chapter 5, section 2.

"No Crusader, since Godfrey de Bouillon, had effected so much as Frederick the Second. What would he not have obtained, had the Pope, the Patriarch and the Orders given him their hearty cooperation?"

_T. L. Kington, History of Frederick II., chapter 8._

CRUSADES: A. D. 1238-1280. Against the Bogomiles.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 9TH-16TH CENTURIES (BOSNIA, ETC.)

CRUSADES: A. D. 1242. The Invasion of Palestine by the Carismians.

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 1242.

CRUSADES: A. D. 1248-1254. The Seventh Movement. Expedition of Saint Louis to Egypt.

The Seventh Crusade was undertaken, with little aid from other countries, by the devout and wonderfully Christian-like young king of France, Louis IX., afterwards canonized, and known in history as St. Louis. "He carried it out with a picked army, furnished by the feudal chivalry and by the religious and military orders dedicated to the service of the Holy Land. The Isle of Cyprus was the trysting-place appointed for all the forces of the expedition. Louis arrived there on the 12th of September, 1248, and reckoned upon remaining there only a few days; for it was Egypt that he was in a hurry to reach. The Christian world was at that time of opinion that, to deliver the Holy Land, it was necessary first of all to strike a blow at Islamism in Egypt, wherein its chief strength resided. But scarcely had the crusaders formed a junction in Cyprus, when the vices of the expedition and the weaknesses of its chief began to be manifest. Louis, unshakable in his religious zeal, was wanting in clear ideas and fixed resolves as to the carrying out of his design. ... He did not succeed in winning a majority in the council of chiefs over to his opinion as to the necessity for a speedy departure for Egypt; it was decided to pass the winter in Cyprus. ... At last a start was made from Cyprus in May, 1249, and, in spite of violent gales of wind which dispersed a large number of vessels, they arrived on the 4th of June before Damietta. ... Having become masters of Damietta, St. Louis and the crusaders committed the same fault there as in the Isle of Cyprus: they halted there for an indefinite time. They were expecting fresh crusaders; and they spent the time of expectation in quarreling over the partition of the booty taken in the city. They made away with it, they wasted it blindly. ... Louis saw and deplored these irregularities, without being in a condition to stop them. At length, on the 20th of November, 1249, after more than five months' inactivity at Damietta, the crusaders put themselves once more in motion, with the determination of marching upon Babylon, that outskirt of Cairo, now called Old Cairo, which the greater part of them, in their ignorance, mistook for the real Babylon, and where they flattered themselves they would find immense riches, and avenge the olden sufferings of the Hebrew captives. The Mussulmans had found time to recover from their first fright, and to organize, at all points, a vigorous resistance. On the 8th of February, 1250, a battle took place twenty leagues from Damietta, at Mansourah ('the city of victory'), on the right bank of the Nile. ... The battle-field was left that day to the crusaders; but they were not allowed to occupy it as conquerors, for, three days afterwards, on the 11th of February, 1250, the camp of St. Louis was assailed by clouds of Saracens, horse and foot, Mamelukes and Bedouins. All surprise had vanished, the Mussulmans measured at a glance the numbers of the Christians, and attacked them in full assurance of success, whatever heroism they might display; and the crusaders themselves indulged in no more self·illusion, and thought only of defending themselves. Lack of provisions and sickness soon rendered defence almost as impossible as attack; every day saw the Christian camp more and more encumbered with the famine-stricken, the dying, and the dead; and the necessity for retreating became evident." An attempt to negotiate with the enemy failed, because they insisted on the surrender of the king as hostage,--which none would concede. "On the 5th of April, 1250, the crusaders decided upon retreating. This was the most deplorable scene of a deplorable drama; and at the same time it was, for the king, an occasion for displaying, in their most sublime and attractive traits, all the virtues of the Christian. Whilst sickness and famine were devastating the camp, Louis made himself visitor, physician and comforter; and his presence and his words exercised upon the worst cases a searching influence. ... {635} When the 5th of April, the day fixed for the retreat, had come, Louis himself was ill and much enfeebled. He was urged to go aboard one of the vessels which were to descend the Nile, carrying the wounded and the most suffering; but he refused absolutely, saying, 'I don't separate from my people in the hour of danger.' He remained on land, and when he had to move forward he fainted away. When he came to himself, he was amongst the last to leave the camp. ... At four leagues distance from the camp it had just left, the rear-guard of the crusaders, harassed by clouds of Saracens, was obliged to halt. Louis could no longer keep on his horse. 'He was put up at a house,' says Joinville, 'and laid, almost dead, upon the lap of a tradeswoman from Paris; and it was believed that he would not last till evening.'" The king, in this condition, with the whole wreck of his army,--only 10,000 in number remaining to him,--were taken prisoners. Their release from captivity was purchased a month later by the surrender of Damietta and a ransom-payment of 500,000 livres. They made their way to St. Jean d' Acre, in Palestine, whence many of them returned home. But King Louis, with some of his knights and men-at-arms--how many is not known--stayed yet in the Holy Land for four years, striving and hoping against hope to accomplish something for the deliverance of Jerusalem, and expending "in small works of piety, sympathy, protection, and care for the future of the Christian population in Asia, his time, his strength, his pecuniary resources, and the ardor of a soul which could not remain idly abandoned to sorrowing over great desires unsatisfied." The good and pious but ill-guided king returned to France in the summer of 1254, and was received with great joy.

_F. P. Guizot, Popular History of France, chapter 17; www.gutenberg.org/files/11952_

ALSO IN: _Sire De Joinville, Memoirs of Saint Louis, part 2._

_J. F. Michaud, History of the Crusades, books 13-14._

Crusades: A. D. 1252. The movement of "the Pastors."

On the arrival in France of the news of the disastrous failure of Saint Louis's expedition to Egypt, there occurred an outbreak of fanaticism as insensate as that of the children's crusade of forty years before. It was said to have originated with a Hungarian named Jacob, who began to proclaim that Christ rejected the great ones of the earth from His service, and that the deliverance of the Holy City must be accomplished by the poor and humble. "Shepherds left their flocks, labourers laid down the plough, to follow his footsteps. ... The name of Pastors was given to these village crusaders. ... At length, assembled to the number of more than 100,000, these redoubtable pilgrims left Paris and divided themselves into several troops, to repair to the coast, whence they were to embark for the East. The city of Orleans, which happened to be in their passage, became the theatre of frightful disorders. The progress of their enormities at length created serious alarm in the government and the magistracy; orders were sent to the provinces to pursue and disperse these turbulent and seditious bands. The most numerous assemblage of the Pastors was fixed to take place at Bourges, where the 'master of Hungary' [Jacob] was to perform miracles and communicate the will of Heaven. Their arrival in that city was the signal for murder, fire and pillage. The irritated people took up arms and marched against these disturbers of the public peace; they overtook them between Mortemer and Villeneuve-sur-le-Cher, where, in spite of their numbers, they were routed, and received the punishment due to their brigandages. Jacob had his head cut off by the blow of an axe; many of his companions and disciples met with death on the field of battle, or were consigned to punishment; the remainder took to flight."

_J. F. Michaud, History of the Crusades, book 14._

Crusades: A. D. 1256-1259. Against Eccelino di Romano.

See VERONA: A. D. 1236-1259.

Crusades: A. D. 1270-1271. The last undertakings. Saint Louis at Tunis. Prince Edward in Palestine.

"For seven years after his return to France, from 1254 to 1261, Louis seemed to think no more about them [the crusades], and there is nothing to show that he spoke of them even to his most intimate confidants; but, in spite of his apparent calmness, he was living, so far as they were concerned, in a continual ferment of imagination and internal fever, even flattering himself that some favorable circumstance would call him back to his interrupted work. ... In 1261, Louis held, at Paris, a Parliament, at which, without any talk of a new crusade, measures were taken which revealed an idea of it. ... In 1263 the crusade was openly preached. ... All objections, all warnings, all anxieties came to nothing in the face of Louis's fixed idea and pious passion. He started from Paris on the 16th of March, 1270, a sick man almost already, but with soul content, and probably the only one without misgiving in the midst of all his comrades. It was once more at Aigues-Mortes that he went to embark. All was as yet dark and undecided as to the plan of the expedition. ... Steps were taken at hap-hazard with full trust in Providence and utter forgetfulness that Providence does not absolve men from foresight. ... It was only in Sardinia, after four days' halt at Cagliari, that Louis announced to the chiefs of the crusade, assembled aboard his ship, the 'Mountjoy,' that he was making for Tunis, and that their Christian work would commence there. The king of Tunis (as he was then called), Mohammed Mostanser, had for some time been talking of his desire to become a Christian, if he could be efficiently protected against the seditions of his subjects. Louis welcomed with transport the prospect of Mussulman conversions. ... But on the 17th of July, when the fleet arrived before Tunis, the admiral, Florent de Varennes, probably without the king's orders, and with that want of reflection which was conspicuous at each step of the enterprise, immediately took possession of the harbor and of some Tunisian vessels as prize, and sent word to the king 'that he had only to support him and that the disembarkation of the troops might be effected with perfect safety.' Thus war was commenced at the very first moment against the Mussulman prince whom there had been promise of seeing before long a Christian. At the end of a fortnight, after some fight between the Tunisians and the crusaders, so much political and military blindness produced its natural consequences. The re-enforcements promised to Louis by his brother Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, had not arrived; provisions were falling short; and the heats of an African summer were working havoc amongst the army with such rapidity that before long there was no time to bury the dead; but they were cast pell-mell into the ditch which surrounded the camp, and the air was tainted thereby. {636} On the 3d of August Louis was attacked by the epidemic fever." On the 25th of August he died. His son and successor, Philip III., held his ground before Tunis until November, when he gladly accepted a payment of money from the Tunisian prince for withdrawing his army. Disaster followed him. A storm destroyed part of his fleet, with 4,000 or 5,000 men, and sunk all the treasure he had received from the Moslems. On the journey home through Italy his wife met with an accident which ended her life and that of her prematurely born child. The young king arrived at Paris, May, 1271, bringing the remains of five of his family for burial at St. Denis: his wife, his son, his father, his brother, and his brother-in-law,--all victims of the fatal crusade. While France was thus burying the last of her crusaders, Prince Edward (afterwards King Edward I.) of England, landed in Syria at the head of a few hundred knights and men at arms. Joined by the Templars and Hospitallers, he had an army of 6,000 or 7,000 men, with which he took Nazareth and made there a bloody sacrifice to the memory of the gentle Nazarene. He did nothing more. Being wounded by an assassin, he arranged a truce with the Sultan of Egypt and returned home. His expedition was the last from Europe which strove with the Moslems for the Holy Land. The Christians of Palestine, who still held Acre and Tyre, Sidon and a few other coast cities, were soon afterwards overwhelmed, and the dominion of the Crescent in Syria was undisputed any more by force of arms, though many voices cried vainly against it. The spirit of the Crusades had expired.

_F. P. Guizot, Popular History of France, chapter 17. www.gutenberg.org/files/11952_

ALSO IN: _J. F. Michaud, History of the Crusades, book 15._

CRUSADES: A. D. 1291. The end of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem.

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 1291.

CRUSADES: A. D. 1299. The last campaign of the Templars.

"After the fall of Acre [A. D. 1291] the headquarters of the Templars were established at Limisso in the island of Cyprus, and urgent letters were sent to Europe for succour." In 1295, James de Molay, the head of the English province, became Grand Master, and soon after his arrival in Palestine he entered into an alliance with Ghazan Khan, the Mongol ruler of Persia, who had married a Christian princess of Armenia and was not unfriendly to the Christians, as against the Mamelukes of Egypt, with whom he was at war. The Mongol Khan invited the Templars to join him in an expedition against the Sultan of Egypt, and they did so in the spring of 1299, at Antioch. "An army of 30,000 men was placed by the Mogul emperor under the command of the Grand Master, and the combined forces moved up the valley of the Orontes towards Damascus. In a great battle fought at Hems, the troops of the sultans of Damascus and Egypt were entirely defeated and pursued with great slaughter until nightfall. Aleppo, Hems, Damascus, and all the principal cities, surrendered to the victorious arms of the Moguls, and the Templars once again entered Jerusalem in triumph, visited the Holy Sepulchre and celebrated Easter on Mount Zion." The khan sent ambassadors to Europe, offering the possession of Palestine to the Christian powers if they would give him their alliance and support, but none responded to the call. Ghazan Khan fell ill and withdrew from Syria; the Templars retreated to Cyprus once more and their military career, as the champions of the Cross, was at an end.

_C. G. Addison, The Knights Templars, chapter 6._

ALSO IN: _H. H. Howarth, History of the Mongols, part 3, chapter 8._

CRUSADES: Effects and consequences of the Crusades, in Europe.

"The principle of the crusades was a savage fanaticism; and the most important effects were analogous to the cause. Each pilgrim was ambitious to return with his sacred spoils, the relics of Greece and Palestine; and each relic was preceded and followed by a train of miracles and visions. The belief of the Catholics was corrupted by new legends, their practice by new superstitions; and the establishment of the inquisition, the mendicant orders of monks and friars, the last abuse of indulgences, and the final progress of idolatry, flowed from the baleful fountain of the holy war. The active spirit of the Latins preyed on the vitals of their reason and religion; and if the ninth and tenth centuries were the times of darkness, the thirteenth and fourteenth were the age of absurdity and fable. ... Some philosophers have applauded the propitious influence of these holy wars, which appear to me to have checked rather than forwarded the maturity of Europe."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 61. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

"The crusades may be considered as material pilgrimages on an enormous scale, and their influence upon general morality seems to have been altogether pernicious. Those who served under the cross would not indeed have lived very virtuously at home; but the confidence in their own merits which the principle of such expeditions inspired must have aggravated the ferocity and dissoluteness of their ancient habits. Several historians attest the depravation of morals which existed, both among the crusaders and in the states formed out of their conquests."

_H. Hallam, The Middle Ages, chapter 9. part 1._

"It was not possible for the crusaders to travel through so many countries, and to behold their various customs and institutions, without acquiring information and improvement. Their views enlarged; their prejudices wore off; new ideas crowded into their minds; and they must have been sensible, on many occasions, of the rusticity of their own manners when compared with those of a more polished people. ... Accordingly, we discover, soon after the commencement of the crusades, greater splendour in the courts of princes, greater pomp in public ceremonies, a more refined taste in pleasure and amusements, together with a more romantic spirit of enterprise spreading gradually over Europe; and to these wild expeditions, the effect of superstition and folly, we owe the first gleams of light which tended to dispel barbarism and ignorance. But the beneficial consequences of the crusades took place slowly; their influence upon the state of property, and, consequently, of power, in the different kingdoms of Europe, was more immediate as well as discernible."

_W. Robertson, View of the Progress of Society in Europe, section 1._

{637}

"The crusades are not, in my mind, either the popular delusions that our cheap literature has determined them to be, nor papal conspiracies against kings and peoples, as they appear to the Protestant controversialist; nor the savage outbreaks of expiring barbarism, thirsting for blood and plunder, nor volcanic explosions of religious intolerance. I believe them to have been, in their deep sources, and in the minds of their best champions, and in the main tendency of their results, capable of ample justification. They were the first great effort of mediæval life to go beyond the pursuit of selfish and isolated ambitions; they were the trial-feat of the young world, essaying to use, to the glory of God and the benefit of man, the arms of its new knighthood. ... That in the end they were a benefit to the world no one who reads can doubt; and that in their course they brought out a love for all that is heroic in human nature, the love of freedom, the honour of prowess, sympathy with sorrow, perseverance to the last and patient endurance without hope, the chronicles of the age abundantly prove; proving, moreover, that it was by the experience of those times that the forms of those virtues were realized and presented to posterity."

_William Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediæval and Modern History, lecture 8._

"Though begun under the name and influence of religious belief, the crusades deprived religious ideas, I shall not say of their legitimate share of influence, but of their exclusive and despotic possession of the human mind. This result, though undoubtedly unforeseen, arose from various causes. The first was evidently the novelty, extent, and variety of the scene which displayed itself to the crusaders; what generally happens to travellers happened to them. It is mere common-place to say, that travelling gives freedom to the mind; that the habit of observing different nations, different manners and different opinions, enlarges the ideas, and disengages the judgment from old prejudices. The same thing happened to those nations of travellers who have been called the crusaders; their minds were opened and raised by having seen a multitude of different things, of having become acquainted with other manners than their own. They found themselves also placed in connexion with two states of civilization, not only different from their own, but more advanced--the Greek state of society on the one hand, and the Mussulman on the other. ... It is curious to observe in the chronicles the impression made by the crusaders on the Mussulmans, who regarded them at first as the most brutal, ferocious, and stupid barbarians they had ever seen. The crusaders, on their part, were struck with the riches and elegance of manners which they observed among the Mussulmans. These first impressions were succeeded by frequent relations between the Mussulmans and Christians. These became more extensive and important than is commonly believed. ... There is another circumstance which is worthy of notice. Down to the time of the crusades, the court of Rome, the centre of the Church, had been very little in communication with the laity, unless through the medium of ecclesiastics; either legates sent by the court of Rome, or the whole body of the bishops and clergy. There were always some laymen in direct relation with Rome; but upon the whole, it was by means of churchmen that Rome had any communication with the people of different countries. During the crusades, on the contrary, Rome became a halting-place for a great portion of the crusaders, either in going or returning. A multitude of laymen were spectators of its policy and its manners, and were able to discover the share which personal interest had in religious disputes. There is no doubt that this newly-acquired knowledge inspired many minds with a boldness hitherto unknown. When we consider the state of the general mind at the termination of the crusades, especially in regard to ecclesiastical matters, we cannot fail to be struck with a singular fact: religious notions underwent no change, and were not replaced by contrary or even different opinions. Thought, notwithstanding, had become more free; religious creeds were not the only subject on which the human mind exercised its faculties; without abandoning them, it began occasionally to wander from them, and to take other directions. ... The social state of society had undergone an analogous change. ... Without entering into the details ... we may collect into a few general facts the influence of the crusades on the social state of Europe. They greatly diminished the number of petty fiefs, petty domains, and petty proprietors; they concentrated property and power in a smaller number of hands. It is from the time of the crusades that we may observe the formation and growth of great fiefs--the existence of feudal power on a large scale. ... This was one of the most important results of the crusades. Even in those cases where small proprietors preserved their fiefs, they did not live upon them in such an insulated state as formerly. The possessors of great fiefs became so many centres around which the smaller ones were gathered, and near which they came to live. During the crusades, small proprietors found it necessary to place themselves in the train of some rich and powerful chief, from whom they received assistance and support. They lived with him, shared his fortune, and passed through the same adventures that he did. When the crusaders returned home, this social spirit, this habit of living in intercourse with superiors continued to subsist, and had its influence on the manners of the age. ... The extension of the great fiefs, and the creation of a number of central points in society, in place of the general dispersion which previously existed, were the two principal effects of the crusades, considered with respect to their influence upon feudalism. As to the inhabitants of the towns, a result of the same nature may easily be perceived. The crusades created great civic communities. Petty commerce and petty industry were not sufficient to give rise to communities such as the great cities of Italy and Flanders. It was commerce on a great scale--maritime commerce, and, especially, the commerce of the East and West, which gave them birth; now it was the crusades which gave to the maritime commerce the greatest impulse it had yet received. On the whole, when we survey the state of society at the end of the crusades, we find that the movement tending to dissolution and dispersion, the movement of universal localization (if I may be allowed such an expression), had ceased, and had been succeeded by a movement in the contrary direction, a movement of centralization. All things tended to mutual approximation; small things were absorbed in great ones, or gathered round them. Such was the direction then taken by the progress of society."

_F. Guizot, History of Civilization, lecture 8 (volume 1). www.gutenberg.org/files/61572/61572-h/61572-h.htm#Page_151_

{638}

CRUSADES: A. D. 1383. The Bishop of Norwich's Crusade in Flanders.

See FLANDERS: A. D. 1383.

CRUSADES: A. D. 1420-1431. Crusade against the Hussites.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1419-1434.

CRUSADES: A. D. 1442-1444. Christian Europe against the Turks.

See TURKS (THE OTTOMANS): A. D. 1402-1451.

CRUSADES: A. D. 1467-1471. Crusade Instigated by the Pope against George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1458-1471..

CRUSADES: End----------

CRYPTEIA, The.

See KRYPTEIA.

CTESIPHON.

"The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pastoral life of their Scythian ancestors, and the imperial camp was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the eastern banks of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles from Seleucia. The innumerable attendants on luxury and despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesiphon insensibly swelled into a great city. Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were received as friends by the Greek colony; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian kings; yet both cities experienced the same treatment. The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of 300,000 of the inhabitants, tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph, Seleucia, already exhausted by the neighborhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal blow; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Severus. The city was, however, taken by assault; the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation; 100,000 captives and a rich booty rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers. Notwithstanding these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia as one of the great capitals of the East."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 8. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

In 637 A. D. Ctesiphon passed into the possession of the Saracens.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE: A. D. 632-651.

ALSO IN: _G. Rawlinson, Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 6._

See, also, MEDAIN.

CUATOS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAMPAS TRIBES.

CUBA: A. D. 1492-1493. Discovery by Columbus.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1492; and 1493-1496.

CUBA: A. D. 1511. Spanish conquest and occupation of the island.

"Of the islands, Cuba was the second discovered; but no attempt had been made to plant a colony there during the lifetime of Columbus; who, indeed, after skirting the whole extent of its southern coast, died in the conviction that it was part of the continent. At length, in 1511, Diego, the son and successor of the 'admiral,' who still maintained the seat of government in Hispaniola, finding the mines much exhausted there, proposed to occupy the neighbouring island of Cuba, or Fernandina, as it is called, in compliment to the Spanish monarch. He prepared a small force for the conquest, which he placed under the command of Don Diego Velasquez. ... Velasquez, or rather his lieutenant Narvaez, who took the office on himself of scouring the country, met with no serious opposition from the inhabitants, who were of the same family with the effeminate natives of Hispaniola." After the conquest, Velasquez was appointed governor, and established his seat of government at St. Jago, on the southeast corner of the island.

_W. H. Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, book 2, chapter 1._

ALSO IN: _Sir A. Helps, Spanish Conquest in America, book 7._

CUBA: A. D. 1514-1851. Slow development of the island. Capture of Havana by the English. Discontent with Spanish rule. Conspiracies of revolution.

"Velasquez founded many of the towns of the island, the first of which was Baracoa, then Bayamo, and in 1514 Trinidad, Santo Espiritu, Puerto Principe; next, in 1515, Santiago de Cuba, as also, in the same year, the town of Habana. ... This period (1511-1607) is particularly interesting to the general reader from the fact that in it the explorations of Hernandez de Cadoba and Grijalva to Darien, Yucatan, etc., were inaugurated,--events which had so much to do with the spread of Spanish rule and discovery, paving the way as they did for the exploration of Mexico under Hernando Cortes, who, in the early history of Cuba, figures largely as the lieutenant of the Governor Velasquez. ... In 1524, Diego Velasquez died, --his death hastened, it is said, by the troubles brought upon him by his disputes with his insubordinate lieutenant, Cortes. ... In the history of the improvement of the island, his government will bear favorable comparison with many of the later governments; and while that great evil, slavery, was introduced into the island in his time, so also was the sugar cane. ... Up to 1538, there seems to be nothing specially striking in the general history of the island, if we except the constant attacks with fire and sword of the 'filibusteros,' or pirates of all nations, from which most all the sea-coast towns suffered more or less; but in that year there arrived at Santiago de Cuba a man destined to play an important part in the history and discovery of the new world, and named as Provincial Governor of Florida as well as of Cuba,--I allude to Hernando de Soto, who brought with him 10 large vessels, prepared and fitted out expressly for the conquest of the new Spanish territory of Florida. After much care and preparation, this expedition started out from the city of Habana, the 12th of May [see FLORIDA: A. D. 1528-1542]. ... In this period, also, was promulgated that order, secured, it is believed, by the noble efforts of Padre Las Casas, prohibiting the enslaving of the aborigines; while, also, such had become its importance as a town, all vessels directed to and from Mexico were ordered to stop at Havana. In the period of years that elapsed from 1607 to 1762, the island seems to have been in a perfect state of lethargy, except the usual changes of its many Governors, and the raids made upon it by pirates, or by more legalized enemies in the form of French and English men-of-war. In this latter year, however, occurred an event of much import, from the fact that after it, or upon its occurrence, the Government of Spain was led to see the great importance of Cuba, and particularly Havana, as the 'Key to the New World,'--this event was the taking of Havana by the English. {639} On the 6th of June, 1762, there arrived off the port of Havana an English squadron of 32 ships and frigates, with some 200 transports, bringing with them a force of nearly 20,000 men of all arms, under command of the Duke of Albemarle. This formidable armament, the largest that America had ever seen, laid siege to the city of Havana, whose garrison consisted at that time of only about 2,700 regulars and the volunteers that took up arms immediately for the defense of the place. ... The garrison, however, made a very gallant and prolonged defense, notwithstanding the smallness of their numbers, and finally, surrendering, were permitted to march out with the honors of war, the English thus coming into possession of the most important defences on the coast, and, subsequently, taking possession of the town of Matanzas. Remaining in possession of this portion of the Island of Cuba for many months (until July 6, 1763), the English, by importing negro labor to cultivate the large tracts of wild land, and by shipping large quantities of European merchandize, gave a start to the trade and traffic of the island that pushed it far on its way to the state of prosperity it has now reached; but by the treaty of peace, at Paris, in February, 1763 [see Seven Years War], was restored to Spain the portion of the island wrested from her by the English. ... In this period (1762-1801) the island made rapid advances in improvement and civilization, many of the Captains-General of this period doing much to improve the towns and the people, beautifying the streets, erecting buildings, etc. In 1763, a large emigration took place from Florida, and in 1795 the French emigrants from Santo Domingo came on to the island in large numbers. ... From 1801, rapid increase in the prosperity of the island has taken place. ... At various times insurrections, some of them quite serious in their nature, have shown what the natural desire of the native population is for greater privileges and freedom. ... In 1823, there was a society of 'soles,' as it was called, formed for the purpose of freeing the island, having at its head young D. Francisco Lemus, and having for its pretext that the island was about to be sold to England. In 1829, there was discovered the conspiracy of the Black Eagle, as it was called (Aguila Negra), an attempt on the part of the population to obtain their freedom, some of the Mexican settlers in the island being prominent in it. The insurrection, or attempt at one, by the blacks in 1844, was remarkable for its wide-spread ramifications among the slaves of the island, as well as its thorough organization,--the intention being to murder all the whites on the island. Other minor insurrections there were, but it remained for Narciso Lopez, with a force of some 300 men, to make the most important attempt [1851], in which he lost his life, to free the island."

_S. Hazard, Cuba with Pen and Pencil, pages 547-550._

ALSO IN: _M. M. Ballou, History of Cuba, chapter 1-3._

_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope), History of England, 1713-1783, chapter 38 (volume 4)._

_J. Entick, History of the Late War, volume 5, pages 363-386._

_D. Turnbull, Cuba, chapter 22-24._

CUBA: A. D. 1845-1860. Acquisition coveted by the slave-power in the United States. Attempted purchase. Filibustering schemes. The Ostend Manifesto.

"When the Spanish colonies in America became independent, they abolished slavery. Apprehensive that the republics of Mexico and Columbia would be anxious to wrest Cuba and Porto Rico from Spain, secure their independence, and introduce into those islands the idea, if they did not establish the fact, of freedom, the slave-masters [of the United States] at once sought to guard against what they deemed so calamitous an event. ... But after the annexation of Texas, there was a change of feeling and purpose, and Cuba, from being an object of dread, became an object of vehement desire. The propagandists, strengthened and emboldened by that signal triumph, now turned their eyes towards this beautiful 'isle of the sea,' as the theatre of new exploits; and they determined to secure the 'gem of the Antilles' for the coronet of their great and growing power. During Mr. Polk's administration an attempt was made to purchase it, and the sum of $100,000,000 was offered therefor. But the offer was promptly declined. What, however, could not be bought it was determined to steal, and filibustering movements and expeditions became the order of the day. For no sooner was President Taylor inaugurated than he found movements on foot in that direction; and, in August, 1849, he issued a proclamation, affirming his belief that an 'armed expedition' was being fitted out 'against Cuba or some of the provinces of Mexico,' and calling upon all good citizens' to discountenance and prevent any such enterprise.' In 1851 an expedition, consisting of some 500 men, sailed from New Orleans under Lopez, a Cuban adventurer. But though it effected a landing, it was easily defeated, and its leader and a few of his followers were executed. Soon afterward, a secret association, styling itself the Order of the Lone Star, was formed in several of the Southern cities, having a similar object in view; but it attracted little notice and accomplished nothing. ... In August, 1854, President Pierce instructed Mr. Marcy, his Secretary of State, to direct Buchanan, Mason and Soulé, ministers respectively at the courts of London, Paris and Madrid, to convene in some European city and confer with each other in regard to the matter of gaining Cuba to the United States. They met accordingly, in October, at Ostend. The results of their deliberations were published in a manifesto, in which the reasons are set forth for the acquisition; and the declaration was made that the Union could never enjoy repose and security 'as long as Cuba is not embraced within its boundaries.' But the great source of anxiety, the controlling motive, was the apprehension that, unless so annexed, she would 'be Africanized and become a second San Domingo,' thus 'seriously to endanger' the Union. This paper attracted great attention and caused much astonishment. It was at first received with incredulity, as if there had been some mistake or imposition practised. ... But there was no mistake. ... It was the deliberate utterance of the conference, and it received the indorsement of Mr. Pierce and his administration. The Democratic national conventions of 1856 and of 1860 were quite as explicit as were the authors of the Ostend manifesto 'in favor of the acquisition of Cuba.'"

_H. Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, volume 2, ch.47._

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ALSO IN: _H. Von Holst, Constitutional and Political History of the United States,