The History of Cuba Volume II Part 8

"The world, and especially America, must see that the king can and will crush even an intention of disrespect."

Masones de Lima expressed himself briefly:

"If France should recover Louisiana, she would annex it to the English colonies or would establish its independence."

Minister de Aranda began cautiously:

"A republic in Louisiana would be independent of the European powers, who would all cultivate her friends.h.i.+p and support her existence. She would increase her population, enlarge her limits, and grow into a rich, flouris.h.i.+ng and free state, contrasting with our exhausted provinces."

He continued in this vein, dwelling at length upon the consequences such an example might bring in its wake, and advised to keep New Orleans in such insignificance as to tempt no attack.

The deliberations in the French cabinet were of quite a different nature. Du Chatelet, as quoted by Bancroft (p. 151), declared:

"Spain can never derive benefit from Louisiana. She neither will nor can take effective measures for its colonization and culture. She has not inhabitants enough to furnish emigrants; and the religious and political principles of her government will always keep away foreigners, and even Frenchmen. Under Spanish dominion, the vast extent of territory ceded by France to Spain on the banks of the Mississippi will soon become a desert.

"The expense of colonies is required only by commerce; and the commerce of Louisiana, under the rigor of the Spanish prohibitive laws, will every day become more and more a nullity. Spain then will make an excellent bargain, if she accords liberty to the inhabitants of Louisiana, and permits them to form themselves into a republic. Nothing can so surely keep them from falling under English rule as making them cherish the protection of Spain and the sweetness of independence."

But the king of Spain had no thought save that of upholding the Spanish traditions, and, accepting the advice of the Duke de Alva, decided to crush the rebellion of Louisiana. He chose as his instrument the Conde Alexandre O'Reilly, who had gone to Cuba with de Ricla and had reorganized the army and militia of the island. Buccarelli was informed of the royal decision and a.s.sisted O'Reilly in fitting out an expedition which was to enable him to enforce Spanish rule and eradicate all traces of republican leanings in the French colony. The people of New Orleans had in the meantime once more sent a pet.i.tion to France in the attempt to enlist the sympathy and aid of the mother country in their endeavor to remain French citizens. They also sent an appeal to the British at Pensacola but the governor was not inclined to offend any powers with which his king was at peace. So great was the dread of the Louisianans of being forced to bow to Spanish rule, that they spoke seriously of burning New Orleans rather than giving it up to the hated foreign authorities.

O'Reilly set sail from Havana with a squadron of twenty-four vessels, with three thousand well-trained troops on board. He arrived at the Balise at the end of July. For a time panic reigned in the city. Aubry tried to quiet the people, and advised them to submit and trust in the clemency of the king of Spain. A committee of three, Lafreniere, as representative of the council, Marquis of the colonists, and Milhet of the merchants, presented themselves at the Balise to pay their respects to the Spanish general and to appeal to his mercy. O'Reilly entertained them at dinner and they left a.s.sured of perfect amnesty. On the eighth of August the Spanish squadron anch.o.r.ed before the city itself, and the authorities took possession in the name of his Majesty, Carlos III. of Spain. The Spanish colors replaced those of France and it seemed as if with this ceremony and the installment of Spanish officials in the different departments of the colony's government the mission of O'Reilly was ended. But there was still the punishment to be meted out to the rebels who had dared to defy the authority of the Spanish king and had sworn unchanging allegiance to the sovereign of France. After having received from Aubry, who seemed to play traitor to his compatriots, a list of those who had taken part in the recent insurrection and had prepared the foundation of a republic with a protector and an elective council of forty, O'Reilly on the twenty-first of August invited to his home the most prominent citizens and asked the representatives of the people's council to pa.s.s, one by one, into his private apartment. In their unsuspecting innocence, they accepted this invitation as a mark of distinction, but they were sadly disillusioned, when O'Reilly entered with Aubry and three Spanish officers, and arrested them in the name of his Majesty the King of Spain.

According to Bancroft two months were spent in collecting evidence against the men. The defense a.s.serted that they could not be tried and condemned by Spanish officials for acts done before the proper establishment of Spanish rule in the colony. The citizens begged for time to send a pet.i.tion to the Spanish sovereign. But all attempts to divert O'Reilly from his purpose summarily to punish the men who had dared to defy Ulloa, as the representative of Spain, were futile. Twelve of the richest men of the colony had to see their estates confiscated; from the proceeds were paid the officers employed in the trial. Six others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, from six years to life. The five who had been most conspicuous in the revolt, Lafreniere, Marquis, Milhet, Caresse and Noyau, were sentenced to death.

According to Bancroft they were shot in presence of the troops and the people on the twenty-fifth of October, 1769. According to Spanish historians they were hanged.

Whatever the fate of these French champions of the newly awakened desire for liberty may have been, the effects of O'Reilly's cruelty were felt far beyond the still ill defined boundaries of the colony. Though the king of Spain was reported to have expressed his approval of O'Reilly's summary procedure, even in Spain voices rose to condemn it. A pall spread over Louisiana. Business life was for a time paralyzed. Commerce came to an absolute standstill. In the country parishes of the colony, the Spanish authority was accepted with sullen silence. Many of the wealthy families, long identified with the history of the colony, abandoned their homes and emigrated to other parts of the continent. The government of the colony was reorganized on the pattern of all Spanish colonies. The restrictions which were placed upon commerce robbed the people of whatever initiative and enterprise they had possessed. A period of stagnation set in, contrasting sharply with the activity and the animation that had previously reigned in the city which claimed and was reported by travelers of that time to have been fairly well started on the road of becoming the Paris of America. It was an inauspicious beginning for the Spanish regime in Louisiana. But the successor of O'Reilly, D. Luis de Uznaga, made up for his predecessor's mistake by showing so much discretion and exercising his authority with such mildness, that he gradually succeeded in reconciling a part of the population to the Spanish rule. Only the families of the victims that had paid for their loyalty to France with their lives remained the implacable enemies of Spain, as long as the colony remained under her rule. Aubry, who immediately after the tragedy of the twenty-fifth of October had set sail for France, suffered s.h.i.+pwreck on his voyage and perished. The six men who had been committed to the dungeons of Havana were, according to Bancroft, later set free by the aid of France.

This tragic prelude to the Spanish rule in Louisiana, little as it has to do with Cuba, with which colony it was but loosely connected in an administrative way, was the herald of a new epoch dawning upon the horizon of the New World. The establishment of the little republic at the mouth of the Mississippi had been frustrated. But the establishment of the greater republic on the continent, under the protection of which Cuba was to come some centuries later, was even at this time approaching consummation.

CHAPTER IX

While the new Spanish possession annexed to Cuba by virtue of the Treaty of Paris, Louisiana, was pa.s.sing through that painful state of transition which always follows the transfer of a nation belonging to a certain race speaking a certain language and cheris.h.i.+ng customs deeply rooted in the national consciousness, to the rule of another nation, of a different race, speaking a different language and practising widely different customs, Cuba was enjoying a period of peace, prosperity and progress. When Buccarelli was appointed Viceroy of Mexico, D. Pascal Jiminez de Cisneros once more exercised superior authority as provisional governor of the island. But in November, 1771, the newly appointed governor arrived from Spain, the Captain-General D. Felipe Fons de Viela, Marquis de la Torre. He was a valiant soldier who in the wars of Spain with Italy and Portugal had distinguished himself by his conduct and his ability, and had risen to his high rank at the cost of his blood. He was a native of Zaragoza, a Knight of the military order of Santiago and Alderman in perpetuity, or prefect-governor of his native city. He came to Cuba with the reputation of an exceptionally worthy official and in the five years of his administration not only justified but far surpa.s.sed the hopes that his arrival awakened in the population of the colony. He entered upon his duties on the eighteenth of November, 1771.

Marquis de la Torre was without doubt one of the most efficient and successful governors that Cuba ever had. Havana was at that time growing in population and extent, and entering upon a new era in her economic development, due largely to the foresight of King Carlos III., who had granted her an exemption from certain taxes. The city had, however, suffered so much in previous times, first from the perpetual unrest arising from the fear of invasion by pirates, then from the siege, and lastly from the hurricane of 1768, that it needed a man, clear of purpose and strong of will, to inaugurate the many innovations which he introduced, in order to make the place worthy of being the metropolis of Spain's richest island-possession in America. While Ricla and Buccarelli, entering upon their governors.h.i.+ps immediately after the occupation of Havana by the British, had of necessity devoted most of their energy towards insuring the safety of the place from a repet.i.tion of the events of 1762, and had therefore been primarily concerned with the fortifications and the military reorganization of the place, la Torre was able to direct his attention to improvements, which made for a higher standard of public health, and paved the way for a culture, which in spite of the wealth of the population, was still only in its beginnings. Coming as he did from the Spain of Carlos III., who during his long peaceful reign did so much for the cultural progress of his country by introducing measures of sanitation and other improvements unknown to his predecessors, it was the ambition of la Torre to make Havana worthy of comparison with the large cities of the mother country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IN OLD HAVANA

Havana is at once one of the oldest and of the newest of the great cities of the western world, and the architecture of its streets exhibits samples of the work of five centuries. This scene, showing the side wall of the great Cathedral, is typical of the older portions of the city, with comparatively narrow streets and characteristic Spanish houses.]

It seems almost unbelievable that Havana had up to this time lacked proper pavements; that it had no public promenade, such as every European city far inferior in size and population possessed, that the streets were disfigured by unsightly and unsanitary out-houses and that even the government buildings had been put up with little regard for appearance, not to mention beauty. Moreover it is almost incredible that a city, the population of which belonged to the race that had produced some of the greatest dramatists of the world, Calderon and Lope de la Vega, had after an existence of some centuries not yet erected a playhouse, providing wholesome entertainment for her residents there to enjoy the works of their master poets and be for the time of the performance lifted above the purely material pursuits of their daily life. This was the state in which la Torre found Havana and he immediately set to work to study the city's most urgent needs and to raise it as rapidly as possible to the high standard he intended to apply.

The first task that claimed his attention was the improvement of the streets. When the plan to have them paved was about to be realized it was found that there was not a sufficient quant.i.ty of cobblestones available for that purpose. So the contractors had to employ timber soaked in tar, which had proved to be extremely durable, little affected by atmospheric conditions, and offered only the one disadvantage of making a very slippery surface in the rainy season. The next step towards raising Havana out of its village state to urban cleanliness and dignity was the abolition of the ugly and unsanitary out-houses, a measure which seemed so radical and revolutionary to the conservative elements of the population that it met with no little opposition. Then la Torre deliberated upon plans for public promenades, and those of Paula and Almadea Nueva were laid out, followed by the Mall in the interior of the city and the Nueva Prado outside of the city walls.

Great was the delight of the residents, who slowly began to wake up to the benefits and the pleasures to be derived by these attempts at improvement and embellishment of their town. Among the ordinances insuring the health, the beauty and the safety of the city, was one prohibiting the roofing of houses with guano, which had long been the source of dangerous conflagrations, aside from its unsanitary features and its being an eyesore. Modest as these demands may seem to twentieth century readers, la Torre had no little difficulty in carrying them through. But thanks to his energy, perseverance and executive power the streets of Havana with their neat pavements, and the public promenades with their gravel walks not only improved the appearance of the city, but stimulated the dormant esthetic sense of the inhabitants to an appreciation of civic beauty.

The next step undertaken by la Torre for the improvement of Havana was the erection of more suitable public buildings, especially one for the governor himself and for the Ayuntamento, which, strange enough, was to be under the same roof as the public jail. Under his order were rebuilt seven of the old barracks for the soldiers and a new one was erected for the veterans. A great number of bridges was built, that of the Santa Fe pa.s.sage over the Cojimar river, that of las Vegas on the road of Santa Maria del Rosario; the bridge of Arroyo Hondo, under the leeside of that town; the Enriquez and the Carrillo, and others. All these bridges had s.h.i.+elds of arms and inscriptions on their pillars and with their many arches presented a beautiful sight. The harbor was thoroughly dredged with the aid of twelve pontoons and barges manned by a crew of presidarios (criminals condemned to hard labor) and slaves. The wharves of Carpineti, Cabana and Marimilena were constructed. Finally there was erected the first theatre, which was in its way as important an addition to the cultural life of the city as had been the foundation of the university some time before. For the wealthy and intellectually ambitious part of the population had keenly felt the lack of dignified entertainment and not a few individuals had made an annual pilgrimage to Madrid to enjoy a season in drama and music and keep in touch with the progress of the arts. The value of all the public edifices and reconstruction was appraised by D. Simon de Ayala as amounting to two hundred and fourteen thousand eight hundred seventy-three and one half reals; in the light of more recent days a very small amount in proportion to the number and the importance of the buildings constructed.

Nor were the efforts of la Torre by any means limited to the improvement of the capital. Trinidad, Santiago and Puerto Principe benefited largely from the earnest desire for improvement that actuated Governor la Torre to undertake these many works. He was instrumental in the founding of the towns of Jaruco and of Nueva Filipina, which was later called Pinar del Rio. He inspired new life into all the towns that he visited during his administration and turned the colony into one of the richest and most beautiful, by applying to its improvement the most advanced ideas in civic management that were known in his time. From the census which la Torre ordered to be taken it appears that there were on the island three hundred and thirty-nine corrales or well defined farms, seven thousand eight hundred and fourteen farms for horse-breeding, estancias for cattle pasture and vegas for tobacco culture and four hundred and seventy-eight sugar plantations. There were twenty-nine thousand five hundred and eighty casas (buildings, private or public), ninety churches and fifty-two parochial chapels. The population of the island numbered one hundred and seventy-two thousand inhabitants; of which ninety-six thousand four hundred and thirty were whites, forty-five thousand six hundred and thirty-three slaves; that of Havana seventy-five thousand; Santiago nineteen thousand; Bayamo twelve thousand; Santa Clara eight thousand two hundred; Sancti Spiritus eight thousand, Guanabacoa seven thousand nine hundred; Trinidad five thousand six hundred, Matanzas three thousand two hundred and San Juan de los Remedios three thousand.

The reforms which la Torre inaugurated in the government itself were also remarkable. In the proclamation published on the fourth of April, 1772, he repeated the ordinances issued by his predecessors to insure order and quiet in the communities; but he added some important innovations. He delivered the people from the exploitation they had suffered at the hands of annually appointed visitadores de partido (party judges), whose legal malpractices had been a source of great grievance to the citizens, and he compelled the members of the inferior courts of justice to reside in their respective districts. Commerce had after its transient extension during the British dominion once more begun to suffer from the restrictions imposed by the government of Spain. But about the year 1771, it was revived, for the export duties on sugar, honey, cane brandy, hides and wax were lowered and cotton could be exported free of duty. In order to stimulate the wax industry, the growth of which was remarkably rapid and added largely to the wealth of the island, la Torre published in form of a decree measures for its protection and promotion. Among them he prohibited the cutting of trees on which there were hives. In the year 1770 there were exported to Vera Cruz more than five arrobas of wax. At the end of the same year Cuba exported to Spain and various points in America twelve thousand five hundred and forty-six and in the following year twenty-one thousand one hundred and eighty-seven arrobas. The Captain-General was authorized in certain cases to import provisions from abroad. But contraband prevailed and flourished as ever. Governor Torre engaged in an active campaign against the smugglers and was the cause of their suffering heavy losses; but he was unable to exterminate the evil. This was mainly due to the arrogance and arbitrary att.i.tude of Governor D. Antonio Ayanz de Ureta, who favored the smugglers that carried on a lively trade in the eastern part of the island with Jamaica and the foreign Antilles.

Much as General la Torre ingratiated himself with the citizens by his gentle disposition as well as his sound judgment and impeccable honesty, he was not to be spared disagreeable experiences with other officials.

One of these was with the commandant of the Apostadero or naval station, D. Juan Bautista Bonel, to whom credit is due for having enriched the s.h.i.+pyard by some magnificent structures. The dispute between them concerned some civilians who were implicated in a case against individuals belonging to the navy, and whom la Torre asked to be given over to his jurisdiction. Another unpleasantness was caused by conflicting orders given by la Torre and the commandant-general of the army. The latter had opened the new gateway that ran as far as the suburb of Jesus Maria in the neighborhood of the a.r.s.enal, and it was said the governor ordered that of la Tenaza to be closed, because the commandant opposed its running to that suburb and thus running through the a.r.s.enal. But upon the complaints that were entered at Madrid by Ureta as well as the other gentlemen, that caused these dissensions, his Majesty always upheld the side of la Torre and dismissed the accusations. Governor la Torre retired on the twelfth of June, 1776, and died in Madrid as Lieutenant-General on the sixth of July, 1784. His term of administration was the first during which the revenues exceeded a million of pesos, which augured an era of prosperity for Cuba.

That Governor Torre left Havana a healthier and more beautiful city to live in, than it had been before, is an achievement which gives his administration a place of its own among those that were especially concerned with the welfare of the population. Visitors to Cuba that had marked the difference between the Havana of 1745 and that of 1762, would have been even more impressed with the appearance of the city after Torre had left upon it the seal of his improvements. The residents began to take a pride in the capital of the island; a civic spirit arose and began to weld the inhabitants more closely by the bond of interests, which at last began to surpa.s.s those a.s.sociated with their purely material welfare. Visitors coming from the old centers of European culture had formerly commented upon the absence in the colonies of places where men and women could gather for social intercourse and intelligent entertainment. The French visitor quoted in a previous chapter, after his visit to Cuba and Santo Domingo, wrote rather dejectedly:

"Life offers no attraction here for anybody who is not in commerce.

Dependent on one's self, there is no relaxation for anyone who has lived in France and there played a certain role. One must not expect theaters, nor cafes, nor public promenades, and still less societies. One does not know how to spend the time and this is a real annoyance to a man of leisure. The carnival, especially where there are French, offers the only opportunity to banish in a degree the dryness of the entertainments in these countries--and what entertainments! One would never dream of seeking them, if one were not so far from Europe. The residents in comfortable circ.u.mstances come to town, you play a game of cards in some house, in others you drink abundantly, and in most you are bored. The country has hardly more attraction for any one having no residence; but besides the restraint which is banished there, you can at least enjoy a morning and an evening walk; and if you are so lucky as to come across some wealthy resident of the better cla.s.s, you may in rare instances find yourself in agreeable company. But there are parts of the country where neighbors hardly visit one another once a year."

This is a true glimpse of life in the colonies before the British occupation. Had the distinguished foreigner who made these observations come to Cuba after the administration of la Torre, he would have found the theatre and the promenades, and perhaps even the cafes he had previously missed. For the prosperity which set in for the island after King Carlos III. began to relax the unreasonable restrictions upon her trade and navigation, brought with it to the wealthier cla.s.ses that leisure which calls for higher forms of social life and leads to the appreciation of such entertainment as the arts of music and drama offer.

The theatre of Havana became the meeting place of Cuba's intellectuals and the center from which began to radiate the modest beginnings of a Cuban culture, which a century later was to produce poets that took their place beside those of the mother country. With closer commercial relations and increasing facilities of travel even the inhabitants of the country living on their haciendas a beautiful domestic life, but one making for a certain clannishness, gradually came out of their isolation, and benefiting by the progress of their urban neighbors, were stimulated to partic.i.p.ate in enterprises which a few decades before they would have spurned. The constantly growing intercourse with the Old World, bringing them into touch with contemporary thought, was another leaven that began to work in the minds of the Cubans, and to encourage activities and interests held as being entirely without the range of a people whose chief pursuits for some centuries had been agriculture.

Thus Cuba entered upon her first period of progress.

This was due in no little measure to the peace and prosperity of Spain during the long reign of King Carlos III. For the overseas colonies of the European powers were so closely a.s.sociated with and dependent upon the mother countries, that their healthy progress as a rule indicated healthy political and economic conditions of the latter. If there was at this time any unrest and anxiety at the courts and in the diplomatic circles of Europe this was due to events that were happening in North America and were beginning to shake the foundations of the old order. On the nineteenth of April, 1775, there had been fired the first shot in the struggle upon which the thirteen British colonies had entered in order to secure their freedom from the unbearable restrictions which Britain had imposed upon them. That shot sounded an alarm which was heard all over the world and sent a thrill through millions of hearts.

The spirit that had dictated the works of the French encyclopedists and had worked like a leaven of liberty in millions of minds, had become incarnate in the British colonists and was clamoring for consummation of its ultimate aims. Monarchs and ministers convened in solemn conferences and deliberated seriously upon the possible effects of the action taken by the rebels against British overrule.

Spain and France, sharing with Britain colonial possessions in America, were profoundly disturbed. They had been allies in the recent war against Britain, and they still depended upon each other for mutual counsel and consolation. The king of France, Louis XVI., an autocrat if ever there was, had an excellent minister of finance in Turgot, a man of extraordinary foresight, of liberal judgment and of rare administrative ability. After Vergennes, the minister of foreign affairs, who favored the emanc.i.p.ation of America, had forwarded to the king a cautiously worded report upon the situation, Turgot was asked to give his opinion, and did so in a memorial which very succinctly stated the position of both France and Spain, and contained the following significant pa.s.sages:

"The yearly cost of colonies in peace, the enormous expenditures for their defence in war, lead to the conclusion that it is more advantageous for us to grant them entire independence, without waiting for the moment when events will compel us to give them up. This view would, not long since, have been scorned as a paradox, and rejected with indignation. At present we may be the less revolted at it, and perhaps it may not be without utility to prepare consolation for inevitable events. Wise and happy will be that nation which shall first know how to bend to the new circ.u.mstances, and consent to see in its colonies, allies and not subjects. When the total separation of America shall have healed the European nations of jealousy of commerce, there will exist among men one great cause of war the less, and it is very difficult not to desire an event which is to accomplish this good for the human race.

In our colonies we shall save many millions, and, if we acquire the liberty of commerce and navigation with all the northern continent, we shall be amply compensated.

"The position of Spain with regard to its American possessions will be more embara.s.sing. Unhappily she has less facility than any other power to quit the route she has followed for two centuries, and conform to a new order of things. Thus far she has directed her policy to maintaining the multiplied prohibitions with which she has embarra.s.sed her commerce. She has made no preparations to subst.i.tute for empire over her American provinces a fraternal connection founded on ident.i.ty of origin, language, and manners, without the opposition of interests; to offer them liberty as a gift, instead of yielding it to force. Nothing is more worthy of the wisdom of the king of Spain and his council, than from this present time to fix their attention on the possibility of this forced separation, and on the measures to be taken to prepare for it."

Alas! the warning of Turgot was not heeded by the government of Spain and a whole century had to elapse and many lives had to be sacrificed before the Spanish colonies in America were to gain their independence!

Both the French and the Spanish king were opposed to taking sides in the war which Britain was waging with her colonies; but they were quite ready secretly to help those colonies, knowing that their success meant the weakening of British power! Bancroft reports in his "History of the United States" (Vol. V., p. 321):

"After a year's hesitation and resistance, the king of France, early in May, informed the king of Spain that he had resolved, under the name of a commercial house, to advance a million of French livres, about two hundred thousand dollars, towards the supply of the wants of the Americans."

His example was followed by the king of Spain, who, a few weeks later, without the knowledge of any of his advisers except Grimaldi, sent a draft for a million livres more, as his contribution!

Such had been the effect of the first shot fired in the struggle for American independence. When the news of the official declaration of this independence on July fourth, 1776, reached Paris and Madrid, the worst fears of the upholders of the old regime and the most exalted dreams of the champions of the new political ideal were realized. But neither France nor Spain dared openly to take sides against Britain, both having ample reason to avoid being involved in new wars. As Turgot intimated in his message, Spain was far more directly interested in the step taken by the British colonies and the possible effects it might have upon her own possessions. Hence France decided to do nothing without the agreement of Spain. Again it is Bancroft who gives the clearest statement of the economic position of Spain and her reasons for avoiding a break with Britain. He writes in his "History of the United States" (Vol. V., p.

535):

"Equal to Great Britain in the number of her inhabitants, greatly surpa.s.sing that island in the extent of her home territory and her colonies, she did not love to confess or to perceive her inferiority in wealth and power. Her colonies brought her no opulence, for their commerce, which was soon to be extended to seven ports, then to twelve, and then to nearly all, was still confined to Cadiz; the annual exports to Spanish America had thus far fallen short of four millions of dollars in value, and the imports were less than the exports. Campomanes was urging through the press the abolition of restriction on trade; but for the time the delusion of mercantile monopoly held the ministers fast bound. The serious strife with Portugal had for its purpose the occupation of both banks of the river La Plata, that so the mighty stream might be sealed up against all the world but Cadiz. As a necessary consequence, Spanish s.h.i.+pping received no development; and, though the king constructed s.h.i.+ps of the line and frigates, he could have no efficient navy, for want of proper nurseries of seamen. The war department was in the hands of an indolent chief, so that its business devolved on O'Reilly, whose character is known to us from his career in Louisiana, and whose arrogance and harshness were revolting to the Spanish nation. The revenue of the kingdom fell short of twenty-one millions of dollars, and there was a notorious want of probity in the management of the finances. In such a state of its navy, army, and treasury, how could it make war on England?"

n.o.body realized these facts better than King Carlos III. His new ministers, D. Jose Monino, Count de Florida Blanca, who had succeeded Grimaldi, and Galvez, the minister for the Indies, agreed with the sovereign; and when Arthur Lee, emissary of the new republic, appeared in Europe and sought an audience with the authorities in Madrid, he was detained at Burgos to confer with Grimaldi, who was then on his way to his native Italy. Lee found little encouragement and satisfaction in this interview; he was told that the Americans would find at New Orleans three thousand barrels of powder and some store of clothing, and that Spain would perhaps send them a cargo of goods from Bilbao, but he was urged to hurry back to Paris. Florida Blanca, too, very decidedly expressed his aversion to the new republic and was reported to have said "that the independence of America would be the worst example to other colonies, and would make the Americans in every respect the worst neighbors that the Spanish colonies could have." Thus the constant fear that the close proximity of an independent state might rouse the spirit of independence in her own colonies, determined the policy of Spain toward the War of American Independence.

Yet her colonies in America gave Spain little trouble at that time, being contented with their lot and working out the problem of their existence as well as their loyalty to Spanish inst.i.tutions would permit. Cuba, especially, was at that time absorbed in living up to the high standards set her by the three excellent governors that had followed the British domination: Ricla, Buccarelli and la Torre. Their successor was the Field Marshal D. Diego Jose Navarro, a native of Badajoz. He entered upon the duties of his administration on the twelfth of July, 1777, at a time when the war being waged between Britain and her American colonies had created an atmosphere of apprehension and once more brought near the possibility of a conflict with the old enemy. The repeated protests of her economic experts against her trade restrictions had induced the government of Spain to issue the royal "Ordenanza para el libre comercio con las colonias," a decree due to the constant efforts of the Minister of the Indies, D. Jose de Galvez, whose experience in the colonies had given his voice sufficient weight to convince his Majesty of the urgent necessity of this reform. During two and a half centuries Spain had traded with America only, through the ports of Cadiz and Sevilla; this ordinance opened all the ports of the peninsula to traffic with all those of Spanish America.

At the same time was ordered a reduction in the duties and the permission of importing foreign goods, though they always had to be carried in Spanish boats. These duties were henceforth three per cent.

on Spanish products, and seven per cent. on foreign products. When the value of the goods was greater than their bulk, a duty was levied, called estranjeria (foreign custom). As a result of this reform, the revenues of Cuba which in 1764 had amounted to not more than three hundred and sixteen thousand pesos, rose in the year 1777 to one million twenty seven thousand two hundred and thirteen pesos. Contraband which had been one of the worst evils that the Cuban authorities had to contend with for two centuries, visibly declined and was soon limited to articles of luxury. At the same time there was also ordered by royal decree the unification of the coinage, and the macuquino, a coin with the milled edges cut off, was replaced by one of silver with a corded edge. All these reforms were received by the people with unbounded enthusiasm. In all parts of the island the inhabitants spontaneously gave vent to their joy in brilliant festivals and in a display of oratory, which acclaimed the beginning of the new era for Cuba.

Like Buccarelli, Governor Navarro was much concerned with the legal malpractice that had long existed in the courts. The bar was composed of many men who with insidious cunning stirred up and prolonged innumerable lawsuits. Their machinations not only violated the sense of justice, but directly disgraced their profession and the judicial administration of the island. So many families had been ruined by such legal procedures, that Governor Navarro was determined to check the operations of these sharks. He ordered that no one but a duly appointed notary should be permitted to draft legal doc.u.ments and perform judicial acts and he reduced the number of these men to thirty-four for the whole island. He also appointed an appraiser to adjust the costs of legal proceedings and ordered that lawyers who had been convicted of malpractice should be deprived of the right to plead. The Audiencia of Santo Domingo protested against some of these decisions of Navarro, but he succeeded in convincing the court of the justice of his acts.