The History of Cuba Volume II Part 2

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 s.e.xes and had himself taken charge of the cla.s.ses. 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 s.p.a.ce 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 n.i.g.g.ardly 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 s.h.i.+llings 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 flouris.h.i.+ng 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 t.i.tle 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 ma.n.u.script and presented it to the Editor as a Testimony of his friends.h.i.+p and respect,"

and the dedication is addressed "to the Merchants of Great Britain, the Commanders of s.h.i.+ps, 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 doc.u.ment known since as the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 1748, it left some of the most hara.s.sing problems unsolved. Among them was the frontier of Florida and the right of Spanish s.h.i.+ps to search British vessels suspected of smuggling. The a.s.siente 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 makes.h.i.+ft 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 doc.u.ment.

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 hara.s.sing 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 b.l.o.o.d.y conflict. She had on the one hand allied herself with Austria, bribing even some of the South German princ.i.p.alities 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 pa.s.sed 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-Ca.s.sel 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 partic.i.p.ate.

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 rest.i.tution of the merchant s.h.i.+ps, 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.), ent.i.tled: "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 pa.s.sing 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 role 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 a.r.s.enal and dockyard, where there were continually in process of construction enormous s.h.i.+ps destined for travel to Spain or South America. From 1747 to 1760 they fitted out seven s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+ps, 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 grat.i.tude 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 princ.i.p.al 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 a.s.sure 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 a.s.sumed 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 pa.s.sage of the ocean to the Spanish s.h.i.+ps 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 c.u.mberland; 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 c.u.mberland 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 Poc.o.c.ke 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 Poc.o.c.ke. 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 Poc.o.c.ke. 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 pa.s.sage free for Admiral Poc.o.c.ke and his fleet.

Upon his arrival in Martinique, Lord Albemarle took command of all the forces a.s.sembled 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 pa.s.sed in concluding the details of this well-elaborated plan.

Finally on the sixth of May Admiral Poc.o.c.ke 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 wars.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+p _Namur_ of fifty cannons; _Cambridge_ of eighty; _Valiant_; _Culloden_; _Temerare_; _Dragon_; _Centaur_; and _Dublin_ of seventy-four; _Marlborough_ and _Temple_ of seventy; _Oxford_ and _Devons.h.i.+re_ 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 _Hamps.h.i.+re_ 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 Portoca.s.so. Before the consummation of the Family Pact, in March, 1670, King Carlos III. had told Prado of the menacing att.i.tude 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 governors.h.i.+p, 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 succ.u.mbed 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 quant.i.ty and the brands of tobacco which the General Factory was to receive from the planters.