should
be exposed at the same time to the heat of two
separate masses of the two sorts of coal ; and the
result was, that the advantage was all in favour
of the native coal, the fire being brighter and
the iron much more malleable ; but Mr. Clunes,
the proprietor of the forge, ascribed the supe
riority observable to the greater power of
the bellows employed in the one case compared
with those used in the other.
It is nevertheless true that the great consump
tion of wood for fuel in the island of Cuba must
soon have raised its price so high as to have
seriously compromised the interests of the sugar
planters, but for a discovery the benefits of which
are not yet fully appreciated. At present, the
roads are so execrably bad, that this coal, found at
the surface of the soil in a level country, within
ten miles of the Havana, is unable to enter into
competition, upon equal terms as to price, with
the produce of the deepest mines in England,
transhipped at Liverpool, or carried there by land-
carriage, and landed on the wharfs of the Havana,
after a voyage of at least 4000 miles. In the course

COAL MINES. 183
of time, however, when the roads are improved,
and the forests are cleared away, the native coal
is evidently destined to displace what is at present
imported, as well as the wood which is now for
domestic purposes the chief article of fuel. This
period will be hastened by the increase of steam
boats, of locomotive carriages on railroads, and of
steam engines on sugar estates; which wiU ac
celerate the annihilation of the domestic com
petitor ; while the foreigner, even coming for a
time in the shape of ballast, will be unable to
reduce his price in the same proportion with the
native miner, when these ten miles of road are
completed. ^Before the coal mines of Cuba can be worked to
advantage, it will be necessary for the proprietors
not only to have roads by which to transport the
produce, but miners accustomed to the work who
have acquired the craft in England, or some other
country where coal is beneficially extracted. The
mine into which I descended was totally misma
naged ; much more refuse was produced than was
at all necessary, and it was so disposed of, moreover,
as to encumber the galleries and threaten the in
terruption of the work altogether.
When the working of the mines of Mexico was
begun, the blunders committed were so great that
it was found necessary to send to Germany for
skilful and experienced workmen ; and although
the same degree of skill may not be necessary for
the extraction of coal as of silver or copper, yet
without the aid of practical knowledge it is not
N 4

184

CUBA.

impossible that the first speculators in these coal
mines, howrever promising they now appear, may
contrive to throw away a great deal of capital.
Although there are scarcely ten miles of tolerable
carriage road in the whole island of Cuba, con
siderable sums have been expended in promoting
the means of communication by steam boats, and
¦in the commencement of a system of railways. In
fact, for the last ten or twelve years, the island has
enjoyed the use of a greater number of steam ves
sels than have existed during the same period
throughout the whole of the British portion of the
Archipelago. The attempt to circumnavigate the
island of Jamaica by steam at moderate intervals
has not only proved a total failure, but has exposed
the projectors of the enterprise to the loss of a
large sum of money. In the. rich province of Bri
tish Guiana there is but one small steam-boat, re
quired for the purposes of a ferry in crossing the
river Demerara at Georgetown ; and Trinidad, where
one steamer plies between the Port of Spain and
San Fernando, and another is employed occasion
ally in crossing the Gulf of Paria to the Costa Firme,
is perhaps the only British colony where any such
undertaking has proved at all profitable. In this
respect the state of things is very different in Cuba,
where there are three steamers constantly plying
between the Havana and Matanzas for passengers
and light goods only ; one between the Havana,
Matanzas, and Cardenas for passengers and goods of
a heavier description ; one along the coast from the
Havana to San Juan de los Remedios, calling at

CUBA STEAMERS. 185
the intermediate points, wherever any considerable
mass of population has been collected ; and one be
tween Santiago de Cuba and Batabano, the point
nearest to the Havana on the south side of the
island, from which it is distant not more than forty
miles, although the means of communication with
it are still exceedingly imperfect. Up to the year
1838 there was also a regular communication by
steam between the Havana and New Orleans ; but
the enterprise has since been abandoned, although
some American steamers continue to visit the
Havana at irregular intervals. Within the harbour
of the Havana there are three small steamers,
which circulate between three or four points, doing
the duty of ferry boats, and between the city and
the town of Regla, on- the opposite side of the
harbour ; there are also paddle boats worked by
horse-power, such as I have seen on the Zuyder
Zee, and in other parts of Europe. There is also
a dredging machine moved by steam constantly
employed in the harbour, for the purpose of keep
ing down the accumulation of mud with which it
is hable to be blocked up, and a steam-tug used in
towing to sea the mud boats which have been
loaded by the dredging machine. But although
with certain winds there are sometimes difficulties
in entering as well as in leaving the harbour, there
are no tug boats yet in use for the service of the
shipping. Between the horse and the steam ferry
boats there exists a keen rivalry, the proprietors
of the horse boats advertising constantly the fear
ful risks of explosion, while the steamers struggle

186 CUBA.
hard to obtain the right of monopoly from the
Captain-General, which, however, was definitively
refused in the year 1838.
The larger steamers which ply on the open sea
along the coasts of the island have unhappily found
the means of arriving at sources of profit indepen
dent of the freight of goods and the fare of ordinary
passengers. It was formerly the practice for the
public telegraph to be employed in announcing by
signals, known only to the parties interested, the
arrival of slavers off the coast. The denunciations
of the British commissioners have been sufficiently
influential to shame the public authorities from this
palpable breach of their moral and conventional
obligations. But the steamers serve the purposes
of the traders to Africa much more effectually than
the telegraph. Several of them are, in fact, com
manded by experienced slaving captains, one of
whom not long ago escaped narrowly with his life
in the United States of America, on a charge of
piracy, of which his whole crew were convicted,
and for which the greater part of them suffered
the last penalty of the law. I happened to make
a trip with this very man between the Havana and
Matanzas ; and as I chanced to sit near him at the
dinner-table, where he presided with the most
perfect self-possession, I took the opportunity to
inquire into the cause of a disappointment I had
experienced a day or two before from the non-ap
pearance of his vessel on the day appointed and
advertised for her sailing. He frankly answered
that he had been sent off by the proprietors during

STEAMERS LANDING SLAVES. 187
the night in a direction the very opposite to that
of his advertised destination ; and on my expressing
some curiosity to learn the cause of such an ex
traordinary proceeding, he admitted with equal
frankness that it was to land the cargo of the
" Venus," a slaver of the largest class, which by
this time was known to have arrived. He spoke
of the affair in terms of strong indignation, declar
ing, that the price received for the job was un
reasonably low, and that he ought not to have
been called upon to disappoint his white customers
for so shabby a consideration as thirty doubloons,
which was all that had been received for the
services of the steamer on the occasion.
The first line of railway of any consideration,
which has yet been laid down in the West Indies,
is that which now exists in this island, connecting
the Havana with one of the most important of its
sugar districts, and having its inland terminus at
the town of Guines, forty-five miles distant from the
capital. The other points at which it touches are
Almendares, Bejucal, San Felipe, and Melena.
Before my final leave of the Havana the road was
completed ; and on the occasion of its being thrown
open to the public, an entertainment was given in
the spacious station-house at Guines at the expense
of the contractors, who are supposed to have
realised more than ordinary profits by the under
taking. The dinner and the ball which followed
it were got up with all that disregard of expense,
which seems to be the chief distinction of inter
tropical entertainments. The novelty of riding on

188

CUBA.

a railroad, with the prospect of dancing at the end
of it, was sufficient to overcome the delight of
doing nothing, the " dolce far niente " of the fair
senoras and senoritas of the Havana. The attend
ance of strangers also was considerable ; and it was
my fortune to be placed at table among a party of
officers of the United States' navy, who seemed to
agree in the expression of sentiments, which at
that time were new to me, but which in the course
of a subsequent tour in North America I heard
repeated to satiety. On the question of war or
peace, which had then begun to be agitated, they
spoke with great animation, describing the ad
vantage of a little bloodletting with the most edi
fying gusto. They were good enough to prefer
an outbreak with any other country than with
England, and to express the strongest disappro
bation of the proceedings of the State of Maine, on
the subject of the north-eastern boundary, which had
then begun to be agitated. The question of slavery
having afterwards been introduced, as it exists in
the United States, I ventured to speak of it to these
gentlemen in the way which I thought least calcu
lated to give them any personal or national offence,
by describing it as a sad inheritance from their
British forefathers, of which it would be well for
them to rid themselves at the earliest possible op
portunity. To my extreme surprise and disgust
the answer of the mouthpiece of the party to this
pacific remark was such as compelled me to break
up the conversation. " We hold," he said, " on
THE CONTRARY, THAT IT WAS A GLORIOUS INHE-

HAVANA RAILROAD. 189
ritance ! " These are the very gentlemen who,
as will be seen in the sequel, had been sent to the
Havana for the purpose of checking the abuses of
the American flag, which were notoriously com
mitted by the parties most deeply concerned in the
African slave-trade.
The works of this railroad are exceedingly well
executed, as compared, at least, with any thing I
have seen in the New World, and do great credit to
Mr. Alfred Cruger, of the United States, the di
recting engineer, more especially when we reflect
for a moment on the difficulties he had to contend
with, not so much in the nature of the ground, as of
the human instruments by the aid of which his task
was to be accomplished. Such is the baneful influ
ence of slavery, that Mr. Cruger, although suffi
ciently accustomed to its effects in his own country,
made no secret of the fact, that if he gave an order
to a white man to do some specific piece of work,
he found as soon as his back was turned it would
be transferred to another, and by that other to a
third, until in the end it was committed to a
negro, if at all within the reach of a negro's
capacity. Several thousand Islenos from the Canary Islands
were brought to the Havana for the purpose of
working on the railroad. A vast number of pri
soners from the Cabanos, most of them transported
convicts from Old Spain, but many of them facci
osos captured in the Biscayan war, were likewise
placed at the disposal of the company ; as was also
a portion of the captured negroes emancipated by

190 CUBA.
British cruisers before the arrival of the Romney
receiving ship, who till then were given up to the
tender mercies of the Captain-General, and placed,
therefore, in a much worse condition than ordinary
slaves, making, as has been shown, the very word
" Emancipado" a term of reproach and a by-word
among the lowest of the negro population.
To make up their numbers, or to show how
much could be done for little money, upwards of
a thousand Irishmen, who are to be found in every
part of the world prepared with their lusty sinews
to cheapen the price of labour, were tempted in an
evil hour to go there from the United States,
allured by promises on the part of the railroad
company which were never fulfilled. They were
to be furnished with suitable places to live in ; they ¦
were to be provided for when sick, and were to be
sent back from whence they came at the expense
of the company when the term of their engage
ment should arrive. So far, however, from the
fulfilment of these reasonable engagements, as
soon as any of them fell sick or was maimed, as
many of them were in the service, they were in
stantly paid off and left to their own resources or
to beggary. I have reason to believe that our
consul, Mr. Tolme, did all in his power to obtain
justice for them at the hands of the local govern
ment ; but the only result of his interference was
to obtain from the Captain-General Tacon, an
offer to receive them at the prison of the Cabanos,
an establishment elsewhere spoken of, connected
with the fortress of the Moro, on the shores of the

RAILWAY LOAN. 191
bay of the Havana, nearly opposite to the city;
but although their sufferings must have been ex
treme, not a single individual accepted the offer,
preferring, without exception, the precarious re
source of eleemosynary aid. The evil became so
great, and lasted so long, that the British Consul at
New York, Mr. Buchanan, at the suggestion, doubt
less, of his colleague Mr. Tolme, found means to
warn his countrymen of the great dangers to
which they would expose themselves, by engaging
in an enterprise conducted on such cold-blooded
and iniquitous principles.
The capital employed in the construction of this
railroad was obtained by means of a loan negotiated
in London by Mr. Alexander Robertson, a gentle
man with whom it has been my fortune to meet
on various occasions, first of all at the table of
Lord Clarendon at Madrid, when Mr. Robertson
was in treaty with her Catholic Majesty's govern
ment on the subject, and afterwards at the Havana,
when the work was brought to a successful issue,
and the railway was earning upwards of a thousand
dollars a day. The nominal amount of the loan
was 450,450/. sterling ; but as it was negotiated at
75 per cent., its actual produce was reduced to
337,837/. 10s. sterling, bearing interest at the rate
of six per cent., payable half yearly on the 5th of
March and 5th of September. In order to effect the
extinction of the debt on the first of January, I860,
it is provided that a sinking fund, beginning in 1839,
should be created at the rate of two per cent, per
annum ; and the London agent has stipulated for a

192

CUBA.

commission of one per cent., for paying the divi
dends and extinguishing the debt.
Before this loan was concluded, two other at
tempts at borrowing were made by the Real Junta
de Fomento, the one at the Havana, at twelve per
cent, interest, and the other at Madrid with the
Parisian banker Ardoin, at the rate of five per cent.
interest, on a nominal capital, which at the rate of
57 per cent, was to leave the same clear produce
as the other of 337,837/. 10s. sterling. Had the
Real Junta proved successful in either of these ne
gotiations, that with Monsieur Ardoin having been
conducted on behalf of the colony by the Conde de
Toreno at Madrid, it is evident that the conditions
would have been much more onerous than those
which were ultimately concluded with Mr. Robert
son. At the same time it is not to be supposed
that that gentleman has any reason to complain of
his bargain. On the contrary, independent of his
original commission of 4 per cent, on the debt, and
his annual commission of one per cent, on the sink
ing fund and the dividend, he took care to stipu
late for the supply of the rails, and other iron
work, and for the first set of locomotive engines ;
on all which, if not a trader's profit, he enjoys at
least a handsome mercantile commission, sufficient
to excite the envy of the richest merchants in the
Havana. Great Britain having furnished the capital on
terms so much better than could be had elsewhere,
it might have been expected that her manufacturers
would have been admitted to a fair competition, at

UNITED STATES' RIVALRY. 193
least, in supplying the locomotive machinery and the
cars and carriages to be employed on the railway.
Without imputing any blame to the directing en
gineer, Mr. Cruger, whose character stands far too
high to favour the slightest suspicion of his de
scending to any dishonourable practices, for the
sake of promoting American interests, I am bound
to state it as the result of information received on
the spot from the subordinate engineers employed
in working the machinery, that every one of the
eight engines imported in the first instance from
England was conducted with such culpable and sys
tematic carelessness, that the boilers, or other gene
rators of steam, were burnt up and destroyed, from
the want of regular supplies of water ; so that a preju
dice very soon arose against the English machinery,
from the accidents which under such circum
stances could not fail to occur. My informants,
who were perfectly cognisant of the fact, ascribed it
to an interest wrhich had arisen in the United States
for the future supply of the engines that might be
required ; and for that purpose it became neces
sary to have the English machinery condemned as
unserviceable. In consequenceof these manoeuvres,
the company is now dependent on the Americans
in their employment ; and as Mr. Cruger, who was
the soul of the undertaking, has since left the island,
there is very little doubt that his American subor
dinates, among whom there appeared strong symp
toms of discontent before his departure, will very
soon fall out among themselves, and come to se
rious disputes about the division of the spoil.
o

194 CUBA.
The expense of travelling on the railroad is of
course greater than it would be in Europe or Ame
rica. To suit all classes of customers, however,
they have established no less than four different
rates. Passengers in the first class coaches, when
going the whole distance, pay as nearly as possible
at the rate of sixpence sterling a mile, in the second
class four-pence, in the third class three-pence, and
in the fourth class two-pence ; and these rates are
proportionally increased for shorter distances, when
passengers are taken up or set down at the inter
mediate stages. The tariff of freight seems also
high, although from the enormous expense of
bringing produce from the interior to a convenient
place of shipment, and carrying back the necessary
supplies for the estates, there can be no doubt that if
the company were to exact as much as the planters
along the line would find it for their interest to
pay, the existing rates might safely be doubled, or,
perhaps, increased even threefold. An idea of this
may be formed from the following specimens : — For
a box of sugar, which usually weighs from three to
four hundred weight, the charge for the whole forty-
five miles is a dollar and a quarter or five shillings
sterling ; for a bag of coffee, weighing usually from
175 to 200 lbs., two shillings ; for a barrel of flour,
three shillings ; and for most other articles in nearly
the same proportion.
As no similar work exists within the tropics,
the deep cutting in some portions of the line,
and especially the tunnel within a few miles of the
Havana, deserve a much closer geological investi-

PRODUCE OF THE RAILWAY. 195
gation than I had leisure or opportunity to bestow
upon them. As yet, the tunnel is only large
enough for a single train of carriages, being 14
feet wide, by 16 feet high, and 325 in length; but
the deep open excavations at its southern extre
mity are still more fruitful of interesting discoveries
in the detail of volcanic formations, than the interior
of the tunnel itself.
The gross produce of the railway, for the first
month after it was opened, up to the terminus at
Guines, amounted to #36,000, of which #24,000
arose from the conveyance of passengers, #10,000
from the freight of produce, and #2000 for the
transit of goods going inland from the Havana ; and
during that period, the leading article of sugar,
from which the projectors anticipated the greatest
returns, had not come into operation, as the canes
were not yet ripe, and the process of grinding had
scarcely been begun.
As a commercial speculation, the probabilities
of its success are subject to several deductions to
which it would scarcely be exposed in any other
country. If, for instance, any serious accident were
to occur through the habitual negligence of the
unpaid slave attendants, the- natural timidity of the
Creole population might possibly deter them from
exposing their persons to the real or supposed
danger of the new mode of conveyance, however
advantageous it might be in point of cheapness
and rapidity. For a long time to come they will,
probably, be dependent on foreign engineers for
working the locomotive engines and repairing the
o 2

196 CUBA.
machinery ; and it has often been remarked that,
although public undertakings are begun with zeal
and spirit in these tropical regions, they are seldom
prosecuted with corresponding energy or perse
verance, after they have lost the charm of novelty.
It remains to be seen how far this principle will
affect the future profits of those who embark their
capital in similar speculations.
Several branches from the railroad have been
proposed for the purpose of connecting it with the
southern coast of the island, one in particular by
San Antonio de los Bafios, and the other termi
nating in the neighbourhood of Batabano. As it
has been found, however, that the agricultural pro
duce of these districts must necessarily be brought
to some point or other of the present line without
extension, it has been thought more advisable,
that the southern branch should terminate near
the town of Guanimar, which would bring in the
produce of the rich and highly cultivated south
eastern districts, extending from San Marcos to
La Guira.
In the year 1838 another company was formed for
the construction of a railway between Cardenas and
Soledad de Bemba, divided into 500 dollar shares,
of which nearly 600 were taken almost immediately,
either by proprietors along the line, or by merchants
interested in the trade of Matanzas. On looking
over the prospectus prepared by the distinguished
secretary, Don Domingo del Monte, I find an in
stance of Spanish delicacy worthy of note as a na
tional characteristic. Two engineers, both Span-

CARDENAS RAILWAY. 197
iards, having presented themselves as candidates
for the superintendence of the work, the meeting
of proprietors finding them so nearly equal in point
of qualification, felt it impossible, from motives of
dehcacy, to decide between them, and therefore
resolved on allowing the selection to be determined
by lot, content with the assurance that in either
case the enterprise would be the first of the kind
that had been undertaken by a Spanish engineer
throughout the whole extent of the monarchy.

o 3

198 CUBA.

CHAP. X.
THE HAVANA.  THE HARBOUR.  THE ENTRANCE. — RULES
FOR ENTERING. — DANGERS AT THE ENTRANCE. — POPU
LATION.  PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS.  FORTIFICATIONS.
 THE CABANOS. — CASA DE BENEFICENCIA.  HOSPITAL
OF INCURABLES.  LEPROSY.
The names the Spaniards give to their cities are
as high sounding as those they bestow on their chil
dren. The capital of Cuba, whenever it is spoken
of with becoming solemnity, as in addresses to the
throne, or in formal official documents, is called
"La siempre Fidelisima Ciudad de San Cristobal
de la Habana." It is an episcopal see, as well as
the seat of the provincial government, and the resi
dence of all the colonial authorities, excepting the
judges of the Supreme Court, called the " Real
Audiencia," who have hitherto held their sittings at
Puerto Principe, as being in a more central situ
ation, with regard to the rest of the island. It has
been proposed, however, at some risk, perhaps, to
the purity of the judges, to move the seat of this tri
bunal to the political and commercial metropolis.
As all the world knows, the Havana is a place
of considerable strength ; and besides the walls and
ditches which surround it, the city is defended by
six strong holds, called the Moro, the Cabanas,
Number 4., the Atares, the Principe, and the Punta.
The first and last serve to protect the entrance of

THE HAVANA. 199
the harbour ; the second is a sort of citadel ; and the
others are so placed as to cover the approaches by
land. In the arsenal of the Havana there have been
built 49 ships of the line, 22 frigates, 7 packet
ships, 9 brigs of war, and 14 schooners of war.
The suburbs, or barrios estra muros, cover more
ground, and contain a larger population than the
city itself; and yet they are so intimately connected
with it, that the first of the houses in the suburban
streets stands on the very edge of the glacis. Within
the walls the streets are in general so narrow, that,
except where one crosses another, it is with diffi
culty that the peculiar carriage of the country, the
Volante, with its long shafts and its enormous pair
of wheels can be made to turn ; but on the outside,
especially in the suburb called the Salud, they are
much more spacious. The line of fortifications
embraces a sort of irregular polygon, of an ellip
tical form, the greater diameter of which is 2100
yards, and the smaller 1200 yards in extent.
The harbour of the Havana, when laid down
topographically, assumes the form of the ace of
clubs, the entrance being the handle, or if spoken
of as the French do, not as the Spanish bastos, or
the English club, but by the gentler name of Le
Trifle, then the entrance would be the stalk of the
shamrock, and the three internal bays its leaves.
The entrance between the Moro and Punta Castles,
is about 1500 yards long, and in its narrowest
part 350 yards wide ; and the harbour itself is said
to be one of the safest, best defended, and most
capacious in the world.
o 4

200 CUBA.
The depth of water atthe entrance is not less than
eight fathoms ; the rise and fall of tide about twenty-
two inches. There is no bar or other impediment
at the mouth, with the exception of a rock under
the Moro Castle close in shore, on which there is
five fathoms water, and a flat rocky shoal extend
ing about forty feet from the water battery. The
length of this shoal from the inside of the Moro
point is not above sixty feet. At the time of the
taking of the Havana, several vessels were sunk in
the entrance, about forty-five yards from the Moro ;
and in the meantime until Colonel Pasley pays them
a visit with his galvanic battery, and his exploding
apparatus, their position is marked by buoys moored
over them. On the opposite side a buoy is also
moored to mark the Telino bank about forty-five
yards from the Punta Castle. No chart of the harbour
has ever been published with the sanction of the
government ; and it may be doubted whether any
exists, that can be entirely depended on, unless
the commander and officers of Her Majesty's sur
veying ship Thunder, which has repeatedly visited
the port, have succeeded in laying it down with the
necessary degree of precision.
The wharves of the Havana, at which merchant
ships discharge their cargoes, are not more exten
sive than is strictly necessary for the increasing
trade of the port. The ships lie while discharging
with their stems or sterns to the shore; and in that
way thirty six ships of the largest class, and an
equal number of coasters, have frequently lain there
alongside each other. There is ample space for

THE ENTRANCE. 201
the extension of these wharves, whenever a further
increase of the trade shall require it. On the op
posite side of the harbour, at the village of Casa
Blanca, the notorious resort of the slavers who
frequent the Havana, there are also wharves and
ship yards, where vessels of all classes may be laid
up, fitted out, or repaired, and in the tideway, be
tween, there is space sufficient for several hundred
vessels to ride at anchor.
On the south side of the entrance there is a
lighthouse, with reflecting lamps, showing a re
volving light, and placed so high that it may be
seen at the distance of twenty-five miles. The en
trance of this harbour was supposed to be in danger
of being filled up or encumbered by the gradual
increase of deposits from the city ; but by the
frequent use of the dredging machine, the evil is
greatly diminished, and will, doubtless, in due time,
disappear altogether.
The marks by which the harbour can be dis
tinguished at a distance are the hills of Managua,
which lie in the meridian of the entrance ; while
to eastward, as well as westward, the land is low
and equal, with the exception only of the Moro
rock, distinguished and surmounted by its light
house and its fortifications. Six leagues to the
eastward may be seen the hills of Jaruco, which
are detached and of moderate height, pointing
towards the extensive plains which terminate in
the neighbourhood of Matanzas. Six leagues to
the westward, some table lands may also be seen ;
and in approaching the shore, the Pan of Cabanas,

202

CUBA.

or Dolphin Hill, becomes visible some four leagues
more westerly.
The entrance to the harbour is not very easily
taken when the wind is to the northward of
E. N. E., as it lies nearly S. E. and N. W. The
sea breeze begins to blow about ten in the morn
ing, and continues till sunset; so that it is between
these hours only that vessels in general can enter
the port. During the rainy season the winds are
often unfavourable for effecting an entrance ; and
in that case the only resource is to come to
an anchor on the Moro bank, and warp in as
the breeze abates ; there being as yet no steam
vessels established in this harbour for the pur
pose of towing.
In the dry season, when the nortes begin to
blow, there is a similar difficulty in leaving the
port ; when, from the swell which sets in to the
harbour's mouth and the scantiness of the wind, the
operation is by no means free from danger. Ge
nerally speaking, it is best to enter about noon and
to leave the harbour about sunrise. Excepting in
the hurricane months, and later in the season when
the nortes prevail, the anchorage on the Moro
bank is tolerably safe ; but during the periods just
referred to, it is very much exposed. In preparing
to anchor, therefore, it is advisable so to enter
as to open the mouth of the harbour, and to be
constantly on the watch against surprise. There
being no other dangers, however, in the channel
but the shallows which stretch out on either side,
the eye is a sufficient guide in coming in. On the

DANGERS AT THE ENTRANCE. 203
larboard side the shoal does not extend more than
the third of a cable's length from the shore.
At the time of my first entering the harbour,
in the Grande Antilla, it was a bright moonlight
night, with a five knot breeze, just full enough to
enable us to double the Moro point ; and as we
passed under the lanterns of the lighthouse, it ap
peared to me as if I could have thrown a biscuit,
or an orange, to its base.
To avoid the shore on the Punta side of the
harbour, the ship must be worked so as to approach
within half a cable's length of the north-east side,
the clear mid-channel being not more than three
quarters of a cable's length wide. Once abreast of
the middle of the fortifications of the Cabanas,
which face the city, the ship may be kept away,
and brought to an anchor opposite to the eastern
part of the town, at whatever distance may be
found most convenient. The largest ships may
approach near enough to lay a plank on shore.
Care must be taken however in approaching the
Havana from the eastward, to avoid a shallow spot
rather more than a quarter of a mile from the shore,
on which the ship Marmion, of Port Glasgow,
drawing seventeen feet water, took the ground in
1815. From this spot the Moro Castle, distant
about an English mile, bears S.S.W.
The bank to the S.W. of the Moro, with five
fathoms water on it, is to be feared only when the
swell sets strongly in to the harbour's mouth. At
other times the largest ships pass over it without
danger. As a further security against risk in en-

204 CUBA.
tering, a boat may be sent to take its station, on
the projecting edge of the shelf, within the Moro,
at about a cable's length from the lighthouse. A
similar projection farther in, on the same side, is
called the Pastora, by steering so as to pass outside
of which all danger is avoided.
In going in with the wind from the eastward,
as will be inferred from what has been said, it is
well to keep as close to the Moro as possible.
Within it there is the risk of meeting with flaws
and variable winds, so that should it become ne
cessary to let go an anchor, great care must be
taken to shorten sail, and veer cable quickly ; as
the ground at the entrance is not very good for
holding. Ships lying in the channel of the lagoon
moor head and stern ; and it is between the buoys,
distinguished by small flags, which mark the po
sition of the wrecks, already noticed, that the
channel is to be found.
For many of these details, I am indebted to the
notes obligingly furnished me by Mr. Consul
Tolme, who, in quoting from Blunt's " American
Coast Pilot," has made such alterations as were
suggested by the opinions of the most intelligent
shipmasters he has had occasion to meet in his
consular capacity. He recommends, however, al
though not called on to do so by any local regu
lation, that the commanders of vessels arriving for
the first time, as soon as they think they can be
seen from the Moro, should make the signal for
a pilot, by hoisting the union jack, at the foretop-
gallant mast-head ; when it will be repeated by the

PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS. 205
telegraph, and a pilot will be sent out to them
without delay.
At the time of the last census in 1827, the po
pulation of the Havana, including the suburbs, the
garrison, the hospitals and prisons, and the transient
inhabitants, amounted to 112,023. Of this number
there were of ordinary inhabitants within the walls,
including freemen and slaves, 39,980. The suburbs
brought up the number to 94,023, and the garrison
with the other casualties being computed at 18,000,
the entire population reached the total just stated
of 112,023. When classified by complexion, the
whites were 46,621 ; the free negroes, 15,347; the
free mulattos, 8,215 ; the negro slaves 22,830 and
the mulatto slaves, 1010.
Besides, the cathedral, containing the remains of
the discoverer of the New World, the city contains
nine parish churches ; six other churches, connected
with hospitals, and military orders ; five chapels or
hermitages ; the Casa Cuna, a foundling hospital ;
and eleven convents, four for women and seven
for men ; some of which last, during the admini
stration of Captain-General Tacon, were used as
barracks and applied to other secular purposes.
The other public establishments are the University,
the Colleges of San Carlos and San Francisco de
Sales, the Botanic Garden, the Anatomical Museum
and Lecture-rooms, the Academy of Painting and
Design, a School of Navigation, and seventy-eight
common schools for both sexes. These places
of education are all under the protection of the
Patriotic Society, and the municipal authorities.

206 CUBA.
The charitable institutions consist of the Casa de
Beneficencia for both sexes, a penitentiary or Mag
dalen asylum, and seven hospitals, one of them
containing a lunatic asylum. There are, besides,
three theatres, an amphitheatre for bull fights, or
plaza de toros, and several public promenades, such
as the Alameda and the Paseo Nuevo. The city
contains altogether 3671 houses within the walls,
all built of stone ; and in the suburbs 7968, of
various materials. The number of private carriages
and of carriages for hire amounted in 1827 to
2651 and they are now certainly much more nume
rous. The first sight of the Havana from the entrance
of the harbour must be exceedingly cheerful and
picturesque, although having come in by moon
light I did not see it in the first instance to the
best advantage. In the background the gigantic
palm trees seem to overlook the city, and to form
for it a magnificent framework of the richest ver
dure ; while on the other sides the panorama is
completed by the animated harbour within, covered
with the flags of every civilised nation, the rocky
eminence at the entrance, and the formidable for
tifications by which the whole are protected. The
most agreeable land view which can be had of the
city is perhaps to be found from the hill called the
Indio, on the road between Regla and Guanabacoa
on the other side of the harbour. The view from
the esplanade of the Cabanas fortress, overlooking
the harbour and the shipping, the city and its forti
fications, and embracing an extensive sea view, is

FORTIFICATIONS. 207
also magnificent; but being itself from other points
the most prominent feature in the landscape, it is
of course in that respect liable to some deduction.
I was naturally anxious to see the interior of a
fortress of which the Habaneros boast as equal, if
not superior in strength to Gibraltar itself; and at
the same time to enjoy the commanding view it
affords ; but I found that the authorities, from the
Captain-General downward, were not a little jealous
of the curiosity of foreigners, and that even the
peaceful inhabitants of the city, if they had the
desire, would have the greatest difficulty in pro
curing admission. Not willing to be thus foiled, I
resorted to an expedient which under the circum
stances, was not perhaps unpardonable. Having
ascertained the name of the officer in command of
the garrison, who has the rank of Governor, and
also that of the subaltern on duty at the principal
entrance, I presented myself at the gate and sent
for the latter, to whom I offered my card and
begged of him to send it with my compliments to
the Governor, as I was desirous of paying my
personal respects to His Excellency. The distance
from the gate to the Governor's residence being
considerable, the young lieutenant, with true Cas
tilian politeness, would not hear of my waiting in
the guard-house for the messenger's return, but
insisted on my going directly to the house with an
Orderly to guide me, and probably also to cover
his own responsibility by seeing that the stranger
committed no indiscretion. On reaching the house
I found to my great satisfaction that the Governor

208

CUBA.

was walking on the esplanade, which entitled me
to decline the civil invitation of a servant that I
should walk into the house until his master was
made aware of my arrival, saying that I would take
the Orderly with me and save His Excellency all
trouble by joining him in his walk. There I had
less difficulty in finding him than I desired; but
while explaining my wish in the best Castilian I
could command, to see this eighth wonder of the
world, and while His Excellency was telling me of
the orders from the highest quarter which forbade
all admission, and of his own " desolacion inde-
cible," that he could not comply with my request,
I had the opportunity of looking leisurely about
me and completely satisfying the harmless curiosity
that had brought me there.
In the Real Casa de Beneficencia there are five
distinct branches: 1st, a school for girls; 2d, a
school for boys ; 3d, a female lunatic asylum ;
4th, a male lunatic asylum ; and, 5th, an hospital for
the reception of aged and infirm persons of both
sexes. There is also connected with this establish
ment, although deriving its funds from distinct
sources, an hospital of incurables, called the Real
Casa Hospital de San Lazaro.
At the time of my visit, there were in the girls'
school 101 scholars, including twelve day scholars;
in the boys', sixty-three, including two day scholars ;
in the female lunatic asylum, eighty-three, including
five out-pensioners ; in the male asylum, 1 02, in
cluding ten out-pensioners ; and in the hospital
or poor-house twenty-five. In the management

CASA DE BENEFICENCIA. 209
of the establishment there were twelve persons
employed ; the slaves attached to it were seven ;
there had been sent there three- other slaves as a
punishment ; and the local government had granted
the charity the services of fifty of the unfortunate
emancipados, the hire obtained for whose services
was to be regarded as the Captain-General's con
tribution ; so that the whole number of persons
supported by the institution, or in any way de
pendent on it, amounted in all to 445.
Girls are not admitted into the institution after
ten years of age ; and being entirely supported there
they are completely separated from their parents
and their families until the time of their final re
moval from the establishment has arrived. They
are taught the various branches of needlework and
dressmaking, and receive such other instruction as
may sufficiently qualify them for becoming domestic
servants, housemaids, cooks, or washerwomen. They
are not suffered by the regulations to remain in
the house after the age of twenty-one ; but before
that time it is the duty of the Junta or committee
of management to endeavour to procure employ
ment for them either in a private family or in some
house of business. Should the circumstances of
the parents have improved during the stay of their
daughter at the institution, they are not suffered to
take her away until they have paid for her previous
board and education at the rate of fifteen dollars a
month ; but if the girl herself has acquired property
by inheritance, or is able to improve her condition
by marriage or otherwise, independent of her parents,

210 CUBA.
she is suffered to leave the house without any pay- '
ment ; and in the event of her marriage to the
satisfaction of the Junta, a little dowry is provided
for her, amounting to #500, from a fund created by
prizes in the lottery, the produce of tickets pre
sented to the institution. Six such marriages had
taken place, and six dowries bestowed from this
fund, in the course of a single year.
The boys are taught the usual branches of edu
cation of primary schools, such as reading, writing,
and arithmetic; and at the periodical examinations
those who distinguish themselves by the greatest
proficiency are rewarded by admission into select
classes, where several of the higher branches of a
good education are taught. The greater number
of them are instructed in some business suited to
their humble station in life, such as that of a tailor
or a shoemaker. The masters in these departments,
besides receiving a moderate salary, are allowed, as
a further stimulus to their exertions, the benefit of
any profit they may be able to make from the labour
of their scholars.
In the course of my visit to this institution I had
the opportunity of convincing myself that the boys,
as well as the girls, were sufficiently supplied with
good wholesome food ; that their clothing was well
suited to the climate; that the dormitories were
airy and comfortable ; the galleries for exercise well
shaded and the play-grounds spacious, well inclosed,
and sufficiently protected. Yet in spite of all these
advantages I observed with regret that in both
branches of the institution, the young people in

CASA DE BENEFICENCIA. 211
general were of a pale and sickly frame of body,
and, in regard to health and activity, appeared to be
decidedly below the average of young persons of
their age and station in other parts of the city.
This fact I am persuaded cannot fairly be ascribed
to any want of care or tenderness on the part of
the managers of the institution, but must at once
be referred to an inherent fault in the system pre
vailing in all climates and under all circumstances
where young people are congregated in large
numbers, completely separated from their families,
and deprived for a long period of the numberless
and nameless attentions which are only to be found
under the parental roof.
In the two lunatic asylums dependent on this
great charity, I observed also with pain and regret,
that while the physical wants of the patients were
adequately attended to, and while every care was
bestowed on the preservation or restoration of their
bodily health, no provision whatever was made for
that moral culture and reclamation so well un
derstood and so successfully practised in the great
public institutions for the recovery of the insane in
many parts of Europe and in the United States of
America. In my visit to the lunatic branches of
the charity I had the advantage of being accom
panied by my friend Dr. Madden, who has studied
this branch of his profession with so much en
lightened and practical zeal, that I trust he may
one day or other be induced to give the world the
benefit of his experience and researches. We were
informed by the medical attendant, and had pre-
p 2

212 CUBA.
viously learned, indeed, from the periodical reports,
that the number of insane persons, for whom the
benefit of the institution was claimed, had for many
years been constantly on the increase. Among the
eighty-three female patients not a single cure had
been effected during the previous year. With the
men they had been more successful or more for
tunate, — at least credit was claimed for sixteen re
coveries out of the total number of 102 ; but if the
cures were numerous so also were the deaths,
amounting to fifteen within the year.
In the poor-house department of the institution
the number of inmates is inconsiderable when
compared with the gross population of the city and
the mendicancy prevailing there, to a degree which
has certainly no parallel in any other place in the
West Indies. But a life of vagabond freedom
would certainly be preferred, in such a climate, to
the irksome regulations of a workhouse, even if the
inhabitants were less wealthy and less charitably
disposed than they undoubtedly are. When this
branch of the institution was first formed, the
public beggars of the city and the suburban districts
were arrested and sent by force to the Casa de
Beneficencia. But the funds at the disposal of the
junta having proved insufficient for the adequate
support of the other branches, which were con
sidered as of more vital importance to the public
welfare, the poor-house department has for some
years been reserved for the use of voluntary ap
plicants. Although not so productive as could be wished,

CASA DE BENEFICENCIA. 213
the sources of the income of this charity are as
various as can well be imagined. They consist of
private donations; public subscriptions; govern
ment grants; rents of houses belonging to the
institution ; the hire of slaves the property of the
establishment, of negroes sent there for punish
ment, and of the so called emancipados assigned
to it for this purpose by the Captain-General; a
special tax on the flour imported at the Havana
and Matanzas ; a tax on the public billiard tables
of the capital ; a poll tax ; the produce of certain
planks belonging to the institution, used in facili
tating the landing of passengers at the wharf from
the ships in the harbour; the payments received
for needlework and dressmaking in the female
department, and for the singing of the pupils as
choristers in the responses for the dead ; and, finally,
the board received for such of the inmates as can
afford to pay for their maintenance, in whole or in
part. The private donations present also an amusing
variety. The gift of tickets in the lottery is of
frequent occurrence ; and every imaginable article
is to be found on the list of donations in kind.
When sufficient employment is not to be found for
the negroes belonging to the establishment, they
are sent out into the market places and elsewhere
to beg for donations of food ; and in the last report
I observe it stated that a visitor, who declined the
communication of his name, had distributed some
thousands of cigars among the lunatics of both
sexes. The total pecuniary receipts amount in general
p 3

214 CUBA.
from this great variety of sources, to #55000, or
#60,000 a year ; and the funds at every balance
are so completely exhausted, that a debt remains
constantly due to the treasurer, and also to the
Custom-house, for the advances which have been
made from time to time to meet the exigencies of
the establishment, varying from #6000 to #8000.
The hospital for incurables, called the Real Casa
Hospital de San Lazaro, is chiefly occupied by
leprous patients. The situation chosen for this
branch of the establishment has all the appearance
from its openness to a free circulation of air, and
its gentle elevation, of being highly favourable to
the improvement of the general health of the un
fortunate inmates ; and the arrangement of the
buildings, consisting of smaU cottages, erected
round an extensive area, and all looking inward
from distinct terraces, gives as cheerful an aspect
to the scene as is at all compatible with the hope
less nature of the disease, and the necessity of
protecting one class of patients from the risk of
contact with others whose cases may happen to be
of a less virulent nature. At the period of my
visit, there were seven patients in the infirmary of
the institution, two of whom were white and five
persons of colour. In the cottages around the
square there were sixty-three patients, of whom
eighteen were white and forty-five persons of
colour. I was told, also, that there were ten pa
tients who received out-of-door relief, two in the
city and eight in the country. There were, also,
five attendants, three slaves, and two emancipados,

LEPROSY. 215
making altogether eighty individuals more or less
dependent on the institution.
The disease called leprosy in Cuba is better
known in the British West Indies by the name,
of yaws, which is believed to be an African sy
nonym for the technical term framboesia, which
has been given to it by medical men, from the
resemblance which the eruptions bear to the rasp
berry. The disease is believed to have been
originally imported with the unfortunate Africans
themselves from the coast of Guinea. Among the
posthumous papers of the late Dr. Wright of
Edinburgh, annexed to his memoirs, published in
1828 by Mr. Blackwood, there is an excellent
treatise on this subject in the form of an inaugural
dissertation, which Dr. Wright had kindly pre
pared for some young medical friend. At the
time of the author's medical practice in Jamaica,
towards the close of the eighteenth century, he
found it so very prevalent, that few negroes
escaped from it, especially in childhood or youth.
Its appearance he describes as horrid, and its effects
direful. He recommends the careful avoidance of
all contact with the sufferers ; and he tells the West
India proprietors that he is the best planter who
feeds and clothes his people well, and keeps them
in good spirits ; promising that if negroes so treated
should be infected, the disease would not only be
of the mildest kind, but of short duration.
In Dr. Wright's time, in Jamaica, there was a
house distinct from the general infirmary on every
well regulated estate in the island prepared for the
p 4

216

CUBA.

reception of negroes infected with the yaws, and
placed at a distance from the village or collection
of huts occupied by the slaves who were not so
infected. If there happened to be but one such
patient on an estate, he was condemned to the
most dreary solitude, and had not even the benefit
of medical assistance, unless some other disease
should happen to intervene ; as physicians and
surgeons were not willing to expose themselves to
the risk of an infection which, if once caught, in
addition to all the other evils it brought in its
train, would be utterly ruinous to their profes
sional pursuits.
In the British West Indies this loathsome disease
as it originally came with the slave trade, has now
in a great measure disappeared, although not till
long after the cause which introduced it. In those
colonies to which the liberated Africans have been
sent, there is of course some risk of its propaga
tion. At Demerara, for instance, I was informed
that it had not confined its ravages to the imported
Africans, nor even to the negro population in
general, but had found its way into white families,
the members of which were naturally shunned by
their brother colonists, from the dread of contagion
it is so well suited to inspire.

MATANZAS. 271

CHAP. XL
MATANZAS.  SLAVES FOUND ASLEEP.  SANTIAGO. -—
PUERTO PRINCIPE.  MODE OF GRANTING LAND. 
NUEVITAS.  PROPOSED RAILROAD. — SYSTEM OF EX
PROPRIATION. — POPULATION OF CUBA.
The city of San Carlos de Matanzas, although not
the capital of any province or department, and in
ferior in population to Puerto Principe and Santiago,
holds the second place in the island in commercial
importance. The bay is spacious, and is protected
from all winds but the north east. In front of the city
there is a ledge of rock four feet below the surface,
which serves as a sort of natural break-water in
defending the vessels at anchor within it from the
swell. There are two channels by which to enter,
the one by the north, the other by the south, end
of the ledge; but the southern channel is only fit
for coasting vessels. The rivers San Juan and
Yumury, between which the town is situated, deposit
such quantities of matter at their mouths as greatly
to diminish the extent of the anchorage ground ; at
the same time making it necessary, from the shal
lowness of the water these deposits occasion, to load
and discharge the shipping by means of lighters and
launches. In 1827, the date of the last census, the population
of Matanzas was much inferior to what it now is,
having consisted of 6333 whites, 1941 free people of

218 CUBA.
colour, and 3067 slaves, — making, with the garrison
and the transient inhabitants, computed at 3000, the
general population at that period amount to 14,341.
The town is situated on a gentle eminence be
tween the two rivers, rising on an average about
thirty feet above the level of the sea, and with such
an inclination on either side as to facilitate the flow
of the rain water and prevent its stagnating on the
ground. The soil consists of a sort of argillaceous
sand, which suffers the water to percolate, and fa
vours its evaporation ; so that Matanzas is consi
dered peculiarly healthy ; and consumptive patients
from the United States are sent there in great num
bers by their medical advisers to escape the rigours
of a North American winter.
The form of the town is an irregular trapezium,
and contains some wide and well built streets ;
about a third partof the houses — 1735 in all — being
built of stone. There is here an hospital of consi
derable extent, which on a cursory view seems very
well conducted, and had received, I was told, in the
course of the year preceding my visit, upwards of
800 patients. Although there is a branch, or depu
tation, of the Royal Patriotic Society at Matanzas,
one ofwhose first duties it is to encourage and stimu
late education, I am sorry to say that the schools
of the town are neither numerous nor well attended.
Among the public buildings there is a parish church
of respectable architecture, a theatre, a barrack, and
two market places. The town contains also two
printing offices and a bathing establishment ; but
the water for domestic purposes is of bad quality,

MATANZAS. 219
and is obtained partly from the two rivers, partly
from wells, and partly from cisterns, in which the
rain water is collected. The town is distant
twenty-two leagues east from the Havana ; twelve
north-east from the terminus of the railway ,at
Guines ; twelve east from Jaruco ; twenty-two
north-east from Batabano ; sixty-five and a half
north-west from Trinidad ; forty-seven and a half
north-west from Jagua ; and forty-six and a half
west-north-west from Villa Clara.
In the neighbourhood of Matanzas a sugar re
finery on the most improved modern principle has
been established by an English house of great
respectability, Messrs. George and Burnell, two of
the partners of which, brothers of Mr. George, had
fallen victims to the climate before my arrival. To
the surviving partners I was indebted for many
civilities far beyond the reach of ordinary hos
pitality. Not content with showing me their own
highly interesting establishment, they carried me
to see the numerous Ingenios in the neighbourhood,
from whom they are naturally the most extensive
purchasers, and thus enabled me to check or confirm
the detailed information I had procured in other
districts of the island,
The demand for refined sugar must of course be
very considerable in the Havana and the other
great towns of the island ; but the Russians and
the people of the United States, who are the chief
consumers of the produce of Cuba, take care of
course, by their Custom-house regulations, to impose
such duties on refined sugar as are quite sufficient

220 CUBA.
effectually to discourage all foreign competition.
The governments of St. Petersburgh and Wash
ington are not, however, so absurd as those of
London and Paris in refusing admission to clayed
sugar, except on payment of a prohibitory duty,
under pretence of its interfering with the business
of the refiner. It is scarcely credible, in fact, that
at this advanced period of the nineteenth century
large quantities of sugar, the bond fide produce of
Martinique and Demerara, should have been refused
admission at Havre and Liverpool, because the
Custom-house officers thought it a shade too white,
or found the crystals superior in purity to what
they had been accustomed to find under less per
fect modes of manufacture, as the result of a single
operation. Among the considerations which served to com
pensate a traveller for a long separation from his
native country, I am disposed to give a high place
to the " olim meminisse juvat " — to the chance of
meeting with early friends and associates in such
a "busy haunt of men " as the Havana. In the
course of an extensive tour on the western side of
the Atlantic, I have been exceedingly fortunate in
this respect, having frequently met with friends in
the most unexpected situations, and renewed my
acquaintance with school-fellows from whom I had
been separated for a long course of years. In my
excursion to Matanzas and its neighbourhood, I
had the satisfaction to be accompanied by one of
my earliest acquaintances, who, being extensively
engaged in commercial pursuits, had been brought

MATANZAS. 221
to the Havana, where a branch of his house had
been established, by the events of the Mexican
blockade. The strong feeling of indignation which
he shared with me, on witnessing some scenes of
unprovoked brutality towards the negro race in
the course of our excursion, was sufficient to induce
me to modify the strictures I had set down in my
note-book, on the sanction which is indirectly given
by the foreign merchants of the Havana to the cruel
practices of the slave master, and the atrocities of
the slave trade. In what remains I have not dis
guised my sentiments on the subject ; and if my
worthy fellow-traveller should do me the honour
to peruse these pages, he will enjoy the conscious
ness of being individually entitled to exemption
from charges which were never intended to have
any personal application.
While in quest of the mouth of one of those ex
traordinary caves produced by the action of water
on the schistose formation, washing it away from be
neath the superincumbent mass of calcareous rock,
we overtook, on the bridle path, a long file of ne
groes, each labouring under a heavy load ; and at
the same instant there came up one of those brutal
drivers armed with his instrument of torture, who,
without any notice or apparent provocation, applied
himself most vigorously to the work of flagellation,
not sparing a single individual of the gang. With
this proceeding we did not interfere, because in a
foreign country we felt ourselves reluctantly com
pelled to pay some respect to any emblem of au
thority, although it should appear in the question-

222

CUBA.

able shape of a cart whip. Soon after the driver
had performed his round of duty, and had allowed
the gang to proceed on their journey we were met
by two persons in the guise of gentlemen, whose
behaviour immediately attracted our attention. No
sooner had they caught sight of the file of negroes,
than, rushing on with the most furious exclamations,
they began to beat and pummel the poor fellows
with all their might. Seeing nothing in the ap
pearance of these persons to entitle them to con
sideration, we began to expostulate with them on
their conduct ; when it turned out that they had no
sort of interest in the gang, or the work they were
employed in, but defended the outrage by declaring
that the master was their friend, and that the people
richly deserved what they had got, as the whole of
them had just been detected in the fact of laying
down by the road side and falling fast asleep,
instead of proceeding with their loads to the end
of their journey. Under any other circumstances
it would have been laughable to observe the ve
hemence with which, so hateful to the ears of a
slave master, they repeated the word dormiendo !
In the course of our visit to one of the best and
most humanely managed estates in the island of
Cuba, receiving from the proprietor an infinity of
most interesting details, we were interrupted by
the arrival of two English gentlemen, who, I have
reason to fear, were not a little shocked either at
the pertinacity of my inquiries, or at the too com
municative disposition of my hospitable host. Some
of my questions were of such a nature that the

SANTIAGO. 223
Hacendado himself could not answer them at the
moment, but with the utmost readiness sent for
his mayoral to assist him. The explanations of the
mayoral not being quite so definite as the proprie
tor could have wished, he next sent for the books
of the estate to put the point at issue beyond all
doubt ; and it was while he was in the act of con
sulting the ledger to determine the point at issue,
that our English friends made their appearance.
They had come with the kind purpose of carrying
me to see some other estates in the neighbourhood ;
but it was not until after my return to the Havana
that I discovered any symptom of the wound I had
so innocently inflicted on the susceptibility of one,
and I hope only one, of my countrymen. Most
certainly the party more immediately concerned,
the worthy Hacendado, never dreamt of such a
thing. The city of Santiago is the second in population
and magnitude, the third in mercantile importance.
It is the see of the archbishopric of Cuba, and
the capital of the eastern provinces of the island.
In 1827, the date of the last census, the population
consisted of 26,738 persons ; of whom 9302 were
white, and therefore free ; 10,032 were free, although
either of the negro or the mixed race ; and 7404
were slaves.
Unlike the Havana, which stands just within the
mouth of the harbour, Santiago is placed near its in
ner extremity. The entrance is strongly defended by
a fortress, also called the Moro, standing on a rocky
eminence to windward, and by a separate fortifica-

224 cuba.
tion, La Estrella, erected on the same side, near
the level of the water just within the extreme point
on which the Moro stands. From north to south
the harbour is about four miles long. Its breadth
is irregular, and in some places rather narrow ; but
its depth of water is sufficient for the reception of
ships of the line ; and it is completely defended
from every wind that blows.
The maritime trade of Santiago suffered severely
during the revolutionary period, when all commu
nication with the Spanish provinces, called Los
Paises disidentes of North and South America, was
interrupted. In 1827 the imports amounted in
value to #1,441,048, and the exports to #1,270,586.
Ten years afterwards, in 1837, the imports were
#2,299,399 61, and the exports #2,1S2,001 4. The
gross custom-house revenue of the port amounted
in 1827 to #470,365, and in 1837, to #604,339 4.
There is no town in the West Indies, approaching
Santiago in population or commercial importance,
which stands so low in point of salubrity. Hemmed
in by mountains on its eastern, northern, and western
sides, the free circulation of the air is greatly im
peded ; and, unless when agitated by very high
winds, the exhalation from the bay and the lagoons
connected with it remain there in a state of stag
nation. The yellow fever, named from its most
fatal symptom el vomito negro, commits here the
most cruel ravages. The rainy season is by far
the most dangerous, much more so, indeed, than
during the extreme heats which prevail between
July and October. The temperature of the neigh-

PUERTO PRINCIPE. 225
bouring mountains is comparatively moderate ; and
it is among them in general that Europeans first
establish themselves, that they may be enabled by
degrees to withstand the rigours of the climate.
The city of Santa Maria de Puerto Principe, the
chief town of the central department of the island,
is situated in the interior, as far as possible from
the sea and from the confines of its jurisdiction,
as if its site had been selected on the same prin
ciple with that of Madrid, which is supposed to
have been chosen for the Spanish capital on ac
count of its being in the very centre of the king
dom. It stands between two rivulets, the Tinima
and the Satibonico, which afterwards unite, and
form the Rio de San Pedro, falling into the sea
at the distance of forty miles in the direction of
E.S.E. The population of the city amounted,
in 1827, to 49,012 persons, 32,996 of whom
were white, 6165 free people of colour, and 9851
slaves, — a number far exceeding that of any
other second-rate town throughout the West Indies.
The trade of the place, as may be supposed from
its inland position and its want of water carriage,
bears no just proportion to the number of its ha
bitants. In former times the Hatos, Corrals,
Realengos, and Potreros in its neighbourhood,
were the chief source from whence the capital of
the island obtained its supplies of butcher's meat.
At that remote period it was not uncommon for
20,000 calves to be sent in the course of a year
from Puerto Principe to the Havana; but the
soil in the neighbourhood of the capital having
Q

226 CUBA.
been long ago exhausted for agricultural purposes,
by a bad system of husbandry, and the sugar
estates, which formerly existed there, having been
definitively abandoned, the land has been laid
down in pasture, and the markets of the Havana
have thus become to a certain extent independent
of more distant supplies.
It may be as well in this place to give some
idea of the meaning of the word Hato, and the
other terms which have just been employed, as
they are not to be found in the common vocabula
ries, and their precise meaning is not very clearly
defined even in the dictionary of the Academy.
It was formerly the practice, when grants of
land were obtained from the government, to fix
upon a point which was to be declared the centre
of a circle, the circumference of which was to
become the limit of the concession. This method
was probably resorted to for the purpose of avoid
ing disputes as to territorial boundaries ; but in
the sequel it had only the effect of making these
questions of boundary more intricate and more
difficult of adjustment.
The Hato was a circle, the diameter of which
was four leagues ; that of the Corral being equal
only to its radius — that is two leagues in extent ;
the Realengos were the royal reserves, surrounded
by the exterior curved lines of the Corrals and
Hatos, to which the original name continued to
be applied long after the land had been ceded to
private individuals ; and the Potrero was a portion
of land indeterminate in form or extent, but gene-

NUEVITAS. 227
rally occupied, like the Hatos, Corrals, and Rea
lengos, as breeding farms for the rearing of cattle.
The Haciendo Principal is a generic name,
including all but the Potrero, and is applied to
breeding farms of the largest class ; while the
Potrero, without any definite limit, is considered
a place of inferior importance. In the course
of time the curved boundaries of the Hato, the
Corral, and the Reatengo, have been gradually
departed from, by the ordinary exercise of pro
prietary rights, by sale, deed of gift, or testa
mentary disposition ; as by another mode of ex
ercising these rights, the original cattle-pen, as
the breeding farms are called in Jamaica, has been
converted into Ingenios or Cafetals, or otherwise
applied to agricultural purposes. The dimensions
of the Hato being so much greater than those
of the Corral, the latter was formerly confined
to the raising of pigs, goats, and sheep ; while on
the Hato were bred the horse, the mule, and the
cow ; but this distinction, like that of the form of
the estate, is also becoming obsolete.
The bay of Nuevitas may be regarded as the
harbour of Puerto Principe, although twelve and a
half leagues distant, as there its produce is shipped,
and from thence it receives its foreign supplies.
The want of all tolerable means of communication,
however, for the carriage of heavy articles, is such
as to threaten the greater part of the rich soils of
the interior with a condemnation to perpetual
virginity. A few years ago a new colony was formed in
q 2

228 cuba.
the bay of Nuevitas, which at the end of twelve
years from its commencement, could boast of a
growing population, already amounting to 1153;
of whom 709 were white, 87 free people of colour,
and 357 slaves. By the new colony, as well as by
the large population of Puerto Principe, the ex
treme difficulty of transit, between the coast and
the interior, is felt of course most severely ; and,
during the administration of Captain- General
Tacon, gave rise to a proposal, which met with
some encouragement, but which has not yet been
seriously acted on, of constructing a railway, the
chief object of which should be to connect Puerto
Principe with the sea. It, however, is not at
all improbable that the decided success which has
attended the opening of the railway between the
Havana and Guines may stimulate the wealthier
classes of the people to break up their hoards of
dollars and doubloons, and apply them to a purpose
so beneficial to the country.
They have had the districts surveyed by Ame
rican engineers, who, in their own country at least,
in framing their estimates of the probable success
of such undertakings, are accustomed to form their
judgment much more from the opinion they may
entertain of the future capabilities of the district
through which the road is to pass, than from the
positive data of actual traffic. The improvident
grants of land which were made in former times to
the unreasonable extent of circles of twelve leagues
in circumference, will doubtless have the effect of
checking such an enterprise, just as similar grants

SYSTEM OF EXPROPRIATION. 229
of extensive " blocks " in British America have
prevented the construction of common roads, and
are at this moment retarding to a grievous extent
the general prosperity of the country. But in
Cuba the fiat of a despotic government may possibly
be interposed to remove the difficulty ; and although
at the date of the original grants of these Hatos,
Corrals, and Realengos, there was probably no
condition as to the mode of occupancy, the local
authorities, provided the ends of substantial justice
be accomplished, are not likely to be very scrupu
lous as to the mode by which the idle and inactive
Hacendados are to be remunerated for the com
pulsory expropriation which the interests of the
community require.
To facilitate such proceedings a law was passed
by the Cortes on the 17th of July 1836, and was
duly promulgated in the island ; but it may become
a matter of doubt with an energetic Captain-Ge
neral like Tacon, whether the forms and principles
which are suited to an old settled country like
Spain are to be considered applicable to the wild
regions of the new world, the original titles to
which were granted, in all probability, on the con
dition or understanding, expressed or implied, that
the deed of gift or concession was not to remain
a dead letter, and still less that the subject of the
grant was to be interposed as an insurmountable im
pediment to the general improvement of the coun
try. If the nominal proprietors of these " blocks "
of land, as they are called in British America,
will not consent to pay for the construction of
q 3,

230

CUBA.

roads, bridges, and other means of communication
suited to the age we live in, there seems to be no
practical injustice in authorising their construction
by means of funds to be raised on the credit of the
land to be benefited by it, subjecting the property
by legal process to a tax or rate with which to
liquidate the interest of the debt, together with a
reasonable sinking fund for the gradual extinction
of the capital.
The first census of 1775 having been classified
in the same manner with the last of 1827, they
afford us the means of comparing the state of the
population, as represented officially, at two different
periods, fifty- two years apart.
In 1775 the numbers of each class stood as
follows : —

Whites
Free people of colour
Free negroes
Negro and coloured slaves

Men.

Women,

Total.

54,,555 10,021 5,959
28,774

40,864 9,006
5,629
15,562

95,419 19,027
11,588
44,336

99,309

71,061

170,370

Adopting the same classification the numbers
are thus given in 1827 '• —

WhitesFree people of colour
Free negroes
Negro and coloured slaves

Men.

Women.

Total.

168,653 28,058
23,904
183,290

142,398 29,456
25,076
103,652

311,051 57,514
48,980
286,942

403,905

300,582

704,487

POPULATION. 231
Hence it follows that the whole population has
increased in a fourfold ratio, and something more,
during the fifty-two years in question. It will also
be observed that the importation of slaves from
Africa has been far more active than the emigration
of the whites from the various sources to which
allusion has been made, although that emigration
is to be taken as a mere addendum to the natural
increase on which there was no restriction, either
from extreme hard labour and starvation, or the
unequal migration of the sexes. The proportional
increase of white males during the fifty-two years
was at the rate of 209 per cent. ; that of white fe
males, 240 percent.; of free coloured males, 180
per cent. ; of free coloured females, 227 per cent. ;
of free negro men, 301 per cent. ; of free negro
women, 345 per cent. ; of male slaves, black or co
loured, 537 per cent. ; and of female slaves, black
or coloured, 566 per cent.
On comparing the rural population according to
the census of 1827 with the inhabitants of the cities,
towns, and villages of the same period, we find that
in the country there were 149,930 whites, 35,271
free people of colour, black or mixed, and 220,988
slaves. The inhabitants of cities, towns, and villages,
consisted of 161,321 whites, 71,223 free people of
colour, and 65,954 slaves. The distribution of
the slaves forming part of the rural population,
is stated in the official returns of that period to
have been 70,000 on the Ingenios or sugar estates ;
50,000 on the Cafetales or coffee estates ; and the
q 4

232 cuba.
remaining 100,000 on properties of smaller im
portance. Comparing the population of the three provinces
with their territorial extent, it appears that the
whole island contains 3496f square leagues, or
31,468 square miles ; and the whole population
having been as before 704,487, without including
the transient inhabitants, it follows, according to
the foregoing data, that there were for the whole
island in 1827 for each square league, 89 whites,
30*5 free people of colour, and 82 slaves.
The western department, which, although the
smallest of the three, contains the largest popula
tion, extends from Cape Antonio on the west to
the boundary of the local governments of Trinidad
and Fernandina de Jagua on the east, with the
exception of the rural portion of the district of
Yaguaramas, which belongs to the eastern depart
ment, and covers 7639 square miles, or 848-^
square leagues, with a population of 408,537, —
making to each square league 194 whites, 54 free
people of colour, and 232 slaves, or a total of
481. The central department, containing the districts
of Trinidad, Fernandina, Puerto Principe and Ya
guaramas, contains 12,781 square miles, or 1420^
square leagues, with a population of 164,497 j so
that for each square league in the department,
there are 115 inhabitants, 69 being white, 17 free
people of colour, and 29 slaves.
In the eastern department, which corresponds
with the limits of the provincial government of

POPULATION. 233
Santiago de Cuba, there are 11,048 square miles,
or 1227 square leagues, and a population of
131,453 ; so that there are to each square league
106 inhabitants, of whom 38 are white, 29 free
people of colour, and 38 slaves.
No estimate having been formed of the numbers
of the aboriginal population by the first invaders
of the island, it would not be easy at this distance
of time to supply the omission. The Spanish
writers, while admitting the fact that the indigenous
inhabitants had gradually disappeared, ascribe it
rather to their voluntary emigration to Yucatan
and the Floridas, than to the effect of such cruelties
as were undoubtedly committed by the Spaniards
on the unoffending natives they displaced in other
parts of the New World. The places where they
longest lingered were the towns of Guanabacoa,
Caney and Jiguani, where those who are curious
in such matters pretend still to see among the in
habitants some traces of their Indian origin.
In speaking of the present population of the
island, however, it is chiefly with the European and
African races that we have to do. The first expedi
tion of 151 1 , which had for its object the formal oc
cupation of the island, was composed, as we have
seen, of little more than 300 individuals. Soon
after their arrival the accounts which they gave
of their new possession induced vast numbers to
follow in their train ; some from the peninsula and
some from Hispaniola or St. Domingo, now better
known by its original Indian name of Hayti. Many
of these passed on no doubt to Mexico and Florida ;

234 cuba.
but numbers also remained, not indeed to cultivate
the soil, but to explore the country in quest of the
precious metals. On this pretext permission was
obtained from the home government, in the year
1523, to import 300 negroes to work the gold mines,
which were supposed to have been discovered in
the neighbourhood of Jagua ; but the historian
Valdes asserts that there is not the slightest indi
cation of any such mining operations, and that if
gold was sought for at all, it must have been by the
mere washing of the sand of the rivers, in which
he admits that there are some indications of it.
This, then, is the origin of the introduction of
the African race into Cuba ; and in contradiction
to those writers who ascribe, the extinction of the
aborigines to emigration, it appears that in the ap
plication to the Spanish government for this per
mission to obtain labourers, by the importation of
negroes, one of the leading reasons assigned was
the thinness of the Indian population in that part
of the island, from which it is to be inferred that
they did not scruple to reduce the natives to the
same state of laborious servitude which they had pre
viously accomplished with the aborigines of Hayti
and Jamaica.
From this beginning the exotic population gra
dually increased, until, in 1580, it was estimated to
amount to nearly 16,000 souls ; 10,000 of whom had
taken up their abode in the Havana and its imme
diate neighbourhood. In 1602 the numbers were
computed at 20,000, of whom 13,000 resided in the
capital and its vicinity. The loss of Jamaica to the

POPULATION. 235
Spaniards in 1655 produced an extensive emigra
tion from that island, amounting, it is said, to not
less than 30,000 souls, two thirds of whom are
said to have settled in the western districts. In
consequence of this emigration a body of 150
soldiers was sent out from the Peninsula to Sant
iago for the purpose of forming a garrison. In the
following years 1656 and 1657 a further emigration
took place from Jamaica of nearly 8000 persons ;
but as the numbers of the colonists were not kept
up by natural means, the total population in the
year 1680 did not exceed 40,000.
The Havana having been evacuated in conse
quence of the conclusion of the peace of Versailles
in 1763, and the English having retained pos
session of the Floridas, a large proportion of the
Spanish population of these territories, following the
example of their countrymen in Jamaica, withdrew
from the Continent, and established themselves
in Cuba, where, in consequence, at the time of
the first official census in 1775, the population was
found to amount to 170,370 souls. The war with
England in 178O brought out a strong naval force
to the Havana, together with 12,000 men for its
garrison, as well as to serve in the projected ex
peditions against the British Islands in the Ca
ribbean Sea. In 1789 and 1791 permission was
formally granted to foreigners, as well as natives,
for the introduction of slaves into the island, from
the coast of Africa ; and as the white emigration
from Europe and the Canary Islands continued
without interruption, the second official census,

236

CUBA.

completed in 1791, made the total population of
the island amount to 272,140 souls.
By the treaty of peace concluded at Basle, in
1795, between the Spanish monarchy and the
French republic, the Spanish portion of the island
of St. Domingo was ceded to France ; and from
thence another source of emigration arose. The
like happened in 1803 at the time of the cession
of New Orleans : but although, in consequence of
the French treaty, the Spaniards began to re-occupy
the Floridas, the number of families who returned
from Cuba to the Continent was far out-balanced
by the emigration from other quarters ; and more
especially by the constant flow from the peninsula
and the Canary Islands.
The invasion of the peninsula by Napoleon in
1 808, the occupation of so many of the kingdoms
of Europe by the armies of France, and the sub
sequent revolt of the Spanish provinces on the two
continents of America, were so many additional
stimulants to emigration ; insomuch that at the
time of the third official census in 1827 the per
manent population was found to amount to 551,998,
and with the addition of the transient inhabitants,
to 630,980.
Between this last period and the date of the
fourth and last census in 1827, the progress of
the revolution in Spanish America, the definitive
abandonment of the Floridas in 1821, and the
constant flow of emigrants, attracted by the fertility
of the soil, the commercial activity of the Havana,
and the other maritime cities of the island, and,

POPULATION. 237
above all, by the exorbitant profits arising from
the uninterrupted practice of the slave trade, had
produced such an increase, that the permanent
population was found to amount to 704,867, and
with the transient inhabitants, to 730,562.
It is admitted in the island that there may pos
sibly be errors in the official returns, particularly
in the two first, from the fears entertained by the
inhabitants that the census was intended to become
the basis of taxation. In the year 1811 a conjec
tural estimate was formed by the Patriotic Society,
on data furnishe*d by the ayuntamientos and other
municipalities, which gave 325,000 as the number
of the white inhabitants, 114,000 for the free
people of colour, and 212,000 for the slaves. The
Baron de Humboldt, in his political essay on the
island in 1825, assumes the white population to
have then amounted to 325,000, the free people
of colour to 130,000, and the slaves to 260,000, —
making 715,000 in all. But admitting that errors
exist even in the latest and most perfect of the
official returns, prepared under the auspices of
Captain-General Vives, I incline to prefer them as
affording a nearer positive approximation to the
truth than any conjectural estimate can possibly
do ; and more especially I prefer them in any
attempt to compare the population of one period
with that of another, so as to determine as accu
rately as possible the progress which from time to
time the island has been making in wealth and
prosperity, in so far as population can be regarded
as a measure or a test of prosperity and wealth.

238 cuba.
The interval between the first census and the
second was sixteen years, and the increase of popu
lation, 101,770, showing an average annual increase
of 6360. Between the second census and the third
the interval was twenty-six years, and the increase
of population, 279)858, showing an average annual
augmentation of 10,763. From the third census
to the fourth the interval was ten years, and the
increase, 152,489, showing an average annual aug
mentation of 15,248, which, divided by 365, makes
41 a day.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. 239

CHAP. XII.
GEOGRAPHICAL AND RELATIVE POSITION OF CUBA. 
COASTS. — GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.  PROVINCES AND
DISTRICTS.  AYUNTAMIENTO.  MUNICIPALITY OF HA
VANA.  SECULAR TRIBUNALS. •  SYSTEM OF TRADE. 
CARRIAGE OF PRODUCE. — MINERAL RICHES. — SILVER
AND COPPER.  MINERAL WATERS.
The island of Cuba is situated between the se
venty-fourth and eighty-fifth degrees of longi
tude west from Greenwich, and the nineteenth and
twenty-third degrees of north latitude; or, to follow
the more minute observations of Spanish geogra
phers, its longitude extends from 67° 46' 45" to
78° 39' 15" west from Cadiz, which, being converted
into the mode of calculation established in the
island itself, making the fortress of the Moro at
the Havana the first meridian, that point being
76° 4' 34" west of Cadiz, gives the extent of the
longitude 9° 17' 49" east, and 2° 34' 41" west, of the
first insular meridian, the eastern point being that
of Mayzi, and the western the Cape of San Antonio.
The latitude extends from 19° 48' 30" to 23° 12' 45''
north ; the salient points being the Punta de Hi-
cacos to the north, and the Punta del Ingles to
the south ; which gives thirteen hours and thirty
minutes as the average length of the longest day.
The form of the island is exceedingly irregular,

240 CUBA.
approaching that of a long narrow crescent, the
convex portion of which looks towards the north.
It is the most westerly of the West India islands,
and, compared with the rest of the Archipelago, has
decidedly the greatest superficial extent of territory.
Lying in the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, it leaves
two spacious entrances, the one to the north-west
thirty- two and a half leagues wide, between the
point of Hicacos, the most northerly of the island,
and the point of Tancha, the most southerly of east
Florida. The other entrance into the Gulf to the
south-west is thirty-eight leagues wide in its nar
rowest part, between the Cabo de San Antonio of
Cuba, and the Cabo de Catoche the most salient
extremity of the peninsula of Yucatan. From the
Mola Cape in St. Domingo, sometimes called the
Cape of San Nicolas, and by the French Le Cap
de St. Nicolas Mole, the eastern extremity of Cuba
or the Punta de Mayzi is separated by a channel
fourteen leagues wide ; and from this same Punta
de Mayzi to the Cabo de Dona Maria, another
great salient point of the island of St. Domingo,
the distance is eighty-seven leagues. From Mayzi
to Inagua Grande, the nearest of the Lucayas or
Bahama islands, the distance is fifteen leagues.
From the Punta de Lucrecia to the most easterly
point of the great Bahama bank, in the old Bahama
Channel, called the Cayo de Santo Domingo, the
distance is twelve leagues ; and from Cabo Cruz on
the south to the nearest point of the northern coast
of Jamaica the distance is twenty-five leagues.
In its greatest length, taken in a straight line

COASTS. 241
from east to west, the island from one extremity to
the other extends 572 miles ; but following the
shortest possible curve from the Punta de Mayzi to
the Cabo de San Antonio, passing near the centre
of the island, its length is 648 miles. Its greatest
latitude from the most northerly point of the Sa-
binal to the western extremity of the Moro bay,
is 107 miles ; and its narrowest part from the mouth
of the bay of Mariel to that of the bay of Mabana,
is twenty- two miles. From the Moro Castle of the
Havana to the beach of Batabano, the direct dis
tance is twenty-eight miles. The circumference
or periphery of the island, cutting off the bays and
inlets, and extending the line only from one point
or cape to another, is 1719 miles, or 573 maritime
leagues. The superficial or territorial extent is
31,468 square miles; that of the Isle of Pines 865
square miles ; and that of the other minor de
pendencies, Turignano 38, Romano 172, Guajaba
15, Coco 28, Cruz 59, Paredon Grande 11, Barril
13, Del Puerto 9, Eusenachos 19, Frances 14,
Largo 32, and other minor dependencies 64, —
making the whole territory extend to 32,807 square
miles. The coasts of the island are in general exceed
ingly foul, presenting reefs and shallows, which
extend from two to two and a half miles into the
sea, and make the approach to the land both diffi
cult and dangerous for such as are not intimately
acquainted with the channels of entrance. Within
these reefs there is often a good sandy beach ; but
for the greater part of the circumference of the

242 cuba.
island, there is a belt or zone of low land, very
little raised above the level of the sea, subject to
floods and inundations, and so wet at all seasons of
the year as to be constantly in a state approaching
to mud, which makes the access to the coast and
the ordinary communication between the interior
and the sea next to impossible in the rainy season,
and not very easy during any month of the year.
There is, nevertheless, a considerable number of
harbours, ports, and bays, Surgideros, Esteros, and
Embarcaderos, comprising in the first class some
of the best, safest, and most accessible harbours in
the known world.
On some parts of the coast, the sea, during
spring tides and the season of the equinox, forms
extensive salt lagoons, which in dry years produce
such quantities of marine salt, as to suffice for the
consumption of the population. These lagoons
are more common on the northern than on the
southern coast, and might provide the means of
curing vast quantities of fish, which are said to be
abundant ; but it appears that no fishery of any
note has yet been established.
The narrow form of the island, and the cordillera
of mountains which divides it into two unequal
sections, throughout its whole length, leaves a very
limited course for its rivers and streams, more es
pecially for those which belong to its northern
side. In the rainy season they become torrents, but
during the rest of the year they are nearly dried up.
Along their banks they are generally lined with a
belt of underwood called eejas, and at their mouths

PROVINCES AND DISTRICTS. 243
the Embarcaderos, Surgideros and other shipping
places are established.
The vegetable soil may be said to rest almost
universally on one great mass of calcareous rock
of a porous and unequal character, which often
suffers the rain water to percolate easily through it.
The vulgar name for this rock is Seborucu or
Mucara, which is to be seen at the surface through
out the greater part of the northern side^of the
island, as well as in many places of the south, and
at innumerable points of the central line, through
its whole length from east to west. Near the
middle of the northern coast a slaty formation is
to be seen, on which the calcareous rock seems to
rest. At particular points on the south side this
slaty formation may also be found ; but not so ex
tensively as on the north. The descent from the
central cordillera is marked by gentle undulations,
the crests of which are parched and dry ; while
the hollows or bottoms afford a soil of the richest
quality. From the great extent of the island of Cuba, it
has been found necessary to divide it into several
distinct jurisdictions, civil, judicial, ecclesiastical,
and military. The civil jurisdiction consists of
two provinces with two distinct governors, entirely
independent of each other, the supreme military
chief of the whole island with the title of captain-
general, being the civil governor of the one
province only, called San Cristobal de la Habana ;
while the other, called Santiago de Cuba, has a
separate governor, who, in affairs purely civil or
r 2

244 cuba.
political, is not in any way subordinate to the
captain-general. Independent of this primary
partition, the island is divided into three military
divisions, the chiefs of which of course take their
orders from the captain-general.
The present governor of Santiago, Brigadier-
General Don Tomas Yarto, is also the military
chief of his department, subject, in military mat
ters only, to the orders of the captain-general. At
Matanzas, Trinidad de Cuba, Puerto Principe, and
Cienfuegos, there are also officers with the title of
Gubernador, or governor, who are named by the cap
tain-general, but whose office is in fact of a judicial
nature, extending to disputed points of every sort,
civil, criminal, or military. Subordinate to them there
are eight lieutenancies, called Capitanias a guerra.
The captain-general at the Havana enjoys the
appellate jurisdiction in military matters, and the
Real Audiencia at Puerto Principe of which he is
ex oficio the president, in all other affairs civil or
criminal, brought before it in foro contentioso. In
the cities and towns of the island there are also
municipal bodies, called ayuntamientos perpetuos,
and in the rural districts Jueces pedaneos, who in
their turn are named by the local governors re
spectively. Both these classes of persons exercise
judicial functions ; but ihe pedaneos are subject in
all things to the previous instructions of the colo
nial government. Although their title be that of
judges, their functions are chiefly ministerial in
their nature, assimilating more nearly to those of a
commissary of police than of an ordinary magistrate

AYUNTAMIENTO. 245
or justice of the peace ; it being their immediate
duty to watch over the movements of the people,
to preserve the tranquillity of their district, and
arrest all deserters or delinquents, transmitting
annuaUy to the captain-general a statistical return
or census of all the inhabitants residing within.
their jurisdiction. Of these officers there are fifty-
nine in the province of the Havana, forty-two in
Santiago de Cuba, nine in Matanzas, forty-one in
Trinidad and the towns annexed to it, four in
Cienfuegos, twenty-four in Puerto Principe, fifty-
one in Bayamo, Jiguani, Holguin, and Baracoa,
eight in La Nueva Filipena, and nine in Santiago
de las Vegas, — making in all 247-
The ayuntamiento of the Havana consisted
originally of only four Corregidors. This number
was afterwards increased to six, including the
Alguacil Mayor and Depositario General. This
corporate body was afterwards increased to the
number of eight, when the treasurer of the fund
for the promotion of the crusades was admitted a
regular member of the corporation, with the rank
and title of corregidor. At the time of my re
sidence in Spain in 1834 and 1835, this fund was
in a very prosperous condition ; and its peninsular
treasurer lived in a style of splendour and mag
nificence which totally eclipsed that of the ministers
of state, the ambassadors of France and England,
and the richest grandees of the kingdom. Whether
this absurdity has since been abated I have not
the means at hand of ascertaining.
When the Havana was raised to the rank of a
r 3

246 cuba.
city, an application was made to the king to
increase the number of corregidors to twelve.
This application was readily complied with, in
pursuance of the practice which had long prevailed
in the cities of the Indies. Of the twelve corre
gidors, one was the Alferez Real ; a second the
Alguacil Mayor ; a third the provincial officer of
the Santa Hermandad ; a fourth was the Fiel Eje-
cutor ; a fifth the Receptor de Penas de Camara ;
and a sixth the Depositario Getter al. Several of
the Corregidors hold the office by hereditary right;
and the person who exercises the interesting
functions of Padre de Menores, enjoys the rank
and honours of a Corregidor, without any de
liberative voice in the meetings of the corporation.
At present, therefore, the ayuntamiento of the
Havana consists of twelve Corregidors, two Al
caldes ordinarios elected annually, two Alcaldes de
la Santa Hermandad, also elected annually, one
Mayor provincial, one Alferez Real, one Alguacil
Mayor, one Sindieo procurador del comun, named
by the corporation to serve for a year, beginning and
ending at the same dates with the term of service of
the Alcaldes. In former times these officers were
chosen by the inhabitants at large ; but latterly the
system has degenerated into a sort of self- election
by the permanent members of the ayuntamiento.
Besides these there are a Mayor domo de proprios,
an Escribano, and other subordinate functionaries.
At the meetings of this body the captain-general
presides ; in his absence one of the three Tenientes
Letrados, or subaltern chiefs, and in their absence

secular tribunals. 247
also, one of the Alcaldes ordinarios. On the
admission of the members of the corporation, they
are bound to take the same oath which is admini
stered to the Spanish military orders of Santiago,
Alcantara, and Calatrava, which is, to defend the
purity of the Conception of the Holy Virgin.
The chief secular tribunals of the Havana are,
first, that of the Captain-General, who has for his
assessors, in military matters, an Auditor de Guerra,
and in civil disputes Los Asesores Generates, who
likewise exercise the duties of the civil magistracy
of their own proper authority. The tribunal of
the Alcaldes ordinarios has also cognizance in the
first instance of civil and military disputes. The
Ayuntamiento itself may also be said to possess a
certain judicial jurisdiction ; as, in causes where
the interest in dispute does not exceed $300, the
corporation hears and decides on appeal from the
Tenientes Letrados and the Alcaldes ordinarios.
In such cases the Ayuntamiento names two
commissioners, who, in concert with the judge a
quo, and the assessors, must hear the appeal within
thirty days, and pronounce judgment within ten
days more. This term is declared to be impro-
rogable ; in so much so, that, an hour after it
expires, the jurisdiction ceases, the cause remains
in statu quo ante, and the original sentence becomes
so irrevocable that no superior authority can take
any further cognizance of it.
Sixteen commissaries of police are also named
annually by the ayuntamiento for the various
r 4

248 cuba.
districts or barrios into which the city is di
vided. There is besides a commercial tribunal, con
sisting of a prior, consuls, a consultor, and an
escribano, whose jurisdiction extends only to mer
cantile affairs ; but before any one can address
himself to this tribunal, he must first go before the
Juez Avenidor, whose duty it is, like that of the
Juge de Paix in France, to endeavour to con
ciliate the parties and prevent litigation.
The Spanish merchants established at the Havana
and in the other towns of the island may be said to
enjoy a monopoly of the trade with the peninsula ;
and their profits are for that reason understood to
be higher than those of the foreign merchant, who
has generally, besides, a more active competition to
contend against. It is not here as in the island of
St. Domingo, where the foreign merchants exercise
such a practical control over the government, as
to prevent the extension of the number of existing
licences, and so to secure for themselves the whole
range of the foreign trade.
For effecting sales of goods on consignment, the
foreign merchants at the Havana are understood
to make a charge of 5 per cent, on the gross
amount of the price. If credit be given, a further
del credere commission of 2jj per cent, is charged
for the guarantee. On manufactured goods the
usual credit is from two to six months, and on
flour from one to five months; but if the pur
chaser prefer paying in cash, he is entitled to a
discount at the rate of 1 per cent, per month, or

system of trade. 249
to an equivalent in the fixing of the price. Pro
visions and other goods sold on the wharf, with
the exception of flour, are usually paid for in ready
money, without any discount or other equivalent.
In addition to his commissions on the sale, the
foreign merchant makes a further charge of %.\
per cent, for making returns either in bills or pro
duce. For effecting purchases, a commission of
Q\ per cent, is charged, together with a further
commission of equal amount if the price be drawn
for in bills of exchange. The charge for procuring
freight is 5 per cent., besides an additional 2^
per cent, for effecting an insurance on it. For
the simple advance of money, where no other
commission is chargeable, the merchant receives
5 per cent. ; and on biU business the rates are
various, from 1 to %\ per cent. , according to its
magnitude. The right enjoyed by foreigners to carry on
their mercantile pursuits in the island without any
previous formality, does not extend to the business
of a broker, which can only be exercised by Creoles,
by native Spaniards, or by naturalised foreigners.
The number is limited in each of the towns of the
island according to its trade and population ; and
even for persons duly qualified, a special licence is
required. The number for the Havana is limited
to fifty.
Consignees of goods are required, within forty-
eight hours of the arrival of the ship, to present at
the Custom-house a detailed statement of the num
ber, quantity, weight, and measure of the whole

250 CUBA.
consignment, under the penalty of an extra duty
of 2 per cent, being levied on the goods. The
master of the ship is also bound to have ready for
delivery to the boarding officers, on his arrival, a
manifest containing a more general detail of his
cargo, as weU as of the balance remaining of his
ship's stores. Just before handing it over to the
revenue officer, he is required to write on it, in the
form of an oath, that it contains a list of the whole
of the cargo on board. The master takes care that
this manifest is countersigned by the officer, and
the hour at which it is delivered is marked upon
it. Within twelve business hours from the moment
of delivery, from which the time between seven
o'clock in the evening and six in the morning is
excluded, the master is entitled to make any al
teration he may think proper on his manifest, by
the presentation of a separate note in which he
specifies the errors he may have previously com
mitted; but after the lapse of the twelve hours, no
further alteration is allowed.
Should goods be found on board not specified in
the manifest, they are liable to confiscation ; and
if they do not amount to $1000 in value, the
master of the vessel is subject to a penalty equal
to double their estimated worth. But should the
value be found to exceed $1000, and at the same
time belong to the shipmaster, or prove to be con
signed to him, the ship itself, her freight, and all
the other emoluments arising from the voyage
become forfeited to the Colonial revenue.
If, by any mistake of the master, the manifest

SYSTEM OF TRADE. 251
should chance to contain the specification of goods
which are not afterwards found on board, it is de
clared by the Custom-house regulations that the
same duties are to be levied as if in this respect
the manifest were correct.
Goods not appearing in the manifest, but claimed
by the consignee within the period prescribed by
law, are delivered up to such consignee without any
penalty attaching to him or to the goods ; but in
this case the shipmaster is subject to a fine equal
in amount to the value of such goods. If the
article omitted consist of gold or silver, the penalty
is limited to a duty of 4 per cent.
When the cargo is landed, if it shall be found
that the goods fall short of the quantity specified
in the manifest, and that such goods are not in
cluded in the invoice of any consignee, the master
becomes liable to a penalty of $ 200 for each de
ficient package. Within twenty-four hours after
his arrival, every shipmaster is required, under a
penalty of $1000, to present himself at the Custom
house, in order to swear to his manifest.
A bill of health certified by the Spanish consul
established at the port of departure, or at that
nearest to it, must be brought with every vessel
that may enter any port of the island, under the
penalty of being placed in quarantine. It must
be admitted, however, that the quarantine regula
tions at the Havana are exceedingly lenient. Ships
of all nations bringing bills of health duly counter
signed or attested by the proper Spanish consular
authority are immediately admitted to pratique ;

252 cuba.
but if not so attested, the vessel is subjected to an
eight days' quarantine. There is no lazaretto at
the Havana, but, during the prevalence of the
cholera in other countries, a station was established
within the harbour, where every vessel arriving
from an infected port was compelled to ride qua
rantine for forty days.
It is difficult to form an estimate of the average
expense of bringing produce from the estates in the
interior to the place of embarkation. It may fairly
be stated, however, that this heavy charge to the
planter is in a progressive course of reduction, by
the improvement of the common roads, the form
ation of railways, and the construction of em
barcaderos, or places of shipment, within more
moderate distances of the places of production.
These distances are still, however, very great, as it
is often found necessary to have coffee and sugar
sent as much as fifty miles by land carriage to a
point from whence it must be transferred in small
coasting vessels to one or other of the Puertos
Habilitados, or principal seaports. The minimum
of this expense may be stated at two reals per
quintal, and the maximum at ten reals. The
sugar estates along the northern coast, from Cape
Antonio to leeward, and Sagua la Grande to wind
ward, send their produce by coasting vessels either
to the Havana or Matanzas for sale, as do also the
vessels on the southern coast as far eastward as
Caimito. The mineral riches of the island have not yet
been explored to any considerable extent. The

MINERAL riches. 203
copper and coal mines, the mineral baths, and the
salt works, will presently be spoken of. In the
early history of the island, the pursuit of gold and
silver seems to have been the great object of the
discoverers, and those who more immediately fol
lowed them ; but although the precious metals
have undoubtedly been found in the island, the
quantity has never been sufficient to repay the
labours of the search. Some of the early writers,
such as Anghiera and Herrera, asserted that the
island of Cuba was richer in gold than St. Do
mingo; but it may be doubted whether the gold
sent from either of the islands to Spain during
the early part of the sixteenth century was really
the fruit of labour and research. It is more likely
to have consisted of the accumulated wealth of the
aborigines in previous centuries, torn from them
by* tyranny and rapine at the period of the con
quest. If the alluvial deposits of the island have ever
contained a sufficient proportion of gold to repay
the labour of seeking for it, either that proportion
has diminished, or the increasing value of labour
has made the search no longer profitable. It is in
sand of a granitic quality that the gold dust is
usually found ; and those parts of the island to
which this description applies, are the mouth of
the rivers Damusi and Caunado which fall into
the bay of Jagua, and in those parts gf the rivers
Sagua la Grande and Agabama which are nearest
to Escambray ; also at the point where the Saram-
aguacan falls into the bay of Nuevitas, and the

254 cuba.
rivers Holguin, Bayamo, and Nipa, in the province
of Santiago.
Some specimens of the finest gold have been
obtained in modern times from the workings of
Agabama and Sagua la Grande ; but at an expense
of time and labour which could never remunerate
the parties engaged in it. In 1827, Don Jose
Escalante announced the discovery of silver and
copper in the lands of Manicarragua, in the juris
diction of Villa Clara, The analysis of the first
excavations by Don Ramon de la Sagra gave
great promise of success, affording no less than
seven ounces of pure silver to the quintal of mi
neral ; but it does not appear that these first indi
cations have since been followed by corresponding
results. The presence of iron in various parts of the
island is very generally believed. Many portions
of the great cordillera, called the Sierra Maestra,
are undoubtedly crowned with stones of a fer
ruginous nature ; but the difficulty of access, the
scarcity of fuel, and the want of capital, are more
than sufficient to explain why no serious attempt
has been made to engage in any extensive mining
operations. The native loadstone has been found
in the mountains of Juragua, not far from Santiago,
and in some of the rising grounds close to the
ports of Tanamo and Naranjo on the northern
coast of that province ; and it is asserted that the
mountains of Santa Espiritu, Villa Clara, San Juan,
and Trinidad contain not only the precious metals,
but a great deal of iron.

GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. 255
According to the Baron de Humboldt, the whole
of the western part of the island consists of masses
of lime and chalk, of a red and yellowish sandy
formation ; and the eastern part, although with some
interruptions, presents the same general character.
The central portion of the island is stated, on the
same high authority, to be still more decidedly of
the white calcareous formation. A variegated
serpentine marble is found at Regla and Guana-
bacao, as well as in the Sierras of San Juan and
Trinidad in the province of Santiago ; and where
it occurs, there are indications of magnesia, with
occasionally copper and iron pyrites. Specimens
of chalcedony have also been found at Guanabacao,
said to be superior to that of Hecla. Chalcedony
has likewise been procured in the Sierra de Juragua,
in the eastern province, in the lower Sierras of
Santo Espiritu, and in the bay of Nuevitas. Mines
of alum and copperas were at one time worked in
the mountains of Juragua, but were speedily aban
doned. Quartz and feldspar slates and schists
have been found in various places. The schistose
formation shows itself most conspicuously at the
base of the mountains of San Juan and Trinidad,
where great masses of slate are to be found of a
dark blue colour and of a pyritous and bituminous
quality well suited for writing upon.
In the quarries near the Havana a thick slate is
found, fit for floors and pavements ; but still better
is brought from the Isle of Pines. Marbles and
jaspers of various colours, and susceptible of the
highest polish, are also to be found in the Isle of

256 CUBA.
Pines, and in various districts of the great island of
which it is a dependency.
The mineral bitumen spoken of elsewhere is
found, under a variety of transformations, in distant
districts of the island. Sometimes it is seen in a
liquid state, like naphtha, issuing from the fissures
of the rocks; sometimes soft, like wax or half-melted
resin, as at Guanabacao and elsewhere, when it is
called petroleum. It was doubtless in this state
that the first discoverers of the island employed it
in paying and careening their ships ; a fact frequently
referred to in the accounts of the early voyagers.
These bituminous springs appear, however, to have
since in a great degree dried up, finding their way
perhaps to those caverns by which a considerable
portion of the island is undermined ; and after
remaining there for ages, and assuming a solid form,
coal mines like those lately opened may possibly be
the result. Attempts have been made — but hitherto,
from want of skill perhaps, without much success —
to obtain from this resinous substance a supply of
hydrogen gas for the purpose of lighting the streets
of the Havana ; but where fuel is scarce, and the
gabazo, or megass, the refuse of the sugar-cane,
is not easily dried, recourse has been had to the
bitumen, either to mix with the gabazo, or as a
separate article of fuel.
Of the mineral waters of the island, those of the
Bafios de San Diego are the most resorted to ;
but even these are exceedingly difficult of access,
being situated about forty provincial leagues to the
south-west of the Havana. There are two springs,

MINERAL WATERS. 257
— the one called El Tigre, the other El Templado ;
but both, on analysis, are found to be precisely of
the same quality, and from their relative position
are supposed to proceed from the same source.
The temperature of both is ninety-five degrees of
Fahrenheit ; the water is clear, effervescent, and
transparent, emitting a foetid smell, and producing
nausea in the stomach. These baths are recom
mended in cutaneous and syphilitic disorders, in
congestions of the lymphatic glands, suppressions
of the menstrua, chronic diarrhoeas, strictures of
the abdominal viscera, and in contractions of the
muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Besides the
want of roads, there seems to be great want of
accommodation at the baths for invalids.
In this last respect the waters of Madruga
situated not more than fifteen leagues to the south
east of the Havana, are much better supplied. The
springs now in use are the Paila, the Castilla, and
the Tigre ; and their virtues are supposed to re
semble those of San Diego.
The waters of Guanabacao are not so strong as
those of Madruga, and emit a smaller portion of
the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which is the dis
tinguishing characteristic of all the three, although
none of them have been very accurately analysed.
From its vicinity to the capital, Guanabacao is
more resorted to than either Madruga or San
Diego ; and I am persuaded that the whole water
used in the town for domestic purposes contains
nitre, magnesia, and the oxide of iron.
s

258 cuba.

CHAP. XIII.
WHITE LABOUR.  CLEARING LAND.  SUGAR-MAKING.
The whole history of negro emancipation in the
British West Indies, the period of probation af
forded by the apprenticeship, the abbreviation of
that period in 1838, and the tranquil and success
ful issue of the great experiment, have not been
lost on the more enlightened portion of the in
habitants of Cuba. It has for some time been
strongly impressed on the minds of many of the
inhabitants, that neither slavery nor the slave trade
in any part of the world can long survive the abo
lition of involuntary servitude in the dominions of
Great Britain. The question has therefore arisen,
and has even been proposed for public discussion
in the " Transactions of the Royal Patriotic Society
of the Havana," whether sugar can be successfully
cultivated and manufactured in the island without
the aid of compulsory labour. It was not easy, and
might not have been prudent, for the colonial
government to put the veto of the censorship on a
discussion which could not be supposed to originate
in any sinister consideration ; and it has therefore
been suffered to proceed without official interference.
In the mean time, it is no small gain for the cause
of humanity, that a community so deeply com
mitted to the trade with Africa, and hitherto so

white labour. 259
entirely dependent on the continuance of slavery,
should become familiarised with such topics of
discussion, and should habituate themselves to the
contemplation of another state of things.
In the very outset of this discussion, it is laid
down as an incontrovertible principle, that the
labour of a single freeman, who works voluntarily
and for his own interest, is at least equivalent to
all that can be extracted from any two of the most
robust of the African race. — "Nadie podrd negar
nos que la tarea de un hombre libre, que trabaja
voluntariamente y por su interes, equivale a la que
pudieran desempenar dos de los mas robustos de la
raza Africana."
The mode of proceeding proposed for the at
tainment of their object by the economists of Cuba
throws more light than could be easily obtained
through any other channel on the moral, intellec
tual, and physical condition of the island. Although
they have before them the example of the sister
island of Porto Rico, whose staple productions of
sugar and coffee have long been successfully cul
tivated by the white descendants of the original
colonists; and although Cuba contains a greater
number of white inhabitants than all the other
islands of the Archipelago together ; it is only by
the importation of white labourers from the Ca
naries, that the proposed object is to be attained.
Nay, while it is admitted that the whole of the
field labour can be sufficiently performed by white
men, it is held that negro assistance is necessary
in the interior of the Ingenio. This necessity is
s 2

260 CUBA.
assumed, partly from the custom invariable in Cuba,
and hence thought indispensable, of keeping the
mill and the boilers incessantly at work from the
commencement of the crop season till the last of
the canes are cut down ; and partly also from the
very natural mistake, that a negro can support,
better than a white man, a high artificial as well as
a high natural temperature. The reverse has been
completely demonstrated on board the British
Government steamers on duty within the Tropics,
where it was for some time supposed that negro
stokers could be employed more advantageously,
and at less risk to their health than to that of the
white men long accustomed to the duty in a
colder climate.
The experience of several years has completely
proved that an African constitution is not so well
suited as that of a European to withstand the heat
of the furnace, or rather the frequent alternations of
heat and cold to which the stoker of a steam-boat
and the fireman and boilerman of an Ingenio are
equally exposed. When it is found that the fires
can be extinguished, and the boilers suffered to
cool during the night, without disadvantage, and
that the heat of the furnace is comparatively not
so detrimental to the white man as to the negro,
some change will doubtless take place in the views
of the patriots and philanthropists of Cuba, as to
the necessity of employing negroes, either in a
state of slavery or freedom, in the interior of the
sugar-house. This matter is better understood in
the English islands, where the white man's chief

WHITE LABOUR. 261
danger is supposed to consist in application to any
active employment under a vertical sun.
The great object of the Creole patriots of Cuba
is at once to increase the white population, and
render the further importation of Africans un
necessary. Without denying them the credit of
philanthropic motives, it cannot be concealed
that the desire of independence may be traced
through all their reasoning, just as it is notorious
that the sentiment is deeply implanted in their
hearts. The inhabitants of the Canary Islands are known
to be a hardy race, better able than Europeans to
support the heat of a tropical climate. It is long
since they have outgrown the means of comfortable
subsistence ; so that it has not been found difficult
to induce some thousands of them to emigrate to
Cuba, there to work in the copper mines or labour
on the railroad. Attempts have also been made
to induce them to proceed to Demerara ; but the
similarity of habits and language have hitherto
given Cuba the preference. It is with their aid
that the Patriotic Society propose to supersede
the necessity of negro labour.
In the formation of a new sugar estate capable
of producing 1200 or 1300 boxes of sugar, which
may be considered equal to 200 English hogsheads,
it is held that thirty Caballerias, or 960 acres, of
land are necessary. The price of land in a state
of nature, fit for being brought into sugar cul
tivation, is estimated at $500 per Caballeria, or
$15,000 for the whole quantity. The expense of
s 3

262 CUBA.
cutting down the timber, and preparing it for the
future crop, is given at $300 per Caballeria ; and
the cost of two yoke of oxen, a wagon, and of
agricultural implements, is also estimated at $300
per Caballeria. It is proposed that the planter
shall make these advances, amounting together to
$1,100 per Caballeria, and that he shall put each
adventurer from the Canaries in possession of a
fourth part of a Caballeria, or eight English acres,
receiving a payment in return at the rate of 6
per cent, on his outlay.
The new colonists are to be regarded as the
absolute proprietors of these sections of land,
subject to this payment in money, and also subject
to the condition of having two thirds of their land
at least under a crop of sugar-cane, which the
proprietor of the Ingenio is to pay for at a fixed
price, to be determined either by the bulk of the
crop or by the quantity of cane juice produced
from it. On this point more difficulties are ap
prehended, than practice would probably justify;
as in such of the British Islands, where, during the
apprenticeship, the planters have been in the habit
of suffering their negroes to grow canes in their
gardens, and in some places encouraging them to
bring the produce to the mill, it has been found a
very easy matter to content the negro in fixing
the value of his crop, although that value must
have been to him a matter of the most serious con
sideration. In the island of Barbadoes alone, where
the true interests of the planter are perhaps better
understood than in any of our other possessions, I

WHITE LABOUR, 263
was assured that no less than two thousand hogs
heads of sugar, the produce of canes which had
been grown in the gardens of the negroes, had been
exported in the year 1838.
The labour of forty white colonists and thirty
negroes is supposed by the Patriotic Society to be
sufficient for such an establishment. The expense
of importing the forty colonists from the Canaries
is taken at fifty dollars a head, or $-2000. The
expense of bringing ten Caballerias of the land into
cultivation is estimated at $3000 ; and the price of
twenty yoke of oxen, ten waggons, and the ne
cessary hoes and other agricultural implements,
together with the cost of erecting the huts or
cottages for the colonists, is set down at $2,850,
making together $7,850.
The price of thirty negroes is assumed to be
$15,000, the charge of building a boiling-house,
engine-house, and curing-house, large enough to
contain 8000 forms, is stated at $19,000, the price
of a steam engine $7000, and of the boilers, clari-
fiers, coolers, forms, ladles, and other utensils $4,960,
making, together with $6,040 for a dwelling-house,
and with the former sum of $7,850, a total perma
nent outlay, independent of the original price of
the land, of $67,850.
The annual produce is estimated at 1,300 boxes
of sugar, which, with the corresponding quantity of
molasses, is valued at $30,225. The thirty negroes
are supposed to be hired out at the rate of ten
dollars a month during the half of the year when
the mill is not going, from which a revenue of
s 4

264 cuba.
$1,800 is expected, making, together with $660,
the rent of the ten Caballerias of land occupied by
the colonists, a gross income of $32,685.
From this sum the following deductions are to
be made : — for canes purchased from the colonists,
including the expense of bringing them to the mill,
$10,400 ; for 1,300 sugar-boxes, at nine reals each,
$1,462 ; for interest at the rate of six per cent.
per annum on $15,000, the original price of the
estate, $900 ; for wages to the colonists, at the
rate of $8 a month during the season of crop, on
the supposition that thirty of them are so employed
on the average, $1,440 ; for the salaries of the
Maestro de Azucar, Mayoral and Mayordomo $600,
$500, and $300 respectively, $1,400 ; and for the
maintenance of the thirty slaves and other incidental
expenses $3,083, making the whole of the de
ductions amount to $18,685, thus leaving $14,000
as the annual return for the actual advance of a
capital of $67,850.
The point most essential to the practicability of
this plan is the consideration whether the colonists
would be sufficiently remunerated for their time
and labour, by the price proposed to be given for
the canes, combined with the wages to be paid
during the season of crop. Each section or Cabal
leria, in which four colonists are supposed to be as
sociated, between the price of the canes and the
wages, and after deducting the $66 of rent, ought to
produce $703 ; which with the produce of one third
of the land in plantains, Indian corn, and tobacco,
would afford, it is supposed, a comfortable mainte-

WHITE LABOUR. 265
nance, besides enabling the emigrant to accumulate
a little capital from his annual savings. If this were
once established, it would undoubtedly prove " a
heavy blow and a great discouragement" to the
practice of slavery in the Island of Cuba, and of
course to the profits arising from the superior
horrors of the slave trade.
The prize essay of Don Pedro Jose Morillas,
which was crowned by the Royal Patriotic Society
with the patent of socio de merito, contains many
interesting suggestions as to the substitution of the
labour of white freemen for that of negro slaves.
He contends that the extreme cheapness of African
labour is the sole cause why the white inhabitants
of the West Indies have by mere disuse and want
of exercise lost a large proportion of their physical
force. He denies, however, that this debility,
arising from inaction, is so general as it is commonly
supposed to be. The young men born and bred
in the interior districts of the island are so well
formed and robust as to be able to withstand the
extreme heat of the dog-days and the cold of
winter, which is not unknown in Cuba, with no
other covering but the light linen vest which they
wear all the year round. From sun to sun these
men will make a journey of twenty leagues on
foot, without being worn out by the heat or im
peded by the suddenly swollen rivers, and with no
encouragement to proceed but their cup of coffee
and their cigar. Their dress is a linen shirt and
pantaloons, a straw-hat, and shoes of the untanned
leather of the country. They carry besides a

266 CUBA.
hammock and a single change of dress, which, with
a sword and a long knife at their girdle, completes
their equipment. When surprised by night-fall
they enter the nearest thicket and hang their
hammock between two trees ; where after smoking
their cigar, they sleep soundly till awakened by
the song of birds, the cry of wild animals, and the
other sounds which serve in a thinly-peopled
country to intimate the approach of day. Yet
these men show no signs of weakness, and live to
a good old age. On such grounds Senor Morillas
concludes that the young men of the Havana need
nothing but the habitual exercise of their muscular
powers to enable them to rival in activity the Peon
de tierra dentro.
It is the presence of slavery which, in the island
of Cuba, as in every other country where it exists,
throws every sort of personal exertion into dis
credit. Because labour is the lot of slavery, the
pride of the freeman is alarmed lest the line of
demarcation should not be broad enough between
him and the slave, and he therefore abstains from
working altogether.
If the sun of the tropics be less friendly to
physical exertion than the climate of the temperate
zones, it affords at least some compensation by
fertilising the soil, and multiplying the crops
which may be reaped from it. It is moreover a
well-known fact that, in the island of Cuba, men
of colour are very rarely employed in the work of
cutting down the timber, and yet it will readily
be admitted that to fell with the hatchet a full-

WHITE LABOUR. 267
grown mahogany tree is a task as arduous as most
of those to which the ordinary field labourer is
exposed. In some districts of the island the Isleno
from the Canaries, and the Gallego from the north
of Spain, may be seen bent down at this employ
ment from the dawn of day till sunset, without
experiencing any bad consequences from it. The
smiths and the carpenters of the island are in like
manner almost all white men ; but although it is
not uncommon in Europe for a soldier to sink on
the march, a similar failure, if we may believe the
best-informed inhabitants, is seldom heard of either
among the troops or the white tradesmen of Cuba.
Compare the labour of cutting down the Caobas,
the Chicharrones, and the Quiebra-hachas, literally
the break-hatchets of the country, or the less la
borious employment of the carpenter at his bench,
or the smith at his anvil, with the planting and
cutting down of the sugar-cane, and you will
probably find that the balance- is greatly in favour
of an employment on which disgrace and discredit
have been thrown by the exclusive application to
it of the labour of slaves. Sugar, it has been seen,
can be cultivated successfully by white men in
Porto Rico ; and there is nothing in the climate of
Porto Rico to distinguish it from that of the islands
in its neighbourhood. It is not unreasonable to
expect therefore that the final and universal abo
lition of slavery, combined with an increasing ten
dency to emigration from the overlaboured and
overpeopled nations of Europe, may lead to changes
of which no distinct idea has yet been formed, in

268 CUBA.
the whole system of agricultural labour throughout
the tropics.
The Spanish laws of the Indies gave to the man
who collected twenty families together in a new
neighbourhood the perpetual grant of four square
leagues of land, and invested him, and his son or
heir after him, with the civil and criminal juris
diction of the new establishment, authorising him
to nominate the priest, the alcalde, and the cor
regidor, as soon as the want of such functionaries
was felt, and conferring on him and his descendants
the rank of hidalgo, the privilege of entailing his
estates, and the choice of a title of nobility. These
facts serve to prove that in the palmy days of
Spanish greatness, when the laws of the Indies
were enacted, no pains were spared to favour emi
gration, and promote the extension of the colonies.
The vast extent of territory over which the
kings of Spain held undivided sway, and the un
counted millions in Mexico and South America
who still speak the noble dialect of Castile, afford
conclusive evidence that the principles and practice
of colonization were at that time well understood.
It is true that the Spanish colonists of America
have since been eclipsed by those of the Anglo-
Saxon race ; but by looking into the history of
Spanish enterprise on the other side of the At
lantic, we may learn at least how to shun their
faults, if we are not occasionally led to follow their
example. In the establishment of a new plantation in a
country like Cuba, where vast tracts of virgin soil

CLEARING LAND. 269
remain unexplored, the very first consideration is
the choice of a locality, combining the means of
ready access to the sea with a sufficient degree of
fertility. When the land is chosen, the next point
is to determine the future site of the buildings,
although their actual construction is not by any
means the proximate step in the progress of events.
Some central position is of course to be preferred
with reference to the carriage of the canes to the
mill, and afterwards of the produce to the place of
embarkation. The making and carrying of manure,
a consideration so vitally important in older and
more exhausted colonies, scarcely enters into the
plans or in any way affects the views of the planter,
who proposes to break ground in the woody re
gions, or the rich savannahs of Cuba.
The first work to be performed is to clear the
ground on which food is to be raised for the sus
tenance of the future labourers. The next opera
tion is to select and cut down such trees as are
nearest and most suitable for the construction of
the buildings, and for such parts of the machinery
as can be fabricated on the spot. In proportion
as the land is cleared the planting of the cane is
begun ; but as despatch is at first the primary con
sideration, the advantages of system and method
are often neglected at the very time when they
would prove most useful.
On first entering the forest the labourers are
armed with their cutlasses alone for the purpose
of clearing away the brushwood. When that has
been done to a convenient extent, the hatchet is

270 CUBA.
resorted to, with which to fell the heavier, timber.
The whole is then piled together in heaps and fire
is applied, which sometimes reduces the whole into
ashes ; but more frequently the larger trunks of
hardwood trees are left unconsumed. Unlike the
effect of fire, when applied to the soil in colder
climates, it is found in the tropics to be exceedingly
prejudicial, particularly if the ground happen to
be dry and not very compact. The vegetable
matter which would afterwards become manure,
and even the vegetable mould itself, is liable to be
totally consumed; and those portions of the timber,
which might be turned in the sequel to valuable
account, are condemned to perish in the general
conflagration, leaving nothing behind but ashes
and unwieldy masses of charcoal.
It is not in the tropics as in colder countries,
where any thing capable of combustion even in an
imperfect degree, down to the clays and argilla
ceous earths, is held by experienced farmers to
have a fertilizing effect when submitted to the
action of fire. It is a fact, however, which at first
sight appears extraordinary, that hardwood trees
are less able to resist the alternate action of drought
and moisture than the soft and resinous upstarts of
the North American forests, the roots of which
the settler in the back woods finds it the most
difficult and tedious of all tasks to exterminate.
The evil arising from the system of burning off
the wood is considered so great in the Island of
Cuba, that within the short period of eight years
the richest virgin soils would require the aid of

SUGAR MAKING. 271
manure to keep them in condition ; whereas by
resorting at first to the slower and more costly
process of cutting down and removing the timber,
the use of manure would not become necessary
for at least double the period. There may be some
situations even in Cuba, however, where the ap
plication of fire to the land for the purpose of
clearing it may not be prejudicial — in low districts
for example, where the soil is compact, and where
there is no sufficient current to carry off the surface
water. The labour of clearing a new country, or even
that of extending an old plantation, is generally per
formed by contract. In cutting down timber a de
gree of dexterity is necessary, which can only be
acquired by habit. The negroes on old estates could
not well be spared from their customary duties ;
and the labour would be totally unsuited for newly
imported Africans.
The use of the plough is strongly recommended
by the best agriculturists in Cuba, although very
little known in practice, at least if I may judge
from the sugar plantations in various parts of the
island which I had an opportunity of visiting.
The late M. Dumont, a French emigrant, and one
of the most eminent planters in the island, in his
Guia de Ingenios, recommends a very light plough,
drawn by a yoke of oxen, and in some soils by a
single ox. With such an instrument, and with a
negro ploughman, M. Dumont asserts that an
effectual ploughing, four or five inches deep, can
be given to a Caballeria of canes, or thirty -two acres,

272 CUBA.
in less than twelve days, whereas the same extent
of labour with the hoe, which would not be more
than two or three inches deep, would require an
amount of labour equal to at least 216 days of a
single negro.
A long contributed drought is one of the greatest
calamities to which a cane field can be exposed,
and it is one at the same time against which the
planter is least prepared to guard. The Island of
Cuba is not so liable to this visitation as those
settlements where the native forests have wholly
disappeared before the woodman's axe or the hur
ricane. Barbadoes and Antigua are more exposed
to it ; Demerara and Trinidad much less of course
than Cuba or Porto Rico. The strong gales, pe
culiar to these regions, which prevail in the months
of August, September, and October, although they
should not amount to a hurricane, are exceedingly
injurious tothe sugar cane, prostrating the strongest
of them, and those that stand being generally more
or less injured by the neighbourhood of such as
have fallen. It is after one of these gales that the
care of the husbandman is more especially required,
in moulding up the roots of the feeble, and other
wise propping those that need such support.
The conflagration of a cane piece, whether it
arise from accident or design, may be supposed to
occur, and actually does occur, more frequently in
those countries where the slave trade is tolerated
than where mere slavery exists in a modified form.
The apprenticeship system in the British colonies
went a great way towards mitigating the evil ; and

SUGAR MAKING. 273
it is to be hoped that with the possession of perfect
freedom and the power of appealing to the magis
trate for the redress of wrongs, the temptation
on the part of the negro to commit the crime
of wilful fire-raising will totally disappear.
The stupidity and malignity of the African race
are the causes assigned in Cuba for the frequency
of such occurrences : but when it is proved that
these are not inherent qualities in the negro, but
are the natural and invariable result of slavery and
ill-treatment, it ought to afford a fresh argument
addressed to the self-interest of the slave-holder
against the continuance of a system productive of
such results. The best mode of extinguishing
such a fire may doubtless be best learned of those
who have had the largest experience of it. I may
mention, then, that the system adopted in Cuba
is first of all to insulate the fire as much as
possible by cutting down the canes around it, but
when that cannot be accomplished with sufficient
promptitude, then a lane is formed in the direction
opposite to that where the fire originated, in order
to afford a free passage for the air, and fresh fire
is applied on that side, so that when the two flames
meet, the fire becomes extinguished for want of
aliment. The cane fly and other insects which attack the
plant at various stages of its growth are known to
be extremely prejudicial to the interests of the
sugar planter. A remedy for this evil presented
itself a few years ago in the Island of St. Vincent,

274 CUBA.
but as there is so very little direct communication
between the colonies of the same nation, and still
less of course between those speaking different
languages and subject to different governments, it
may be as well to mention it here. A whale
having been stranded on that side of the island
which is known by the name of the Carib country,
the neighbouring planters lost no time in seizing
the spoil and spreading the blubber on their land
as a manure. The following season it was found
that wherever this oily matter had been applied,
the canes were spared from the attack of the fly.
Promptly profiting of this lesson the planters of
St. Vincent have since been in the habit of im
porting whale oil, into which they cause the shoots of
the cane to be dipped at the moment of planting
them. The consequence has been, that wherever
this precaution has been taken, the cane fly has
disappeared. The fact, as here given, I borrow
from the notes which I had the advantage of taking
down from the lips of the late Reverend Mr. Brown
of St. Vincent, one of the most intelligent and
successful planters within the wide circuit of our
West India possessions.
The rat, next to the fly, if he does not even claim
precedence, is the most destructive enemy that the
sugar planter has to contend with. Not content
with free access to the cane field and the unli
mited choice of its produce, he attacks all he meets
indiscriminately, and destroys a thousandfold more
than he can consume. Traps, poison, the snake,

SUGAR MAKING. 275
and the terrier have all been tried in vain to abate
the nuisance. Grave authors have written largely
on the subject, particularly M. Julia Fontenelle, M.
Blachette, and Senor Zoega of St. Domingo ; but
having probably no moral check to restrain his
progress, the rat seems to have been acting in total
disregard of the principle discovered by a deceased
economist of multiplying his species in a geo
metrical ratio until he has passed the arithme
tical limits of the means of subsistence. In the
Island of Barbadoes I was assured by the Honourable
the Speaker of the House of Assembly, that an ac
cident originating in a very unamiable feeling on
the part of one inhabitant of the island towards
another, had provided a remedy in that island for
the ravages of this destroyer, although it brought
with it a loathsome but comparatively innocent
substitute. To harass and annoy an unpopular
individual, a breed of venomous toads was intro
duced and planted on his property, where they in
creased so rapidly as soon to spread themselves over
the whole neighbourhood. Between them and the
rats the most determined hostility arose, but in every
contest the quadruped had the worst of it ; the
attack on the toad from its poisonous qualities
being uniformly fatal to the aggressor. This
accident, therefore, was rather more fortunate in its
issue than the attempt of a sagacious governor of
another of our Colonies to expel this four-footed
invader of his Barataria. Finding the small rat
which had established itself in his dominions so
t 2

276 CUBA.
destructive, His Excellency bethought himself of
the notable plan of importing a larger species to
chase away the original intruders. They effected
this object, it is true, but have themselves be
come a much more formidable nuisance in their
stead.

SUGAR ESTATES. 277

CHAP. XIV.
SUGAR ESTATES.  TREATMENT OF SLAVES.  IRISH HACEN
DADOS.  CREOLE GRANDEES.  SUGAR CULTIVATION. 
M. BONHOMME.
One of the first of the sugar properties that I
visited in this island was called La Holanda,
situated about two miles from Guines, near the
inland terminus of the railroad. This estate I
found in a condition not unusual in this island,
and certainly not unknown in any of the sugar
colonies. It had passed from the hands of the
original proprietor into those of the money lender
at the Havana, and was said to be in pleito, which
signifies to be broken down by lawsuits, or, if the
pun may be pardoned, to be in a very miserable
plight. The works looked ruinous, as might have
been expected, and the gang of labourers consisted
of forty-six negroes, of whom forty only were re
presented as efficient. The grinding season was
not yet begun, so that the boiling-house was un
occupied except by three poor wretches, whom we
found, fastened by the leg in the stocks, two be
longing to the place and the third to a medical
practitioner in Guines, who had sent him there for
punishment without legal sanction or authority of
any kind. The other two had passed their sleeping
hours, and the short intervals allowed for meals, in
this dreary condition during a period of two months
t 3

278 CUBA.
preceding my visit, but for the rest of their time
they worked with the field gang as usual. The
offence of one, according to the statement of the
mayoral, was wandering from home at night, there
being no barracoon on the property, and that of
the other was theft, but of what nature or to what
extent I was not informed. The doctor's boy
admitted very frankly that he had stolen five eggs,
and I understood from the mayoral that that was
the amount of the charge against him. The
weather at the time was cold, the wretched pri
soners could scarcely be said to be clothed, in the
filthy rags with which they were not covered ; and
their position in the great, empty, dismal-looking
boiling-house made the scene altogether one of
the most heartsickening and intolerable I had ever
had the misfortune to endure.
It must be admitted, however, that the planta
tion La Holanda had not for a long while enjoyed
the best reputation in the neighbourhood. In
fact, it was spoken of all over the country as being
remarkable for the hardships endured there by the
negroes. One man, about four months before, had
actually been flogged to death. When the fact
became known at Guines, a sort of legal investiga
tion was instituted. Two medical practitioners
were sent to the spot to disinhume and examine
the body. Either they arrived too late, or they
had no desire to make a report unfavourable to
the mayoral. The judicial functionaries were also
said to have been tampered with, and the result
was an acquittal of the mayoral from the charge

TREATMENT OF SLAVES. 279
of homicide. This was to be expected under the
circumstances as a matter of course. It could not
be thought desirable that a white man in authority
should be brought to trouble in consequence of
an inquest, the subject of which was a dead
negro. In these countries public opinion has
little or no influence where the life of a slave is
concerned. But it would be a great mistake to
suppose that the man who died under the lash had
endured the greatest amount of mortal suffering.
Non e ver che sia la morte
II peggior di tutti i mali;
E un sollievp pei mortali
Che son stanchi di soffrir.
Four months after the manslaughter I found
the mayoral in full possession of the irresponsible
authority with which such officers are invested.
Such events are not of course of daily occurrence ;
but as they never by any chance find their way
into the newspapers, they are scarcely spoken of
beyond the immediate neighbourhood where they
take place. A case in all respects similar, as regards
the farce of post mortem examination and judicial
inquiry, occurred in 1837, within three miles of
the Havana, where it naturally made some stir ;
although it ended as such inquiries constantly do,
in the whitewashing and acquittal of the prin
cipal culprits. The value of an overseer could
scarcely be said to be diminished by an accident
which resulted in the loss of three hundred dollars'
worth of human flesh. In all probability it will
be amply compensated by the extra labour which
his system of management is calculated to extract
t 4

280 CUBA.
from the survivors. A caution on the part of the
proprietor will generally be considered as a suffi
cient punishment. The average annual produce of
the Holanda estate I was told was 1000 boxes.
The neighbouring estate of Alexandria is the
property of the Conde de O'Reilly, a nobleman
who presents in his own person a favourable sample
of the Creole aristocracy ; but, like his fellow
grandees and Hacendados, he seldom leaves the
Havana, where of course is his principal residence,
unless it be to the moderate distance of the Cerro,
or Guanabacao, which can be accomplished in the
course of an afternoon's drive. Many of the largest
proprietors in the island, such as the O'Reillys and
O'Farrels, are the descendants of Irishmen ; and
in the course of my residence at the court of Her
Catholic Majesty, I had frequent occasion to meet
with men bearing the fine old names of O'Donnel
and O'Lawlor. The chief of the O'Donnels was
the Conde de Abisbal, and his brother Don Jose,
although the Captain-General of Valladolid, was
suspected of a leaning to the side of Don Carlos.
To prevent any open breach of his allegiance to
the Queen, Her Majesty required his attendance
at court, where, as I happened to be lodged near
him, he often came into my rooms of an evening to
rub up, as he said, his English recollections, and take
his hand at a rubber of whist. His knowledge of
the English language was exceedingly respectable,
allowance being made for the fact that it had been
handed down to him in his family, for I cannot tell
how many generations, and that neither he nor his

SUGAR CULTIVATION. 281
father had ever been out of the peninsula ; but it
was enshrined in such a sonorous and strongly-
marked Milesian brogue, as does not now enrich
the language in the remotest corners of Connaught.
The Creole grandees of Irish origin have lost, I
fear, the brogue and the language together, leaving
nothing but the name to tell the tale of grievances
and wrongs which had driven their ancestors into
exile. The estate -of Alexandria was falling rapidly
into decay, but from causes which were evidently
less discreditable to the proprietor and the sub
ordinate authorities than those which forced them
selves so painfully on the attention at La Holanda.
Alexandria had formerly produced 5000 boxes of
sugar, but of late years the utmost return that
could be obtained from it scarcely reached a fifth
part of that quantity. The mayoral, and one of
his colleagues who was with him at the time of my
visit, made a very favourable impression on my
mind from their manner, appearance, and style of
conversation. They were unwilling, it must be
confessed, to acknowledge the true cause of the
deterioration of the estate, which was to be
ascribed in a great measure to a deficiency of la
bour. They denied, however, that any of the negroes
attached to the property had been removed or dis
posed of; so that the dilapidation had arisen in
the ordinary course of nature, no fresh Bozals
having been purchased to supply the place of those
who had been carried off by that stern law of
mortality which so rapidly and ruthlessly cuts

282 cuba.
down the gangs of negro labourers on the sugar
estates of this country. No attempt has yet been
made in the worn out districts of Cuba, as has been
done so successfully in the longest settled British
islands, to regenerate the soil by a good system of
husbandry and a liberal application of manure.
As the old are abandoned new estates are gradually
formed, and the forests of cedar and mahogany,
which have not, perhaps, been penetrated since
the days of Columbus, make way for the Ingenio
and the Cafetal, the waving cane fields, and the pic
turesque plantations of coffee and cocoa.
The field gang on Alexandria amounted no
minally to 102, but of these only thirty were effi
cient, so that it became necessary to hire an
additional thirty during the season of crop. The
mayoral assured me that there had been but one
death on the property, and that a case of old age,
during the whole of the previous year. He admit
ted, however, that the mortality on sugar estates
depended in a great degree on the mode of treat
ment, on the relative proportion of the hours of
labour and rest, and on the quantity and quality
of the food allowed to the labourers.
The whole district of country on which Alex
andria and Holanda are situated, to the eye of an
unpractised observer has all the appearance of
being a dead level for many leagues around ; but in
point of fact it is a plain of vast extent, with such
a decided inclination towards the south, that the
aqueduct which moves the machinery on these
estates finds a sufficient fall for the purpose after

SUGAR CULTIVATION. 283
being carried some two thousand yards across the
cane fields to the buildings of the Ingenio. Such
is the wretched condition of the roads, in a country
where there are no rivers to cross, and no moun
tains to overcome, that in order to diminish the
expense of moving all heavy articles, each estate
is made as independent as possible of external
supplies, even to the manufacture of the earthen
cones or forms into which the liquid sugar is
poured, for the purpose of purification. This
pottery process is sufficiently clumsy. The clay
is kneaded in a sort of basin, formed in the earth
with a post fixed in its centre, around which a yoke
of oxen are made to travel in a circle of the nar
rowest possible diameter. This fact serves to stamp
the character of the process of sugar making
throughout this extensive district.
The only Ingenio in this district at which I
found a resident proprietor was that of Los Honores,
belonging to a Senor Mantilla. It is situated
within a league of the railway, the nearest point of
which is the town of San Felipe. Here the re
ception I met with from the mayoral, although
not positively uncivil or repulsive, was exceedingly
cold and laconic, when compared with the treat
ment I had experienced under circumstances
nearly similar at other places in the neighbourhood.
The only difference was, that the proprietor was
on the spot, and yet did not choose to show him
self. The mayoral felt that his master's eye was
upon him ; and although he did not refuse to allow
me to inspect the premises, he was evidently

284 cuba.
uneasy under the few observations I took the
liberty of making. With 211 negroes they con
trive here to make 2Q0O boxes of sugar. They
have not the advantage of water power ; and steam
engines in the island of Cuba are exceedingly
rare, so that the process of grinding is performed
by the power of cattle, moving in gins, which with
the vertical rollers with which they are connected
are called Trapiches. In the neighbourhood of
this Ingenio, I observed a very large two-storied
stone building, with strongly barred windows,
which I was very desirous of entering; but on
perceiving that permission would be granted re
luctantly, I did not persevere in my request. This
prison-looking building was called the Infirmeria,
but it was evidently large enough to accommodate
the whole population of the estate. I did not
meet with any positive discourtesy until I had
taken leave of the mayoral and got into my Volante,
when some one from the windows of the great
house called out to my Calesero, in a tone which
seemed to me to savour of the imperious, that the
heads of his horses were not in the right direction,
and that he must follow the beaten track, which
he dignified with the name of a road, although, to
do the Calesero justice, no trace of more than a
bridle-path was to be discovered ; because in the
middle of December the process of sugar-making
and the ordinary business of the estate had not
been begun.
In the neighbourhood of Bejucal I visited
several sugar estates, and was better pleased with

SUGAR CULTIVATION. 285
that of Santa Anna, the property of Don Francisco
de la Luz, than any I had yet seen. Here we
found ninety negroes, of whom, however, only thirty
were women. The people were allowed three
meals a day, an instance of liberality which the
mayoral asserted was peculiar to that estate ; and
at each meal they were allowed four ounces of
salted codfish or jerked beef. The Senora de la
Luz, the mother of the proprietor, was represented
as paying very marked attention to the personal
comfort of her people, as well as to their morals,
and the due observance of their religious duties.
At this the mayoral, who had himself been thirty
years in the family, although perhaps originally a
mere domestic, affected to sneer, because, perhaps,
he did not like to be thought singular.
On my return I overtook a priest, with whom I
entered into conversation on this subject. His
report was highly favourable to what he called
the good old system of having an oratorio, and a
chaplain on each estate ; but, with the single ex
ception of Santa Anna, the practice had fallen into
abeyance all over the country. In general he
said a field negro was never in church in the whole
course of his life, except at the time of his bap
tism. If the Ingenio or the Cafetal happened to
be close to a town, a few favoured individuals might
be allowed to go there when the crop season was
over, but never by any chance, or under any cir
cumstances, during the busy period of the year.
The people at Santa Anna were comfortably clad
in thick blanket shirts, and afforded evidence in

286 cuba.
their strong healthy appearance that the food pro
vided for them was wholesome and plentiful. But
the season of comparative ease was now drawing
to a close, and the crop season was approaching,
when, according to the admission of the mayoral,
only four hours, or at most four hours and a half,
out of the twenty-four were allowed for sleep. A
similar statement made to me on the first estate I
visited was so startling, that I was compelled to sus
pend my belief. As it was everywhere admitted,
however, and even here at Santa Anna was spoken
of without disguise, as the regular system on an
estate which, by common consent, was allowed to be
managed with unexampled consideration and hu
manity, I was at length compelled to yield my re
luctant belief. Even here, in the empty boiling-
house, I found a poor negro with one leg in the
stocks. The night before had been piercingly cold,
as it often is in Cuba, and negroes are proverbially
more sensible to it than white men. I need not
say, therefore, how horrifying was the unheeded
appeal of the solitary prisoner to the mayoral as we
passed, of "mucho frio ! mucho frio ! " The average
produce of this estate is 700 boxes of sugar, 80
hogsheads of molasses, and no aguardiente.
The Marques de San Felipe has a large un
occupied house in the town of Bejucal and several
estates in its neighbourhood. I visited that called
La Pita, the first I had seen in the island provided
with a steam engine. It was a high pressure
machine, of eighteen horse power, constructed in
America. The working engineer was a native of

sugar cultivation. 287
Belfast, who had come to the island after passing
some years in the United States, and had brought
two of his brothers with him, both of whom had
found employment as engineers on other estates.
With the engine which had just been erected, I
was told that as much cane juice could be ex
pressed in twelve hours as with the two old cattle
mills, or Trapiches, still standing there, in twenty-
four ; but that after all, in the opinion of the sugar
boilers, it would not supersede the necessity of night
work, a practice so injurious tothe health, and, in
fact, so fatal to the negro. This practice has been
elsewhere demonstrated to have no better founda
tion than an idle prejudice, arising from the belief
that the kettles or sugar-pans ought never to be
allowed to cool from the commencement of the
crop season to the end of it.
On this property the mayoral manifested a more
humane disposition than I had previously had an
opportunity of observing among men of his class ;
and yet he made no difficulty in acknowledging
the atrocious details of the system which it was
his daily duty to administer ; such as flogging ad
libitum, together with four hours' sleep and short
commons twice a day. To my great disgust the
Belfast engineer, who had followed me into the
house of the mayoral, tried to soften the matter
by misrepresenting the fact, making the time al
lowed for sleep and descanso, which includes all
that is not employed in actual labour, much more
than it was in reality. In the house of the mayoral
I met with the medical attendant on the estate,

288

CUBA.

and also with the mayordomo, whose duties, instead
of applying to household affairs, as the name
would imply, are connected exclusively with the
superintendance of the labour in the field, while
the mayoral keeps the accounts and orders the sup
plies. From the surgeon I learned that the mor
tality during the year had been no more than five,
on a gang consisting of 161 negroes, 48 of whom
were females. Of these five two had died of old
age, two of internal inflammation, and the fifth of
a pulmonary affection, which the surgeon repre
sented as a disease of very rare occurrence. If
the deaths were not numerous the births were still
less so, as only one had occurred within the year.
The last crop had produced 757 boxes of sugar,
but that of 1839, with the aid of the steam engine,
was expected to reach 1000.
On all the estates I have visited the most tender
point with the mayoral is his bill of mortality.
Not that he affects any morbid sensibility on the
subject as an abstract question of humanity, but
because his own character as an economist, in the
humblest sense of the term, is seriously involved
in it. This I found remarkably the case at an
estate near Bejucal, the property of Don Joaquin
de Cardenas, where the mayoral, whom I met in
the field, armed to the teeth, with pistols, a cut
lass, and a still more awe-inspiring weapon, a tre
mendous cart-whip, would not allow himself to
acknowledge any mortality whatever. It is true
that his gang of 100, containing 39 females, had
not a single counterbalancing birth to exhibit, so

JI. BONH0MJ1E. 289
that, according to his authority, his master Don
Joaquin was in the enviable position of enjoying
an estate producing 600 boxes of sugar, with no
useless mouths to feed, and no vacancies to be
supphed by the purchase of bozals.
Of all the tortures inflicted on the poor negro,
the smallness of the modicum of sleep allowed him
was what puzzled me the most at the commence
ment of my inquiries, and in the end excited the
most painful emotions. The injunction of the
Roman slave master, although by birth a Spaniard,
seems never to have reached the minds of his
descendants ; at least it does not affect, their
practice in the New world —
" Detur aliquando otium quiesque fesset." — Seneca.
In the course of one of these excursions, I had
the good fortune to meet at the Posada where I
was to lodge for the night an intelligent French
emigrant, M. Bonhomme, who, for the last nine
teen years had kept a saw-mill at Cienfuegos, a
thriving village on the southern coast of the island.
The visit to the Havana, from whence he was then
on his way home, is so perfectly characteristic of
a corrupt and despotic government, that I cannot
refrain from repeating the story he told us. Nearly
a year before, a white man, who spoke the language
of Bonhomme like a native of la belle France,
had come occasionally to his sawing establishment,
and courted his acquaintance on the score of his
being a compatriot. M. Bonhomme acknowledged
that he had repeatedly entertained the man in his
u

290 CUBA.
house and at his table ; but it was with unspeak
able surprise that he afterwards found a serious
charge brought against himself, of his having har
boured a deserter. It turned out that the man
was a native of Spanish Navarre, where, as on the
French side of the border, the two languages are
spoken indiscriminately ; but M. Bonhomme most
solemnly denied all knowledge or suspicion that
his guest had ever served in the army. In con
sequence of this charge it became necessary for
M. Bonhomme to leave his business at Cienfuegos,
and proceed to the Havana, for the purpose, as he
innocently thought, of rebutting the accusation ;
but, as it afterwards proved, to see that accusation
made a pretext for extracting from him a con
siderable sum of money. As a matter of special
favour he was suffered at the Havana to be at
large, on finding security for his good behaviour ;
but although not a vestige of evidence was adduced
of any thing like a guilty knowledge that the
Navarrese had really served the Queen's govern
ment as a soldier, either in Europe or America,
M. Bonhomme found it necessary, after nine
months' detention, to purchase his release from
the charge by a payment of some three thousand
dollars in name of costs and gratuities to his ac
cuser, besides the loss he sustained in his business
and his personal and travelling expenses. Before
this event he was perfectly content with the
country, was reconciled to the climate, and con
sidered himself a favourite in the neighbourhood
where he lived; but now, on his return, he as-

M. BONHOMME. 291
sured us of his unwavering resolution to wind up
his affairs without delay and return to his native
country, which he had never expected to see
again, intending to end his days either in Paris or
Lyons. In early life he had been drawn as a con
script, and had served under Napoleon in Spain,
where he acquired the language of the country
and first conceived the idea of visiting Spanish
America. Being by trade a carpenter, he also
informed us, in his own humorous way, that he
had done his possible to damage the interests of
England by assisting in the construction of the
celebrated flat-bottomed flotilla at Boulogne.
What I afterwards learned of M. Bonhomme's
character from the French Consul-General, M.
Moliien, gave me such a favourable impression of
his impartiality as a witness, and his integrity as a
man, that I felt myself bound to receive the evi
dence he furnished me on points unconnected with
his own private affairs with more confidence than
I should otherwise have reposed in a person who
was a stranger to me, and who was undoubtedly
labouring under strong feelings of irritation against
the colonial government. He was the more en
titled to this confidence, as his statements were in
all respects confirmatory of the deplorable account I
had previously received from a much valued friend
as the result of inquiries extending over a series
of years, and conducted with equal intelligence
and circumstantiality, impartiality and zeal. M.
Bonhomme's account , of the treatment of the
negroes on the sugar properties in his neighbour-
u 2

292 CUBA.
hood was, in fact, most deplorable. He entered
with the minutest detail into the whole system of
agricultural management of estates, the distribu
tion of labour in the field and within doors, and
the nourishment allowed to the slaves, with all
which he was most evidently familiarly conversant ;
and the general import and effect of his narrative, as
I have said, came to my mind with very great force,
supported as it was by previous evidence which I
had no right and no disposition to call in question.

COFFEE- growing. 293

CHAP. XV.
COFFEE-GROWING.  TASK WORK.
The coffee districts of Cuba, as of most of the
other islands, are much more agreeable to the
ordinary traveller, and much less offensive to the
philanthropist, than the more fertile and more
profitable regions where the sugar cane is culti
vated. When a cafetal is once formed the care
and protection of the trees, the gathering of the
fruit, and its removal to the barbecue, as the place
for laying it out to dry is called in Jamaica, make
when added together, an amount of labour which
is not to be compared with the toil of digging the
cane holes, weeding the young plants, cutting down
the canes, carrying the tops to the stables, and the
canes themselves to the mill preparatory to the
process of grinding. The work within doors, in
ease and lightness to the labourer, is equally in
favour of the cafetal. The watching and skimming
of the liquor in the boiling house, the turning it
over with great spoons or ladles from one copper
to another, and the feeding and attendance on the
fires, have no sort of parallel in the turning over
of the coffee, or in submitting it when it is suf
ficiently dry to the machinery by which its husk
is to be removed. Accordingly, it appears that
while nineteen and a half or twenty hours' labour
u 3

294 CUBA.
are expected from the unfortunate negro whose
master is a grower and manufacturer of sugar,
the more moderate quota of sixteen or perhaps
fifteen hours a day are all that is required, if the
owner of the slave be also the proprietor of a coffee
plantation. The natural consequence inevitably
follows, that while the sugar-making slave, begin
ning his labours at sixteen or eighteen years of age,
has certainly on an average not more than ten
years to live, the coffee-picking slave may fairly
reckon on twenty-five or thirty years, without ever
having endured the same severity of toil or the
same intensity of suffering. Nay, the coffee-picking
gang are not expected or required to produce on
an average more than fifteen, or at most twenty
quintals a head ; while the sugar-making gang must
be whipped up to the average of ten boxes a head,
which will weigh at least thirty quintals.
Thus on the Cafetal del Uva, one of the first
that I visited, between San Felipe and Batabano,
I found that with thirty working negroes and
70,000 trees the produce was 550 quintals, which
was equal to about eighteen quintals per negro
and § lb. per tree. My reception by the proprietor
of Del Uva was far from being flattering at first ;
but when he found in the course of conversation
that my designs were far from being hostile, he
gradually relaxed into civility, and even displayed
a disposition to be communicative as to many of
the points on which I desired information. He
admitted that the number of hours' labour on coffee
estates generally was sixteen on the average per

COFFEE-GROWING. 295
day ; and that when the fruit was coming fast to
maturity, it was customary for the overseers to
send out their gangs, as often as the moonlight
served, to gather it by night. The mortality on
coffee properties he gave me at 5 per cent, per
annum, which considerably exceeds the general
average I obtained from a great number of other
inquiries. That average was not more than 3§
per cent.
The information obtained at the Cafetal del Uva
was in a great measure confirmed by another very
reluctant witness, Don Antonio Garcia, the pro
prietor of the Cafetal Ubajai, whose estate I was
unable to reach after several unsuccessful attempts,
in consequence of the wretched state of the roads ;
but who assured me when I met with him at length
as his summer residence in the town of Marianou,
that on some future occasion he would accompany
me to Ubajai, con muchissimo gusto. He told me,
with all the florid forms of Spanish courtesy, that
his house was entirely at my disposal, a ceremony
which was rendered indispensable by the letters I
had brought ,for him ; but although he must have
been perfectlyawlire of the fatigue of my journey
and the jaded state of my horses, he made no
specific offer of civility, but let me jog on through
the mire, in a country where the accommodation
of an inn is utterly unknown, and where every
attempt to hire fresh horses proved equally un
availing. Don Antonio stated that he had 110
slaves on his property of Ubajai, and that the
produce from 200,000 trees was 1300 quintals.
u 4

296 CUBA.
His statement of the rations he allowed to his
people was greater than I had heard of elsewhere.
They had two meals a day, he said ; one of which
consisted of a pound of jerked beef and twelve
plantains, the other of a pound of yucas or yams;
These allowances were undoubtedly sufficient, and
I should have been delighted to have found them
more general in other parts of the island. The
daily labour he stated at fifteen hours, and the
deaths at 5 per cent, per annum ; but he agreed
with every other witness I have questioned on the
subject, that on sugar estates the labour and the
mortality were both much greater. In spite of
this admission, Senor Garcia insisted that a negro
sugar-boiler was not worse off than a British seaman
on board one of her Majesty's ships. On this
point I made some attempt to enlighten his un
derstanding ; but I fear that I left him quite as
determined as before to entertain this justification
of the worst practices of slavery.
It was the revolution in St. Domingo which
gave the first great stimulus to the cultivation of
the coffee plant in the island of Cuba. The emi
grants and refugees sought shelter wherever they
could find it in the neighbouring islands of
the Archipelago, or on the nearest points of the
American continent. The greatest numbers es
tablished themselves in Cuba and Jamaica ; but it
has been remarked that those in less easy cir
cumstances made their way to Cuba, while the
wealthier classes preferred the protection which
the British government afforded them. A sort of

COFFEE-GROWING. 297
social revolution, affording some striking indica
tions of national character, has since taken place
in the affairs of these refugees. In the English, as
in the Spanish island, they have undoubtedly been
the means of turning land that was otherwise
useless to profitable account ; of improving the
culture of the coffee, as well as the mode of pre
paring it for the market, and of increasing its
production to a very large amount. In Jamaica,
however, the coffee planters of French or St.
Domingo origin have not been able to withstand
the competition of their English rivals, and have .
sunk into a state of comparative insignificance ;
whereas in Cuba, having only Spaniards to contend
with, they have succeeded in rising in the social
scale, and in maintaining their ascendency till the
period which seems now to be arriving, when the
coffee grower is to sink before the sugar planter in
consequence of the demand for sugar having in
creased in a more rapid ratio than the correspond
ing demand for coffee, combined with the fact that
the supply of labour, although great, is still inade
quate to the demand for it. Coffee can be produced
more cheaply in other countries ; but Cuba is
likely to maintain its acknowledged ascendency in
the production of sugar.
Of all the new enjoyments of which the know
ledge is acquired by a visit to the intertropical
regions, those that reach us through a sense which
in the old world is productive of as many painful
as pleasurable emotions are, in my opinion, the most
exquisite. Without leaving Europe a traveller

298 CUBA.
may learn how delightful it is to take his early
walk in an orange grove during the season when
the trees are in bloom ; the gardens of the
Tuilleries may give him a faint idea of it just before
the ancient denizens of the orangerie have been
despoiled of their crop of blossoms, that the dis
tiller may convert them into orange-flower water ;
but the fragrance of the Tuilleries is as inferior to
that of the Moorish gardens of the Alcazar at Seville
as these last, with all the care bestowed on them,
are excelled by some neglected orange grove in
,Cuba or St. Domingo. Nor is the rich fragrance
of the orange grove to be compared for a moment
with the aromatic odours of a coffee plantation,
Avhen its hundred thousand trees have just thrown
out their unrivalled display of jessamine-like flow
ers, reminding you ofwhat you may have read in
Eastern fable of the perfumes of Araby the blest.
It is a moot point in history whether the dis
covery of the use of the fragrant bean is to be
ascribed to a sleepy dervise, who found the bad
consequences of neglecting his religious duties, or
to the superior of an eastern monastery, who pre
scribed by way of penance a dish of coffee to his
monks when they discovered any disposition to
slumber during their nocturnal devotions. To
whatever accident the discovery may be ascribed,
it is very well known that the beverage was in
habitual use at Constantinople at least a century
before a coffee-house was heard of in Paris or
London. Its merit, or at least its attraction, is
amply substantiated by the fruitless endeavours of

COFFEE-GROWING. 299
successive sultans to abolish it, from the fear lest
the houses where it was sold should become places
of public resort where the measures of government
might become the subject of discussion.
In I672, at the fair of St. Germain, prepared
coffee was first sold publicly ; but it had previously
been introduced at the court of his Most Christian
Majesty by Soliman Aga, and soon afterwards an
Armenian established in Paris the first coffee-house
that ever existed in Western Europe. As soon as
it became less an article of luxury and fashion than
of comfort and necessity, the greatest efforts were
made by such of the European powers as possessed
colonies within the tropics to carry thither the
coffee tree, and accustom it to the climate. The
Dutch were the first who succeeded. They car
ried it from Moka to Batavia, and from Batavia
they brought specimens to Amsterdam. The bur
gomasters of that city sent a tree as a present
to Louis XIV., who caused it to be carefully cul
tivated in the hot-houses of the Garden of Plants.
From thence in 1720 it was transferred to Mar
tinique by M. Declieux, who was the first to
introduce it in America. After being naturalized
in Martinique the French planters of St. Domingo
followed the example ; and from St. Domingo it
was carried to Jamaica, from whence it spread
rapidly over the whole of the West Indies.
At the period of the breaking out of the French
revolution the cultivation of coffee could scarcely
be said to have reached the South American con
tinent ; so that till then its cultivation was in a great

300 CUBA.
measure confined to Arabia and the Caribbean
Archipelago. Its extreme scarcity during the war
enhanced its price so enormously, that on the
first announcement of peace in 1814 the plants
were multiplied to infinity, and coffee plantations
were formed in every possible situation, — on the
Costa Firme of South America, along the Bra
zilian shores of that continent, and even at some
points on the coast of Southern Africa.
To show the extreme rapidity with which the
cultivation has been extended, take the statistical
returns of La Guaira, the chief port of the new
state of Venezuela, from whence the whole export
of coffee in the year 1789 was not more than ten
tons; and of late years from that port alone, andin
spite of the internal dissensions of the country, it
has reached the enormous quantity of 2500 tons.
In the Isle of Bourbon and the Mauritius the
planters have also applied themselves to this branch
of industry ; it has been prosecuted successfully in
our eastern possessions ; and the French govern
ment, not content with the natural influence of the
universal demand for it, have been endeavouring-
to stimulate the production by means of premiums
and other artificial advantages.
In forming a coffee plantation, as in the esta
blishment of an ingenio, the choice of situation and
soil becomes a consideration of the first importance.,
A very high temperature is by no means a favour
able condition. If a spot could be found where
the range of the Fahrenheit thermometer did not
sink below 75° nor rise above 80°, and where the

COFFEE-GROWING. 301*
soil was otherwise suitable, no planter could desire
a more favourable situation. In the mountainous
islands of Jamaica and St. Domingo the nearest
approach to this temperature is found when the
elevation is not less than 2000, and not more than
3000 feet above the level of the sea ; and it is within
these limits accordingly that coffee is most success
fully cultivated in the two islands I have named.
The island of Cuba being much less mountainous,
but at the same time being nearer the tropical limit,
the planter in seeking the degree of heat he requires
is forced to confine himself in a great measure to
the northern side of the island, where accordingly
we find that the cultivation of coffee is most suc
cessfully carried on.
The vicinity of the cafetal to a convenient
place of embarkation enters largely, of course, into
the consideration of the planter when choosing a
suitable locality. A compact form is also thought
desirable, in order to save the time and labour of
the negroes ; and the ordinary extent is about six
caballerias, or something less than 200 English
acres. The locality being finally chosen, such open
places are formed or selected, from distance to
distance, as may be found most suitable, in respect
to shade and moisture, for the establishment of
convenient nurseries. The fruit, which has been
gathered in the beginning of the month of October,
and which has been dried in the shade, is preferred
for seed. The seed is sown in drills half a yard
asunder, and introduced two beans together, by

302 CUBA.
means of a dibble, into holes two inches deep and
ten or twelve inches apart. The extent of one of
these nurseries is generally about 100 yards square,
which, with such intervals as I have mentioned, ought
to contain about 60,000 plants.
A quarter of a caballeria, or about eight English
acres, is usually set apart in a central and con
venient position for the site of the buildings, and
for growing provisions for the use of the labourers
on the future plantation. The cutting down of the
timber is generally performed by contract, and, as
stated elsewhere, almost always by the hands of
white men ; the untutored African being not only
unequal to the task, but being liable, from habitual
heedlessness, to serious accidents by the falling of
the trees and the awkward use of the hatchet. It
is not uncommon to cut down the trees indiscri
minately, beginning, of course, as from so many
centres, at the site proposed for the buildings, and
the open spaces laid out as nurseries ; but it is con
sidered a better practice to preserve a certain portion
of the native forest trees to serve as shade and
shelter for the young plantation. This is not pos
sible, of course, if fire be employed in clearing
the ground; but that is a- system which is con
demned alike in the formation of coffee as of sugar
plantations. In favourable seasons it is found that
heavier crops are obtained from coffee trees left
wholly unshaded ; but, in the average of years,
it seems to be settled, in the island of Cuba at least,
that a moderate degree of protection from the

COFFEE-GROWING. 303
scorching rays of the sun produces a steadier and
upon the. whole a more advantageous return.
The distribution of the land into right-angled
sections, and the planting of the trees in straight
lines, is so contrived as to favour the future super
vision of the labourers, much more than from any
strict attention to mere symmetry. The distance
of the trees from each other ought to be regulated
by the quality of the soil, and the degrees of heat
and shade they are to enjoy. The ranges from
north to south are usually four yards apart, and those
from east to west not more than three ; but the
lower the temperature the wider should be the in
terval, because in that case the vegetation is more
active and more rapid, and the tree requires a wider
space over which to extend itself.
The best season for planting the trees is the
middle of the month of May, if there be then a
sufficient degree of moisture ; but the operation is
often performed successfully during the rainy month
of October ; subject always to the risk, however, of
serious injury to the young plantation from the
north winds which prevail at that advanced season
of the year. The holes prepared to receive the
plants are eighteen inches in diameter, and about
two feet deep.
In the island of Cuba there are two rival modes
of planting the coffee tree. The one is called "la
siembra a la mota ; " the other " la siembra a la
estaca." By the method " a la mota" a circle is formed
around the plant in the nursery, and care is taken

304 CUBA.
to remove it without disturbing the earth around
the roots. The plants are then placed carefully in
willow baskets prepared for the purpose, and carried
to the holes already opened for their reception ;
gathering up the earth around the stem and pressing
it carefully down with the foot, in such a manner
as to form a sorb of basin or filter for the reception
of the rain water, and for suffering it to percolate
among the roots, and also to provide a convenient
place of deposit for the subsequent application of
manure. The siembra " a la estaca " is differently exe
cuted. Such plants are selected from the nursery
as are of the thickness of the little finger, or from
that to an inch in diameter. In withdrawing them
from the ground great care is taken not to injure
or compress the bulbs or buttons within eight or
ten inches of the level of the soil, because these
are to serve for the production of fresh roots when
the "estaca" is afterwards planted more deeply
in its permanent position. The greater part of the
capillary roots are cut away with a knife ; but a
few, together with the principal root, are suffered
to remain from four to six inches long. In planting
them, from three to four inches of the trunk are
left above ground. The little basin of earth for the
reception and filtration of the rain water is not so
large in the stake system of planting as in that with
theclod of earth "a la mota;" but if the soil be poor,
it must be proportionally enlarged, to admit the
application of the necessary quantity of manure.
The stake system, requiring much less labour

COFFEE-GROWING. 305
than the other, is generally preferred ; but when
there is abundance of shade to protect the young
plants from drought, and always, of course, in re
placing the decayed trees of an old plantation, it is
considered more desirable to remove the whole
plant, its roots and branches entire, with as much
as possible of the adhering soil from the nursery,
according to the system " a la mota."
In the third or fourth year of the plantation, the
trees, according to the best system of husbandry,
are pruned down to the height of three feet from
the ground on the richest soil, and still lower in
proportion to its sterility. All the branches which
are not as nearly as possible at right angles with
the trunk, are likewise removed by the pruning
knife, so that in the following spring the whole stem
is covered with fresh shoots. By this operation the
power of nature seems to be exhausted, as for that
year the trees in general bear no fruit ; but in
subsequent seasons the loss is amply repaid by a
crop often greater than the branches can support,
or than the flow of nourishment is always able to
bring to full size and maturity.
The buildings on a coffee estate in the island of
Cuba are generally of a very humble description.
Compared with the proprietor of a sugar estate,
the planter is generally in circumstances neither
opulent nor even easy. Perhaps he cannot afford
to live at the Havana ; and in that case his resi
dence is either on the estate, or in the nearest
town or village. A rural population, in the English
sense of the term, or a detached residence for a
x

306 CUBA.
person in the middle ranks of life, is scarcely known
in the peninsula, on account probably of some
feeling of insecurity. The habits formed in Old
Spain have naturally been transferred to the other
side of the Atlantic, and there, accordingly, we find
that the planter is very rarely to be seen residing
on his property. If there be a casa de vivienda at
all, it is of very limited dimensions, fit only for the
reception of its owner on a temporary visit, or, as
awriter suggests in the Transactions of thePatriotic
Society, it is so narrow and so uncomfortable that
the negroes may be made to feel themselves more
nearly on a par with their master, and so be more
willing to put their shoulders to the wheel, in the
hope that proprietor and slave may rise in the
world together.
If the houses for the accommodation of the slaves
afford more protection from the weather than the
huts of the negroes in the British colonies, before
the commencement of the apprenticeship, it is on
account of the necessity of providing against their
escape during the hours set apart for necessary rest.
They are in general so close as to want the open
ings required for ventilation ; and in their internal
arrangements, there are seldom the means of clas
sification into families, or even a decent separation
of the sexes, supposing that there is more than
one sex on the estate.
The place where the food of the negroes is
cooked is uniformly a distinct building from the
baracoon, in which there is rarely a chimney, on
account of the danger arising from the careless use
of fire ; although in the island of Cuba the cold of

COFFEE-GROWING. 307
winter is much greater than is agreeable to the
white inhabitants, and of course is felt much more
keenly by the negro.
The machinery for removing the external pulp
of the coffee bean is seldom of a very perfect de
scription in this island, and the loss sustained in
consequence is often very considerable. It is almost
uniformly moved by the power of horses or oxen,
working in a gin ; and the name it bears is that of
the Descerezador. The Barbecues, where the coffee
is laid out to dry, are called indiscriminately Ten-
dales or Secaderos. They are more numerous and
of smaller dimensions than is customary in the
British colonies, where a single Barbecue, laid
down with tiles or plaster, is considered sufficient
for a whole estate.
The warehouse for receiving the crop and pre
serving the coffee after it is put into bags and
ready for the market, is generally of such limited
dimensions as to be barely sufficient for the pur
poses for which it is designed ; so that, when the
harvest has been abundant, or when any thing has
occurred to interfere with the despatch of what is
ready for removal, the consequent accumulation is
attended with serious inconvenience. In fact, the
occupation of the coffee planter has been for some
time on the decline in this island, owing to the su
perior rate of profit derived from the making of
sugar ; and every thing reminds you of it, the
molino de pilar, the aventador, and the separador,
down to the humblest implement of husbandry on
the estate. x 2

308 CUBA.
The gathering; of the fruit commences in
Cuba in August ; but November and Decem
ber are the most active and important months
of the harvest. The labourers are sent out with
two baskets each, one large, the other small.
Every labourer has a file of coffee trees assigned
him ; the large basket he leaves near the place
where his work is to begin ; the other he carries
with him to receive the berries from the trees ; and
as often as it is full he empties it into the large
one. The baskets are made of rushes, willows, or
bamboo ; and the larger one is of such a size that
three of them ought to fill the barrel, without top
or bottom, which serves the purposes of a measure
at the Tendal or Secador.
It is usual with the mayoral to insist on the la
bourers bringing home a large basket, heaped on
each of the three occasions that the gang returns to
the works,, — at the breakfast hour, the dinner hour,
and at nightfall ; and although this must be a most
unequal measure of the labourer's diligence, since at
one period of the season, or in one part of the plant
ation, the difficulty of gathering a basketful may
be much greater than at another, yet the practice
is still persisted in. Thus imperfectly begun, it
ought to have pointed the way to the system of
task-work so successfully pursued in the British
colonies, more especially at Demarara, and even
on some well-managed estates in the French islands
of Martinique and Guadaloupe ; where it is found
that the negro in a state of slavery works more as
siduously, more efficiently, and more profitably for

COFFEE-GROWING. 309
his master, when he has only a given amount of
labour to perform in a given time, and when that
being accomplished he knows that the remainder
of the day will be his own, and that for a brief
space before retiring to rest, he will in some sort be
free !
The system of task- work is undoubtedly the very
best preparation for freedom, inasmuch as it prac
tically teaches the first principles of prudence and
foresight, the application of which it promptly
and suitably rewards. In the island of Cuba, more
over, it might be admirably combined with that
humane enactment of the Spanish law of the Indies,
which enables the slave to purchase his freedom by
degrees ; and, had it been carefully introduced and
legally enforced in the British colonies, it might,
perhaps, have entirely superseded, to the unspeak
able advantage of all parties, the whole machinery
of the apprenticeship. It is not too late for other
nations to take a lesson from our example, and to
profit by our minute points of failure, as well as by
our general and undeniable success.
As long as the quantity of labour to be per
formed, under the system of task-work, remains to
be decided by the master or the mayoral, it is
liable, of course, to very great abuse. On every
coffee tree there is a certain proportion of unripe
fruit, long after the season for gathering in the
crop has begun. The poor slave, knowing well
that he will be whipped alike if he brings home
green fruit, or if his basket be not full, is driven to
the expedient of gathering his quota more hastily
x 3

310 CUBA.
than the interest of the planter would prescribe,
taking care to bury or conceal what is unfit for the
eye of the mayoral, or to steal from the heap of
yesterday, on the Secador, wherewithal to fill his
baskets to-day. The slaves in this island, although
constantly characterised by the white inhabitants
as the most stupid of animals, display, nevertheless,
no small degree of ingenuity and cunning, not only
in evading punishment, but in the appropriation of
the goods of their masters. Nor are white men
wanting, the keepers generally of hucksters shops
and taverns, all over the country, to teach, assist,
and encourage them in these spoliations.
Three baskets, or one barrel-measure of the
newly gathered coffee berry, ought to produce thirty
pounds of the beans, after the process of drying, the
removal of the pulp, and the final preparation for
the market. When there is a sufficient number,
or a sufficient space of Barbecues or Secadors,
sixty or seventy barrels only are put together ; but
from want of room it often happens that the quan
tity amounts to a hundred barrels. In either case,
the whole is gathered into two great heaps, and in
that state it is allowed to remain for four-and-twenty
hours, in order to subject it to a certain degree of
fermentation. After this, it is spread out to dry
over the whole surface of the Barbecue, and until
it is sufficiently so, it remains there uncovered day
and night. When the desiccation is found to be
far enough advanced, it is no longer exposed during
the night; nor even during the day, if the weather
be damp or unfavourable. The subsequent ope-

COFFEE-GROWING. 311
rations are certainly not better, probably not so well,
conducted as in our own West India possessions.
Although exposed to all the arts and allurements
of the receiver of stolen goods, as long as the pro
duce remains on the estate, the planter considers
his property to be in perfect safety as soon as it is
entrusted to the carriers, who undertake to trans
port it to the place of embarkation. This whole
class of persons are regarded as perfectly trust
worthy, insomuch that there is not an instance on
record where they have been known to abuse the
confidence reposed in them. The bags being all
properly marked, their number and weight are set
down on a scrap of paper, which serves as the
carriers' voucher, for receiving his freight from the
agent of the planter at the place of embarkation.
Receipts are never taken from a carrier on his
taking charge of the goods ; and it is very rarely
thought necessary to verify the weight or the
quantity at the moment of delivery.
The expense of forming a coffee plantation is
not of course to be compared with the amount of
capital required in the establishment of an ingenio.
It is generally begun with a small force of labourers,
perhaps not more than ten for the first year, and
the following has been given meas an estimate and
outline of the ordinary mode of proceeding : — The
price of ten negroes, fit for such employment, is
stated at $5000 ; the clearing of two caballerias of
land, or sixty-four acres, $600; the salary of the
mayoral, and the feeding of the negroes, $800 ; —
making altogether $6400 for the first year.
x 4

312

CUBA.

In the second year, the number of the slaves
will probably be doubled ; the charges arising from
the increased number of negroes to be fed are set
off against the former expense of clearing the land,
not now to be repeated, so that the advance of
capital in the second year is equal to the first,
making the whole $12,800.
In the third year, a master carpenter and a
master mason become necessary ; the salary of
each being $600; also a superintendent of the
works, with a salary of $400; and a further outlay
of $500, for extra assistance in the carpenter's de
partment. The number of negroes is also increased
to thirty ; and as in the third year, the payment of
rent for the land commences at the rate of $144
per caballeria, the advance of capital for this year
amounts to $8088, making the total advance in
the three years, $20,888.
In the fourth year, it is presumed that the agri
cultural produce of the land and the first returns of
coffee should be sufficient to meet all the current
expenses. The outlay of this year, therefore, is
confined to $10,000 as the price of twenty addi
tional negroes, making the whole investment at the
end of the fourth year amount to $30,888.
At the end of the fifth year- there ought to be
40,000 coffee trees four years old on the estate,
60,000 of three years, and 100,000 of two and one
year, the produce of which ought to be at least
400 quintals, which, at a moderate estimate, should
be worth $2400. In this year there ought to
be no salary to pay but that of the mayoral, which.

COFFEE-GROWING. 313
with the incidental expenses of the estate, ought to
amount to $ 1200, leaving a similar sum of $ 1200
to be considered as a commencement of the return
for the capital invested.
Thus the calculation goes on until we arrive at
the end of the seventh year, when the estate ought to
be in full bearing. We then find what the usual
and average allowances are to the slaves in this
island. The vacancies occasioned by death having
been supplied by purchase, it is assumed that there
are still seventy slaves upon the property. The
quantity of jerked beef or other animal food allowed
is 365 arrobas at the ordinary rate of $2 the ar
roba. This makes the daily ration of each indi
vidual slave about five ounces and a half, which is
somewhat above the result of all my personal ob
servation and inquiries.
The annual expense of clothing the seventy ne
groes is stated at $ 200 ; the allowance to the
medical attendant $ 153 ; the charge for medicines
and other hospital expenses $ 102 ; the salary of
the mayoral $500; and for miscellaneous outlays
$115 ; making the whole of the ordinary annual
expenses amount to $ 1800, a very insignificant
sum compared with the charges on a property of
similar extent in any of the British colonies.
The returns are estimated at 3000 arrobas or
750 quintals, which, at eight dollars per quintal de
livered free on board, make $ 6000. The minor
products of the estate, such as Indian corn, pigs,
and oil, are given at #1130, making the gross re
turns $7130, and after deducting the annual ex-

314 CUBA.
penses, leaving $5300 as the regular return on
the capital invested, which, having been about
$ 40,000, gives about thirteen per cent. ; not cer
tainly to be considered extravagant in a country
where twelve per cent, is the regular rate of in
terest. Had the supposed situation of the estate been
within a league of a convenient place of embarkation,
the capital required would have been less, and the
returns much more considerable. In place of con
suming the wood cut down in clearing the land,
the whole of it, except so much as was necessary
for the purposes of the estate, might be profitably
converted into charcoal, the most active purchasers
of which are the masters of the coasting vessels
who make their living by carrying the produce of
estates from the embarcadero to the Havana or
some other shipping port. In that case the planter
would commence his operations the first year with
twenty negroes instead of ten ; as with that num
ber properly managed, and with an outlay of only
$10,000 or $12,000, the whole expenses of the
estate might be defrayed from the outset. It
is almost unnecessary to add, however, that such
favourable situations, combined with the necessary
degree of fertility, are now becoming rare even in
Cuba ; and that, to obtain a sufficient return for the
capital invested in the cultivation either of coffee
or sugar, the proprietor ought not to trust im
plicitly to mayorals, mayordomos, or duefios, but
must himself be an intelligent and practical agri
culturist, disposed to devote the whole of his time

COFFEE-GROWING. 315
to the personal management of his estate during at
least the first seven years of its existence.
The application of white labour in the island of
Cuba to the cultivation of coffee seems much more
feasible than to the making of sugar. Already, in
fact, we find it far from being uncommon for the
poorer classes among the free inhabitants to raise
smallportions of coffee without possessing the means
of preparing it for the market. In that case they
carry the newly gathered fruit for sale to the nearest
cafetal, where they are accustomed to receive for
the fruit merely dried, but with the husk still upon
it, the half of the current price of coffee in the
market. This custom, already established, seems
to afford a basis on which a system of colonisation
might be raised. It has been suggested that the
proprietor of 300 acres of land, or ten caballerias,
might divide it into sections, and let it to colonists
on the condition that the half of each section should
be planted with coffee trees, for the produce of
which the proprietor should be bound to pay the
half of the market price of prepared coffee, what
ever that might be at the time of delivery. It
would be necessary for him to reserve some thirty
acres, or say one of the ten sections, on which to
erect the necessary buildings. Supposing each co
lonist to have a caballeria allotted to him, he would
be required to pay the same rent for it which the
owner of the buildings had stipulated to pay to the
government, which would be at the rate of $36 each.
The cost of erecting the buildings on a suitable
scale of magnitude is estimated at $10,000. The

316 CUBA.
produce of coffee from each section is given at 400
arrobas, or 3600 arrobas for the whole of the nine
sections. The average price of coffee free of the
expense of carriage is assumed to be two dollars
the arroba, or eight dollars per quintal, which would
give a return of $7200, besides the repayment of
the rent by the colonists.
The annual expense of the proprietor of the
buildings would consist chiefly in the salary of a
mayordomo or other superintendent, which may
be taken at $400, and the wages for six weeks of
twentypersons, chiefly women and boys, who might
be found in the families of the colonists, and which
at the rate of fifteen dollars would make $450.
Two men would also be required from the begin
ning of November till the end of January, and one
at the mill from the beginning of December till the
end of February, whose wages, at the rate of fifteen
dollars a month, would amount to $135. The colo
nists would of course be paid at the rate of one
dollar the arroba for the coffee they brought to the
mill, which, at 400 arrobas each, would procure
them a comfortable subsistence, independent of the
produce of their other half sections. The return to
the proprietor of the buildings on his small capital
of $10,000 would be upwards of 25 per cent., ac
cording to the estimate from which this summary
is taken.

TOBACCO-GROWING. 317

CHAP. XVI.
TOBACCO GROWING.  NATIVE FORESTS.  FRUITS.  CE
REALS.  THE PLANTAIN. — INDIGO.  COTTON. — CA
CAO.  WAX.  DOMESTIC ANIMALS.  ORNITHOLOGY. 
THE TURTLE.  FISHMARKET.  HONEY AND WAX. 
THE JIGGER.  THE MOSQUITO.  THE ANT.  SEASONS.
In treating of the natural productions and the
agricultural prosperity of the island of Cuba, the
tobacco and the celebrated cigars of the Havana
and Puerto Principe must not be left unnoticed.
This important branch of industry was for many
years in danger of being reduced to insignificance,
if not of total annihilation, from the excessive care
and protection bestowed upon it. In the year 1711
a regular factory was established at the Havana,
for the purpose of encouraging the culture of to
bacco ; on which, nearly a century ago the pe
ninsular government laid its hand for the purpose
of extracting a contribution towards the necessities
of the state.
The factory existed only for twenty-three years,
and at the time of its extinction in 1734 a contract
wat entered into by the Spanish government with
Don Jose Tallapiedra, for the annual shipment to
the peninsula of 120,000 arrobas of tobacco ; of
which 40,000 were to be of the best quality of
leaf tobacco, the produce of the districts of San
tiago, Sierra, and Bejucal, of that sort most in

318 CUBA.
request by those who chew the weed ; 56,000
arrobas were to be of the kind required by the
manufacturers of snuff; and 24,000 in the form of
snuff already manufactured in the island, from
tobacco leaves properly prepared and deprived of
their fibrous stems. This contract was followed by
others with the Marquess de la Madrid, which
proved nearly as ruinous to the growers of tobacco
as the factory had previously been. In place of
resorting to the simple expedient of leaving the
trade to take care of itself, the government thought
it necessary to sanction the establishment of a
second factory, for the purpose probably of facili
tating the collection of the revenue.
The new factory was encumbered with the cus
tomary excess of functionaries ; some of whom,
with the title of Visitadores de Vegas, had the in
quisitorial duty confided to them of superintending
the cultivation of the tobacco, and thence of com
mitting all sorts of abuses. These gentlemen
soon contrived to abolish the manufacture of snuff
in the island, in favour of their friends in the pe
ninsula ; and as the factory had become the sole
purchaser of the tobacco itself, and so possessed
the power of fixing its own price, the tendency
towards reduction became so excessive as to bring
the unfortunate planters to the very verge of ruin.
Not content with the extraordinary powers con
ferred by its monopoly, the factory applied for and
obtained the sanction of the government to burn
or otherwise expose to destruction such portions
of the crop as the empleados thought fit to declare

TOBACCO-GROWING. 319
to be unsuited to the market. The object of the
factory in this unjust proceeding was of course to
enhance the value of what had been already de
livered or selected, so as to protect it more effec
tually from the risk of a contraband competition.
But by thus creating a factitious scarcity, the
factory often found it for its interest to save a
portion of the property they had previously con
demned, and send it to market at a most exorbitant
profit. This grievous abuse of power had at length
the effect of working its own destruction, and. of
throwing open the cultivation of tobacco to the
same degree of freedom enjoyed by the other
branches of agriculture in the island.
To such a degree of languor had the growth of
tobacco been reduced by the factory system, that it
was found necessary to import no less than 40,000
arrobas, in the year 1804, from the United States,
so as to meet the demand of the retail trade in the
Havana ; and in that year a still greater quantity
was sent directly to Spain from North America.
Since the abolition of the monopoly there has arisen,
on the contrary, a constant and steady demand in
the great cities of the Union for the exquisite cigars
of Puerto Principe and the Havana.
On the fall of the factory, the manufacture of
snuff and cigars having begun to revive, and the
parties engaged in this branch of trade having ac
quired a certain degree of influence, they thought
it right in their turn to apply for the enactment of
laws and regulations prohibiting the exportation of
tobacco in the leaf, so as to confer on them a new

320 CUBA.
manufacturing monopoly. Such is the spirit in
which the affairs of this island are still conducted,
that this question of prohibition was seriously dis
cussed in the bosom of the Patriotic Society, so
lately as the year 1836 ; but it is scarcely necessary
to add, that among that enlightened body, the prin
ciple of monopoly met with no favour or encour
agement. The following is the truly patriotic re
solution which the society has adopted on the
subject: — "Nosotros, desconociendo el temor de
los tabaqueros, nos damos el parabien porque
nunca se promulgara la ley prohibitiva de la espor-
tacion del tabaco en rama, por repugnarlo las luces
del siglo : porque se opone a las mejoras proyec-
tadas por el gobierno eminentemente justo de la an
gelica Isabel II. en union con las cortes del reino :
y porque en ella se adoptaria una medida destruc-
tora para la isla de Cuba, que sin embargo de los
progresos de la ilustracion, necesita aun de edu-
carse a fin de llenar cumphdamente sus destinos.
<;No son una prueba irrefragable de lo dicho, las
cuestiones que motivaron la publicacion del pre
sente programa en su capital ? No lo es asimismo el
plausible empeno de la Real Sociedad Patriotica de
establecer escuelas primarias en sus pueblos ? <;No
lo acredita el hecho de empezarse ahora a hacerle
caminos ? El teson con que el Escmo. Sr. Gober
nador y Capitan General ha destruido el juego y
persigue otros vicios ^no lo comprueban ? ^No lo es
por ventura...? Necesita, pues, de educacion. Esta
es una verdad muy triste, muy dolorosa; pero es
una verdad."

NATIVE FORESTS. 321
In spite of the great advantages which the form
of the island presents, in regard to facility of com
munication, the almost total want of roads between
the interior and the coast, and the great and profit
able demand for labour in raising and manufacturing
the staple produce of the country, have withdrawn
the attention of the proprietors from the important
source of revenue which might be derived from the
forests and forest trees of the island. The maho
gany and the cedar, the ebony, the black and white
guayacan, the courbana, the curey, the cerillo, the
grenadillo, the hayajarico or yayajabito, and the wild
orange tree, are classed among the precious woods
of the country, and when found near the coast are
generally destined for exportation. Those used in
the building of houses and carriages, the construc
tion of furniture and machinery, are still more nu
merous. The palms are a numerous race, but although
not of any value as timber, the palma real especially
is applied in this island to many useful purposes.
Its fruit, called the palmiche, forms an important
article of food for the pigs ; and cows and oxen do
not refuse to eat it. The branches to which the
fruit is attached are used as brooms, and the pointed
summit, which resembles a cabbage or a lettuce in
taste and flavour, is so much relished by the inhabit
ants, that large trees are often cut down to obtain
it. The internal milky pulp of the tree is used in
seasons of drought and scarcity for refreshing and
feeding domestic animals. Its leaves and branches
are employed in the roofing of houses. The ex-
Y

322 cuba.
ternal crust of the trunk is used in forming chan
nels for irrigation and other similar purposes ; so
that almost every portion of the tree is turned to
valuable account.
Of the fruits of the island the pine or anana is
usually placed in the first class, but I confess I am
disposed to give precedence to the oranges, shad
docks, and forbidden fruit, which even in their wild
state are excellent. The fig and the strawberry are
likewise to be found, although not so common. The
nispero, or sapote de la India, is also an excellent
fruit. The melon of Castille and the sandia, or
water-melon, have been introduced from the penin
sula with perfect success, and of plantains and ba
nanas there is a great variety. The red and yellow
mamey apple, called the mamey Colorado, and ama-
rilla, brought originally from St. Domingo, are
abundant, and the lemons and sweet limes of the
island are to be found in every thicket.
Among the roots used for food the sweet and
bitter yuca are perhaps the most important. It
is from the farinaceous root of the bitter yuca that
the meal or flour, called Cassava or Casabe, is ob
tained. The juice of this root is highly poisonous
before it is cooked, but the process of boiling seems
to deprive it of its noxious qualities. In the back
settlements of British Guiana, the Indians were for
merly in the habit of reducing the juice to a sort
of glutinous essence much esteemed at Demerara
as an ingredient in the celebrated pepper pot. The
flavour of this essence resembles so strongly the
sauce sold by the oilmen of London under the

CEREALS. 323
name of India Soy, that I am persuaded the Soy
must be a preparation from it. This essence how
ever is now brought to market in much smaller
quantities than formerly, from the factof the Indians
having discovered that by carefully boiling the
roots, the trouble of expressing the juice may be
saved without danger. The bread is made in the
form of very thin cakes, resembling in some degree
the oaten bread so generally used by the Scottish
peasantry. The sweet yuca, when cooked, is eaten
as a root without being converted into bread. Of
the sweet potato there are various sorts with an
equal variety of names, batata, boniato, andmoniato.
The name or yam is of African origin, and is con
sidered more nutritive than any of the sweet po
tatoes. The malanga is a coarser sort of yam, and
from the sagu or sago the flour of that name is ob
tained. I have not happened to meet with either
the tapioca or the arrow-root in this island, and not
finding them among the official returns of the ex
ports, it is to be presumed that their cultivation is
not much attended to,
Of the cereal plants, the indigenous maiz, or
Indian corn, is by far the most important. Two
crops of it are obtained in the year ; and before it
grows to seed, its leaves which then bear the name
Maloja are found to be an excellent food for horses,
on which alone they can be maintained in such
condition as to be fit for the hardest work to
which they are exposed. There are two sorts of
Indian corn in the island, the Maiz de Frio, and
the Maiz de Agua. Rice is also produced in con-
Y 2

324

CUBA.

siderable quantities in many districts of the island,
particularly along the muddy belt surrounding the
coast, to which allusion has elsewhere been made.
Thegrainsare smaller than those of the Carolina rice,
but that produced in the island is preferred by the
inhabitants. Beans of various sorts, frijoles, gar-
vanzos, habas, and chicharos, are produced but
not in great quantity, and wheat was formerly
raised, but its cultivation has for some time been
abandoned. The market gardeners of the Ha
vana supply the tables of the inhabitants, especially
in the dry season, with a vast variety of excellent
vegetables ; but in the country and even near the
smaller towns this branch of culture is very little
attended to. Attempts have latterly been made
to introduce the beautiful or sweet-smelling flowers
of colder or more temperate regions with tolerable
success ; and when once acclimated so near the
verge of the tropics, it may become possible to
transfer them to the other islands of the Archi
pelago ; where, if they should lose some of their
original fragrance, they will at least serve our ex
patriated planters as a reminiscence of home.
The value and importance of the plantain may
be judged of by the estimate formed of it by the
most intelligent agriculturists in the island of Cuba,
who maintain, that 600 plants will maintain a whole
family of ten individuals, and that a caballeria of
ground, or thirty- two acres, will afford sufficient nou
rishment for 160 persons all the year round. Vast
quantities of plantains are exported from this island
to the United States ; but as it is now found, that

THE PLANTAIN. 325
they can be preserved for twelve months at least,
by cutting them obliquely into slices, two lines in
thickness, and then drying them in the sun, on the
Barbecue of a coffee estate for instance, it is pro
bable, that the demand for food at home will essen
tially interfere with this business of exportation.
When perfectly dried, the sliced plantains are kept
in the same sort of large boxes, which are used in
the island for the preservation of rice. It has
also been proposed to convert the plantain into a
sort of coarse flour or meal, for the purpose of pre
servation ; but this, as far as I know, has not yet
been put in practice on a scale of any magnitude.*
* The disease which has attacked the plantain at Demerara,
threatening to overrun the colony and extirpate that invaluable
plant, on which, as an article of primary necessity, the whole
population were at one time dependent, did not fail to engage my
serious attention. Never having seen by any chance a male plan
tain at Demerara, in the course of my various excursions in
the colony, I found as the result of my inquiries that the Dutch
authorities had fallen into a grievous mistake on the subject.
Seeing that the fruit of the male plant was smaller, less nu
tritious, and in all respects inferior to that of the female, and
that during the whole period of their possession of the colony,
the female plantain continued to be successfully cultivated
from the root, by means of shoots or cuttings merely, after the
trunk was cut down for the fruit, independent of the neigh
bourhood of the male, and without any apparent or perceptible
deterioration, the Dutch governors conceived the idea of pro
hibiting under heavy penalties the growth of the male plantain
altogether. In this their " high mightinesses" must have been
actuated by the cacoethes guhernandi, or by the absurd belief
that the work of the God of Nature had been nimiously or im
perfectly performed, and that a Dutch governor could improve
upon it by promulgating regulations which were to set the
leading law of the universe at defiance. In the island of Cuba,
Y 3

326

CUBA.

The cultivation of indigo has been repeatedly
attempted in the island, but never with much sue-

there has been no such pernicious regulation ; and there, after
an uninterrupted enjoyment of it for 300 years, the plant re
mains as fruitful and as free from disease as ever. A thousand
theories have been formed at Demerara, as to the cause of the
calamity which has befallen the colony, but no one seems to
have stumbled on the true one. The consequence is, that vast
sums are now expended by the proprietors of estates, in the
purchase or importation of rice or flour, potatoes or yams,
from the United States or the neighbouring islands, to supply
the deficiency. Believing that I had fallen on the much-desired
remedy, I selected some of the healthiest male plantains I could
find in the neighbourhood of Matanzas, where the soil most
resembles that of British Guiana; and had them carefully
packed up with the mould in which they grew, despatching the
case containing them by one of Her Majesty's cruizers " The
Pickle," Lieut. Hast, to Port Royal, Jamaica, there to be put on
board the post-office packet, addressed to His Excellency
Mr. Light, the present Governor of Demerara. Although I
had not the honour of being personally known to His Ex
cellency, I took the liberty of addressing him on the subject,
and of begging that the Cuba roots might be planted in the
midst of some of the plantain walks, where the disease had
most decidedly declared itself; and I did not doubt, that not
only a large proportion of the existing plants would be pre
served, but that in the seed of future plantains the means would
be obtained of extending and perpetuating the race throughout
the colony. Not having yet had the honour to receive any
answer from Governor Light, I am bound to ascribe the delay
to any cause but want of courtesy on his part, such as the mis
carriage of his letter in consequence of the long journey I have
made in the United States and British America, since leaving
the Havana, or from His Excellency's desire to put the sound
ness of the theory to trial before making a report upon it. In
every case not doubting the perfect success of the remedy I
have proposed, I here put in my claim for the reward so long
unsuccessfully offered by the colony.

INDIGO. 327
cess ; although the shrub called the Xiquilete, from
which it is extracted, grows wild in several districts
of the island, but more especially towards its eastern
extremity. The first anileria, or manufactory of
indigo, was established in 1795, under the patron
age of the ayuntamiento of the Havana, who made
an advance of #3,500, without interest, to the
party engaging in the speculation, in order to en
courage the enterprise ; but the undertaking proved
unsuccessful, and the same fate has befallen every
subsequent attempt to introduce this branch of in
dustry. In 1827 the whole produce amounted
only to 56 arrobas. In 1837 the imports of indigo
greatly exceeded the exports ; the former having
amounted to 121,350 pounds, and the latter to
82,890 pounds.
The cotton cultivation of the island is incon
siderable, although the cotton plant thrives in
many districts, and more especially on the stony
and barren grounds near the coast. It has never
engaged any large share of the attention of the
planters, from the impression that the total value of
a cargo is trifling compared with that of coffee, su
gar, or tobacco ; although it is not to be denied
that it is raised at much less cost to the agriculturist
than most of the other staples of the island. The
production of the year 1827 is stated to have been
38,142 arrobas, and the total exportation 23,414,
so that the consumption appears to have amounted
to 14,728. This large quantity, considering the
total want of spinning machinery, must have been
consumed in the shape of candle-wicks, and for
y 4

328 cuba.
other domestic purposes. In the year 1837 the
export of cotton amounted to 26,987 arrobas and
was valued at #33,733 6.
The cultivation of cacao is of comparatively
recent introduction, but it was expected to in
crease and in some degree to supply the place of
coffee, which is evidently on the decline. The tree
requires very little care or expense, but is long of
becoming productive. According to the statis
tical returns of 1827, the gross produce amounted
to 23,806 arrobas, and the exports to 19,053. In
the same year 15, 30 if arrobas were imported, so
that at that period the production was not nearly
equal to the consumption. The expectation of a
great increase of production seems not to have
been realised, as the exports of 1837 were only
587:1; arrobas, while the imports amounted to
40,837^ arrobas.
The wax of the island is considered equal in
quality to that of Venice. It does not appear as
an article of export in the official returns till the
year 1770 ; and from that time till 1780, the
average quantity exported appears to have been
about 2700 arrobas. From that period a great
demand for it arose in Mexico, Peru, and the
isthmus of Panama, insomuch that in 1803 the
exports from the port of the Havana alone had
amounted to 42,700 arrobas, of which 25,000 were
sent to the Spanish possessions in continental
America. The interruption of the intercourse
with the Paises Disidentes produced a corre
sponding defalcation in the demand, so that be-

wax. 329
tween the years 1815 and 1820 the export of this
article from the capital had fallen on the average
to 21,051 arrobas, and in the following five years,
from 1820 to 1825, it had sunk to 16,300 arro
bas. In 1826 it was 13,949^, and in 1827 it had
fallen to 11,279. In this last year the quantity ex
ported from the other ports of the island amounted
to nearly as much more, so that the whole ex
ports were 22,402§ arrobas. The statistical re
turns make the whole produce of wax in the island
for that year 63,160 arrobas, from whence it is.
inferred that the domestic consumption of the
island amounted to 40,757^ arrobas. Those who
apply themselves to the management of bees have
a separate resource in the sale of the honey. In
1827 the produce of this article amounted to
76,404 arrobas, the exportation to 11,700 arrobas,
and the consumption to 51,704. In 1837 the ex
portation of wax had increased to 39,264^ arrobas
valued at $ 171,800 1, while that of honey amounted
to 3,380^ bocoyes, valued at #63,381 3; but as the
contents of the bocoy are not specified in the offi
cial returns, it is impossible to establish a compa
rison between the exports of the years in question.
The bocoy is used occasionally as a package for
coffee, Muscovado sugar, and molasses. The coffee
cask is either great or small, the bocoy grande
containing 40 arrobas, and the bocoy pequeno 28.
The sugar cask contains from 50 to 54 arrobas,
and the cask for molasses UO gallons.
Of the domestic animals the ox, the horse, and
the pig, are by far the most valuable, and form a

330

CUBA.

large proportion of the wealth of the island ; the
sheep, the goat, and the mule are inferior in
quality and numbers ; but within these few years
a number of the jackasses of the peninsula have
been introduced and from them the mule has
been propagated with great advantage. The rabbit
has also been introduced, and dogs and cats are of
course sufficiently numerous. The bloodhound,
employed in former times in pursuit of the unfor
tunate Aborigines, and more recently to check the
wanderings of the negroes, is not a native of the
island, although it usually bears the name of the
Cuba bloodhound. The Perro Jibaro is the common
domestic dog, who has fled into the mountains, and
has there resumed many of the marks of the fierce
naturce. Although at first of various races and
colours, when restored to a state of nature they
uniformly become rough in the coat, nearly black in
colour, ferocious and carnivorous, although not quite
so fierce as the wolf of Europe, and never turning
on man until closely pressed in the chase. They
live in the forests or in caverns, and, although the
constant object of attack, they increase considerably
in numbers, doing great damage to the pigs, sheep,
goats, and other inferior domestic animals. The
Gato Jibaro is in like manner the domestic cat,
who has fled and become wild, and exceedingly
destructive in the poultry yard.
Of domestic fowls the cocks and hens of Europe
are by far the most numerous, and the English
game cock is especially prized for its decided pug
nacious superiority. The people of Cuba have an

ORNITHOLOGY. 331
extraordinary taste for the cruel sports of the cock
pit ; which they combine with their passion for
gaming, to such a degree, that among the rich ha
cendados upwards of #100,000 have been known
to be lost, and won, on the issue of a single
main. The goose, the turkey, the pigeon, and
the peacock, are also well known, and the parrot
and parroquet are easily domesticated. The sylvan
birds are numerous, and in great variety, many of
them preferring the neighbourhood of the culti
vated portions of the country. The partridge is
greatly degenerated in these climates. Birds of
prey are not numerous ; and here, as in the other
islands of the West Indies, the lazy-looking, bald-
headed vulture or turkey buzzard is protected by
law and custom on account of the important ser
vices it renders by the prompt removal of all sorts
of carrion. The shortness of the time required in
cutting up and consuming a dead ox, or a dead
mule, is almost incredible ; although, just before
it fell, not one of these great horrid, heavy-looking
imals was to be seen within the range of the

an

to"-

visible horizon.
The reefs and shallows, and the interior sandy
beach by which the island is lined throughout the
greater part of its circumference, but especially on
the side of the old Bahama Channel, the Isle of
Pines, and the Cayos de Doce Leguas, are parti
cularly favourable for the production of those
species of turtle, from which the best quality of
tortoise-shell is procured. It is in the sandy beach
that the female turtle digs the hole, in which she

332 cuba.
deposits her eggs, and it is generally on moonlight
nights that they come on shore for this purpose;
Should there be a reef facing the beach, and a rise
and fall of tide, they wait for the rising of the
water to float them over it, so as to reach the sand
an hour or two before flood-tide, leaving time suf
ficient to dig the holes, deposit the eggs, and return
to sea before the water on the reef has fallen. If
the ascent be gentle, the holes or pits are dug at
a considerable distance from high-water mark, in
such secret places near the beach, among bushes or
small hillocks, as can most conveniently be found.
The holes are sometimes so large, that the mother
turtle is occupied more than an hour in digging
them. Those who go in search of turtle do not
frequent the beach till near high-water ; as that is
the time when they are supposed to be on shore
in the greatest numbers. The strictest silence must
be observed, as they take the alarm at the smallest
noise, and in that case those already on their way,
in place of coming to the beach, will immediately
return to sea.
There are other varieties of the Tortugo which
inhabit the mouths of rivers, and the lagoons, both
salt and fresh. In deeper water, in gulfs and bays,
the crocodile and the cayman are found ; the latter
more especially where the water is stagnant. The
manati belongs to the deep pools of fresh water,
and the iguana, a sort of lizard, to the banks of
streams, bays, and lagoons. In some places the
land crab is so excessively numerous, as to become
troublesome, and even dangerous to travellers on

FISH MARKET. 333
foot or on horseback. For half a league at a time
the whole surface of the ground will be under
mined by them, producing often serious accidents,
by entrapping the foot of the traveller or that of
his horse. In some places the pigs feed on these
crabs, to the great injury of their health. The
common kind, the Cangreja, is about seven inches
in diameter, without including the extremities.
The fish market of the Havana is better sup
plied, both in quantity and variety, than most of
our West India cities. The Viajaca and the Mo-
jarra are the most abundant ; but as every island
and every portion of the coast seems to have its
peculiar species, it would be in vain to enumerate
them. The Havana is the only place where I have
seen the flesh of the shark exposed for sale in the
market ; although I have been told that the same
thing happens not unfrequently in Kingston, Ja
maica. Towards the end of a long voyage it would
not be wonderful if seamen, after being restricted
for weeks or months to salt provisions, should be
willing to make a mess of this monster of the deep ;
but, although I have frequently seen them rejoice
in the capture, pretty much as a farmer would at
the destruction of a fox or a wolf, I have generally
observed that the horrid carcase has been instantly
thrown overboard to make food for his fellow-
sharks. Oysters also are to be had, such as may
frequently be seen hanging like fruit from the
branches of the mangrove, a tree which girdles
the coasts of most of the West India islands.
Snakes and reptiles are not very numerous in this

334

CUBA.

island. The maja, twelve or fourteen feet in length,
and eighteen or twenty inches in circumference,
is generally found in the near neighbourhood of
country houses and other inhabited* places, taking
up its lodging in the roof, and preying on the
poultry. It is represented as pursuing and killing
the only aboriginal quadruped, the hutia, with an
extraordinary degree of dexterity, catching it at
the moment when, pushed to the extremity of the
branch of a tree, it has jumped off to save itself.
Man it seldom attacks, and its flesh and fat are
supposed to be medicinal. A smaller snake, the
jubo, about six feet in length, is considered more
dangerous, and is also more common than the
maja, not hesitating to attack a man on the slightest
provocation. It lives generally on the surface of
the ground, among stones and rubbish.
Among the insect tribe, the bee furnishes two
important branches of export in its wax and its
honey. In the higher grounds, and the cultivated
regions of the island, the honey is of a delicious
quality ; but in many of the lower districts, espe
cially near the coast, where there are shrubs and
plants of a poisonous nature, the honey becomes
also pernicious from the bees having fed on their
flowers. The inhabitants, nevertheless, persist in
making use of it for sweetening their coffee, at the
expense of nausea and headache to those who have
not been accustomed to its use. The negroes eat
it in abundance, and in some places the dogs are
said to feed upon it exclusively. There is another
sort supposed to be indigenous, called the abeja

HONEY AND WAX. 335
criolla, much lighter in the colour, and with a sting
so short, that it scarcely makes itself felt. It builds
its hive in hollow trees in the interior of forests or
in clefts of the rock. Its wax is of a dark colour,
but of a balsamic quality, and considered useful in
healing wounds and reducing tumours, particularly
such as have become callous ; that which is obtained
from the interior part of the hive being preferred
from its having a more powerful aroma. The honey
is also darker in colour than that produced by the
common bee, but its flavour, though strong, is agree
able. It often requires great courage to climb to
the places in the rocks where their hives are formed;
but the natives of the country are accustomed to
it, and pursue it with all the ardour of a field sport.
In those districts where this dark-coloured wax is
produced, it is made into candles for the use of the
neighbourhood, without being bleached.
The phosphorescent insects are also numerous
in the island, and a dozen of the large sort, called
the Cocuyo, when inclosed in a cage prepared for
the purpose, will emit so much light, of a brilliant
green colour, as to enable you to read by it. The
late clever and eccentric Mr. Joseph, of Trinidad,
assured me that he had written several volumes by
this sort of light. They may be preserved alive
for three months or more, provided they are fre
quently bathed, and their favourite food, a piece of
sugar-cane stripped of its bark, is renewed at least
daily. Among the noxious insects, the nigua, or jigger
as it is called in the British Islands, is perhaps the

336

CUBA.

most troublesome. It establishes itself in the hide
of the pig, being almost imperceptible in size, and
is to be found in all places frequented by that
animal. When it finds its way beneath the human
epidermis, it is not easy to dislodge it, particularly
when it has formed its nest or purse between the
nails and flesh of the toe. If not extracted within
four and twenty hours, the nest will be filled with
eggs, producing at first a violent itching, and af
terwards an acute pain. In the attempt to dislodge
them, the greatest care must be taken not to injure
the part affected before cauterizing the little wound,
otherwise the consequences may be serious. I
have frequently seen negroes lame for life by their
neglect of the ulcers produced by the attack of the
jigger ; and I have been told that in such cases
the amputation of the limb has often been rendered
necessary. That species of the ant, called the vivijagua, is
exceedingly destructive in Cuba, particularly in
orchards and coffee plantations, but their depre
dations are not so much spoken of as in Trinidad and
Demerara. But of all the insect tribe, the mosquito family
are the most vexatious, particularly on the swampy
coasts alluded to elsewhere. They are of various
sorts, the coraci, the zancudo, the rodador, the
jaguey, and the lancetero ; and the stings of many
of them are so powerful that I have had the blood
drawn through a thick leather glove, and the scars
they have left have not entirely disappeared for
many months. At St. Domingo I saw a gentleman

THE MOSQUITOES. 337'
who was seriously lamed by the festering bite of
one of these gallynippers, insomuch that he was
obliged to be carried in a litter on board the ship
by which he left the island. The sand-fly, although
scarcely perceptible to the eye, is quite as trouble
some as the mosquito, causing such a degree of
irritation that in some cases it is said to have proved
fatal. The polilla is the moth which attacks libraries
and wardrobes, and proves so destructive to books,
MSS., and clothes. Shelves and drawers of cedar,
Russia leather bindings and portmanteaus, afford
some imperfect protection against the ravages of
this insect.
Of the whole insect tribe, however, the spider
of these climates is the most revolting; and its sting
is so painful and poisonous as to produce fever, al
though not attended with serious risk. It is to be
found both in town and country, and is considered
by the inhabitants the most noxious insect which
exists in the island.
The mancaperro bears some resemblance to the
centipede, but is of a larger size, and takes its name
from its attacking dogs and other animals by means
of a sort of poisonous matter which it throws out,
and so causes a malignant sore.
The scorpion is very different from that of Eu
rope in form, and is much less injurious. The
centipede is neither so large nor so common as in
many of the other West India settlements.
Although the mountains of Cuba are not so
high as those of Jamaica or St. Domingo, the moie
z

338 cuba.
northerly situation of the Grande Antilla gives a
greater range to the thermometer than in any
other of the West India islands. It has never
been known to snow there, but frost occurs occa
sionally ; and ice has been formed to the thickness
of several lines when a strong north wind has for
some time prevailed, bringing with it the cold air
of the Canadas. This took place in 1801, and
again in 1812, on some high ground in the neigh
bourhood of the Havana, about 350 feet above the
level of the sea. Hail storms are not so uncommon,
occurring in general when the wind is blowing
strongly from the S. S. W. ; and on the tops of the
highest mountains after a copious dew the ground
is frequently whitened with hoar frost.
Instead of summer and winter the seasons are
spoken of as the rainy and the dry, although the
period of demarcation is not very clearly defined.
It is generally in May that the rainy season com
mences, but sometimes it begins in April, and
occasionally not till June. Of late years, however,
the island suffers much more from excessive drought
than from rain. In some districts a fourth or a
third part of the cattle have been cut off, and at
other places as much as a half, from the mere want
of water. The crops have probably suffered in an
equal degree, although the amount of the loss is
not so easily determined. These droughts are as
cribed with every appearance of truth to the cutting
down of the timber; and it has even been recom
mended that the local authorities should interfere
to restrain the proprietors from denuding their

THE SEASONS. 339
estates, especially on the mountainous ridges of the
great Cordillera, so as to save some portion of
the native forests, in the most favourable situations
for attracting the moisture. The history of some
of the longest settled islands in these seas seems to
justify this suggestion ; as we find that Antigua
and Barbados, which now so frequently suffer from
a season of drought, had nothing of that kind to
complain of in the first century of their settlement,
before the trees had disappeared.
Hurricanes are not so frequent in Cuba as in
St. Domingo or the Leeward Islands, as by a
strange perversion of language the smaller islands
of the Archipelago are denominated in our post-
office department. When they do occur it is
generally between the middle of August and the
middle of October. The French government as
sume that the dangerous season is from the 15th
of July to the 15th of October ; and during that
period they compel their merchant ships, in the
West Indies, to retire from the open roadsteads to
places of greater safety. Spanish vessels are not
exposed to any restraint, beyond the practice of
the underwriters engaged in marine insurance ;
who are accustomed to increase their rates of pre
mium on ships going to sea, after the 1st of August.

z 2

340

CUBA.

CHAP. 'XVII.
PROPOSED ADDITION TO TREATY.  SLAVE POLICY OF SPAIN.
 ORDERS AND COUNTER ORDERS.  PORTUGUESE
SYSTEM.  PORTUGUESE TRADE.  SPANISH TRADE. 
POINTS TO BE WATCHED.  TRADING SEASON.  HE
REDITARY BONDAGE.
Jhave endeavoured to show that it is the fear of
lo^in^thejrj^ejrrahiing colonies which has prompted
every successive administration in Spain to resort
pto the most disingenuous conti'ivances for the pur
pose of fbrjurigjJie-slave_trade on the island of Cuba,
to the great loss and disadvantage of the wealthiest
and in every sense the most respectable class of its
proprietors. Since the year 18 17, when the treaty
was negotiated, under which the courts of mixed
commission were constituted, we have had more
than twenty years' experience of their total in
efficiency as an engine for the suppression of the
slave trade ; and now, since the conclusion of the
treaty of 1835, which transferred the trade to the
flag of Portugal, the courts at the Havana and
Rio de Janeiro have been reduced to the condition
of so many sinecures.
I have now with great submission to present the
outline of a plan by which the efficiency of these
courts may be restored, and which, if my Lord Cla
rendon could be persuaded to undertake it, would
afford a satisfactory guarantee for the crowning of
his Lordship's former labours in the cause of

PROPOSED ADDITION TO TREATY. 341
African freedom with something like definitive
success. I shall be liable, I fear, to the charge of
presumption in making this proposal ; but if I
have been so fortunate as to discover a practicable
mode of solving the problem which for the last
half century has engaged the attention of so many
statesmen and philanthropists, I am persuaded
that the noble negotiator of the treaty of 1835
will think it no derogation from the dignity which
belongs alike to his personal character, to the high
place he holds in Her Majesty's councils, and to
his brilliant European reputation, if by a further
sacrifice on his part he were to hasten by a single
year the term of practical abolition, and so save at
least a hundred thousand individuals frojn^Jalling
victimlftcnhlfsLave trade. * ¦ 
In every negotiation with the Spanish government
it is of course assumed that her Catholic Majesty
is as desirous as we are to prevent the pollution
of the soil of her trans- Atlantic dominions by the
continuance of this wholesale system of murder.
The suggestion I have now to offer would first of
all apply an effectual test to the sincerity of those
unblushing assertions so constantly addressed to
our minister at Madrid by her Catholic Majesty's
government, and by the captain-general at the
Havana to the British commissioners, but hitherto
in practice so totally disregarded.
It is matter of notoriety that in Spanish courts
of justice, whether in the colonies or the Peninsula,
all judicial proceedings, civil or criminal, take
place with closed doors; the discussion is not
z 3

342 cuba.
even conducted viva voce. The pleadings of the
lawyers and the deliberations of the court are uni
formly reduced to a written form, and are as per
fectly private in their nature as it is possible to
conceive. In what I have to suggest, therefore,
there would not be room for the groundless pre
tence, set up as an apology by Captain-General
Espeleta for his refusal to publish in the Diario de
la Habana the royal order which enjoined him and
his subordinate functionaries to use their utmost
exertions for the suppression of the slave trade.
That apology was the pretended fear of insurrection
among the negroes.
By extending thejowersjff_the^ouilLof^jmixed
cormrrissiori, conducted as its proceedings have
always been, in strict conformity with the Spanish
principle of closed doors, written pleadings, and
secret deliberations, there could be no pretence for
the fear of commotion, or of danger to the public
peace, if it wTere suffered to consider the civil
right, under the existing laws of Spain, of an im
ported African to his freedom, after the fact of
his being landed in the island.
If this simple extension of the powers of the
court were strongly pressed on the Spanish go
vernment by such a minister as Lord Clarendon,
who has so often received the assurances of suc
cessive administrations of their earnest desire to
abolish the traffic, the argument would be utterly
irresistible ; and the court of Madrid would be
shamed into instant compliance.
It remains to inquire what would be the pro-

PROPOSED ADDITION TO TREATY. 343
bable effect of this extension of the power and
jurisdiction of the Havana court of mixed com
mission. The first consequence would be to produce a
radical and practical change in the legal condition
of the imported African. As matters now stand,
the mere fact of his touching the soil of the island
is sufficient to doom him to perpetual bondage.
Once put on shore, the interests of the slave-dealer
are secured. From that instant the slave may
safely be transferred into another ship, and re
moved to any other point of her Catholic Ma
jesty's possessions. Thenceforward the property
in the slave, having become an acquired, and,
practically speaking, an acknowledged right, the
pretended owner may laugh a whole squadron of
British cruizers to scorn.
If the ordinary courts of justice would but do
their duty, and if some poor Bozal were put into a
position to assert his right to his personal liberty
by the ordinary forms of judicial process, there
cannot be a doubt that he would be entitled by the
existing law to a judgment in his favour. The pos
sessor of the slave might be compelled to prove his
right of dominion over him ; and that right could
not be supported without a legal title.
The only real difficulty in the way is the unwil
lingness of the public functionaries, the judges not
excepted, to carry the law into effect. Strictly
speaking, there can be no legal right of ownership
in a Bozal negro under the existing laws of the
Spanish monarchy ; and if the captain -general had
z 4

344 cuba.
not been prevented by secret counter orders from
carrying these laws into effect, the trade would long
ago have been effectually suppressed. But —

¦ " Quid leges sine moribus

Vanae proficiunt?"
Most certainly the public barracoons, which no
toriously exist under the vary windows of the su
burban palace of the viceroy, could never have
been suffered to remain there to give a standing
lie to his Excellency's professions. But place those
barracoons where you please, they could not es
cape the attention of the British commissioners, nor
of the superintendant of liberated Africans. The
tried moral courage of the gentleman who now
holds that office, and his distinguished zeal in the
cause of abolition, would admirably qualify him for
the performance of the duties of an official pro
tector and assertor of the liberties of these newly-
imported Bozals.
Suppose the court of mixed commission at the
Havana to remain in its present form, and that by
an additional article to the treaty of 1835 it should
be authorised to deliberate on the right of an African
to his freedom, as well after as before his merciless
persecutors have thrown his body on the beach, it
would not be easy for any minister in Madrid, in
dealing with Lord Clarendon, after all that has
passed on the subject, and after all the solemn
assurances of the sincere desire of the SpaiTisTTgo-
verihnehTto abolish the t-nifficTFo bring forward any
plausible pretext for refusing his consent to this
extension of the jurisdiction of the court, rendered

PROPOSED ADDITION TO TREATY. 345
indispensable by the acknowledged evasion of the
equipment clause and by the notorious transfer of
the trade to the flag of Portugal.
TTie^eserlt commissary judge, Mr. Kennedy, has
frequently been made to feel the insufficiency of
the powers with which the mixed court is vested,
for attaining the object contemplated by its insti
tution. He has been drawn into angry correspon
dence with the captain-general, on the subject of
the systematic evasion of the laws of the country,
of the terms of the treaty, and of the requirements
of the royal orders sent out from Madrid. He is
told in answer that his language is poco decoroso.
No redress is given, and the judge is driven to the
necessity of asking for further powers to enable the
court to carry these royal orders into execution.
The equipment clause itself is found to require
amendment. In some respects it is imperfect, and
in others liable to evasion. The services it has ren
dered, however, are proved by the fact that the
British government has adopted measures for ren
dering its conditions more stringent, and still more
strongly by the practical transfer of the trade to
other flags.
The two amendments proposed seem to me to
fall short of the great object in view ; but that object,
I submit, is nevertheless attainable by the negotia
tion of such an additional article as I have ventured
to propose.
In this view of the matter the mere existence of
the court for twenty years, in the course of which
discussions have arisen affecting the freedom of

346 cuba.
entire cargoes of Africans, without producing a
single practical evil, to give the captain-general or
the government any substantive cause of complaint,
affords a broad basis on which the demand for an
enlargement of the powers of the court may be
conveniently founded. Any case that could come
before it under the proposed additional article,
however important in principle, would not be of a
nature to justify the fear of insurrection. Each
particular cause brought up for adjudication would
only involve the right of a single African to his
freedom. If pushed to its full extent, it is true, that by
the constant repetition of the process, it would go
far to depopulate the sugar estates, and deprive
them of their prandial labourers. On this ground,
unless limited to future importations, it would be
'loudly objected to by almost all classes of the in
habitants of Cuba; but if in the new article or the
new treaty a day were fixed, past, present, or fu
ture, which was to become the terminus a quo, from
whence its operation was to begin, the number of
persons who could suffer in their interests would
be exceedingly limited, and would also be clearly
defined. But suppose it to have no retroactive
effect, and that all past infractions of laws and
treaties are to be overlooked ; then, as the only
parties who would really sustain any grievance
would be those who have invested their capital in
Baltimore clippers, and who would thereby be de
prived of the means of turning their purchases to
profitable account, no man would venture to say

PROPOSED ADDITION TO TREATY. 347
that the future and contingent advantages to arise
from the further prosecution of the slave trade,
whether agricultural, commercial, or political, could
be seriously taken into account. As wrell might
the contingent profits of the shipbuilders of Mary
land be entitled to a favourable consideration.
The great obstacle to the attainment of this
object appears to be overcome by the palpable fact,
that two British judges, invested with important
powers, and an extensive jurisdiction, have long
been established in the dominions of Spain, for the
very purpose of putting down the slave trade, and
at the very place where that purpose can be accom
plished most effectually. When strongly pressed
in the ^years_1834 and 1835, the SpanTsh" govern
ment yielded with a tolerable graceJtxTtJie^adm is-
sion pFajpTmciple, theTsole object of which was to
facilitate the^onvjcli^n^f-the^r^ Con
trary, however, to the hopes of the one, and the
fears of the other contracting party, the effect
of the equipment clause -has—not __been to abo
lish the trade, but to transfer it to anotherTiag.
Let Us return then to the charge, exposethe false
position which the Spanish government has taken
up, and compel them to surrender at discretion.
It is true that as the court is at present consti
tuted, with two commissary judges and two arbi
trators, the drawing of lots or the dice-box would
be more frequently resorted to than might be con
sistent with the interests of freedom and human
ity. But even supposing that the Spanish com
missary judge were to oppose, a I'outrance, the

348 cuba.
emancipation of every unfortunate captive that
came before him, the effect would be, on a fair cal
culation of chances, to bring about th^Aihexat\gno£^
onejialf of all the A [ricansjfd^^o}^}^^^^^0^
be landedlm~the.isjlanjij_.and this proportion would
be qlirte~sThtficient, supposing our cruizers to make
no increase in their exertions, to extinguish the
profits of the slave-dealers, and so put an end to
their trade.
It is neither the wish nor riie_rinterest of the
Creoles-.of.Cuba, as a body, at least not of theoloT
landed proprietors, to continue the_practice of the
slave trade. It is the captain-general who repre
sents the opinions of the Cabinet of Madrid ; the
subordinate functionaries, natives of OldHSpain, who
reap a rich revenue from the trade ; and the actual
slave-dealers who embark their capital in the under
taking ; that are its real and substantial supporters.
The maintenance of the traffic is regarded by
the Peninsular government as a sort of political ne
cessity. In a country so far removed from the seat
of government, they are constantly alive tothe dif
ficulty of maintaining their sovereignty —
 " alieno in loco
Haud stabile regnum est."
They are of opinion, and in this they are per
haps not far wrong, that the continuance of the
connection of Cuba with the mother-country would
be seri^usby_jmdangered by making the resident
white population independent of what they think
the wholesome dread or a servile insurrection.
Conceal it as they may, this is the true and simple

ORDERS AND COUNTER-ORDERS. 349
key to the whole policy of the Spanish govern
ment on the subject ; and it will be found, on ap
plication, to open up and illustrate many of the
measures of that government with regard to this
island, which have hitherto appeared so mysterious
and inconsistent.
When all the arts of diplomacy have been ex
hausted by our minister at Madrid to obtain a royal
order on the captain-general of Cuba for the per
formance of some act of justice which had long
been withheld, and when at length that royal order
has been reluctantly issued, it will probably be
found that the authorities at the Havana do not
scruple to evade it and leave it wholly without
effect. This they would never dare to do, if they
had not the secret sanction of the government.
Thus, on the 2d of November, 1838, a royal
order was issued at the instance of Lord Clarendon,
directing the captain-general to atfo^itTTbeThost
efficacious means for putting an end to this illegal
and contraband traffic ;""but it is needless to say
it was never intended that it should be carried
into effect. If ever transmitted at all by the
Spanish minister at Madrid to his representative
at the Havana, it was accompanied with secret in
structions to let it remain in abeyance. It was
issued, because the necessity of yielding to the
importunity of the British minister was stronger
for the moment than that of raising up or main
taining a permanent obstacle to the ardent desire
for independence entertained by the Creole inha
bitants.

350 CUBA.
As soon as a copy of the royal order reached the
British commissioners, finding that it was likely to
remain a dead letter in the archives of the colonial
government, they addressed a written application
to the captain-general, respectfully suggesting that
the usual publicity should be given to it by three
successive insertions in the official journal, the
Diario de la Havana. To this application the
commissioners received for answer, " that the pe
culiar circumstances of an island in which there
is such an excessive number of slaves, suggest mo
tives of policy and prudence for avoiding the pub
lication of any kind of expression, capable of being
misinterpreted, which might excite them to riot or
mutiny, on the supposition that they were unjustly
oppressed." His Excellency further stated that
he had communicated the order to the governors
and lieutenant-governors under his command ; so
that the farce of issuing orders accompanied by
counter-orders to render them of none effect, is
acted on the vice-regal stage at the Havana, in
humble imitation of the royal performance at Mad
rid. Thus a new negotiation becomes necessary,
and the whole machinery of diplomacy must be set
in motion to bring about the publication of an ad
vertisement in a Havana newspaper ! It must be
dinned into the ears of the Spanish minister, that
the reason assigned by the captain-general for not
publishing the order could not be received as sa
tisfactory ; since it amounted only to this, that
because the order specifically applies to Cuba, it

PORTUGUESE TRADE. 351
is therefore unfitting that the people of Cuba should
be made aware of its existence.
The motives of the Spanish government for
forcing the slave trade on the inhabitants of Cuba,
however indefensible in the face of solemn treaties,
and in defiance of the laws of humanity, may almost
be said to be dignified and respectable when com
pared with the wretched incentives which stimulate
the government of Lisbon to cover and protect
this atrocious traffic. No national interest can now
be pleaded by Portugal for the continuance of
this trade. The trans- Atlantic colonies, to which
she formerly carried slaves for the purpose of cul
tivating the soil, have separated from the mother-
country ; and the African colonies, from which
slaves are now carried, are impoverished and de
populated, and kept in a state of barbarism by the
practice. The African seas and the Atlantic
swarm with vessels bearing the flag of Portugal,
and loaded deep with human victims. Such is
the truthful and energetic language constantly
addressed to the government of her most Faithful
Majesty, a government which has received from
Great Britain upwards of 6,000,000/. sterling as the
price of an act of justice and humanity.
It is to continue the profits of the mere carrying
trade and the previous profits on the business of
kidnapping in the interior of Africa, that Portugal
has steeped herself in all this degradation. In
1837 forty-eight, and in 1838 forty-four vessels
under the flag of Portugal, entered the port of the
Havana after having landed slaves in the neigh-

352 cuba.
bourhood. The average assumed by Lord Palmer
ston is, that each vessel must have introduced on
the average 443 slaves, which would make the
number landed by Portuguese agency near the
Havana, during the two years in question, amount
to not less than 40,700 slaves. For reasons already
stated I am disposed to believe that this average
is too high, and that 300 for each cargo landed
would be nearer the truth. This would reduce
the amount for the two years to about 27,500.
The Portuguese trade with the Brazils is proved
to be still greater than that with Cuba. Not less
than ninety-three vessels under the flag of Portugal
are reported to have entered the harbour of Rio
de Janeiro alone in the year 1837, and as many as
eighty-four in 1838, from which there were landed
78,300 slaves.
These calculations do not include the number of
Portuguese slavers which resorted to other places
in Cuba besides the Havana, nor to other provinces
in Brazil besides Rio de Janeiro ; neither does it
include the number which founder at sea, nor those
which were captured and condemned at Sierra
Leone. In that settlement there are four courts of mixed
commission, — the British and Brazilian, the British
and Netherlands, the British and Spanish, and the
British and Portuguese. In the year 1838 the
number of vessels which passed through those
courts amounted to thirty. The Dutch and Bra
zilian commissioners enjoyed a sinecure ; the calen
dar of their courts presented a maiden assize ; but

PORTUGUESE TRADE. 353
although several of the thirty slavers were con
demned in the Spanish court, as being liable, under
a new interpretation of the lex mercatoria, to be
treated as Spaniards and so to be subject to the
conditions of the treaty, it is a remarkable fact that
every one of them professed to be Portuguese, and
was provided with Portuguese papers.
Seventeen were condemned in the Portuguese
court, because the fact of their being full of slaves
at the moment of capture was irresistible; one was
also condemned although Portuguese, because it
was proved that she had slaves on board during
the particular voyage in the course of which she
was detained; one, the Camoes, escaped condem
nation in consequence of an irregularity which
will be noticed in another place ; and the other
eleven were deprived of the shelter of the Portu
guese flag and condemned in the Spanish court,
on the ground that their ownership and course of
trade had brought them within the reach of the
Spanish treaty. Not one of the whole number
was really Portuguese. Four of them were proved
to be Brazilian, and the remaining twenty-six were
undoubtedly Spanish.
Of the thirty slavers in question, seventeen re
ceived their Portuguese passports at the Cape de
Verd islands, four at the islands of Princes and St.
Thomas on the African coast, two at St. Paul de
Loando, three from the Portuguese consul-general
at Rio de Janeiro, three from the Portuguese con
sul-general at Cadiz, and one at Lisbon. Their des-
A A

354 cuba.
tination were, two to Bahia, two to Pernambuco,
two to Porto Rico, and twenty-four to Cuba.
Of the eleven traders condemned in the Spanish
court, only one, the Opposicao, to be noticed else
where, had embarked any negroes previous to her
capture. Her cargo consisted of people of the
Congo nation, shipped in the river Zaire.
Of the nineteen prosecuted in the Portuguese
court, eighteen, as I have just said, were condemned
for having had slaves on board. Four of them em
barked their slaves in the Gallinas, one in the
Sherbro, and one in the Rio Nunez, three rivers in
the immediate neighbourhood of the British settle
ment of Sierra Leone. Five others received then-
cargoes at Lagos, two in the Calabar, two in the
Bonny, one in the river Benin, one in the river Nun,
and one at Whydah. The Camoes, which escaped
condemnation, would doubtless have received her
cargo in the Benin.
Of the eleven vessels condemned in the Spanish
court, one was captured near the Havana after
discharging her cargo. The other ten had not yet
received their slaves ; and it was therefore in virtue
of the equipment clause in the Clarendon treaty
that they were subject to condemnation. They
were all taken on the African coast ; nine of them
in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, six in the
Gallinas already referred to, one in the Pungas, two
a little lower down off the river Sestos, and one at
Accra. Some idea of the points on the coast of Cuba
which most require to be watched may be gathered

TRADING SEASON. 355
from the returns of the places where the last
twenty-five cargoes, reported ending in April,
1839, had been successfully landed ; viz. nine at
Guanimar, four near Trinidad de Cuba, three at
Mariel, two at Camarioca, one at Puente de Guano,
one at Cabanos, one at Banes, one at Cogimar,
one at Santa Cruz, one at Canimar, and one
near Santiago de Cuba. The neighbourhood of
the Havana and Matanzas are the points which
best suit the convenience of the dealers. The south
coast is considered objectionable on account of its
being more exposed ; but still from this list it may
be seen that it is often preferred by the slave cap
tains, in the exercise of the discretion with which
they are necessarily entrusted.
The average length of the voyage from the date
of leaving the Havana till the return is rather
more than seven months, the shortest on a series of
six years having been four months, and the longest
rather more than fifteen. At the end of four
months it is considered that they may be looked
for almost daily ; and in the cases set down as ex
ceeding twelve months, there may sometimes have
been two voyages instead of one, the first arrival
not having transpired. After seven or eight months'
absence they begin to be despaired of, longer
voyages being of rare occurrence. They are occa
sioned in general either by loss of time in changing
papers, by a temporary detention and release, or by
the difficulty of finding a cargo.
It has been remarked that the trade has always
been most active in the months of November,
A A 2

356 CUBA-
December, January, and February ; at least these
are the months when the arrival of slave vessels
from the coast of Africa is more frequent than at
other seasons of the year. This circumstance,
whatever be its cause, should have some weight
with the Admiralty in regulating the relative num
ber of cruizers appointed to the service on the
different stations, so as to place them at the proper
season where they would be most likely to be
efficient. It was during this busy season that my visit to
the island took place ; and the commanders of the
cruizers on the station, from the smallness of their
numbersTcan scarcely be blamed for the rapidity
with which the barracoons were filled. They were
certainly not in a situation to establish that sort of
blockade of 2000 miles of coast which would be
necessary to suppress a contraband traffic, where the
profits are cent, per cent., and where the landing can
be almost instantaneously effected. At the same
time it may be remarked, that the days and weeks
which are sometimes lost in the harbour of the
Havana serve no useful purpose whatever ; and
that the time thus spent, beyond what is necessary
for obtaining supplies, infers a proportional deduc
tion from the efficiency of the cruize. The com
missioners are of opinion that no less than ten
cruizers would be necessary during four months of
the year to maintain an effective bTbckadeTso as to
exclude the slavers from all chance of running it.
One of these they think should be a steam-vessel,
the habitual station of which should be near the

THE SLAVE TRADE. 357
mouth of the harbour of the Havana, with two
armed launches in communication. Cape Cruz,
the entrance of the harbour of Santiago, the Isle
of Pines, Trinidad de Cuba, Sagua, Cape Antonio,
Cape Maize, Cumberland Harbour, and the islands
of Tortuga and Inagua, are the stations which in the
opinion of the commissioners are most entitled to
attention. They seem to think that by a consi
derable accession to the amount of the force on
that station, at the proper season, the traite_rnight
recejye a-ghock, from which it would take years to
recover. Such a blow, it is supposed, would now
be felt more heavily, from the itrmression which has
gone abroad that the British government has be-
come aoathetic on the subject, and that the traders
are in consequence less than formerly on their
guard. It is very far from my intention to say a single
word in disparagement of the great and generous
efforts which have constantly been made for the
suppression of the traffic by means of mere phy
sical exertion. It may nevertheless be seriously
doubted, whether all that we have done has not if.
fact aggravatedthe eyi4-we— ham so vainly endea-
voured to mitigate. We have no doubt raised the
price of Imported slaves in the Spanish and Brazilian
markets ; but unless^urjakxikadj^_was so effective
as to make it unprofitable for the dealer to per
severe, it seems to me that our exertions are worse
than useless ; exposing the poor victims to a de
gree of suffering which it would not have been the
A A 3

358 cuba.
interest of the slave carriers to inflict, had we left
their trade undisturbed.
We are bound, therefore, to make some atone
ment for the misery we have ourselves created.
It is evidently hopeless to undertake a serious
blockade of 8000 miles of coast, and yet no less
would be necessary to accomplish the object
effectually : — 3000 miles of the African con
tinent, embracing those portions only from whence
slaves are obtained ; and 5000 miles, in round
numbers, for the shores of the Brazilian empire,
and the two islands of Cuba and Porto Rico.
In levying taxes it has long been notorious that
whenever they exceed the proportion of thirty per
cent, ad valorem, it is impossible to shut out the
contraband trade, however unwieldy the com
modities on which they may be imposed. If tea,
brandy, or tobacco, can be run on shore, and con
cealed in the face of an active coast-guard and
an army of custom-house officers, independent of
the vigilant blockade of our revenue cruizers, how
much more easy must it always be for the slave
dealer to accomplish his purpose, with an extent of
coast to be watched incomparably larger, with a
rate of profit far higher out of which to pay his
premium of insurance, with no coast-guard to
oppose his landing, and with no custom-house
officers to effect a subsequent seizure ; but, on the
contrary, with a whole population ready to assist
him, public functionaries to protect him, and every
possible facility for the instantaneous landing of
his cargo ?

THE SLAVE TRADE. 359
On the other hand, if the principle I have
now brought forward were fairly recognized and
steadily acted on, it cannot be denied that the ad
vantages of the contraband in human flesh would
instantly cease. The tea, the brandy, or tobacco, as
soon as it is landed, can be so mixed up with the
stock of the dealer or consumer on shore as to set
at defiance all attempts at identification. The case
is very different with the imported African. It is
notorious that a Bozal can always be distinguished
from a Creole negro. Moreover the presumption
of the law even of Spain is already in favour of
freedom ; so that the onus of proving the right of
ownership already lies on the party who claims the
dominion. All that is necessary is to find willing
judges and a willing prosecutor. An English tri
bunal has been long established in each of the
two countries where slave markets exist. The
first great difficulty is therefore already overcome.
The two governments with which we have to deal
profess to be as willing and as anxious as ourselves
to put an end to the traffic. With what grace
then can they oppose the demand for a slight ex
tension of the large powers they have been pre
vailed on to grant to tribunals in which British
judges have so long been exercising jurisdiction
coextensive with ' their own ? I cannot permit
myself to believe that the negotiation for the ex
tension of the powers of the court will be met by
any serious opposition on the part of the two go
vernments with whom we have to deal. The at
tainment of an object for which the British people
A A 4

360

CUBA.

have already made snch enormous sacrifices, and
even its acceleration by a single year, would amply
justify the special mission I have ventured to
propose ; and to make it prompt and effective, it
only remains to prevail on my Lord Clarendon to
accept the temporary and not ungracious duties of
an ambassador extraordinary. His immense po
pularity throughout the dominions of her Catholic
Majesty, to which I am able to bear personal
testimony, would make that easy for him which, in
the hands of any other minister, would probably be
come a subject of tedious negotiation.

MR. BUXTON ON THE SLAVE TRADE. 36l

CHAP. XVIII.
mr. buxton's estimate of cuba slave-trade. ¦ — mr.
m'queen's estimate. — mr. consul tolme's estimate.
 extent of the trade.  the middle passage. —
means of repression.  head-money.  tonnage-
money.  her majesty's packets.
The statements I have made for the purpose of
establishing data from which to arrive at an es
timate approaching as near as possible to accuracy,
of the amount of the importation of slaves into
Cuba, were written before I had an opportunity of
consulting the late work of Mr. Fowell Buxton on
the African slave trade. In his natural anxiety to
strengthen his case, Mr. Buxton has been induced
to set down the numbers for Cuba at no less than
60,000 ; but as he has furnished his readers with
the elements on which this estimate is founded, it
is impossible to impute to him any wish to exag
gerate the revolting reality. I am very far from
any desire to damage the strong case he has un
doubtedly made out, and I sincerely trust that it
will prove irresistible, in spite of the numerical de
duction which the result of my inquiries will have
a tendency to make from it. Mr. Buxton tells us
that it is scarcely practicable to ascertain the num
ber of slaves imported into Cuba, and that the data
must be doubtful on which any calculation can be
made. " Almost the only specific fact," he says,
" which I can collect from the reports of the com-

862 CUBA.
missioners, is the statement that 1835 presents a
number of slave vessels (arriving at the Havana),
by which there must have been landed, at the very
least, 15,000 negroes." Mr. Buxton then goes on
to say: — "But in an official letter, dated 28th
May, 1836, there is the following remarkable pas
sage : — 'I wish I could add that this list contains
even one fourth of the number of those which have
entered after having landed cargoes, or sailed after
having refitted in this harbour.' " From these im
perfect premises, Mr. Buxton concludes that the
importation must amount to at least 60,000 ; and
he takes credit for extreme moderation in not ex
tending it to 100,000, on the authority of Mr.
M'Queen, the grounds of whose opinion are equally
indefinite. In point of fact, however, the statement
of Mr. Commissioner Schenley does not warrant the
inference Mr. Buxton has drawn from it. The list
he refers to, which he says should be multiplied
by four, is not the list of 1835, from which an im
portation of 15,000 was inferred ; but a list admitted
to be imperfect, for the month of April, 1836, in
which five vessels are specified as having sailed, and
two only as having arrived within the month. As
Mr. Schenley's letter is a short one, it may be as
well to insert it in this place without curtailment.
" Havana, May 31. 1836.
" I beg leave to report to your Lordship such of
the arrivals and departures of slave vessels during
the last month, as it has been in my power to pro
cure information of. I wish I could add that this
list contained even one fourth of the number of

MR. SCHENLEY'S LETTER. 363
those which have entered after having landed
cargoes, or sailed, after having refitted in this
harbour ; but as the commercial lists and public
journals no longer report these vessels, it is for the
present a matter of some difficulty to obtain any
information whatever, both as regards the names
of the vessels and of their masters, the more par
ticularly as slave vessels have generally a plurality
of names.
" On the 19th inst. sailed the brig ' Segunda
Monica,' Canil, master ; on the 22d, the brigs
'Florentine,' Tomas, master, and the 'Saltador,'
Botel, master ; on the 26th, the ship ' Europa,'
 , master ; and on the 29th, the notorious
ship ' Socorro,' Paoli, master, all under Spanish
colours. " Some of these vessels cleared out for ports in
Brazil, for the purpose of obtaining Portuguese
papers, the prevailing idea being that they will
thereby avoid the consequences of the equipment
article in the new treaty with Spain.
" The two following vessels arrived in the course
of the month under Portuguese colours, viz. the
schooners ' Eliza,' St. Ana, master, and the ' Pru
eba,' Campo, master. I have, &c.''
Upon the whole, therefore, I find nothing in
Mr. Buxton's estimate, or in the grounds on which
it proceeds, to invalidate that of Mr. Tolme, the
British consul at the Havana, who with better op
portunities of judging, has not attempted to push
the numbers beyond 23,000. Since the arrival of

364 CUBA.
Dr. Madden, who will not be accused of any de
sire to underrate the amount of this growing evil,
he has stated it for a former year considerably
lower than Mr. Tolme has done for 1838 ; but
since then the trade has undoubtedly been on the
increase, with a tendency of course to reconcile
the calculations of these two well-informed local
functionaries. Mr. Buxton supports his estimate
by stating, on the authority of Captain M'Lean,
the governor of Cape Coast Castle, that as far as
he could judge, there were three vessels sailed for
Cuba from the coast of Africa to two for the Bra
zils ; but this opinion, however well founded, would
afford an argument quite as strong to the oppo
nents of Mr. Buxton for diminishing his estimate
of the trade to the Brazils, as for increasing that to
Cuba. I perfectly concur with Mr. Buxton as well as
with Governor M'Lean and the other gentlemen
on whose authority he makes the statement, that
the slave trade generally has not been seriously
checked by the equipment clause in the Spanish
treaty, the effect of which has only been to change
the flag under which the traffic is carried on.
From this it does not follow, however, that the
principle of the equipment clause is either barren
or inoperative. It only proves that we have not
yet succeeded in making the league for the sup
pression of the slave trade universal. The object
of the treaty of 1835 resolves itself, in fact, into a
mere extension of the powers of the mixed courts.
A further extension, not nearly so formidable in

MR. BUXTON ON THE SLAVE TRADE. 365
appearance, although calculated to produce results
more immediate as well as more important, is evi
dently still a desideratum, the attainment of which
is greatly facilitated by the admirable temper with
which the former negotiations were conducted.
When Governor M'Lean gives the cholera at
Cuba and an insurrection at Bahia as the causes
of this increase, 1 fear that he overlooks a motive
much more generally operative. In representing
the enormous profits still made by the African
traders, Mr. Buxton has been very successful in
placing this all-powerful motive in a very striking
point of view, so much so as to make the abolition
of the trade, if his views could be relied on, a mea
sure all but hopeless.
In order to justify his guess of the total number
of victims, Mr. Buxton assumes that twenty-nine
out of every thirty slavers escape the risk of cap
ture ; and as he finds on the average of the years
1836 and 1837 that 7538 negroes were captured,
he multiplies that number by thirty, and thus brings
out a total of 226,140. I have elsewhere shown
that the slave-traders of the Havana, who are as
keen and cunning in their pecuniary transactions
as they are regardless of the feelings of humanity,
do not hesitate to give from 35 to 40 per cent.
as a premium of insurance on their African risks ;
and that even at these exorbitant rates the two
insurance companies which were instituted ex
pressly for the purpose of engaging in such trans
actions, have been reluctantly compelled to with
draw from this leading branch' of their business,

366 CUBA.
and to apply themselves to more legitimate affairs.
If any fair argument, therefore, could be derived
from this view of the matter, it would scarcely
give three as the multiplier, while 7538, the num
ber emancipated, would remain as before the mul
tiplicand. The whole trade, I am convinced, is much greater
than the quotient would make it ; and it is capable
of an easy explanation, if the statements made to
me by the directors of the two insurance companies
are entitled to the credit which I am persuaded
they deserve. These gentlemen assured me with
one accord, that in accepting these riesgos estra-
ordinarios, they had often to deal with faithless
and dishonourable men, who, on their return from a
slaving expedition, or after an absence from the
Havana equivalent to the period required, would
come to the company, and under the most solemn
sanction announce a loss of ship or cargo, partial
or total, the payment of which the directors had
no means of resisting if they meant to continue
this branch of their business. On their part the
insurance contract was entirely one of honour and
good faith, since its performance could not be en
forced by the law of the country; and I have no
doubt, therefore, that it was in a great measure the
disgust occasioned by these impudent frauds which
induced the two insurance companies to refuse the
renewal of risks which were likely soon to prove
as ruinous as they were admitted to be " extraor
dinary." It appears that Governor M'Lean has been at

MR. M 'LEAN'S ESTIMATE. ' 367
great pains to ascertain the quantity and value of
the goods manufactured in Lancashire and shipped
to the Brazils, Cuba, the United States, and other
places intended for the slave trade, and adapted, as
he believes, for that trade exclusively. He states
the value of these goods to have amounted in the
year 1836 to 250,000/. ; and he believes that slaves
are paid for, one third in cowries, one third in
tobacco and spirits, and one third in Manchester
goods. From this he infers that the whole value
of the slaves purchased in the year 1836 amounted
to 750,000/. ; and as he states the price at 4>l. a
head, he brings out the number of 187,500, which,
however, is not sufficient to support the opinion of
Mr. Buxton to its full extent.
In various parts of the world I have met with
persons who did not scruple to confess that they
had been engaged, some to a great, and some only
to a small extent, in this horrid traffic. At the
Havana, in order to save the expense of insurance,
the business is very often managed by means of
joint stock companies, the partners in which con
trive to protect themselves from loss by taking
shares of moderate amount in a number of separate
adventures, taking care, on the principle of the
proverb, not to put too many eggs into one basket.
This mode of proceeding makes it obvious that
the details of a slave-trading transaction must be
as familiar as household words to a very great
number of persons. No captain or supercargo of
a slaver would dare therefore to make any serious
overcharge on the price he pretended to pay for

368 cuba.
his human merchandise. If the current price was
no more than #20 a head, he would never be
listened to, if on his arrival at the Havana he pre
tended to have paid #75 or #100. It is no doubt
true that the price of men and women must rise
and fall in the market like other objects of traffic,
according to the relative state of the demand and
supply. But in slave-trading as in other trades
regular checks are established on dishonest agents;
and it would be quite as difficult to make an in
dividual slave merchant, or a joint stock company,
believe that #75 or #100 had been paid for what
cost only #20, as to practise a similar cheat success
fully on a regular dealer in Smithfield.
In all that Mr. Buxton relates of the increased
horrors of the middle passage I perfectly concur.
The space allowed is less, the crowding and mor
tality far greater on board a Baltimore clipper,
built expressly for fast sailing, than under the old
system of licence and inspection, when conceal
ment and escape were not necessary conditions
to the .slave-trader's profit. " I think," says Mr.
Jackson, one of the judges in the court of mixed
commission at Sierra Leone, — "I think the suffer
ings of those poor slaves are greatly aggravated
by the course adopted ; for the trade is now illegal,
and, therefore, whatever is done, is done clan
destinely ; they are packed more like bales of
goods on board than human beings ; and the ge
neral calculation is, that if in three adventures one
succeeds, the owners are well paid." This esti
mate is much nearer the mark than that of Mr.

PROFITS IN SLAVE DEALING. 369
Buxton, and it offers a striking confirmation of the
relative value between the slave before embark
ation on the coast of Africa, as understood at the
Havana, and the same slave after the dealer has
incurred the risk and expense of the voyage, and
has landed his victim alive and in a marketable
condition on the shores of the island. The price
on the African coast is from #75 to #100; the
price at wholesale, by the cargo, in the barra
coons or market-places of the Havana, is from
#300 to #320; an increase quite sufficient to
justify Mr. Jackson's statement, that one successful
adventure out of three remunerates the speculator.
The established rate of premium from 35 to 40
per cent., by which on a long course of trans
actions the rival insurance companies at the Ha
vana could realize no profits, although in the end
they sustained no serious loss, proves also that
nearly two out of every three adventures are suc
cessful ; and since one out of three would at least
have covered all loss, the difference on the most
moderate calculation makes a profit of at least
cent, per cent, on the amount of the capital em
barked. Until that rate of profit is reduced or
extinguished, it is in vain to expect- that the trade
will be effectually suppressed. Increase the num
ber of cruizers on the coast of Africa; confine their
attention to that coast alone, the extent of which is
already far less than that of the Spanish islands
and the Brazils now watched so inefficiently ; give
the commanders, by means of head-money and
tonnage-money, in reasonable proportions, a direct
B B

370 CUBA.
pecuniary interest in the capture and condemn
ation of slavers, without, as well as with their
cargoes on board ; and I see no reason to despair
of the slave- dealers' profit being annihilated. Not
only must the commanders of cruizers be stimu
lated by the prospect of profit, but they must be
protected from the risk of ruin to which they are
now exposed by the unfavourable issue of an action
of damages at the suit of the slave-dealer ; who,
having escaped condemnation under favour of the
lottery which has been gravely established in the
courts of mixed commission, thinks fit to pursue
the unfortunate captor to gratify his vindictive
feelings ; to put money in his pocket; or perhaps,
on a broader principle, to damp the zeal of our com
manders in the discharge of their duty. It must not
be forgotten, however, that by engaging in the work
of suppression we become morally bound to do it
effectually ; as in going to war with insufficient
means, our interference only serves to increase its
horrors and procrastinate its issue. The plan of
suppression I have attempted to sketch in the
course of this work is perfectly compatible with the
employment of the naval force engaged in this
service at the largest amount to which it has yet
been carried. Its object is to make the captured
slaves unmarketable in the only two countries
where they are offered for sale ; and I think I have
demonstrated that the courts of mixed commission
already in existence only require a small extension
of their powers to make them quite sufficient for
this purpose.

DR. BO WRING S OPINION OF SLAVERY. 371
I do not mean to say that the highest price
which slaves have hitherto brought at the Havana
is the maximum which the planters of that island
can afford to pay. When the supply comes to be
diminished, the prices offered will of course be pro
portionally increased, until they reach the limit
which the planters' profits would justify. In the
mean time it is no small satisfaction to reflect, that
in proportion to the high price which the planter
shall have been compelled to pay for the negro,
will be the care which it will be his interest to take
of his purchase. He will no longer be able to
afford to work his gang to death in ten years ;
he must be content with a diminished amount of
labour ; and this, in its turn, will serve to hasten the
period when imported Africans can no longer be
purchased with advantage.
The mortality among the slaves on the sugar plant
ations in the island of Cuba, enormous as it is, ap
pears, after all, to be only half as great as that which
prevails in Egypt, unless my friend Dr. Bowring has
been led into error in the statement he has made to
Mr. Buxton, as quoted by him in his late work on the
African slave trade. " I have heard it estimated,"
Dr. Bowring observes, " that five or six years are
sufficient to sweep away a generation of them, at
the end of which time the whole has to be reple
nished. This is one of the causes of their low
market value. When they marry, their descendants
seldom live ; in fact, the laws of nature seem to
repel the establishment of hereditary slavery."
This last is a very beautiful idea ; but I do not see
B b 2

372

CUBA.

that it can be supported by facts. The negro po
pulation of the British West Indies not only main
tained itself at the full amount at which it was left
on the abolition of the slave trade, but since that
period its numbers have materially increased, and
there is nothing in the appearance of their de
scendants to support Dr. Bowring's opinion. The
remarkable increase of the numbers of the negro
race, retained in slavery in the southern states of
the North American Union, is unhappily still more
conclusive against the truth of the theory, that the
laws of nature repel the establishment of hereditary
bondage. To believe in this doctrine would be to
relax our efforts in the cause, which bids us ex
claim, in language applied to a different species of
dominion, " Obruat istud male partum, male re-
tentum, male gestum imperium ! " And it is for this
reason alone that I venture to point out the fallacy
which it seems to me to contain.
Whatever noble lords and honourable gentlemen
in the two Houses of Parliament may say to the
contrary, it will be found that naval officers are
not exempt from those ordinary considerations
which govern the bulk of mankind. I know that
head-money and tonnage-money are objected to
by the leading economists in the House, on the
general principle that the servants of the public
should never be paid by fees for the performance
of their duty. It seems to me to be a great stretch
of this principle to apply it to a case so totally
unlike anything that can possibly occur in our
public offices at home. But suppose it, for a

HEAD-MONEY. 373
moment, too sacred to be touched, and too rigorous
to be departed from, it can scarcely be made to
extend so far as not only to deprive the unfor
tunate captor of a slave-ship of the prize money he
has earned, but, holding him bound to make the
seizure, to subject him at the same time to the
perils of the commissioners' dice-box ; it being well
known that if the Spanish arbitrator wins the throw,
the prize will be liberated, and the captor, as a
matter of course, and in spite of his undeniable bond
fides, be liable to prosecution for a ruinous sum of
damages. On what principle do these gentlemen contend,
that the capture of a slaver should follow a dif
ferent rule from that of a prize, the fruit of an
engagement with an enemy in time of war ? Are
they prepared to abolish the system of prize-money?
And would they send the whole produce of the
captures made in battle to the Exchequer ? Are
they quite sure that the zeal of men and officers
will not be affected by it? And would it be any
serious imputation on their character or courage
if they were less zealous? The resemblance is surely
stronger between the prize-money won in war,
and the prize money won on the coast of Africa,
than between this same head-money or tonnage-
money, or whatever other name the slaver's prize-
money is to bear, and the fees exacted for the
performance of some specific duty on shore.
The officer paid by fees for the performance of
such duties, whether civil, judicial, or ecclesiastical,
has no pretext for leaving them undone, no excuse
b b 3

374 CUBA.
tor performing them imperfectly. In the case of
the commander of a cruizer engaged in the sup
pression of the slave trade, the duties and respon
sibilities of his situation are as different as possible.
One duty or set of duties may often in his mind
come into competition with another. The pre
servation of the health of his crew may suggest to
him that the swampy mouth of some river where
slavers are accustomed to receive their cargoes,
ought to be carefully avoided; whereas, if honours,
promotion, or prize-money, wereheldout asa reward
for affronting the danger, he would often cease to
hesitate, and without perhaps reflecting on his own
motives very deeply, his course of conduct would
insensibly be altered by the absence of all appre
hension on the score of damages, suppression of all
danger from the lawyers, and by the prospect of a
reasonable reward for himself and his crew.
This view of the matter is supported by a practice
which is perfectly understood in another branch of
the service. Her Majesty's packets, at least such
of them as have been built within these last few
years, are universally acknowledged to possess sail
ing qualities of the highest order. In fact, I have
heard from the most undeniable naval authority,
from French admirals and American commodores,
that they have nothing in either of these two rival
services to surpass the new government packets
on the West India and South American stations.
In making their homeward voyage, these fine ves
sels support the high character they enjoy, by ac
complishing the passage in a shorter time than any

HER MAJESTY'S PACKETS. 375
other vessel ; whereas it is the subject of uni
versal remark among the merchants and others
interested in their prompt arrival on the other side
of the Atlantic, that they are regularly behind their
time on the outward passages, the average of which,
since the establishment of these new and fast-sailing
packets, is asserted to be considerably beyond
that of ordinary West India and South American
traders, not by any means remarkable for their
speed, or for the superior seamanship of their na
vigators. These facts are thus explained by the parties
who complain of being disappointed in the re
ceipt of intelligence from Europe. They assert that
the commanders of the packets have a pecuniary
interest in procrastinating their outward passage,
as the profits of their voyage depend, in a great
degree, on the amount of the freight they are to
receive for bringing home specie. If one packet
were to arrive at any given point in America, from
whence bullion is usually exported, immediately
or too soon after the sailing of the previous packet,
the chance of freight would be diminished, in the
direct ratio of the shortness of the interval.
I have not sufficient data before me on which to
form an opinion of the justice or injustice of this
serious charge ; but I hold myself responsible for
the fact, that complaints to this effect are openly
and loudly made by parties deeply interested in the
trade with England, and in the prompt arrival of
intelligence from this country. It would be much
more agreeable to find that the charge is totally
B b 4

376 CUBA.
groundless ; and in that case the officers in com
mand of the packets will doubless rejoice at the
opportunity afforded them of contradicting it. The
dates of the sailing and the arrival of every packet
are of course a matter of record ; and it would pro
bably be easy for the registrar at Lloyd's, or some
such functionary, to prepare a comparative state
ment of the relative rates of sailing of her Majesty's
packets and of other vessels trading to those ports
in North and South America where bullion is
usually shipped, and where the packets are accus
tomed to call. If it shall appear that the average
rate of sailing of the packets is below the average
of trading vessels on the homeward as well as on
the outward passage, then the commanders must be
acquitted of the charge of wilful delay ; and the
blame must be thrown on the builders of the
packets, in spite of the high character they have
acquired. If, on the contrary, it should be found
that the packets, as compared with the trading ves
sels, have a decided advantage in point of sailing
in the homeward passage, but that they are as
regularly beaten in the passage outward, it seems
to me that a case will be laid for a serious inves
tigation into the cause of so remarkable a dis
crepancy. And here it may not be out of place to remark,
that as the affairs of her Majesty's packets are at
present conducted, the commander is placed in a
situation to which no naval officer, and, indeed, no
English gentleman, should ever be exposed. It is
well known that, next to the article of freight for

HER MAJESTY'S PACKETS. 377
carrying bullion and cochineal, the greater part of
his remuneration for the performance of important
duties in which the whole world is deeply inte
rested, consists in a certain proportion of the money
received from the passengers. It is at the ex
pense of the commander that the passengers' table
is furnished ; so that his profits necessarily bear a
direct proportion to the meanness of the fare. On
several of the stations the packets enjoy a practical
monopoly of this trade of carrying passengers ; and
as they sail on a given day, and, on the homeward
voyage at least, make better passages than ordinary
merchantmen, they would often be preferred, not
withstanding the fact, which is said to have become
notorious in the case of several of these com
manders, and which, true or false, is very generally
spoken of, that the passengers' table is most im
perfectly supplied.
An officer of the British navy ought not to be
exposed to such an imputation, much less to the
disagreeable scenes of altercation which are con
stantly occurring in consequence of the unfavourable
comparisons which are made between the table
supplied in the post office packets, and that which
is furnished in the ordinary packet ships, where no
such monopoly exists. The remedy is easy : the
contract for the supply of the table should be made
with the steward ; and the commander would at
once be relieved from the suspicion of putting
money in his pocket by starving his passengers ;
while, at the same time, his presence would be a
constant check on the proceedings of the steward-

378 cuba.
contractor. This point is not so important as the
alleged detention of the packets on the outward
passage in order to increase the chance of profit
arising from. freight, but it is nevertheless entitled
to more consideration that it has hitherto obtained.
It is moreover a case which, like that of the freight,
falls decidedly within the rule, that the servants of
the public should not be paid by perquisites or
fees. Great complaints are made of the internal ar
rangements of these packets, the distribution of the
berths and cabins, and the consequent impossibility
of producing the degree of ventilation indispensable
to health and comfort, after they have entered the
tropics. The passengers' cabins are bad enough ;
but those allotted to the officers of the ship are, in
warm weather, absolutely intolerable.

THE EQUIPMENT CLAUSE. 379

CHAP. XIX.
THE EQUIPMENT CLAUSE.  MODE OF SUPPRESSING THE
TRADE.  EVASION OF EQUIPMENT CLAUSE. — SPANISH
TREATY OF 1835.  CASE OF THE VENCEDORA. 
OPINIONS OF MR. BUXTON.  CASE OF THE VIGILANTE.
Undoubtedly the Clarendon treaty has been
greatly undervalued. It is true that the slave trade
has not been put down by it. The equipment clause
has wrought no miracles. It has not extirpated the
love of gold from the breast of the Spanish slave-
dealer ; still less has it implanted a single humane
feeling in its stead. But had the zeal of our mi
nisters at other courts been attended with equal
success, and had the rest of the world acquiesced
in the principles of that convention, the chances
of escape from the vigilance of our cruisers would
already have been brought so low, that, being no
longer profitable, the trade must have been aban
doned. For several years after the treaty had come into
operation, a portion of the Spanish slavers continued
to sail under the national flag ; because, inde
pendent of the fees demanded by the Portuguese
government, or the Portuguese colonial authorities,
for effecting the change of registry which had be
come indispensable, the necessity which arose for
the slavers proceeding in the first instance to the

380 CUBA.
Cape de Verd Islands, the river Cacheo, Por
tuguese St. Thomas, Princes, Angola, or Lisbon,
added seriously to the length of the voyage, and
of course to the risk and expense attending it.
The expense of obtaining these fictitious papers is
not by any means so small as Mr. Buxton has been
brought to believe. The Portuguese functionaries
are far from being the disinterested and self-denying
supporters of the traffic he supposes them to be.
In place of charging a moderate fee for signing the
papers, they have been in the habit of exacting a
commission of no less thaa^L5_jDer_£ent. on the
value of the ship~and cargo, — a sum which fre
quently amounts to several thousand dollars. I
am compelled, therefore, on this point to differ with
Mr. Buxton, and to express it as my firm opinion,
> that it is by pushing the risk and expense of the
Maver so far as to annihilate the profits of the enter
prize, and by that process alone, that the trade
can ever be suppressed.
By slow degrees the Spanish traders have been
compelled to resort to the Portuguese for assistance,
until at length, in 1839, the Spanish flag is all
but abandoned. The measure tardily adopted by
the British Parliament at the close of the last
session, deprives the Portuguese authorities of the
power to which they clung, of reaping a disgraceful
profit from the sale of fabricated registries and the
protection they afforded. Extend this principle a
little farther ; obtain the consent of all the world
to the conditions of the equipment clause, the re
cognition of a mutual right of search, and a declar-

EVASION OF EQUIPMENT CLAUSE. 381
ation that the trade is piracy ; and no profits,
however exorbitant, will suffice to command the
services of agents and supercargoes, masters, offi
cers, and seamen, when they see the gibbet star
ing them in the face as the fit reward of their
crimes. If the government of the United States, or any
other naval power, refuse its consent, then deal
with that power as you have just dealt with Por
tugal. After browbeating, as you have done, this
feeble ally, you will be but too justly accused of
equal truculence and truckling, — tbe one as arrant
as the other is base, — if you stop short there,
speaking one language to the weak, and another
to the strong. The people of the United States
will never suffer their government to go to war for
the purpose of countenancing a trade confessedly in
jurious to the "peculiar institutions of the south ;"
but if they did, they would deprive themselves of
that moral force which, happily for the peace of
the world, neither people nor government can
conveniently dispense with at this advanced pe
riod of the nineteenth century.
It might be urged with more truth, as an ob
jection to the Spanish treaty of 1835, that the
equipment clause is liable to evasion. I am not
aware that this liability has been pointed out by
any of those who call the principle in question.
It is nevertheless true, that such is the salutary
dread which the slave traders entertain of the re
cognition of mere equipment as a ground of con
demnation, that in order to avoid the risk of capture

382 cuba.
on the outward voyage, they have been compelled
to resort to all sorts of expedients for the sake of
avoiding the too stringent conditions of the treaty.
When the fast-sailing clippers, built expressly for
this trade, are despatched in ballast to the coast of
Africa, they are no longer provided with the water
tanks or the cooking coppers, the slave deck or the
fetters, which become necessary on their homeward
voyage. The fetters and the cooking vessels it
is not easy to make or procure on the coast of
Africa ; but as there is alegitimate trade to the same
places where the slaves are procured, it has been
found convenient for the slave-dealers to engage,
to a certain extent, in that trade also, for the mere
purpose of enabling them, under the cover and
protection it affords, to send out those articles of
smaller bulk which are indispensable to their illicit
speculations. Mixed up with a bulky cargo of lawful
merchandise, or concealed at the bottom of the
hold, it would not be easy for a cruizer overhauling
such a vessel at sea to detect such contraband
articles without specific information of their exist
ence on board ; and even when found, it might not
be safe to make the seizure under the treaty of
1335 on the ground of equipment, since in the
case supposed the vessel in question was a mere
auxiliary to the trade, and was not destined to be
directly concerned in the carrying of slaves.
The slave deck consists merely of a set of planks
fitted into the bulk-heads or internal partitions of
the vessel, so as to afford a wider and more conve
nient space on which the living cargo can be stowed.

EVASION OF EQUIPMENT CLAUSE. 383
The lumber necessary for the construction of this
deck, or for any number of decks, is sent out on
freight in other vessels engaged in lawful traffic.
It is not cut into lengths until its arrival there, be
cause any ordinary ship's carpenter can perform this
operation on a very short notice ; but even if it
were previously cut into such lengths as could at
once be used for the purposes of a slave deck for
any particular ship, the trader, by courtesy called
legitimate, who has no scruples of conscience on the
subject, whatever his suspicions may be, would
scarcely refuse to carry them to their destination ;
since, not fitting his own vessel, the fact of their
being found on board could expose him to no sort
of danger.
The tanks or water casks are also a bulky article ;
but as to them, it has in like manner been found
that the ship's carpenter, with the assistance to be
found at the slave factories on the coast, can manu
facture them on the spot, sufficiently water-tight,
with the supposed supply of lumber selected and
sent out for the purpose.
It is not to be denied, however, that although
the equipment clause may thus be evaded, the ser
vices it renders to the cause of humanity are great
and important. It has already been shown that by
reducing the profits of the slave-dealer, so as to
bring them within the limits of lawful trade, and
by that process alone, we can hope to succeed in
accomplishing its suppression. The circuitous
and expensive means to which the slave-dealers
have been compelled to resort, afford a satisfac-

384 cuba.
tory proof of its efficiency, since pro tanto they
diminish the enormous profits which unfortunate
ly still attend their criminal speculations. We
have seen that the insurance offices of the Ha
vana, although tempted with premiums of 35 and
40 per cent., and not pretending to the virtue of
moral restraint, have found it expedient to abandon
this important branch of their business. Proceed
then in the same course ; overwhelm the slave-
dealer with charges; curtail him of his profits; and
he will no longer desire, any more than the two in
surance companies, to prosecute his nefarious un
dertakings. Too eager to write down the Spanish treaty of
1835, Mr. Buxton lays to its charge the escape
.from condemnation of the Spanish schooner " Ven-
\cedora." This case is undoubtedly a very bad one,
reflecting the greatest discredit on the Spanish go
vernment at Madrid, on the Spanish authorities at
the Havana, and on the Spanish Commander of
the " Vencedora," Don Antonio Lloret. From
the statement of Lord Clarendon, the author of
the treaty, to the Conde de Ofalia, the Spanish mi
nister for foreign affairs, it will be seen that this
was not a case of equipment at all, but related to a
vessel which had slaves actually on board at the
time of her capture. " Madrid January 25 th, 1838.
" I have the honour to inform your Excellency
that information has been received by my govern
ment that the Spanish vessel Vencedora, lately
captured for having slaves concealed on board, and

EVASION OF EQUIPMENT CLAUSE. 385
carried into the Havana, brought these very slaves
into the Port of Cadiz, where she remained several
days having twenty-six of these wretched creatures
hidden in her hold.
" This vessel sailed from Cadiz in the beginning
of last September, and her passengers, from the
horrid stench that came up from below, and from
the extraordinary quantity of rice cooked, were
well aware of the atrocious act of inhumanity which
was taking place ; but during the whole voyage,
not one of these unhappy creatures was permitted
to see the light °r breathe the fresh air.
"The Vencedora had procured these slaves in the
river Congo, brought them round by Cadiz, kept
them in the closest confinement during the time
that the vessel remained at that port, and subse
quently conveyed them to the Havana in the hor
rible manner I have had the honour to lay before
your Excellency."
The whole case is very simply stated in the two
first paragraphs of the letter of Messrs. Kennedy and
Schenley, then the British Commissioners to Lord
Palmerston, dated'the 22d November, 1837 : —
" We beg to refer to our despatch of the 28th
October, in which we informed your Lordship of
the Spanish schooner Vencedora, having been
detained in about latitude 23° 23 'N., longitude 80°
58' W., by Commander Nixon of her Majesty's
sloop Ringdove on the 14th October last; and
brought into this port on the day following, having
on board twenty-six Bozal negroes. We also in-
c c

386

CUBA.

formed your Lordship that the mixed court of
justice having met on the 29th October and two
following days, to receive the evidence, the two
judges had a conference on the 23d and 24th of
the same month, and not being able to agree upon
the sentence to be pronounced, theu drew lots, as
directed by the treaty, when the lot fell on the
Spanish arbitrator, leaving the case thus far un
decided at the close of the despatch.
" We have now the honour to inform your Lord
ship, that the proceedings and the separate opinions
of the two judges, having been previously laid
before his Excellency, Don Juan de Montalvo, the
Spanish arbitrator, a conference was held on the
11th November instant, when his Excellency gave
his decision in accordance with the opinion of the
Spanish judge, by which the detention was pro
nounced to have been illegal, and declaring that
the vessel and crew should be liberated, the slaves
given up to their owners, and costs awarded ac
cording to the provisions of the treaty."
The treaty here referred to was not that of 1835,
negotiated by Lord Clarendon, but the previous
treaty of 1817> under which the court of mixed
commission was originally constituted. The fact
that the Vencedora was detained by Captain Nixon,
not because she had a slave deck or fetters, or water
butts, or cooking vessels on board, of a size un
necessary for the crew, but because she was found
to have a number of negroes on board, might have
convinced Mr. Buxton that the treaty of 1835 had
nothing to do either with her original capture or

EVASION OF EQUIPMENT CLAUSE. 387
her subsequent liberation, and yet he opens his
report of the case with the following exordium : —
" The Spanish treaty has been for some time a
topic of continual congratulation and complacency ;
and there are many who think that if we could but
induce Portugal and other countries to follow the
example of Spain, there would be an end of the
slave trade. A case occurs in the papers presented
to parliament in 1838, which throws a strong light
on the real efficacy of the Spanish treaty ; and
though I can give but a scanty outline of it here,
it deserves particular attention. The Vencedora,
a Spanish vessel, &c." Having fallen into this mis
take, Mr. Buxton adheres to it to the last. : — "On
fait souvent tort a la verite, par la maniere dont on
se sert pour la defendre." Towards the close of
his report, he thus continues : —
" However, thanks to the Spanish treaty, the
ship is captured at last, and the Spanish authorities
will be of course as eager as ourselves to punish
the villain who has thus defied her decrees."
In this case of the Vencedora, it is not a little
extraordinary, that the fact of her having pre
viously made a voyage to the coast of Africa was
totally unknown to Captain Nixon or his officers,
and of course to the English judge, Mr. Kennedy,
until after the sentence of liberation had been pro
nounced. The poor slaves could not speak a word
of Spanish, at least all they possessed among them
was the single word " Senor," which one of them
uttered on his name being called, so that although
the prize was for some time in possession of two
c c 2

388 cuba.
English officers and an English crew, yet as none
of them understood the Congo dialect, the dis
covery that the poor wretches had been carried
under hatches, first from Congo to Cadiz, then
from Cadiz to Porto Rico, and finally from Porto
Rico to the Havana, was not made until after the
sentence of the mixed commission had taken effect.
Without being aware of this fact, the British judge,
Mr. Kennedy, in writing to his Spanish colleague,
the Conde de Fernandina, very shrewdly declared
that " he considered and believed it to be all one
transaction, the bringing the slaves from Africa to
Porto Rico, and from Porto Rico to the Havana ! "
When the truth at length came out, which seems
to have been on the very same day, Mr. Kennedy
contended strongly for another cast of the dice in
terms of the treaty ; well knowing that with two
Spaniards against one Englishman, he would have
no chance of a reversal of the previous sentence of
liberation. The Conde admitted without any dif
ficulty that the previous judgment did not create
such a res judicata as to foreclose the court from
the revisal of its sentence ; but he stoutly persisted
that the decision of the dice-box was as final and
irreversible as the laws of the Medes, and that if
opened up at all, he could only sit with his Spanish
colleague Don Juan de Montalvo as the umpire.
Under such circumstances, Mr. Kennedy was no
doubt right in submitting with the best grace he
could to the necessity of his situation ; but when
the similar case of the Vigilante soon after
wards occurred, I am surprised that he should have
thought it necessary to treat that of the Vencedora

REMEDIAL MEASURES. 389
as a precedent. A fresh cast might have given him
an English judge, Mr. Schenley or Mr. Dalrymple
for an umpire, when, in place of the ship, her un
fortunate cargo would have been liberated. In
both cases, the slaves were treated as passengers in
transitu from one point of the Spanish possessions
to another ; but from Lord Palmerston's letter of
the 6th October, 1838, it appears to be held that
this power of transit recognised by the treaty of
1817, was virtually annulled by that of 1835, so
that the Vencedora and Vigilante would both have
been condemned, had this interpretation of the
treaty been recognised by the court.
The remedial measures proposed by Mr. Bux
ton in his second and more recent work on the
African slave trade are much better reasoned than
his previous estimate of the amount of the evil he
undertakes to cure. Undoubtedly no effort should
be spared to raise the moral and intellectual stand
ard of the people of Africa, at the same time that
we strive to abolish the traffic of which the mass
are the passive objects, but in which cot a few of
them participate as guilty actors. We cannot too
soon begin that course of education recommended
by the traveller Burckhardt, who proposed the form
ation of a sort of normal school, in which native
Africans should be taught to educate their coun
trymen in the virtues of Christianity and the arts
of civilisation. There can be no reason for waiting till the slave
trade is put down before this course of education
is attempted. At the best it is to be feared that a
c c 3

390 CUBA.
whole generation must pass away before any great
or sensible result can be expected from it. The
practice of manstealing is so deeply rooted in the
habits of millions and tens of millions of people,
that we cannot expect it to be so promptly eradi
cated as, in the freshness of his enthusiasm, Mr.
Buxton appears to suppose.
The model farms recommended may also be of
service. But what are the products to be raised
on these farms ? Is it an increased supply of food
for the consumption of the inhabitants ; or sugar,
coffee, cotton, or tobacco, with which to purchase
those foreign luxuries to which they have been ac
customed ? This last is an intelligible and, I would
fain hope, a practicable improvement. But surely
we are not to postpone the suppression of the trade
until a whole continent of savages have settled
down to sober habits of laborious industry. By
all means revive the African Institution — by all
means establish an African agricultural associ
ation ; but do not imagine that the modern Poly
phemus can be crushed by efforts so feeble and in
adequate. Can we reasonably expect that any addition
which the British government may be disposed to
make to the naval force on the African station can
ever be great enough to operate as an effective
blockade of a whole continent ? Not so long cer
tainly as those who engage in the contraband have
the prospect of cent, per cent, profit on their
criminal speculations, together with every facility
of insuring a somewhat smaller return, if they are

REMEDIAL MEASURES. 391
only willing to pay the premium. It must not
be forgotten that the Spanish and Brazilian
planters can probably afford as much as #800 or
#1000 for their slaves; since even larger prices
are obtained in the market of New Orleans. It is
only by the effect of competition that the average
is kept down to #300 or #320 in the barracoons
at the Havana.
It is to be lamented that the negociation with
Spain in 1827 for the entire cession of the island
of Fernando Po, in property and sovereignty, was
not attended with success. From its admirable
position near the mouths of the Niger and the
notorious Bights of Benin and Biafra, it was of all
other places the best suited, on the whole coast of
Africa, to become the head-quarters of the force
for the suppression of the slave trade, the chief
seat of the courts of mixed commission, and the
depot for the liberated Africans. The confluence
of the Tchadda with the Quorra is also a favour
able point for a European settlement in the in
terior. In fact, the whole of Mr. Buxton's remedial
suggestions appear to me to deserve the consider
ation and adoption of the British government and
the British people, to whom they are respectively
addressed. Both branches of Mr. Buxton's " Remedy " are
nevertheless exposed to very serious deductions.
The cure of a leprosy with which a whole continent
has been tainted, for a period beyond the reach of
history or tradition, is a process far too slow to meet
the demands of outraged humanity. The increase
c c 4

392 CUBA.
of the naval force, the use of armed steamers, the
employment of black seamen, and the establishment
of twenty such posts as that proposed at Fernando
Po, are only so many topical applications for the
cure of a deep-rooted constitutional disease.
I have not been able to concur with Mr. Buxton
either as to the number of the victims to the slave
trade or the price paid for the slaves on the coast.
We are, nevertheless, pretty nearly agreed as to
the amount of the capital involved in the traffic,
and the consequent temptation which the princes
and other slave dealers on the coast or in the in
terior of Africa would have to overcome in re
nouncing it. Mr. Buxton assumes that the number
of the victims amounts to an annual average of at
least 250,000, and that the average price is not
more than 4/. a head ; which would make the total
gain amount to a million sterling, without including
the first cost of those who perish at sea. Ac
cording to my view of the matter, there are two
erorrs in this estimate, which pretty nearly com
pensate each other; the unit price being as much
too low, as the gross numbers are exaggerated.
It will thus be much more difficult than Mr.
Buxton supposes to induce the native Africans to
create the means of procuring the foreign luxuries
they desire, by turning their attention to honest
industry, instead of entrapping their fellow creatures
and selling them to the white ruffians who approach
their shores. The compensatory difference is fully
three to one. According to my estimate, a negro
on the coast would very nearly purchase a pipe of

REMEDIAL MEASURES. 393
rum, whereas, according to Mr. Buxton, the value
of three men would scarcely be equal to that of
the like quantity of spirit. In proportion to the
comparative facility of stealing over labour, will be
the difficulty of introducing the substitute. I have
elsewhere shown that the agents of the Pernam-
buco Slave Company paid as much as 100 bars a
head for the slaves they obtained at Benin and
Gotto ; and as, in this depreciated money of ac
count, the bar or dollar was reduced to the par of
3s. \\d, the price of the slave in sterling money is
proved to have been 15/. 12s. 6d.
The proposals of Mr. Buxton are no doubt all
excellent in their way ; but where they point to a
radical cure they are slow ; where they suggest
improved means of repression they will be found
inefficient in their operation. But if you could
make the ultimate proprietor of the imported slave
insecure in his right to his illicit acquisition, not
only could he no longer afford to pay a high price
for the contraband article, but he would be com
pelled to treat the slaves he already possesses more
humanely. The existing laws of Spain, and pro
bably those also of~Brazil, are sufficient for the
purpose. It is only necessary to~7ioriier the neces
sary power on the courts of mixed commission, to
insure their rigorous and faithful administration.
The whole groundwork of the trade would thus
be cut away ; the demand would instantly cease ;
and with the cessation of demand in Cuba, Porto
Rico, and Brazil, the corresponding supply, and
the fruitful source of crime for procuring it, first

394 CUBA.
on the coast, and afterwards in the interior of
Africa, would successively and promptly be dried
up and abated.
It is not easy to conceive any plausible objection
that could be urged by the Spanish or Brazilian
government to this extension of the power of the
court of mixed commission. There is happily no
difficulty in distinguishing a Bozal negro from a
Creole. The presumption of law is moreover in
favour of freedom ; and, in default of conclusive
evidence to the contrary, amounts to what civilians
call the presumptto juris et dejure. The onus of
proving legitimate dominion must therefore be
thrown on the party claiming it ; and in this way
the proposed protectors of the freedom of the
African race at the Havana and Rio de Janeiro
would scarcely ever be exposed to the risk of a
nonsuit. It is not to be believed that the Spanish and
Brazilian judges would systematically oppose the
execution of the law, or refuse to exercise the new
powers with which it is proposed to invest the
courts in which they sit. Every African intro
duced into Cuba or Porto Rico since 1807, or into
Brazil since 1826, is at this moment legally entitled
to his freedom. It only remains to give the mixed
courts already established a slight extension of
their_nowers, and to provide a public vindicator of
the rights of the slave and of the laws of the
country in which he is held captive.
On grounds of public policy it might possibly
be urged that such a vast number of untutored

REMEDIAL MEASURES. 395
savages could not safely be let loose on society.
But any argument of this nature could not of
course apply to the Africans to be introduced
hereafter, the receiving ships being there to ob
viate the difficulty ; nor even, with any grace, to
those imported since 1835 ; since, whenever the
arrival of a slaver is denounced by the British au
thorities, a pretended investigation takes place,
which uniformly ends in the official denegation
that any slaves whatever have been landed from
the incriminated vessel.
In the mean time let us accept the limitation of
the increase to the power of these mixed tribunals,
from the date of the ratification of the additional
articles, without insisting on giving them any re
troactive effect. The very first decision of the
court I venture to say will operate like a charm.
The whole machinery of the trade will be instantly
disorganised ; the newly imported Bozal will no
longer command a price in the market : the mark of
contraband is stamped on his person, and cannot
be effaced. A man is not imported like a barrel
of flour for immediate consumption. Once landed,
the smuggled flour cannot well be distinguished
from that which has paid the custom-house duties.
On the contraband Bozal, the marks of identity
remain as long as he lives.
The fate of the slave trade will be decided ir
retrievably by the first decree of emancipation pro
nounced by the court. Convince the trader that
his goods are no longer marketable, and you may
rest assured that he will not invest his capital in

396 CUBA.
the unprofitable enterprise. The clirm^rJmildeES-of
Baffimjore will have no more orders ; their ruffian
crews will be compelled to content themselves with
the moderate wages of lawful commerce ; and the
cold-blooded counting-house murderers of Rio and
the Havana, cut off from the exorbitant profits of
man-selling, must seek some new investment for
their ill-got gains.

EFFECTS OF HEAD-MONEY. 397

CHAP. XX.
EFFECTS OF HEAD-MONEY.  CAPTURE OF THE VELOZ. 
BRAZILIAN SLAVERY ASSOCIATIONS.  AFRICAN SLAVE
FACTORIES.  QUESTION OF NATIONALITY.  A SLAVER'S
NATIONALITY.  INSTRUCTIONS TO A SLAVE-CAPTAIN. 
DIRECTIONS TO THE AGENT ON THE COAST.  SLAVES
SENT ON FREIGHT.  INTERCEPTED LETTERS.  AD
MIRALTY LICENCES.  NUMBER OF LICENCES.  THE
STEAMER AND THE FLAG-SHIP.  DOES LANDING IN A
BRITISH COLONY CONFER FREEDOM?
Those gentlemen in blue who take fire at the
slightest hint of the shadow of a suspicion that an
officer in the British navy could ever be prompted
to the exercise of his duty by any motive but the
pure and disinterested love of glory, without the
slightest regard to his own private interests, would
do well to give an attentive perusal to the case of
the " Pepita," Pablo Oliver master, of which reports
will be found in the printed correspondence of the
British commissioners at Sierra Leone for 1836,
and the more recent case of the " Camoes," Antonio
Gomez da Silva master, reported in the same
correspondence for 1838-9. But it is really absurd
to suppose that so numerous a class of persons can
either be destitute of the virtues or free from the
failings of humanity. The two cases in question
are so much alike that a short notice of one of
them will suffice.

398 cuba.
Her Majesty's schooner " Fair Rosamond,"
while cruizing off the mouth of the river Benin,
discovered that two vessels strongly suspected of
slave-trading were lying close to each other at
anchor within the bar. The name of the one was
the Veloz, the other the Camoes. The commander
of the Fair Rosamond sent in his boats to board
the two vessels, examine their papers, and ascertain
by a search, if necessary, whether they were liable
to capture. This duty having been performed, it
was found that there were a number of slaves on
board the Veloz, but that the Camoes had not
begun to receive her cargo ; and as her papers,
proving her to be a Portuguese, did not bring her
within the equipment conditions of the Spanish
treaty, no hope could be entertained of procuring
judgment of condemnation against her. To ac
complish this object an ingenious contrivance was
resorted to. The people of the Veloz resisted the
rieht of search. The Fair Rosamond entered the
river to enforce it, and after firing at the Veloz
took possession of both vessels ; an officer and
prize crew were put in possession of the Camoes,
but left it after having been thirty-six hours on
board. On the day following the first detention of the
Camoes, the Fair Rosamond weighed her anchor,
and took up a berth inside the bar of the river,
which the prevalence of neap tides prevented her
from crossing; and she remained there until after
the second detention of the Camoes, in a position
from which every thing that passed on board that

EFFECTS OF HEAD-MONEY. 399
vessel could be clearly seen from her decks. In
the mean time the captain and consignee of the
Camoes, who happened to be on board at the time
of the capture, were detained close prisoners on
board the Fair Rosamond, the officers of which
paid daily visits to the prize. The consignee, whose
name was Cezar, appears from the evidence to
have been compelled, while a prisoner in irons, to
write a letter to the chief of a neighbouring tribe,
directing him, or rather her, to cause the slaves on
board the Veloz to be removed into the Camoes.
In consequence of that letter, the removal took
place, in presence of the officers and a boat's crew
of Her Majesty's cruizer, for the express purpose,
as admitted by the prize-master, of sanctioning the
seizure. At the time of the capture, the sails of
the prize were unbent, and she was not prepared
for sea ; nor could she then have passed the bar
from the state of the tides, even if the Fair
Rosamond had not been lying at anchor close
within it. The officer sent as prize master to claim
the condemnation, was the person least acquainted
with the circumstances attending the capture ; and
in the course of his examinations before the Court,
he discovered the greatest reluctance to commu
nicate what he did know. The Camoes having
thus been seized for having 138 negroes on board,
the captor supplied the vessel with a quantity of
yams and farinha, or cassava flour, for the sustenance
of the negroes during the voyage to Sierra Leone ;
but such was the bad quality of the food, that,
although the space on board for stowing the human

400 CUBA.
cargo was much greater than usual, a most ex
traordinary mortality took place. Of the 138
negroes taken on board in the Benin on the 28th
of September, scarcely one half were alive on the
22d of January; 22 having died before the ar
rival of the vessel at Sierra Leone on the 10th
of November, and 45 more after being landed
in the British colony, and before the issue of the
trial. In this case it is not easy to say that the object
of the captor was to secure the emancipation of
the negroes, — since they would have been much
more sure of their freedom, had they been sent on
in the Veloz, out of which they were taken. In
point of fact, no decree of emancipation could be
pronounced in their favour, in consequence of the
irregularity of the capture ; still less could they
be given up to the owner of the Camoes, who,
besides, for his own sake, disclaimed all right to
them. They were in consequence handed over to
the Colonial Government, to be employed as free
labourers or servants. The prize was restored
to the master ; and the commander of the Fair
Rosamond was condemned to pay all damages,
demurrage, and expenses, amounting, when taxed,
to 1734/. 14s. The commander, for this excess of
zeal, was also visited with a reprimand from the
Admiralty. Undoubtedly, it is much to be regretted that a
vessel in the situation of the Camoes should have
escaped condemnation, from the mere want of tech
nical evidence. It would have been a much more

BRAZILIAN SLAVERY ASSOCIATIONS. 401
serious cause of regret, had her condemnation been
procured at so heavy an expense as a well-founded
imputation on the motives of her captors. Her
consort, the Veloz, was not so fortunate, having
been duly condemned as good and lawful prize to
the crowns of Portugal and Great Britain. It was
the Veloz that the Fair Rosamond first met with
off the mouth of the river Benin, just after putting
to sea with her cargo. She was chased back into
the river, where she succeeded in landing the slaves,
resisted a search, and, without hoisting any colours,
fired into the Fair Rosamond's boat, and killed one of
her seamen. It was at first proposed to endeavour
to establish a case of piracy ; but after six months'
delay, that idea was abandoned, and the usual pro
ceedings were taken in the Court of Mixed Com
mission, which ended, as has been stated, in a sen
tence of condemnation.
From the report of this last case, it appears that
there are joint-stock companies and associations in
the Brazils, formed on precisely the same principles
with those which have been elsewhere noticed as
existing in the island of Cuba. The Camoes and
the Veloz both belonged to one of these companies,
the head-quarters of which were at Pernambuco;
and as they were the first ships the company had
sent out, having only been organised on the 14th
of December, 1836, it is to be hoped that the total
loss of-the Veloz, and of that part of her cargo
transferred to the Camoes, together with the in
adequacy of the damages awarded against the
captor, will be sufficient to derange their plans,
D D

402 CUBA.
exhaust their resources, and lead to the abandon
ment of their enterprise.
From the papers found on board the Veloz, it
appears that the company was composed of twenty
members, each subscribing 4,000,000 reis ; so that
the social capital amounted to 80,000,000 reis,
or about 16,000/. sterling, one half of which was
to be paid up within twenty days of the date
of the contract of co-partnership. Due provision
was made for the building and purchase of vessels;
and the business of the company was to be managed
by a treasurer at Pernambuco, in whose name the
vessels were to be registered; and by three principal
agents in the river Benin, where a slave factory
was to be established, and an attempt was to be
made to secure a monopoly of the trade with the
native princes.
The four functionaries were not required to
make any advance of capital, nor were they to re
ceive any specific salary ; but a half-yearly balance
was to be struck, and if a loss should be the result,
it was to be borne by the sleeping partners alone ;
if a profit, then that profit was to be divided
into twenty-four shares instead of twenty, and the
treasurer and the three superintendants were to be
placed on the same footing with the members who
had furnished the capital.
By a subsequent arrangement, a greater number
of persons having been found necessary to super
intend the affairs of the factory, the shares of the
two junior superintendants were ordered to be sub
divided. There were also sent out a carpenter,

BRAZILIAN SLAVERY ASSOCIATIONS. 403
two coopers, a cook, a barber, and a bleeder ; and
even these inferior persons were to become inter
ested in the trade, by being allowed to purchase
and send one slave each by every vessel belonging
to the company,
The treasurer is a person of the name of Lisboa,
who manages the business of Antonio da Silva and
Company, at Pernambuco ; and the chief agent in
the Benin was that same Cezar who was compelled
by the commander of the Fair Rosamond to write
a letter to the Queen of a neighbouring tribe to
transfer the negroes from the Veloz to the Camoes.
Besides these vessels, the company had ordered
two others to be built at Oporto ; and a fifth, the
Especulador, had been purchased and sent out to
the coast for the use of the factory by the house of
Duarte and Warren, of Bahia, (Qu. Is Mr. Warren
an Englishman?) by whom also the outward cargo
of the Camoes had been supplied.
The instructions of the treasurer Lisboa to the
subordinate functionaries are not a little curious,
and display such an intimate acquaintance with the
African mode of trading, as to prove how well he
was qualified for the office to which he had been
appointed. As the agents sent out were strangers
to the coast, they are strictly enjoined to adhere in
all things to the established usages of the country,
but to see that those articles exposed for sale which
have not already a fixed value, should be. estimated
at the highest possible prices. When thefts take
place in the factory, it is recommended that no
notice should be taken of it, in case th? thief should
d d 2

404 CUBA.
happen to be a person in authority ; as it would be
better to submit to the loss, than come to an open
rupture. To avoid such accidents, the strictest
vigilance is recommended; and for this purpose it
is suggested, that, instead of introducing the parties
into the interior of the company's stores, the articles
asked for should be brought out and shown to them
in a place prepared for the purpose. Credit for
the smallest article is strictly forbidden ; because,
besides the risk of loss, it induces others to expect
the same favour, compels the factory to have re
course to unpleasant measures, and thus makes the
party trusted its enemy. The principal chief or
king is to be informed of the wealth and importance
of the company, and that the factory is at all times
to be furnished with the best rum and tobacco, and
other desirable articles of trade. A commercial
treaty is to be proposed, giving the factory exclusive
privileges; in consideration of which, His Majesty,
independent of his regular profits on the slaves he
may furnish, is to be conciliated by occasional
presents ; of which an earnest was sent in the
Camoes, from Pernambuco, in the shape of two
satin dresses, which were to be converted into
cloaks at Bahia, and presented to the king and
prince at Benin. The agents are enjoined to treat
the natives with the utmost civility, but never to
place in them the slightest confidence. Intoxi
cation is to be carefully guarded against among the
servants of the company, as well as all contention or
dispute with the people placed about the person of
the king ; and it is observed, that as all nations, even

BRAZILIAN SLAVERY ASSOCIATIONS. 405
the most barbarous, have some religion, it appears
to the worthy treasurer of this slave-trading com
pany, that the exercise of some external forms
would give a desirable "moral force" to the esta
blishment !
A code of signals is established by this company,
for the purpose of carrying on a telegraphic corre
spondence between the factory at Benin, and their
vessels outside the bar, and also to form a commu
nication between these vessels on their return, and
the company's agents on the Brazilian coast. As
other foreign establishments were in existence at
Benin, a good feeling towards their agents is re
commended for the sake of mutual protection ; and
in case of failure in establishing a monopoly, the
launches and other small vessels of the company
were to be hired to their rivals in embarking their
cargoes, on condition of their being paid at the
rate of thirty picked slaves for each cargo so em
barked, no other mode of payment being admissible.
The greatest care is prescribed for preventing the
knowledge of the code of signals from reaching the
rival establishments, who are to be informed that
the whole trade of the factory is with the Havana.
After the first arrival, it was not intended that the
company's vessels should enter the harbour, but
that, by means of their boats, the outward cargo
should be landed over the bar, and the slaves after
wards embarked in the same manner. During the
interval which might be necessary, their vessels
were to cruize to other points of the coast ; and
should a sufficient number of slaves not be ready on
d d 3

406 CUBA.
their return, the agents at the factory were to judge
as to the expediency of waiting for the completion
of the cargo, or of proceeding with the number al
ready provided, — it being laid down as a general
rule, that, in the case of vessels carrying 300, the
deficiency of fifty should not be a ground for a
moment's delay.
In these intercepted papers, no apprehension is
expressed of obstruction or interference on the
part of the Brazilian authorities, or of the consular
agents of Portugal, whose flag was to be assumed,
on the one side ; or from the Portuguese governor
of Prince's Island, where wood, water, and provisions
for the slaves were to be obtained, on the other.
On the contrary, Antonio Fez Vianna, one of the
agents of the company, had taken up his residence
at Prince's, where he seems to have been living on
the best possible terms with the governor. All
the precautions adopted, have reference to the visits
of Her Majesty's cruizers on the African and South
American stations. The captains are provided with
false letters of instructions, to be exhibited when
necessary ; and they are directed to fill up a pre
scribed form of protest, as if they had been plun
dered at sea by a pirate, in order to account for
the return of the vessel to Pernambuco in ballast,
after landing the cargo at some other point of the
coast. A constant look out from the mast-head is
prescribed ; communication with other vessels is
forbidden ; and in the event of a chase, all contri
vances are to be adopted for increasing the speed,
such as cutting away stanchions, and loosening the

AFRICAN SLAVE FACTORIES. 407
iron knees by which the beams are bound. If
in danger of being overhauled, on the outward
voyage, the slave irons and the boilers are to be
thrown overboard : for this purpose they are to be
kept in a place where the object can be promptly
accomplished ; and on approaching the shore, or
meeting with other vessels, on the return voyage,
the slaves are to be kept carefully out of sight.
The reports of the principal agent at the factory,
Senor Joao Baptista Cezar, and the correspondence
with the subordinate agents at a sub-factory sta
tioned at Gotto, ten leagues up the river Benin, are
also full of curious details. The chiefs, with whom
the more important dealings of the factory are con
ducted, fully support the character of the African
race for shrewdness and sagacity ; and they appear
to be more than a match for the Spaniards and Por
tuguese in the mysteries of bargain-making. It
appears that the legitimate trade of the English re
sidents at Benin, by lowering the market value of
the goods offered in exchange for slaves by the one
party, and for palm oil, gum copal, and ivory by
the other, has a strong tendency to enhance the
price of slaves, diminishing the profits of the
dealers, and otherwise injuring the traffic. If legi
timate commerce could be stimulated, therefore, it
would have a most favourable effect in aiding the
suppression of the slave trade ; but if only carried
so far as to inspire the natives with a taste for Eu
ropean and colonial commodities, without being
able to gratify it fully, the consequence will just
be the reverse, since it will only serve to extend
d d 4

408 CUBA.
the demand for foreign luxuries, for which they have
nothing so valuable to offer in return as the living
sinews of their countrymen.
The King of Oery, whose dominions extend to
the Benin, resides fourteen leagues up the river ;
but the town of Gotto, where the sub-factory is
situated, appears to be a place of some importance,
as the agent stationed there mentions that the
market is often attended by 4000 individuals, and
that, if he were supplied with a proper assortment
of goods, of the want of which he constantly com
plains, he could purchase at any time a sufficient
number of slaves to load a vessel of the burthen of
400 "fardos." The wordfardo, in Portuguese, is
equivalent to the Spanish bulto, or bale of goods,
the term by which the human victim is habitually
spoken of.
When Senor Cezar found that there was no chance
of his succeeding in the first object of his mission,
which was to obtain for the factory a monopoly of
the slave trade, at the expense of the King, with
whom he was in treaty, but who was shrewd enough
to see that, by shutting out competition in the
supply of rum and tobacco, muslins and hardware,
he would himself be the greatest sufferer; the next
great object with the Pernambuco diplomatist was
to negotiate for the repeal or modification of His
Majesty's tariff on imports. The King was not to
be moved, however, by any argument; so that Senor
Cezar was compelled to content himself with a
small abatement of the fees exacted by some of the
grandees, such as the governor, the King's favourite

AFRICAN SLAVE FACTORIES. 409
mistress, the magistrates, the interpreters, the head
man of the fetish, the fisherman, and the priest; these
minor fees, according to Pernambuco prices/amount
ing to upwards of #350 on each cargo.
It seems that a certain Senor Cardoza, of Bahia,
at one time carried on an extensive slave trade in
the port of Benin, and that in the course of six
years he had so ingratiated himself in His Ma
jesty's favour, as to obtain a total exemption from
the payment of all fees or duties on imports. In
struggling to obtain a similar indulgence, Senor
Cezar was shrewdly told, that at the end of six
years, when he had served His Majesty as faithfully
as Cardoza had done, bringing him rum and tobacco
of equal quality, he might expect to be placed on
a similar footing. The fact seems to have been,
however, that the negro prince and his people had
discovered the inferior quality of the goods sent by
this slave-trading company, and had placed such a
low value on them in exchange, that the whole
quantity, with which it was intended to purchase
four cargoes of slaves, had been exhausted when
little more than one had been completed. The to
bacco was found to be so bad, that no purchase was
made for the King without opening and examining
the interior of the packages, which seldom corre
sponded with the outside. The private purchasers
could be cheated more easily; but then Seiior Cezar
pathetically remarks, that whenever there is cause
for doubt among these people, it destroys all con
fidence, and injures the trade most materially. Kind
treatment, also, he observes, goes a great way with

410 CUBA.
them ; and in illustration he mentions a case for the
benefit of his countrymen, where one of the English
factories had taken fire, and could not have been
extinguished without the aid of the natives, who
saved it from being burnt down.
The King is represented as exceedingly despotic
in his system of trading, — not allowing any of his
subjects to make a purchase, on the arrival of a
vessel, until he has examined the cargo and bought
all he requires. He is, besides, very difficult to deal
with, and will not pay nearly so much as could be
obtained from many of his people. The same thing
happens on the sale of slaves. Those sold by the
King are always paid for at a higher rate than such
as are obtained from private individuals.
From all that can be gathered in the intercepted
correspondence, it appears that the exchange of
goods against slaves is not conducted by a simple
system of barter. Something in the nature of a
medium of exchange has been established, but no
such explanation of it is given as to enable us to
determine whether it is real or nominal. Cowries
are sometimes spoken of as an article of import,
but they certainly bear no such proportion to the
general amount of imports as Mr. Buxton seems to
fancy ; nor do they appear to be used as the circu
lating medium in the purchase of slaves, or in the
sale of the articles with which these slaves are pur
chased. The King obtains for the slaves which he sends
to the market, from 85 to 100 bars, while privatt
individuals get only 75 or 80 bars. The value of

AFRICAN SLAVE FACTORIES. 411
this bar is nowhere explained ; but, in all proba
bility, it is a mere money of account, which had
originally the Spanish dollar for its basis. In the
same way, Senor Cezar states, that from the King
he got 15 bars, and from the people 20, for each
roll of tobacco ; allowing the King to open the
roll, but refusing to other purchasers a similar
power of examination. He complains bitterly of
the profusion of the captain of the Camoes, in giving
away a large quantity of tobacco to the King and
the prince ; but he proposes the present of a rich
coral necklace to the Queen, as a return for a supply
of shackles which Her Majesty had kindly provided,
to make up for a similar quantity which it had been
thought advisable to throw overboard in the course
of the outward passage. The amiable qualities of
the Queen are spoken of in the most bewitching
terms ; not only supplying leg irons in any quan
tity, but, when a difficulty arose with the King or
the prince in striking a bargain for a lot of prime
negroes, Her Majesty would kindly interpose, and.
save Mr. Cezar a world of chaffering. Doubtless
the string of beads was richly earned.
The gentlemen of the factory, while they boast
of their intimacy with the English residents, appear
to have been occasionally not a little annoyed by the
practical jokes in which our countrymen delight
to indulge. When a boat could be procured,
bearing any resemblance to that of a man-of-war,
they would have it manned with the people of
the English factories, and two or three of the
most active and daring would mount such dresses

412

CUBA.

as could be procured to enable them to personate
so many officers of the navy ; and the whole party
being strongly armed, they would proceed on board
one of the slavers, insist on seeing the ship's papers,
make a search of the vessel, and declare her a prize
to the Queen of England. One of these jokes had
the effect of so terrifying a slaver, that after landing
her outward cargo, she is said to have proceeded to
sea, and returned to Pernambuco in ballast, without
once looking round to ascertain whether the main
object of the voyage could not yet be accomplished.
This sort of hoax has been played off, it seems, more
than once, and on every occasion with perfect suc
cess. Might it not suggest an additional arm for
the suppression of the slave trade ? So exceedingly
nervous are these scoundrels about the safety of
their property, that on one occasion, soon after then
ar rival, they wereput in to an agony of terror by a cir
cumstance which had certainlynothingjocularabout
it. The factories at Benin are established on a man
grove swamp, the houses being raised on wooden
posts to protect them from the moisture. On the
occasion of a death among the white inhabitants,
the nature of the ground, and the want of any con
secrated burying-place, makes it advisable, in place
of interring the body, to carry it out to sea and com
mit it, sailor fashion, tothe deep. This is generally
done very early in the morning; and as all the boats
belonging to the English factories are in requisition
to give more solemnity to the ceremony, the affair,
on its first occurrence, excited no small alarm at the
head-quarters of the newly-formed slave factory, as,

AFRICAN SLAVE FACTORIES. 413
from the early hour at which it took place, the pro
cession had not been observed on its leaving the
harbour, and on its return it was taken for a hostile
anti-slavery armament.
It is not, however, the practical jokes of the
English, which most discourage Mr. Cezar, who
seems, upon the whole, to have been serving his
employers at Pernambuco with reasonable fidelity.
He complains most bitterly of the bad quality of the
goods with which he had been furnished, and of
the carelessness with which they had been assorted,
the blame of which he throws on Messrs. Duarte
and Warren, of Bahia. " I wish," he says to his
correspondent, the treasurer, " you could see the
English factories here, the quantities, quality, and
variety of their goods. Whenever I think of them,
it only reminds me of the inadequacy of the funds
of our company. Under all the circumstances, I
think there is very little inducement held out to
those visiting this unhealthy climate, where, with
such uncertain advantages, and with an establish
ment so ill supplied with the requisite articles for
the purchase of slaves, we have death always staring
us in the face." He then complains that the trea
surer had not been well informed as to the neces
sary allowance for presents and duties to the native
princes, and other contingent expenses, such as tra
velling to the sub-factory at Gotto and the King's
residence at Oery, as every trip cost twenty " bars,"
besides provisions for twenty people in each canoe.
" You must not be surprised," he says, " at the
expenses on the first formation of so extensive an

414 CUBA.
establishment, which, were I to remain here, would
soon be decreased ; but my stay is uncertain, for
many reasons that have induced me to change my
views and feelings on the subject."
All sorts of tricks are played with the goods that
are offered for sale to deceive the poor negroes.
English calico is cut up the middle in order to
double its length ; and each piece of stripe, or hand
kerchief, is converted into two pieces, by cutting it
across. The rum is adulterated, and the tobacco is
packed expressly for deception ; but these con
trivances are very soon defeated by the sagacity of
the negro and the more conscientious proceedings
of the legitimate trader. The rule of multiplication
is said to apply to every description of goods, except
silks, beads, and coral. The half pieces of calico,
twenty-eight yards in length, half pieces of other
sorts of goods, and half pieces of handkerchiefs, are
sold to the king for seven bars, and to private
individuals for eight bars. Friars' broad-brimmed
hats, so well suited to the climate, are bought by
the king for four bars, and by others for five.
Three pipes of spirits are equal in value to 4^
fardos, or bultos, or bales, or human beings ; and
other exchanges can be effected on equally advan
tageous terms : with this exception, however, that
provisions of all sorts are sold at exorbitant prices.
Fifty heads of Indian corn for a bar, five large yams
or eight small ones for a bar, and other articles in
proportion ; so that the resolution was taken to
supply the factory with all sorts of provisions,

AFRICAN SLAVE FACTORIES. 415
except roots and poultry, by importation from Per
nambuco. Not content with driving a hard bargain on the
spot, the king insists on the privilege of sending an
adventure by the ships on their homeward voyage.
His majesty sends a little fardo in the shape of a
girl, with which to purchase a supply of sausages for
his private use ; and the queen begs to be allowed
to ship two little boys, that she may receive in return
a reasonable supply of sugar and souchong for her
majesty's tea table.
Such is a brief specimen of the extraordinary
information disclosed by this mass of intercepted
correspondence. On the capture of a slaver, when the captain of
the prize has not had time to destroy his papers,
the disclosures are generally curious. In sailing
from the Havana these vessels are provided with
at least two sets of papers, — one Spanish, the other
Portuguese ; and latterly an* American set also.
The Spanish papers have the effect of facilitating
the clearance of the vessel, and of procuring assist
ance more readily in case she should be compelled
by stress of weather or otherwise to seek for shelter
in any port of Cuba or Porto Rico. The Portu
guese papers are there for the express purpose of
evading the provisions of the tenth, commonly
called the equipment clause, of the Spanish treaty ;
and, unless there be American papers on board, are
to be used exclusively whenever occasion requires,
after the vessel has lost sight of the Morro Castle.

416

CUBA.

The use of the American papers will be shown
hereafter. It is to be regretted that a uniform system of ju
risprudence has not hitherto prevailed among the
various courts of mixed commission established for
the suppression of the slave trade. The nationality
of the ship or vessel accused of participation in this
illicit traffic has become a matter of great import
ance. If Portuguese, she might possibly escape,
because she had not yet received, or had contrived
to get rid of her cargo ; whereas, if Spanish, she
would be caught in the net which the tenth clause
of the treaty has provided for that purpose. Thus,
in the case of the Opposicao, detained by HerMa-
jesty's sloop Pearl, Captain Lord Clarence Paget,
off the coast of Cuba, on the 25th of April, 1838,
and carried into the Havana, there seems to have
been some misunderstanding either on the part of
Lord Paget, or of the British commissary judge,
Mr. Kennedy, as to the jurisdiction of the mixed
court at the Havana ; so that after consulting with
the judge, and obtaining his written opinion that
he would have no hesitation in giving a decision
for condemnation, Lord Paget, for some reason
which does not appear on the face of the papers,
considered that that opinion rendered it impossible
for him to pursue any other course than that of
sending the vessel to Sierra Leone.
This tedious voyage having been accomplished,
the case was first brought before the British and
Portuguese mixed court, under the impression that
a Spanish character to the vessel could not be es-

QUESTION OF NATIONALITY. 417
tablished ; the papers produced being Portuguese,
and the nominal captain on board being a native
of Portugal. It was proved that the nominal pro
prietor of the Opposi9ao was one Manuel Cardozo,
a merchant resident at the Havana ; and as it is
now held that the national character of a merchant
is to be taken from the place of his residence,
and of his mercantile estabiishment, and not from
the place of his birth, the proceedings in the
Portuguese court were withdrawn, because the
risk of acquittal would there have been imminent;
and a fresh prosecution was instituted under the
equipment clause of the Spanish treaty, before the
British and Spanish mixed court. The judges of
that court having found no difficulty in recognising
the principle of nationality, as proved by the place
of residence of the owner, the articles of equipment
on board were amply sufficient to subject the vessel
to condemnation. Had this been clearly under
stood at the Havana, the whole voyage from thence
to Sierra Leone might have been avoided.
It is perhaps to be regretted that when the
commander of a British cruiser carries a slaving
prize to the Havana for the purpose of condem
nation, he finds no legal adviser there, except the
British judges of the court, with whom he can
consult as to the course he ought to pursue. It is
not to be supposed that a mere officer in the navy,
however intelligent he may be, can himself be
competent to form a correct opinion on the dif
ficult questions of international jurisprudence which
are constantly presenting themselves ; and it is
E E

418 CUBA.
scarcely consistent with judicial decorum that the
same functionary who is afterwards to decide the
question of law should first have instructed the
prosecutor as to his course of proceeding. If the
British judge becomes a partisan, his opinions on
the judgment seat will possibly not be treated with
the becoming degree of respect by his foreign col
leagues of the mixed court ; and the foreign judges
in their turn are provoked into an antagonist parti
sanship, which in such circumstances, it must be
admitted, are not altogether inexcusable. Were
lawyers or proctors allowed to practise in the mixed
court at the Havana, as they are in the correspond
ing courts at Sierra Leone, this anomaly might
be avoided, and the captor would at once have ac
cess to the advice of the most experienced prac
titioner in the place, who would not only serve to
protect the interests of the captor, but the liberty of
the slaves, and the dignity of the British members
of the court.
The written instructions with which the captain
or supercargo of a slaver is provided by his owners
for his government throughout the voyage are
often, when he has not had time to destroy them, of
such a nature as to offer to the captors many valu
able suggestions for the suppression of the slave
trade. From the large sums engaged in these specu
lations, the parties are naturally imbued with all
the caution and timidity which the possession of
capital proverbially engenders. The slave dealers
at the Havana are sometimes afraid of their very
best friends ; as appears from a letter found on board
the brig Veterano, a prize to Her Majesty's ship

INSTRUCTIONS TO A SLAVE CAPTAIN. 419
Brisk, Lieutenant Arthur Kellett, commander, ad
dressed by the Havana branch of the notorious
house of Pedro Martinez and Co., of Cadiz, to Don
Angel Ximenez, the master of the vessel ; a person
who appears to have profited by his previous specu
lations, as the balance at his credit with the house
of Martinez is stated to have amounted to #14,966.
In this letter, for instance, the "Angel" is warned
to beware of the Portuguese authorities, who are
supposed to have received orders from their go
vernment to take away the papers with which
vessels found sailing under the Portuguese flag
may have been provided ; and he is equally cau
tioned, in case of suffering any damage on the
return voyage, on no account to enter any port
belonging to the United States ; because the people
of that country would be so shocked by the arrival
of a vessel with slaves on board, that the cargo
would be confiscated, — " of which there had been
instances ; " if these private instructions of the
Messrs. Martinez are to be believed. If he should
be compelled to go into port on account of damage,
he is recommended to prefer Porto Rico or St.
Thomas, where he is assured that he would be
provided with every necessary assistance on ad
dressing himself to Mr. Joseph Ybern in the Danish
island, or to Don Pedro Enarche at Porto Rico.
He is desired to exercise his own discretion as
to which side of the island of Cuba it might be
best for him to approach with his cargo. In the
event of his coming by the south side, the point of
Guanimar, or some other in that neighbourhood, is
E E 2

420 CUBA.
recommended, as a convenient place for effecting
the landing; and he is told that he would find
pilots posted at Rocky Key, Crocodile, Isle of
Pines, and French Key, as well as an agent at
Guanimar, by the name of Don Jose Miro Pie. In
case he should come by the north side, he is to
land his cargo either at one of the places between
the Havana and Matanzas, or between Camarioca
and Mariel.
Wherever the landing takes place, the captain is
instructed to despatch a messenger to the owners
at the Havana, writh the necessary information as
to the number of slaves that have been landed, the
classes of which they are composed, and other par
ticulars, in order that some person may be sent
from thence to receive them.
He is strongly impressed with the importance of
taking such care of the cargo as that it may be
landed in good condition, because "on that depends
its greater or less value." The preservation of order
among the crew is also strongly recommended, es
pecially in the distribution of provisions, as from
the want of due precaution in this particular dis
sensions often arise which produce the most fatal
results. Extreme vigilance is enjoined to prevent
an insurrection among the bales, or bultos, the term
by which the slaves are spoken of throughout the
correspondence, as instances of insurrection are re
presented as not uncommon.
The term " bulto de efectos," or bale of goods,
is the regular phrase by which a slave is spoken of
by the original importers. Among the inhabitants

DIRECTIONS TO AGENTS ON THE COAST. 421
of the Havana, the foreigners especially, there are
some who, to avoid the bad habits and the immora
lity so prevalent among the Creole negroes, prefer
even for domestic purposes the untutored African
just landed from the slave ship ; on the same prin
ciple, perhaps, that a citizen of London may occa
sionally prefer a servant from the country, however
ignorant of the duties to which he may be called.
When purchased at first hand, the importer gives a
bill of parcels with the bale of goods, and a receipt
in that form for the price. Such bills and receipts
may easily be seen in the hands of such of the
foreign residents as have chosen African domestics.
Above all, the wary slave dealer requires the
captain of his ship to take care that a good look
out be constantly kept on board ; and the moment
a sail is seen, there must be no sort of hesitation as
to who or what she may be. The resolution must
be at once taken to fly, while there is yet time to
do so ; " for if you hesitate you are lost." In the
event of being pursued while coasting the island of
Cuba, and of being obliged to run his vessel on
shore, the captain is directed to save the ship's
papers on his own person, together with his letters
and other documents ; and in case of great mis
fortune, he is to throw them overboard and sink
them. In another letter from the house of Martinez,
which fell into the hands of the active captor of
the Veterano, addressed to Don Jose H. Alvarez,
their agent at Gallinas, the opinion is expressed
that the business of the factories on the coast of
e e 3

422

CUBA.

Africa would be likely to suffer very much -from
competition, but not without the hope that their
newly established rivals would not be permanent;
for these gentlemen observe, " Undertakings of
such a nature require the greatest attention, and
also, above all, ample funds; and as no one can
reckon what you will possess successively, we flatter
ourselves that at last the business under your charge
will become, owing to your ability and vigilance,
the principal one for commercial transactions.
Besides the factory under Riera and Grassi, it
appears that Aragon, who went out in the Mary
Jane, took merchandise with him to establish a
business for Abarzuza and Azopardo ; but for the
reasons just stated we do not think that this need
alarm you beyond a certain point, particularly as
we reckon upon the foresight with which you will
endeavour to thwart their views." In writing to
another of their agents these gentlemen observe,
" The vessels which have lately arrived have
brought a large proportion of females, which we
have not been able to dispose of at any price ; on
this account we recommend you to endeavour to
embark the smallest possible number, or none, in
order that we may dispose of the cargoes to advan

tage."

In another of these intercepted letters, addressed
by the not less notorious house of Blanco and Car-
ballo, at the Havana, to Don Ignacio Perez Rolo,
one of their correspondents at Gallinas, we find
some further details, which serve to disclose the
private views of the slave dealers. One of their

DIRECTIONS TO AGENTS ON THE COAST. 423
vessels, the Nueva Amable Salome, had arrived
about the middle of September, 1838, at Camarioca,
not far from Matanzas, and had landed a cargo of
253 slaves, of whom twenty-seven were sick and
seven had died soon after they were landed. There
also perished during the voyage seventy-four
others ; " so that we shall with difficulty," these
gentlemen pathetically observe, "get back the cost
of the enterprise ; for we have to account for the
fourteen that were sent as freight belonging to
Don Mariano Dias, Don Joachim Sanches, Don
Jose de Aberzuza, and Don Francisco de Grassi.
The captain said, in answer to the observations
and accusations that were made against him, " that
there were about 100 bales embarked at your port
infected with the putrid fever, and that all the pre
cautions that we could use on board did not suffice
to stop the mortality; so that we may say only half
have been saved of the number that ought to have
been yielded by the abundant and well assorted
barter put on board, calculated to produce more
than 400 bultos."
A few days afterwards these same parties write
to another of their correspondents at Gallinas, Don
Tomas Rodriguez Buren, who held a share, it ap
pears, in the Amable Salome madeover to him by the
senior partner of their house, saying, "It would
have been better for you if you had not taken it,
for the business wears a most unfavourable aspect;
so much so, that although the vessel arrived safely,
we shall scarcely get back our outlay ; for out of
the small number embarked, there died eighty-one,
E E 4

424

CUBA.

during the voyage, and shortly after landing. The
sale was effected at Matanzas at an average of #306 ;
the third part in cash, and the rest at eight months.
The buyers are perfectly safe. The sick, who were
twenty in number, brought #2303 4."
The system of sending slaves on freight is ex
plained in another letter from Blanco and Carballo
to Don Mariano Dias at Gallinas. That person,
it seems, had embarked six bales in the Amable
Salome at the freight of 50 per cent. ; and as the
vessel had arrived in safety, the consigners became
liable for the average price which the rest of the
cargo had procured ; no attempt being made to
distinguish the individual slaves belonging to the
shipper, or to determine whether they might not
have been among the number of those who pe
rished. According to this system, supposing a
slave on the coast of Africa to cost #100, and to be
worth #300 when landed in Cuba, the owner of
the ship receives #150 as his passage money, in
cluding the risk of death on the voyage, or before
sales are effected ; so that on his #100 of outlay the
consigner has #50 to cover the risk of a total loss
by capture.
The injunction to fly on the slightest appearance
of danger, contained in most of the intercepted
letters of instruction to the captains of slavers,
affords a fair indication of the altered spirit which
now generally prevails in. the management of slaving
speculations. In one of the contracts for wages
between the owners of a captured slaver, the
Constitucao and her crew, so lately as the end of

INTERCEPTED LETTERS. 425
the year 1838, it is nevertheless stipulated, " that
wages shall not be due in the event of capture by
a vessel of equal force, nor even in the event of
capture by a vessel of superior force, unless after
an obstinate defence; and in that case the wages
of those who will not fight shall be forfeited, and
divided among the brave defenders."
The following is another of these intercepted
letters : —
" From the moment that you sail and lose sight
of the Morro, you must use no other papers but
the Portuguese, unless you should be obliged to
put into any of the ports of this island, in which
case you will make use of the Spanish papers.
" Your route to the coast of Africa must be
that which you may think the most safe ; you will
touch in going at the Gallinas : there you will see
Don Pablo Alvarez. You will hear from him if
he will give you your cargo for the merchandize
which you carry, which cargo must be from 200
upwards ; and the said Pablo ought also to provide
provisions for them, without the undertaking being
charged a ' real.' But if you should find that you
can do nothing with this gentleman, or with any
other with whom you should accidentally meet at
that place, you will judge for yourself how you can
best make the said cargo; taking care, however,
that your stay does not exceed 100 days. Should
you, at last, not be able to arrange your business,
you will set sail without losing a moment, and
continue your voyage towards the south, where
you will settle the affair according to circumstances,

426

CUBA.

taking care to visit the points of Loando, Ambriz,
and all other trading places throughout Congo, in
order to see in which you may find the greatest
advantage. " On your return voyage you will take the route
which you may consider the safest for your owners.
I prohibit you, under whatever pretext or motive
it may be, from landing your cargo at St. Jago or
Trinidad de Cuba. If, however, you should be
absolutely compelled to do so, you will not dis
pose of the cargo until you shall have received my
orders. " As soon as the vessel shall have landed her
cargo, you will cause her that instant to get under
weigh, leaving on shore fetters, boiler, or whatever
may cause detention.
" In case you should go to Guanimar, you will
address yourself to Don Jose Miro ; if to Baya-
honda, to the house most suitable for the purpose ;
at Cabanas to Don Luis Amiot; at Mariel to Don
Antonio Bela ; and at any other place to the per
son with whom it may be most advantageous to
treat for the cargo.
" I most particularly enjoin you not to lose any
opportunity of informing me of the state of the
undertaking, and what result may be looked for,
writing for that purpose by every vessel that sails,
whether Spanish or Portuguese."
Here I my also take the liberty of observing
that there seems to be no good reason why the li
cences issued by the Admiralty for the capture

ADMIRALTY LICENCES. 427
and detention of slavers under the provisions of
the existing treaties with Spain and Portugal should
be so limited in their number. If one of Her Ma
jesty's ships, not provided with a licence, were to fall
in with a whole squadron of slavers, she would be
constrained to suffer them to pass with impunity.
Whenever a ship is put in commission, no matter
what her destination may be, it humbly appears to
me that the captain or other officer in command
should be provided, as a matter of course, with a
licence for the detention of slavers, since that li
cence is always liable to be controlled by the special
instructions of the superior officer, or of the Board
of Admiralty, so that no possible disadvantage to
the service could arise in consequence of its having
been issued.
A short time before my arrival at Jamaica, a
slaver, the Feliz, was detained within a few miles
of Port Royal by Her Majesty's steam packet
Flamer, at that time engaged in the service of
the post office. Unfortunately for the commander
he was not provided with an Admiralty licence ;
but happily for the interests of humanity he was
in the near neighbourhood of Port Royal, from
whence the Commodore, on being apprised of the
detention, sent out one of his boats under the
command of Mr. Hammel Ingold Strutt, the sailing
master of the Madagascar, to take possession of the
prize. I wish it to be understood that it was not
Commodore Douglas who had then the command
of the Jamaica station, but his predecessor, Sir John
Strutt Peyton, whose conduct in detaining the

428 cuba.
prize, without allowing the gallant commander of
the Flamer to have any share of the head-money,
was the subject of very general remark in Jamaica
up to the period of my arrival in the island.
Of course it would not be convenient if the post
office steamers were to be tempted by head-money
or tonnage-money to go out of their track in quest
of such prizes; but there seems to be no good reason
for tying up their hands altogether, by denying
them the needful authority. It was no doubt from
the pure principle of discountenancing the indis
creet zeal of inferior officers, that Sir John Strutt
Peyton thought it necessary to put the whole of
the prize money of the Feliz into his own private
pocket. When the new arrangements shall have been
completed for the conveyance of the mails of all
nations in these seas by means of numerous and
powerful steamers, all sailing under Her Majesty's
flag, the chances of capture would be greatly mul
tiplied if every one of them were provided with
the necessary licence. The detention of the mail
would be so short as in all probability to be wholly
imperceptible ; far shorter, in fact, than what is
constantly occurring, under the arbitrary authority
of the lieutenant-governor of one or other of the
islands, who may be unwilling to allow the packet
to pass until he has completed the writing of his
despatches. All that the steamers would have to do, now
that resistance and fighting are found to be unpro
fitable, would be to take the prize in tow, and

ADMIRALTY LICENCES. 429
leave her at the first British station that lay in his
course, or in charge of the first British man of war
he might happen to meet. If letters of marque
were sanctioned by the treaty, the only objection
to their being used for the suppression of the slave
trade would be the danger of abuse. In the case
of Her Majesty's ships and packets there can be no
such danger ; and I cannot help expressing there
fore a confident hope, that the Honourable the Board
of Admiralty will consent to a much more extended
issue of licences against slavers than their lord*
ships have hitherto sanctioned.
The Feliz was lost on her passage from Jamaica
to Sierra Leone ; but her cargo, consisting of 324
slaves, 240 males and 84 females, had fortunately
been landed at Kingston, and there placed under
the charge of Mr. J. G. Swainson, the collector of
the customs. The mate of the Madagascar, Mr.
W. H. Baugh, who had been appointed prize master,
was not provided with a chronometer ; and having
been out of his reckoning, found it necessary to
come to anchor near Fort St. Louis on the Senegal, ,
where he landed to procure a supply of water and
provisions, of which he was much in need. In at
tempting to get under weigh the vessel drifted on
shore and went to pieces. Mr. Baugh and his
crew were plundered by the Moors, who carried
them into the interior, and treated them with great
-cruelty, until they were rescued by a party of French
traders, who enabled them to reach Senegal, from
whence they found their way to the British set-
tlementof St. Mary's, on the river Gambia, and from

430 CUBA.
that point they were brought on to Sierra Leone
in her Majesty's ship Curlew.
The master of the Feliz deserted the party at
Senegal from an evident disinclination to proceed
to Sierra Leone and submit to examination before
the mixed court. Had he or any other agent of
the owner been present at the trial, it is not impos
sible that it might have issued in an acquittal, and
in that case Commodore Peyton, instead of pocketing
the head-money, might have been subjected in se
rious damages, in consequence of the loss of the
ship and the sequestration of her cargo, combined
with the fact of the Feliz having been originally
detained and placed in the power of the Madagascar
by one of her Majesty's ships not provided with a
licence. It is not a little extraordinary that the British
government, having so many difficulties to contend
with on the part of Spain and Portugal, should
itself take pains to create factitious impediments to
the full and free exercise of the powers conferred
by the treaties. It sometimes happens that these
fast-sailing clippers after being condemned by the
mixed courts are found to be exceedingly useful as
tenders to the men-of-war on the West India station ;
and it is clear that nothing short of steam could be
better fitted than the captured slavers themselves
for the suppression of the trade, when commanded
and manned by British officers and British crews.
It is held, however, at home that the necessary
powers must emanate directly from the Board of
Admiralty ; and that their lordships either cannot

ADMIRALTY LICENCES. 431
or ought not to delegate that authority even to the
admiral on the station.
This very case occurred a few years ago, when
the Paul Pry, an old slaver, having been purchased
by the commodore with the view of employing her
as a tender to her Majesty's ship Sybille, was placed
under the command of Lieutenant Harvey, with the
commodore's written authority to seize and detain
all such vessels as she might meet with, engaged
in the slave trade. This authority was not consi
dered sufficient by the government at home, on the
ground " that the Paul Pry could not justly be con
sidered to have formed a part of, or to have been
incorporated into, the royal navy of Great Britain."
The question arose on the capture of the Donna
Barbara slaver, which had first been detained by
Mr. Brown, a master in the royal navy, who,
while proceeding to Sierra Leone in another slaver,
the Andorinia, in the capacity of prize-master, fell
in with, and detained, the Donna Barbara, without
any licence or authority whatever. According to
admiralty law, the zeal of Mr. Brown had betrayed
him into an act which was considered unwarrant
able ; and the Donna Barbara would have escaped
condemnation, but for the accidental presence of
Lieutenant Harvey in the Paul Pry at Sierra Leone.
The judges of the mixed court saw no objection
to Lieutenant Harvey's title ; although on the re-
visal of the judgment at home, a flaw was found in
it by the King's Advocate, on the ground that the
Paul Pry ought not to be legally regarded as a
tender to the Sybille, and for that reason, the com-

432

CUBA.

modore, Sir F. A. Collier, was deprived of the
bounty to which he would otherwise have been
entitled. It might possibly require a long negotiation to
obtain an additional article to the existing treaties,
authorising the capture and detention of slavers by
vessels not strictly incorporated into the British
navy. But surely it depends on the British go
vernment alone, to determine in what mode, or by
what forms, a vessel newly built, captured or pur
chased, may so be incorporated.
The governments of Spain or Portugal can have
no sort of right to judge of a mere formality so
purely ministerial in its nature, as the manner in
which a vessel is to be admitted into the navy.
If the officer in charge of it is provided, at the time
of the capture, with a copy of the instructions an
nexed to the treaty, bearing the signature of the
first Lord of the Admiralty, the stipulation has
been fully complied with.
The case of Mr. Brown was not, perhaps, so
clear ; because, until the condemnation of the
Andorinia, the mere capture of the prize in question
could not well raise her to the rank of a tender ;
but I confess it seems to me too ridiculous to have
denied him that power, as regarded the Paul Pry ;
although the Paul Pry had not had an opportunity
of rejoining the Sybille, between the period of her
being fitted up as a tender, and her detention of
the Donna Barbara.
Nay, it seems to have been held by the Advocate-
General in the year 1 830, that a tender, after joining

FREEDOM IN A BRITISH COLONY. 433
the ship of war to which she is attached, and
regularly furnished with the signed instructions,
becomes disqualified for the detention of a slaver,
flagrante delicto, as soon as she has removed from
her ship "to a considerable distance; " but what spe
cific interval is to be regarded as a "considerable"
disqualifying "distance," the learned advocate has
not thought it necessary to determine.
Really this is the most unpardonable trifling that
can well be imagined, on a subject where interests
so vital and important as liberty and life itself are
at issue.
Another question affecting in a serious degree the
great principle of the universal right of mankind to
the enjoyment of freedom, has been barely mooted
with reference to the newly emancipated colonies ;
but so far as I have been able to learn, it has not
yet been legally determined. When it comes to
be considered either by our law officers at home,
or by the British judges in the courts of mixed
commission abroad, it is to be hoped that it will be
treated with more attention to the great interests
at stake than it has hitherto obtained.
It has long been regarded as one of the most
glorious privileges of the soil of Great Britain,
that its very touch confers freedom ; and that to
land on its shores is equivalent, in effect, to the
most solemn act of manumission in any other
country. The existence of negro slavery in the
West Indies was a mere exception to this glorious
rule ; so that if the capture of a slaver should, in
consequence of some legal subtlety, not be followed
F F

434 cuba.
by condemnation ; and should the cargo have been
landed, as in the case of the Feliz at Jamaica, for
want of seaworthiness, or for any other reason
whatever, it seems to follow that the captives have
acquired a right to their liberty, of which no tri
bunal on earth can legally deprive them.
I am delighted to find that this extended view
of the subject has been sanctioned and coun
tenanced by one of the ablest ministers and most
amiable men, to whom the interests of our colonies
were ever entrusted. In a communication from the
colonial to the foreign department in 1838, Lord
Glenelg directed Mr. Under Secretary Stephen to
express it as his lordship's opinion that even if it
should ultimately appear that the slavers whose
cargoes had been landed in the West Indies to
await the judgment of the Mixed Commission
Court were not liable to condemnation, the removal
of such persons, as slaves, from any British colony
at which they may so have arrived, or their deten
tion there in confinement to await the adjudication
at Sierra Leone, would be inconsistent with the
law for the abolition of the slave trade, and with
the laws in force in the colonies.

AMERICAN CONSUL AT HAVANA. 435

CHAP. XXI.
AMERICAN CONSUL AT HAVANA.  CASE OF THE VENUS.
 INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENCE.  SHIPMENTS OF
SHACKLES.  A FRENCH SLAVE DEALER.  FRENCH
CONSUL-GENERAL.  ABUSES OF THE AMERICAN FLAG.
 CASE OF THE AMISTAD.
In consequence of the arrival of the Venus
slaver already referred to, known afterwards, for
good and sufficient reasons, as the Duquesa de
Braganza, a correspondence took place during my
stay at the Havana, between her Majesty's com
missioners and Mr. Trist the American consul.
This correspondence is interesting in various points
of view, not merely as illustrating the means by
which the traffic in slaves is carried on, but as
throwing light on the feelings entertained by the
people of the United _jtat.es of America on the
subject of any English interference in their na
tional or a~~dministrative concerns. In this latter
point of view, the correspondence impressed itself
more strongly on my attention, as on my arrival at
Washington not long afterwards, several of the
members of the government, and, among others,
the president himself, took occasion to speak to
me of the merits of Mr. Trist and of the high
opinion entertained of his character and services
by all classes of his fellow citizens. The corre
spondence having been communicated to both go-
F F 2

436

CUBA.

vernments, the gentlemen at Washington thought
it well, perhaps, thus indirectly to impress on the
mind of an Englishman, and through him on some
of his countrymen, their entire concurrence in
the sentiments expressed by Mr. Trist. Inde
pendent of his personal merits, it may be well to
notice that Mr. Trist is closely allied to the re
publican aristocracy of America, having married a
grand-daughter of President Jefferson, and esta
blished a little colony of that illustrious stock at
the Havana ; and do or say what they please, the
people of the United States are very far from
being insensible to the distinctions either of an
cestry or title.
The Venus, a ship of 460 tons burthen, having
been built at Baltimore in the early part of 1838
expressly for the purpose of engaging in the slave
trade, arrived at the Havana on the 4th of August
in that year, and sailed from thence shortly after
wards under American colours. Her arrival and
equipment produced no small sensation, as before
leaving the port, she was said with her cargo to
have cost her owners, the notorious Mazorra, and
a Frenchman of the name of Gautier, no less than
#100,000. On her return, four months after
wards, she brought herself the first intelligence of
having embarked the unprecedented number of
1100 negroes, the survivors of whom, 860 in number,
were successfully landed, notwithstanding the pre
sence of several of her Majesty's cruizers on the
coast. She returned into portjmderJPprtuguese
colours ; but it was a matter of doubT among in-

CASE OF THE VENUS. 437
telligent persons, whether, during the short period
of her absence, she could have had time to proceed
to any Portuguese settlement for the purpose of
effecting the pretended change in her registry.
Even without this delay, the measures taken by
her owners for securing a cargo against her ar
rival on the coast, must either have been exceed
ingly well concerted, or else the whole voyage
must have been attended with the most extra
ordinary good luck. It was asserted and believed
at the Havana, that no less than #200,000 had
been cleared by this single adventure. I am dis
posed to believe, however, that this is an exagger
ation to the extent of one-fourth, which, after all,
leaves ample encouragement for the prosecution of
such undertakings.
The facts which gave rise to the correspondence
with the American consul were the notoriety with
which a large vessel like the Venus, built at Balti
more, had arrived from the United States, and
sailed on a slaving voyage under the flag of that
nation, together with the belief that several Ame
rican citizens had embarked in her from the Ha
vana, had been present on the coast of Africa,
when the slaves were taken on board, and had also
witnessed their landing on the shores of the island
of Cuba. It was reported, also, that the Venus
had been visited on the coast of Africa, still show
ing her American colours, by the officers of a
British cruizer, who inquired what they were
doing there, and received for answer, that they
f f 3

438

CUBA.

were Americans, and that, as for the English, it
was no business of theirs. It was even made a
subject of boast, that although one of the British
cruizers on the coast had watched the proceedings
of the Venus, and had actually seen her receive
part of her cargo on board, yet that such was her su
periority in sailing, it was found impossible to come
up with her on the attempt being made to give
chase. While the Venus remained at the Havana,
she was visited and examined by Commander Frazer
of the Nimrod, and other officers of her Majesty's
navy. The Portuguese papers with which she re
turned were said to be those of a veteran slaver too
old for the African trade, which, in the course of her
criminal career, had sailed under many a flag, and for
every flag had a different alias. She had been ori
ginally the French "Paquebot Bordelais, No. 1.,"
subsequently the Spanish ship Europa, after
wards the Spanish ship Alerta, and, finally, the
Portuguese ship Duquesa de Braganza, the
name which the Venus assumed in order to have
the benefit of her Portuguese papers, without the
trouble or expense of going to purchase them.
. Under these circumstances it will not be thought
remarkable, at least in England, nor perhaps in
any other country but the United States, that the
British commissioners who have been sent to the
Havana for the express purpose of contributing, as
far as lay in their power, to the suppression of the
slave trade, should have felt it their duty to com
municate the facts, as far as they had transpired,
to the consular representative of the American

CASE OF THE VENUS. 439
government, and to have offered such friendly sug
gestions as might have presented themselves on the
occasion, such as an appeal to the Captain-General,
or the intervention of the ship Boston of the
American navy, which happened to be then in the
harbour. By bringing the culprits to punishment,
Mr. Trist himself, his fellow-citizens, and his go
vernment, would have been exculpated from all
countenance to the disgraceful abuse which had
thus been made of the national flag. Mr. Trist,
however, saw the matter in a very different light.
A former denunciation of a similar abuse con
ceived in the same spirit, and addressed to that
gentleman by the predecessors of the present com
missioners, was treated in a manner which certainly
cannot be justified. The only acknowledgment
which the consul condescended to make of the re
ceipt of this first communication was to return it.
On this second occasion of the denunciation of the
Venus, he pursued a different course. An answer
was immediately returned, in which the former
communication is spoken of in the most indignant
terms, as an "insult" and an "outrage" to the
American government. It is not easy to trace
any substantial distinction between the two cases.
If the first was an outrage, the second was no less
so. The consul's objection is, that no official k
lations exist between the British commissioners and
the representative of the United States at the port
of the Havana, and that at all events " they could
not be such as to allow him to recognise the right of
any agent of any foreign government to interfere in
F F 4

440 CUBA.
any possible mode or degree in the discharge of his
duties, or to forbear repelling such interference if
offered." " This," he says, " is a necessary consequence
of the independence of our two countries. You
refer to the peculiar relationship in which the
United States are placed with Great Britain. Since
the 4th of July, 1776, the only relation in which
they stand to each other is that of two independent
nations " enemies in war, in peace friends." Of
that independence one of the vital parts consists in
the exclusive execution, no less than the exclusive
enactment by each of its own laws ; rigorously ex
cluding and repelling all interference in the one
no less than the other."
This, it must be confessed, is pushing the doc
trine of international independence to a most incon
venient extreme. In afterwards remarking upon
it, Lord Palmerston desires the commissioners
to observe to Mr. Trist, " that the two govern
ments having by the tenth article of the Treaty of
Ghent, mutually engaged to each other that they
would ' use their utmost endeavours to promoie
the entire aboli tionof_the slavetrade/Ttrseems to
be perfectly consistent with the respect which the
agents of each country must feel for the other
country, that they should not only themselves act
in strict accordance with the spirit of the engage
ment which their own government has contracted,
but that they should furnish to the agents of the
other government any information which may be
calculated to enable that other government more

SHIPMENTS OF SHACKLES. 441
effectually to accomplish the common purpose."
In this despatch, also, Lord Palmerston, with refer
ence to some allusion in Mr. Trist's letter to the
manufacture of goods in Great Britain, expressly
designed for the African trade, directs the com
missioners to state to that gentleman, that " if he
can at any time furnish her Majesty's govern
ment, through them, with any information which
may directly or indirectly enable her Majesty's
government to enforce the penalties of the law
against British subjects who may be concerned in
slave trade, her Majesty's government will feel
most sincerely obliged to him."
The allusion here referred to is not undeserving
of notice, there being great reason to fear that the
statement of Mr. Trist may have some foundation
in fact. He speaks of the amount of British fa
brics made expressly for the coast of Africa, and
of the number of casks of shackles of British
manufacture annually exported to this island ;
"some of which," he says, " I have seen passing
through the custom-house here, without attracting
any more notice from either officers or bystanders,
than so many boxes of Dutch cheese." He talks,
also, of the possibility of tracing these things to
their sources, so as to be able to designate every
British manufacturer, merchant, and ship, from and
through which they had reached thus far on their
way to the coast of Africa. It is not unworthy of
consideration, whether something might not be
made out of this suggestion. If such a friendly
understanding as that contemplated in the tenth

442

CUBA.

article of the Treaty of Ghent, had actuated the
American consul, on his seeing the casks of shackles
of British manufacture in the custom-house, at
the Havana, he would instantly have denounced
the fact to the British consul or the British com
missioners, who might have been able, as he sug
gests, from the marks or brands on the casks, if by
no better means, to have traced them through the
ship from which they were landed, and the custom
house authorities in England, to the parties by
whom they were shipped and manufactured. Such
a suggestion ought not to be lost on the British
authorities at the Havana, who might find means
to discover, on some future occasion, such facts
as seem to have fallen under the notice of the
American consul ; and when so discovered, it
would evidently become their duty to follow up
the disclosure by such inquiries as would bring
home the offence to the original culprits in Eng
land. Sufficient evidence would probably be found
to satisfy an English jury that the parties who ex
ported casks of shackles to the Havana, could not
be without a guilty knowledge of their criminal
destination. Not long after the correspondence with the
American consul a similar case occurred with
regard to a French vessel, Le Havre, which,
having sailed from the Havana under French co
lours, and with several French citizens on board,
for the coast of Africa, had re-entered the port,
after landing no less than 500 negroes on the
shores of the island. In this case there was the

A FRENCH SLAVE DEALER. 443
farther fact, that the ostensible owner was a
Frenchman, of the name of Forcade, enjoying a
disgraceful notoriety, not second to any in the
place, for the extent of his dealings ; and it might
have been added, that his partners are English
men ; that it is with English capital his house has
been established ; that a quarrel has ensued about
the division of the spoil ; and that important dis
closures may, in consequence, be expected. The
French consul-general, M. Moliien, to whom a
denunciation of the fact was addressed, in terms
in all respects corresponding to those of the letter
to Mr. Trist, felt no such squeamishness about
the national independence, but applied, with the
utmost promptitude, to the Prince de Joinville,
who was then, with his ship, at the Havana. His
Royal Highness, in concert with Captain Per
ceval, of the French navy, feeling no alarm for
French independence, lost no time in ordering
Le Petit Thouars to make ready to leave the
harbour in search of the suspected vessel. This
mission was not successful ; the Petit Thouars
returned from her cruize without meeting with
the Havre, which is said to have been lost on
the shores of the island after landing her cargo,
not without the suspicion that the wreck was
accomplished wilfully, as the most efficacious
mode of silencing all inquiries. The proceedings
thus adopted, on the part of the French autho
rities, present a striking contrast with the tone
and spirit of Mr. Trist's communication. It is
not to be believed, or suspected, that Mr. Trist

444

CUBA.

would wilfully lend his own countenance, or that
of his important office, to cover a practice which
the laws of his country have declared to be worthy
of the pains of piracy ; and yet it is almost in
credible that after the enjoyment of sixty-three
years of undisputed independence, any doubt
should yet remain about the validity or perma
nence of the acquisition.
A few months before the period of this angry
correspondence the British commissary judge makes
a report to Lord Palmerston of the purport of se
veral conversations he had had on this subject with
the American consul, whom he justly represents as
a gentleman of high character, as well as of con
siderable reading and observation. On every
point relating to the prohibited traffic, Mr. Ken
nedy regrets to say that he received the most dis
couraging replies ; and adds, that such seemed to
be the general feeling among the American com
munity of the Havana. " They all seem to de
clare that it would be a question not to be entered
on, of inquiring into their equipments, as inter
fering with their trade, not knowing how far
such interferences might be led to extend; and
that England might as well think of closing up
the workshops of Birmingham, where they say the
bolts and shackles are manufactured, as call on
America to forbid the sailing of vessels equipped
with them."
It is due to Mr. Trist to state, as regards the
abuse of the American flag, that not long before
the date of his letter to the British commissioners,

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 445
he caused a vessel, called The Thomas, of
Havana, to be seized, because she had sailed
under American colours, without possessing a re
gular registry, but only what is called "a sea
letter," which consists of a bill of sale, together
with a declaration, on oath, by the purchaser,
made before a notary, that he is an American
citizen ; and the British consul reports a decla
ration of Mr. Trist, that no other vessel should
dear from the Havana under American colours,
unless duly registered.
The plain object of the slavers, in thus endeavour
ing to shelter themselves under the American flag,
is, that British cruisers may be deterred from insist
ing on that right of search which the government of
the United States alone, persists in refusing, although
asked for on the broad principle of reciprocity. The
motive for this refusal is, no doubt, to be traced to
a consciousness of the fact, that the United States'
navy is manned, to a large extent, by foreigners ;
and that of these the majority are British seamen.
In time of peace, however, there can be no suffi
cient motive on the part of the British government
for attempting to restrain her Majesty's subjects
from earning higher wages than they could obtain
at home, by entering the United States' navy, or
engaging themselves on board American merchant
ships. In time of war, on the other hand, the
want of a treaty will, of course, be disregarded,
and the commanders of her Majesty's ships will
exercise the right of search whenever they find an
opportunity, without asking the consent of the

446

CUBA.

American government. The refusal of this mu
tual right of search, therefore, on the part of the
United States resolves itself into a tacit decla
ration, that that government is to extend the pro
tection of its flag to all the miscreants who think
fit to resort to it, in order to shield themselves
from the consequences of a crime declared by the
laws of the Union to be worthy of the pains of
piracy. Its effect will be to reduce the British
government to the disagreeable alternative of ex
ercising a right prescribed by the law of nature
and humanity, if not by that of nations ; or of
disgracefully abandoning a contest for the attain
ment of the objects of which the British people
have evinced their sincerity by the prodigality
with which they have lavished their treasure for
its accomplishment. When the case comes to be
clearly understood, the people of the United States
will never sanction a resort to arms in support of a
barren principle, in the maintenance of which no
honest citizen can, by any possibility, have the
remotest interest.
In further evidence of the facts on which this
reasoning is founded, I refer to the clear and
forcible despatch of her Majesty's commissioners
at Sierra Leone, dated 31st December 1838, re
ceived 12th June 1839, and printed as an appendix
to the parliamentary papers relating to the slave
trade, class A. further series, 1838-9. I refer
also to the despatches of her Majesty's consul
at the Havana, since the commencement of the
year 1839, and printed in class B. of the same

CUBA. 447
series. On the 5th of January, the consul writes
to Lord Palmerston, and on the same day, to
Mr. Fox, her Majesty's minister at Washington,
that the practice had arisen of sending Spanish
vessels to New Orleans and Key West, one of the
insulated rocks belonging to the United States, off
the coast of Florida, and had there effected col
lusive sales, after which the vessels returned to the
Havana, to be despatched under American colours
to the coast of Africa. In this way the Spanish
schooner General Espartero had proceeded to Key
West, and returned with American papers, as the
Thomas of Havana, and a well-known Spanish slaver
had gone to New Orleans as the Conchita, and had
come back as the American schooner Encantadora.
The British consul pointed out the illegality of these
transfers by means of " sea letters," which, accord
ing to the act of Congress of 26th March 1810,
were not issuable after the 30th of June of that
year, and they therefore ought not to have been
suffered to clear out as Americans by the Custom
house authorities of New Orleans and Key West.
In a subsequent despatch dated 27th February
1839, M. Tolme directed Lord Palmerston's atten
tion to the case of the American schooner Rebecca,
which had arrived from Baltimore at the Havana,
where she was privately sold ; but her American
register was not given up, so that she proceeded
for Gallinas on the coast of Africa under the flag of
the Union, the master being authorised to hoist
Portuguese colours and produce his Portuguese
papers at her place of destination, or at some in-

448 cuba.
termediate port. He also stated on the authority
of Mr. Crawford, the British consul at New Or
leans, that the Nueva Amable Salome had gone
there for a similar purpose, but was about to return
to the Havana under her Spanish colours, in con
sequence of its having become known that Mr.
Trist persisted in his refusal to clear out vessels
under American colours unless duly registered.
In making the purchase of an American vessel,
the dealers were thus reduced to the necessity of
stipulating, that the fact of the transfer should
remain in abeyance until the risk of the passage to
the Cape de Verds and from thence to the coast
of Africa should have been passed, the original
American captain remaining in command, to mis
lead and deceive the commanders of British
cruisers, until the moment when, by receiving the
cargo on board, he might be exposing himself to
the pains of piracy imposed on actual slave-dealing
by the laws of the Union.
From the returns of the British commissioners
to the Foreign Office for 1838, it appears that no
less than 19 American vessels engaged in the Cuba
slave trade, and, protected by the American flag,
had entered the single port of the Havana in that
one year, independent of those who had escaped
the commissioners' observation, leaving all the
other ports of the island out of the account. It
is reported also to Admiral Elliot by several of
the commanders of cruisers under his orders, par
ticularly by Lieutenant Kellett and Lieutenant
Oliver, that Mr. Trist, the American consul, had

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 449
signed papers for notorious slavers as the locum
tenens of the Portuguese consul. It is farther
stated, that in an American-built vessel transferred
to the Portuguese flag, but with a Spanish owner
on board, there were found several printed forms,
in the nature of passports, left blank as to names,
dates, and other particulars, but, strange to say,
bearing the signature of Mr. Trist, the American
consul. This fact is so extraordinary, that I desire
to quote as my authority the parliamentary papers
for 1839, "Correspondence with Foreign Powers
not Parties to Conventions, giving right of search
of vessels suspected of the Slave Trade, class D.
(further series)," page 26.
These facts have naturally been made the sub
ject of complaint to the American government,
and Mr. Fox is instructed to express to Mr. For
syth the regret of her Majesty's government at
hearing that American citizens and ships are en
gaged in Cuba in promoting that trade in slaves
which, as Lord Palmerston courteously assumes, it
is the object of the United States as well as of
Great Britain to suppress; and Mr. Fox is to state
the confidence of her Majesty's government that
the United States government will take every
step within their power for preventing such abuses
of the flag of the Union. On the subject of the
signing of papers and blank forms by the Ame
rican consul, to be filled up at pleasure by the
persons in command of those vessels, Lord Pal
merston states that her Majesty's government are
unwilling to believe that any functionary of the
G G

450 CUBA.
United States would intentionally assist the traffic
in question, but that in cases of this kind, mere
carelessness leads nearly to the same result as
actual connivance. In conclusion, his lordship
requests that the consul may be cautioned to be
more circumspect in future, and to exert all his
vigilance to prevent slave traders from screening
themselves under the protection of the American
flag. I have not learned whether the government
at Washington have taken fire at these friendly
suggestions ; but, as an interference with the exe
cution of the laws of the Union, they throw the
modest hints of the commissioners at the Havana
completely into the shade.
In the correspondence of Commodore Sullivan,
and other British officers, there are unfortunately
not wanting many other instances of the grievous
abuse of the American flag. Thus it is stated by
Lieutenant Birch, of her Majesty'sbrig Wizard, that
on the 16th of September, 1838, he had boarded,
off Point St. Antonio, on the coast of Brazil, the
Eagle of Baltimore, a two-topsail schooner of 210
tons under American colours, John Littig, master,
with crew and passengers, in all twenty-one men,
from the notorious slave-trading settlement of St.
Thomas, on the line, in ballast. As her American
papers were produced, the commander of the
Wizard did not think himself warranted in search
ing her, although it was reported in Bahia, that she
had landed slaves to the northward, and her ap
pearance on boarding warranted the suspicion.
From one of the seamen of the Wizard, James

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 451
Fox, who had formerly sailed, according to his own
confession, in an American slaver, called the Dido
of Baltimore, on a voyage to the coast of Africa,
a similar statement is obtained. The Dido had
sailed from the Havana in March 1837, with an
assorted cargo for the coast, and after calling for
Portuguese papers at Bonavista in the Cape de
Verds, had proceeded to the Bight of Benin,
where she disposed of her outward cargo, went to
Whyda for provisions, returned to Lagos in the
Bight, where she embarked 575 negroes, 570 of
whom she landed, having lost only five on the pas
sage, at the village close to the point of Itapacau,
in the immediate neighbourhood of Bahia. On
making the sand hills to windward of the port, she
discovered her Majesty's sloop Sparrow-hawk at
anchor within ; upon which the Dido hauled off,
showing American colours abaft, and her distin
guishing flag forward, which was immediately ac
knowledged from the village outside the bar. On
the following morning, she made her appearance
in Bahia, under the American flag. According to
Fox's statement, the American master Phillips was
there to take the command, whenever it was ne
cessary to hoist the American colours ; and the
Portuguese supercargo Manuel took his place,
when it was more convenient to show Portuguese
colours. Besides the captain and supercargo,
there was a second mate, also an American, a re
lation of Phillips, on board ; an American mulatto ;
a Sicilian, since murdered at Bahia; a Norwegian;
two Portuguese ; and the Englishman, James Fox.
g g 2

452 cuba.
This man stated that he received #75 a month as
wages, besides a bounty of #100 on the landing of
the slaves.
The case of the Mary Lushing, of Baltimore, a
schooner of 140 tons burden, is also reported by
Lieutenant Birch as having been boarded by him
while under American colours, off Bahia, on the
10th of November, 1838. Her master, Reynolds,
an American, boldly volunteered to allow the board
ing officer to inspect her between decks. Four
leaguers, or water tanks, besides twenty ordinary
water casks, and a quantity of loose plank were
observed in her hold ; and her range coppers were
much larger than those generally used in merchant
vessels ; so that, had she belonged to any one of
the countries whose governments have acceded to
the French and Spanish treaties, she would clearly
have been subject to condemnation, under the
conditions of the equipment clause. It was well-
known in Bahia, that she had been sold to parties
at the Havana for the purpose of slaving, and that
the former American master remained on board
with the register, that she might still bear the flag
of the Union, and secure the protection it afforded.
From the Havana she went to Oney, in the river
Lagos, for the purpose of taking in slaves ; but
being closely watched by one of her Majesty's
cruisers, she sailed, after a stay of some weeks, and
finally came to Bahia in ballast. There she was
again taking in a general cargo, and was about to
sail for the coast, when it was not doubted she
would embark a cargo of slaves, on the first favour-

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 453
able opportunity. In that case the American mas
ter would leave her; and the mate, with the Spanish
papers obtained at the Havana, would take his
place. On the boarding officer making some allu
sion to the American colours, the master observed
that these colours would not have been seen if any
slaves had been on board.
Commander Reeve, of her Majesty's sloop Lily,
reports to the Secretary of the Board of Admiralty,
that he had captured a vessel called the Eagle, lying
at Lagos under American colours, the entire crew of
which were Spaniards, with the exception of a man
calling himself both master and owner ; and that,
having sent her to Sierra Leone for adjudication,
the courts of mixed commission had refused to
decide, on the ground of its being set forth in the
ship's papers produced, that the Eagle was an
American. She had been sold at the Havana ; the
American vice-consul there had attested the sale,
and had granted American papers.
It is further stated by Commander Reeve, that
the day before he left Sierra Leone, a vessel under
American colours, captured by the Termagant, had
also arrived there, but she would of course, he says,
be released. " No other flag," he adds, " will be
seen on the coast in a short time, as it affords all
the protection a slaver can require under the exist
ing laws ; and it would be useless for her Majesty's
cruisers to be any longer employed for the sup
pression of the traffic."
Another vessel, the Mary Anne Cassard, under
American colours, was boarded and seized by Lieu-
g g 3

454

CUBA.

tenant Kellett, of her Majesty's brig Brisk, on the
27th of October, 1838, in the neighbourhood of
Sierra Leone. This vessel had been lately sold by
Mr. Gilbert Cassard of Baltimore, to Messrs. Her
nandez and Basden of Matanzas, in the island of
Cuba, where she had received her cargo. At the
time of the sale, her American register had been
cancelled, and she had no American papers but the
roll, which was signed by the United States consul
at Matanzas. The crew were all Spaniards, with
the exception of one man, the master, who repre
sented himself to be a British subject, having for
merly served on the African coast in her Majesty's
brigantine Lynx, in which he was paid off. The
admiral was of opinion, however, that this was a false
pretence, and that he had originally passed himself
as an Englishman in order to be received on board
the Lynx ; but, at all events, he was unable to navi
gate any vessel, and had, no doubt, been engaged
to personate the American captain, when boarded
by a British man-of-war. Lieutenant Kellett did
not doubt that the Mary Anne Cassard had Por
tuguese papers on board, as she had touched at
Bonavista, and a Portuguese flag had been found
in her. The captor announces his intention of
lodging an information against the master of the
prize, so as to have him committed for trial as a
British subject engaged in the slave trade. On
board the Brisk there was fortunately an armourer's
mate who had formerly served in the Lynx, and had
been the messmate of the master of this slaver from
fifteen to eighteen months.

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 455
The case of the American schooner Mary
Hooper is also brought under the admiral's notice
by the same active officer. This vessel belonged
to Philadelphia ; Charles M. Bergstrand, of that
city, having been at once the master and the owner.
When last boarded by the Brisk, she was lying off
Trade Town ready to receive a cargo of slaves.
She had sailed from the Havana on the 28th of
May, 1838, calling first at the Portuguese settle
ment of Port Praya to obtain fictitious papers, and
afterwards proceeding to Gallinas, where she was
consigned to a notorious slave dealer. If, on her
arrival in the West Indies, she should meet an
American ship of war, she would show her Portu
guese papers, but to her Majesty's ships she would
produce her American papers, which, in all proba
bility, would be the means of her proving success
ful. On this occasion, also, Lieutenant Kellett
states, that the American consul at the Havana had
lent his assistance in clearing out the Mary Hooper.
The case of the Venus, referred to by the British
commissioners in their correspondence with Mr.
Trist, which effected her landing during my stay at
the Havana, and whose cargo I had next day an
opportunity of seeing in the public barracoons, is
referred to by Captain Popham of her Majesty's
sloop Pelican, in a letter to Admiral Elliot, dated
24th of December, 1838. She is truly described
as of the most improved model for swift sailing, and
she is stated to have arrived at Lagos from Boston
about the 5th of November, and to have again
sailed for the Havana with a cargo of 1150 slaves,
g g 4

456

CUBA.

so that nearly 300 must have perished on the voy
age. Her American flag and papers, in possession
of her American master, Mr. Philips of Baltimore,
had protected her until within a few days of her
leaving the coast, when Portuguese papers were
ready, with a Portuguese flag and a Portuguese
captain, to proceed on the return voyage. On the
28th of November, about 100 miles south of Lagos,
the Venus was chased by the Pelican, who at first
gained on her ; but the Venus having been light
ened by throwing her deck cargo and her spare
spars overboard, she was able to sail away with ease,
although the Pelican made every effort to come up
with her. Two days afterwards, near the place
where the chase had commenced, the Pehcan
picked up two spare topmasts, a topsail-yard, and
main top-gallant mast, all of very large dimensions,
quite new, and evidently not more than a day or
two in the water. It appears, also, that the Venus
had been repeatedly boarded by her Majesty's ship
Dolphin, Lieutenant Holland, while lying at Lagos,
but she was of course protected until her slaves
were on board by the American colours.
Captain Popham states also the case of the
schooner Ontario of Baltimore, as one of those
numerous instances of abuse of the American flag.
This vessel had been made over to a Spaniard at
the Havana by an American citizen, Mr. Hunting
ton, who was himself found on board the Portu
guese schooner Magdalena off the coast of Africa
at the time of her capture, with 320 slaves on
board, by her Majesty's ship Pelican. The Ontario

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 457
had been boarded, when preparing to receive
slaves, by the boats of her Majesty's ship Viper,
but was, in like manner, protected from search by
her American papers. In consequence of inform
ation obtained from the Portuguese commander of
the Magdalena, Captain Popham proceeded in
quest of the Ontario, and caught sight of her on
the following day. On overhauling her, she
was found to have 220 slaves on board, and was
immediately captured. She was under Spanish
colours, but had no papers whatever. The words
" Ontario of Baltimore " wrere painted in large
letters on her stern. Captain Popham further
states, that were it not for the active co-operation
of the Americans, the slave trade would very
materially decline, or be carried on but feebly ;
for this he has the authority of the Spaniards and
Portuguese slaving on the coast, independent of
his own observation ; and Captain Popham does
not doubt that the citizens of the United States,
particularly of Baltimore, are more deeply in
terested in the slave trade to Cuba and Brazil than
is generally supposed. He was very much dis
posed to detain Mr. Huntington until he could
receive orders as to the disposal of him from the
admiral ; but on a careful perusal of the corre
spondence between the governments of Great Bri
tain and the United States on the subject of the
slave trade, he saw no chance of bringing him to
punishment, and therefore let him go.
Lieutenant Hall, of her Majesty's brig Bonetta,
reports also to Admiral Elliot, that on his passage

458

CUBA.

to Accra with the prize crews of her Majesty's
sloop Pelican, he had boarded, on the 23d Janu
ary, 1839, a very fast, new, American Ballahor
schooner, in ballast, evidently intended for the
slave trade. The captain was a Frenchman, but
declared himself to be a naturalised American
citizen. His papers supported that pretence ; but
his crew were all Spaniards.
In support of these statements, Sir George Elliot
also represents to the Admiralty that the American
flag is coming rapidly into general use for the pro
tection of Spanish slavers ; and such is the im
punity which attends the practice, that they no
longer think it necessary to have an American
citizen on board to personate the captain; but
content themselves with furnishing one of the crew
with a certificate of naturalisation for the occasion.
If her Majesty's ships were at liberty to send
some of these pretended Americans to the United
States, and the government of that country were
to uphold the honour of their flag, by subjecting
such lawless felons to prosecution and punishment,
it would soon put an end, the admiral justly ob
serves, to the nefarious usurpation of American
citizenship by the most notorious slave dealers be
longing to Spain and Portugal. In another letter
Sir George asks the Admiralty for instructions in
the event of the capture of vessels under the Ame
rican flag with slaves on board, what, in that case,
he is to do with the man who passes for the
American captain. He craves their lordships'
early instructions on this growing evil and abuse,

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 459
which he is convinced is much too disgraceful to
meet with any countenance, direct or indirect,
from the government of the United States.
In bringing these matters before that govern
ment, our minister, Mr. Fox, is directed by Lord
Palmerston, in a formal note to Mr. Forsyth, to
express the anxious wish of her Majesty's govern
ment, that the government of the United States
would either come to some conventional agreement
with Great Britain upon the subject of the slave
trade, so as to enable British cruisers to deal with
these pretended American vessels, or else that it
would send to the African station a sufficient
number of United States cruisers to prevent this
fraudulent use of the flag of the Union, as a cover
and protection to practices which the laws of the
United States have long since decreed to be piracy.
From the President's message to congress, at the
opening of the session of 1840, it appears that the
second branch of this alternative has been par
tially acceded to ; but what good service can we
expect against this modern Briareus, from one or
two sloops of war, supposing their captains and
crews to be animated by the best possible spirit ?
They are only authorised to act against their own
countrymen, without the power to co-operate with
the British cruisers they may find on the coast.
Their visits are already provided for by the double
papers, the double captains, and the double flag,
which have just been described; so that he must
be a very blundering slaver, indeed, who allows
himself to be captured as an American.

460

CUBA.

In the case of the Portuguese schooner Prova,
Francisco Joza Dias, master, another class of Ame
rican functionaries appears to be implicated in the
charge of winking hard at slave trade practices.
This vessel was condemned in the British and
Portuguese court of mixed commission at Sierra
Leone, on the 31st of July 1838, having been
captured in the river Calabar by the boats of
her Majesty's sloop Pylades, William Langford
Castle, Esq., commanding, immediately after she
had embarked a cargo of 225 slaves. This was
one of the ordinary cases of slave traders owned
and freighted at the Havana, but sailing under the
Portuguese flag, and with Portuguese papers ob
tained at the Cape de Verde Islands. The water-
casks and slave decks, denounced in the treaties
with the naval powers of Europe as sufficient evi
dence of guilt, were cleared out as part of her
lawful cargo. The pretence is, that these tanks
and water casks are sent out to bring back a cargo
of palm oil. This case led to a fresh negotiation
at Madrid, which produced a royal order directing
the custom-house authorities of Cuba not to issue
certificates to vessels carrying such casks, without
exacting a bond, which may be a security in case
it should afterwards be proved that the prohibited
articles were destined for illegal purposes. While
on her outward voyage from the Havana to the
coast of Africa, this vessel was driven into Char
leston by damage sustained at sea and stress of
weather, and was detained there for nearly three
months, undergoing repairs. It is stated by the

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 461
commissioners at Sierra Leone, that the outward
appearance of this vessel alone ought to have
excited suspicion as to the real object of her
voyage, and they very naturally express their
surprise that, fitted and equipped as she was for
the slave trade, with her leaguers, water tanks, and
slave deck on board, while the attention of the
authorities was drawn to the fact by their speci
fication in the manifest, she should nevertheless
have been permitted to clear out from an Ame
rican port for the coast of Africa. In point of
fact, she proceeded direct from Charleston to the
river Calabar, where the capture took place.
There is one case on record, where a feeble
effort to check these abuses was made by the
American government. From its extreme rarity
it deserves to be noticed. It elicited a formal
message of thanks from her Majesty's government,
which might well have put the authorities in
Washington to the blush, without having seen the
smile of quiet irony on the countenance of Lord
Palmerston as he put his signature to the despatch
containing it. This was the case of a schooner, the
name of which is not reported, which had landed
a cargo of slaves in the month of February 1838,
in the neighbourhood of Matanzas. She had been
sold to Spanish owners, and was to have been
transferred to the Portuguese flag at the Cape de
Verde Islands ; but the master having died before
the transfer was effected, and the crew not being
sufficiently instructed, dispensed with the idle ce
remony, altered their course, proceeded direct to

462

CUBA.

the coast of Africa, where they embarked the
cargo prepared for them, and returned to the island
of Cuba without any other flag or papers than
those originally procured in the United States.
These facts found their way through some indirect
channel to Philadelphia, from whence orders were
transmitted to the naval station at Pensacola in
the Floridas, to make some inquiry on the subject.
The United States schooner, Grampus, was in
consequence directed to proceed to Matanzas,
where it is said to have been found that there were
none but Spaniards on board ; a fact which put an
end to the investigation, although not in itself a
very satisfactory ground on which to justify the
systematic abuse of the American flag.
If to diminish the profits of the slaver is to
strike a heavy blow at the slave trade, and to ex
tinguish the profits is to abolish the trade, it fol
lows, e converso, that to lessen the slaver's charges
is to enable him to carry on his trade with ad
vantage. The American functionaries are not ac
cused of charging fifteen per cent, commission, like
the Portuguese functionaries, for the sanction they
afford to fictitious transfers of registry. But their
heedless practice of certifying to papers which they
have not examined, and even of issuing blank cer
tificates, has a much worse effect than if they
charged a heavy commission and pocketed the mo
ney ; since the payment of that very commission
would operate as a serious discouragement, and
like the last small addition to the camel's load,
might break the back of the trade. Of this nature

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 463
is the practice, which is still on the increase, of
shipping goods, and even articles of slaving equip
ment, for the coast of Africa in American vessels,
not intended to be used as slavers, and from their
form and construction not liable to suspicion, but
still sailing both out and home under the American
flag. On such risks insurance can be effected at
the rate of two and a half per cent. ; whereas, if
the goods had been embarked in a Portuguese or
Spanish bottom, the insurance of the outward
voyage alone would have cost at least four times
as much. The Rio underwriters charge much
lower premiums on the home voyage than those of
the Havana, which seems to prove that the Brazilian
coast is not so well watched as that of Cuba.
The Portuguese authorities at the Cape de
Verdes occasionally show some reluctance to give
effect to the previous proceedings of the American
consulate at the Havana. Of the ten vessels which
cleared out and sailed from the port of St. Jago in
these islands for the coast of Africa, in 1 838, no less
than five were Americans ; three others were Span
iards, one Portuguese, and one Brazilian. To two of
the American vessels, the Mary from Matanzas, and
the James Webb from Havana, the Portuguese go
vernor, Marinha, refused to grant the papers they
came for, although the bill of sale and the list of
the crew, in the case of the vessel from the Ha
vana, had been prepared by Mr. Trist, the Ame
rican consul ; and it was only on the legality of the
American papers obtained at the Havana being
vouched for by Mr. Gardner, the American consul

464

CUBA.

at the Cape de Verdes, that the governor abstained
from seizing the vessel. Nevertheless the James
Webb sailed for the coast on the 20th of July,
1838, and it was supposed by the British consul
that she must have had a Spanish set of papers on
board. This refusal, therefore, on the part of the
Portuguese governor, which probably arose from
the unwillingness of the parties connected with the
James Webb to pay the exorbitant fees demanded
by Marinha, or from the governor's displeasure at
finding himself in danger of losing such a profitable
source of revenue by the cheap facilities afforded by
American functionaries, exposed the vessel to a risk
of capture to which she was not otherwise liable, be
tween the date of her leaving St. Jago and that
of her embarking her cargo. During the previous
part of her voyage between the Havana and St.
Jago, she was of course protected by her American
papers. The extent of these abuses on the coast of Cuba
alone may be gathered from the fact reported by
the British commissioners — that of seventy-one
vessels engaged in the trade, in the year 1837,
eleven were American ; whereas in the following
year, the number had increased to nineteen, and _
was likely to go on augmenting in a similar ratio,
unless some strong measures were taken to repress
it. It appears to be the Spaniards who are thus
ostensibly retiring from business to make way for
the Americans. In 1837, the seventy-one slavers
engaged in the Cuba trade were, forty of them
Portuguese, nineteen Spaniards, eleven Americans,

ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 465
and one Swede. In 1838, the like number of
seventy-one slavers consisted of forty-two Por
tuguese, nineteen Americans, eight Spaniards, one
Frenchman, and one Brazilian.
I have entered into these details, not in any un
friendly spirit, but, on the contrary, in the hope
that they may be taken up in America, where the
facts may not be generally known ; and that the
government, and the congress, at Washington,
may be compelled, by a pressure from without, to
make a concession of the necessary powers on
terms of the most perfect reciprocity, inferring no
imputation on the national honour, and no im
peachment of the national independence.
My fear, however, is, that the slave-holders of
the south will be so wrong-headed as to imagine
that their " peculiar institutions " might be en
dangered by such a concession ; and in that case
they will take the alarm, not for the national inde
pendence, but for their private right of property.
They are already but too apt to follow the ex
ample of our English conservatives, risking all that
is really worth contending for, in order to maintain
some indefensible abuse. In the suppression of
the slave trade they will see, or affect to see, the
downfall of slavery itself in an island which is
separated by so short an interval from their own
hot-beds of slavery, and will say to themselves —
" Tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet."
It is the continuance of the slave trade, how
ever, much more than its suppression, that is
H H

466

CUBA.

likely to set their neighbour's house on fire, in
more senses than one.
From the intercepted correspondence of the
slave dealers we have discovered how appre
hensive they are of insurrections on ship-board,
and of the struggles of the poor African for the
recovery of his freedom. When landed on the
coast of Cuba or Brazil these fears are supposed to
be ended, especially after the cargoes of several
slavers, from different parts of Africa, have been
mixed up in the barracoons. The fact that they
are unable to understand each other's language is
naturally regarded as a great additional security.
When the demand for negroes is greater than
usual, and when a new estate is to be supplied out
of a single cargo, this precaution becomes imprac
ticable ; and the planter, who has come to the
great slave mart at the Havana from some distant
district of the island, to form a new gang, or com
plete an old one, is compelled to supply himself
with such a selection as the state of the market
affords. This appears to have been the case with Messrs.
Ruiz and Montes, through whom the attention of
the world has been so earnestly directed to the
practices of the slave trade. From a single cargo
of Congos they had purchased a supply of slaves
at the Havana for their estates in the province of
Puerto Principe, and had embarked them, after
having been a month in the barracoons, on board
a coasting vessel called the Amistad, for which
purpose they had no doubt provided themselves

CASE OF THE AMISTAD. 467
with a special passport " ad hoc," as a protection
against the visits of the British cruisers on the
coast. Among this party of negroes there was one mas
ter spirit, Cingiies by name, who, thinking slavery
worse than death, had concerted measures with his
fellow captives for the recovery of their freedom.*
They fell on the captain and crew of the schooner,
and threw the* whole of them overboard, but spared
the lives of the two purchasers, Ruiz and Montes,
in order to compel them to steer the vessel towards
the coast of Africa. The only idea they had of
the line to be pursued was, that it must be towards
the rising sun ; but the Spaniards always contrived
to defeat their design during the night, reversing
the vessel's course, and losing at least all that had
been gained during the day. The plan of Ruiz
and Montes was to strand the vessel on the coast of
the United States, where they hoped to find the
means of protection for themselves and of recover
ing their lost dominion over their newly acquired
slaves. After pursuing this see-saw system for nearly two
months, the Spaniards succeeded in their object ;
in which they were assisted by the necessity which
had arisen for fresh supplies of water and pro
visions. Happily for the kidnapped Africans, and
let us hope also for the whole negro race, the land
they first reached was in the northern part of the
* Cingiies is probably a young man ; but " fortem facit vicina li
bertas senem."
H H 2

468

CUBA.

American Union, where some respect is paid to
human rights. Had they been driven to seek re
fuge on the shores of one of the slave-holding
states, we have the authority of the greatest slave
dealers in Cuba for saying, that the Spaniards might
have lost their property, indeed, by confiscation,
but that the negroes would have been as far as ever
from the recovery of their freedom.
They had scarcely reached the American shore,
at a point which seems to have been close to the
boundary of the state of New York, and the New
England state of Connecticut, when the vessel was
boarded by a certain Captain Gedney, who thought
of nothing but the prize he had made, and the
salvage to which he would be entitled. It was
clearly his interest that the negroes should be re
garded as the property of Ruiz and Montes ; in
which case the value of the windfall would be
greatly increased. Fortunately, however, there
was no ground for a claim of salvage at all, so that
the adverse claim of Mr. Gedney was scouted from
the outset.
In the meantime, the complexion of the poor
Africans appears to have raised a presumption
against their natural rights. If not guilty of man-
stealing, Messrs. Ruiz and Montes were, at least,
openly transgressing the laws of their own country,
in carrying these " Bozals" into slavery. On the
other hand, the negroes were accused of piracy,
although the charge was contradicted by all the
facts of the case ; having paid or offered to pay

CASE OF THE AMISTAD. 469
for whatever they had asked for. The Africans
were nevertheless thrown into prison, while the
Spaniards were left at liberty.
They lost no time in seeking for legal assistance,
but here they met the Africans on equal ground ;
for as soon as the case was heard of, the friends of
their race took care to retain the best advice which
the bars of New York or Connecticut could afford.
In another quarter the Spaniards were more
successful. Through the minister of Her Catholic
Majesty at Washington, they demanded of the go-f
vernment of the United States that the negroes
should be recognised as their property. Such a
recognition was fortunately not in the power of the
executive government ; but I regret to perceive
that a decided leaning has been shown towards the
pretended right of property, and that the govern
ment have done all in their power to maintain it,
by sending down their district attorney to file a
libel, as it is called, on behalf of the federal govern
ment. This measure, if successful, would place the ne
groes at the disposal of the executive, who would
be justified by a memorable precedent in the history
of the Union for delivering up the gallant Cingues
and his companions to the Spanish minister.
On the 17th of September, 1839, the case was
brought by habeas corpus before the court of the
United States, which sits at Hartford for the dis
trict of Connecticut, when it was decided by Judge
Judson that the negroes were only held in custody
h h 3

470

CUBA.

under the application of the district attorney on
behalf of the United States, consequent upon the
demand of the Spanish minister.
It appears that in making their purchase, Messrs.
Ruiz and Montes had added a little boy and three
little girls to their assortment ; and as these chil
dren could not reasonably be accused of piracy
or murder, of running away with the ship, or
throwing the crew and captain overboard, it was
thought by their counsel that the naked question
of property on the one side, or freedom on the
other, might be tried in their case with a better
chance of success. A separate writ was sued out
in their behalf, but when the question came to be
argued before a superior tribunal, the circuit court
of the United States, sitting two days afterwards at
Hartford, in which Judge Thompson of the su
preme court presided, the plea on behalf of the
children was overruled, on the ground that they
must remain in custody, not as principals certainly,
but as witnesses in a future criminal trial.
If Cingiies and his companions have infringed
any law in the course of their struggle for freedom,
it can scarcely be contended that the courts of the
United States can have any cognisance of it.
When they seized on the Amistad, they were
sailing under the Spanish flag in a Spanish vessel,
owned by Spaniards, protected by Spanish papers,
and making a voyage from one port to another of
a Spanish island. Neither the law of nations nor
the code of the United States has in any way been
infringed, and there does not seem, therefore, to

CASE OF THE AMISTAD. 47I
have been any intelligible pretence for their de
tention. The protection of the writ of habeas corpus was
nevertheless refused. In his final decision on this
point, Judge Thompson, after four days' consider
ation, appears to have departed from the ground he
originally took, that the infant Africans were held in
custody as witnesses against their countrymen on
some future charge of piracy and murder. Unwilling
to part with them on any terms, Judge Thompson
decided that the court, although it had no criminal
jurisdiction, must still deprive the whole of them
of their liberty, until it was decided whether they
were men or merchandise, chattels or human
beings. This is the first occasion since the declaration of
American independence that the efficacy of the writ
of habeas corpus has been tried for the protection
of an African's freedom. It is not, I hope, to be
doubted that the case would have been otherwise
decided had the Amistad been thrown on the shores
of any British territory, on those islands even where
the right of property in human flesh has but lately
been abandoned.
At the expense of the individuals thus held in
captivity, the protracted discussion of their rights
can have no result but what will ultimately be
favourable to their much inj ured race, and to the
outraged laws of humanity. Judge Thompson
undertakes to show that slavery is sanctioned by
the American constitution, in the face of the de
claration that all men are born free and equal. As
h h 4

472 CUBA.
far as it has yet proceeded, this case is not very
creditable to the supreme court of the Union. It
has gone off on a question of local jurisdiction
between the district courts of Connecticut and
New York, and in the meantime the Africans
remain in prison. In whatever way it may ulti
mately be decided, Mr. Tappan and his friends,
who have already done so much for the African race,
will never suffer these poor people to be carried
out of the country as slaves. These much honoured
philanthropists may have another opportunity of
proving that the whole human family do not thus
prey on each other : " Homo homini aut deus aut
daemon." Besides, after a long stay, even in a
prison of New England, these Congos would
scarcely be welcome among their countrymen in
Cuba ; and it may therefore be taken for granted,
that Messrs. Ruiz and Montes, if they had their
option, would greatly prefer taking back the hard
dollars.

HISTORICAL NOTICES. . 473

CHAP. XXII.
HISTORICAL NOTICES, A. D. 1492  1761.
According to the best" authorities, the island of
Cuba was discovered by Christopher Columbus on
the 28th of October, 1492. On that day he landed
in the bay formed by the mouth of the river Nisse,
to which he gave the name of San Salvador, and to
the whole island that of Juana, in honour of Prince
John, the son of the Catholic Kings, — los reyes
Catolicos, — as Ferdinand and Isabella delighted to
call themselves. After the death of King Ferdinand,
the island received the name of Fernandina. The
name of Santiago was afterwards given to it in
honour of the patron saint of the kingdom, and still
later that of Ave Maria, to signalise the devotion
of the inhabitants for the Virgin. In spite of all
these changes, however, it bears at this day the same
Indian name by which it was known to the original
inhabitants at the time of its discovery. Some
Spanish geographers, from the roughness of its
coasts and its form on the map, continue to call it
La Lengua de Pajaro, the Bird's or Sparrow's
Tongue. Pursuing his investigations towards the west, Co
lumbus arrived on the 31st at the point of Mater-
nillos, having previously entered the bay of Nue-

474 CUBA.
vitas which he called El Puerto de Mares, and to
which he returned for the purpose of careening his
ships. During this delay, he conceived the idea of
paying his respects to the Cacique of the territory,
and of offering him presents in the name of the
Catholic Kings. The residence of this Cacique is
said to have been on the same spot which now forms
the site of the city of Puerto Principe. Having
first sent Rodriguez de Jerez and Luis de Torres
to visit the Cacique, Columbus was informed by
them on their return that the town contained about
fifty houses and 1000 inhabitants ; so that each
house must have sufficed for the accommodation
of some twenty individuals. They had been ex
ceedingly well received by the Cacique, and their
description of the country, the abundance of yams,
garbanzos, and Indian corn, of excellent fruit and
wild cotton, was such as to convey a very favourable
impression of the richness of the soil, and to excite
the cupidity of the discoverers. The inhabitants
were described as taking their rest suspended in
the air in an extraordinary fashion, and while
walking abroad they had constantly a pipe in one
hand and some dried leaves in the other, of which
they made a most immoderate use. On the 12th
of November they returned towards the east, care
fully examining all the coast and visiting the ports
of T anamo, Cayo de Moa, and Baracoa. It was
there that they met with the only indigenous quad
ruped ever known in the island, called the Jutia
or Hutia, whichis described to have been in general
from twelve to eighteen inches in length exclusive

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 475
of the tail ; that its colour was a clear black ; that
its food consisted of leaves and fruits ; that its ha
bitat was in the hollows or between the branches of
trees ; that in general appearance it resembled a rat ;
and that its flesh was the most insipid the disco
verers had ever tasted. Here they met also with
pine trees of great size and the largest town they
had yet seen, to the name of which they added the
epithet Santo.
After this first discovery, Columbus did not return
to the island till the 4th of April, 1494, when he
took his departure from the port of Isabella, in the
island of St. Domingo, forthe purpose of revisiting
Cuba. On this occasion he sailed down the south
side of the island, as far as the Isle of Pines, which
he called the Evangelist, and visited the port of
Guantanamo, distinguishing Cape Cruz and the
neighbouring rocks, to which he gave the name of
Jardines de la Reyna. At this place the dangerous
appearance of the coast compelled him to abandon
his course of discovery ; so that he left it once more,
believing it still to be the tierra firme of a new
continent. In 1502, on the occasion of his fourth
and last voyage, he visited the whole of the
southern side of the island, and from Cape Cruz
took his final departure for Jamaica.
Nothing further took place to promote the ex
amination till the year 1508, when an order arrived
from the king of Spain to the Comendador, Nicolas
Obando, the governor of the island of St. Domin
go, to prosecute the investigation. To this duty
Obando appointed Sebastian Ocampo, who circum-

476

CUBA.

navigated the new discovery, and so for the first
time ascertained it to be an island. He strongly
recommended it as fit for colonisation, from the
fertility of its soil and the goodness of its harbours,
especially that of the Havana, which he called El
Puerto de Carenas, from the fact of his having there
repaired bis vessels and paid them with a sort of
mineral pitch, or petroleum, which doubtless con
sisted of the bituminous exudations of the extensive
coal formation elsewhere alluded to as having
recently been discovered in that neighbourhood.
In spite, however, of this flattering description of
Ocampo, the idea of occupying or colonising the
island was abandoned, or at least suspended, till the
year 1511, when Diego Columbus, then the go
vernor of St. Domingo, appointed an expedition to
this effect consisting of more than 300 men, and
gave the command of it to Diego Velasques, one
of the companions of his father in his second
voyage, and a person who enjoyed the highest re
putation. Velasques disembarked in the port of
Palmas near the point of Mayzi, but his landing
was opposed by the Cacique Hatiiei, who had taken
refuge there from St. Domingo, and endeavoured
to excite the alarm of the inhabitants as to the in
tentions of the intruders ; but his forces were
beaten, and himself and his people taken prisoners.
The town of Baracoa, which was called de la
Asumpcion, was the first that was founded, and
was for some time considered the capital, until,
in the year 1514, the whole of it had been

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 477
overrun and examined. In that year, the towns
of Santiago and Trinidad, on the southern side,
were founded for the purpose of facilitating the
communications of the new colonists with the
Spanish inhabitants of Jamaica. Near the centre
of the island also were established soon after this
period the towns of Bayamo, Puerto Principe, and
Santi-Espiritus, and that of Baracoa was consi
derably enlarged. In the sequel, as there was no
town towards the north, that of San Juan de
los Remedios was founded ; and on the 25th of
July, 1515, at the place now called Batabano, on the
south side of the island, was planted a town with
the name of San Cristobal de la Habana, in de
ference to the memory of the illustrious discoverer ;
but in the year 1519 this name was transferred to
the place where the capital now stands. The lean
ing of the Spaniards towards the southern side of the
island appears to have arisen from their previous
possession of Jamaica and the Costa Firme ; as till
then they had no idea of the existence of the Flo
ridas or of New Spain ; the expedition for the
conquest of which, as well as the steps towards their
first discovery, having been taken from the island
of Cuba.
It was not long after the Spaniards had taken
possession of the island that the Church, under the
pontificate of Leo X., extended its then powerful
arm to seize its share of the promised wealth of
the Queen of the Indies. In 1518 a cathedral,
dedicated d la Asuncion de Maria Santissima,

478

CUBA.

was erected at Baracoa, and the island of Jamaica
was declared to form a part of the bishopric,
while the diocese itself was to be the suffragan,
of St. Domingo. Four years afterwards, by virtue
of a bull of Adrian VI., the see was transferred to
Santiago de Cuba, where a second cathedral was
erected, under the eye of Dr. White, the first
diocesan, to whom the bull was directed. At this
early period, when the whole population was still
so limited, it was thought necessary to create no
less than six dignitaries, ten canons, six preben
daries, three sub-prebendaries, six chaplains, six
acolytes, and other subordinate functionaries. In
the other peopled spots already raised to the dig
nity of cities, there were, also, established stipen
diary clergymen, benificios curados, and other local
functionaries connected with the church.
With regard to the character of the aboriginal
inhabitants of the island, it is universally admitted
bv all the Spanish authors who have written on
the subject, that they were disinterested and docile,
gentle and generous, and that they received the
first discoverer, as well as the conquerors, who
followed in his track, with the most marked atten
tion and courtesy. At the same time they are
represented as being entirely given up to the en
joyment of those personal indulgences, and all the
listlessness and love of ease, which the climate is
supposed to provoke, and which is said to have
amounted in the eyes of their European con
querors to positive cowardice and pusillanimity.
They seldom spoke until first addressed by the

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 479
strangers, and then with perfect modesty and re
spect. Their hospitality was unbounded ; but they
were unwilling to expose themselves to any per
sonal fatigue beyond what was strictly necessary
for their subsistence. The cultivation of the soil
was confined, as Columbus had observed, to the
raising of yams, garbanzos, and maize or Indian
corn, but as huntsmen and fishermen they were
exceedingly expert. Their habiliments were on
the most limited scale, and their laws and manners
sanctioned the practice of polygamy. The use of
iron was totally unknown to them, but they sup
plied the want of it with pointed shells, in con
structing their weapons, and in fashioning their
implements for fishing and the chase. Their al
most total want of quadrupeds has already been
noticed. Although the island was divided into nine prin
cipalities, under nine different Caciques, all inde
pendent of each other, yet such was the pacific
disposition of the inhabitants, that the most perfect
tranquillity prevailed throughout the island at the
time of the arrival of the invaders. The several
governments were administered in the simplest
form, the will of the Cacique being received as
law by his subjects, and the age he had attained
being in general the measure of his influence and
authority, and of the reverence and respect with
which he was treated. Their religion was limited
to a belief in the immortality of the soul, and to the
existence of a beneficent Deity — un Dios remu-
nerador. But their priests were cunning, super-

480

CUBA.

stitious, or fanatic, pretending to intelligence with
malignant spirits, and maintaining their influence
over the 'people by working on their fears, and
practising the grossest and most ridiculous extra
vagances. Xo sanguinary sacrifices were resorted
to, however ; still less could the gentle race be
chargeable with the horrid practices of the savage
anthropophagi ; and, according to the earliest
Spanish authorities, they distinguished themselves
beyond any other Indian nation, by the readiness
and docility with which they received the doctrines
of Christianity.
The town of Baracoa having first been raised to
the dignity of a city and a bishopric, was declared
the capital of the island in 1518, and remained so
till 1522, when both were transferred to Santiago
de Cuba. In 1538 the Havana, second city of
the name, was surprised by a French privateer, who
reduced it to ashes. This misfortune brought the
Governor of the island, Hernando de Soto, to the
spot, who lost no time in laying the foundation of
the Castillo de la Fuerza, one of the numerous fort
resses which still exist for the defence of the city.
With this protection, combined with the advanta
geous seooTaphical position of the harbour, the ships
alreadv passing, charged with the riches of New
Spain, on their way to the Peninsula, were induced
to call there for supplies of water and provisions.
In this wav the Havana began to rise in importance
bv insensible degrees, in so much that in 1549, on
the arrival of a new Governor, Gonzalez Perez de
Angulo, he resolved on making it his place of re-

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 481
sidence. His example was followed by subsequent
governors, and in this way the city, although without
any royal or legal sanction, came to be silently re
garded as the capital of the island, until in 1589 it
was formally declared so by the peninsular govern
ment, at the time of the nomination of the first
Captain-General, El Maestre de Campo, Juan de
Tejada, who was positively directed to take up his
residence at the Havana.
In the annals of the island the names of the first
governors and of their lieutenants have not been
recorded with a degree of accuracy that can be
altogether depended on. All that is known with
certainty is, that the early chiefs resided at San
tiago de Cuba, from its being the place where the
largest population was collected, from its proximity
to Jamaica and St. Domingo, and from its being
the seat of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. For the
Havana and other towns of inferior importance,
lieutenants were appointed. This system con
tinued until the year 1538, when Hernando de
Soto, who to the rank of Adelantado of the Flo
ridas added the office of Governor of Cuba, having
arrived at Santiago, passed a few days there, and
then proceeded to the continent. In his absence
he left the government of the island in the hands
of a lady, Dona Isabel de Bobadilla, and gave her
for a colleague Don Juan de Rojas. This Rojas
had previously resided at the Havana, in quality
of Lieutenant-Governor; and it is from this date
that the gradual transference of the seat of power
from Santiago to the Havana may be said to have
i i

482 cuba.
arisen. It was not till the year 1607 that the
island was divided into two separate govern
ments. In 1545, Don Juan de Avila assumed the govern
ment, and to him in 1547 succeeded Don Antonio
de Chavez, to whom the Havana is indebted for its
first regular supply of water, bringing it from the
river called by tbe aborigines Casiguaguas, and by
the Spaniards Chorrera, a distance of two leagues
from the city. At that period the trade of the
place was limited. The largest and wealthiest
proprietors were mere breeders of cattle ; as yet
agriculture was very little attended to, and any
actual labour performed consisted in exploring the
neighbourhood in pursuit of the precious metals.
To this governor succeeded Dr. Gonzalo Perez
de Angulo, who, according to the historian Urrutia,
was the first who resided at the Havana during the
greater part of his administration. At this period
the number of cattle and the practice of agricul
ture had so much increased that the expeditions
from the neighbouring continent obtained their sup
plies at theHavana, and from thencealso large quan
tities of provisions were sent to the Terra Firma.
For some time large profits were made by means of
these exports, more especially in the sale of horses
for the troops ; but the continental settlements,
having at length been able to provide for them
selves, this source of profit was dried up.
In the year 1554 the government was assumed
by Don Diego de Mazariegos, and, during his ad
ministration, the Havana was again attacked and

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 483
reduced to ashes by the French, notwithstanding
the protection supposed to be afforded by the
Castillo de la Fuerza. The other towns of the
island were also insulted, insomuch that the bishop
of the diocese was compelled to leave Santiago
and take up his residence at Bayamo, causing a
serious misunderstanding between the ecclesiastical
authorities and the civil governor.
To Mazariegos in 1565 succeeded Garcia Osorio,
and to Osorio, two years afterwards, Don Pedro
Melendez de Avilez, who at the same time held
the office of Adelantado of the Floridas, admi
nistering the affairs of the island for a number of
years by means of a series of lieutenant-governors.
At this period, the hospital of San Juan de Dios,
and a church dedicated to San Cristobal, were
erected at the Havana. This church was built
on the spot now occupied by the residence of the
Captain-General. Don Gabriel Montalvo was the
successor of Melendez, and assumed the go
vernment in 1576. In his time the Franciscan
convent was erected, in spite of the opposition of
the Bishop ; and preparations were made, by the
building of suitable vessels, for the extirpation of
the pirates by whom the coasts of the island were
infested. Don Francisco Carreno, the successor of
Montalvo, assumed the command in 1578. In his
time the weights and measures of the island were
regulated ; and vast quantities of timber were
shipped to the mother-country, to contribute to
wards the construction of the convent and palace
of the Escorial. 1 1 2

484 CUBA.
During the administration of Don Gaspar de
Torres, the successor of Carreno, who arrived in
1580, not only Cuba, but the neighbouring islands
of Jamaica and St. Domingo were more than ever
annoyed by piratical incursions. The expense oc
casioned by the attempts to suppress them was so
great, that it became necessary to impose a special
tax, called la sisa de piragua, to cover it.
At this period was begun the cultivation of
tobacco and the sugar-cane, the labour of which
was found to be too great for the indolent abo
rigines, whose numbers had already been materially
diminished by the state of slavery to which they
had been reduced. It was to promote the pro
duction of these new luxuries, that a royal licence
was first obtained for importing negroes from the
coast of Africa.
The continued presence and increasing numbers
of the pirates began to give a factitious importance
to the Castillanos of the fortress, which protected
the harbour of the Havana and sheltered the
lanchas and piraguas and the guardacostas them
selves. A military power thus insensibly arose,
which, coming into collision with that of the civil
governor, caused a great deal of disturbance and
confusion. The next Governor, Don Gabriel de
Lujan, who arrived in 1584, came to such a serious
rupture with Don Diego Fernandez de Quinones,
the Castillano de la Fuerza, that the Real Audiencia
of the district, at the instigation of Quinones, took
it upon them to suspend Don Gabriel from his ad
ministration of the government, but some time

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 485
afterwards restored him. On the application of
the Ayuntamiento, the two offices were afterwards
combined and vested in the same individual.
During Lujan's administration, several hostile de
monstrations were made against the island ; but
none of them were seriously prosecuted. The
attacks of a diminutive enemy, the ant, became so
alarming, however, that it was thought necessary
by the Cabildo, or chapter of the diocese, to elect
a new patron saint, and to confer that dignity on
San Marcial, the Bishop agreeing to celebrate his
fiesta, and keep his day yearly, on the condition
of his interceding for the extermination of the
hormigas and vivijaguas.
The successor of Lujan, Don Juan de Tejada,
was the first Governor who arrived with the rank
of Captain- General, in which was included the
same powers and jurisdiction enjoyed by thevireyes
of the continental possessions of the Crown. Te
jada was directed to commence the construction
of the two fortresses now known as the Morro
and the Punta, and for this purpose brought with
him the Engineer Don Juan Bautista Antoneli ;
and he was authorised to negotiate with the pro
vinces of New Spain for obtaining contributions,
by which to support the garrison, which at that
time was limited for all the three fortresses to 300
men. After the building of the Morro was begun,
it is said that Antoneli having ascended the heights
of the Cabana, remarked to those about him, that
from that point the city and the Morro itself
i i*3

486

CUBA.

would be commanded. This opinion having been
communicated to the government, the construction
of the present fortress of the Cabanas was imme
diately determined on. During Tejada's govern
ment the Havana received the title of Ciudad ;
the ayuntamiento was increased to the number of
twelve regidores ; and a coat of arms was given to
it by Philip the Second, bearing on a blue field
three castles argent, in allusion to the Fuerza,
the Morro, and the Punta, and a golden key to
signify that it was the key of the Indies ; the whole
surmounted by a crown.
Tejada wTas succeeded as Captain-General in
1602 by Don Pedro Valdes, who made strong re
presentations to the court on the subject of the
excesses committed by the pirates, by whose incur
sions Santiago had been almost depopulated. The
Bishop, on returning there from Bayamo on a tem
porary visit, was seized, tied, stripped, and carried
off by the pirate Giron, and detained for eighty
days on board his vessel, until he was ransomed
by the payment of 200 ducats and five arrobas of
beef by Don Gregorio Ramos, who, after rescuing
the Bishop, succeeded in destroying the pirate.
From the insecurity of Santiago, this Bishop at
tempted, but without success, to establish his ca
thedral at the Havana. The supreme government,
however, to stay the progress of depopulation at
Santiago, resolved on establishing there a sub
ordinate governor with the rank of Capitan a
Guerra, and appointed to the office Don Juan de
Villaverde, the Castellano of the Morro, who was

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 487
charged with the defence of his new jurisdiction
against the pirates.
The successor of Valdes was Don Gaspar Ruiz
de Pereda in 1608; and that of Pereda in 161 6
was Don Sancho de Alquiza. This last had been
previously the Governor of Venezuela and Guiana,
and he is recorded to have applied himself with
energy to the working of the copper mines at Cobre
in the neighbourhood of Santiago ; the superintend
ence of which was for some time annexed to the
office of Captain-General of the Havana, although
it was afterwards transferred to the Lieutenant-
Governor at Santiago. The annual produce of
that period was about 2000 quintals, and the
copper extracted is represented to have been of a
quality superior to anything then known in the
founderies of Europe. Alquiza died after having
enjoyed his office only two years ; and by a pro
vision of the Real Audiencia, he was succeeded
in the temporary command by Geronimo de Quero,
the Castellano of the Morro, whose military rank
was that of Sargento Mayor. From this period
till the year 1715 it appears that, in the nomination
of captains-general, a declaration was constantly
introduced to the effect that the Castellanos of the
Morro, on the death of the Captain-General, should
succeed to the military command of the island;
but since the year 1 715 an officer has been specially
named with the rank of Teniente Rey or Cabo-
Subalterno, whose functions acquire an active
character only on the death or incapacity of his
chief. i r 4

488

CUBA.

Doctor Damian Velasquez de Contreras suc
ceeded Alquiza in 1620, and Don Lorenzo de Ca
brera, the next Captain-General, was appointed
to the command in 1626. A charge was brought
against Cabrera, that he had sold a cargo of negroes
in the Havana without a royal licence ; which being
backed by other complaints, the Liceneiado Don
Francisco de Prada was sent out to inquire into
them, and by him the Captain-General was sent
home to the Peninsula, when de Prada assumed
the civil and political jurisdiction and assigned the
military command to Don Cristobal de Aranda, the
Alcaide of the Morro. During the joint admi
nistration of de Prada and Aranda it was resolved
to shut up the entrance of the harbour by means
of a chain drawn across it, a resolution which is
described by the historians of the period as having
been exceedingly extravagant and absurd.
The next Captain-General was Don Juan Bitrian
de Viamonte, who began his administration in
1630, and projected the construction of two strong
towers, the one in Chorrera, and the other in
Cojimar, but the plan was not carried into effect
until the year 1646. At this period a certain good
woman, known by the name of Magdalena de Jesus,
established a sort of female sanctuary called a
Beaterio, which gave rise to the establishment of
the first female monastery of Santa Clara.
Fears of an invasion of the island by the Dutch
now began to be entertained in the Peninsula;
and as Viamonte's health was infirm, he was removed
to the presidency of St. Domingo ; and, in 1634,

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 489
Don Francisco Riano y Gamboa was sent out to
replace him. Gamboa introduced important re
forms in the collection of the revenue. He esta
blished a court of accounts atthe Havana, to which
was afterwards referred the examination of all
public disbursements, not only for the island of
Cuba, but for Porto Rico, the Floridas, and that
portion of the Spanish navy called the windward
fleet, la Armada de Barlovento. At first, a single
accountant-general was named ; but a second was
afterwards added, with instructions to visit al
ternately the various parts where the colonial re
venue was collected or disbursed. During the
government of Gamboa, also, a Commissioner of
the Inquisition came from Carthagena to reside in
the Havana ; to provide for whose support one of
the canons of the cathedral of Santiago was sup
pressed. The bishops had for some time acquired
a taste for residing in the capital, and other
members of the ecclesiastical Cabildo began to
follow their example, soon degenerating into an
abuse which loudly called for a remedy.
The successor of Gamboa was Don Alvaro di
Luna y Sarmiento, who commenced his admini
stration in 1639, and in the course of it completed
the castle of Chorrera, two leagues to leeward
of the Havana, and the Torreon de Cojimar, one
league to windward.
In 1 647, Sarmiento was succeeded by Don Diego
de Villalva y Toledo, who, in 1650, was replaced
by Don Francisco Gelder. During Gelder's ad
ministration, the establishment of the Common-

490 CUBA.
wealth in England gave rise to serious apprehensions
for the safety of the Spanish possessions in Ame
rica ; especially when it became known, that, in
1655, a squadron had sailed by order of the Pro
tector, the ostensible object of which was the re
conciliation of the English colonies to the new
form of government, but with the real design of
capturing Jamaica. It is scarcely necessary to add,
that this design was successfully executed ; that the
Spanish defenders of Jamaica were dispersed, and
the Governor killed, and that many of the inhabit
ants removed in consequence to Cuba. An attempt
on the Havana was also made by this expedition,
but the assailants were successfully resisted. The
failure is ascribed by the Spaniards to a sort of
miracle performed in their favour. The invaders
having landed on a very dark night, they became
so terrified, according to the Spanish authorities,
by the noise of the land-crabs and the flitting light
of the fire-flies, which they took for an enemy in
ambuscade, that they fled to their ships in the
utmost disorder and confusion.
The next Captain-General was Don Juan Mon
tano, who arrived in 1656. During his time the
Spaniards of Jamaica continued to defend them
selves under two distinguished Hacendados, Don
Francisco Proenza, and Don Cristobal de Isasi ;
who, for their exertions in preserving the island to
the Spanish Crown, received thanks and honours
from the court. Orders were also sent out to the
other Spanish settlements in America to lend their
assistance to the Jamaica loyalists ; and a strong

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 4-91
expedition was prepared in the Peninsula, having
the same object in view. In the end, however,
in consequence of the sickness which prevailed on
board the ships, the expedition never sailed, and
the Spaniards were compelled to evacuate the
island. Montano having died within a year after his
arrival, was succeeded in the command, in 1658,
by Don Juan de Salamanca, in whose time the in
cursions of the pirates became more troublesome
than ever, on all the coasts of Spanish America.
As many of them had the audacity to sail under
the flags of France and England, the court
of Spain addressed itself to these governments
on the subject, and received for answer that,
having no countenance or authority from either,
the Spaniards were at liberty to deal with them as
they thought fit. At this period the French,
having established themselves in the island of
Tortuga, began from thence by slow degrees, first
on hunting parties, and afterwards more perma
nently, to make encroachments on the neighbour
ing coast of the island of St. Domingo ; until, in
the end, they had completely taken possession of
the western part of it, and created there a re
spectable colony. According to the Spanish au
thorities, the French colonists of St. Domingo
formed an alliance with the English in Jamaica,
and, without the sanction of either of their govern
ments in Europe, made piratical incursions in the
Spanish territories, and at length became so for
midable, that the Spaniards found it necessary to

492 cuba.
fortify their possessions, and to combine together
for their mutual protection. The most remarkable
of these piratical leaders was the Frenchman Lolo-
nois and the celebrated Morgan.
In 1663, arrived as Captain-General Don Rod
rigo de Flores y Aldana, who in the following
year was relieved by Don Francisco Orejon y
Gaston, previously Governor of Gibraltar and
Venezuela. Fearing the neighbourhood of the
English in Jamaica, Gaston applied himself to the
construction of the walls of the Havana ; and to
meet the expense he was authorised to levy half a
real on each quarter of an arroba of wine, nearly
equal to a gallon, which might be sold in the city ;
but this having given rise to complaints, the
Spanish government by a royal cedula directed
that #20,000 a year should be raised for the pur
pose in Mexico ; and that as much more should be
procured as the Captain-General could extract by
other means from the inhabitants of the Havana.
The next Governor was Don Rodriguez de
Ledesma, who assumed his functions in 1670, and
prosecuted the work of fortification with the
greatest ardour. He also prepared a naval arma
ment for the protection of the coast. It was at
this time that the working of the copper mines
near Santiago was abandoned, and that the recon
struction of the cathedral in that city was begun ;
but the greater part of the slaves employed in the
mines were sent to the Havana to work on the
fortifications. During Ledesma's administration,
a French party landed in the eastern part of the

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 493
island, to the number of 800, under the command
of one Franquinay, with the intention of plunder
ing the city of Santiago, but they withdrew with
out doing any damage, alarmed, according to the
Spanish accounts, by hearing the mere cry of " al
arma." In 1675 the city of Santiago was destroyed
by an earthquake, a calamity from which the
Havana and the western parts of the island appear
to be exempt. Ledesma complained bitterly to
his government that the English authorities in
Jamaica countenanced and encouraged the attacks
of the pirates, and applied for leave to make re
prisals. He was succeeded by Don Jose Fer
nandez de Cordoba Ponce de Leon, who began his
administration in 1680, and continued the work of
fortification with energy.
In 1687 Ponce de Leon was replaced by Don
Diego de Viana e Hinojosa, and to him in 1689
succeeded Don Severino de Manzaneda y Salinas,
during whose administration the city of Matanzas
was founded, the first lines of it having been traced
on the 10th of October 1693, in presence of the
Captain-General, and many other persons of dis
tinction. The etymology of the name Matanzas
is much disputed by the antiquarians of Cuba,
some ascribing it to the slaughter of Indians at
the time of the conquest of the island, contend
ing that the supposed Indian name Yumuri, that
of one of the two rivers between which the
city stands, is in fact a synonym in bad Spanish
for this general massacre. Others contend, with
equal pertinacity, that it was the natives who

494 CUBA.
killed the Spaniards, while passing from one side
of the bay to the other, having mutinied against
their masters and used their oars successfully as
weapons of offence. Seven of the Spaniards are
said to have attempted to escape, but were carried
prisoners to a neighbouring Indian town, where
they were all put to death except one, who escaped
to tell the tale of the Matanza.
The next Captain-General was Don Diego de
Cordoba Lazo de la Vega ; to him in 1702 suc
ceeded Don Pedro Nicolas Benitez de Lugo, who
died soon after his arrival. The next Captain-
General was Don Pedro Alvarez de Villarin, who
arrived in I7O6 and died the same year. After
him in 1708 came the Marques de Casa Torres,
ex-Governor of the Floridas, who having had some
dispute with the auditor Don Jose Fernandez de
Cordoba, was suspended from his office by the
Real Audiencia.
The foundling hospital, or Casa de Ninos Espo-
sitos, vulgarly called La Cuna, was founded in 1711
by Don Fray Jeronimo de Valdes, an institution
which still exists, and, like that of St. Pierre in the
island of Martinique, is only resorted to by the
white inhabitants, the presentation of a coloured
infant being a thing unknown. This fact, whether
it arise from the sense of shame being stronger in
the white mother, or from natural affection being
stronger in the coloured mother, is not unworthy
of investigation.
Don Vicente Raja arrived as Captain-General

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 495
in the year 171 6, bringing with him a royal
cedula, declaring that in the event of his absence,
illness, or death, the civil and military government
should be transferred to the Teniente Rey ; in
case of his absence, illness, or death, to the Castel
lano del Morro ; and failing the Castellano, to the
sergeant-major of the garrison ; and failing him, to
the senior captain of infantry, so as that in no case
the civil and military jurisdictions should ever after
wards be divided. This prudent arrangement is
not always followed in the British colonies ; and the
dissensions which arise in consequence are often, it
is well known, exceedingly prejudicial to the ser
vice. In the following year Raja returned to Spain,
and in 1718 Don Gregorio Guazo arrived as his
successor. Nothing material occurred during his
administration, and he was replaced in 1724 by
Don Dionisio Martinez de la Vega. In his time
a serious difference arose on the occasion of an ap
pointment to the office of Lieutenant-Governor of
Santiago. On the 10th of May, 1728, Lieutenant-
Colonel Don Juan del Hoyo took possession of the
local government, and a few months afterwards a
royal cedula arrived prohibiting his admission.
On this the Captain-General required his removal ;
but the Ayuntamiento opposed it, saying it was
one thing to remove an officer, and another not to
admit him. Lawyers were consulted on the point ;
and the court of chancery of the district was re
ferred to, who decided that the Ayuntamiento

496 CUBA.
were in the right, and the Captain-General in the
wrong. At this juncture the windward fleet, la
Armado de Barlovento, arrived under the com
mand of Don Antonio de Escudero, who, in his
zeal for the royal service, and without any au
thority but that of force, laid hold of Del Hoyo,
removed him from his employment, and carried
him off to Vera Cruz. No sooner had he regained
his liberty than he returned to the island ; and
having visited the town of Puerto Principe, which
at that time formed part of his jurisdiction, the
people rose against him, and having once more
made him prisoner, sent him in irons to the Ha
vana, from whence the Captain-General had him
carried to Madrid.
The next Captain-General was Don Juan Fran
cisco Guemes y Horcasitas, who arrived in the
year 1734, and to him, in 1746, succeeded Don
Juan Antonio Tineo y Fuertes, who died in the
following year. He was the first Captain-General
who thought it necessary to establish a separate
hospital for the reception of dissolute and incorri
gible women ; for which purpose the revenues of
vacant ecclesiastical offices were to be applied. The
date of the termination of the government of Mar
tinez has not been very clearly defined: he was
succeeded provisionally by Don Diego de Peiia-
losa, as Teniente Rey de la Plaza, and was re
placed in 1747 by Don Francisco Cagigal de la
Vega, who had previously been Lieutenant-Go
vernor at Santiago. On leaving the command in
1760, the government was assumed provisionally

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 497
by the Teniente Rey Don Pedro Alonzo; and he
was relieved, in I76I, by Don Juan de Prado
Porto Carrero, whose government was made so
memorable by the capture of the city by the
English.

K K

498 CUBA.

CHAP. XXIII.
lord albemarle's expedition.
In this brief historical notice of the island, the
celebrated expedition of Lord Albemarle, at the
commencement of the reign of George III., and
towards the close of the seven years' war, deserves
to occupy a prominent place. The Habaneros
themselves seem desirous to commemorate the
event by retaining English names for the points of
the coast where the landing of the expedition was
effected, and for the fortresses which were occu
pied preparatory to the descent on the Morro. In
the Memorias de la Real Sociedad Patriotica
there are also some interesting notices of the event,
of which I willingly avail myself in the following
summary. The Captain-General, according to some ac
counts, was apprised of the fact that the English
were preparing an expedition for the invasion of
the island ; but although he had made certain
arrangements for the reception of the enemy, it is
said that he never seriously believed that an in
vasion was about to take place. He made it his
business, however, to ascertain what number of
men might be relied on for the defence of the
island ; and even the proportion of slaves to whom
arms might be safely entrusted. Juntas were

lord albemarle's expedition. 499
frequently assembled for the discussion of these
matters during the three months which intervened
between the first rumour of the invasion and the
actual descent of the enemy. At length, on the
6th of June, 1762, when a fleet of at least 250
sail had been reported as off the coast, the Captain -
General still refused to believe that this was the
hostile expedition ; insisting that it must bea home
ward bound convoy from Jamaica. On the morn
ing of that day, he is said to have gone over to
the Morro for the purpose of observing in person
the movements of the fleet ; and when he found
that the garrison of the fortress had been called
out under arms by the Teniente Rey, Don Dio
nisio Soler, he expressed his disapprobation of the
proceeding ; declaring it to be imprudent, and de
siring that the troops might be sent back to their
quarters. After mid-day, however, he received
notice from the Morro that the ships of war were
approaching the coast, and appeared from their
manoeuvres to be preparing to effect a landing.
Confounded by his own previous incredulity, the
Governor at length gave orders to prepare for a
vigorous defence. The consternation produced
by the ringing of alarm bells and the moving of
artillery was extreme. Such of the inhabitants as
possessed arms made haste to put them in order,
and those who were not so provided presented them
selves at the Sala Real to ask for them ; but there
were only 3500 muskets to be found, the greater
part of them unfit for service, together with a few
carabines, sabres, and bayonets. These were soon
K K 2

500 CUBA.
distributed ; but in the end a great number of people
remained unarmed for want of the needful supplies.
The juntas were again assembled, consisting of the
Captain-General, the Teniente Rey, the Marques
del Real Transporte, General of Marines, and the
Commissary-General, Don Lorenzo Montalvo, to
whom were added the Conde de Superunda, as
Viceroy of Peru, and Major-General Don Diego
Tabares as Governor of Carthagena, who happened
to be then at the Havana on their return to Europe.
Orders were issued by this junta to Colonel Don
Carlos Caro to resist the landing of the enemy on
the beach of Cogimar and Bacuranao, which they
seemed to threaten ; adding to his own regiment
De Edimburgo the rest of the cavalry then in
the city, together with several companies of the
infantry of the line, and a few lancers, amounting
altogether to about 3009 men.
The expedition sailed from Spithead on the 5ih
of March, 1762. Its chief object was, after seizingon
the French possessions in the West Indies, to make
a descent on the Havana, which was justly con
sidered as the principal key to the vast possessions
of the Spanish crown in the two great divisions of
the American continent; the possession of which
would effectually interrupt all communication be
tween the peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and
thereby give the court of the Catholic King a dis
taste for the alliance with that of St. Cloud. The
first rendezvous of the forces to be combined with
the original expedition was at Martinique, and Sir
James Douglas was ordered to unite his squadron

LORD ALBEMARLE S EXPEDITION. 501
stationed at Port Royal, Jamaica, with that of Sir
George Pocock, at the Cape of St. Nicholas, in the
island of St. Domingo. From this point of union
the expedition had the choice of two courses in
proceeding towards the Havana. That which would
have been the more easy of execution was to sail
down the southern side of the island, and doubling
the western cape, present itself before the Havana.
But as this would have occupied more time, which
the maintenance of secrecy rendered valuable, Sir
George Pocock resolved on following the shorter
and more difficult as well as dangerous course of
the old Bahama channel, on the north side of the
island. This resolution had the double effect of
taking the enemy unprepared, and of obstructing
the only course by which the French could send
relief from St. Domingo. On the 27th of May
the Admiral hoisted his flag, and the whole convoys
consisting of 200 vessels of all classes, were soon
under sail for the old Bahama passage. The Alarm
and Echo frigates, sent in advance, discovered,
on the 2d of June, five ships of the enemy, the
frigate Tetis, the sloop of war Fenix, a brig, and
two smaller vessels. An engagement immediately
took place, in the issue of which one of the light
vessels escaped, the other four being captured.
On the evening of the 5th the Pan of Matanzas
was visible; and on the morning of the 6th, being
then five leagues to the eastward of the Havana,
the necessary orders were issued for the com
manders of the boats of the squadron and the
captains of the transports, with regard to the de-
k K 3

502 CUBA.
barkation of the troops. This duty was entrusted
to the Honourable Commodore Keppel, at whose
disposal were placed six ships of the line, several
frigates, and the large boats of the squadron. The
Admiral followed at two in the afternoon, with 13
ships of the line, 2 frigates, the bomb vessels of
the expedition, and 36 store boats. On presenting
himself at the mouth of the harbour, for the double
purpose of reconnoitering the enemy and making
the feint of an attack to cover the operations of
Commodore Keppel, he ascertained that 12 ships of
the line and a number of merchant vessels were
lying at anchor within it. On the following morn
ing the Admiral prepared his launches for landing
a body of sailors and marines about four miles to
the westward of the Havana. At the same time
Lord Albemarle effected the landing of the whole
of the troops, without opposition, between the
rivers Bacuranao and Cogimar about six miles from
the Morro. A body of men having appeared on
the beach, Commodore Keppel directed the Mer
cury and Bonetta corvettes to disperse them ; but
a much greater number having soon afterward
presented themselves with the evident intention of
disputing the passage of the Rio Cogimar with the
main body of the expedition, Captain Hervey in the
Dragon was sent to bombard the fort, which afforded
the enemy protection, but which very soon surren
dered, leaving a free passage for the advance of
the invaders.
From the prisoners taken on the 2d of June in the
Tetis and Fenix, the presence of a naval force in

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 503
the harbour became known to the English, together
with the fact that most of the enemy's ships had
completed their supplies of water, and were nearly
ready for sea. Till then the Governor, as has been
stated, was almost wholly unprepared. The first
notice he had of the actual approach of the ex
pedition was obtained from the crew of the small
schooner, which escaped from the pursuit of the
Alarm and the Echo. As soon as he became con
vinced of the fact, the Governor, as we have seen,
assembled a council of war, composed of the chief
officers under his command. At this Junta de
Guerra the plan of defence was arranged, and a
firm resolution was taken to resist the invasion to
the last extremity. The defence of the Morro, on
the possession of which the fate of the Havana in
a great measure depended, was entrusted to Don
Luis de Velasco, commander of the Reyna ship of
the line, to whose gallantry and perseverance Sir
George Pocock, in his subsequent report to the
Admiralty, pays a just tribute of commendation.
His second in command, the Marquess de Gonzales,
commander of the Aquilon ship of the line, followed
in all respects the example of Valesco, dying sword
in hand in defence of his flag. The defence of
the Punta Castle was in like manner assigned to a
naval officer, Don Manuel Briseno, who had a
friend in the same branch of the service for his
second in command. This arrangement gave
deadly offence to the officers of the army, who
thought themselves unjustly superseded in the
post of honour and of danger ; but it was urged
k k 4

504

CUBA.

in excuse, that naval officers were better acquainted
than those of the infantry or the cavalry with the
use of artillery ; and as the naval squadron had
become useless by being locked up in the harbour,
this was the only way in which they could be ad
vantageously employed.
Before the governor could assemble the militia
of the island under arms, he thought it necessary to
declare war by proclamation against Great Britain.
When his whole force was at length assembled, it
was found in gross numbers greatly to exceed that
of the invaders. It consisted of nine squadrons of
cavalry, including the Edinburgh dragoons, in all
810 men ; the regiment of the Havana 700 ; two
battalions of the regiment de Espana 1400 ; two
battalions of the regiment de Aragon 1400 ; three
companies of artillery 300 ; seamen and marines
of the squadron 9000 ; militia and people of colour
14,000;' — making a grand total of 27, 6 10. The
greater part of the Spanish force was stationed in
the town of Guanabacao, on the side of the bay
opposite to the Havana, between the points where
the invading forces had landed, in order to prevent
them from turning the head of the harbour and
attacking the city by land. The British force was
divided into five brigades — the first, under Brigadier
Haviland, consisted of the 1st, 56th, and 60th
regiments ; the second, under Brigadier Walsh, of
the 9th, 48th, and 27th ; the third, under Brigadier
Reid, of the 75th, 43d, 35tb, and 34th ; the fourth,
under Brigadier Grant, of the 17th, 1st and 2d bat
talions of the 42d, the 77th, 65th, and the 4th ; the

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 505
fifth, under the command of Brigadier Lord Rollo,
of the 22d, 72d, 90th, and 40th; the royal artillery,
an independent corps, and the engineers, amounting,
with detachments from Jamaica and North America,
to a total of 14,041 land forces. At daybreak on
the 7th the troops were already on board the boats
arranged in three divisions — the centre commanded
by the Honourable Augustus Hervey ; the right
wing by Captains Barton and Drake ; and the left,
by Captains Arbuthnot and Jekyl. The first bri
gade was also the first to land ; and as soon as the
troops had formed on the beach, Lord Albemarle
took the command, and marched in the direction
of the city, which he did without farther molesta
tion as soon as the Cogimar batteries had been
silenced. His Excellency established his head
quarters in Cogimar for the night; the troops were
served with rations under arms ; and several pi
quets were advanced to the eminences overlooking
the Havana.
Determined to attack the enemy in the position
they had taken up at Guanabacao for the purpose
of impeding the advance on the city, Lord Albe
marle detached Colonel Carleton with a body of
light troops to cut off their retreat. The Spaniards
were advantageously posted on the heights of the
Indio, consisting of a strong body of the infantry
and the whole of the cavalry, and were formed in
line of battle to receive the invaders. Finding the
numbers of the enemy so great, Colonel Carleton
thought it more prudent, having only a force of
1200 men, to establish himself in a strong position,

506 CUBA.
and acquaint the Commander-in-chief with the
situation and strength of the enemy. Colonel
Carleton had scarcely moved when his right wing
was attacked by a strong detachment of cavalry,
who were compelled, however, to retire in great
confusion from the brisk fire which was opened
upon them. Disheartened by this check, the whole
Spanish force retreated from Guanabacao ; and
Lord Albemarle took possession of the town.
By another road Colonel Howe, with two bat
talions of grenadiers, crossed the heights of Cogi
mar to reconnoitre the Morro Castle, and secure
his communications with the river. The Alarm
and Richmond frigates were sent to sound the
coast as near as possible to the Punta Castle on
the Havana side of the harbour. There they found
anchorage extending to the distance of three
leagues, with from five to twenty fathoms water,
and the means of ready debarkation for any number
of troops. On this same evening the Spaniards
caused one of the largest of their ships of war to
be sunk in the mouth of the harbour, where, as I
have elsewhere stated, it remains to this day ; but
this operation was performed with such precipita
tion, that several of the seamen on board went
down in her and were drowned. Supposing the
entrance to be effectually closed, the English came
to anchor outside, but when the place was taken
they entered the harbour without any difficulty.
With saddles and bridles brought from England,
a squadron of 100 dragoons was soon mounted, on
horses taken from the enemy ; and the command

LORD ALBEMARLE S EXPEDITION. 507
of it was given to Captain Suttie of the 9th, who
did good service in scouring the country, and sup
plying the commissariat with cattle. This squadron
was attached to the corps which was left in posses
sion of Guanabacao. In the mean time the conster
nation which prevailed in the city had reached its
height, occasioned by the expulsion of Don Carlos
Caro, and the forces under his command from
Guanabacao and the subsequent entry of the En
glish. The monks and nuns in the convents, the
women and children of the city, were all ordered
to leave the place without a moment's delay ; but
not a single man able to carry arms was allowed to
pass the gates ; not even the servants required for
driving the carriages. With this procession an escort
of 100 men were sent for the protection of the nuns.
On the same day an order was issued for burning
down and destroying all that part of the city which
then existed beyond the walls ; and the whole of
these extensive suburbs were speedily reduced to
ashes. On the 9th, Lord Albemarle withdrew from Gua
nabacao, with the main body of the army, and en
camped on the heights between Cogimar and the
Morro, leaving Lieutenant-General Elliot, his second
in command, with a sufficient force in the town to
secure a passage for the troops round the head of
the harbour to the city, and at the same time to
provide the army with bread, meat, water, and ve
getables. The enemy on this day began to dis
mantle their squadron, sunk another ship of the
line in the entrance of the harbour, and otherwise

508 CUBA.
obstructed it, by means of large spars and beams of
wood drawn across it.
On the 10th, Lord Albemarle acquainted Sir
George Pocock that he was about to attack the
Cabanos, which commands the Morro, and directed
him to draw the attention of the enemy to the
other side of the Havana. The Belleisle was ac
cordingly ordered to attack the Chorrera Fort, and
the Nottingham was directed to support the attack,
if necessary, while the Cerberus, Mercury, Bonetta,
and Lurcher, were to keep up a fire on the high
grounds during the night; and the whole of the
seamen and marines were to be embarked in the
boats of the fleet, in order to convey the idea that
a new landing was about to be effected. This ma
noeuvre was exceedingly successful, as the fathers,
brothers, and other relatives of the non-belligerent
portion of the community already expelled from
the city, became so alarmed for the safety of their
wives and children, that many of them left the city
by stealth to fly to their protection, while others
remained firm at their post, leaving the care of
their relatives to Providence. Colonel Carleton
with the light infantry and the grenadiers were
stationed between Cogimar and the Cabanos.
At mid-day, on the 11th, the Cabanos fortress
was attacked by Colonel Carleton, and carried
with very little resistance, the enemy retiring to
the Morro. In the course of the attack on the
Cabanos, the enemy abandoned the Chorrera fort
on the other side ; and during the night the three

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 509
bomb vessels came to anchor at a point from which
they could throw shells into the city.
On the 12th, by order of the Commander-in-
chief, the reconnaissance of the Morro was advanced,
and the attack was entrusted to Major-General
Keppel. It was determined to establish a battery
as near as the heights would allow, and for this
purpose a point was chosen at the distance of 250
yards. Every thing necessary was prepared, parties
having been sent out to cut fascines. It is not
easy to form an idea of the sufferings which the
army must have endured in the course of this siege.
The ground on every side is so open that it was
difficult or impossible to cover the people in the
course of their approaches. The water had to be
brought from a very great distance, and at length
it became so scarce that it was necessary to have
recourse to the supplies on board the fleet. To
form our communications a thick forest had to be
cut through, where not a tree is now to be seen,
and the battering train had to be dragged for
several miles over a rugged and stony soil. Many
of our brave fellows fell victims to the heat, and
the thirst it occasioned, and to the excessive
fatigues to which they were exposed. But such
was the cordial and perfect union between the
naval and military services, and such the deter
mined resolution of both, that no obstacle was suf
ficient to interrupt their progress. A third ship
having been sunk in the mouth of the harbour,
which confirmed the invaders in their previous
idea that the entrance was completely obstructed,

510 CUBA.
the Admiral directed that four of his ships should
continue cruizing off the Punta, and that the re
mainder of the squadron should come to anchor
under the Chorrera about four miles distant, where
water and fire-wood were to be had in abundance.
Commodore Keppel kept up to windward, having
cast anchor near Cogimar with as many ships of
war and transports as he thought necessary. A
considerable body of seamen had been landed, who
were found exceedingly useful in moving the bat
tering train, as well as in manning the batteries,
and also in carrying water to the troops, not a
drop being to be found in the neighbourhood of
the Cabanos. The Admiral had landed the guns
of the squadron of various calibres, together with
two mortars from the Thunder bomb anchored to
windward, and two from the Grenada to leeward,
together with cables and old casks, bags for sand
and other materials, with which to construct breast
works and defences.
On the 13th the construction of the projected
battery was begun, and another further off, the
express object of which was to compel the ships
near the mouth of the harbour to withdraw further
inward, and so prevent their fire from disturbing
the troops in their approaches. Orders were given
that two battalions of grenadiers and a detachment
of 300 light infantry under the command of Colonel
Howe, should land at the Chorrera, not only to
secure the possession of the fort but to call the
attention of the Spaniards to that side. To this
detachment 800 marines were added, formed into

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 511
two battalions, under the command of Majors
Campbell and Collins.
The labour of cutting the trenches against the
Morro had been retarded by the limited extent of
the ground, so that it was not until the 28th of
June that the batteries were ready to open their
fire on the fortress and the shipping. On the
morning of the 29th, the Spaniards, from their
ships in the harbour, landed two detachments of
500 men each, consisting of grenadiers and other
picked troops, with a picket of negroes and people
of colour, the one to the right of the Morro, and
the other near the limekilns to the left. Their
object was defeated by the advanced guard of the
English, who drove them off, and killed or captured
200 of them. The others escaped into the wood,
and the invaders in this affair lost only ten men
in killed and wounded.
The greater part of the 30th of June was occu
pied in carrying ammunition and other necessary
articles into the batteries, in order that the opera
tions might be begun on the following morning.
This duty was performed, with the assistance of
the soldiers, by 500 negroes, who had been pur
chased for such purposes at Martinique and An
tigua. Lord Albemarle applied to the Admiral to
station some of his ships so as to attack the Morro
from the sea, with the view of weakening the fire
from the fortress. The Dragon, Cambridge, and
Marlborough were accordingly so stationed under
the command of Captain Hervey, who had volun
teered his services. The Stirling Castle was or-

512 CUBA.
dered to make way for the other three ships ; but
Captain Campbell, her commander, having dis
obeyed the order, he was afterwards brought for
this breach of discipline before a council of war.
The batteries were opened on the morning of
the 1st of July. In that called the William, on the
left, there were four 24-pounders and two 13-inch
howitzers ; in the grand battery, eight 24-pounders
and two 13-inch howitzers ; in the left parallel, two
10-inch, and twelve 5-inch mortars ; and in the bat
teries on the beach, two 13-inch, one 10-inch, and
fourteen 5-inch mortars.
The number of pieces which the Spaniards could
bring to bear was much greater than that of the
English, but our fire was nevertheless more effec
tual. At eight o'clock in the morning the Dragon,
Cambridge, and Marlborough opened a furious
cannonade on the Morro, which was answered by
the Spaniards with great determination. The
Cambridge being stationed within reach of grape-
shot was seriously damaged in her hull, masts, and
spars, and lost a great number of men in killed and
wounded ; so that it became necessary to order
her to withdraw, as did afterwards, for the same
reason, the Dragon; and the Marlborough being
no longer of any use, she was also ordered to leave
her station. This took place at two in the after
noon ; when the number of killed and wounded
in the three ships was 182. In this engagement
the fortress, from its high and rocky situation, had
a great advantage over the ships, which had also
to sustain the fire of the Punta Castle, on the other
side of the harbour, and that of several of the bat-

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 513
teries of the city. However slight the impression
on the fortress by the fire from the ships, the ob
ject in the contemplation of the two commanders,
of creating a diversion in favour of the land attack,
was fully accomplished by it, and enabled the bat
teries on shore to do great damage to the works.
But as soon as the Spaniards were free from the
fire of the ships, they returned with fresh vigour
to the attack on the land batteries.
It was now fourteen days since any rain had
fallen, so that from the extreme dryness of the
fascines, they were in constant danger of being set
on fire. The eight-gun battery of the Morro was
silenced on the 2d of July, and before night-fall
the fire from the fortress was reduced to two guns.
On the 3d, the fire had taken such strong hold of
the fascines that neither earth nor water could ex
tinguish it, so that in a few hours the labour of
500 or 600 men was completely annihilated, and re
quired to be begun again. The army had now been
reduced by excessive toil to one half its original
numbers, and the fevers caught at Martinique were
seriously aggravated in this unwholesome climate, in
so much that scarcely sufficient remained for the
performance of the indispensable duties of the siege.
Not less than 5000 soldiers and 3000 seamen were
at one time unfit for service, and the want of suit
able fresh provisions greatly retarded their cure.
Of all their calamities the want of water was the
greatest, and that which most aggravated their
sufferings. The hurricane season, too, was ap
proaching; if it came on with its usual violence,
L L

514 CUBA.
the squadron would be exposed to the most se
rious disasters ; and without the aid of the ships,
the land forces would be unable to continue the
siege, so that serious apprehensions as to the issue
began to be entertained. During the nights of the
4th and 5th of July every effort was made to ex
tinguish the fire ; and at length, with the greatest
difficulty, two of the embrasures to the right, and
the carriages of the mortars on the left, were saved.
It was determined, in consequence of the disabled
state of the battery, to remove the mortars on the
left parallel, and place cannon in their stead. Re
pairs were also begun on the other works which
had most suffered from the fire of the Punta, the
city, the ships of war, and the floating batteries.
The Defiance and Hampton Court, appointed to
cruize between Mariel and Bahia Honda, captured
two Spanish frigates, the Marte and Venganza.
Two additional embrasures were established
during the night of the 6th in the William battery;
a new four-gun battery was formed ; and on the
morning of the 9th the assailants had once more
twelve guns fit for service, while the Spaniards had
but eight or nine. On the 10th a new four-gun
battery was formed in the left parallel, and on the
11th the attack was renewed with fresh vigour,
with eighteen guns against eight or nine from the
Morro ; but from the uninterrupted communication
of the fortress with the city, and the great assistance
the garrison obtained from the Spanish ships of war
in working their guns, the losses they suffered by
day were always repaired at night.

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 515
Sir James Douglas arrived on the 12th with the
convoy from Jamaica, and on the 13th a new four-
gun battery of 32-pounders was opened, on the right
parallel, and did considerable damage to the left
bulwark of the Morro. On the 14th our force was
increased to 20 guns, which before night reduced
that of the enemy to two. The whole front ex
posed to the attack was in a state of complete
ruin; but the Spaniards, although in some confusion,
still held out bravely. Before nightfall of the 15th
the fire from the fortress was completely silenced,
and on the morning of the 16th they could only
bring two guns to bear, which were fired but
twice. On the 17th the Valiant, ship of the line, opened
her fire on the castle, which did not return it. In
the evening the sapping operations were begun, and
on the following day were so far advanced as to
admit of a small lodgment in front of the point of
the western bulwark. On the 19th the miners had
penetrated to the right of the bulwarks, at the only
point where there was any chance of reaching the
bottom of the wall. Suspecting that the fortress
was almost deserted, a sergeant with twelve men
was directed to scale the wall on the side next the
sea, a little to the right of the mine, where they
found only nine or ten Spaniards, all asleep ; but
before the English party could reach them they
awoke and gave the alarm. If it had been possible
to have sent immediate assistance, the Morro might
have been taken that very night.
The Governor of the Havana began to see that
L L 2

516

CUBA.

the fortress must soon surrender, when he would
be left with no protection but that of the walls and
outworks of the city. Seeing that something must
be done, he resolved to strike a blow, which, if it
succeeded, might not only save the Morro, but
compel the English to raise the siege. This design
was well conceived, but miserably executed. About
1500 men were to embark in boats from the city,
and, divided into three columns, were to attack the
English position at the Cabanas, drive us out of our
works, and set fire to such of our batteries as were
constructed with fascines. Had this plan been
properly executed, the siege must have been
abandoned from the sickness which prevailed in
the army, and the ignorance which existed of the
succours which were about to arrive from North
America. The attack was begun at four in the
morning by the first of the three columns in front
of the Pastora battery, where there was only a
post of thirty men, commanded by Colonel Stuart,
who defended himself bravely for nearly an hour,
until he was joined by 100 sappers, and by the 3d
battalion of North American Loyalists, by whom the
assailants were driven down the hill with great loss.
Some reached their boats ; but others, to the number
of 150, were pushed into the water, and there
perished. The second column attempted to attack
the sappers by the salient angle of the Morro, but
were instantly repulsed and beaten. The third,
seeing no chance of success, retired without striking
a blow. Colonel Carleton, with the rank of Bri
gadier, had the chief merit of this repulse, but in

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 517
the course of it was seriously wounded. In this
attack the Spaniards lost 400 men in killed,
wounded, and prisoners, without counting such of
the wounded as escaped. In the mean time, pre
parations were making in the city to embark a re
serve with which to support the attack1; but, having
heard of the reception which the first assailants
had met with, the attempt was abandoned. This
appeared to be the last assistance which the fortress
had to expect; and yet, although abandoned by the
city, and its walls pierced with mines, no proposal
for a capitulation appeared. From this date the
work of sapping continued with little interruption.
Preparations were made, in the mean time, for
attacking the city. Brigadier Burton, in the Intre
pid, had arrived with the first division of a convoy
of troops from New York. On the 29th the mine
was so far advanced, that it was to be charged on
the following morning. At two in the afternoon the
match was applied, and a breach which Lord Al
bemarle and the engineers thought practicable was
effected, so that the troops destined for the assault
received orders to mount. Lieutenant Charles
Forbes of the Royals placed himself promptly at
its head, and ascended with the greatest intrepidity,
forming his men in good order, and instantly dis
persing the enemy that covered the walls. The
gallant Governor, Don Luis de Velasco, resolved
on the most desperate resistance, fell mortally
wounded in this assault, which proved a complete
surprise, as our men had mounted before the alarm
was given to the garrison. Velasco, during the
l l 3

518 CUBA.
short time he survived, received from the con
querors every mark of respect and attention. His
son was afterwards created Vizconde del Morro by
his Catholic Majesty; and to commemorate his
name it was ordered that in the Real Armada, there
should always be a ship bearing that of Velasco.
Besides the death of the Governor and the fall
of the fortress, the enemy had to lament the loss of
130 men ; 400 laid down their arms, and the rest
were drowned in attempting to escape to the city.
The assault cost the victors the loss of two officers
and thirty men. The Marques de Gonzalez, the
second in command, lost his life in an unsuccessful
attempt to rally the garrison; and it was not until
after forty-four days of unwearied exertion, with
a loss to the Spaniards of upwards of a thousand
men, that the victory was achieved. With the
Morro there fell into the hands of the English 102
brass cannon, 202 of iron, 9 brass mortars and 2
of iron, .4157 muskets, 500 hand-grenades, 460
uncharged, 16,404 cannon balls of various calibres,
30 quintals of musket balls, 125,000 cartridges, and
500 quintals of gunpowder.
After the mines under the sea bastion of the
Morro had been completed, Lord Albemarle ad
dressed a letter to Don Luis de Velasco, conceived
in the most flattering terms, informing him of the
fact, explaining to him the hopelessness of con
tinuing the defence, and expressing his fears that,
when the fortress should be taken by assault, it
would be impossible to restrain the victorious
soldiery from the general slaughter which in such

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 519
cases is sanctioned by the laws of war"; and he
threw the whole responsibility of this needless
waste of human life on the governor of the castle,
declaring his conviction, that if the King of Spain
himself were present he would be the first to order
a capitulation, and expressing in conclusion his
Lordship's strong desire to treat with, love, and
serve the gallant defender of the Morro. The
answer of Don Luis de Velasco was not less chi
valrous in its character ; assuring Lord Albemarle
that he did not think his situation by any means
so desperate as his Lordship had represented, and
expressing his firm determination to abide the fate
of an appeal to arms.
This correspondence took place on the 29th of
July, and on the following day the Morro Castle
surrendered. ^ This event is thus described by an
eye-witness, Don Bartolome Montes, one of the
officers of the garrison : —
" While the whole of the officers were at dinner,
between 12 and 1 o'clock, the Condestable entered,
and said that he had just been to the battery of
San Nicolas, from whence he had seen one of the
English frigates moving round the point, and that
one of her boats had been sent out to sound, from
which he supposed .that an attack on that side
might be expected. On this the Commander-in-
chief directed me to take the spy-glass and watch
the movements of the ship, giving orders at the
same time to fire upon her as soon as she should
come within range of our guns. While I was
occupied in the execution of this order, I per-
l l 4

520

CUBA.

ceived that the frigate was becalmed, and at the
same instant felt that the hornillo, or mine, which
the enemy had established in the corner of the
Caballero de la Mar, had exploded, blowing up
some of our advanced sentinels among its ruins,
and also some of the seamen employed in the
Orejon de la Mar, in the charging of hand- gre
nades ; one of whom, who was saved, was brought
into the castle by the turret of Santo Tomas. Of
all this I sent an account to the commander,
without leaving the spot ; from whence also I
despatched Don Lorenzo de Milla, captain of the
battalion de Espana, to ascertain if the explosion
had produced apracticable breach, when he brought
me back for answer that the breach was not prac
ticable, at least not without a great deal of labour.
At this moment the Commander-in-chief arrived in
his undress uniform, with his sword by his side,
and having heard what I have just stated, he
withdrew to the Morillo, and gave orders to the
guard to withdraw or cut away the ladders on that
side, in order to prevent the possibility of any
soldier or other individual leaving the fortress.
This order was not executed with sufficient promp
titude; and scarcely had the commander turned his
back when the picket, which had been left in the
Orejon de Tierra, seized on the post, anddescending
the ladders, made their way to the boats stationed
under the Morillo, and from thence across the
harbour to the Punta Castle, although as yet there
was not a single enemy to be seen in the Caballero
de la Mar.

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 521
" Following the example of this picket, no
sooner had a dozen English soldiers entered the
bastion, than the whole of the seamen, gunners, and
soldiers, made the best of their way out of it. In the
crest of the rampart, which rises from the lower bat
tery of San Nicolas, a curtain had been formed
with bags of sand, under shelter of which a picket
of forty seamen with their officers had been posted,
to whom I made known that I had seen the four
first English soldiers enter, and desired that the
picket or at least a part of it might be advanced to
oppose them. This the officers could not effect,
only two of their men coming forward, and the
rest concealing themselves behind the sand-bags.
The English were in consequence enabled to ad
vance and form without opposition, and having
seen this, I hastened to a company under my com
mand at the foot of the rampart, who with their
leader, Don Fernando de Parraga, made an attempt
at resistance, in which the lieutenant lost his life.
During this interval, the Commander-in-chief was
occupied in endeavouring to re-assemble the troops,
animating them by his presence, on the approach
of the enemy, who every instant were increasing in
number, not only by the Caballero de la Mar, but
also on the Cortina del Medio, from whence they
passed to the Cortina de Tierra, for the purpose of
driving out our troops from the three Cortaduras on
that side. On the first discharge, the Commander-
in-chief received his mortal wound, and was imme
diately removed into the guard-house. Almost at
the same moment, I was also wounded in the elbow-

5.22 cuba.
joint of the right arm, and I perceived that the
Marquis Gonzalez had received two wounds while
bravely defending the curtain and the ditch. Finding
myself compelled to withdraw, I gave orders to
Captain Milla, now the senior officer of the garrison,
to take a white flag and offer to capitulate, thinking
myself justified in this proceeding by the state in
which we found ourselves, with the first and
second in command so badly wounded as to be
unable to give orders. My instructions, however,
were not followed; and the number of the enemy
had already increased so much, as to enable them
to crush our disheartened troops, and take pos
session of the fortress, several of our officers having
fallen before them with arms in their hands."
Between two and three o'clock the same after
noon the British flag was seen flying from the
Morro ; and as soon as Lord Albemarle ascertained
that Velasco had been so badly wounded, he sent
him over to the city in charge of a field-officer with
a flag of truce, in order to afford him a better chance
of being cured ; but the wound being of the most
serious nature, he died in little more than 24 hours,
having first received all the consolations of religion.
The highest funeral honours consistent with the
beleaguered state of the city were of course paid
to his remains.
The time had now arrived for the attack on the
city. Aware of their danger, the enemy commenced
an active fire on the Morro, which they chiefly di
rected against the water tanks, in order to cut off
that essential supply. Lord Albemarle now passed

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 523
over to the other side of the city to reconnoitre
the ground in person, and see how the attack might
be made there with most advantage in case of
need. The works on both sides having been suf
ficiently advanced, his Lordship on the 10th sent a
flag of truce to the Governor, to represent the
danger to which the city was exposed, and propose
a capitulation. The flag was detained from day
break till four in the afternoon, when it was sent
back without an answer. The fire from the city
was instantly recommenced, but a great many
people were seen to leave it with burdens.
In the forenoon of the 11th, the whole of the
English batteries, mounting 45 guns, were opened
on the city. The advantage of our position, and
the superiority in weight of metal, had now a pal
pable effect. The Punta Castle was silenced be
tween nine and ten o'clock, and the northern bat
tery within an hour afterwards; although at distant
intervals a shot was, still heard. Soon after mid
day the Punta was abandoned, at two in the after
noon the white flag was pulled down, and a Spanish
parlamentario arrived at Lord Albemarle's head
quarters to propose a capitulation. On this his
Lordship sent for Sir George Pocock ; the flag of
truce returned to the city, and hostilities were sus
pended during the night.
On the 12th the negotiations were continued,
and after some little delay, in the course of which
orders were issued to recommence hostilities, the
capitulation was signed and sealed before night
fall of the 13th. At 10 o'clock in the morning of

524 cuba.
the 14th, Major-General Keppel, with 500 men,
took possession of the Punta, and at twelve, of
the city gate and battery of that name, hoisting
the British flag at both places as soon as they
were evacuated by the enemy. Colonel Howe at
the same time took possession of the landward
gate, Puerto de Tierra, with two battalions of gre
nadiers. The garrison were of course made prisoners,
and were sent on board the fleet. Without count
ing the sick or wounded left in the city, their
numbers were as follow: — 3 colonels, 2 lieutenant-
colonels, 2 sergeant-majors, 4 adjutants, 4 chap
lains, 3 surgeons, 17 captains, 56 subalterns, 38
sergeants, 29 drummers, 778 rank and file, and 57
followers. The articles of capitulation thus concluded bear
the signatures of Sir George Pocock and Lord Al
bemarle, the Marques del Real Transporte, Com
mander-in-chief of the Spanish squadron, and Don
Juan de Prado, the Governor of the Havana. In
consideration of the vigorous and gallant defence
of the Morro, the garrison were suffered to march
out with arms and artillery, matches lighted, drums
beating, colours flying, and all the honours of war ;
but the dragoons were dismounted, leaving the
horses for the service of the conquerors, and the
militia were to deposit their arms with the English
commissary. The officers of the garrison and of
the Spanish squadron were permitted to carry with
them on board the ships provided by the English
for their reception the whole of their personal ef-

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 525
fects ; and the civil officers of the government, after
rendering their accounts, were to be allowed, if
they chose, to leave the island. The cannon, arms
of all sorts, ammunition, and naval stores, were
given up. The Ex- Viceroy of Peru, and the Ex-
Governor of Carthagena, were allowed to return
to the peninsula, with all their personal effects and
attendants. The maintenance of the Catholic re
ligion was agreed to, as were the public perform
ance of Catholic rites as well in the churches as
out of doors, the preservation of the privileges of
the clergy, their property and revenues, their con
vents, monasteries, hospitals, universities, colleges,
and fraternities, in the same way as before the
surrender, under the condition that the future
nomination of priests and other ecclesiastical func
tionaries should be made with the approbation of
his Britannic Majesty's governor. On the part
of the Spanish authorities an article was proposed
to sanction the removal to Spain of the tobacco
and other property belonging to the Spanish go
vernment, and for continuing the exports from
the island to the peninsula through the port of the
Havana. It was also proposed that the Havana
should be considered a neutral port, to which the
subjects of the King should always have access,
but both these conditions were refused on the
part of the conquerors. The inhabitants of the city,
however, Europeans as well as natives, were to be
left in the free enjoyment of their rights, property,
and privileges, and of such offices as they might
have acquired by purchase, subject only to Spanish

526

CUBA.

law, and to the customary forms for the admini
stration of justice. Such of them as chose to leave
the city were to be allowed to carry with them
their personal property, and were to receive pass
ports for any part of the dominions of Spain they
might select. But although the other property of
the King was declared to be lawful prize, his
Majesty's slaves were to be delivered up to such
persons as he might appoint to receive them. The
conquerors refused to give up the Spanish mer
chant vessels in the harbour at the time of the
capture ; but the records and other public docu
ments were to be left in the custody of the Spanish
functionaries. The sick and wounded in the mili
tary hospitals were to be treated in the same
manner with the English garrison, and the Spa
niards were suffered to leave sentinels for the pro
tection of the churches, convents, and other places
of importance.
The Spanish authorities, in the course of these
negotiations, made every possible exertion to save
their squadron ; but as that was considered a most
important object by the conquerors, the proposal
was not listened to. It was on this point and on
the proposed neutrality of the port of the Havana,
during the continuance of hostilities, that the chief
difference arose which protracted the negotiation.
It was just two months and eight days from the
date of the arrival of the expedition to the day that
the English took possession of the city. With the
capital there was given up the whole territory an
nexed to it, extending 180 miles to the westward ;

LORD ALBEMARLE'S EXPEDITION. 527
so that this conquest was the most considerable,
and in its consequences the most decisive, of all
that had taken place throughout the course of the
war. It had, besides, all the effect of a naval victory.
Nine ships of the line fell into the hands of the
conquerors ; three had been sunk in the harbour ;
and two, far advanced on the stocks, were destroyed.
The loss to the Spaniards in ships of war, merchant
ships, money, tobacco, and other articles of value,
was estimated at three millions sterling.
No despatch was sent home with the intelligence
of the first success, the naval and military chiefs
having agreed to wait until the city itself had
fallen. On the part of Sir George Pocock, the
Hon. Augustus Hervey, and Captain Nugent, on
the part of Lord Albemarle, were sent home
with the accounts of the victory. - In the Admi
ral's despatch he describes the port of Mariel
as being an important acquisition, saying that he
had sent there 100 transports and several ships of
war, with the view of retaining possession of it ;
and Lord Albemarle on the one side, and Sir
George Pocock on the other, speak in the highest
terms of the perfect harmony and good under
standing which uninterruptedly prevailed between
the two branches of the service, from the com
mencement to the close of the enterprise.

528

CUBA.

CHAP. XXIV.
ENGLISH OCCUPATION.  HISTORICAL NOTICES,
A. d. 1764—1832.
Soon after the conquest, a demand was made by
Colonel Cleveland, the officer in command of the
artillery, on the Bishop and the clergy, requiring an
account of the bells of the churches, convents, and
monasteries of the Havana and the other towns in the
district, as well as of the ingenios in the neighbour
hood, and of all such metal as is used in the making
of bells, in order that the value might be adjusted,
and the amount paid according, as he asserted, to the
laws and customs of war, when a city after a siege
has surrendered by capitulation. In consequence of
this proceeding, the Bishop wrote to Lord Albemarle
requesting an explanation ; when his Lordship re
plied, that when a city was besieged and taken, the
commander of the artillery receives a gratification,
and that Colonel Cleveland had made the demand
with his Lordship's concurrence. On this the
Bishop called a junta of his clergy ; at which it
was resolved that Colonel Cleveland should be re
quested to specify the towns to which he referred,
in addition to the Havana, when he restricted the
demand to Guanabacao with its auxiliary church
of Guadaloupe ; and with respect to the amount of
the gratification, he returned for answer, that the

ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 529
churches would provide such a sum as they could
reasonably contribute. The junta agreed to offer
#1000 ; but Cleveland, thinking this sum too small,
made a specific demand of #30,000, which was
afterwards reduced by Lord Albemarle to #1 0,000.
The church, however, pretended poverty, and beg
ged all round the neighbourhood for assistance,
but all that could be collected was #103 4. This
was communicated to Lord Albemarle, who made
no reply ; but Colonel Cleveland presented himself
in person, and required the delivery of the bells,
specifying the 4th of September as the day on
which he was to receive them. On this the Bishop
advanced the money, and so set the question at
rest. Another question arose between the invaders
and the clergy, the English governor having re
quired that one of the churches should be set
apart for the exercise of Protestant worship. To
this the Bishop replied that the demand was incon
sistent with the terms of the capitulation, by which
it was stipulated that the rights and usages of the
church should be protected. To this Lord Albe
marle replied by repeating his request ; adding, that
if one church could not be spared altogether, he
would be content to have the use of one alternately
with the Catholics at such hours of the morning
and evening as might be agreed upon. The
Bishop having made an evasive answer, Lord
Albemarle again wrote to him as follows : — "Most
Illustrious Sir, I have received a very long letter
from your Lordship, which is no answer to mine. I
M M

530 CUBA.
am not aware of having made any particular ca
pitulation with the church, and I am certain that
none can exclude his Britannic Majesty's subjects
from the exercise of their religion ; and for this
reason, if your Lordship does not assign me a
church, I shall take that which seems to me most
suitable. I beg to remind your Lordship that the
nomination to all ecclesiastical dignities and em
ployments must receive my approbation, and I
think it would be better to comply with my re
quest, than to give yourself the trouble of writing
such long letters. God preserve your Lordship
many years! (Signed) Albemarle, Havana, 4th Sep
tember, 1762." This produced a reply "that since
he had so resolved, his Lordship might take any
church he chose," on which he selected that of
the Franciscans. Lord Albemarle insisted, never
theless, on having a list of all the ecclesiastical
benefices of the bishopric, in order to qualify him
to make the choice which the treaty of capitulation
had given him in the supply of vacancies. This
demand was refused by the bishop, who insisted
that the church could not be subjected to any
secular power whatever.
In the mean time, Lord Albemarle applied to
the Bishop on a subject on which his Lordship
doubtless felt himself more immediately and person
ally '^interested : — "Most Illustrious Sir, I am sorry
to be under the necessity of writing to your Lord
ship what ought to have been thought of some days
ago, viz. a donation from the church to the Com
mander-in-chief of the victorious army. The least

ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 531
that your Lordship can offer will be #100,000. I
wish to live in peace with your Lordship and with
the church, as I have shown in all that has hitherto
occurred, and I hope that your Lordship will not
give me reason to alter my intentions. I kiss your
Lordship's hands. Your humble servant, Albemarle,
Havana, 19th October, 1762."
On this, the Bishop applied to Sir George Po
cock for his mediation ; stating, that besides injuring
the church, the demand was inconsistent with the
terms of capitulation ; but the Admiral, while he
consented to mediate, professed his perfect satisfac
tion with the conduct of the Commander-in-chief,
and assured his Lordship, " that, under the protec
tion of Great Britain and of British officers, he had
nothing to fear." Lord Albemarle still insisted on
the list of the benefices, and declared, that if the
demand was not instantly complied with, he would
proclaim the Bishop a violator of the treaty. To
this the Bishop replied, that on this point he ap
pealed to the two courts, to which he would also
address himself on the subject of the donation de
manded by Lord Albemarle, the violent occupation
of the church of San Francisco, and of the hospital
of San Juan de Dios. This produced a proclam
ation by Lord Albemarle, declaring "that the con
duct of the Bishop was seditious ; that he had forgot
he was now a subject of Great Britain, and that it was
absolutely necessary he should be expelled from the
island, and sent to Florida in one of the British
ships of war, in order that public tranquillity might
be maintained, and that good correspondence and
M M 2

532

CUBA,

harmony might continue between the old and the
new subjects of the King, which the conduct of
the Bishop had visibly interrupted."
According to the Spanish authorities there were
not wanting among the other classes of the inha
bitants many serious causes of complaint. An at
tempt was made to collect a sum of #200,000
to be offered as a donation to the conquering army ;
but it was so generally resisted, by some from want
of means, and by the greater number from disaf
fection to the cause, that no great progress was
made in it, so that it ultimately fell to the ground.
So arbitrary were the orders of Lord Albemarle,
that the slightest suspicion is said to have been
sufficient to bring some unfortunate individual
before a council of war, whose decisions are re
presented to have been both sudden and sangui
nary, paying as little respect to ecclesiastics as to
laymen, and occasionally sending them to the
scaffold without even allowing them the consolations
of religion. Of the truth of these last statements
I have no means of judging ; but finding them de
liberately advanced in the Transactions of the Pa
triotic Society, I do not feel myself justified in
withholding them.
The loss sustained by the invaders was very con
siderable. It consisted of 11 officers, 15 non-com
missioned officers, 4 drummers, and 260 privates
killed; 19 officers, 19 non-commissioned officers, 6
drummers, and 576 privates wounded ; 4 officers,
1 drummer, and 51 soldiers, who afterwards died
of their wounds; 39 officers, 14 non-commissioned

ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 533
officers, 11 drummers, and 630 privates, who fell
victims to the climate or to the fatigues of the siege,
and 1 sergeant, 4 drummers, and 125 privates miss
ing — making a total loss of 73 officers, 49 non-com
missioned officers, 26 drummers, and 1642 privates
— in all, 1790. In compliance with the order sent
out to Lord Albemarle, as soon as the place had sur
rendered, he despatched the 15th brigade to New
York, where, from their previous exhaustion, and
the severity of a northern climate, very few of them
survived till the following spring.
At home his Lordship was severely censured for
not having begun the campaign by an attack on
the city, whose walls and outworks were repre
sented as in a very dilapidated condition, the dry
ditches being narrow, and the covered way in ruins.
The Punta Castle, also, it was stated, had been con
structed more for the protection of the entrance of
the harbour than to strengthen the fortifications of
the city; whereas the Morro was a powerful for
tress with two strong batteries to landward, and two
towards the sea, so situated as to defend the har
bour's mouth, and command at once the Punta and
the city. The Spaniards had shown, by sinking
their ships in the harbour's mouth, and permanently
injuring the entrance, that they apprehended a dif
ferent mode of attack, and feared that the harbour
itself might have been forced ; but this was consi
dered in England to have been the only point on
which the gallant defenders of the Havana had
committed any serious blunder.
M M 3

534 cuba.
The distribution of the spoil was a subject of
great discontent ; and it must be admitted that the
partition, which gave three or four pounds to a
soldier or a sailor, whose life was equally exposed
with that of his superiors, and 100,000/. to an
admiral or a commander-in-chief, was far from
being impartial. In the distribution of the prize-
money Sir George Pocock was placed on the same
footing with Lord Albemarle, and Commodore Kep
pel with Lieutenant-General Elliot; the sharesof the
two former having amounted to 122,697^- 10*» 6g?.
each, and those of each of the two seconds in
command to 24,539/. 10s. Id. The whole spoil
was, in fact, equally divided between the two ser
vices, having amounted altogether to 736,185/. 3s.,
or 368,092/. lis. 6d. each. But although the ser
vices and the chiefs were placed on an equality,
the same rule could not be observed with the offi
cers and privates. The share of a major-general
was 6816/. 10s. 6^d. ; that of a brigadier-general,
1947/. Us. Id.; that of an officer of the staff,
564/. 14s. 6d. ; that of a captain, 184/. 4s. 7\d. ;
that of a subaltern, 1 16Z. 3s. 0\d. ; that of a sergeant,
8/. 18s. 8d.; that of a corporal, 61. 16s. 6d., and that
of a private soldier, 4/. Is. 8^d. The share of a cap
tain in the navy was 1600/. 10s. 10c?. ; of a lieute
nant, 234/. 13s. 3%d. ; of other commissioned officers,
118/. 5s. Vl\d. ; of warrant officers, 17/. 5s. 3d.,
and of ordinary seamen, 31. 14s. 9|g?. It seems to
me that a more reasonable principle of distribution
in such cases would be to adopt the various rates of
pay in both branches of the service, as the basis of

ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 535
the calculation, when the shares would be appor
tioned by the simple application of the rule of three.
Commanders-in-chief look for other rewards ; and
under such circumstances, their country and their
sovereign are seldom ungrateful.
The fleet, on its return to England, met with a
serious disaster, when near the Land's End, by stress
of weather ; but Commodore Keppel, raised to the
rank of Rear- Admiral, and left in command of a
squadron, was more fortunate, having fallen in with,
and captured off Cape Francois, a rich convoy,
bound for Europe.
The peace having been concluded in 1763, the
Conde de Ricla arrived at the Havana on the
30th of June, bringing the powers conferred by the
treaty for the restoration of the British conquests
in the island of Cuba, and accompanied by General
O'Reilly, with four ships of the line, a number of
transports, and 2000 men for the supply of the
garrison. On their arrival they were received by
the English with every demonstration of respect.
On the 7th of July the keys of the city were form
ally delivered up to the Conde de Ricla, on whom
the government had been conferred, and the En
glish garrison was embarked on its return to Europe.
The restoration of the island to the Spaniards is
regarded by the native writers as the true era from
whence its aggrandisement and prosperity is to be
dated. It was during the administration of the
first governor that the new fortresses of San
Carlos and Atares were erected, and the enlarge
ment and rebuilding of the Morro and the Cabanas
M M 4

536

CUBA.

were begun. The old hospitals were placed on a
better footing, and new ones were built. The
court of accounts, and the whole department of fi
nance, received a fresh impulse and a distinct form ;
and an intendant was named, who, among other
arrangements, for the first time established the
Aduana, and created a custom-house revenue, the
duties having been first levied on the 15th of Oc
tober, 1764.
The Conde de O'Reilly, as inspector-general of
the army, succeeded in organising and placing on
a respectable footing the regular troops, as well as
the militia of the island. The city of the Havana
having been divided into districts, the streets named,
and the houses numbered, the truth came to be
known, that the capital contained materials for the
formation of a battalion of disciplined white militia.
Beginning with the formation of a single company,
the Governor appointed lieutenants, sergeants, and
corporals from the regular troops of the garrison,
and, after a personal inspection, he followed the
same course with the other companies. Adopting
this principle in the other towns of the island, he
soon succeeded in realising his ideas, and creating
a considerable force on which the government had
every reason to rely. When the two white bat
talions of the Havana and Guanabacao were com
pleted, it was still found that, with the addition of
the stationary regiment of regulars and the other
troops of the garrison, there would not be a
sufficient force for the defence of the capital, so
that the idea of forming two other battalions pre-

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 537
sented itself, the one of blacks, the other of people
of colour, and was immediately carried into effect.
Don Diego Manrique assumed the supreme com
mand in 1765, but died within a few months after
his arrival. He was succeeded in 1766 by Don An
tonio Maria Bucarely, who prosecuted with energy
the construction of the fortifications begun by the
Conde de Ricla. Bucarely paid great attention to
the due administration of justice, and was distin
guished by the affability of his manners, the facility
he afforded of access to his person, and the readi
ness with which he heard and redressed the grie
vances of the people; making ita boast that he had
succeeded in adjusting differences and compro
mising lawsuits which had been pending for forty
years. When afterwards appointed viceroy of New
Spain, the minister for the department of the Indies
announced to him, by command of the King, as an
unexampled occurrence, that during the whole
period of his administration not a single complaint
against him had reached the court of Madrid.
Another of his merits with the people was the
gentleness and address with which he effected the
expulsion of the Jesuits, who had come to the
island with Don Pedro Augustin Morel, and had
acquired there large possessions. The church at
tached to their seminary is that which is now the
cathedral of the Havana.
On the promotion Of Bucarely in 1771, the Mar
ques de la Torre was named his successor, and
became one of the most popular captains general
who have ever administered the government. He

538 cuba.
was replaced in 1777 by Don Diego Jose Navarro,
who introduced great improvements in the admini
stration of justice, and the police of the tribunals,
and in regulating the duties and functions of the
abogados, escribanos, procuradores, tasadores, and
other officers and dependents of the courts of law,
in which the greatest abuses had previously, and, I
fear, have since prevailed. The base and deterio
rated coin, which had been previously in circulation
was also called in and abolished in the time of
Navarro. In the course of the war which had
again broken out between England and Spain, an
expedition was prepared at the Havana for the
recovery of the Floridas, which produced the sur
render of Pensacola, and the submission of the
garrison. This gave rise to a belief that the
English would make reprisals on Cuba or Porto
Rico, and led to the despatch of reinforcements on
a large scale to the garrison of the Havana. The
peace of 1783 soon followed, on which Lord Rod
ney prepared to return to England; and taking the
Havana in his way, Prince William Henry, after
wards William IV., having obtained leave from the
Admiral to go on shore, was so delighted with the
city and the entertainments that were offered him,
that he remained there three days, and did not
return, if we may believe the Spanish writers, until
Lord Rodney sent to his Royal Highness to say,
that if he did not re-embark immediately, the squa
dron would set sail, and leave him behind. The
Spanish General of Marines, Solano, is said to have
^given the Prince a breakfast which cost him #4000.

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 539
During the years which immediately succeeded
the peace there appear to have been other changes
in the colonial government besides those already
noticed, beginning with Don Luis Gonzaga, fol
lowed by the Conde de Galves, Don Bernardo
Troncoso, Don Jose Espeleta, and Don Domingo
Cabello. In the time of this first Espeleta there was
again a great outcry as to the number of lawyers in
the colony, and particularly at the Havana, where
there were already no less than eighty-five aboga
dos with an equally liberal proportion of the inferior
classes of the profession. Steps were taken to pre
vent their increase, and a regulation was enforced
on the 19th of November, 1784, prohibiting the
admission of candidates and the immigration of
professors of jurisprudence from the other colonies;
and no lawyer who had studied his profession in
Spain was to be allowed to practise it in the courts
of the island until six years at least after he had
been called to the bar in the peninsula.
Don Luis de las Casas arrived as Captain-Ge
neral in 1790, and the period of his administration
is represented by all Spanish writers as a brilliant
epoch in the history of the island. To him it is in
debted for the institution of the Sociedad Patriotico,
which has ever since done so much to stimulate the
activity, and promote the improvement of education,
agriculture, and trade, as well as literature, science,
and the fine arts, combined with large and liberal
views of public policy. To Las Casas, also, is the
island indebted for the establishment of the Casa
de Beneficencia, of which I have elsewhere spoken,

540 CUBA.
having been begun by a voluntary subscription
amounting to 36,000 dollars. The female depart
ment was at first a separate institution, situated in
the extra-mural portion of the city, but was added
to the other on the completion of the buildings in
1794. In place of a monument to Las Casas, which
he undoubtedly deserved as much as any of his
predecessors, an inscription has been conspicuously
engraved in the common hall of the school for
boys, declaring that on its erection it had been ex
pressly dedicated to the memory of the founder of
the institution ; reminding the young pupils that
he had not only been the founder of the Casa de
Beneficencia, but of the first public library, and
the first newspaper which had existed in the island,
and of the patriotic and economical society.
To increase the commercial prosperity of the
island he had the sagacity to perceive that his
object could not be better accomplished than by
removing as far as his authority extended all the
trammels imposed upon it by the old system of
privilege and restriction. During his administra
tion, also, large sums were expended in the con
struction of roads, especially the great Calzada del
Horcon and the Calzada de Guadaloupe ; but
since his time these highways have fallen so com
pletely out of repair, as for the greater part of the
year to have become next to impassable. It was
Las Casas, also, who introduced the culture of in
digo ; and during his time the long arrear of causes
on the rolls of the courts of justice was greatly re
duced. The hurricane, which desolated the island

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 541
on the 21st and 22d of June, 1791, afforded Las
Casas a fresh opportunity for displaying the great
resources of his mind in the promptitude with
which he brought relief to the sufferers. In some
districts the sudden rise of water in the rivers was
most extraordinary, when the limited extent of
land from sea to sea is considered. On the bridge
then just finished across the Rio del Calabazal the
water rose to the height of thirty-six feet above
the parapets; and in the town of San Antonio, where
the wells are sunk, as I have elsewhere stated, into
the bed of a subterraneous river, the water rushed
up through the artificial openings, and inundated
the whole country.
The French revolution having communicated its
irresistible impulse to the western parts of St. Do
mingo, the cabinet of Madrid took the alarm, and
from the Havana and Santiago, Vera Cruz, the
Caracas, Maracaybo, and Porto Rico, collected a
force amounting altogether to 6000 men, the object
of which was to suppress the insurrection. The
sanguinary struggle which ensued, and the re
verses which befell the Spanish troops, belong to
another place. Suffice it here to say, by way of
memorandum, that the interest of the Spanish
government in the island of St. Domingo was
definitely terminated by the treaty of Basle, soon
afterwards concluded with the French republic.
It was to the energetic measures of Las Casas, at
the time of this revolution in St. Domingo, that
the island of Cuba was indebted for the uninter
rupted maintenance of its tranquillity, in spite of
the universal persuasion that a conspiracy had

542 cuba.
been formed at the instigation of the French,
among the free people of colour, to provoke a
similar revolution in Cuba. On the occasion of his
leaving the island in December, 1796, a formal
eulogium on his merits as Captain-General was re
corded in the archives of the Ayuntamiento of the
Havana, in which are enumerated the great benefits
he had conferred on the community ; among which,
the most prominent are the discouragement of
gambling ; the arrest of vagrants and vagabonds ;
the clearing of the gaols of greater criminals, and
the acceleration of the ends of justice in civil
causes ; the abandonment of a large portion of his
own emoluments for the erection and support of
the Casa de Beneficencia and other charitable in
stitutions ; the reduction and pacification of the
Maroons of Santiago ; the suppression of the con
spiracy among the people of colour ; the prohibition
of the introduction of foreign negroes who had
previously resided in other colonies, and the ex
pulsion of those who had arrived from St. Domingo ;
the relief of the inhabitants from, the clothing of
the militia ; the paving of the streets of the Ha
vana ; the making and mending of roads ; the
building of bridges, and the construction of public
walks and alamedas ; the erection of a convent, a
coliseum, a primary school, a school of chemistry,
natural philosophy, mathematics and botany ; the
improvement of the Plaza de Toros, and the re
jection of the profit which his predecessors had
derived from the supply of provisions for the
troops. In this farewell eulogium he is also praised

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 543
for the very questionable virtue of promoting the
general prosperity, by the copious introduction of
Bozal negroes from the coast of Africa, which is
stated to have greatly extended the cultivation of
the sugar-cane, the bread-fruit tree, the cinnamon-
tree, and other exotic plants of inestimable value. It
is more easy to sympathise in the praises bestowed
upon him for the great hospitality he showed to
the unfortunate refugees from St. Domingo, and
for the exertions he made and the liberality he
evinced in the institution of the Patriotic Society,
the formation of a public library, the publication
of the Diario, and of the Guia de Forasteros.
Las Casas, in 1796, was succeeded in the go
vernment by the Conde de Santa Clara, whose
noble and generous disposition, and the affability
of his manners, made the loss of his predecessor
less sensibly felt. It is admitted, however, that he
gave no encouragement to education, that he had
no taste for letters, and that in his time the social
emulation which had previously prevailed sunk
rapidly into apathy and indifference.
It is a singular illustration of the dilatory habits
of the people, and affords a sort of national cha
racteristic, that for many years after the formal
cession to the French of all interest in St. Domingo,
the judges who exercised the supreme civil juris
diction over the island of Cuba and other Spanish
settlements continued to reside in the ceded ter
ritory, so that, in consequence of the recommence
ment of hostilities with England, all communication
by sea was so interrupted as to interpose an insur-

544 cuba.
mountable barrier to the exercise of the right of
appeal, and to the ordinary administration of jus
tice. The royal cedula, for the removal of this
tribunal to Puerto Principe, is dated on the 22d of
May, 1797 '¦> but it does not appear at what precise
date the actual translation took place.
Santa Clara was succeeded, in 1799, by the
Marques de Someruelos, whose administration
continued for a much longer period than the five
years to which, by the practice, if not by a
formal regulation of the Spanish government, the
term of service of the Captains-General of the
colonies has been usually limited. The public
works which serve to commemorate the admini
stration of Someruelos are the old theatre and the
public cemetery ; the execution of which last was
confided to the Bishop, who pursued the object
with zeal, and the work was completed on the
2d of February, 1806. Its extent is not great,
containing only 22,000 square yards ; but the
walls, the chapel, and the gateway, are on a scale
which infers the outlay of a large sum of money.
The chapel is ornamented with a painting in fresco
representing the Resurrection, with the motto,
" Ecce nunc in pulvere dormiam." Someruelos was
thought by some to be stern and severe towards the
poorer classes of society, and to reserve all his
affability and condescension for the rich. On the
occasion, however, of the great fire of 1802, which
destroyed the populous suburb of Jesus Maria,
leaving no less than 11,300 individuals without a
roof to shelter them, the Marques, moved by

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 545
their distress, circumambulated the town, going
actually from door to door to petition for their
relief. The belief again gained ground at the Havana,
in 1807, that the English government contemplated
a descent on the island ; and measures were taken
in consequence to put it in a more respectable state
of defence, although, from want of funds in the
treasury, and the scarcity of indispensable supplies,
the prospect of an invasion was sufficiently gloomy.
The militia and the troops of the garrison were
carefully drilled, and companies of volunteers were
formed wherever materials for them could be found.
The French, also, not content with mere prepara
tions, made an actual descent on the island, first
threatening Santiago, and afterwards landing at Ba
tabano. The invaders consisted chiefly of refugees
from St. Domingo ; and their intention seems to
have been to have taken possession with a view to
colonise and cultivate a portion of the unappro
priated, or at least unoccupied, territory on the
south side of the island, as their countrymen had
formerly done in St. Domingo. Without recurring
to actual force, the Captain-General prevailed on
them to take their departure by a peaceful offer
of the means of transit either to St. Domingo or to
France. The news of the abduction, by Napoleon, of the
royal family of Spain reached the Havana by a
private opportunity, at the moment when the Ca
bildo was in session, when every member of it took
a solemn oath to preserve the island for its lawful
N N

546

CUBA.

sovereign. The official intelligence did not reach
the city till the 17th of July, 1808; when it was
brought from Cadiz by the Intendant Don Juan
de Aguilar y Amat, who arrived in the American
ship Despatch. The Colonial government imme
diately declared war against Napoleon ; and on the
20th, King Ferdinand VII. was proclaimed with
general applause. The intelligence from Spain
and the resolution of the Captain-General were
immediately communicated to all the colonial au
thorities in Spanish America. The events in the
Peninsula soon began to be felt at the Havana ; but
the demands of the French intruders for the recog
nition of their authority were disregarded, and the
public despatches which came from them were de
stroyed. The Infanta Dofia Carlota made similar
pretensions, but these, like those of the French,
were firmly resisted,
The foreign trade of the island was reduced to
such an extremity by the events of the war, that
the local authorities of the Havana, the Ayunta
miento, and the Consulado, began seriously to de
liberate on the expediency of throwing the trade
open, and admitting foreign supplies on the same
terms with those from the Peninsula. There was
some division of opinion ; but the majority were
for a free competition on an equal footing between
the Spaniard and the foreigner, on the ground that
Spain alone was unable to purchase or consume
the enormous mass of produce then exported from
the island ; and so it was accordingly decided.
On the 21st and 22d of March, 1809, a serious

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 547
disturbance arose, the object of which was to invite
the return of the French to the island ; but this po
pular movement, although considered dangerous at
the time, and viewed with alarm by the Captain-
General, was speedily put down by the display of
firmness and resolution on the part of all who had
any thing to lose, and by the prompt offer of their
personal services for its suppression. Proclamations
were issued, a respectable force was collected, and
the Marques de Someruelos presented himself in
person to endeavour to pacify the discontented.
Tranquillity was restored at the end of the second
day, with the loss of only two or three lives ; but
not without the destruction of a great deal of pro
perty. The French settlers in the rural districts
were, in this respect, the greatest sufferers ; and it
had, in consequence, the effect of driving away
several thousands of laborious and intelligent co
lonists, who were already deeply interested in the
prosperity of the island.
Soon after these events a young man arrived
from the United States, of whose proceedings and
character, as an emissary of King Joseph, the co
lonial government had been previously informed.
This unfortunate person, Don Manuel Aleman,
was not even suffered to land. The Alguazils went
on board; took possession of his papers and his per
son ; a council of war was immediately assembled :
but his fate was determined before hand ; and on
the following morning, the 13th of July, 1810, he
was brought out to the Campo de la Punta, and
hanged for his temerity. N N 2

548 cuba.
The revolutionary proceedings in the continental
provinces of Spain were now in full career towards
that independence of the mother-country which
they have since achieved. In the mean time, the
island of Cuba enjoyed a degree of tranquillity
quite remarkable under the circumstances of the
sister colonies. This state of things was naturally,
and not unjustly, ascribed to the political prudence
and sagacity of the Marques de Someruelos. The
colonial authorities petitioned the cabinet of Ma
drid for the farther prorogation of his government
beyond the term to which it had been already
extended. But the very fact of his having given
so much satisfaction to the colonists, if we may
judge from experience elsewhere, was not likely
to operate with the government of the mother-
country in deciding on a farther extension of his
stay. Instead of acceding to the prayer of the
municipal functionaries of the Havana, the govern
ment of Madrid thought fit to mark its sense of
the interference by instantly recalling the title of
" Excellencia," which, on a former occasion, had
been granted to the Ayuntamiento as a special
mark of the royal favour, and of which they were
not a little proud.
A negro conspiracy broke out in 1812, which
excited considerable alarm in the minds of the
landed proprietors. That alarm was attended with
its usual consequences : the negro leader Aponte
and his associates were treated with unsparing
severity, such as maybe supposed to have been
dictated much more by the fears of the Hacendados,
than by the strict justice of the case.

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 549
The western districts of the island were visited,
in 1810, by another of those tremendous hurri
canes, which sweep away so much life and pro
perty in these tropical regions. , The city of the
Havana was filled with consternation and dismay ;
the hopes of an abundant harvest were disap
pointed ; in the harbour, so renowned for its se
curity, the ships of war were driven from their
anchors ; and no less than sixty merchant vessels
were destroyed.
In the time of Someruelos the Casa de Bene
ficencia was in danger of falling into decay ; but in
consequence of his earnest intervention, the Junta
de Tabacos, which in Spain as in France is a
royal monopoly, consented to purchase 100 slaves,
whose labour or whose wages were to furnish funds
for the benefit of the institution ; thus by an ex
traordinary perversion making the practice of
cruelty and injustice towards one portion of the
human family contribute to a work of charity in
favour of another. The slaves were at first em
ployed in the manufacture of cigars, but have
latterly been hired out for daily wages at whatever
employment they could obtain.
The successor of Someruelos was Don Juan
Ruiz de Apodaca, afterwards Conde de Benadito,
who arrived on the 14th of April, 1812; and he, for
the first time, combined the command of the naval
force on the station with the office of Captain-
General of the island. This unprecedented com
bination arose from the fear of the authors of the
constitution of Cadiz, that their work and their
N N 3

550 CUBA.
representative would not be well received in this
aristocratical colony. His first duty on his arrival
was to proclaim the constitution ; and although it
doubtless excited an extraordinary sensation, it
was not openly resisted.
The success of Apodaca in Cuba led to his pro
motion to the rank of Viceroy of Mexico ; and on
the 1st of July, 1816, he was succeeded at the Ha
vana by Lieutenant-General Don Jose Cienfuegos.
In his time the third census of the island was ac
complished ; some of the details of which, as com
pared with those of 1827, will elsewhere be found
in these pages. This Captain-General made him
self exceedingly unpopular at the Havana by the
severe measures of police he proclaimed and en
forced for the suppression of projects of sedition,
and for the preservation of the public tranquillity.
He resorted to an expedient which in other great
cities would scarcely have become the subject of
serious complaint — he caused the streets of the
Havana to be lighted; but this was only a part of
the proceeding to which the citizens objected. He
insisted, also, on closing up the public thoroughfares
immediately after the conclusion of the evening
service in the churches; thus from that early hour
confining the inhabitants to their own particular
quarter of the city, and giving rise to clamorous
representations and to the very disturbances
which it was the object of the Captain-General to
prevent. Senor Cienfuegos was for some time disabled by
personal infirmity from the active administration

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 551
of the government, and during that period his
functions were performed by Don Juan Maria
Echeverri, as Cabo Subaltemo ; but on the 29th of
August, 1819, he was finally relieved by the arrival
of his successor, Don Juan Manuel Cagigal, in the
Spanish ship of war Sabina, with a convoy of troops
for the supply of the garrison.
The following year, 1820, from the events which
took place in the Peninsula, was another period
of trial and difficulty for a Captain-General of the
Havana; but it is admitted by all parties that Cagigal
succeeded, by the prudence and delicacy of his
conduct, in avoiding the evils which might have
been expected to arise from the difficult and ex
traordinary circumstances in which he found him
self placed. The extreme affability of his manners,
and the perfect readiness with which he received and
listened to all who desired to approach him, con
ciliated universal good will ; and it appears that the
high estimation in which he was held by the in
habitants excited in his breast a corresponding
feeling, as, on the termination of his command, he
applied for and obtained the special grace from the
King of being permitted to take up his permanent
abode in the island ; and having retired to the
town of Guanabacao, he died there some time
afterwards a simple but respected citizen.
The next Captain-General was Don Nicolas
Mahy, who arrived from Bordeaux in the French
frigate Therese on the 3d of March, 1821 ; but
such was the turbulence which prevailed in these
troublesome times that he proved unequal to the
N N 4

552 cuba.
task of controlling the storm, and at length sunk
under the difficulties which surrounded him. He
died on the 18th of July, 1822, but retained to the
last moment of his life the direct administration of
the affairs of the government.
After his death the government was assumed
provisionally by the Cabo Subaltemo, Don Sebas
tian Kindelan ; and on the 2d of May, 1823, the
new Captain-General arrived, Don Francisco Dio
nisio Vives, who was afterwards raised to the dig
nity of Conde de Cuba. It was in his time that
the fourth and last census of the island was accom
plished, the interesting results of which I have
given at considerable length. It was under Vives,
also, that the rural militia was organised, and that
the construction of the fortresses of Bahia-honda,
Mariel, Jaruco, and the Cabanas was begun or
completed. It was he who divided the island into
three military departments ; and it was under his
auspices that the temple was erected on the Plaza
de Armas of the Havana, on the very spot, where,
if tradition is to be believed, the first Christian
rite was performed in the New World. It is
doubtless with the view of adding to the solemnity
of the occasion that the temple is opened only
once a year, on the anniversary of the day that
mass was first said there, in the presence of Co
lumbus, to return thanks to Heaven for the success
which had attended his enterprise. It was also in
the time of Vives that the two lunatic asylums, el
Departamento de Dementes, were added to the Casa
de Beneficencia ; and it is recorded of him that he

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 553
never failed to preside at the meetings of the insti
tution, and to animate by his presence the droop
ing zeal of his colleagues in the direction.
On the 15th of May, 1832, Don Mariana Rica
fort took possession of the government ; and on the
1st of June, 1834, he was succeeded by Don Miguel
Tacon, whose administration terminated on the
16th of April, 1838, when Don Joaquin de Espeleta,
who had for some time resided at the Havana with
the rank of Sub-inspector-General of the troops,
and second Cabo Subaltemo, was promoted to the
rank of Captain-General, not provisionally, as had
been usual on former occasions, but como proprie-
tario, to use a form of expression in constant use, as
applied to public offices in the language of Castille
as well as in that of France. With regard to these
more recent periods in the history of the island, it
is of course impossible to expect any thing like
impartiality on the part of the publicists of the
Havana, who are forbidden to censure, and whose
praise is consequently worthless.

554 PORTO RICO.

CHAP. XXV.
PORTO RICO. — CRAB ISLAND.  FRENCH SLAVES SENT TO
PORTO RICO.  TRADE OF MARTINIQUE WITH PORTO RICO.
— THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.  KIDNAPPING FROM ENGLISH
ISLANDS.  COMPENSATION FOR STOLEN NEGROES. 
SYSTEM OF KIDNAPPING.  NEGOTIATION WITH LOPEZ
BANOS.  NEED OF A CONSUL AT PORTO RICO.  PE
NALTIES ON KIDNAPPING.  SPANISH MAROONS.  THE
SLAVE TRADE.
The two Spanish islands of Cuba and Porto
Rico, although situated in the same sea, and forming
part of the same archipelago, are very little known
to each other. This remark might be applied
indeed to the West India islands in general, since
the only interruption to the system of non-inter
course is the periodical and momentary visit of the
British post-office packets. Producing and exporting
the same or similar commodities, there is no room
for the application of commercial enterprise, and
although the scenery of these islands is not to be
surpassed by any region on the face of the globe for
beauty and magnificence, they have been but rarely
visited by the idle tourist or the scientific traveller,
who range the four corners of the earth in quest of
pleasure or information.
Since the appearance of the work of my gallant
friend General Flinter, who has fallen a sacrifice to
the jealousy of foreigners inherent in the Spanish
character, the world has heard but little of the in-

POPULATION.

555

ternal affairs of Porto Rico. The state of society
in that island is nevertheless of a nature to chal
lenge inquiry, from the extraordinary disproportion
as compared with the rest of the West Indies,
between the coloured and the white population,
and still more between the slaves and the free.
According to official returns which I have had
the good fortune to obtain for the year 1835, I
find that the white population is stated in that year
at 1 80,783 ; the free coloured population at 104,044 ;
the slaves at 34,336 ; and the whole, therefore, at
319,161.* Before the emancipation of the co
loured race in Jamaica, the proportion between
the white inhabitants and the rest of the popu
lation was nearly the reverse of that of Porto
Rico, the sum total in each island being pretty
nearly the same ; that is to say, the slaves in Porto
Rico form little more than a tenth part of the
population; while this was, and, indeed, still is, the
case with the white inhabitants of Jamaica as com
pared with the other classes.
In dissecting the statistical tables for Porto Rico,

* The progressive increase of the population since the com
mencement of the present century is shown in the following
table, extracted from the valuable papers lately published under
the eye of Mr. Porter, of the Board of Trade.

Wliites Free Mulattos
Free Blacks
Slaves Total

1802.

1812.

1820.

1827.

1830.

1836.

78,281
55,164 16,414 13,333

85,66263,983 15,833
17,536

102,432 86,269
20,191 21,730

150,311 95,430
25,05731,874

162,311100,430 26,857 34,240

188,869101,275 25,12441,818

163,192

183,014

230,622

302,672

323,838

357,086

556 PORTO RICO.
I find a fact which forcibly arrested my attention
from the contrast it presented with what had passed
under my observation in the island of Cuba. I have
elsewhere stated the extreme disproportion which
exists between the sexes among the servile class in
Cuba, and have traced the fact to the selfish and
sordid views of the planters ; who, flattering them
selves that the slave-trade is to be perpetual, and
finding that more labour can be extorted from the
thews and sinews of the one sex than the other,
have offered to the slave-trader the necessary pre
mium to encourage this unnatural disproportion.*
* The following table, for which I am indebted to the papers
of the Patriotic Society of the Havana, will exhibit this dis
proportion in a more striking point of view. The whites, or
blancos, are either proprietors of the soil or tradesmen, or the
paid dependants of either, with their families. The agregados
are also considered of pure European descent, holding the station
of cottiers on the plantations, and contributing a certain portion
of labour in place of rent. The pardos are free people of the
mixed race, not strictly white, and not darker in complexion
than the mulatto. The slaves are of all complexions except
white. "Adult males 22,532
 females 23,633
Boys - - 46,744
Girls - - 47,087

Blancos

Agregados

Pardos

Adult males 6,674.
 females 7,462
Boys - 13,089
Girls - - 13,560

139,996

40,785

Adult males 13, J 96
 females 14,495
Boys - - 28,533
Girls - _ 29,331
 85,555

POPULATION. 557
The price of labour in Porto Rico had long been
so low, as not to afford a sufficient remuneration for
the risks and perils of the slave-trade, although a cargo
of Africans could probably have been landed there as
safely as in Cuba; but it appears that the planters
could not afford to pay $300 a head, a price which,
we have seen, has long been readily obtained at the
Havana. Thus nature was allowed in Porto Rico
to pursue her peaceful and unerring course; and the
consequence was, that until of late years the female
slaves bore the same, or nearly the same, proportion
to the males as was to be found between the sexes
among the other classes of the population.
By some means or other, however, fresh capital
has of late been attracted to Porto Rico; and if a
fair census could be obtained, there is very little
doubt, from the number of sugar estates lately
formed, that the result would show a very large
cession to the African population. As the matter
stands, the census before me professes to classify
the whole population according to the country

Morenos -

Esclavos

Adult males 3,137
 females 3,707
Boys - - 5,623
Girls - 6.022

Adult males 4,119
 females 5,868
Boys - - 13,539
Girls - - 10,810

18,489

34,336

Total 319,161

558 PORTO RICO.
of their birth ; and according to this classifica
tion it is admitted that 15,728, or nearly one half
of the slaves, are natives of Africa. The rest of the
population is given as follows: — Spaniards, Creole
and peninsular, 300,600 ; French, 1474 ; English
and North American, 327; Danish, 212; German,
62; Dutch, 485, and Italian, 273.
The classification according to age affords evi
dence not a little interesting of the salubrity of
the climate and its suitableness for the descend
ants of Europeans, even when exposed, as they
undoubtedly are, to the labour of cultivating the
soil. The number of persons under ten years of
age is stated at 118,612 ; from ten to twenty, at
67,092; from twenty to thirty, at 58,024 ; from thirty
to forty, at 31,851; from forty to fifty, at 18,942;
from fifty to sixty, at 12,966 ; from sixty to seventy,
at 6790 ; from seventy to eighty, at 3118; from
eighty to ninety, at 1377; from ninety to a hundred,
at 324, and from one hundred to one hundred and
ten, at 61.
The classification according to employment and
profession is given asfollows: — Labourers, 143,311 ;
carpenters, 909; masons, 282; smiths, 124; coopers,
151 ; shoemakers, 680 ; tailors, 200 ; shopkeepers,
939; merchants, 880; other dealers, 544; professions
not distinguished, 15,579, and the rest of the popu
lation from age, sex, and other causes, having no
profession, 155,562.
The number of houses in the towns, as well as in
the country, is stated at 14,435 ; of huts or cottages
not dignified with the name of dwelling-house,
20,696; of sugar estates, 1555; of coffee estates,

WHITE LABOUR. 559
124 ; of distilleries, 322 ; of limekilns, 38 ; and of
brickkilns, 75.
The produce of the island is stated as follows : —
Sugar, 369,539 quintals ; molasses, 671,009 arrobas ;
rum, 388,006 cuartillos ; coffee, 121,151 quintals ;
tobacco, 31,694 quintals ; cotton, 6033 quintals ;
pepper, 561 quintals ; rice, 52,158 quintals ; Indian
corn, 37,467 fanegas ; plantains, 4,778,898 horse
loads; yams, 5125 quintals ; sweet potatoes, 92,039
quintals ; beans, 3191 quintals ; cassava, 20,099 horse
loads ; lime, 5242 loads ; bricks, 3377 thousands ;
cocoas, 36,366 hundreds, and oranges, 43,611 hun
dreds. Of cows there are stated to be 32,853 ; bulls
and oxen, 16,938; calves, 6709; sheep, 3637;
goats, 3987; pigs, 14,076; horses, 15,116; mares,
16,875; asses, 215; mules, 794; poultry, 147,100.
The territorial wealth, or value of the real pro
perty in the island, without including that of the
houses and other buildings in the capital, is esti
mated at $33,558,646, and the value of the annual
produce, at #5,567,436.
The most remarkable fact connected with the
history and the present state of Porto Rico is that
the fields are cultivated, and sugar manufactured,
by the hands of white men under a tropical sun.
It is very possible that this might never have oc
curred had not the island been treated as a penal
settlement at an early period of its history. The
convicts themselves were condemned to hard labour
as a part of their punishment; and when the term of
their sentence arrived, they were compelled to con
tinue it in order to obtain the means of subsistence.

560 PORTO RICO.
Unfortunately we have no correct statistical
returns of the progress of mortality among the
convicts on their arrival. It can scarcely be
doubted that it must have been considerable.
While restored to freedom, however, they were
probably in general sufficiently seasoned to the
climate to be able to earn their livelihood without
exposing themselves to further danger ; and their
descendants present at this day a permanent solu
tion of the problem, that white labour can be
profitably applied to the cultivation of the sugar
cane, and the manufacture of its products, in one
of the warmest regions of the West Indies.
The large population of Barbadoes, the practice
which formerly obtained there of inducing white
settlers of an humble class to emigrate by the offer of
small grants of land, and the law which compelled
the planter to maintain on his estate a fixed propor
tion of white persons compared with the number of
his slaves, have had the effect of reducing a con
siderable number of white persons in that island to
the rank of hired labourers ; and there, also, I have
seen them engaged in digging cane holes, which, I
believe, is considered the severest labour to which
the negro is exposed. It is nevertheless true, that
for a white man to labour in the field is regarded
in Barbadoes as a serious degradation. This, how
ever, is by no means the case in Porto Rico; where
inveterate usage has reconciled the white labourer
to the necessity of working, without a murmur, in
the same field with his coloured brethren, of every
variety of complexion, and even with slaves.

CRAB ISLAND. 561
In the Atlas, which serves to illustrate the history
of the British West Indies, by the late Mr. Bryan
Edwards, an island is represented as one of the
Virgin group, called Bieques by General Flinter,
by other writers, Boriqueen, but which is more
generally known by the name of Crab Island. Its
eastern extremity forms nearly an equilateral tri
angle with the western ends of the Danish islands
of Santa Cruz and St. Thomas ; but towards the
west it is separated by a narrow channel from
Porto Rico, being situated in about 64° west lon
gitude, and 18° north latitude. It is about ten
leagues long, and two broad, considerably larger
than St. Thomas, and not much less than Santa
Cruz, or Tortola, the largest of the Danish and
British possessions in the Virgin group.
This island has no permanent population, but it
is resorted to by vessels of all nations, for obtaining
supplies of wood and water. In former times it
was considered a nest of pirates ; and to this day
it is well known that the slavers make use of it for
the purpose of transhipping their supplies in sail
ing for Africa, in disposing of their cargoes on
their return, and in eluding the cruizers that may
have been watching for them near the harbour of
St. Thomas, which has long been notorious for
the facility it affords to the African traders of
every flag, in providing on the shortest notice the
necessary outfit.
The sovereignty of this island is disputed by the
governments of Spain, Denmark, and Great Britain;
but in a choice of evils it would evidently be better
o o

562 PORTO RICO.
to recognise it as the property of Denmark, which
still practises slavery, or of Spain, which counte
nances the slave-trade, than that it should remain
in its present condition — a shelter to the scoundrels
of every nation, who make their living by slave-
trading, piracy, and all sorts of enormities.
This small island is represented by General
Flinter to be so exceedingly fertile as to be fit for
the maintenance of some 300,000 inhabitants,
when placed under a proper system of cultivation.
My attention was drawn to it from having heard
it much spoken of by several French planters in
the course of my previous visits to Martinique and
Guadaloupe. Before reaching Martinique I had
the misfortune, by one of those accidents which
not unfrequently occur in the West Indies, to be
driven to leeward, in an attempt to pass from St.
Vincent to St. Lucia ; and finding myself at sea for
at least as many days as I expected to be hours on
the passage, I was compelled, under no small ap
prehension of starvation, to go on board the first
vessel that presented itself, which happened to be
the William Stow, bound from Martinique to
Trinidad. On board this vessel I found a consi
derable number of negroes, who, hearing that
slavery had ceased in the British islands, had made
their escape from Martinique to St. Lucia, where
the William Stow had called for them, under in
structions from some planters in Trinidad ; wages
being higher there, and labour more in demand,
than at St. Lucia.
Several thousands of the slaves of Martinique

INTRODUCTION OF FRENCH SLAVES. 563
had previously been driven by the severity of their
treatment, or incited by their innate love of liberty,
to embark in canoes, or on rafts formed for the
purpose, in the hope of reaching St. Lucia or
Dominica, where they had been informed that their
natural rights as men would be respected. It is
probable that not more than the half of the unfortu
nate beings who thus encountered the perils of the
sea ever reached their destination; and it is quite
certain that a large proportion of them have perished
in the attempt. How much more justly were those
poor negroes entitled to the reputation of undaunted
courage than the mere mariners of old !
" Illi robur et ses triplex
Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci
Commisit pelago ratem
Primus."
The heavy losses to which the planters of Guada
loupe and Martinique were exposed had been seri
ously aggravated by the success which has attended
the manufacture of sugar in France from the
beetroot ; propped up for a time by the factitious
aid of discriminating duties ; and as there was very
little prospect of any bill for the emancipation of
their negroes being accompanied by a vote of the
French Chambersof asum of money as an indemnity,
it turned out that several of them had resorted to
the extraordinaryexpedient of seekingfor individual
compensation by carrying their slaves to Porto Rico,
and offering them there to the highest bidder.
The mate on board the William Stow, who
belonged to Martinique, informed me that he had
oo2

564

PORTO RICO.

formerly been an ordinary seaman on board a re
gular trader between that island and Porto Rico.
He stated that it was not unusual for slaves to be
sent from Martinique to Porto Rico for sale ; and
that on one occasion the captain had been so im
prudent as to expose them for this purpose in the
public market-place of St. John's. The matter
having been brought in consequence under the
notice of the Captain-General, his Excellency
thought the case too scandalous to suffer it to pass
without censure. The affair was accordingly in
quired into ; and when its nature was ascertained,
the captain of the Martinique trader was ordered to
leave the island and carry his black cargo away with
him. They returned, therefore, to St. Pierre, and
the negroes were restored to their place in the
public gaol, from whence the captain had originally
received them. On my arrival at Martinique, I was
at some pains to investigate the matter. I was al
lowed to visit every public establishment butthegaol.
The acting Governor, Colonel Rostoland, was good
enough to accompany me on several of these occa
sions ; and did me the honour to carry me to some
of the best-managed estates in the neighbourhood;
but no interest or entreaty was influential enough
to procure me the most cursory inspection of this
abode of misery. I was assured, however, by
some of the most respectable inhabitants, who had
no interest and no desire to conceal the truth, that
the information I had accidentally obtained on
board the William Stow was perfectly correct.
When a planter thought it desirable for any

INTRODUCTION OF FRENCH SLAVES. 565
private reason of his own to get rid of a portion
of his people, he had only to send them to the
gaol of St. Pierre, with the statement that they
were so many mauvais sujets. For this purpose
no judicial authority was asked or thought neces
sary ; and by the first opportunity they were
shipped for Porto Rico, as being the nearest
market where a reasonable price could be ob
tained. The shipments referred to by the mate
of the William Stow were all made at midnight.
The people were brought on board in the custody
of gens d'armes ; and although contrary to the re
gulations of the port, most rigorously enforced
against legitimate traders, the vessel was in such
cases allowed to put to sea before daybreak.
It is highly creditable to the humanity of the
Danish planters in the Virgin Islands, and espe
cially to those of St. John's, where the facilities for
escape are so great, that their losses have hitherto
been so very inconsiderable. From several points
of St. John's to the English island of Tortola, the
distance is scarcely a mile. Many negroes could
swim across ; and, with the aid of a few bamboos,
could carry their families along with them, to a
place where freedom and a fair remuneration for
their labour would wait their acceptance. From
Martinique and Guadaloupe to the nearest points
of St. Lucia, Dominica, and Antigua, the distance
is from fifteen to twenty miles, and yet the slaves
on the French islands have encountered the risk by
thousands. Than this, there can be no better
measure of the relative humanity, or perhaps I
o o 3

566 PORTO RICO.
should rather say, the comparative amount of
cruelty habitually practised on this unfortunate
class of persons in the French and Danish islands
respectively. In the course of my tour through the Windward
and Leeward Islands, I had frequently heard, but
especially at Barbadoes and Antigua, from Sir
Evan M'Gregor and Sir William Colebrooke, of
the practice of kidnapping, which had grown to
such an alarming height in these islands that their
population was in danger of being seriously af
fected by it. Since the termination of the appren
ticeship, the disappearance of a number of negroes
has not been so scrupulously inquired into ; be
cause no individual proprietor has any longer a
direct pecuniary interest in the services of an in
dividual labourer ; and the practice which has for
some time prevailed in Demerara and Trinidad, of
sending emissaries to those islands, where rates of
wages are comparatively low, for the purpose of
engaging the services of such as are willing to emi
grate, may often have suggested to the neigh
bourhood such an explanation of the disappearance
of the poor negroes who have thus been kidnap
ped, as to lull all suspicion on the subject. Some,
it is said, have been carried off by open violence ;
while others have been inveigled on board the
vessels of the kidnappers, under pretence of car
rying them to Trinidad or Demerara; with the
promise of houses and gardens, and wages at the
rate of a dollar a day, while their true destination
has been Porto Rico, " chains and slavery."

KIDNAPPING FROM ENGLISH ISLANDS. 567
It is believed that the Leeward Islands under the
government of Sir William Colebrooke have been
the most extensive sufferers under this infamous
variety of the slave-trade ; and accordingly we
find that active and energetic Governor-General
unsparing in his exertions to restore the victims to
freedom, and in adopting such measures as are
best calculated to make this disgraceful traffic un
profitable to the parties engaged in it, by insisting
on the immediate restoration of the captives.
At first it was thought expedient to offer com
pensation in money to those persons in Porto Rico
who, without being accessory to the fact of ab
duction, had become, so to speak, and as far as that
was possible, the bond fide proprietors of our negro
fellow-subjects ; care being taken that the indem
nity should in no case exceed the price which could
be proved to have been paid to the actual pos
sessor. It soon became apparent, however, that a
system so liberal would have no tendency to make
the practice of kidnapping unprofitable. The
Spanish planters in Porto Rico would be secured
against loss, and would thus have no interest in
scrutinising the character of the slave-merchant, so
as to ascertain whether he might not be a dealer in
stolen goods. It was necessary to fix on some line
of distinction, if compensation was to be awarded
in any case ; but inasmuch as the property in a
stolen article does not pass by the law of Spain to
the bond fide acquirer, it is not very clear on what
ground an indemnity was to be offered to the pos
sessor of a kidnapped negro. For the sake of
o o 4

568

PORTO RICO.

maintaining a friendly understanding with the
Spanish authorities in Porto Rico, and doubtless,
also, with the humane object of facilitating the li
beration of a number of individuals thus feloniously
deprived of their freedom, Sir William Cole
brooke did not hesitate to take on himself the
responsibility of remunerating the bond fide pos
sessors of all such British negroes as had been
brought to the island of Porto Rico before the
1st of August, 1834, when the British act of parlia
ment for the abolition of negro slavery came first
into operation.
Attention was first drawn to this subject by the
fact that fourteen British negroes had been removed
in the year 1836 from the island of Anguilla, from
thence carried to Porto Rico, and there sold into
slavery. This fact having reached the foreign
office, Lord Palmerston transmitted the necessary
instructions to the British minister in Madrid, and
Lord Clarendon lost no time in pressing for a royal
order on the Captain-General at Porto Rico, di
recting him to proceed without delay to the eman
cipation of the fourteen negroes in question. On
being informed by Lord Glenelg that this royal
order had been issued, Sir William Colebrooke ad
dressed himself, in the first instance, to the late Sir
Charles Paget, requesting the Admiral's assistance
in effecting the liberation of the captives. Assist
ance having been obtained, after some delay, and in
consequence of orders from Captain Leith, the
senior naval officer in command at Barbadoes, the
duty was entrusted to Commander Hope of her

COMPENSATION FOR STOLEN NEGROES. 569
Majesty's ship Racer, of proceeding to St. John's,
the capital of Porto Rico, and making a formal
application for the delivery of the fourteen Anguilla
negroes on payment of a reasonable compensation.
This interesting service was performed by that
officer with so much tact and discretion as to lead
to the discovery of the fact that no less than
400 or 500 British subjects were then held in cap
tivity in Porto Rico, independent of a consider
able number who had succeeded in making their
escape to St. Domingo, the United States, and
other places.
This negotiation was entered upon soon after
Don Miguel Lopez Banos had arrived at Porto
Rico, with the rank of Captain-General, and had
assumed the administration of the government ;
and it must be admitted that that honourable
functionary discovered no inclination to render in
efficient or inoperative the royal order which had
been transmitted to him from Madrid. Soon after
the first visit of the Racer, his Excellency caused
a proclamation to be published in the Colonial
Gazette, requiring all English negroes to be de
livered up to the Spanish authorities, promising
payment for them according to their respective
bills of sale, and declaring that the owners of those
not voluntarily surrendered should not only forfeit
all claim to payment, but should incur a penalty
equivalent in amount to the price they had paid
for their slaves.
The time specified in the proclamation was
suffered to elapse without producing any consi-

570 PORTO RICO.
derable result. On the second visit of the Racer in
the beginning of April, 1838, about a month after
the first, only six slaves had arrived at the capital
to be delivered up by the Captain-General ; and
with regard to four of them, the bills of sale had
not been furnished by their owners ; so that his
Excellency thought it better to delay their sur
render until the amount of compensation could be
ascertained. As to the other two, Oliver Bradford
and Phoebe Bradford, belonging to two different
owners, the price demanded for the one was #175,
and for the other only #50 ; showing that the
dealer who kidnaps at Anguilla or Antigua can
afford to sell on much more reasonable terms than
he who steals, or receives stolen negroes, on the
coast of Africa.
During the stay of the Racer at St. John's, Com
mander Hope saw reason to believe that, if con
sistently with his duty he could have remained
there a sufficient time to have admitted of the
object of her visit becoming known among the
negroes, a considerable number of them would
have left their plantations and sought refuge on
board. One man, Jack Norris by name, found
his way to the ship, and claimed the protection of
her Majesty's flag on the ground that he was a
British subject and a native of Antigua. Com
mander Hope made the fact known to the Captain-
General, and stated at the same time that he would
be under the necessity of carrying the man with
him, and delivering him up to Sir William Cole
brooke. Against this proposal his Excellency

NEGOTIATIONS WITH LOPEZ BANOS. 571
strongly protested, insisting that poor Jack should
be landed and placed with the other four, under
the Governor's protection. Adhering to his re
solution, the Commander declared that Jack should
not leave the ship unless he desired it himself; on
which his Excellency requested that the man
might be sent to government-house, under a pledge
that he would be sent back to the Racer if he did
not himself desire to remain. The result was just
what might have been expected. Jack Norris
was allowed to see the Governor, but firmly re
sisted every entreaty to remain ; and having got
back to the ship, was restored in a few days to his
native home and the enjoyment of his freedom.
In the report of his mission to Sir William Cole
brooke, Commander Hope does full credit to the
good faith and sincerity of Don Miguel Lopez
Bafios, throughout the transaction; but however
anxious his Excellency might be for the faithful
execution of the orders of his government, the
Commander was persuaded that the Governor's
authority would prove wholly inadequate to secure
a satisfactory result. In consequence, he strongly
recommends the appointment of a commissioner or
consular agent, whose duty it should be to reside
constantly on the island, and receive under his care
such English negroes as might come to claim his
protection. The Commander was assured that
the news of the arrival of such a functionary would
speedily circulate throughout the plantations, to
the remotest districts of the island ; and that the
negroes would succeed in reaching him, whatever

572 PORTO RICO.
obstacles their owners might throw in their way.
This suggestion was promptly adopted by the noble
Secretary for Foreign Affairs ; and Lord William
Hervey, then charge d'affaires at Madrid, having
made the necessary application to the Conde de
Ofalia, at that time at the head of the government,
that minister in answer expressed his perfect
readiness to promote the restoration of British ne
groes, irregularly introduced into either of the two
islands, by every means in his power.
I have not heard that any consul to Porto Rico
has yet been appointed ; but as long as Don Miguel
Lopez Bafios remains there as Captain-General it
is probable that no impedimentwill be thrown in the
way of the accomplishment of the primary object
of the mission; even if it should be thought neces
sary to circumambulate the island, visit the various
plantations, and require the utmost publicity to be
given to the object of the consul's visit. The Conde
de Ofalia, in his answer to Lord William Hervey,
has stated most correctly that the laws of Spain are
exceedingly severe against the kidnapping of free
men ; but his Excellency might have discovered,
by a very cursory comparison of the law and the
fact, as regards the practice of slave-trading, that
penal enactments are of very little value, for the
prevention of crime, unless they are faithfully and
promptly administered.
In the Colonial Government Gazette, published
daily at the Havana, I find a notice of the capture
of a number of vagrant negroes called Camarrones
or Maroons, containing a description of their per-

SPANISH MAROONS. 573
sons, and an intimation that the owners may receive
them on applying to the proper authorities. In ad
dition to such marks as might lead to their recog
nition, the place of birth of these Maroons has in
general been added; and I find, on a careful dissec
tion of the list, that five of them are set down as
English;* but whether this may mean that they are
natives of the British islands, or merely that they
are liberated Africans, restored to that sort of
freedom, far more cruel than ordinary slavery,
which was formerly vouchsafed to the unfortunate
creatures found by the British cruisers in the
slavers they had captured, and placed according
to the old practice at the disposal of the Captain-
General, I have not the means of ascertaining. Of
the whole number of Maroons thus captured by
the colonial authorities, it appears that 51 were of
the Ganga tribe, 43 were Congoes, 41 Carabalis,
15 Lucumis, 9 Minas, 6 Macuas, 1 Molombo, lMo-
sambique, and 1 Arara. There were also 25 Creoles,
22 of them negroes, and 3 pardos Criollos, or
coloured slaves born in the island; besides the
five " Ingles " already referred to. It is no doubt
possible that the negro inhabitants of Jamaica may
be entrapped and carried off to Cuba for sale, in
the same manner with those of the Windward
Islands ; but this would infer a greater degree of
violence than is necessary in our other West India
possessions, inasmuch as the negroes of Jamaica
have not yet been accustomed to the visits of the
agents from Trinidad and Demerara, nor to the
consideration of the advantage of emigrating for
the sake of higher wages.

574 PORTO RICO.
In treating of the present state of the Spanish
West Indies, I have felt myself called upon to
speak at some length of the practice of slavery and
the slave-trade. Convinced that the best of causes
can only be injured by exaggeration, I have rigo
rously adhered to the evidence which presented
itself in the course of my researches, and have ap
plied my best judgment to its consideration. The
subject is so deeply interesting, that other writers,
I trust, will take it up, and so keep the public
mind alive to its importance. To those who
may take the trouble to consider the measures of
repression suggested in these pages, I now venture
to appeal : —
¦ '' Si quid novisti rectius istis
Candidus imperti ; si non, his utere mecum."

THE END.

London :
Printed by A. Spottiswoode,
New- Street- Square.

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By J. R. M'CULLOCH, Esq.

During the compilation of "The Commercial Dictionary" the author of this work
having had occasion to refer to a good many Geographical Dictionaries, it occurred
to him that he might, perhaps, he able to produce one that should be more generaUy
useful than any of those which he consulted. Eew of these publications have hitherto
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Being intended for the use of Englishmen, the author has dwelt at greatest length
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terest them. Hence he has appropriated a much larger space to articles connected
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has enlarged most on those countries and places with which our countrymen have the
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connected with them.
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