The History of Cuba, vol. 2
by Willis Fletcher Johnson · English · Gutenberg #37676 · 803,383 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The History of Cuba, vol. 2
Author: Willis Fletcher Johnson
Release date: October 9, 2011 [eBook #37676]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37676
Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif, Broward County Library and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF CUBA, VOL. 2 ***
Produced by Chuck Greif, Broward County Library and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Etext transcriber's note:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected; the original
orthography, including variation in the spelling of names, has been
retained.
The Index included at the end of this etext (which includes volumes 1
thru 4) appears at the end of volume four of The History of Cuba. It is
provided here for the convenience of the reader.
[Illustration: FRANCISCO DE ARANGO
One of the noblest names in Cuban history of a century and more ago is
that of Francisco de Arango y Parreño, advocate, economist and
statesman. He came of a family of noble lineage, and was born in Havana
on May 22, 1765. Among the great men of his day in Cuba, who were many,
he was one of the foremost, as the detailed story of his labors and
achievements in the chapters of this History abundantly attests. He
worked for the reform of the economic system of the island, for the
development of agriculture on an enlightened basis, for the extension of
popular education, and for the promotion of commerce. He urged upon King
Charles III plans for averting the evil influences of the French
Revolution, while securing the good results; and he set an example in
educational matters by himself founding an important school. Recognized
and honored the world over for his character, talents and achievements,
he died on March 21, 1837.]
THE
HISTORY OF CUBA
BY
WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON
A.M., L.H.D.
Author of "A Century of Expansion," "Four Centuries of
the Panama Canal," "America's Foreign Relations"
Honorary Professor of the History of American Foreign
Relations in New York University
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
VOLUME TWO
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
B. F. BUCK & COMPANY, INC.
156 FIFTH AVENUE
1920
Copyright, 1920,
BY CENTURY HISTORY CO.
_All rights reserved_
ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL
LONDON, ENGLAND.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I 1
Entering a New Era--The Freedom of the Seas--Progress of the
Slave Trade--Clandestine Commercial Operations and Political
Intrigues--The Genius of Governor Guazo--Attacking the
British and French--Close of a Notable Administration--Shipyards
at Havana--Havana Threatened by the British--Rivalries
in Cuban Politics--Foundation of the University of Cuba--Change
in Land Tenure--Copper Mining--Insurrections of the
Slaves--Glimpses of Social Life in Cuba.
CHAPTER II 18
The Administration of Guemez--Introduction of Reforms--Sanitation--Economic
and Fiscal Reforms--Monopolies in Trade--Further
Fortifications--Controversies Over the Slave Trade--Disputes
with Great Britain--Declaration of War--Conflicts in
Florida--Two British Expeditions--Admiral Vernon in the West
Indies--Attack upon Santiago--The War in Florida--Governorship
of Cagigal--Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle--Accession of Charles III--British
Plans for the Conquest of Spanish America--Some
Interesting Literature.
CHAPTER III 41
Some European Alliances--A Period of Peace for Spain--Reasons
for the British Attacks upon Cuba--The Family Pact Between
France and Spain--Spain's Break with Great Britain--Declaration
of War by George III--Havana Chosen as the Point
of Attack--The Albemarle-Pococke Expedition--Preparations at
Martinique--The Advance upon Havana.
CHAPTER IV 53
First Appearance of Yellow Fever in Cuba--Preparations to Resist
the British Attack--Divided Counsels--Arrival of the British
Fleet--Consternation of the Inhabitants--Velasco Chosen
as Commander of the Defense of Havana--Beginning of the Attack--Heroism
of the Spanish Commander--British Accounts of
the Fighting--Raids and Counter-Raids--British Reinforcements
from the American Colonies--British Tributes to Spanish Valor--Surrender
of the City--The Articles of Capitulation.
CHAPTER V 80
British Occupation of Havana--Attitude of the Cubans Toward
the British Conquerors--Departure of the Spanish Forces--British
Views of the Conquest of Cuba--A Controversy Over
Church Bells--Difficulties with the Spanish Clergy--Character of
Lord Albemarle's Administration--Troubles Over Taxation--Plots
Against British Rule--Corruption in Colonial Government--Political
Disturbances in England--The Making of Peace--Restoration
of Cuba to Spain.
CHAPTER VI 96
Far-Reaching Effects of British Rule in Cuba--A French Picture
of Life in Havana--A British Tribute to the City--Character
of the People--Economic Changes in the Island--The Commerce
of Havana--Defenses of the City--Not an Impregnable
Fortress.
CHAPTER VII 104
Departure of the British and Re-entry of the Spanish--The
New Spanish Governor--Antagonisms Between British and Spanish--A
Period of Reconstruction--Reclassification of Revenues--Military
Reorganization of Havana--New Provincial Administration--Establishment
of a Mail Service--End of a Noteworthy
Administration--Reform in Police Regulations--Expulsion of
Religious Orders--Suppressing Contraband Trading--Destruction
by Earthquakes--A Disastrous Hurricane--An Administration
Void of Complaints.
CHAPTER VIII 119
An Era of Peace in Cuba--Tribulations in Spanish Louisiana--Spain
Still Lagging Behind Other Colonial Powers--Fear of a
Republic--O'Reilly's Expedition from Cuba to Louisiana--His
Success--Effects of His Severity--The Tragic Prelude to Spanish
Rule--Louisiana an Appanage of Cuba.
CHAPTER IX 129
Administration of the Marquis de la Torre--One of Cuba's Best
Governors--Cleansing and Paving the Streets of Havana--New
Public Buildings--Harbor Improvements--The First Theatre--Trinidad,
Santiago and Puerto Principe also Renovated--Founding
of Pinar del Rio and Other Towns--Reforms in Government--Havana
a Beautiful and Prosperous City--Turgot's Warning
to Spain Unheeded--Interest in the North American Revolution--Tariff
Reform--The Currency--Jurisprudence.
CHAPTER X 145
Rise of the United States--Spanish Interests Involved--Negotiations
Over Florida--Alliance Between France and Spain--Cuba's
Intense Interest in the War Against Great Britain--Disaster
to an Expedition from Havana--Operations at Mobile--Cuban
Reconquest of Pensacola and Florida--An Early Prohibition
Decree.
CHAPTER XI 153
An Ill-Managed Armada--Neutrality Violated in Warfare upon
Commerce--An Orgy of Privateering--Rodney's Exploits--Cagigal's
Expedition to the Bahamas--Rodney's Menace to Havana--The
First Newspaper in Havana--Negotiating for General
Peace--Spanish Chagrin at American Independence--More
Liberal Trade Laws for Cuba--Insurrection in Peru--Peace and
Prosperity in Cuba--Wasteful Forestry--Visit of an English
Prince--Improvements and Reforms in Havana--Foundation of
the Sociedad de Amigos--Reign of Charles IV--Godoy, "Prince
of the Peace"--Ecclesiastical Changes in Cuba--Economic
Ills--Administration of Las Casas--A New Census--Disastrous
Hurricane--The Society of Progress--Advance in Commerce,
Agriculture, Literature and Education--Work of Francisco de
Arango--The Tomb of Columbus.
CHAPTER XII 186
Influence of the French Revolution in Spain--Toussaint Louverture--Cession
of Santo Domingo to France--The Peace of
Basle--Panic and Chaos in Spain--Advantages Gained by Cuba--A
Civic Awakening in the Island--Dr. Romay's Introduction
of Vaccination--Defense Against the Slave Revolt of Santo
Domingo--The Work of Santa Clara--British Capture of Trinidad--Fears
for the Safety of Cuba--Administration of Someruelos--Founding
of the Intendencia--Expansion of Commerce--The
Slave Trade--Extent and Conditions of Slavery--Rise of
the Emancipation Movement--Importance of Negro Labor to
Cuba.
CHAPTER XIII 215
The Land Problem in Cuba--Lands Withheld from the Real
Workers--Indolence Induced by Lack of Opportunity--Manners
and Customs of the Cuban People at the End of the
Eighteenth Century--Lawyers and Land Titles--Prices of Land--Live
Stock, Sugar and Tobacco--Primitive Sugar Factories--Progress
of Agriculture--Obstacles to Economic Progress--Restrictions
upon Commerce and Travel.
CHAPTER XIV 231
Conditions Accompanying the Rise of Wealth--Strange Mixture
of Immorality and Religion--Seclusion of Cuban Women--Amusements
and Entertainments--The Bull Ring--The Cock
Pit--The Beginning of Literary Activity and Intellectual Life--The
Drama in Cuba--Musical Culture--Dancing--Architecture--Home
Life--Backward State of Education--Printing and
Publishing--Suggestive Articles in the Press--The Beginning of
Cuban Literature.
CHAPTER XV 256
Rise of Relations Between Cuba and the United States--Early
Interest of the United States in Cuba--Action of Congress
in 1811--"The Ever Faithful Isle"--First Overtures for Annexation--George
Canning and British Policy Toward Cuba--Policy
of John Quincy Adams--Utterances of Jefferson and Clay--American
Attitude Toward British and French Designs--Mexico
and Colombia Restrained from Conquest.
CHAPTER XVI 267
Spain in Her Decline--The Napoleonic Wars--The Constitution
of 1812--Revolt of Spain's South and Central American
Colonies--Cuba the "Ever Faithful Isle"--Reasons for Her Loyalty
to Spain--Origin of the Cuban Spirit of Independence--An
Age of Intellectual Activity--The Rise of Cuban Literature and
Scholarship--Refugees in Cuba.
CHAPTER XVII 278
The First Cuban Census--The Second Census and Humboldt's
Comments Thereon--Distribution of the Population by Races--Effects
of the Slave Trade on Population--The Census of 1817--Subsequent
Enumerations--Discrepancies in Statistics--Character
of the Negroes of Cuba--The Birth Rate.
CHAPTER XVIII 290
Early Records of the Slave Trade--Participation by the Portuguese,
French and British--Statistics of Slave Importations--Illegality
No Bar--Relations Between Masters and Slaves--Efforts
to Ameliorate the Conditions of Slaves--Introduction of
Chinese Labor--Free Negroes--Religious Training of Slaves--Punishments
of Slaves--Fear of Servile Insurrections.
CHAPTER XIX 302
The Administration of Santa Clara--Someruelos--Great Fire
in Havana--Architectural Progress--Fear of Invasion--A French
Fiasco--Hostility to Napoleon--Loyalty to an Unworthy King--Napoleon's
Designs upon Cuba--The Aleman Episode--Arango
and the Chamber of Commerce--Conflict with Godoy--Arango in
the Cortes--Arbitrary Administration of Cienfuegos--Opposition
to Street Lighting--Political Changes--Cagigal's Diplomatic
Administration--Mahy the Reactionary.
CHAPTER XX 319
Good and Bad Deeds of Vives--A Royal Decree that Proved
a Boomerang--Dangers of the Slave Trade Perceived--Apprehension
of Intervention by Other Powers--A Subtle Appeal for
Patriotic Organization--Progress of the Spirit of Independence.
CHAPTER XXI 328
British Designs upon Cuba--Cuban Negotiations with the
United States--The Mission of Morales--Annexation Sentiment--Attitude
of the United States Government--Issuance of the Monroe
Doctrine--Its Effect in Europe and America--United States
Consuls to Cuba Rejected--Cuba Offered to England in Pawn--American
Objections to the Scheme--Increase of American Interest
in Cuba.
CHAPTER XXII 335
An Era of Revolution--Career of Simon Bolivar--His Observation
of the French Revolution--Liberation of Venezuela--Miranda
and His Work--Bolivar in Exile--Final Success of the Liberator--Influence
of His Career upon Cuba.
CHAPTER XXIII 343
The "Soles de Bolivar" in Cuba--Administration of Villanueva--Oppression
of the People--Vain Attempts to Suppress Patriotic
Societies--Conspiracies for Freedom--Early Martyrs to
Patriotism--The Black Eagle--Trouble with Mexico--The
Tyranny of Tacon--His Conflict with Lorenzo--Victims of Spanish
Despotism--Cuban Deputies Excluded from the Cortes--Manipulation
of the Police--Propaganda of Freedom by Cubans
in Exile--Tacon's Public Works--Dealing with Pirates and
Smugglers--Origin of the Havana Fish Market--Tacon as the
Champion of Virtue in Distress--End of a Bad Reign.
CHAPTER XXIV 366
Beginning of Slave Insurrections--David Turnbull's Pernicious
Activities--O'Donnell the Despot--Roncali the Ridiculous--Causes
of Slave Unrest--Story of One Uprising--Vacillating
Course of the Government--Systematic Propaganda Among the
Slaves--Some Serious Outbreaks--Savage Methods of Repression--A
Reign of Torture and Slaughter--White Victims as Well as
Black--An Appalling Record--Saco's Advocacy of Independence--Some
Advocates of Annexation to the United States--Spain's
Determination to Hold Cuba Fast.
Chapter XXV 385
Review of an Era in Cuban History--Progress in Inverse Order
from International to National Interests--Alienation from Spain--Contrasts
Between Cuba and Other Colonies, Spanish and English--Unconscious
Preparation for Independent Statehood--Cuban
Interest in the World and the World's Interest in Cuba--On the
Verge of a New Era--The Promise of Cuban Nationality.
ILLUSTRATIONS
FULL PAGE PLATES:
Francisco de Arango _Frontispiece_
FACING
PAGE
Laurel Ditch, Cabanas Fortress 58
Havana, from Cabanas 96
In Old Havana 130
Tomas Romay 192
Juan José Diaz Espada 272
José Antonio Saco 378
TEXT EMBELLISHMENTS:
PAGE
Old Espada Cemetery, Havana 52
Atares Fortress, 1763 103
Don Luis de las Casas 175
A Volante, Old-Time Pleasure Carriage 238
Monserrate Gate, Havana 244
George Canning 258
John Quincy Adams 259
Alejandro Ramirez 311
James Monroe 329
Simon Bolivar 334
Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros 380
THE HISTORY OF CUBA
CHAPTER I
When the Treaty of Utrecht was signed on the eleventh of April, 1713,
the Spanish colonies in America felt as if they were entering upon a new
era, an era of peace and unhindered growth and prosperity. They did not
realize until the first elation over the establishment of peace had
spent itself, that this treaty contained the seeds of future wars which
were bound to be quickened by the powerful spirit of commercial rivalry,
which had been awakened in the European nations and was alarmingly
dimming the justice and righteousness of their policies. By losing the
European possessions, the population of Spain had been so seriously
diminished that it was entirely out of proportion to the area of her
over-seas dominion. While the Bourbon king had nothing more to fear from
France, even her pirates having palpably decreased their operations
against the Spanish colonies in America, he had in England a rival and
enemy whose power he had reason to dread. For all the maritime and
commercial agreements of the treaty favored England.
George Bancroft justly characterizes the spirit of the period in the
second volume of his "History of the United States" when he says
(Chapter XXXV, p. 388):
"The world had entered on the period of mercantile privilege.
Instead of establishing equal justice, England sought commercial
advantages; and, as the mercantile system was identified with the
colonial system of the great maritime powers of Europe, the
political interest, which could alone kindle universal war, was to
be sought in the colonies. Hitherto, the colonies were subordinate
to European politics; henceforth, the question of trade on our
borders, of territory on our frontier, involved an interest which
could excite the world to arms. For about two centuries, the wars
of religion had prevailed; the wars for commercial advantages were
now prepared. The interests of commerce, under the narrow point of
view of privilege and of profit, regulated diplomacy, swayed
legislation, and marshalled revolutions."
Concerning the mooted problem of the freedom of the seas, discussed as
ardently and widely then as at the present time, Bancroft had this to
say in the same chapter (p. 389):
"To the Tory ministry of Queen Anne belongs the honor of having
inserted in the treaties of peace a principle which, but for
England, would in that generation have wanted a vindicator. But
truth, once elicited, never dies. As it descends through time, it
may be transmitted from state to state, from monarch to
commonwealth; but its light is never extinguished, and never
permitted to fall to the ground. A great truth, if no existing
nation would assume its guardianship, has power--such is God's
providence--to call a nation into being, and live by the life it
imparts."
The great principle first formulated by the illustrious Dutch historian
and statesman Hugo Grotius was touched upon in the treaty of Utrecht in
the passage saying,--"Free ships shall also give a freedom to goods."
The meaning of contraband was strictly defined; the right of a nation to
blockade another's ports was rigorously restricted. As to the rights of
sailors, they were protected by the flag under which they sailed.
But whatever credit belongs to England for her upholding of this
principle was obscured by her exploitation of a monopoly, created by a
special agreement of the same treaty. The "assiento," which established
that most ignominious traffic in negro slaves, was to have disastrous
effects, political, economic and racial, upon the American colonies,
whether British, French or Spanish. The agreement had been specially
demanded by the British representatives and had been approved by Louis
XIV, who saw in its acceptance not only an advantage for England, but
justly hoped his own colonies on the Gulf of Mexico to profit by it. It
was worded simply as follows:
"Her Britannic Majesty did offer and undertake by persons whom she
shall appoint, to bring into the West Indies of America belonging
to his Catholic Majesty, in the space of thirty years, one hundred
and forty-four thousand negroes, at the rate of four thousand eight
hundred in each of the said thirty years."
The duty on four thousand of these negroes was to be thirty-three and a
third pesos. But the assientists were entitled to introduce besides that
number as many more as they needed at the minor rate of sixteen and two
third pesos a head. However, no Frenchman or Spaniard or any individual
of another nation could import a negro slave into Spanish America.
This trade in human flesh was duly organized and carried on by a stock
company which promised enormous profits. King Philip V., sorely in need
of money with which to execute all his plans for the reconstruction of
his kingdom, anticipated great gains from such an investment and bought
one quarter of the stock. Queen Anne was the owner of another quarter
and the remainder was sold among her loyal subjects. Thus the sovereigns
of these two kingdoms became the leading slave-merchants in the world
and by the provisions of the agreement "her Britannic Majesty" enjoyed
the somewhat dubious distinction of being for the Spanish colonies in
the Gulf of Mexico, on the Atlantic and along the Pacific coasts, the
exclusive slave-trader.
No trade required as little outlay in capital as the slave-trade.
Trifles, trinkets and refuse stock of every possible kind of merchandise
including discarded weapons, were exchanged for the human cargoes on
the African coast; who, crowded into vessels, crossed the seas, and upon
their arrival in the New World were sold to the colonists who wanted
cheap labor and a cheaper service. A fever of speculation which had in
it no little touch of adventure, seemed to sweep over England and to
delude the people with visions of wealth to be acquired by a conquest of
the Spanish possessions from Florida south, including Mexico and Peru.
Wild schemes of colonization promised to open Golcondas on the fields of
sugar-cane and tobacco, and in the mines holding inestimable treasures
of gold and silver. For the realization of those plans negro labor was
needed. Even in the West Indies it was welcomed especially by those
settlements engaged in the raising of sugar cane.
That the Assiento opened the door to all sorts of clandestine commercial
operations, as also to insidious political intrigue was soon to become
evident. Agents of the Assiento had the right to enter any Spanish port
in America and from there send other agents to inland settlements; they
had the right to establish warehouses for their supplies, safe against
search unless proof of fraudulent operations, that is importations, was
incontestable. They could send every year a ship of five hundred tons
with a cargo of merchandise to the West Indies and without paying any
duty sell these goods at the annual fair. On the return trip this ship
was allowed to carry products of the country, including gold and silver,
directly to Europe. The assientists urged the American colonies to
furnish them supplies in small vessels. Now it was known that such
vessels were particularly favored by the smuggling trade. Hence British
trade in negro slaves was indirectly used to encourage smuggling and
thus undermine Spanish commerce.
To estimate the extent of the smuggling trade directly traceable to the
loop-holes which the Assiento offered, was impossible. Jamaica, the
stronghold of British power in the West Indies, and ever a hotbed of
political and commercial intrigue against the Spanish neighbors, became
a beehive of smuggling activities. In places formerly used as bases of
buccaneer operations a lively business was carried on with contraband
goods. The danger to legitimate commerce in and with the West Indies
became so great that the Cuban authorities were forced towards the end
of Governor Guazo's administration to adopt strenuous methods in dealing
with such offenders. D. Benito Manzano, Andrez Gonzales and other
mariners and soldiers of experience and known valor were sent out
against them and made important seizures in this service. The governor
was authorized to organize cuadrillos (patrols) of custom officers and
equip custom house cutters that watched for and descended upon all
vessels found without proper clearance papers or that had failed to
register their cargoes in conformity to the laws of the island. The
smugglers were tried and condemned to suffer various penalties, ranging
from loss of property, hard labor and imprisonment, to death.
Governor Guazo's reorganization of the military forces gave proof of his
extraordinary foresight and his executive power. He formed a battalion
of infantry composed of seven companies of one hundred men and besides
two other companies, one of artillery, the other of light cavalry, which
was later changed to mounted dragoons. Two more companies of seventy men
each were added some years later by order of the king. For the lodgment
of these troops Governor Guazo ordered built the rastrille (gateway of a
palisade), which became later part of the fortress and the quarters that
run along the southern part.
Governor Guazo was a man of action and enterprise, besides being endowed
with no little military genius. Never once during his administration did
he lapse into that passive attitude which was in a large degree
responsible for the slow pace at which the Spanish colonies progressed.
One of his first aims was to inflict an exemplary punishment upon the
outlaws of the seas that rendered insecure the coasts of the Spanish
island colonies, and interfered seriously with commerce in the Gulf of
Mexico. The militia of Havana had on previous occasions, when called
into service on the sea, proved its mettle and displayed so much bravery
and perseverance in the pursuit of its tasks that he had unlimited
confidence in its ability to do the work he planned. He conferred with
the governor of Florida, and they agreed upon concerted action against
the English colony of St. George in the Carolinas. He made it known that
he intended to dislodge the pirates on the island of the Bahamas called
New Providence and for some time settled by the British. For that
purpose he fitted out fourteen light vessels, ten bilanders (small
one-mast ships, one of them of fourteen pieces), two brigantines
(two-masted vessels with square sails) and other smaller ships with
munitions and sufficient stores. Then he gathered a force of one
thousand volunteers, one hundred veteran soldiers and a few of the
prominent residents of the city to whom he entrusted the command of some
of the ships. As head of the expedition he named D. Alfonso Carrascesa,
a dependable official, and as his assistant D. Esteban Severino de
Berrea, a native of Havana and the oldest captain of the white militia.
The story of this enterprise as related by Guiteras gives a somewhat
different version of the struggles between the French and the Spaniards
for the possession of Pensacola as that contained in the preceding
chapter. According to Guiteras the armada organized in Havana and placed
under command of Carrascesa sailed on the fourth of July, 1719. But it
had barely left the harbor, when it sighted two French warships. They
were coming from Pensacola, which the French had just captured, and had
on board as prisoners the governor and the whole garrison. Carrascesa
did not for a moment lose his calm assurance at this unexpected
intermezzo. He stopped the French when they turned to flee, and they
were in turn captured. With the rescued Spaniards from Pensacola he
returned to Havana, considering this easy victory of happy augury for
the expedition upon which he had set out. But Governor Guazo persuaded
him that the reconquest of Pensacola was of paramount importance.
Carrascesa yielded to Guazo's arguments and the entreaties of the
governor of Florida's stronghold and started upon his new task. He
succeeded in recovering Pensacola and reinstalling the Spanish governor
with his garrison. Of the ultimate defeat of the expedition Guiteras has
nothing to say.
Carrascesa, too, was a man of untiring activity and did not rest upon
the laurels of his victory over the French. He made several expeditions
to the ports of Masacra, Mobile and other places, laying waste rice
fields and sugar plantations. He captured a number of transports
carrying army provisions, and also took many negroes that had been
brought over by the company carrying on slave trade, prisoners. So
encouraged was he by his successes, that he planned another attack upon
Masacra, which was defended by four batteries mounted on the coast and
had a garrison of about two thousand Frenchmen and Canadians. But he
realized that his forces were numerically far inferior and he desisted
from carrying out this enterprise. He contented himself with turning
his attention to the improvement of the fortifications of Pensacola and
built a fort at the point of Siguenza for the defense of the canal.
While engaged upon this work he was surprised by the arrival of a French
squadron under the command of the Count de Champmeslin. There were six
vessels in all well equipped with artillery far superior in quality to
that of the Spaniards. A fierce and stubborn combat ensued, in which the
volunteers from Havana distinguished themselves by their valor, but the
French admiral succeeded in forcing the passage of Siguenza and
compelled Carrascesa to surrender. Pensacola fell for the second time
into the hands of the French, who, however, gave credit to the Cubans
for unusual bravery and declared that, had it not been for their
inferior numbers, and the inferior equipment of their ships and their
troops, they never would have been defeated. This is the story of the
fights for Pensacola as related by the Spanish historian Guiteras.
Governor Guazo's administration covered one of the most important
periods in the history of Cuba. One of his last acts was the
proclamation in Havana in March, 1724, of the ascension of King Luis I.
to the throne of Spain, his father, King Philip V., having abdicated.
But King Luis died on the thirty-first of August and King Philip V.
resumed the scepter. In the following month Governor Guazo retired from
office and on the twenty-ninth of September was succeeded by the
Brigadier D. Dionisio Martinez de la Vega. One of the first acts of
Governor Martinez was to raise the garrison to the number of two hundred
and fifty men. By decree of the court he also superintended the
construction of the arsenal which was to contribute much to the
improvement of the rather poorly equipped fleet. In order effectively to
pursue his predecessor's policy of prosecuting the smuggler bands, the
number of which was alarmingly multiplying on and about the island,
Governor Martinez suggested to the Minister of the Treasury the erection
of a shipbuilding plant to turn out vessels especially designed for that
purpose. He obtained the consent of the Minister and within a short time
the plan was realized.
This dockyard for the construction of ships primarily intended for
revenue service, was at first erected between the fort of la Fuerza and
la Contaduria (office of the accountant or auditor of the exchequer),
because that location offered great facilities to lower the vessels
directly from the rocks to the sea. But as soon as the superiority of
the ships built in Havana over those produced in Spain became manifest,
owing to the excellent quality of the timber used, it was at once
decided to extend the dockyard and it was moved to the extreme southern
part of the city where it occupied a space of one-fourth of a league,
near the walls with the batements and buttresses, which added much to
its solidity and beauty. There within a few years were built all kinds
of ships, from revenue cutters to warships intended to strengthen the
Armada. In time the plant turned out large numbers of vessels. According
to Valdes there were built between the years 1724 and 1796 forty-nine
ships, twenty-two frigates, seven paquebots, nine brigantines, fourteen
schooners, four ganguiles (barges used in the coasting-trade, lighters)
and four pontones (pontoons or mud-scows, flat bottomed boats, furnished
with pulleys and implements to clean harbors); in all one hundred and
nine vessels.
This shipyard and the fortifications which were being steadily improved
were found of invaluable service in the year 1726, when a break between
Spain and England occurred and a British fleet appeared in the Antilles.
So alarmed was King Philip V. by the news of the danger of British
invasion which threatened Cuba, that he immediately ordered D. Gregorio
Guazo, who had in the meantime been entrusted with the superior military
government of the Antilles and Central America, to adopt measures of
safety. Guazo accordingly sent the squadron of D. Antonio Gastaneta with
a force of one thousand men to assist in the defense of Cuba. The
historians Alcazar and Blanchet report that D. Guazo himself accompanied
the squadron, fell sick upon his arrival in Havana and died the same
month. But Valdes records that he died on the thirteenth of August of
that year in his native town of Ossuna. However, D. Juan de Andrea
Marshall of Villahemosa seems to have been appointed his successor.
The precautions taken were to be well rewarded. On the twenty-seventh of
April, 1727, the English squadron under the command of Admiral Hossier
came in sight and approached the entrance to the harbor of Havana. But
the population had so effectively prepared the defense of the city, that
the attack of the British failed. Besides seeing himself defeated by the
enemy, the Admiral saw with dismay that his crews were decimated by
fever. Gastaneta was at that time in Vera Cruz and Martinez alone
carried off the victory over the British forces which after a blockade
of a month had to retire. Admiral Hossier was so overcome with his
failure and the loss of his men that he himself died of grief shortly
after.
The following two years of the governorship of D. Martinez were
turbulent with the discord of rivals and their factions. The immediate
cause of these regrettable disturbances was Hoyo Solorzana, the governor
of Santiago de Cuba. He had some time before taken a prominent part in
the removal of the treasures lost in el Palmer de Aiz. The charge was
raised against him that he had appropriated a certain portion of these
treasures and he was suspended and proceedings were begun against him.
The case was pending when the accused, who enjoyed great popularity with
the people, suddenly without the knowledge of the Captain-General or the
Dominican Audiencia, took possession of the government office in which
he had formerly exercised his official functions. The authorities were
indignant and sent a complaint to his Majesty in Madrid. When the reply
arrived a few months later, it ordered his immediate removal from
office, annulled his earlier appointment and demanded that he be sent to
Madrid. The commander-in-chief took steps for his removal, but the
municipal government claimed that the cause could not be pursued as long
as an appeal was pending. Governor Martinez, too, waited with the
execution of the royal decree in order to learn what decision the
Ayuntamento of Havana would take. But the latter was kindly disposed to
Hoyo Solorzano, remembering the undeniable services he had rendered the
city.
Both sides held stubbornly to their opinions and the lawyers also could
not be swayed by any arguments. Suddenly there appeared in the harbor of
Santiago de Cuba a few galleons under command of the chief of the
squadron, Barlavente, and acting under orders of Fra D. Antonio de
Escudero. They were to apprehend the governor and his supporters, and
take them as prisoners to Vera Cruz on the Admiral's ship. True to his
character and antecedents, Solorzano bravely defended himself and with
the help of his adherents managed to elude his pursuers and to escape to
the country. After visiting places where many of his friends lived, he
ventured into Puerto Principe, whose inhabitants were such loyal
partisans of his that they decided upon protecting him arms in hand. A
detachment of troops had been sent from Havana and surrounded the house
in which Solorzano was staying. They succeeded in crushing the riotous
demonstrations in his favor and seized him. Manacled and chained he was
taken to el Morro and imprisoned. Although he was evidently the victim
of misaimed ambition, the court that tried his case condemned him to
death.
While these unpleasant events were agitating the official circles of the
island, the people saw in the year 1728 one of the most ardent desires
of the ambitious youth of Cuba attain fulfillment. This was the
foundation of the University. Hitherto, it was necessary for young men
desiring a superior and especially a scientific education to attend the
universities of Mexico, Santo Domingo or Seville. With the opening of
this institution of learning in the metropolis of the island, Havana,
the intellectual life received a strong impulse. The credit for having
secured the permission to open this university is due to the Dominican
order which was mainly instrumental in promoting the cause of education
in Latin America and especially the West Indies. The University was
opened in the convent of Havana by virtue of a bull issued by Pope
Innocent XIII. and in accord with the royal order of March fourteenth,
1732. The event was celebrated by brilliant decoration and illumination
of the principal thoroughfares and buildings of the city and by festive
gatherings and banquets, as also by dignified and solemn ceremonies in
the building itself.
The first rector of the University was Fra Tomas de Linares. According
to the custom of the period and the country the rector, vice-rector and
assistants were all selected from the clergy. The curriculum comprised
courses in grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, philosophy, theology, canons
of economic laws, jurisprudence and medicine. But it seems strange that
for a number of years no professor could be found to occupy the chair of
mathematics. The peripatetic system prevailed. After two years of
existence the university won such hearty approbation from the king that
it was granted by royal decree of the twenty-seventh of June, 1734, the
same concessions and prerogatives as were accorded to the University of
Alcala. In the year 1733 Cuba lost her most revered and beloved
spiritual leader, Bishop Valdes, who expired on the twenty-ninth of
March. He lived in the memory of many generations that followed not only
by the many parishes which he had founded in the smaller towns and rural
districts, and by the seminary of San Baulie el Magne, which he had
called into being, but also by his many personal virtues that had
endeared him to his people.
An important innovation was made at this period concerning land tenure.
The Ayuntamentos or municipal corporations started to rent lands, that
is to give them in usufructu for the pasturing of cattle, to swine
herds, for labor or as ground plots. The person receiving such a grant
paid to the propios (estates or lands belonging to the city or civic
corporation) six ducats annually for the first, four for the second, and
two for the others. The land-surveyor, D. Luis de la Pena, resolved to
give a plot of land in the radius of two leagues to the haciendas that
raised black cattle, called hatos, and to the raisers of hogs, cordos or
corroles (enclosures within which cattle is held). But there was such a
lack of precision in determining the boundaries of the lands covered by
these concessions, that one overlapped the others and caused innumerable
heated lawsuits. The abuses committed by the corporation concerned in
these land deals, finally caused the king to strip these bodies of the
power of renting the lands. This important royal decree was according
to the historian Pezuela dated 1727, according to La Torre 1729.
The copper-mines of Cuba which had during the second half of the
seventeenth century been totally abandoned, but had been reopened in the
year 1705 under the direction of D. Sabastian de Arancibia and D.
Francisco Delgado, once more disappointed those interested in that
investment and yielding little profit were closed. The result was very
disastrous for the men that had been employed in the mines. For when
they found themselves without work, they began to lead a sort of
unrestrained life, which caused unrest and disturbances. In the year
1731, the governor of Santiago de Cuba, D. Pedro Jiminez, decided to put
an end to this idleness and without warning imposed upon them hard
labor. This the men resented and rebelled. After considerable
difficulty, the gentle exhortations of the Canonicus Morrell of Santa
Cruz prevailed and succeeded in appeasing the men, who took up other
work.
In other parts of the island there occurred about this time uprisings of
the slaves, which required the use of force and led to no little
bloodshed before they could be suppressed. One of these revolts on the
plantation Quiebra Hache and some on other neighboring haciendas led to
the foundation of Santa Maria del Rosario. It was D. Jose Bayona Chacon,
Conde de Casa-Bayona, who conceived the idea that the existence of a
white population in the heart of the mutinous district might help to
keep the negroes submissive. He asked the king's permission to establish
a town on the land of said plantation and of the Jiaraco corral, which
were all his property, and asked for manorial grants, civil and criminal
jurisdiction, that is the right to appoint alcaldes (ordinary judges),
eight aldermen and as many other officials of the court as were needed.
King Philip, remembering the services D. Bayona Chacon had rendered the
island, granted this request in the year 1732, and D. Bayona or Conde
(count) Casa-Bayona settled thirty families on the place, which was
henceforth called Santa Maria del Rosario.
The last years of the governorship of D. Martinez were undisturbed by
strife either from within or without, and Cuba prospered during that
brief spell of peace and quiet. But he did not delude himself by
imagining Cuba safe from further disturbances, either of her internal
conditions or her relations to her enemies. Like his predecessors he
continued to add to the fortifications, as is proved by an inscription
on the gate of la Punta, which reads:
Reinando en Espana Don Felipe V. El Animoso y Siendo Gobernador y
Captan General de Esta Plaza E Isla de Cuba El Brigadier Don
Dionisio Martinez de la Vega, se Hiciron Estas Bovedas, Almacenes,
Terraplenes, Y Muralla Hasta San Telmo; Se Acabo La Murella Y
Baluartes Desde El Angel Hasta El Colateral De La Puerta de Tierra
Y Desde El Anguilo De la Tonaza Hasta El Otro Colatoral; Se Puso En
Estado y con Respeto La Artilleria; Se Hizo La Caldaza, Y En El
Real Artillero Navios De Guerra Y Tres Paquebotos, Con Otras Obras
Menores; Y Lo Gueda Continua do Por Marzo de 1731 Con 220 Esclavos
De S. M. Que Con Su Arbotrio Ha Puesto En Las Reales Fabrica.
(While King Philip V. the Brave reigned in Spain and the Brigadier
Don Dioniosio Martinez de la Vega was Governor of this place and
the island of Cuba, there were built three vaults, stores, terraces
and a wall as far as Telma, were finished the wall and bastions
from El Angel unto the Colateral of the Gate of Tierra, and from
the corner of the tenaillo unto the other collateral; was set up in
good condition the artillery; was constructed the high road and
were built in the royal dockyard war vessels and three packet-boats
and minor ships; and this was continued in March, 1730, with 200
slaves of his Majesty, who deigned to have them placed in the royal
shops.)
Accounts of foreigners that traveled in the West Indies and visited Cuba
during this period give glimpses of the cities and the life therein
which are interesting reading. John Campbell, the author of "The
Spanish Empire in America" and "A Concise History of Spanish America,"
published in London in the year 1747, says in the latter book, in the
description of Havana:
"The Buildings are fair, but not high, built of Stone and make a
very good appearance, though it is said they are but meanly
furnished. There are eleven Churches and Monasteries and two
handsome hospitals. The Churches are rich and magnificent; that
dedicated to St. Clara having seven Altars, all adorned with Plate
to a great Value; And the Monastery adjoining contains a hundred
Nuns with their Servants, all habited in Blue. It is not, as some
have reported, a Bishop's see, though the Bishop generally resides
there. But the Cathedral is at St. Jago, and the Revenue of this
Prelate not less than fifty thousand Pieces of Eight per Annum.
Authors differ exceedingly as to the Number of Inhabitants in this
City. A Spanish Writer, who was there in 1700 and who had Reason to
be well acquainted with the Place, computed them at twenty-six
thousand, and we may well suppose that they are increased since.
They are a more polite and sociable People than the Inhabitants of
any of the Ports on the Continent, and of late imitate the French
both in their Dress and their Manner."
The Spanish historian, Emilio Blanchet, also limns a picture of life in
Havana about this time. Always inclined to express their feelings of joy
or of sorrow in a rather demonstrative manner, every national event of
some importance gave occasion for festivities that lasted sometimes
several days, and in one instance almost a whole month. This
extraordinary example of Cuban delight in great public celebrations
occurred in the year 1735 in Villaclara. The recent victories of Spain
in Italy and the ascension of Carlos to the Neapolitan crown were
celebrated in that town from the first to the twenty-second of February.
Of course, the national sport of bull-fights figured largely in the
program of this month of festivities; but there were also equestrian
contests, military games, processions and cavalcades, and for the first
time in Cuban history, dramatic performances. Besides such unusual
occasions as the celebration of a victory, the numerous church festivals
also encouraged the people's love of more or less ceremonial display and
solemn public functions. The eyes of the people loved to feast upon the
processions on foot or on horseback which took place on various saints'
days, especially on the days of St. John, St. Peter, St. James and St.
Anna.
The British writer quoted above was right in saying that the Cubans
emulated the example and followed the models of the French in the dress
of the period. For Blanchet gives a description of the dress of the
Cuban women of that time, which evokes before the reader visions of the
elaborate costumes inseparable from the period of Louis XIV. The Spanish
historian dwells at some detail upon the gorgeous dresses of the wealthy
women of Cuba. There were gowns with long, sweeping trains, the material
of which was mostly a heavy brocade silk, interwoven with threads of
gold or silver, trimmed with taffeta in sky blue or crimson. Other
material was trimmed with gold or silver braids. The belt generally of
rose taffeta joined the waist to the skirt. The hair was adorned with a
large silver or gold pin which held the folds of a richly trimmed
mantilla, also either of brocade or some lighter tissue, gracefully
falling back over the shoulders. The undergarments were of silk taffeta,
all of these materials being flowered or checkered and interwoven with
threads of gold. Velvet was also used in the fashioning of vestees and
jackets. Cloaks, capes and redingotes were either of camelot or barocan,
or of some other fine cloth. Pink was the favorite color. Laces and
embroideries were used on the dress of both men and women. No cavalier
was without a frill. The use of powder for the face and hair was quite
common, and the powdered queue was as indispensable to the costume of a
cavalier as the buckled shoe.
CHAPTER II
When Governor Martinez de la Vega was promoted to the post of President
and Captain-General of Panama, there was appointed in his place, as the
thirty-sixth governor of Cuba, Fieldmarshal D. Juan Francisco Guemez y
Horcasitas, a native of Oviedo and son of Baron de Guemez. Valdes
remarks that during his administration was born his son D. Juan, who
seems to have been also actively engaged in public life. Guemez was
governor of Cuba long enough to occupy a prominent place in the
chronicles of the island. He was inaugurated on the eighteenth of March,
1734, and continued in office until the twenty-eighth of April, 1746.
Guemez entered upon the political and military administration
simultaneously with the Franciscan padre D. Juan Lasso de la Vega, who
assumed the spiritual leadership of the people as successor to Bishop
Valdez. During his governorship, the Municipio of Havana was organized,
and Santiago de Cuba being for the first time subordinated to his
authority, Havana became virtually the capital of the island, and one of
the most important of Spanish America. In that civic corporation, a very
prominent member was the Habanero D. Jose Martin Felix de Arrate, who
wrote a valuable history of Havana under the title "Llave del Nuevo
Mundo, Antemural de las Indias Occidentales, la Habana descriptiva:
Noticias de su fundacion, aumentos y Estado."
Governor Guemez introduced some measures of reform which tended to
appease the discontent occasioned by previous abuses of municipal power.
One of these was the rigid enforcement of the royal decree which forbade
the ayuntamentos to trade in land. He also improved the functioning of
the primary courts called Justicias ordinarias; for a great deal of
disorder was caused by the fact that their decisions were rarely
promptly obeyed. He associated with them the tenentes a guerra, military
lieutenants, whose authority was more likely to be respected. One of
these, the Captain of militia D. Jose Antonio Gomez, was sent to the
salt works of Punta Hicacos and Cayo Sal, where much confusion had
reigned, to regulate the salt production, and insure an efficient
functioning of the organization concerned in it. He became later known
as a famous guerillero, a civilian serving in guerilla warfare, and was
familiarly called by the people Pepe Antonio.
During this administration some very important work was done towards
sanitation. Guemez succeeded in having the harbor thoroughly dredged; by
urgent appeals to the residents he secured the removal from the streets
of all encumbrances of traffic and insisted upon having them regularly
cleaned. It can be justly said that, if the standard of public health in
Cuba was raised at this period, it was undoubtedly due to his efforts.
Nor was he indifferent to the extortion practiced upon the poorer
inhabitants by unscrupulous landlords and shopkeepers, one of his
ordinances to that effect regulating the prices at which provisions were
to be sold by the grocers and thus insuring a proper and sufficient
supply of these necessities to the population which otherwise would have
been underfed. He was also the first governor of Cuba who paid attention
to the island's forests and curbed the operations of the thieves that
ravaged them. Of course such measures were bound to be resented by those
elements who had previously profited from the freedom with which they
could carry on their trade regardless of human equity and public
welfare; and although the administration of Guemez was one of great
material prosperity for the people, he did not escape the fate that
befell so many of his predecessors, that of being made the target of
slanderous accusations. But the government had profited from previous
experiences of this character, that of the Marquis de Casa-Torres being
still remembered; it was no longer inclined to lend so ready an ear to
charges raised against the governors, and paid no attention to the
attempts made by his enemies to discredit Guemez in Madrid.
The colonial government was then in charge of D. Jose del Campillo, an
official of great knowledge and sagacity and of wide experience in
economic and financial affairs. Many of the improvements that had been
introduced in Spain by Minister Ori were through D. Campillo's efforts
now applied to the colonies in America. Among these valuable innovations
were the regulation of the revenues, the reduction of import and export
duties, and the distribution of the realenzes or royal patrimonies. But
equally important was the creation of royal commissions to inquire into
the state, the resources and needs of the provinces, and to organize
industry and commerce upon a sound and equitable basis.
On the other hand it cannot be denied that powerful influences were at
work to secure privileges for private corporations, which in a measure
threatened to undo what those commissions attained. The organization
which came into being in Havana in the year 1740 under the name Real
Compania de Comercio under the patronage of the Virgin del Rosario, was
such a corporation and it seems doubtful whether the privileges it
enjoyed and the profits that accrued from them did not outweigh the
advantages which were promised to the colony. The company was given a
general monopoly, including the exclusive right of exportation of
tobacco and sugar; it had the right of importation of articles of
consumption in the island without paying custom on goods imported into
the interior. Of course, it pledged itself on its part to render the
community certain services which should not be underestimated. It was to
build in its dockyards vessels of war and of trade; to supply the
warships anchored in the harbor with provisions for their crews; to
furnish ten armed vessels for the persecution of contraband; and for the
transportation of the country's products to the port of Cadiz; to bring
from Spain the ammunition needed in Cuba; to provision the garrison of
Florida; and to furnish articles of equipment to the weather-side fleet.
The Captain-General himself was given the office of Juez conservador
(judge conservator). The first president of the company was D. Martin de
Aroztegui. The organizers had at first counted upon a capital of one
million pesos, but it barely exceeded nine hundred thousand. Each share
was valued at five hundred duros (dollars) and eight shares were
required to entitle the holder to a vote in the general conventions.
There were at first five directors in all, but they were gradually
reduced to two only. Some historians had warm praise for the work of the
company, among them Arrate, who with many others was preoccupied by the
economic interests and the commercial progress of the community. But
there is no doubt that at the end it did not bring about the results
that had been expected. During twenty years of its existence Cuba
derived no tangible benefit. The importation of goods from Spain did not
amount to more than three vessels annually. The exports amounted to less
than twenty-one thousand arrobas of sugar (a weight of twenty-five
pounds of sixteen ounces each).
Governor Guemez was not oblivious to the dangers forever menacing the
security and the peace of the island. He made great improvements on the
batteries of el Morro; he had parts of the city walls, which ran from la
Tenaze to Paula, demolished, and rebuilt of better material; he had the
walls on the inland side re-enforced so as to offer greater resistance
in case of attack by enemies. To all these improvements the citizens of
Havana contributed generously; they furnished ten thousand peons
(day-laborers) and as many beasts of burden to do the work. Guemez also
built factories in the parish of El Jaguey on the other side of the bay
and established the first powder magazine on the coast. During the
latter part of his administration, in the year 1743, the town of
Guanabacoa received its charter. The following year, 1744, is memorable
in the history of Cuba as the year when the first postal service was
organized. Thus the governorship of D. Guemez proved for the island a
period of great civic and material progress and prosperity. The peace it
enjoyed during the earlier years was, however, to be seriously disturbed
later on.
For even towards the end of the administration of D. Martinez de la Vega
clouds had arisen upon the political horizon of Europe which had begun
to cast their shadows over the colonies. The slave-trade sanctioned by
the famous Assiento agreement gave rise to more and more serious tension
between the governments of England and of Spain. In order to execute
that part of the Treaty of Utrecht which related to the importation of
negro slaves into Spanish America, the British government had encouraged
the formation of a company, the Compania de la Mar del Sud, or South Sea
Company, which was to act as agent of the assientists. It consisted of
men holding the large national debt of Great Britain and had received a
grant for the exclusive trade of the South Seas. But since Spain was in
possession of a great proportion of the coast in that part of the world
and had so far enjoyed a monopoly of its trade, the South Sea Company
derived no benefit from that grant, unless the commercial activity of
Spanish America could be paralyzed. The slave-trade with its clandestine
opportunities for contraband, offered the South Sea Company
possibilities to undermine Spanish trade. The slavers, as the
slave-carrying vessels were called, being protected by passports issued
by their contractors, were not slow in getting into communication with
those elements in the Spanish colonies that placed their personal profit
above their duty to the country under the protection of which they
lived, and had no difficulty in delivering cargoes of divers merchandise
while they unloaded their human freight. Moreover they never returned to
Europe in ballast, but carried a correspondingly large cargo of West
Indian goods of which they disposed in European ports.
Spain had repeatedly entered complaints against these scandalously
dishonest operations upon the coasts of Spanish America, but Great
Britain was then not in the mood to concern herself with problems of
international ethics. The enormous profits that the trade in negro
slaves had brought to investors in that enterprise had dimmed their
sense of honor. Queen Anne herself had in a speech to the parliament
boasted of having secured to the British a new market for slaves in
Spanish America. A considerable part of the population of Jamaica lived
exclusively on the profits of this traffic between the Spanish-American
harbors. The vessel which the British according to the Assiento were
allowed to send annually to Portobello was soon followed at a certain
distance by a fleet of smaller ships that approached the harbor at night
and replaced the cargo that had been unloaded by day. Frequently the
slavers would appeal to the human feelings of the officials in
Spanish-American ports and with stories of shipwreck and damages
sustained in hurricanes induce them to desist from the customary
inspection of every foreign vessel. The effect of these manoeuvers was
the complete extinction of Spanish commerce. While the tonnage of the
fleet of Cadiz had formerly reached sixteen thousand, it was reduced at
the beginning of the eighteenth century to two thousand.
But the reclamations of Spain were not heeded. Great Britain, then in a
mad fever for the acquisition of wealth, was intoxicated with the rich
profits it was deriving from the operations in the West Indies and other
parts of Spanish America. It not only wished to continue these, but it
also tried to bring about war between the two countries. As Guiteras
says, and Bancroft expresses the same ideas in his second volume of his
"History of the United States," the war which was on the point of
breaking out was not about the right to cut the timber of Campeche in
the Bay of Honduras, nor because of the difference between the King of
Spain and the South Sea Company, nor about the disputed frontiers of
Florida. All these questions could have been easily settled. The sole
aim and end was to compel Spain to renounce her right of inspecting or
examining suspected merchant vessels that cruised in the Antilles, in
order that Great Britain might extend her insidious operations.
After much deliberation on both sides, an instrument was drawn up and
signed, in which the mutual claims for damages sustained in the overseas
commerce were balanced and settled. The king of Spain demanded from the
South Sea Company sixty-eight thousand pounds as his share of their
profits, in the slave-trade; on the other hand he paid to the British
merchants as indemnity for losses caused by unwarranted seizures the
sum of ninety-five pounds. The question with regard to the boundaries of
Florida was also disposed of; it was agreed that both nations were to
retain the land then in their possession, until a duly appointed
commission should determine the exact boundaries, which meant that Great
Britain would hold jurisdiction over the country to the mouth of St.
Mary's River.
The discussion about this agreement in the British parliament did not
add to the glory of the United Kingdom. Walpole spoke in favor of its
acceptance, saying "It requires no great abilities in a minister to
pursue such measures as make a war unavoidable. But how many ministers
have known the art of avoiding war by making a safe and honorable
peace?" The Duke of Newcastle, not credited with too much intelligence,
opposed the measure. William Pitt, Pulteny and others sided with him.
The opposition finally triumphed. Bancroft says of this disgraceful
termination of a conference intended to seek equitable solution of a
most harassing international problem:
"In an ill hour for herself, in a happy one for America, England,
on the twenty-third of October, 1639, declared war against Spain.
If the rightfulness of the European colonial system be conceded,
the declaration was a wanton invasion of it for immediate selfish
purposes; but, in endeavoring to open the ports of Spanish America
to the mercantile enterprise of her own people, she was beginning a
war on colonial monopoly, which could not end till American
colonies of her own, as well as of Spain, should obtain
independence."
Even before this official break between the two countries, the British
had become guilty of movements that violated Spanish territory.
There is not much said by Spanish historians about the difficulties
between Florida and the newly planned British colony of Georgia. But
the dispute about the boundary of Florida ripened into an armed
conflict, in which Cuban forces assisted those of St. Augustine.
Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, had in the year 1736 endeavored to
vindicate British rights to territory previously claimed by the
Spaniards and the opposition of the latter when the British approached
more and more closely was easily understood. Oglethorpe dispatched
messengers to St. Augustine and, claiming the St. John's River as the
southern boundary of the British colony, built Ft. George for defense of
the British frontier. The messengers were for a time held in St.
Augustine as prisoners, but eventually released. The dispute was
temporarily settled by negotiation. But though the British abandoned Ft.
George, they kept St. Andrew's at the mouth of St. Mary's, which was
bound to be a perpetual source of irritation to the Spaniards. Two years
later, according to Blanchet, hostile movements of British ships were
observed in Cuban waters. He speaks of the _Commodore Brown_ as having,
by the effective defense which Guemez had prepared, been prevented from
landing in Bacuranao, Bahia-Honda and other places. With the beginning
of the war, Guemez was called upon to secure the aprovionamento, the
provisioning of the island and to insure its security. He received
efficient assistance from some of his privateers, among them D. Jose
Cordero and D. Pedro Garaicochea, who valorously fought some British
vessels and obtained advantages over the British fleets commanded by the
admirals Bermon and Oglethorpe. D. Jose Hurriaza, too, won some
victories over the British with his three ships, of the kind called at
that time guipuzcoanos. He sank one British vessel, captured another and
anchored safely with his booty in the harbor of San Juan of Puerto
Rico.
The British war party made capital out of the news of these encounters.
Exaggerated reports about the cruelty practiced upon British prisoners
were sent to London. The authorities did not hesitate to call as
witnesses of victims of such outrages, characters whose words would not
have received credence at other times. Bancroft quotes the case of a
notorious smuggler by the name of Jenkins, who accused the enemy of
having cut off one of his ears, and Pulteny, in order to precipitate the
issue, exclaimed in parliament: "We have no need of allies to enable us
to command justice; the story of Jenkins will raise volunteers."
Not only politicians and the ever ready pamphleteers lent their voice to
the "cause," but even the poets joined the ignoble chorus. Alexander
Pope wrote in his customary mordant manner:
"And own the Spaniard did the waggish thing
Who cropped our ears, and sent them to the king";
and even Samuel Johnson burst out into the cry:
"Has Heaven reserved, in pity to the poor,
No pathless waste or undiscovered shore,
No secret island in the boundless main,
No peaceful desert yet unclaimed by Spain?"
Thus was the mood of the moment prepared in the multitude and mass
psychology did the rest, as it always does in such crises.
About this time occurred an incident, in which Guemez showed his mettle
as a man, regardless of his official capacity. It is the historian
Blanchet who has recorded this remarkable example of noble generosity.
It seems that the British frigate _Elizabeth_, under the command of a
Captain Edwards, had been caught in a terrible tempest off the coast of
Cuba and threatened with inevitable shipwreck, sought the protection of
the harbor. According to the laws of warfare, the Captain surrendered as
prisoner of war. But Guemez, as acting Captain General, refused to take
advantage of his misfortune, and not only permitted the vessel to careen
and take on much-needed supplies, but gave Captain Edwards letters of
safe-conduct allowing him to continue on his way as far as Bermuda. The
rivals and enemies of Guemez, who had previously attempted to lodge
complaints against him with the Consejo de Indias, renewed their
intrigues and cabals, aimed at robbing him of the good name he enjoyed
in Cuba as in Madrid, and accused him of all sorts of misdemeanors and
abuses. But they failed in ruining his career. He was made
lieutenant-general and on his retirement from the governorship was given
the rank and title of Conde (count) de Revillagigedo and appointed
Viceroy of New Spain. He died in Madrid as commander-in-chief of the
army at the ripe old age of eighty-six years.
However great were the services rendered by D. Guemez y Horcasitas to
Cuba, the conflicting rumors attacking his character must have had some
foundation. Perhaps the impression the governor made upon a French
traveler, who visited Havana at this time and was on board the vessel
which took him to Mexico, may add some traits to his portrait. M.
Villiet d'Arignon is quoted in Pierre Jean Baptiste Nougaret's "Voyages
interessans" as saying:
"D. Juan Orcazita had been appointed to this important post on
account of the sums he had lavishly spent at the court of Madrid.
One could say that he bought it. The immense fortune he made during
his governorship soon enabled him to turn his eyes to a higher
goal. Everything depended upon contributions. So he in a short time
amassed considerable sums, which from a simple civilian raised him
to the highest rank ambition could aspire to. We shall see that he
continued the same tactics in Mexico and profited even more, the
country being wealthier. Orcazita was a man of some height, rather
handsome, but of a mediocre intelligence, and had no ambition
except for spoils. This was the viceroy given to Mexico, whither
his reputation had preceded him. For the inhabitants soon made fun
of his, and circulated this uncomplimentary nickname which sounds
better in Spanish than in French: 'Non es Conde, ni Marquis, Juan
es,' which means that he was neither count, nor Marquis, but simply
'Juan.' In fact he was not a man of birth, and he owed all he had
to his money."
In the meantime Great Britain's preparations for the war resulted in the
sending over to Spanish America of two fleets. The one under Edward
Vernon was commanded to make an attack upon Chagres, east of the Isthmus
of Darien; the other one, considerably smaller, under the command of
Commodore Anson, was to begin operations in the Pacific. But a series of
unfortunate accidents made it impossible for him to cooperate with
Vernon, as he was expected to do. He encountered terrible gales, which
disabled and scattered his ships, one by one, and after many romantic
adventures which were set forth by a member of the expedition in a very
readable book, he returned to England with a single vessel, but one
richly laden with spoils acquired in pirate fashion. Edward Vernon,
whose experiences have also been recorded in a volume, giving
interesting details of his expedition, arrived at Portobello in
November, 1739. He had under his command six war ships and a
well-equipped force of trained men, and on the twenty-second of the
month launched an attack. The garrison was so small and poorly prepared
that he forced it to capitulate on the very next day. The British lost
only seven men in the engagement and found themselves in the possession
of the place. Vernon dismantled the fortifications and returned to
Jamaica with a booty of ten thousand pesos. Expecting to be joined by
Anson, he went to Chagres early in January, succeeded in forcing that
port, too, to surrender, and after having demolished it, returned to
Jamaica, and rested from his easily won victory, which the party
opposing Walpole celebrated in London as a most heroic exploit.
The greatest armed force that had yet been seen in West Indian waters
had in the mean time sailed from England to join the expedition of
Vernon. It consisted not only of British troops, but had been reenforced
by recruits from the colonies north of Carolina. Its commander was Lord
Cathcart, who, when they stopped to take on fresh water in Dominica, was
taken violently ill with a malignant fever and succumbed. His death was
a disastrous blow to the British, for it destroyed the unity of command
which is indispensable for the success of military operations.
Cathcart's successor was Wentworth, who not only lacked experience and
firmness, but was a political opponent of the impulsive, irritable
Vernon. Thus the enterprise seemed to be at the outset doomed to failure
owing to the rivalry and the discord of the leaders. The fleet under
their command consisted of twenty-nine line ships, eighty smaller
vessels with a crew of fifteen thousand sailors and a land force of
twelve thousand men.
The expedition set sail from Jamaica without having agreed upon any
definite plan of attack. Havana was the nearest point at which
operations should be directed and besides her conquest would have given
Great Britain supremacy over the Gulf. But Admiral Vernon saw everything
only in the light of his own advantages and decided to go in search of
the French and Spanish squadrons, without taking trouble to inform
himself whether they had not already left. Finally a war council was
held and it was decided to make an assault upon the tower of Cartagena.
The squadron appeared before the city on the fourth of March and after
a siege of twenty-two days succeeded in capturing the fort of Bocachica
at the entrance of the harbor. Admiral Wentworth then made preparations
to take the fort of San Lazare, which dominated the city. He planned to
attack it with a force of two thousand men, but half of them,
misunderstanding his directions, remained in camp. The squadron, too,
failed to come to his assistance in time, and after a complete defeat he
was forced to retire. Before the British had a chance to recover from
the effects of this disaster, caused mainly by the lack of harmonious
cooperation between their commanders, the rainy season set in. With it
came the usual epidemic of tropical fever and alarmingly decimated the
forces of the British. The blockade was for the time being abandoned and
the survivors of the expedition returned to Jamaica.
Admiral Vernon resumed the plan in July, 1741, and arrived in the bay of
Guantanamo on the coast of Cuba with a force of three thousand men and
about one thousand negroes. He landed and then moved to Santiago with
the purpose of taking that city. There the governor Colonel Francisco
Cagigal prepared for him an unexpectedly hot reception. He divided his
people into small detachment of trained troops, militia and armed
inhabitants, and placed himself at their head. His example and the care
with which he had calculated the defense inspired the people with the
will to win and they plunged with zest into the fight with the invaders.
Never for a moment stopping in their furious assaults upon the British,
the forces of Admiral Vernon were decimated in the endless series of
attacks and counter attacks. The climate, too, was against the British,
and they were forced to retire. Vernon left the island with the
remainder of his men and abandoned large stores of provisions and
ammunition, which Governor Cagigal appropriated amid the enthusiastic
acclamation of the brave citizens.
Thus ended according to the reports of Guiteras and other Spanish
historians the British expedition which had started out with the
intention of conquering not only the Spanish West Indies, but Mexico and
Peru as well. British arrogance and greed had for the moment received a
well-earned lesson. The fleet retired to Jamaica towards the end of
November. When a survey of the state of both the naval and military
forces was made, it was found that the British had lost some twenty
thousand men. During all the time that these fights took place, commerce
with the Spanish colonies had of necessity been suspended. The
importation of negroes had ceased. Smuggling had considerably decreased.
Spanish privateers lay in wait and intercepted the British merchant
vessels, whose cargoes were triumphantly brought to Spanish ports. Great
Britain, on the contrary, had not conquered a single Spanish possession
and the damage caused to her commerce was far greater than that which
Spanish America had suffered.
In the meantime, the undaunted Oglethorpe had once more decided to
challenge the Spanish neighbor in Florida, and encouraged by the British
authorities marched upon St. Augustine. He had six hundred regular
troops, four hundred militia from Carolina and two hundred Indians, and
set out on his expedition in January, 1740. But the garrison of the old
town, under the command of the able Monteaco, was prepared and had also
secured reenforcements. Five weeks lasted the siege; the troops of
Oglethorpe lost patience and courage, failure staring them in the face.
When they threatened to abandon him, he retired without even being
pursued by the enemy. After this provocation the Spanish authorities
felt forced to retaliate and decided upon an invasion of Georgia. A
large fleet with troops from Cuba joined the forces of the Florida
settlement. They arrived at the mouth of St. Mary's, where Oglethorpe
had built Ft. William, in the first days of July. But Oglethorpe
succeeded in retaining his hold upon that place, though his forces had
to retire. The Spanish took possession of their abandoned camps, but on
the seventh of July, when they were attempting to advance towards the
town on a road which skirted a swamp on one side and a dense wood of
brush-oak on the other, they were surprised by Oglethorpe and the fight
which ensued was so fierce, and caused such a great loss of life, that
the spot has ever since been known as Bloody Marsh. Another attack was
made upon Fort William, but being again repulsed, the Spanish forces
retired, abandoning a quantity of ammunition.
When Guemez of Cuba was promoted to the vice-regency of New Spain, he
had been succeeded by Field Marshal D. Juan Antonio Tines y Fuertes, who
was inaugurated on the twenty-second of April, 1746, but died on the
twenty-first of July of the same year. In spite of his very brief term
of service, he is remembered according to Valdes for having been the
first governor to whom it occurred to do something for the confinement
and possible reform of dissolute women. He is said to have founded for
that purpose the Casa de Resorgimento, which seems to have been both a
home and a reform school. He was temporarily replaced by Colonel D.
Diego de Penalosa. About the name and exact date of his interim
administration there seems to exist some confusion, some historians
placing him immediately after Martinez de la Vega. Valdes says he was
Tenente-Rey in 1738, assumed the functions of provisional governorship
at the death of Fuentes, and upon the arrival of the newly appointed
governor, was sent to Vera Cruz as Brigadier General. Blanchet, too,
calls him Penalosa; but Alcazar gives his name as Penalver. However,
Penalosa or Penalver enjoyed during his brief administration the
privilege of proclaiming the ascension of Fernando VI. to the throne of
Spain.
King Philip V., who had so reluctantly been dragged into the war with
England, did not live long after the victory of Santiago had temporarily
checked the designs of Great Britain. He had died on the ninth of July,
1746, and his crown descended to his son Fernando, an amiable and
virtuous prince. King Fernando VI. was also inclined to follow a
peaceful policy. He promptly settled the foreign questions that called
for attention at this time, and tried his best to enter into and
maintain friendly relations with all foreign powers. He aimed at the
preservation of Spanish neutrality in the European wars of the period,
being most deeply concerned with developing the national wealth. The
brilliant festivities with which Cuba celebrated Fernando's coronation
gave proof of the love his subjects even in Spanish America had
conceived for him before he ascended the throne.
After the brief administrations of Fuentes and Penalosa, a new governor
was appointed in Madrid and the choice fell upon D. Francisco Cagigal de
la Vega, Knight of the order of Santiago. The brave defender of his town
against the attack of Admiral Vernon had since that experience
ingratiated himself with his people by other equally commendable
exploits. With the cooperation of his valiant seamen Regio Espinela and
D. Vicenzo Lopez, he had repulsed many an aggressive manoeuver of the
British fleet in Cuban waters, until the signing of the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle. Cagigal was a personality of quite different calibre
from Guemez. While the latter had been singularly open and sincere for a
man in an official position, Cagigal was endowed with a suavity of
manner which concealed his keen shrewdness. He had after the defeat of
Admiral Vernon been created Field Marshal and was certainly the right
man for his place.
His inauguration occurred on the ninth of June, 1747, and from that day
Cagigal entered upon his duties with the energy and perseverance that
had characterized his previous career. Seriously concerned with the
defenses of Havana, he had the battery of la Pastora finished, which had
been begun long before him, and upon his urgent request the king ordered
a citadel to be built on the mountain-side of la Cabana. He also had the
Barlovento (weather-side) fleet removed from the port of Vera Cruz to
that of Havana. The activity of the ship-building plant of Havana was
remarkable during his administration. In the thirteen years of his
governorship it turned out seven line ships, one frigate, one brig and
one packet-boat and kept in steady work a great number of laborers.
Cagigal improved the fort of la Fuerza by having a reception hall built
on the seaward side, which was surrounded by a row of balconies. The
interior was sumptuously decorated with medallions and escutcheons in
bas-relief. He was much interested in the work of the Commercial Company
which had been organized during the administration of Guemez; its
capital at this time was nine hundred thousand pesos, with shares of one
hundred pesos each, and there was declared in 1760 a dividend of thirty
per cent. on each share.
Before the signing of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle became known in
America there was a serious engagement between the British fleet and the
Spanish on the twelfth of October, 1747, a league off Havana. There
were six vessels on each side, the Spanish under the command of General
Andreas Reggio, the British under that of Admiral Knowles. The Spanish
opened fire at three o'clock in the afternoon and a furious battle took
place which lasted for full six hours. The forces of both sustained
heavy losses, computed approximately at one thousand men on each side,
and when the firing ceased, neither could claim a decisive victory. The
British fleet retired and the Spanish returned to Havana.
The efficient management of the island's affairs during the
administrations of Guemez and Cagigal greatly stimulated the initiative
and enterprise of the Cubans. The first coffee-trees were set out on a
plantation in the province of Waja by D. Jose Gelabert. Brandy and other
spirits were distilled. The armory of Vera Cruz having been removed to
Havana, there was great activity in military circles, and D. Rodrigo de
Torres was appointed as the first commander of the navy of Cuba.
King Fernando VI. succeeded during the thirteen years of his reign in
keeping out of the general European war of 1756, in which England and
Prussia had ranged themselves against Austria, France, Russia, Sweden
and Poland. He was intent upon building up the resources of the kingdom
which had been drained by the wars waged by his predecessors and devoted
his attention to promoting the agriculture, industry and commerce of
Spain. He was fortunate in the choice of an intelligent wife and of two
ministers whose wise counsel he could ever depend upon. The Marquis de
Ensenada, who had risen from a peasant to a banker, financier and
finally minister of marine, war and finance, enjoyed at first the
unlimited confidence of the sovereign and the people, but later fell
into disgrace, because it was discovered that he had sent out secret
orders to the West Indies to attack the British logwood colony on the
Mosquito Coast. The other adviser of Fernando VI., D. Jose de Carvajal,
was a man of quite different stamp, endowed with common sense, sound
judgment, pure of morals and as just as he was incorruptible. But
Fernando died without direct heir to the throne in the year 1759, and
his brother, D. Carlos III., succeeded him.
The solemn proclamation of King Carlos III. in the cities of Cuba was
one of the last acts of the administration of Governor Cagigal. In the
year 1760, he was promoted to the post of viceroy of Mexico and left the
affairs of the government in charge of the Tenente-Rey, the King's
Lieutenant, D. Pedro Alonso. During this provisional government there
was erected a new sentry-house at the gate of Tierra, as is commemorated
in the following inscription:
Reynando La Magesdad de Carlos III Y Siendo Gobernador Y Capitan
General de Esta Ciudad E Isla El Coronel D. Pedro Alonso Se
Construyo Esta Garita. Ano de 1760.
In the reign of his Majesty Charles III. and when Colonel D. Pedro
Alonzo was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of this town and island
was built this sentry-box. In the year 1760.
During this administration died the venerable Cuban prelate D. Juan de
Conyedo, who as spiritual adviser to individuals and as counselor to
prominent officials had won the love and esteem of the population as did
the Bishop Compostela and later the popular Bishop Valdes. Conyedo's
services to Cuba in the interest of religion, charity and education were
invaluable. He was especially identified with the growth of Villa Clara,
where in the year 1712 he had founded a free school for children of both
sexes and had himself taken charge of the classes. Before he opened this
school, the people knew absolutely nothing besides the Christian
doctrine, and the rudiments of reading and writing.
The propaganda of the British war party favoring the conquest of Spanish
America was in the meantime going on without interruption. When the
greed of acquisition of territory is once roused in a nation, it is
difficult to appease it. It enlists in the cause all ranks and
professions, it employs all means, whether they answer the test of
international justice and human equity, or not. Art, literature, science
are harnessed in its service. It is needless to remind of a recent
example of national mentality and morality gone astray through
misapplied ambition. The utterances of Pope and Johnson were tame in
comparison to the hymns of hate following the declaration of the World's
war, still fresh in our memory.
But, there was another side to this literary activity. It did not always
appeal to the emotions and stir up feelings. It was also of an
instructive kind. Just as the Dutch at the time when their attention was
fixed upon the Spanish possessions of America wrote book upon book
describing the coveted islands and the coasts of the continent supposed
to hold inexhaustible riches, so did the British during the eighteenth
century suddenly conceive an interest in Spanish America which led to
magazine articles, pamphlets and books dealing with those lands. That
this literature with its endless descriptions of ports and products was
intended for the use of mariners venturing forth on legitimate or
illegitimate business, was evident. All these writers did not fail to
remark that Havana was the richest town in America, that it had
magnificent churches and public buildings and that the streets were
narrow, but clean. But their main concern was to describe the exact
location of every bay and every harbor: Matanzas, Nipe, Puerto del
Principe, Santiago, Baracoa, Guantanamo, etc., and their next concern
was to dwell upon the several products of the country, as tobacco,
sugar, and others.
One of the most curious books of this kind was "A Voyage to Guinea,
Brazil and the West Indies," published in London in the year 1735. Its
author was John Atkins, surgeon of the Royal Navy, and though it
contained an account of a trip made by him, it very plainly revealed an
interest in the commerce of the countries visited and in the
possibilities they offered, which, while natural in a business man, was
quite surprising in a member of the medical fraternity. After devoting
considerable space to the products of these southern lands, hurricanes,
etc., he also discourses at length upon the slave-trade and gives
interesting glimpses of the manner in which it was conducted. "To give
dispatch," says he, "cajole the traders with Brandy," and continues:
"Giving way to the ridiculous Humours and Gestures of the trading
Negroes is no small artifice for success. If you look strange and are
niggardly of your Drams, you frighten him. Sambo is gone, he never cares
to treat with dry lips, and as the Expenses is in English Spirits of two
Shillings a Gallon, brought partly for this purpose, the good Humour it
brings them into, is found discounted in the sale of goods." Speaking of
Cuba, he calls it a very pleasant and flourishing island, the Spanish
building and improving for posterity without dreaming, as the English
planters do, of any other homes. But he does not fail to add, "They make
the best Sugars in the world."
Another publication aiming more directly at the mariners and merchants
of Great Britain is by one Caleb Smith, called on the title page, the
inventor of the "New Sea Quadrant." It was printed in 1740 and was a
translation of Domingo Gonzales Carranza's description of the coasts,
harbors and sea-ports of the Spanish West Indies. In the curious preface
he says:
"The original was brought to England by a Sympathetic prisoner who
had been in Havana where he procured it in manuscript and presented
it to the Editor as a Testimony of his friendship and respect,"
and the dedication is addressed "to the Merchants of Great Britain, the
Commanders of Ships, and others who were pleased to subscribe for this
Treatise."
Thus was the mind of the people perpetually stimulated to look beyond
the Atlantic for lands and seas which waited to be conquered by British
prowess; and the defeat of Vernon in Santiago was hardly heeded. In the
meantime negotiations had been going on between the European powers and
a convention of their representatives had met at Aix-la-Chapelle to
settle certain disputes and sign a treaty of peace. England and Spain on
the one and England and France on the other hand had gained nothing by
eight years of mutual fighting, but an immense national debt. As at
other conferences for the establishment of the world's peace much was
said and after all little was done. For when the document known since as
the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 1748, it left some of the
most harassing problems unsolved. Among them was the frontier of Florida
and the right of Spanish ships to search British vessels suspected of
smuggling. The assiente agreement, which had been found so profitable,
was continued for four more years. In the light of later events the
treaty was found to be only a makeshift for the moment, and did not
prevent the outbreak of new hostilities between Great Britain and Spain
when the ink with which the treaty was signed had barely dried on that
document.
CHAPTER III
The alliances among the powers of Europe in the middle of the
seventeenth century and the unsatisfactory settlements of some of the
most harassing questions in dispute produced a state of unrest and
tension throughout the world which the clever pourparlers and the
fascinating fencing bouts of European diplomacy failed to relieve, and
of which Cuba was destined to feel the effects. In spite of her insular
isolation Great Britain was closely concerned with the intrigues that
were being spun at the courts of the continent and were bound sooner or
later to involve Europe in a new bloody conflict. She had on the one
hand allied herself with Austria, bribing even some of the South German
principalities to insure the election of Joseph II. to the throne of the
Holy Roman Empire, and on the other hand with Russia, which was then a
newcomer not yet vitally interested in the issues at stake. Both allies
failed to keep their pledge; Austria turned away to enter into a
confederacy with France, while Russia passed from one camp to the other.
The growing ascendancy of Prussia under Frederick II. had long been
watched with distrust by the immediate neighbors, but by this time even
those whose territories seemed safe from his acquisitive aggressiveness
were roused to the realization of the danger it foreboded.
When Saxony and some other German states, Austria, Hungary, Sweden,
Russia and France combined to check the Prussian's ambitious designs,
Great Britain, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel and Brunswick became the allies of
Frederick. Spain with remarkable firmness decided to keep out of the
general war which broke out in 1756 and, lasting until 1763, was to be
known in history as The Seven Years' War. Even when Pitt, who was the
ally of Frederick of Prussia, offered the conditional return of
Gibraltar and the abandonment of the British settlements on the Mosquito
Coast and in the Bay of Honduras, Fernando VI. resolutely refused to
participate.
By this wise policy of non-interference this king secured for Spain a
period of peace which brought with it a prosperity it had long lacked.
The country recovered from the losses occasioned by previous wars, and
when Carlos III. succeeded his father, he found fifteen millions of
dollars in the treasury. He, too, was determined to keep peace, but the
stubborn resistance of Great Britain to any equitable settlement of the
question in dispute between the two countries, and the continual
violation of international justice by her mariners were hard to bear and
sorely tried the patience of the people. Bancroft says in his history of
the United States (Vol. III, p. 264):
"The restitution of the merchant ships, which the English had seized
before the war, was justly demanded. They were afloat on the ocean,
under every guarantee of safety; they were the property of private
citizens, who knew nothing, and could know nothing, of the diplomatic
disputes of the two countries. The capture was unjustifiable by every
reason of equity and public law. 'The cannon,' said Pitt, 'has settled
the question in our favor; and, in the absence of a tribunal, this
decision is a sentence.'"
It is meet in this place to call attention to the literature called
forth by Britain's colonial ambitions. Albert Savine, a French writer,
during the Spanish-American war, wrote an interesting article in the
_Revue Brittanique_ of Paris (1898, Vol. III, pp. 167 etc.), entitled:
"Les Anglais dans l'ile de Cuba au dix-huitieme siecle," in which he
refers to a History of Jamaica by Hans Sloane, published in 1740 and
translated into French in 1751. This writer brought out the importance
of Cuba very clearly, saying that no vessel could go to the continent
without passing that island, that Havana was the general rendezvous of
the fleet and that for the British to be really lords of the seas
surrounding them, nothing was needed but Havana. Savine in discussing
Britain's designs upon Havana, continued:
"The reason for their attack upon Cuba was, as is seen, the commercial
and military importance of the island, which was at that epoch
considered a necessary stopping place, a rallying point for the vessels
going from Spain to America and from America to Spain. To be master of
Cuba, thought they, was to be master of the road which the Spanish
galleons followed. This rôle of port of supply and repairs for the
damages sustained on the sea had made of Havana since the middle of the
sixteenth century an important arsenal and dockyard, where there were
continually in process of construction enormous ships destined for
travel to Spain or South America. From 1747 to 1760 they fitted out
seven ships of line, a frigate, a brigantine, and a packet-boat. The
vessels which at the side of our fleet at Trafalgar fought those of
Nelson had almost all come from the yards of Havana, which used the
excellent timber of the island, commerce in which has somewhat
diminished in our century."
The notes and dispatches exchanged between France and Spain on the one,
and Britain on the other side, prove how the two were slowly forced into
an alliance against the latter. On the fifteenth of May, France
presented a memorial asking that England give no help to the king of
Prussia and simultaneously a paper was presented from Spain, demanding
indemnity for seizure of ships, the right to fish at Newfoundland and
the abandonment of the settlements in the Bay of Honduras. On the
twenty-ninth, England demanded Canada, the fisheries, granting to the
French a limited concession, unlikely to be of any use, the reduction of
Dunkirk, half of the neutral islands; Senegal and Goree, which was
equivalent to a monopoly of the slave trade; Minorca; freedom to give
help to the king of Prussia; and British supremacy in East India. On the
fifteenth of August, the French minister Choiseul concluded with Spain
what was called a family compact, rallying all the Bourbons to check the
arrogance of Britain. On the same day a special agreement was reached
between France and Spain, empowering the latter, unless peace were
concluded between France and England before the first of May, 1762, to
declare war against England.
Guiteras in his "Historia de la Isla de Cuba" has set forth the position
of Spain at this time and her relation to France, which led to the
famous alliance known as the Family Pact. He says justly, that the
general interests of the nation demanded from Carlos III. the
continuation of the strict neutrality which his brother had pursued in
this war; for by that neutrality the commerce and general welfare of
Spain had derived great benefits. But personal motives of resentment
against England and of esteem and gratitude for Louis XV. predominated
in his mind against the serious reasons of state and the advantages to
his subjects, and the voluminous correspondence carried on between him
and the king of France made him deeply share the humiliation of the
principal branch of his family under the triumph of British arms. These
sentiments and other motives finally gave birth to the treaty which was
concluded between the two sovereigns on the fifteenth of August, 1761,
and which was a defensive and offensive alliance of the two countries
with the object of creating between them firm and lasting bonds for the
mutual protection of their interests, and thus to secure on a solid
basis the internal prosperity of the two kingdoms and the predominance
of the house of Bourbon among the princes of Europe.
It was agreed to consider henceforth as a common enemy any government
that would declare war against either of the two kingdoms and
reciprocally to guarantee the dominions they possessed at the conclusion
of the war, in which France saw herself involved; to lend each other aid
at sea and on land, and not to listen to or enter into any settlement
with the enemies of both crowns unless so done with common accord. For
as much in peace as in war they had to consider the identified interests
of the two nations, compensate their losses and divide their respective
acquisitions and operate as though the two peoples were one, by granting
to the subjects of both kingdoms in their European dominions the
enjoyment of the same privileges as those of their native subjects; and,
finally, to admit to participation in this treaty only such countries as
were ruled by sovereigns of the House of Bourbon.
As Spain was by this treaty compelled to break with Great Britain, they
awaited only the arrival of the galleons from South America in order to
provide for the security of their commerce and territory, and that of
their distant possessions. Then would be the moment to make known the
consummation of this alliance and to begin hostilities against the
common enemy. But somehow Britain anticipated the designs of Spain, for
the French with their characteristic impatience had divulged the secret
in their communications to foreign courts, and a lively correspondence
ensued between the countries, soon to be arrayed against each other in
the war Carlos III. had so zealously wished to avoid. But there was no
doubt in the minds of the Spanish king and his cabinet, that the British
policy was one solely of conquest, that Britain recognized no other law
than the aggrandizement of her power on land and her universal despotism
on the ocean. Nor could it be doubted by any impartial onlooker that
Britain had long cast covetous eyes upon the Spanish possessions in
America, and had for a long time given Spain sufficient cause for
grievance. The audacity of her privateers and pirates in their attacks
upon the West Indies had not been forgotten; the colonies especially had
reason to remember the numerous and criminal outrages to which they had
been subjected at the hands of men openly or covertly breaking treaties
that had been made and accepted by the two nations for the mutual
protection of their merchantmen at sea. The leniency of Britain in
dealing with the most notorious pirate of all, the scoundrel Morgan,
whom she allowed to settle under the protection of her flag in Jamaica,
to rise to social prominence, to be appointed to public offices of
importance, and whom her king had finally distinguished by conferring
upon him knighthood, had always been felt as acts of defiance.
In the rapid exchange of notes during the period when the rupture
between the two powers was daily coming nearer the suavity of diplomatic
language was sometimes discarded for rather plain speech. When Britain
proposed some regulations of the privileges of the British to cut
logwood in Campeche, the king of Spain, through his minister, Wall,
replied in a dispatch:
"The evacuation of the logwood establishment is offered, if his Catholic
majesty will assure to the English the logwood! He who avows that he has
entered another man's house to seize his jewels says, 'I will go out of
your house, if you will first give me what I am come to seize!'"
This drastic comparison enraged Pitt and he decided upon even more
stringent measures to humiliate Spain and crush her power in America.
But in the meantime the party in parliament that had steadily opposed
him succeeded in its propaganda against him, and he was forced to
retire. However, the feelings had run too high, the hostility on both
sides had assumed such proportions that war was inevitable. The British
were more than ever bent upon pursuing their acquisitions in America,
regardless of France and Spain; and the Spanish were unanimous in their
hatred of the aggressor.
The year 1762 opened for the powers concerned in this conflict with the
declaration of war upon Spain by King George III. on the fourth of
January. This was promptly followed on the sixteenth of the same month
by a declaration of war upon Britain by King Carlos III. Thus was the
die cast, and both governments at once set about to make extensive
preparations for military and naval action. Fortune seemed to favor the
British; for George Rodney, the gifted naval officer, who was to
distinguish himself during the war between Britain and her colonies by
his daring and successful operations against the French and Spanish
fleets in the West Indian waters, was at that time in the neighborhood
of what was to be the scene of action. He had with a fleet of sixteen
ships of line and thirteen frigates, carrying an army of twelve thousand
men under Monckton, arrived at Martinique and laid siege to the colony
which France cherished most among her island possessions in America.
After five weeks, it was forced to surrender. A number of other islands
followed, until all the outer Caribbeans from St. Domingo towards the
continent of South America were in the possession of the British.
Naturally the attention of the British government was immediately fixed
upon Havana. This being the most important military post of New Spain,
its conquest promised to close the passage of the ocean to the Spanish
ships carrying away from America its inexhaustible treasures for the
sole enrichment of the crown of Spain. It meant also opening that and
other ports of the Spanish West Indies to British navigation, and lastly
it was to be only the beginning of operations which ultimately were to
include the conquest of other possessions of Spain in that part of the
world. The honor of conceiving the project has been conceded to Admiral
Knowles, who had submitted his plan to the Duke of Cumberland; but
although the latter recommended it to the ministry, the plan of the
invasion, which had been simultaneously submitted by Lord Anson, chief
of the board of Admiralty, and which was almost identical with that of
Knowles, was the one finally adopted. In order to divert the attention
of the enemy from the true object of the expedition, a rumor was
circulated that the forces were destined for Santo Domingo, which seemed
quite plausible, this island being nearer to Martinique than to Cuba,
and one half of it belonging to France, the other to Spain. _The London
Gazette_ of January ninth corroborated this statement by the
announcement that the English army was bound for the Antilles.
George III. entrusted the Duke of Cumberland with the task of selecting
the chiefs who were to be placed at the head of the enterprise, and his
choice fell upon the following: Lieutenant-General Keppel, Earl of
Albemarle, for general-in-chief of the land forces, and Admiral Sir
George Pococke for the command of the squadron. The latter and a
division of four thousand men gathered in Portsmouth and orders were
given to General Monckton to hold the forces which had gone to the
conquest of Martinique and Guadeloupe ready for the arrival of Admiral
Pococke. The authorities in Jamaica and the British colonies of North
America were ordered to prepare two divisions, the first of two thousand
men, the latter of four thousand. The British command staked everything
upon a surprise attack. Fear that information of the rupture between the
two countries might have reached Cuba, caused no little anxiety to Lord
Albemarle and Admiral Pococke. The expedition narrowly escaped an
encounter with the squadron of M. de Blenac, who had left Brest in aid
of Martinique with seven vessels and four frigates and a sufficient
force to have saved that colony, had he come in time. Unfortunately he
arrived in sight of Martinique only after the surrender of Fort Royal,
and on hearing that the island was in possession of the British, he
altered his course and turned towards Cape France, leaving the passage
free for Admiral Pococke and his fleet.
Upon his arrival in Martinique, Lord Albemarle took command of all the
forces assembled on the island and found that his army consisted of
twelve thousand men. He divided them into five brigades and formed
besides them two bodies, one of four companies of light infantry brought
from England, and one battalion of grenadiers under the command of
Colonel Guy Carleton, and placed two other battalions of grenadiers
under the command of William Howe. He also ordered the purchase of four
thousand negroes in Martinique and other islands, who were incorporated
into a company with six thousand negroes of Jamaica. When all these
preparations had been made, the forces that were to take part in the
siege of Havana were under orders of the following commanders:
Lord Albemarle, Commander-in-chief.
Lieutenant-General George August Eliot, second chief.
Field Marshals: John Lafanfille and the Hon. William Keppel.
Brigadiers: William Haviland, Francis Grant, John Reid, Andrew Lord
Rollo and Hunt Walsh.
Adjutant-General: Hon. Col. William Howe; second;--Lieutenant-Colonel
Dudley Ackland.
Quartermaster General: Col. Guy Carleton; sub-delegate:--Major Nevinson
Poole.
Secretary of the general-in-chief: Lieutenant-Colonel John Hale.
Engineer-chief: Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick MacKellar.
Chief of the Military Health Board and of the medical corps: Sir Clifton
Wintringham; sub-delegate: Richard Hunck and a staff of three
physicians, four surgeons, four druggists and forty-four attendants.
A month passed in concluding the details of this well-elaborated plan.
Finally on the sixth of May Admiral Pococke started from Martinique in
the direction of the Paso de la Mano, where he was joined on the eighth
by the division of Captain Hervey, who was blocking the squadron of
Admiral de Blenac at Cape France; on the seventeenth they arrived at
Cape Nicolas and on the twenty-third they met the Jamaica fleet under
command of Sir James Douglas. The British naval forces, including these
two divisions and the one that later arrived from North America,
consisted of fifty-three warships of various kinds with a crew of ten
thousand eight hundred men, and a great number of transports, among them
two hundred vessels carrying provisions, hospital supplies, ammunition,
etc. When the manner of conducting the expedition was at last decided
upon, the fleet ordered to take part in the siege of Havana was
composed of the following vessels:
The Admiral ship _Namur_ of fifty cannons; _Cambridge_ of eighty;
_Valiant_; _Culloden_; _Temerare_; _Dragon_; _Centaur_; and _Dublin_ of
seventy-four; _Marlborough_ and _Temple_ of seventy; _Oxford_ and
_Devonshire_ of sixty-six; _Belleisle_; _Edgar_; _Alcide_; _Hampton
Court_; and _Sterling Castle_ of sixty-four; _Pembroke_; _Rippon_;
_Nottingham_; _Defense_; and _Intrepid_ of sixty; _Centurion_;
_Depford_; _Sutherland_; and _Hampshire_ of fifty; the frigates
_Penzance_, _Dover_ and _Enterprise_ of forty; _Richmond_ and _Alarm_ of
thirty-two; _Echo_, _Lizard_, _Trent_, _Cerberus_ and _Boreas_ of
twenty-eight; _Mercury_ of twenty-four; _Rose_, _Portmahon_, _Forvey_
and _Glasgow_ of twenty; _Bonetta_, _Cygnet_ and _Merle_ of sixteen; the
schooner _Porcupine_ of sixteen, _Barbadoes_, _Viper_, _Port Royal_,
_Lurcher_ and _Ferret_ of fourteen, and the bomb-vessels _Thunder_,
_Grenade_ and _Basilisk_, each of eight cannons.
Of such formidable dimensions were, according to Guiteras, the
preparations made by Britain for the attack upon Havana. Little is heard
of corresponding steps taken by her opponents. France was too exhausted
to indulge in great expenditures of money or men. Spain was curiously
unconcerned. The possibility of an attack upon Havana was discussed in
Madrid, but the Spanish minister Grimaldi could not be made to believe
that it might be successful. Cuba, too, little suspected what was in
store for her. The new governor appointed to take the place of Cagigal,
when the latter was promoted to the vice-regency of Mexico, was the
Field Marshal D. Juan Prado y Portocasso. Before the consummation of the
Family Pact, in March, 1670, King Carlos III. had told Prado of the
menacing attitude of Britain and had warned him of the possibility of a
rupture. He counted upon him to reorganize the island from a military
point of view. Nevertheless Prado did not immediately after his
appointment sail for Cuba, but lingered six more months in Spain, and,
when he arrived on the island, wasted another month in a visit to his
friend Madriaga, the governor of Santiago. He did not arrive in Havana
until January, 1761. Valdes gives July as the month of his inauguration
which seems improbable.
CHAPTER IV
When Prado took charge of the governorship, he immediately proceeded to
build quarters for the reenforcement of dragoons which were to be sent
over from Spain, and for that purpose engaged sixty galley-slaves from
Vera Cruz. He also began work on the fortifications of Cabanas under the
direction of the excellent engineer Francois Ribaut de Tirgale. But a
second consignment of galley-slaves in June brought to Havana the
"vomito negro," the yellow fever, of which Siam had made a gift to
Mexico in 1713 and which so far had been unknown in Cuba. Physicians
being unfamiliar with the terrible scourge, all remedies proved of no
avail. Within three months eighteen hundred men of the garrison and the
fleet succumbed to the disease. The hospitals were filled with the sick,
and work on the important public constructions was suspended. Engineer
Tirgale was one of the first stricken. He was succeeded by his brother
Balthazar, but he himself was sick and had such insufficient and
inadequate help that he was much handicapped in his work. New
difficulties having arisen with the vigueros, or tobacco-planters, Prado
convoked the Junta which agreed to fix the process, the quantity and the
brands of tobacco which the General Factory was to receive from the
planters.
[Illustration: THE OLD ESPADA CEMETERY, HAVANA, 1750]
Thus was the whole year 1761 wasted, while the signs of the impending
outbreak multiplied and the danger of the dreaded invasion came nearer
and nearer. On the sixteenth of January, war was declared and only on
the twenty-sixth of February did the news reach Prado, for the vessel
carrying the dispatches of the Spanish government had been captured by
the tender of the _Dublin_. He called at once a meeting of the council
and asked for one thousand veterans to replace the losses which the
troops had sustained through the epidemic. He also demanded that he be
furnished four thousand rounds of powder. The army that he could muster
in the eventuality of an invasion did not number at that time more than
four thousand six hundred men. Yet Prado could not be roused from a
curious apathy that possessed him and that made him again lapse into the
indolence of Creole life. It seemed impossible for him to realize that
anybody would dare to attempt what neither Hossier, nor Vernon, nor
Knowles had dared. M. de Blenac, who commanded a French fleet charged
with the protection of Santo Domingo, and Prado's friend Madriaga were
equally unsuspecting. Had the former come to an understanding with the
commander of the Royal Spanish transports, they might have surprised
the British in the straits of Bahama and averted the disaster.
On the twenty first of May, a business man from Santiago, Martin de
Arana, who had been on an errand to Kingston and in his patriotic
anxiety perceived the armaments and supplies that were being collected
there, came to Havana to inform the government. Reluctantly Governor
Prado consented to an interview with this man who had braved the sea
voyage and suffered privations to save his country from the menacing
attack. The attitude of the people as soon as the news spread was
commendable. The sugar-planters promised their negroes freedom if they
joined the troops of defense and the clergy went about rousing the
spirit of the people to action. Bishop Pedro Agustino Morell of Santa
Cruz did admirable work. He had during the expedition of Edward Vernon
traversed the country on horseback, and stirred the people to resist the
invaders. Beloved by his parishioners, whom he inspired with his zeal,
he had for twenty years preached the holy war against the enemies of his
native soil. His generosity and his self-denial knew no bounds. The word
of such a man at such a moment had weight and the people were ready to
go to any length of sacrifice; but the man at the head of the government
seemed oblivious to the gravity of the situation and did nothing
efficiently to prepare the defense of the city. Prado presided at the
meetings of the War Junta which failed to suit the action of the word
and wasted time in heated discussions. This War Council consisted of the
"Marquès" of the Royal Transports, the honorary marine quartermaster, D.
Juan Montalvo, Col. del Rio D. Alejandro Arroyo, the engineer D.
Balthasar Ricaut, and the captains of the vessels anchored in the bay.
Later it was joined by the Lieutenant-General D. Jose Manso de Velasco,
the former viceroy of Peru, the Field Marshal D. Diego Tabares,
ex-governor of Cartagena, and the Lieutenant-General Conde de Superanda,
then visiting Havana. The council did not heed the warning of D. Martin
de Arana, the Santiago trader, any more than did Governor Prado.
In the meantime the British fleet was approaching through the straits of
Bahama, clear of purpose, strong of will, and bent upon conquest. An
interesting document of that event is "An Authentic Journal of the Siege
of the Havana By an Officer. Printed in London MDCCLXII. Reprinted in
Dublin, by Boulton Grierson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent
Majesty." That record of the expedition had evidently for its author a
man of sound judgment and is imbued throughout with a rare sense of
justice towards British and Spanish alike. Spanish authorities, among
them Blanchet, give the number of line ships in the fleet as twenty-six,
fifteen frigates and an infinite number of smaller vessels, and about
twenty thousand combatants. The author of the journal reports nineteen
ships of the line, about eighteen frigates, sloops, and other vessels
and one hundred and fifty transports with ten thousand troops. The
commander of the fleet was Sir George Pococke, Knight of the Bath,
Admiral of the Blue, etc., and the commander of the troops,
Lieutenant-General Earl of Albemarle. The witness writes that they left
Cape Nicolas, northwest of Hispaniola, on the twenty-seventh of May and
sailed in seven divisions through the old straits of Bahama--"an
undertaking far superior to anything we know in our times, or read of in
the past, as few ships care to go through this passage at any time, much
less such a fleet, destitute of pilots that professed any knowledge of
it and almost of any information of the passage that could be relied
on." He goes on to say that "frigates, smaller vessels and even the
great ships' boats were sent ahead and so distributed on both shores,
with such proper and well adapted signals for day and night, that not
only reconciled every one to the dangers and risk of so hazardous an
undertaking, but almost ensured our success. We were often in sight of
the keys or shoals on each side."
In the first days of June some of the British ships engaged in a fight
with and took a Spanish frigate of twenty-four guns and a smaller vessel
of eighteen guns, a brig and a schooner, all of which had sailed ten
days before from Havana for timber. Through the crews of these vessels,
the British learned that at the time of their sailing the people of
Havana had not yet been informed of the declaration of war. On the fifth
of June the fleet cleared the straits and the next day was off Puerto de
Terrara, about thirty-six miles windward of Havana. Colonel Carleton and
Colonel Howe went to reconnoitre the coast for landing. The siege of
Morro Castle was left to Commodore Keppel. "The Admiral went himself
with the rest of the fleet off the harbor, to block up the enemy's ships
and in order to more effectually draw the attention of the enemy that
way, took with him all the victualling ships, store ships and
transports, whose troops had over night been put in those men-of-war
appointed for securing the landing." By daylight the troops were in the
flat and other boats, and Captain Hervey gave the signal for descent on
the sandy beach between Boconao and Cojimar. The enemy had thrown up
small breastworks near the old tower commanding the mouth of Boconao and
attempted a defense, but was soon dispersed by fire from two ships
anchored close to shore. At three o'clock in the afternoon the army was
on shore and began to advance toward the Morro, five miles away, along a
road which had a thick wood to the left and the sea to the right. The
ten guns of the old stone fort of Cojimar were soon silenced by the
_Dragon_, anchored close by. Two and a half miles from the Morro the
British lay down for the night upon their arms in a heavy rain.
While the British were continuing their advance upon Havana, the
authorities of the Cuban metropolis were deliberating in the sessions of
the War Junta, and the Governor was still unconvinced of the serious
intention of the British, this time determined not to rest until Havana
was in their possession. Valdes reports that this state of affairs
lasted until on the sixth of June there appeared on the weather-side
about two hundred and fifty vessels. Everybody but Governor Prado was
convinced that they had come ready to fight. He supposed them to be a
flotilla come from Jamaica to discharge their cargo. Nevertheless he
went that morning to the Morro to observe the movements of the armada.
He found the garrison under arms by order of the royal lieutenant D.
Dionisio Soler. Much vexed by what he considered exaggerated fear and
suspicion, he rescinded the order and commanded the soldiers to return
to their quarters. That afternoon, however, the report came from the
Morro, that the fleet had arrived and was preparing to land troops.
[Illustration: LAUREL DITCH, CABANAS FORTRESS
The Cabanas fortress stands near the Morro Castle, at the eastern side
of the entrance to the harbor of Havana, and ranks with the Morro and La
Punta, on the western headland, as one of the historic fortifications of
the capital. Like the Morro Castle, it was used by the Spaniards as a
prison, and the Laurel Ditch, under its landward walls, was the scene of
many a martyrdom of Cuban patriots. Here men and boys innumerable,
during the years of Cuba's struggles to be free, were lined up to be
shot, until the massive wall was thickly pitted with the marks of
bullets fired not at the foes but at the friends of Cuba.]
The consternation of the inhabitants can be imagined when suddenly the
bells began to ring and the cannons to thunder. The people rushed out of
their houses. Some were armed; but the greater part had no weapons and
hurried to the Sala Real, where fifteen hundred guns were stored away
with some old carabines, swords, bayonets, and other weapons, mostly out
of order and too old to be of any use. They were quickly distributed
among the people. The war council assembled. The governor, the Royal
Lieutenant, the General of the Navy, the Marques of the Royal
Transports, the Commissary D. Lorenzo Montalvo and the distinguished
visitors, the Commander-in-Chief Conde de Superanda and Field Marshal D.
Diego Tabares were present. It was decided to charge Colonel D. Carlos
Caro with the task of opposing and preventing the enemy's debarkation at
Cojimar and Boconao, and to collect the cavalry of that place, a few
companies of infantry, militia and lancers, in all about three thousand
men, at this point. La Cabanas was rapidly supplied with artillery. But
in the meantime the enemy, according to the testimony of a British
officer's journal, had already landed troops and overcome the resistance
of the very places to the support of which these forces were sent!
The military defense of Havana, as described by Blanchet, presented a
sorry spectacle. It consisted of eight hundred and ten cavalry, three
thousand five hundred infantry, three hundred artillery, nine thousand
marines and fourteen thousand militia. The armament of these troops was
insufficient in quantity and inferior in quality. Twelve vessels were
anchored in the port. The entrance was protected by the Morro with
fourteen cannons, the battery of the Doce Apostoles with twelve guns,
that of the Divina Pastora with fourteen guns and the fort of la Punta.
In the city there were the twenty two guns of la Fuerza, the residence
of the Captain-General, and the depository of the royal estates. The
condition of the walls was unsatisfactory. The town was dominated by
fortified heights, which, however, were very accessible. It is not
difficult to imagine the state of the people when the news reached the
town that Cojimar and Boconao had fallen. When on the following day
General Eliot defeated D. Luis Rasave and took Guanabacoa, Colonel Caro,
who had been little more than a spectator, retired to Havana. The
population was in a panic.
The war council then entrusted the defense of the Morro to D. Luis
Vicente Velasco, a native of Villa de Noja in Santander and commander of
the vessel _La Reina_. Defenses were hurriedly put up at Chorrera and
Cabanas. All residents unable to bear arms were advised to leave the
city. Soon a procession of women and children and members of the
religious orders of both sexes, with here and there the calash of some
wealthy family, were seen to proceed along the roads radiating from the
city towards the suburbs and the more remote haciendas, under the
protection of a detachment of troops. It was a heartrending picture to
see these crowds, trudging along on foot in the cruel heat of the
tropical sun, on roads almost impassable from recent rains. Many
succumbed to the hardships of this exodus. Others were dumb with terror
as they realized that they might never again see their fathers, brothers
and husbands. Again others gave vent to their high-strung emotions by
loud wails. About the time this evacuation took place, fire was set to
the suburbs outside of the city walls and unspeakable was the distress
of innumerable unfortunate families, who in the face of foreign invasion
saw their homes reduced to ashes.
A part of the British fleet was seen sailing at this time towards the
leeward part of the island with the manifest intention of making another
landing. The population was dazed. Some men rushed out to defend their
homes and their women, but the greater number was so overcome by the
calamity confronting them, that their wills seemed paralyzed and they
dumbly awaited the blow that was coming. The next day the work of
fortifying la Cabanas began in such an exposed place on the border of
the city that rifle bullets could reach the Plaza de los Armas. The
construction of a trench was also begun. It was intended to hold one
hundred cannon, but after nine or ten had been mounted, the war council
changed its plan, ordered the destruction of the trench and had the
artillery brought down. This was done in the night of the ninth of June
and fire was set to some houses on the hill. The people were startled by
this surprising procedure and began not only to grumble, but to talk of
treason.
As the British fleet was then menacing the port, the three vessels,
_Neptune_, _Europa_ and _Asia_, were concentrated in the canal of the
entrance. With the huge iron beams that closed it and the artillery of
the harbor, they acted like forts securing its safety. It seemed as if
these land batteries could prevent the landing of any enemy vessel. But
the war council wanted to improve upon this measure and decided to sink
_Neptune_ and _Europa_, during the hurried execution of which order two
sailors were drowned. Still bent upon what seemed an improvement, two
days later the _Asia_, too, was sunk. The British, supposing the port to
be closed, anchored along the coast, landed five thousand men and after
defeating the land forces, the fleet entered the canal without
encountering serious obstacles. But the Spanish authorities continued to
commit more blunders. Appointing as commanders of the land-forces
officers of the fleet, the army of course resented this as an insult.
The task of mobilizing the troops was entrusted to D. Juan Ignacio de
Madriaga; the defense of el Morro had been given to D. Luis Vicente de
Velasco, whose second was D. Bartolome Montes, and that of la Punta to
D. Manuel Briseno, who was soon relieved by D. Fernando de Lortia.
Almost all the army posts were occupied by officers of the fleet. The
reasons for these measures which seemed absolutely senseless in view of
the critical situation, were hotly discussed and some malicious tongues
asserted that the object of this curious disposition was to prevent the
fleet from making its escape.
On the tenth of June a British division moved from the leeward part of
the fort of Chorrera, a short distance from the port, with the object of
landing troops. They met with greater resistance than they had reason to
expect; for the defense was here aided by the loyal executor D. Luis de
Aguiar, who had been appointed Colonel of the militia. All day his men
fought bravely; they consisted of whites and negroes. They expected a
supply of powder and ammunition from an official of Guadeloupe, but he
by mistake had delivered them at la Caleta. Finally their stock gave
out, and, obeying the order of a superior officer, Aguiar withdrew his
troops with little loss. The British then advanced about three thousand
men strong, until they reached the hill of San Lazaro, where they dug
trenches and prepared a new encampment. They also occupied and fortified
the height of the caves, called Taganana, where they mounted three
cannon and two large mortars. With two vessels, armed with bombs, in the
small bay, the fire they kept up helped the camp on the weather-side, at
which the chief force was concentrated. They then proceeded to erect
batteries on the height of la Cabanas and were at first much molested
during their work by Aguiar, Chacon and the guerilla Pepe Antonio, who
had collected a force at that point. A detachment of militia under the
command of Captain D. Pedro de Morales was sent to reenforce them, but
on the next day he was surprised by the British, who thus came into
possession of this important place.
In the meantime, the British expedition was beginning to suffer much
from incessant rains, alternating with excessive heat. Their work was
retarded as much by the weather as by the physical condition of their
forces, which began to suffer from the climate and fatigue. The
resistance of the Cubans was increasing in proportion as the enemy drew
near. During the last days of June, Colonel D. Alejandro de Arroyo
landed a body of six hundred men at Pastora battery. Simultaneously the
naval lieutenant D. Francisco de Corral placed three hundred men at
Norno de Barba. The plan was to spike up the enemy's artillery. But
laudable as was the ambition of the commanders, their ability of
achievement was not in proportion. Their forces, too, were sadly
inferior in number to those of the British. The Captain of the infantry
of the fleet, D. Manuel de Frias, was made prisoner, three hundred of
his troops were killed and forty men wounded. The force of Col. Arroyo
also sustained heavy losses, especially the grenadiers of Arrajon.
A council held at el Morro resulted in the election by the commanders of
D. Luis Vicente de Velasco as their head and chief. No man was more able
or worthy to fill this responsible position. Untiring in his efforts to
defend the fortress, Velasco resolutely and capably endeavored to foil
the enemy's designs. But he was out-numbered and the danger grew daily
nearer. Though at a great loss to their forces, the British forged ahead
and surrounded Velasco with a continuous fire. With the port closed to
the Cuban squadron they were free to place their cannon as they went
along. The rain of bullets, bombs and grenades was incessant and the
breakdown of the bastions inevitable. The garrison seemed to be doomed.
The commander declared that it would not be possible to maintain his
position without some aid from the camp, but while the walls were being
gradually destroyed by the enemy, he did not venture a well organized
sortie. On the first of July el Morro was attacked by the batteries
which the British had planted on el Cabanas and the fire from three
vessels, among them the _Cambridge_ and the _Dragon_. The valor of
Velasco inspired his troops, pathetically small in comparison with those
of the British. After seven hours of the hottest fire, the _Cambridge_
and the _Dragon_ were so badly battered that they were forced to the
rear. The British lost three hundred men, among them Captain Goostree of
the _Cambridge_. So fierce had been the resistance offered by Velasco
and the few cannon at his disposal, that the British camp, which had
been pouring a rain of bombs on el Morro, finally ceased firing. So the
honor of this day belonged to the Spanish commander.
It is interesting at this point to revert to the journal of the British
officer, who took part in this memorable siege of Havana. After
reporting under date of July third that their great battery had caught
fire, he continues on the following day:
"The Morro was now found to be tougher work and the Spaniards more
resolute than was at first imagined. Our people grew fatigued by the
heat and hard labour and the want of water near them was a sensible
distress, and the disappointment of the Morro's not being reduced so
speedily as at first they were made to hope, helped to depress the
spirits of the weak and low minds; but we found every want relieved and
amply made up for by the Admiral's attention, not only to supply every
article that could be asked, but by his own sagacity, foreseeing and his
precaution providing everything we could want."
During the following days the British seem to have suffered much from
the climate. The writer of the journal records that the men in general
"fall down with fevers and fluxes, but few are carried off by them."
Admiral Keppel was much weakened by illness and fatigue, but this
discouraging entry is followed immediately by a cheerier note, dated
July 8th and 9th:
"Every one was exerting himself in his different station and with such
zeal as gave fresh hopes to our undertaking, notwithstanding the
melancholy scene of the infinite number of sick and the apprehension of
the approaching hurricane season."
The British had begun to realize the failure of the naval attempt to
reduce el Morro. They tried to fortify themselves in the harbor and
established the lee-shore camp on the slope of Aroztegui, the same on
which El Principe was situated. From this point they undertook many
movements, but were always driven back. In spite of these temporary and
local successes the Cuban authorities now fully realized that their
situation was almost hopeless and devised various measures to stay the
progress of the enemy. The magistrates D. Luis de Aguiar and D. Laureane
Chacon were made colonels of the militia. They decided to stop the
forays and attacks from that encampment, and D. Aguiar established
himself in the Horon and tried to dislodge the enemy from various points
to which they had penetrated. His undertaking was successful, as was
proved by the number of prisoners taken. The hostile forces at Taganana,
however, did much mischief and he resolved to attack them on the night
of the eighteenth of July. His troops consisted of peasants and negro
slaves and fought so effectively, that he was able to send to the
fortress eighteen prisoners, including an officer and many trophies. The
governor was so elated by this success that he gave one hundred and four
negro slaves, that had taken part, their liberty.
The British officer in his journal alludes in the entries of these days
to the heavy losses sustained by the British, but dwells more upon the
ravages caused by disease. The sick list increasing, the guards had to
be reduced. The necessity of having a supply of fresh meat for the
invalids and convalescents worried them much. They had counted upon
getting it from Santiago and Bejucal, where the rich plantations and
pastures were, and a monastery that promised rich loot. But D. Laureane
Chacon anticipated their movements in that direction. He concentrated
some troops four leagues leeward from Wajay, and thus not only checked
their progress, but by his persistent opposition weakened their forces.
Many of the smaller actions that were undertaken against the British by
the Cubans were by volunteer forces recruited by veteran fighters, who
had not been associated with the army proper, and their manner of waging
war was of the kind called guerrilla warfare. Nevertheless they did
active and efficient work and had they not been hindered and restrained
by orders from the regulars, they might have accomplished much more. The
Lieutenant Diego Ruiz lost his life in such an enterprise. Another
famous guerrilla, the valiant fighter known as Pepe Antonio, had won the
esteem of the whole army by his courage. He had collected a force of
three hundred men and was planning an ambitious assault upon the enemy,
when he was called to report to Colonel Caro, who commanded the
encampment at Jesus del Monte and San Juan. Colonel Caro, who had not
during the siege distinguished himself by any extraordinary
achievements, not only censured Pepe Antonio severely, but discharged
him. The valiant patriot hero of many daring exploits was so grieved by
this injustice that he died within five days.
Among these side plays of the great siege an expedition led by Colonel
Gutierrez had some successful encounters with the British. D. Luis de
Aguiar and D. Laureane Chacon, too, who had gathered under their command
the brave youths of the country side, were untiring in their efforts to
weaken the British. They prevented them from establishing a cordon and
cutting communication with the fort and were themselves enabled
uninterruptedly to secure provisions and supplies with which to carry on
their operations. Less fortunate was the attack upon Cabanas by D. Juan
Benito Lujan with a thousand militia men from the interior of the
island. At daybreak, on the twenty-second of July, according to the
British officer, the Spanish at el Morro, having been enforced by twelve
hundred men from the town, furiously attacked the British. But Brigadier
Carleton directed so fierce a fire against them that their forces were
driven into the water. He describes them as having consisted mainly of
militia, some seamen, mulattoes and negroes. They lost four hundred
dead, many wounded and seventy prisoners. A violent cannonade followed,
during which Carleton was wounded.
While the British troops were encamped from La Cabanas to Cojimar they
made many looting raids in the neighborhood, extending their incursions
as far as San Miguel and Santa Maria del Rosario. They not only
ransacked the churches for their treasures, but also private estates,
and took away whatever they could carry. They had approached el Morro by
the bulwark of Pina and a body of forty to fifty men in the shelter of
some rocks maintained an incessant gunfire. The garrison of the fort,
which was being steadily reduced by the rain of bombs and grenades,
wanted to make a sortie into the open country, hoping there to be
reenforced. Remaining in el Morro was becoming more and more perilous,
because the enemy had undermined the fortress. D. Luis de Velasco,
broken down by the strain and overwork received a blow on the shoulder,
which temporarily disabled him. His aide, Mentes, was likewise wounded,
and the two were replaced by D. Francisco Medina and D. Manuel de
Cordova. During their absence nothing was done, for the peasantry, fond
as they were of Velasco, were reluctant to fight and perhaps die under
the command of another. Mentes returned on the third day, appointed
Lieutenant-Colonel, and, joined by D. Juan Benito Lujan, who commanded
one thousand men of Tierradentro and some colored troops from the fort,
attempted a sally. But the British on the heights threw themselves upon
the Cubans and overpowered them. The loss on both sides was so great,
however, that the enemy had to ask for a truce to bury their dead. As
the British said, the Spanish were valiant, but they had no head. If
there had been at their head a man of foresight, and if unity of command
had been insured at the beginning, the disaster might have been avoided.
The British forces were at this time beginning to suffer painfully for
want of water and lack of fresh provisions. Five thousand men, and a
great proportion of officers among them, were unfit for duty. But the
arrival of North American troops under convoy of the _Intrepid_ of
sixty-four guns, revived the spirit of the expedition. The North
Americans had lost a ship of forty guns and six transports in the old
straits of Bahama, but the people were saved and encamped upon the
shores, and the British Admiral sent frigates for them. One thousand and
four hundred men under Brigadier Burton reenforced Col. Howe on the west
side. The Cuban defense was also encouraged in these days, for Velasco,
who had been wounded on the sixteenth of July, with second, Mentes,
forced to seek medical care in the city, returned to his post at el
Morro on the twenty-fourth. During the siege the Spanish vessels, with
the exception of the frigate _Perla_, which was sunk by the foe, were
singularly inactive. The critical and decisive moment of the siege came
on the thirteenth of July, when at two o'clock in the afternoon the
British sprung their mines. Through the breach they rapidly entered and
captured the battery of San Nicolas. Although the garrison was so
terrified that not a few soldiers had fled, the remaining offered a
brave opposition to the invaders. D. Fernando Parrayo and thirteen men,
supported by two cannon, fought heroically, while the British forces
poured into the port. The British officer gives due credit to the Cuban
commanders who desperately tried to save the honor of their country. He
writes:
"The Marquis de Gonzales, commander of a man of war, etc., second in
command of the fort, fell bravely endeavoring to animate and rally his
people. Don Luis de Velasco, also Captain of the _Reina_ man-of-war,
soon after shared the same fate endeavoring to defend the colours of the
fort, round which he had made a breastwork and had collected about 100
men, who soon fled and left him to that stroke he seemed to invite and
wait for; for being shot through the breast he fell, offering his sword
to the conquerors. Confusion and fright ensued, and as much slaughter;
for near 400 of the enemy fell by the sword; as many more taken
prisoners to whom the soldiers had generously given quarters, though no
ways obliged by the rules of war. English colours were soon flying on
the fort, that were welcomed by the loud huzzas of all the rejoiced army
and navy. A parley ensued, and D. Luis de Velasco (not yet dead) was at
his own request sent to breathe out his last at the Havana, where he
expired a day after, leaving a name behind and a character that justly
merited admiration and esteem from his opposites as respect and love
from his confederates."
The historian Blanchet also reports that the British showed due
reverence to the dead leader and that hostilities were for that reason
suspended during the following day. They received a reenforcement of
troops from New York on the second of August; but they had fallen in
with three French men-of-war and some frigates on their passage, who
took five or six transports with about five hundred men. Their forces
were being decimated by the climate and the hardships. The British
witness writes that finishing the batteries on Cabanas cost the lives of
many poor seamen who were obliged to be day and night filling vessels
with water for the men at work. Some men-of-war were sent down with
transports to Mariel, for want of men made it unsafe for them to remain
any longer on this most open and frightful coast, where the Spaniards as
well as West Indians expressed their surprise and dread at seeing such a
fleet ride so long in such a season.
When the British entered el Morro, they found only one hundred and two
bronze cannon of various calibres, two hundred iron cannon, nine bronze
mortars, two iron mortars, four thousand one hundred and fifty-seven
rifles, five hundred hand grenades, four hundred and seventy empty
grenades of various quality, seventeen thousand four hundred and four
cannon balls, thirty quintals of rifle balls, one hundred and
twenty-five thousand cartridges and five hundred quintals of powder. The
sorrow at being forced to give up el Morro was great. Supported by the
vessel _Aquilon_ the quick fire from la Punta and the bulwarks of the
place promptly demolished the fort. The Cuban vessels retired to the
interior of the bay, fearing the bombs from la Cabanas. The commanders
for the same reason sought shelter in the hospiteum of St. Isidore,
which was situated at the point farthest away from the fire. Yet the
determination to continue to resist the invaders prevailed and a battery
was formed on the elevation of Soto, where the fort of Attares was
located, and fortifications were continued to be strengthened wherever
it was possible.
The batteries of the British were completed on August tenth, and Lord
Albemarle summoned the city to surrender. But Governor Prado relied upon
reenforcements promised him by the governor of Santiago de Cuba and
hoped also for the possible arrival of a French squadron, so he refused.
The people, too, were opposed to surrender, for they had within the last
six days received reenforcements from several sides; two hundred and
twelve rifles and ammunition from the town of Cuba, five hundred more
from Jagua and fifteen hundred on the very last day. However, the fierce
fire which the British opened against Havana at daybreak on the eleventh
of August, induced the commander of the Cuban forces to give up the last
hope. About noon the Spanish ceased firing and at three o'clock in the
afternoon flags of truce appeared everywhere. The governor sent word
that Havana was ready to capitulate.
According to the British officer's journal the victors took possession
of the town and port of Havana on the next day; they also became the
owners of nine ships of the line, of seventy four and sixty four guns,
two very large ones on the stocks, nearly completed, about twenty-five
loaded merchant ships; nearly three million dollars belonging to the
King and the Royal Company; about six hundred pieces of cannon, and
great magazines of stores and merchandise of all kinds. He continues:
"But the most grateful at the time was, that it furnished us with fresh
provisions, rest and shelter for the many thousands poor sick wretches
we had in our camp and hospital ships, all mouldering away for want of
nourishment when their disorders had left them. Our battalion is so weak
that we have not above one hundred and fifty men fit for duty. I am told
the navy is badly off. Our loss of killed and wounded is very trifling
in comparison to that of the enemy. Theirs amounts to upwards of six
thousand killed and dead of their wounds since, and of sickness."
The following day the governor ordered all weapons to be surrendered by
military bodies as private individuals and Mayor D. Antonio Ramirez de
Estenez was authorized to accord the articles of capitulation.
ARTICLES OF CAPITULATION
ARTICLE I
The garrison will leave by the puerta de Tierra on the twenty-eighth of
the present month, if there should not arrive before sufficient help to
raise the siege, with all military honors, the soldiers with arms,
hoisted flags, six field cannon, and the regiments will also remove the
military cases with their contents, and besides six carriages of the
Governor.
ARTICLE II
Said garrison will be permitted to remove from the town all luggage and
money, and transport them to another place of the island.
ARTICLE III
That the ship crews of the port that had served on land shall in their
departure enjoy the same honors as the garrison and be brought back to
their vessels. They may sail to any other place of Spanish domination,
on the condition that on their voyage until their arrival at their
destination they shall not attack any vessel of H. British Majesty, of
his allies, or any vessel of his subjects.
ARTICLE IV
That of all the artillery, arms, ammunition and provisions belonging to
his Catholic Majesty, excepting those that particularly correspond with
said fleet, an exact inventory shall be taken, with the assistance of
four subjects of the king of Spain, who will be appointed by the
governor, and four subjects of H. British Majesty, chosen by H. Ex Count
Albemarle, who will take possession of all until both sovereigns agree
otherwise.
ARTICLE V
That in this capitulation shall be comprised H. Ex Conde de Superanda,
Lieutenant-General of the armies of H. Catholic Majesty, and former
Viceroy of Peru, as well as Don Diego Tabares, Fieldmarshal of the same
royal arms, and former Governor of Cartagena, who happens to be in that
town on their way to Spain, together with their families. They shall be
left in the possession of their baggage and their sailing to Spain shall
be facilitated.
ARTICLE VI
That the Catholic Apostolic Roman religion shall be maintained, and
conserved, as before exercised under H. Catholic Majesty, and that not
the least impediment shall be placed in the public acts in regard to the
rites exercised and with the churches, and the observation of religious
feasts, and all priests, convents, monasteries, hospitals, societies,
universities, colleges shall remain in the free enjoyment of their
privileges and rights, as to their property and income, and furnitures,
as they had enjoyed before.
ARTICLE VII
That the Bishop of Cuba shall likewise conserve his rights, privileges
and prerogatives, which are required for the direction and spiritual
nourishment of the faithful of the Catholic religion, or nomination of
priests and ecclesiastical ministers necessary, and exercise his
accustomed jurisdiction. (Note: Conceded with the reserve that the
nomination of priests and other employes be subject to the approval of
the Governor of H. British Majesty sent to the place.)
ARTICLE VIII
That in the cloisters and nunneries the internal government hitherto
prevailing shall be followed with subordination to their legitimate
superiors, according to the statutes of the particular institutions.
("Conceded.")
ARTICLE IX
That the funds in the town belonging to H. Catholic Majesty shall be
embarked on the vessels of the fleet that happen to be in port to be
shipped to Spain, likewise all the tobacco belonging to H. Catholic
Majesty; that even in war time the same Sovereign shall be permitted to
buy tobacco from the island, in the district subject to the King of
Great Britain at current prices, and to transport it to Spain in their
own foreign vessels. ("Refused.")
ARTICLE X
That in consideration of the fact that this port is so conveniently
situated for those navigating in these parts of America, be they Spanish
or English, it shall be available to the subjects of H. Catholic Majesty
as a neutral port and they shall be permitted to enter and leave freely,
taken the food they require and repair their vessels, paying for
everything at current prices, and that they cannot be insulted or
disturbed in their navigation by the ships of H. British Majesty, nor
the ships of his subjects and allies, from the promontory of Celoche on
the coast of Campêche and St. Antonio in the West, and from the sound of
la Tortuga to this port, and thence to the latitude 33° North, until
their two Majesties agree otherwise. ("Refused.")
ARTICLE XI
That all permanent inhabitants of the city and neighborhood remain in
the free use and possession of their political offices and employments,
and in that of their funds and other property, i.e. household stuff of
whatever origin, quality, or in whatever condition they be, without
being obliged to contribute in other terms than those made by H.
Catholic Majesty. (Conceded, and they will be permitted to continue in
the enjoyment of their property so long as their conduct does not give
cause for denying them.)
ARTICLE XII
That these same should retain and have guaranteed the rights and
privileges which they hitherto enjoyed, and that they will be governed
in the name of H. British Majesty under the same conditions as they have
been under Spanish domination, naming their judges and agents of justice
according to usages and customs. (Answered in the preceding.)
ARTICLE XIII
That whoever of said inhabitants is unwilling to stay in this city, be
permitted freely to remove his property and wealth in the manner most
convenient to him, to sell them or leave them to be administrated, and
to go away with them to the dominions of H. Catholic Majesty, he may
choose, granting them a space of four years and giving them bought or
chartered vessels for conveyance, with the passports and necessary
protection of safety, and the power to arm them in the cruise against
the Moors and Turks, with the express condition not to use them against
subjects of H. British Majesty or his allies, nor to be ill-treated or
molested by them. (Reply: The inhabitants will be permitted to sell and
remove their effects to any place of Spanish dominions, in vessels at
its coast, for which purpose they will be given passports; and it is to
be understood that officials who have property in the island will enjoy
the same benefits as conceded to the other inhabitants.)
ARTICLE XIV
That these will not be in the least molested for having in their loyalty
taken up arms, and enlisted their militia for the war; nor shall the
English troops be permitted to plunder or any other abuse, and that, to
the contrary, they shall completely enjoy the other rights, exemptions
and prerogatives as the other subjects of H. British Majesty, the
families that had left the town on account of the present invasion to
return without any obstacle or difficulty from the country to the city
with all their provisions and funds, and it is to be understood that
neither the one nor the others will be inconvenienced by the stationing
of troops in their houses, unless it be in quarters as were used during
Spanish dominion. (Reply: Conceded, excepting that in case it becomes
necessary to quarter the troops, it must be left to the direction of the
Governor. All the slaves of the King will be delivered to the persons
that will be named to receive them.)
ARTICLE XV
That holders of stocks found in this town and belonging to merchants of
Cadiz and in which all nations of Europe are interested, be facilitated
to depart freely with them, to remit them with the protocols without
being insulted in their voyage.
ARTICLE XVI
That the ministers in charge of the administration and distribution of
the Exchequer or any other business of H. Catholic Majesty be left in
the free use of all those documents that are in their guard, with the
power to remit or bring them to Spain for safety, and the same to hold
also good with regard to the Royal Company established in this town, and
its clerks. All public papers will be delivered for revision to the
secretaries of the Admiral, and will be restored to the ministers of H.
Catholic Majesty, unless they be found necessary for the Government of
the island.
ARTICLE XVII
That the public archives remain in the power of the Ministers in whose
charge they are, without being permitted the least irregularity in
regard to these papers and the instruments they contain, because of the
grave mischief that would result from it to the rights of the community
and to private individuals. (Replied in the preceding articles.)
ARTICLE XVIII
That the officials and soldiers who are in the hospitals be treated in
the same way as the garrison, and after having recovered, they should be
helped in obtaining beasts of burden or vessels for their transportation
to where the rest of the garrison happens to be, as well as everything
necessary for their safety and subsistence during the voyage, and among
others they should be given the provisions and medicines asked for by
the directors and surgeons of said hospitals. (Conceded: The governor
having competent commissaries to assist them with provisions, surgeons
and the necessary medicines at the cost of H. Catholic Majesty.)
ARTICLE XIX
That the prisoners of either party taken by the other since the sixth of
June when the English fleet appeared before this port, be reciprocally
restituted without any ransom whatever in the course of two months.
(This article cannot be concluded before the British prisoners are
returned.)
ARTICLE XX
Upon the granting of the articles of this capitulation, and the giving
of hostages by either party, the gate of Tierra will be delivered to the
troops of H. British Majesty, for placing there a guard, together with
another provided by the garrison of the place until the evacuation is
carried out, and His Ex Conde de Albemarle will send a few soldiers for
the protection of the churches, convents, the houses of the generals and
other officials. (Conceded.)
ARTICLE XXI
That the governor and commander of the fleet be permitted to dispatch to
H. Catholic Majesty and to other parties information by the vessels, to
which passports for their voyage shall be given. (Since the troops are
to be sent to Spain, the information is useless.)
ARTICLE XXII
That in consideration of the vigorous defense made by the Fort of la
Punta, it shall be included in this capitulation and its garrison shall
enjoy the same honors as that of the fortress, and it shall leave
through one of the most suitable breaches made in the ramparts.
(Conceded.)
ARTICLE XXIII
This capitulation to be observed punctually and literally. (Conceded.)
Headquarters in Habana, August 12, 1762.
(Signed) G. Pococke,
Albemarle,
Marques of the Royal Fleet,
Juan de Prado.
What is contained in these articles in regard to the squadron, its
officials, crew and garrisons, has been done with my intervention, and I
propose them as their Comendante General, and in consequence of what has
been accorded in the Junta of yesterday.
Habana, August 12, 1762--El Marques of the Royal Transports.
We agree with these articles, which are a true copy of the originals,
according to the translation made from the English into Spanish by D.
Miguel Brito, public interpreter of this town for H. Catholic Majesty.
Habana, August 12, 1762--El Marques of the Royal Transports--Juan de
Prado.
CHAPTER V
With the solemn signing of the foregoing articles of capitulation on the
twelfth of August, 1762, began the occupation of Havana by the British,
who thus seemed to have attained the goal of their covetous aspirations.
It was a great day for them; it was a day of mourning for the Cubans.
While these articles of capitulation were in themselves not unjust,
differing in no essentials from those usually exacted by the victors
from the vanquished, the people of Havana found it difficult to obey all
these injunctions coming to them from a foreign authority. History
furnishes abundant proofs that it is comparatively easy to conquer a
country by numerical superiority or clever strategy, but that it is
infinitely more difficult to conquer the hearts of its people. The
Spanish historian Alcazar records an incident belonging to the history
of the capture of Havana which illustrates this point.
As soon as the British were masters of the city Lord Albemarle called an
extraordinary meeting in which he declared to the Municipio that, being
masters of the city by force of arms of King George III. of England,
they had to insist upon obedience and allegiance to him as sovereign.
The Alcalde D. Pedro Santa Cruz at once rose to say that subjects of Don
Carlos III. of Spain could not without committing perjury swear
allegiance to any other monarch. He added: "The capitulation compels us
to passive obedience. Count on this, but never on our dishonor." It
seems that these noble words found an echo in the heart of the British
commander who henceforth let the people choose whether to take the oath
or not.
This story is symptomatic of the attitude of the population of Cuba
towards the conquerors. When the morning of the thirteenth of August,
1762, dawned, the British were in possession of the town and port of
Havana with one hundred and eighty miles to the east and all that tract
of land to the west which terminates the island on that side. They took
without resistance Managuas, Bejucal, Santiago, Mariel and Matanzas. The
commander of the fort of San Severine in Matanzas, D. Felipe Garcia
Solis, had stored up a large amount of provisions and supplies of all
kinds in view of an eventual attack. But when he heard of the
capitulation of Havana, he blew up the fort and retired with part of the
garrison to Santiago. The governor of that city, D. Lorenzo Madriaga,
was recognized as the authority to be obeyed by the people in that part
of the island not taken by the British. Perhaps the British had gauged
the sentiment of the population; perhaps they felt that their forces
were too much weakened by the hardships of the siege. They made no
attempts at further extending their conquest.
According to the agreement between Admiral George Pococke and Lord
Albemarle on the one side and the Marques of the Royal Transports and D.
Juan de Prado on the other side, the Spanish garrison was to retire with
military honors; artillery arms and munitions were to be delivered to
the British; the Spanish troops were to be sent back on British
transports; but the British were to respect the Catholic religion, its
ministers, and churches, hospitals, and colleges; and the population was
not to be disturbed in the exercise of wonted occupations and
employments; and the laws of Spain were to remain in force. On the
thirteenth of August, the gates of Tierra were opened to the British
and on the following day they entered with two pieces of artillery and
planted their flags on the forts. The following day the Spanish vessels
were delivered to them: _Tigre_, _Reina_, _Soberano_, _Infante_,
_Aquilon_, _America_, _Conquistader_, _San Antonio_ and _San Genero_.
Many merchant vessels in the bay were also taken. The value of their
booty was estimated at fourteen million pesos. But according to Valdes
their losses during the first twenty four days of the siege had been
seven thousand men, some killed in combat, some deserters, but the
greater part victims of the Cuban climate. Hence in spite of
reenforcements from Jamaica and North America, they had only three
thousand men of infantry when Havana was taken.
The departure of the Spanish troops was scheduled for the twenty-fourth
of August. The British held ready for them three transports which on the
thirtieth sailed through the gate of la Punta. One of them carried the
Governor and his family. On his arrival in Madrid he was tried by a war
council, which for his lack of foresight and energy in preparing the
defense of Havana, condemned him to exile. But the king commuted the
sentence to imprisonment for life. The British commanders, no longer
needed in Havana, worn out with fatigue and weakened by the climate,
also hurried to leave. Brigadier Burton returned to North America,
Admiral Keppel to Jamaica, Pococke to England. He met with terrible
tempests, lost one ship of line, and twelve transports. But the greeting
he received on his arrival in England was most enthusiastic. Though the
parliament was divided on the question of extending British conquests in
Spanish America, there was still the party representing commercial
interests to be reckoned with.
With a promptness quite unusual at that time a book was published
shortly after the capture of Havana, which outlined the course to be
pursued in order to reap the benefits of the South Sea trade, which so
far had been in the hands of the French and Spanish. It was entitled
"The Great Importance of the Havana" set forth in an "Essay on the
Nature and Methods of Carrying on a Trade to the South Sea and the West
Indies, by Robert Allen, Esq., who resided some years in the Kingdom of
Peru, London, printed for J. Hinxman in Paternoster Row and D. Wilson in
the Strand, in 1762. Dedicated to the most Hon. Thomas Harley, Esq., M.
P. and Merchant of London." The author begins with reference to an old
tradition that a Prince of Wales had made an expedition to the coast of
Mexico in 1190 and died there. Upon this tradition and the assertion
that the Mexican language abounds in Welsh words, he seems to base the
right of British priority to Spanish America.
Mr. Allen was evidently much concerned with the activity of the French
in West Indian waters. He says: "As to the slave-trade, it is too well
known that the French are now under contract with the Spanish Assiento
to supply them with four or five thousand negroes yearly and the greater
profits and advantages which they reap from this trade has encouraged
them to send many strong ships yearly to the coast of Africa which have
not only taken many of our own ships on that coast, but also destroyed
several of our many forts and settlements and likewise made several new
settlements of their own, all which has been frequently represented both
in the governing and legislative bodies of Britain, and no effectual
reconciling remedy taken yet." He continues, that the channel of Spanish
trade is quite altered from Jamaica "and the French, a nation whom we
least suspected in trade, have of late years engrossed much of the
greatest part thereof to themselves." He tries to rouse the British to
the need of regaining the Spanish market in America, which was slowly
slipping away from them, by a strenuous appeal to his Majesty to
encourage such commerce by underselling the French. After giving a list
of commodities and manufactures proper for this trade, he adds the
postscript:
"If Queen Anne, at the treaty of Utrecht, obtained so valuable a branch
of trade as the Assiento contract by the success of the Duke of Marlboro
alone, which according to stipulation was for two millions in shares
annually, but doubly augmented under that contract in other goods (tho'
given up by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle with our right of logwood) how
much more ought we to insist on valuable terms since the reduction of
Cuba, the key to the South Sea trade?"
While the British people, like all people under a mass suggestion, were
giving themselves up to jubilating and celebrating, the politicians in
Parliament and elsewhere to controversies on technical questions, the
business world of London and the great industrial and manufacturing
centers of the country were considering investments in West Indian trade
and calculating the profits to be made thereby. After all human nature
is very much alike the world over. That the British as victors were also
not different from other conquerors by force of arms and exacted
requisitions and even without any formalities and ceremonies
appropriated the treasures that seemed worth taking possession of, is
evident from many data in the chronicles of those days. Not only were
the royal chests taken, but also the property of private corporations,
and individuals. Some documents relating to the "right of bells" have
been presented and are interesting reading. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel
Cleaveland, Artillery Commander of the island, addressed the following
communication to Bishop Senor D. Pedro Agustino Morell of Santa Cruz,
and to other priests:
"According to the rules and customs of war observed by all official
commanders of artillery in all European countries when a besieged town
surrenders by capitulation:
"I command that the city of Havana and the neighboring towns, where the
army was situated, give account of all the bells found in all the
churches, convents and monasteries, as well as in the sugar-plantations,
and of other metals similar to bells, in order that said point shall be
put into effect.
"Havana, 19 August, 1762.
"SAMUEL CLEAVELAND,
"Lieutenant-Colonel of Artillery."
The bishop addressed a letter of inquiry concerning this "Derecho de
companes" to Lord Albemarle and received the reply, that the war custom
was well known, that the chiefs of artillery receive a gratification
from any besieged and captured town or city, and that the
Lieutenant-Colonel insisted upon compliance with his demand, adding,
however, that it would not be disproportionate. Cleaveland was offered
one thousand pesos in place of the coveted bells, but the British
considered this amount too small, and the bishop received another letter
from Lord Albemarle, which reads:
"Illustrious Sir:
"The compensation offered to the Commandant of Artillery of His British
Majesty for the bells of the city is so low as to compel me to express
my indignation. In order to have the matter settled, I say, that your
Reverence can give the said official for all the churches ten thousand
pesos and I am in the hope that this letter will deserve your immediate
attention.
"Your obedient servant,
"ALBEMARLE.
"Havana, 27 August, 1762."
The Bishop tried to obtain the sum demanded by alms and collections
among his parishioners. But at a meeting on the thirty-first of August
it was seen that the collection amounted only to one hundred pesos and
four reales, which together with the previous one thousand pesos did not
nearly approach the sum required. This was communicated to the British
General with the remark that it would be impossible to raise more. This
communication received no reply and the Commander of Artillery came to
ask for the delivery of the bells, although this was not to take place
until September fourth. He did not receive the bells, for the ten
thousand pesos were got together by a loan, and the money was paid to
Cleaveland on the sixth of that month.
Difficulties between the British authorities and the Spanish clergy
increased as time went on. On the twentieth of August the Junta of
priests and prelates had a meeting at which was discussed the demand of
the British Lieutenant-General, the local governor of the place, for a
church in which the Anglican worship was to be instituted. The Bishop
decided at once to send the communication to said governor, explaining
to him that this demand was not contained in the articles of
capitulation and if his Excellency had some other basis to justify his
claim, he should communicate it. In reply the Bishop received on the
thirtieth of August the following letter:
"Havana, Aug. 30, 1762.
"Rev. Sir:
"I wish and ask that your Reverence provide for the British troops a
church for their divine worship, or that an alternative be arranged with
the Catholics for such hours in the morning or evening, in which they
don't use their church.
"I request at the same time that an account be given me of all churches,
convents, monasteries of every denomination, that are comprised in the
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cuba, as well as of Superiors and public
officers associated with them.
"Very respectfully, etc.,
"ALBEMARLE."
In a long letter dated September second, 1762, the Bishop replied, that
he had to consult with the government of his Spanish Majesty and briefly
avoided complying with the demand. Thereupon he received a caustic
communication from Albemarle saying:
"Sir:
"I received your very large letter, but which is no answer to mine. I do
not know having read a particular Capitulation made with the Church, but
I am sure that there is none that can exclude the Subjects of H. British
Majesty of their public worship in churches; and for that reason, if you
do not assign me a church I shall take one that suits me best, and
please remember that all Ecclesiastical employes or dignitaries have to
receive my approbation, and also that you better comply with my demand,
and cease writing such long Epistles.
"ALBEMARLE.
"Havana, September 4, 1762."
After a consultation with the other prelates the bishop informed
Albemarle that since he was so decided, he should choose any church that
he liked best. Albemarle selected the Church of San Francisco. But he
insisted upon his other claims, as can be seen from the following letter
dated September 25:
"Some time ago I asked for a list of all Ecclesiastical Benefices (to
which is associated a curacy) of the Donation of Your Honor; and once
more I repeat my wish to be complied with without loss of time.
"I learn that the Jesuit college received in their order an English
official dismissed from the Royal Service on account of his bad
proceedings; I can hardly believe that such a thing has been done
without my license. That order has even in Spain a bad reputation, and
in Portugal and France they have been expelled. If they are not entirely
under your jurisdiction, send to me their Rector, etc.
"ALBEMARLE."
The Bishop replied that the story about the admission of the discredited
Englishman into the Jesuit seminary was altogether untrue, since the
authorities of that college could not admit anybody, this being a
special privilege of the Provincial residing in Mexico. A somewhat
amusing incident of these disputes between the British authorities and
the Spanish clergy of Havana is recorded in the following letter of the
Bishop dated October twenty-second. It reads:
"Your Excellency:
"Yesterday between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon, there called on me
on your part a person whose name and nationality I do not know. All I
know is that he speaks Spanish, though with a foreign accent and wears
golden earrings as is customary with women. He addressed me with
'Usted.' I informed him in the conversation that in speaking to me he
had to use a more dignified title. He replied that he would always use
'Usted.' It then occurred to me that this obstinacy might be justified
by his higher rank. I asked him and he said that he had no other rank
but that of a bomb-thrower in his Majesty's name. He continued in his
way of speaking to me with a loud voice, and since in all his conduct he
was wanting of the respect due to my dignity, I deem it fair that it
should be corrected and that your excellency give me satisfaction."
Lord Albemarle seems to have paid no attention to this letter. But on
the same day the Bishop received another urgent order in which Lord
Albemarle, as Governor and Captain-General of the island, insisted in
his demand to receive a list of all ecclesiastical orders and benefices,
in order to know and be the "competent judge" of the persons appointed
by the Bishop and be able to consent to their appointment. The Bishop in
his reply referred to his previous letter, stating that the Governor
could neither before nor after the appointment be a competent judge of
the appointees, since ecclesiastics, according to all rights, were
exempt of protests by the laity, and their privileges were inviolate.
According to the historian Blanchet, Bishop Morrell was at the end
exiled to Florida for having refused to obey certain orders given by the
British authorities.
Although Albemarle cannot be said to have governed with the tyranny that
characterized the German governors of occupied territories in the recent
war, he failed to win the people. Those residents of Havana who were
able to leave the place, moved into the country or to towns like
Villa-Clara. The peasants of the neighborhood, who had carried on a
profitable trade with the city in garden and dairy products, fowl,
venison, etc., preferred to renounce these profits rather than go to the
market and have the British buy what their soil had raised and their
hands had tended. The spirit of the people was unanimous in the hatred
of the enemy conquerors. Their intemperance, their customs, and even
their language irritated them. Altercations that terminated in bloodshed
became more and more numerous as time went on. Any act of violence
against the British was severely punished, and not a few Cuban "rebels"
were executed; the atmosphere of Havana was soon charged with invisible
mines that a spark could set off.
Complying with the orders of the British government, Albemarle had to
exact the payment of certain sums from the population, including the
clergy and the religious organizations, and found great difficulty in
enforcing these orders. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the
feelings of the population were being deliberately hurt, especially by
the disregard of the British authorities for the institutions maintained
by the clergy. Thus a wave of indignation swept over the city, when the
beggars and the sick were ejected from the convent of San Juan de Dios,
which was turned into a hospital for the British. Without remuneration
they occupied almost one-third of the buildings subject to an
ecclesiastical tax, they transformed private residences into jails; they
seized merchandise and funds that were owned by the Real Compania de
Comercio and when these were claimed as private property, they were
returned only after payment of one hundred and seventy-five pesos. As
the tension grew crimes committed from vindictiveness increased among
the population. M. Savine, the French writer referred to previously,
reports that the Guajiros of the mountains poisoned the milk furnished
to the garrison. A Cuban "rebel" who had escaped from the jail went
about in the part of the island not occupied by the British and preached
a "holy war" against the invaders of the island. Conditions were such
that Havana might have become at any moment the scene of a new Sicilian
Vespers.
It was at this time that the Commissary D. Lorenzo de Montalvo wrote to
the Minister of War at Madrid under date of October eighteenth, 1762:
"The extraordinary mortality of the British troops has reduced them to
the state which Your Excellency will see from the included papers. If at
this moment eight or ten vessels arrived with two or three thousand men
to debark, it would not be forty eight hours before they would
capitulate."
There was indeed a movement on foot in the unoccupied part of Cuba to
collect a force, march against Havana and deliver it from the British
conquerors. A force of guerilleros was ready for action under command of
the intrepid Aguiar. He was only waiting for enforcement promised him by
Governor Madriaga of Santiago, who had three hundred and fifty men with
two thousand and five hundred guns, collected at Yaguas and Villa-Clara.
But he lingered at Yaguas and it was supposed that he was afraid of
losing his position if the British should decide upon moving against
Santiago. Madriaga was however associated with Aguiar, D. Lorenzo
Montalvo, D. Nicolas Rapua, D. Pedro Calvo de la Puerta, D. Augustin de
Cardenas and other prominent citizens and patriots of Cuba in a pact to
reconquer Havana at an opportune moment, and action may have been
delayed only because rumors were afloat that peace was about to be
signed.
In Spain itself feeling ran high. The provinces of Murcia, Granada,
Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia sent an address to King Charles III.
asking to defend the colonies. It said among other things:
"Sir:
"Now is the moment to hold high the glory of the nation; let us
humiliate under your auspices ambitious England which in her folly
proposes nothing less than the ruin of all Europe. As her only aim is
commerce, that is sordid gain, she wages a regrettable war upon a
warlike nation that does not know meanness and has no other sentiments
than the love of her king and her country. Money may be needed in
London, as once in Carthage; but virtue, constancy and heroism we shall
never lack, as they never failed the ancient Romans."
But there is no record that this address elicited anything more than an
appreciative reply from the government at Madrid. For the diplomatic and
political world of Spain as of Great Britain was indeed occupied in
considering a settlement of the Spanish-British problem.
Nevertheless there were Spaniards, who even at that trying time must
have viewed the state of things dispassionately, for the historian
Pezuela gives the British much credit for the moderation and
conciliatory tendency of their policy during the occupation. He records
that they did not materially alter the general regime of the city, nor
even make any radical changes in the municipal government. On taking
possession of the town, Albemarle named for civil lieutenant-governor
the Alderman D. Sebastian Penalver, a prominent lawyer; for the latter's
Suplente or alternate, the alferez real or chief ensign D. Gonzale
Oquendo, and for common civil judge D. Pedro Calvo de la Puerta, a
high-constable and property holder highly esteemed by his fellow
citizens. These three officials by their wisdom, unselfishness and
impartiality lightened the burden of the foreign yoke.
Both Albemarle and Keppel had soon recognized some of the greatest evils
of the colonial administration, among them the corruption of the lower
courts and the amazing amount of bribery going on even in the higher
departments of the government. They tried to check the malpractice of
lawyers, and in a decree dated the fourth of November, 1762, prohibited
the making of gifts or presents of any kind to the principal governor
and to the inferior authorities, considering such practice as means to
promote dishonesty. However, the attitude of the great majority was and
remained hostile to the British and it needed all the prudence and tact
of men like Oquendo, Penalver and Puerta to avoid conflicts between the
citizens and the foreign authorities. Nor should the Intendant Montalvo
be forgotten, whose services were highly appreciated by Albemarle.
In the British parliament there existed at that time a state of turmoil.
The Earl of Bute, friend and adviser of George III., did not care for
further extension of Britain's colonial possessions in America, saying
that it was much greater importance "to bring the old colonies in order
than to plant new ones." Others favored the return of Havana to Spain in
exchange for Porto Rico and Florida. On the twenty-sixth of October,
1762, the British King expressed his approval of the latter proposal and
urged the diplomats engaged in deliberating upon the subject speedily to
draft a treaty. He wrote to Bedford, as quoted by Bancroft in his
"History of the United States," Vol. III., p. 298:
"The best despatch I can receive from you will be those preliminaries
signed. May Providence, in compassion to human misery, give you the
means of executing this great and noble work."
The terms proposed to the French according to the same authority were
severe and even humiliating, and Choiseul is reported as having said:
"But what can we do? The English are furiously imperious; they are drunk
with success; and, unfortunately, we are not in a condition to abase
their pride."
The preliminaries of a peace which was to bring a certain stability to
the colonies in America and permanently settle the claims of the three
nations that had for three centuries been striving for supremacy in the
New World, were signed on the third of November, 1762. They contained
the following stipulations: England was to receive the Floridas and some
islands in the West Indies, but abandon Havana; it was to have Louisiana
to the Mississippi, but without the island of New Orleans; it was
likewise to have all Canada, Acadia, Cape Breton and its independent
islands, Newfoundland, except a share of France in the fisheries, with
the two islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon as shelter for their
fishermen. In Africa England was to have Senegal, which insured for it
the monopoly of the slave-trade. In the East Indies, too, France
recovered only what she possessed on the first of January, 1749, the
rest going to England and assuring its sway over that territory. France,
on the other hand, to indemnify Spain for the loss of Florida, ceded to
Spain New Orleans and all Louisiana west of the Mississippi. There is no
doubt that France came off worst in this settlement; but, as her
minister Choiseul said, it was at the time helpless. In England, which
by this settlement laid the foundations of her great power, there was a
great display of flamboyant oratory. The king was reported to have
said:
"England never signed such a peace before, nor, I believe, any other
power in Europe."
Granville, then, on his deathbed, exclaimed:
"The country never saw so glorious a war or so honorable a peace," and
Bute, roused to defend it against some opponents in Parliament, uttered
these words significant of the high esteem in which he held himself and
whatever services he rendered England as favorite of the king:
"I wish no better inscription on my tomb than that I was its author."
It is needless to say that the effect of this document upon Spain was of
quite a different nature. For it practically checked for all time her
ambitions for maintaining supremacy in the world her discoverers and
explorers had once claimed under her colors. Cuba, of course, rejoiced
at the prospect of the restitution of Havana. Lord Albemarle, suffering
from the strain of the siege and the climate, as no less from the
realization that he would never be able to reconcile the Cubans to a
recognition of his authority, had left early in the year 1762 and Sir
William Keppel occupied his post. The peace was ratified at Paris on the
tenth of February, 1763, and the people began to look forward with
impatience to the arrival of a new governor from Madrid and to the
debarkation of the British. In spite of the harassing situation which
they had endured during the rule of the enemy they had not been idle,
but planned many improvements and reforms which they promised themselves
to execute as soon as the British domination would end. They had
learned, too, to appreciate the advantages of free trade; for during the
British occupation no less than nine hundred merchant vessels entered
the harbor and not a few cargoes of negroes were landed.
CHAPTER VI
The changes which the island underwent during this time were
far-reaching. The British occupation had established a direct contact
with the world outside of Spain, which was bound to broaden the narrowly
provincial viewpoint of the residents of the colony. For the nobles to
whom large tracts of land had been granted in the earlier days of the
colony had never permanently resided there but only came over for a
short time to occupy their winter residence in Havana and for another
brief season to show themselves in all their old-world aristocratic
splendor on their haciendas. The great majority of the people,
descendants of the adventurers and the poor immigrants of the pioneer
period, had acquired the habits of country people so engrossed in their
fields, their live stock and the daily labors required to make these
possessions profitable, that they had lost any desire to seek the
stimulating influence of city life. The cities themselves, Havana not
excepted, had a provincial aspect and offered little attraction to the
foreign traveler who did not come there exclusively on business.
Nevertheless they left a pleasant memory with many a casual visitor. A
Frenchman, who spent some time in Havana about the year 1745, set down
his impressions, which with other letters and memoirs of travel were
edited by Pierre Jean Baptiste Nougaret and published in Paris in 1783
under the title: "Voyages interessans dans differentes Colonies
francaises, espagnoles, anglaises, etc." In these reminiscences of
Havana some twenty years before the British occupation, he draws a
picture of the city, which it is interesting to compare with what other
writers have to say of the Havana of 1762. He writes:
[Illustration: HAVANA, FROM CABANAS
"Beautiful for situation" indeed is the Cuban capital, whether it be
used as a point from which to view the sea and land, or be itself looked
upon from some neighboring or distant height. This view, from the
grounds of the great Cabanas fortress, shows the central portion of the
city, with the notable public buildings clearly discernible, and nearer
at hand the waters of the inner harbor, where occurred in 1898 the
memorable and mysterious tragedy of the _Maine_.]
"It is a very spacious city, well enough built and among the best
fortified in America. In size it compares about with la Rochelle, but it
is far more populated. It is graced with a large number of public
buildings, churches, convents and you see there usually more negro
slaves than in any other city of Spanish domination. Its harbor
especially is one of the largest and most beautiful in America, and they
build there warships for the construction of which the king of Spain
employs a prodigious number of laborers, an arsenal and an immense
workshop. It is the Catholic king's custom to pay one thousand piastres
a cannon; so a vessel of eight cannon costs him eight thousand piastres.
There are always on the docks five or six vessels at once; it is a
company called the Company of Biscay which attends to the business.
Havana is rather regular in plan; the streets are surveyed by the line,
although some of them are not absolutely straight; all houses are of two
or three floors, built of masonry and have balconies mostly of wood; the
lower part of most houses is terrace-like as in European Spain and
altogether they make a respectable impression.
"The city is protected by a numerous garrison of about four thousand
regular troops, extremely well kept, who make Havana impregnable in a
country where one cannot attack, except with considerable forces. The
city which is one of the best located seems an oval; the entrance to her
port is advantageously protected by different forts, of which one, the
first, is called Morro or port of entrance; the second is opposite; a
third has been erected toward the side of the city; it is so large that
it seems rather a citadel than a fort. There is besides before the
principal section of the city before the palace of the governor which is
magnificent, a battery of big guns and of considerable calibre; so one
can say that Havana is the best defended of all places in America, the
vessels that want to enter being obliged to pass so close to the forts
that it would be easy to sink them.
"The customs of the Spanish are here about the same as in Spain,
differing from other colonies of the nation, where frankness,
righteousness and probity seem to have been exiled. The Havanese are
quite frank, extremely gay, more so than suits the ordinary Spanish
gravity which is probably due to the great number of strangers which
come there from all parts. The climate is rather good; the sex very
handsome and enjoying much more liberty than in the rest of Spanish
America.
"Armed cruisers are entertained to keep away strangers from the coast,
which does not prevent all the fraudulent operations in which the
commandant often shares. Nevertheless life is agreeable for the rich,
everything being abundant in Havana; and the residents are far more
neatly habited than elsewhere. One does not drink but cistern water,
much superior to that of the only fountain which is in the center of a
large square; and which serves only as watering trough for animals. You
see in Havana many rolling chairs, most of which are rented, which gives
the city an air resembling European towns."
Appreciative as this description sounds, which had for its author a M.
Sr. Villiet d'Arignon, the Havana of the time of the British calls forth
even more appreciative language from the Spanish historians of Cuba.
They dwell much on the beauty of its location and of the city itself
say:
The streets were not large or well leveled, especially those running
from north to south, which caused the town to be so great in length;
over three thousand houses occupied an expanse of nine hundred fathoms
in length and five hundred in width; they were of hewn stone, of
graceful form and as a whole afforded a very beautiful appearance. To
the beauty of the city contributed eleven churches and convents and two
large hospitals; the churches were rich and magnificent, especially
those of Recoletos, Santa Clara, San Agustino and San Juan de Dios.
Their interior was adorned with altars, lamps and candelabra of gold and
silver of an exquisite taste. There were three principal squares: The
Plaza des Armas, which still retains its name, encompassed by houses of
uniform frontage with the metropolitan church. A magnificent aspect was
added to this square by the castille de la Fuerza, where resided the
Captain-Generals, and the pyramid encompassed by three luxuriant
five-leaved silk cotton trees planted there in memory of the tradition,
that the first mass and town meeting were held in the shadow of a robust
tree of that kind; that of San Francisco adorned with two fountains was
considered the best place in the city and on it were the houses of the
Ayuntamento and the public jail, whose two-story façade with arched
entrance contrasted with the severe architecture of the convent after
which the square is named; and there was still another, the new square,
because it had been opened after the former, with a fountain in the
center and all encompassed with porticos for the convenience of the
public, serving also as market-place, where the inhabitants, according
to Arrate, provided themselves "copiously" with all they wanted.
Native writers also dwell upon the good manners of the Havanese, calling
them the most polite and social people of Spanish America, much given
to imitating the French customs and manners, which were then in vogue at
the Spanish court of Madrid, both in their dress and their conversation,
as also in the furnishings of their houses and the good table they set
their guests. These descriptions of Cuba and Cuban life tally well with
those of the foreigners quoted by the author, and indicate the progress
made by the island, and especially by Havana, in the sixth and seventh
decades of the century.
The economic conditions of the island underwent a great change during
the sixth decade of the century. Up to this time, the majority of the
people had been engaged in agriculture and led a more or less simple,
rustic life. The products of her soil were consumed on the spot. Her
mines were neglected because the gold and silver which had been
discovered in the earlier part of Cuba's history and which had roused
the jealousy of other countries were not sufficient in quantity to
justify the labor needed for working them. With the increasing number of
negro slaves, the possibilities of exploiting all the rich natural
resources of the island were multiplied. Among the products that came
into prominence was sugar. Not ordinarily consumed, it brought forty
three cents a pound. John Atkins, the British surgeon and author of that
interesting book of travel in Spanish America referred to in a previous
chapter, had declared the sugar of Cuba the best in the world; and it
was indeed so considered in the market. It became soon one of the most
important articles of Cuba's commerce. The cheapened labor encouraged
enterprises which the Spanish would have been physically unable to carry
through.
The commerce of Havana had in this epoch increased considerably and the
greatest part of it came from the ports of the island itself. Besides
supplying with goods the towns of the interior and the littoral, Havana
exported great amounts of hides, much esteemed for their excellent
quality, and also sugar, tobacco and other articles. The trade was
carried on by vessels registered from Cadiz and the Canaries besides
those of Spanish merchants who were allowed to trade with the
Spanish-American continent. Especially favored were those that returned
to Spain from Cartagena, Porto Bello and Vera Cruz and entered Havana to
renew their supply of provisions and water, and enjoy the advantage of
going out with the convoy which in the month of September returned to
the Peninsula with galleons loaded with the riches of Peru and Chile,
and the fleet freighted with the treasures of New Spain. This periodical
assembly of a great number of merchant and war vessels in Havana had
introduced the custom of holding fairs, during which great animation
prevailed in the city. For while they facilitated commercial
transactions, they also furnished diversion and entertainment to the
sailors and others who were waiting for the sailing of the convoy. At
that time an order was published prohibiting on penalty of death any
person belonging to the squadron to remain on land over night, and all
had to retire on board at the report of a gun. Provisions were then, as
also M. d'Arignon reported at his time, very dear. The monopoly which
was exercised by the company had unreasonably raised the cost of living.
The flour brought from foreign smugglers at five or six piasters a
barrel, was sold at his time at thirty-five and more! Besides the
ordinary wages of men hired by the day every male slave day-laborer was
paid in excess four pesos a day and every female two pesos.
The description of the defenses of the city during the British invasion
suggest that the surrender to the enemy may after all not have been
entirely the fault of the procrastination and unconcern of the Cuban
governor, as some zealous patriots alleged at the time. The entrance of
the port was in the eastern part, defended by the strong fort of el
Morro, situated upon an elevated rock of irregular, somewhat triangular
form, in the walls and bulwarks of which were forty mounted cannon. It
was protected also by the battery of Doce Apostoles, so called for
having a dozen mounted cannon, situated toward the interior of the port
in the lower parts of the Morro bulwark, which looked to the southeast
and were almost at sea-level. There was also the Divina Pastora with
fourteen cannon, on a level with the sea at a point a little higher than
the former facing the gate of la Punta. Toward the west in the same
entrance of the port and about two hundred yards from it with four
bulwarks well-mounted with artillery, was la Fuerza with twenty-two
cannon. Although not of as solid construction as the others, it served
as storehouse for the treasures of the King and was also the residence
of the governor. Between these fortresses there were erected along the
bay a number of other bulwarks well supplied with artillery. The walls
from la Punta to the arsenal were protected by bulwarks with parapets
and a ditch. From the first to the second gate there was considerable
territory converted at that time into gardens, and pasture land, and
covered with palmettos. In front of the Punta de Tierra was a ravelin.
Nevertheless those fortifications had serious defects of position,
because the city as well as the forts were dominated by many hills easy
of access. East of the port was Cabanas, where there was a citadel built
later, dominating a great part of el Morro and the northeastern part of
the city. West of the town was a suburb, called Guadeloupe, the church
of which was situated on an eminence half a mile from the gate of
Tierra, and on the same level with it, the highest of all fortifications
in that direction. From the northern side of this elevation the gate of
Punta could be flanked and from the southeast the shipyard was
dominated. The zanja real, or royal trench, in the northern part,
descended not far from the Punta de Tierra and then ran into the
shipyard where its water was employed in running a mill. Half a mile
from said church was the Chavez bridge, built over a rivulet flowing
into the bay, which served to unite the central road of the island with
that of Baracoa; and from the bridge to the Lazareto was a stretch of
two miles with an intermediate hill. A trench between these two points
could easily cut the communication of Havana with the rest of the
island. From this close description it can be seen that in spite of the
imposing impression its fortifications made upon foreigners, Havana was
by no means an impregnable fortress at the time of the British invasion,
which was brought out at the trial of Governor Prado. But whatever may
have been the cause of its capitulation to the British, the period of
their occupation at the end benefited Cuba, for it opened the eyes of
the government to the needs of the island, and prepared a new era,
political, social and economic.
CHAPTER VII
By the terms of the treaty signed at Versailles on the tenth of
February, 1763, Britain was to give back to Spain the city and territory
of Havana in the condition in which the British had found it and Spain
was to grant the British a term of eighteen months, so that those who
had established themselves upon the island could insure their interests
by transferring their property. To administrate the political and
military affairs of Cuba and carry out these stipulations, a new
governor was appointed in the person of the Lieutenant-Ge
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