Читать книгу The History of Cuba - Willis Fletcher Johnson - Страница 24

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It would be easy for the reflective historian to engage in many interesting and pertinent observations concerning the time in which Captain Francisco Carreño became governor of Cuba. It was the year 1577. That was the year in which the sixth religious war in France began, a struggle which made inevitable the still greater religious wars which followed, in which not merely two factions in France but the two great powers of Spain and England were the chief belligerents. That was the year, too, in which Sir Francis Drake began his voyage around the world, which was perhaps the most momentous since that of Columbus in 1492, since it led directly to the strife between Spain and England in America, the English conquest of Cuba, the foundation of the English colonies in North America, and the subsequent development of the United States; all having the most direct and important bearing upon the fortunes of Cuba.

Albeit he was a native of that city of Cadiz in the harbor of which Drake performed one of his most daring and most famous feats, Carreño probably entered upon his governorship with no premonitions of what was in store. While Drake was furrowing the strange expanses of the South Sea, it was French privateers that chiefly troubled the Spanish Main and menaced the ports of Cuba. Their favorite cruising ground was in the waters between Cuba and Jamaica, and between Cuba and Hispaniola, and their menace to Cuba was chiefly to the ports between Cape Maysi and Cape Cruz, and in the Gulf of Guacanabo. The chief sufferers, as also the chief gainers from contraband trade, were Santiago, Manzanillo, and the settlements at the mouth of the Guantanamo River. The people of those places were never sure whether an approaching French vessel was bent on contraband trade or war and plunder; and indeed the Frenchman himself sometimes left that question to be answered after he had landed and viewed the place. He then decided which would be the more profitable, to trade with the people or to plunder them. At times, too, it must be confessed, the Spaniards were in similar uncertainty whether to receive the French as traders or to slay them—if they could—as enemies.

Carreño was the first governor of Cuba to die in office, his death occurring on April 27, 1579. His administration thus lasted only two years; but they were years filled with hard work on his part and with much progress for the island. The sugar industry which had been founded in the preceding administration prospered and expanded, and caused a considerable increase in slave-holding. Negro slaves were the favorite workmen on the plantations and at the mills, and a large number of them was needed at each establishment. The increase in the number of slaves caused, however, some anxiety lest there should be servile insurrections, such as had occurred on the Isthmus of Panama, in Mexico and elsewhere; so that in 1579 the government refused to permit any more to be imported, even though they were wanted by the governor himself. It is recorded that his personal request for a thousand negroes to work at copper mining was refused by the King, or by the Council for the Indies.

Anxiety was caused, also, by the increasing number of free negroes, and of slaves who were practically free. Most of the entirely free negroes had been slaves but had bought their freedom from their masters for cash. This was not particularly difficult, since the market value of the best negro slaves at that time was only from fifty to sixty pesos. Those practically free were slaves who were permitted by their owners to live where they pleased and work as they pleased, on condition of paying their masters certain royalties every week or month. In Carreño's time there were hundreds of negroes of these classes in and about Havana, and probably still more of them in the eastern end of the island. The anxiety concerning them arose from two causes. One was, the fear that they might incite the slaves to insurrection, placing themselves at the head of the movement; a fear which was not at that time realized. The other was, the fear that they would build up objectionable communities. Thus in Havana they occupied a quarter of the town by themselves, in which their wooden cabins were huddled closely together; the sanitary conditions were bad; and the danger of fire which might imperil the whole town was obviously imminent. There was in Carreño's time a movement to procure their deportation to Florida or elsewhere, and to forbid the residence of free negroes in Cuba; but it did not become effective.

It is agreeable to remember that in spite of the obviously objectionable nature of the institution of slavery, and in spite of the fears and anxieties which have been mentioned, negro slavery in Cuba in those early days was not marked with the distressing features which it has elsewhere borne. It was probably more humane than it was two and a half centuries later in the United States. The slaves were seldom sold by one master to another, and never in circumstances which separated husband and wife, or parents and young children. Severe physical punishments were prohibited. Their masters were compelled to feed them well, and to provide them with decent and comfortable clothes. There was no personal or social prejudice against them, but they were permitted to attend church and to frequent all public places on equal terms with the Spaniards. Ordinarily they were not permitted to carry weapons; but those who occupation seemed to make it desirable for them to be armed, such as cattle-rangers, and messengers travelling from one part of the island to another, were permitted to bear arms just as white men would have done. Moreover, the free negroes were called upon equally with the whites to serve as sentinels on the water fronts of cities, and were of course provided with arms. There are no authentic records of intermarriage between Spaniards and negroes, yet neither is there any proof that it did not occasionally occur. We have already seen that amalgamation with the Indians was not unknown, and in other Spanish colonies of those and later days there were some fusions with African blood.

What is chiefly to be remembered, however, is that negroes, although enslaved, were regarded in Cuba as human beings, with immortal souls, no less than their masters, and that they were invariably so treated. There was no pretence that they were of an intrinsically inferior race, or that they were suffering from the primaeval curse of Canaan or of Ham. And when they gained their freedom and became educated, they were treated socially and politically according to their merits, without regard for the color of their skin.

In the most literal sense, the administration of Carreño was marked with constructive statesmanship. As a statesman this Governor set about enlarging and improving Havana and other cities, and providing them with public and private buildings commensurate with the needs of an increasing population. He laid out enough of the streets of Havana to establish for all time the plan of that city. He encouraged the building of houses, or at any rate discouraged the holding of town sites unimproved, by making distributions of lots to all who wished them, on condition that the owners would promptly build. If they did not build within six months, their titles were forfeited. Another important reform effected by him was the substitution of adobe or other masonry for wood as building material. By the end of his administration fully half of the houses in Havana had walls of masonry, and a considerable number had also tiled roofs.

It was Carreño, too, who began the building of the first custom house in Cuba, at Havana. The king had ordered Montalvo to undertake this enterprise, but he appears to have taken no steps whatever in that direction, not even selecting a site. Carreño essayed the task with characteristic energy. He selected an appropriate site, at the water front and close to the principal wharf, where an excellent rock foundation was to be found, and there he planned to erect a building of solid masonry, seventy feet long and two stories high. The royal government approved the plans, and the work was promptly entered upon.

Finally, it was impossible that the new governor should not be seriously concerned with La Fuerza. Carreño found that long-delayed edifice practically finished, according to the old plans; its though condition was, as hitherto suggested, decidedly unsatisfactory. He began by insisting upon clearing away all buildings of any kind close to the fort. This had been ordered nearly a score of years before but had never been done. The purpose was, of course, to strengthen the fort by leaving no shelter near its walls which might harbor or facilitate the approach of a hostile force. Then he insisted upon building an additional story on La Fuerza. This he declared was necessary, for barracks for the garrison, and for a storage place for gunpowder, the fort proper being flooded more than half the time. Doubtless these needs were real, and Carreño intended to meet them with the new story. Yet it seems also to have been his plan thus to secure for himself living quarters more pleasant than the house which had been assigned to him for that purpose. There was much opposition to his plans for enlarging La Fuerza, but he persisted in them, and they were nearly completed at the time of his death.

During the administration of Governor Carreño the question of the distribution, proprietorship and use of land became of much social and economic importance in Cuba. The population of the Island was still small, and yet because of the immense size of the tracts which many settlers had appropriated for cattle ranges nearly all the accessible and available area had been taken up. In the eastern part of the Island there was practically no unclaimed land left excepting that in the mountains and some almost impenetrable swamps, and already many controversies and not a few forcible conflicts had arisen over rival claims. Thus far no private ownership of land was authorized outside of building sites in the towns and cities. Cattle ranges and farms were held under indefinite leases from the Crown, subject to forfeit if the land were permitted to remain unoccupied and unused for the space of three years. These grants were made by the municipal government in the name of the Crown. At first the tracts thus taken were of unlimited extent and indeed their boundaries were defined in only the vaguest possible manner. The result naturally was that innumerable and interminable conflicts arose over overlapping claims.

To correct such evils and to provide for a more equitable distribution of land in future, Alfonso Caceres, who had been sent to investigate the administration of Governor Menendez, was charged with a complete revision of the land system of the Island and with the prescribing of new rules and regulations for subsequent grants and titles. In entering upon that work he found some settlers holding enormous tracts which they had never attempted to utilize. Of these he summarily voided the titles and assigned the land to others. Such areas were quickly taken up by new comers, in smaller and definitely bounded tracts, so that by the time of Governor Carreño practically the only unoccupied lands of considerable extent and practical value were to be found in the extreme west end of the Island.

Around Havana and some other large municipalities there were reserved unassigned zones of from fifteen to twenty miles in width which were kept practically as public game preserves. No grants of cattle ranges were made in them. But they were infested by many stray cattle and hogs which had escaped from the ranges beyond and were there running at large in practically a wild state, and these were regarded as fair game for hunters from the cities. It was, however, insisted that anyone killing such stray animals must bring their hides to market with the ears attached, so as to prove that they were indeed wild strays, since then their ears would be unbranded while all the animals on the ranges had their ears branded with their owner's marks.

The Government wisely desired to encourage agriculture, even at the expense of stock raising, the latter occupation having been expanded disproportionately to the former. It was accordingly provided that grants of land for farming purposes might be made within this hunting zone, and also that such grants might be made of land already apportioned for cattle ranges, the owners of the ranges thus invaded being indemnified by other grants of land elsewhere. By this means a varied agricultural industry was gradually developed to the great advantage of the Island, though for many years cattle raising remained the chief industry. During Carreño's administration more than 20,000 hides were exported yearly, and in the great demand for leather at that time this trade was exceedingly profitable. Of course a large amount of meat was also produced, but the difficulty of preserving it in the warm climate of Cuba caused much of it to go to waste, so that yearly thousands of heads of cattle were slaughtered for their hides alone, their carcasses being left to the dogs and buzzards.

The sudden death of Carreño caused some curious complications in the Government of the Island. As he had been appointed for a definite term of four years, and as that term was scarcely half expired, no successor had yet been chosen for him. In this emergency the Supreme Court of Hispaniola appointed a temporary governor to discharge the functions of the office until the Crown should make a permanent appointment. The choice of the court fell upon a lawyer, Gaspar de Torres. Even he was not appointed until several months after the death of Carreño, and in fact not until after the King had selected a permanent Governor to succeed Carreño. However, as the permanent Governor would not take office until the expiration of the term for which Carreño had been appointed it was necessary for the temporary Governor to fill the vacancy. Torres was appointed in October, 1579, but did not actually assume office until the first of January, 1580. Little is known of his antecedents, but he appears to have been an unworthy member of the legal profession. He was possessed of an itching palm. As a result his brief administration was filled with scandals and with controversies and conflicts, practically all arising from his pecuniary greed and from the unscrupulous means which he employed for satisfying it.

He came into conflict with the powerful and numerous Rojas family, and particularly with the most conspicuous member, Juan Bautista Rojas, the Royal Treasurer. This latter official declared that Torres was the worst Governor Cuba had ever had, and that he misappropriated more funds than all his predecessors put together. Apparently as Torres had been appointed merely to fill out Carreño's unexpired term, he determined to make hay while the sun shone. He took office in January, 1580. Eight months later a judicial investigation into his administration was ordered, as a result of which he was very quickly convicted of misappropriation of funds and was ordered to refund several thousand ducats which had been improperly collected and retained by him. Instead of refunding, however, he absconded, leaving his bondsman to make good his liabilities.