The History of Cuba Volume II Part 22

Don Jose del Piso, a fiscal officer, was responsible for the flogging to death of a negro a hundred and ten years of age, too old and infirm to be an active conspirator. This was within the walls of the Matanzas jail. The poor victim was so lacerated that he was hardly recognizable as a human being. This del Piso had a pleasant form of afternoon sport which he conducted to the great edification of his brother inquisitioners. He would have his victims tied to the high limb of a tree, and then cut the rope and watch them writhe when they fell. Don Ferdinand Percher fell slightly below the record of his colleague, Don Juan Costa, for he could boast of only seventy-two deaths to his credit.

Then there occurred to these just men and true a new and exceedingly fine way of adding to their revenue. Don Miguel Ballo de la Rore extorted from the negroes on a certain estate, in the absence of their owners, affidavits accusing their master of treason; and the latter was notified through his overseer that unless he paid two hundred ounces of gold forthwith he was a condemned man. However, the correspondence fell into the hands of General Salas who had the grace to put an end to the matter.

But not only the blacks were victims. A white man who had incurred the displeasure of the minions of the government was never safe. One Spanish officer had a grudge against a young Englishman and accused him of inciting the negroes on an estate to poison their master; and the Englishman paid the forfeit of his life for a crime of which he was entirely guiltless. The fiscal officers ranged the island, looking for chances to murder, obtaining false testimony, seizing property, cattle, furniture, horses, the property of freed blacks, which they sold, converting the proceeds to their own use. This record seems incredible, but it is vouched for beyond question. Furthermore, at this time no comely colored woman was safe. If she happened to attract the l.u.s.tful eyes of a Spanish general, her husband or father or brothers were seized, and she herself was delivered up to be ravished and then slain.

One of the episodes of this campaign was a largely attended ball, at which no white woman was present, and at which all the colored women were obliged to appear in the garb of Eve before the Fall.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOSe ANTONIO SACO

One of the greatest of Cuban publicists, Jose Antonio Saco was born at Bayamo on May 7, 1797; studied philosophy and politics, and succeeded Varela as Professor of Philosophy at the San Carlos Seminary, Havana. In 1828 he founded in New York the "Mensajero Quincenal," and four years later in Havana became editor of the _Revista Bimestre Cubana_. Because of his defense of the Academy of Literature, Captain-General Tacon banished him to the island of Trinidad. In 1836 he represented Cuba in the Spanish Cortes, and afterward travelled in Europe. In Paris he published a treatise of Cuban annexation to the United States, and after the Lopex expedition he wrote again on the political situation in Cuba.

He was a member of the Junta of Information in 1866, and a Deputy to the Cortes from Santiago de Cuba. He died at Barcelona, Spain, on September 26, 1879, and his body was returned to Cuba for burial. His greatest literary work was a monumental "History of Slavery," but he wrote many others on political, economical, social and literary subjects.]

The fiscal officers were able to carry out these infamies because they were at once prosecuting attorney, judge and jury. They obtained testimony, apprehended, imprisoned, condemned and executed. The testimony which they extorted was taken without witnesses. They themselves wrote down the declarations, distorting them to suit their own purposes. The blacks seldom knew how to read or write, and they were obliged to set their mark to anything which the fiscal officer chose to record. Not even the notary who swore the witness was allowed to check up the declaration with his knowledge of the statements. The Spanish government had for a long time played the most corrupt and petty of politics in apportioning the smaller offices on the island. Political hangers-on, with little education, no moral sense and no honor, were paid for their loyalty to Spain with these positions. The records show that during this reign of terror one thousand three hundred and forty-six people were victims of the inquisition.

But Spain in her campaigns of cruelty was only laying up trouble for herself. She was raising a storm which would never again be completely quelled until Cuba was free. The abolitionists and the liberals, or those who longed for freedom from Spanish rule, began joining forces.

The cause of freedom for the slaves, and of separation from Spain, were curiously interlaced. The country was worn out with turmoil and eager for peace, but there could be no peace, it was believed, while Spain and the Spaniards on Cuban soil ruled with such cruel measures.

The problem of how separation might be obtained was capable of either of two solutions, by annexation to some other country, or by independence. The cause of independence had at this time for its leader a Cuban of the highest type, Jose Antonio Saco, who had traveled all over the world, and was a man of fine education and great culture. The larger proportion of those Cubans who were intelligent, and who were thinking out for themselves the problem of the fate of Cuba, accepted him as their leader. Of course, it is understood that all organization, all plans and almost all conversation, except in whispers behind closed doors, or in corners of cafes which seemed safe from surveillance, had to be secret. To come out openly for the salvation of Cuba from Spanish rule meant banishment or death.

Saco's ideas were well known to the Spanish governor, for in 1834 he had been exiled because of them. But he was prudent, and was not disposed to do anything that would hurl Cuba into the throes of revolution. He felt that a revolution at this time, with the blacks subdued but not conquered, might mean a race war which would be the most disastrous thing that could happen to the island. He also opposed annexation to any other country, particularly to the United States, because he felt that Cuba, being in such close proximity to the latter country, would lose her individuality, be absorbed and become Anglo-Saxon. In 1845 he wrote on this subject, as follows:

"If the slave trade continues, there will be in Cuba neither peace nor security. Their risings have occurred at all times; but they have always been partial, confined to one or two forms, without plan or political result. Very different is the character of the risings which at brief intervals have occurred in 1842-43; and the conspiracy last discovered is the most frightful which has even been planned in Cuba, at once on account of its vast ramifications among slaves and free negroes, and on account of its origin and purpose. It is not necessary that the negroes should rise all at once all over the island; it is not necessary that its fields should blaze in conflagration from one end to the other in a single day; partial movements repeated here and there are enough to destroy faith and confidence. Then emigration will begin, capital will flee, agriculture and commerce will rapidly diminish, public revenues will lessen, the poverty of these and the fresh demands imposed by a continual state of alarm, will cause taxes to rise; and, with expenses on the one hand increased, but with receipts diminished, the situation of the island will grow more involved until there comes the most terrible catastrophe."

[Ill.u.s.tration: GASPAR BETANCOURT

CISNEROS]

Again we find in a letter to a friend, Caspar Betancourt Cisneros, written a little later than the former communication:

GASPAR BETANCOURT CISNEROS

Scion of a distinguished stock, Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros was born in Camaguey in 1803 and was educated in the United States. In 1823 he went with other Cubans to Colombia to confer with Bolivar on the theme of Cuban independence, and remained there for many years. In 1837 he began a notable series of papers in the Cuban press, on familiar economic and educational topics, signing them El Lugareno; under which pen name he became famous. He established schools and agricultural colonies, and built the second railroad in Cuba. In 1846 while he was in Europe he was suspected of revolutionary conspiracy, and his property was confiscated. He then became a teacher in the United States, but returned to Cuba in 1861 and became a journalist. He was too ill to accept election to the Junta of Information, and died in 1866.

"Let there be neither war nor conspiracies of any kind in Cuba. In our critical situation either one means the desolation of the country. Let us bear the yoke of Spain. But let us bear it so as to leave to our children, if not a country of liberty, at least one peaceful and hopeful. Let us try with all our energies to put down the infamous traffic in slaves; let us diminish without violence or injustice the number of these; let us do what we can to increase the white population; let us do all which you have always done, giving a good example to our own fellow countrymen, and Cuba, our beloved Cuba, shall some day be Cuba indeed!"

On the other hand the Annexationists were waging a vigorous though quiet campaign. On April 20, 1848, a proclamation urging the Cubans to make every effort to add their island to the United States appeared. It was signed simply "Unos Cubanos," and urged opposition to Saco and his sympathizers and a concerted effort to gain the political and civil rights which were enjoyed by Americans. "Amalgamation of the races," ran the proclamation, "would not extinguish Cuban nationality, for every child born in Cuba would be at once a Cuban and an American. Cuba united to this strong and respected nation, whose southern interests would be identified with hers, would be a.s.sured quiet and future success; her wealth would increase, doubling the value of her farms and slaves, trebling that of her whole territory; liberty would be given to individual action, and the system of hateful and harmful restrictions which paralyze commerce and agriculture could be destroyed."

But no matter what the Cubans themselves might dream of or hope for, Spain had not the slightest intention of surrendering Cuba without a struggle. No country, not even one more altruistic in its policies, and more highly civilized than Spain had shown herself to be at this time, would be eager to relinquish a colony which brought her in a revenue of three and a half millions clear, and which in the twenty years from 1830 to 1850 had poured over $50,000,000 into her coffers. Spain therefore cast around for any expedient which would enable her to retain her last possession in the new world. Roncali during his term as Captain-General very clearly expressed his views as to where the Spanish interests in Cuba lay:

"Among the considerable elements of power with which Spain counts in this island, ought to be mentioned slavery. Permit me, your excellency, to explain my belief in this regard. The interest in preserving their fortunes and in developing the rich crops from which they spring causes all the wealthy inhabitants of the country to fear the first whisper of conflict which may relax the discipline of the slaves, or threaten emanc.i.p.ation. From this fact I infer that slavery is the rein which, through fear and interest, will keep in submission the great majority of the white population. But if the event should arrive of foreign war and of inner commotions such as to threaten the dependence of the island, what should be the conduct of the Captain-General toward slavery? I, my n.o.ble lord, state my solemn belief that this terrible weapon which the government holds in its hand might in the last extremity prevent the loss of the island, and that if the inhabitants are persuaded that it will be used they will trouble and renounce every fond illusion rather than draw down such an anathema. The chance is remote without doubt, but that very fact makes me express myself clearly: the liberty of all the slaves in a day of gravest peril, proclaimed by Her Majesty's representative in these territories, would re-establish superiority and even strengthen our power in a very real way, based as it would then be on that very cla.s.s which it seems best today to keep submerged. But if that last resort should prove insufficient, or if it did not suit Spain afterward to retain her hold, it may always be brought about that the conquerors shall acquire Hayti instead of the rich and prosperous Cuba and that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d sons who have brought down that calamity by their rebellion shall meet in their complete ruin, punishment and disillusionment. A principle of retributive justice or of harmony with the maxims of modern civilization, to which it is so customary now to appeal, would also call for general emanc.i.p.ation, at the moment when, for whatever reason, Spain should decide to renounce the island.... So far this trans-Atlantic province is still strongly attached to the mother land, and thanks to the wisdom and material solicitude of Her Majesty, I believe that the bonds of union will be still more strengthened; but if the fate of nations brings to this land a day pregnant with such circ.u.mstances as to threaten its loss, their national honor and interest alike would demand that every recourse and means be exhausted, without saving anything. If, even then, fortune should abandon us, we should at least leave it written in history that our departure from America corresponded to the heroic story of its acquisition."

CHAPTER XXV

The era of Cuban history which embraced part of the seventeenth, the eighteenth, and part of the nineteenth centuries, and which we have endeavored to review in this volume, presents a striking and almost unique contrast to the customary course of human affairs. The normal order of civic development begins with the rise and confirmation of nationality, and thence proceeds to international relations.h.i.+ps and cosmopolitan interests and activities. Such was the record of other American states which grew up contemporaneously with Cuba. Such was notably the course of the United States of North America. In their colonial period they were intensely local, parochial, in sentiment and spirit. In their revolutionary era they began to manifest a national ent.i.ty. It was not until long after their establishment of national independence that they fully realized their international status.

In Cuba the order was reversed. At first, as a colony of triumphant and masterful Spain, the island had neither national sentiment nor international interests. In the second stage, however, it became a p.a.w.n in the great international game which was being played between declining Spain and her increasingly powerful neighbors, actually for a time pa.s.sing from Spanish to British possession, and often being regarded as likely to pa.s.s permanently into the hands of some other power than Spain.

These circ.u.mstances had a marked effect upon the whole genius of the Cuban people. It gave them international vision before they had learned to discern themselves even as a potential nation. It gave them a degree of cosmopolitanism such as few comparable colonies have ever known. It divorced them in sentiment from the Mother Country to an exceptional degree. They were made to feel that Spain meant little or nothing to them. She had planted them, it is true. But she had given them little cultivation, little protection. She had looked to them for more help for herself than she had herself given to them. She was unable to save them from the danger of being pa.s.sed from hand to hand, from owner to owner.

At the north, England had not governed her Thirteen Colonies well. But she had at least protected them. There had never been on their part any fear that she would abandon them to some other conqueror, or that they would be taken from her by force, or sold or traded away. The British colonists knew that in the last emergency the whole power of the United Kingdom would be exerted for their protection. Yet even so they revolted against misgovernment, and declared their independence.

How much more, almost infinitely more, cause had Cubans for alienation from Spain! She had given them no such protection. Her policy suggested always the possibility of their transfer in some way to some other sovereignty. And her misgovernment had been immeasurably worse than that of England. If Cuba was more patient than the Thirteen Colonies at the north, that was another of the paradoxes of history--that the impulsive, hot-blooded Latin of the south should be more deliberate and conservative than the cool and phlegmatic Anglo-Saxon of the north.

This very quality of patience was, indeed, the saving virtue of the Cuban character. Quijano Otero wrote of Colombia, at the very time of her revolt against Spain and the establishment of her independence, that she "had lived so fast in her years of glory and great deeds that, though still a child, she was already entering a premature decrepitude."

Not so Cuba. It is true that, as we have seen, she had imbibed enough of the spirit of Spain and of other lands to be measurably saturated with their customs, even their luxurious vices and follies. Yet she did not live fast. She did not grow prematurely old. In so far as she adopted the customs of Europe, she adapted them to herself, not herself to them.

The result was that after three centuries, she still had the ingenuousness and spontaneity of youth. She might almost have said, in paraphrase of a great captain's epigram, "I have not yet begun to live!"

Half unconsciously, however, she had made an exceptionally complete preparation for the life that was to come as a nation. She had already become international in the scope of her vision, in the range of her sympathies, and in her intellectual and social culture. Many of her sons had studied abroad, acquiring the learning of the best European schools.

If the world at large knew little about Cuba, Cuba knew much about the world at large.

Though indeed the world did know something about Cuba, and took a lively and intelligent interest in her. This we have endeavored to indicate in these pages by our numerous citations of authorities, observers and writers of various lands, who found in the Queen of the Antilles a theme worthy of their most interested attention. More and more, as the unimproved estates of the world were part.i.tioned among the powers, the transcendent value of this island was recognized, and more and more covetous gaze was fixed upon it by the nations which were extending their empires instead of losing them.

So at the close of the eighteenth century it was apparent that another epoch in Cuban history was at hand. North America had been swept by revolution. South America was at the brink of revolution. Europe was convulsed with revolution. Amid all these, Cuba was like the calm spot at the centre of a whirlpool. Changes had occurred on every side, but she had been left unchanged. Yet every one of those changes had, deeply and irrevocably, though perhaps imperceptibly, wrought its effect upon her.

The potency and the promise of national life were within her. Thus far everything that she had accomplished had been accredited to Spain. But the time was at hand when she would claim her own. During three centuries Cuba had produced the flower of the Spanish race; as indeed from time immemorial colonies had been wont to produce stronger men, in their comparatively primitive and healthful conditions, than the more sophisticated and often decadent Mother Countries. But they had all been reckoned Spaniards. Now the time was coming, and was at hand, when Cubans would be reckoned Cubans, by all the world as well as by themselves.

The errors of Spain were not of Cuba's choosing. The disasters of Spain were not of Cuba's inviting. The decadence of Spain was not of Cuba's working. If in the downfall of Spanish power Cuba saw the opportunity for her own uprising, it was not that she herself had compa.s.sed that downfall, but only that she chose not needlessly to let herself be involved therein. As Spain weakened, Cuba girded and strengthened herself, and made herself ready to stand alone.

THE END OF VOLUME TWO